My pond photos

[pecan]

I love companion planting and try to do it to an extent. All my roses have a chive planted at the base. Chives keep the insects off the roses and taste yummy. We have asparagus in our main irrigation ditch. This is our food garden this last weekend. On the left are the plants that come back every year. red onions, strawberries, raspberries, pear tree, nectarine tree and a couple garlic beds with white and spanish red garlic. On the right side we planted lettuce and spinach a while ago but this last weekend we planted tomatoes, orange cherries and roma, bell, anaheim and jalepeno peppers, cucumber, yellow neck squash, red potato's and cantaloupe. We also have mint and water cress in the pond, chives throughout the flower beds and grape vines. There are several other edibles in the beds just not typical. More of wild stuff with medicinal properties. We have a couple sumac bushes that may produce berries this year, that I am excited to try. Indians around here made tea out of the berries.

 

[callingcolleen1]

That is a very big garden, and well taken care of, Good Job Peacan!

 

[CountryEscape]

Tmann, I'm wondering if you have noticed any trees not come back this year after that awful winter. So far it appears both of my burgandy leaf Red Bud trees are not leafing out, nor is one of my flowering crab trees in the front yard. Also, my huge oak tree I moved with tractor last year, seemed to be beginning to leaf out, I now think it is dead, too. The strangest part is of these 4 trees, 3 of them have one or 2 branches with a few leaves, and that's it! Other bushes are growing only from the base of the trunk, not sending leaves up on the branches, like last year. For instance, of my 4 butterfly bushes, have had them for at least 5 years, only 1 has any growth showing up, and it's at the base. I think last winter was more deadly that I thought!

 

[CountryEscape]

I've seen Pecan's yard and vege garden in person, and it's the most beautiful raised garden I've ever seen. And, because of her orange cherry tomatoes, I searched and found seed and have several plants growing for this year! They are the BEST! I hope they are half as good here in IL as they were in UT last summer. They are called Sun Gold ... we shall see ...

 

[j.w]

Oh boy CE I think you are going to be very happy w/ those Sun Gold toms cuz the garden guy here on the radio loves those to death. I've never had any of those but he raves about the flavor all the time and recommends them highly

 

[CountryEscape]

That's what I've been doing, too, J.W.! After having them at Pecan's house last summer while I was visiting my daughter, I PM'd her to ask what the variety was. I bought seed, shared some of the 25 or so seeds I got in the packet, and we all had luck with them growing. Now I have about 10 plants, far more than I need, so going to share the plants with boss and other guy at the office, maybe the neighbors, too. I only wanted 2 plants or so. Friend also gave me an orange sliding tomato seeds, so I have about 4 of those plants (only want 1) and I got a free packet of brandywine heirloom seeds, so have more than I want of those, too.

 

[taherrmann4]

Tmann, I'm wondering if you have noticed any trees not come back this year after that awful winter. So far it appears both of my burgandy leaf Red Bud trees are not leafing out, nor is one of my flowering crab trees in the front yard. Also, my huge oak tree I moved with tractor last year, seemed to be beginning to leaf out, I now think it is dead, too. The strangest part is of these 4 trees, 3 of them have one or 2 branches with a few leaves, and that's it! Other bushes are growing only from the base of the trunk, not sending leaves up on the branches, like last year. For instance, of my 4 butterfly bushes, have had them for at least 5 years, only 1 has any growth showing up, and it's at the base. I think last winter was more deadly that I thought!

All my trees made it, the only thing that was slow to come out was my knockout roses, my azaleas out front have very little growth coming out and if they don't do something soon I may have to replace them.

 

[j.w]

I just chose to grow the small cherry tomatoes this year in my green house. They just taste so much like candy and you can plop them whole right into the salads. Growing 6 of them from seeds. They produce like crazy!

 

[pecan]

All my trees made it, the only thing that was slow to come out was my knockout roses, my azaleas out front have very little growth coming out and if they don't do something soon I may have to replace them.

Tman, we had a very mild winter from Jan on it stayed right at our around average. But we had a real cold spell in early Dec. It did not get below 5 degrees here, but because it got cold early my roses did not have time to harden off. I lost 7 rose bushes after it was all said and done And decided I will not plant roses near the back of the yard again where I lost the majority of them. I swear the back half of our lot is one zone colder than the front half!

 

[morewater]

In our area, I've replaced a lot of Rhododendrons this year, as well as many, many boxwoods.

The winter dealt a beating on a lot of the landscapes in my area.

Then again, good for business.

 

[DrCase]

Looks perfect Tmann

I had a few perennials that haven't come after the long winter
Springs been great though I already have tomatoes on the vines

 

[j.w]

Oh you are cheating big time DrCase! Not fair at all

 

[CountryEscape]

My knockout roses made it, but the two roses that have been really pretty on the bottom of the waterfall edge did not come back. Must have been too cold and since their "bed" is about 12" above ground level, it was too cold for them this year, I guess. I remembered today I planted about 20 Oxalis plants (look like burgandy shamrock plants with pretty white flowers) last year, and not one of them has come back this year. I'm pretty sure they were supposed to be perennial, but maybe I am wrong. They were very pretty, loved them last year! May have to grow a bunch again, so easy to put the bulb in the ground, and they grew up through the soil within a few days.

 

[j.w]

Everything made it here except for a few. A non-hardy palm I knew wouldn't but did not care anymore. Hibiscus didn't make it either. Too wet here. And a fir tree that we transplanted last fall is getting brown all over so think it is a goner too. Another semi-hardy palm lost most of it's fronds but it is coming back now.

 

[CountryEscape]

Good grief, JW, I've put my tropical hibiscus in the bog before, and it loved it. Must mot like that much moisture year round, like you seem to have. _
It just seems so sad, plants or trees that I've had here for 4 years, poof, they are gone/dead. Guess that goes to show that having a winter line last year, so cold for so long, can kill even hardy plants and trees. But, others I would have thought would not make it, like the hibiscus, come back just fine. Maybe my burgandy leaf red bud trees were not meant to be where I planted them, so maybe it's a good thing, but I sure did like them; however, they didn't bloom nearly as much as the regular red bud trees. So, may replace them with the hybrids that bloom profusely all the way up the branch! Course, since they are new, they will likely be more susceptible to cold winters, too.