Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Jul 8, 2021 12:42:37 GMT -5
You know who you are...
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2021 15:37:17 GMT -5
We had our system put in in 2008/2009 for about $7,500 which included copper wiring runs for landscape lighting that they put in the same trench as the sprinkler pipe. We have 9 separate watering zones, each with multiple heads to serve both planting beds and the grass lawn. We have a pretty elaborate system of flower beds which means lots of little areas to be watered rather than just a simple square or rectangular yard space. We spend about $100/year for basic check-up, plus maybe another $50 if they need to replace a sprinkler head. I don't know about your location, but if you are charged a sewer treatment fee for all water that runs through your meter, check into getting a separate meter for your sprinkler. We share a meter box with the nextdoor neighbor and couldn't get a separate meter so we have to pay the sewage charge for all the water that goes on the yard . Also, if foundation shifting is a problem where you are, you can see about a foundation watering system installed at the same time to help reduce shifts and cracks. Another factor in cost is the depth of the frost line in your soil which affects how deep they have to trench. This wasn't an issue here in South Texas but is for other areas of the US
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2021 6:55:26 GMT -5
Well shitohdear! Nobody's posted on this thread since the 8th? What? It's raining? It's too hot? Too humid? This is only mid-July, kids. Those gardens aren't going to tend themselves!
As for me, I'm not the Biscuit Bitch on Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday so I have to get my skinny butt perpendicular out there and deadhead and weed and tidy up in general because I don't have garden Heinzelmännchen.
It has rained buckets on and off for the past few days and is expected to keep it up most of this week so by week's end, I may get lost in an overgrown lawn. That's okay. I keep forgetting to fill up the mowgrasser gas can.
BBL
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finnime
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Post by finnime on Jul 12, 2021 7:36:01 GMT -5
Effing weeds. That's all.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2021 9:53:12 GMT -5
The garden is a testament to my virtue Except for the salvia. It wants to be deadheaded, and I forgot until everything else was done and my tools put away. Oops. There's always tomorrow, right? There are some red hot poker plants that I'd like to move and have been thinking on it for a few days now. Hate to rush into things. Maybe tomorrow I can deadhead the salvia and move the red hot pokers? It's not like deadheading salvia is going to wear me out. Tennesseer I'm still waiting on the globe thistle. It probably isn't going to be mature enough to bloom this year. It doesn't understand that at my age, I don't have time to wait, dammit
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Knee Deep in Water Chloe
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Post by Knee Deep in Water Chloe on Jul 12, 2021 10:19:46 GMT -5
Third time is the charm for sure because the latest sprinkler company showed up EARLY today and was great. They ran all the zones, identified the problems, had the parts on the truck to fix the problems TODAY, and even gave us tips on maximizing the effectiveness of the water which I really appreciated as we are going to have water rate increases for the next 5 years. And all of this was for less $$ than the last company quoted. This company also handles drainage issues and landscape lighting too. And the lead technician also gave me a copy of our local gardening guru's latest book. Curious what you spend on your sprinkler system annually. I know prices will vary regionally and by size, etc, but this is one of those things that I've thought about getting a quote for but have no idea of the price range I'd be considering. Annually, after installation: only a few hundred per year between broken heads and pipes and then the water bill that comes with the leakage from that brokenness.
This is one of those capital improvements that costs a ridiculous amount up front but the amount of time it saves us is essential to actually keeping our property the way we want it. We have all but a part of our property without an inground sprinkler system. We've put cutting beds in that part, and it is a pain in the patooty to go water them.
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Jul 12, 2021 10:21:51 GMT -5
The garden is a testament to my virtue Except for the salvia. It wants to be deadheaded, and I forgot until everything else was done and my tools put away. Oops. There's always tomorrow, right? There are some red hot poker plants that I'd like to move and have been thinking on it for a few days now. Hate to rush into things. Maybe tomorrow I can deadhead the salvia and move the red hot pokers? It's not like deadheading salvia is going to wear me out. Tennesseer I'm still waiting on the globe thistle. It probably isn't going to be mature enough to bloom this year. It doesn't understand that at my age, I don't have time to wait, dammit I don't recall it blooming for me the first year too. It's a tender perennial and will die back after the first hard freeze. Mulch it and if your winter this coming year is milder than ours was this year it should come back and bloom for you. ETA: I just looked at the pictures I took of the thistle in bloom and the pictures were taken on June 18 of that year. So that tells me the plants came back the following year to bloom. Hang tight.
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Knee Deep in Water Chloe
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Post by Knee Deep in Water Chloe on Jul 12, 2021 10:22:08 GMT -5
We pulled lots of red and yukon potatoes a few days ago. DH prepped some of them for breakfast yesterday. I might make potato salad with the rest. The pumpkin vines are going nicely.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2021 11:04:12 GMT -5
I don’t have any of my happy flowers (the daylilies in the wood planters on the deck) today. They both only have a few buds growing right now too. I cleaned them up last week, so hopefully they’ll give me a lot more flowers again soon.
The May Night salvia in the pot that I thought had mostly died is growing green foliage again. I’m confused about that plant. All of my rosemaries have a few yellow leaves at the tips. I’m not sure what’s causing that either. Sigh.
They may be getting too much water, it’s rained a lot since last Thursday.
I haven’t gotten more soil yet to finish repotting the houseplants. Maybe I’ll go get some today. It’s not scorching hot today, so this is a good day to do it, in between rain showers.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2021 13:01:06 GMT -5
DD made me go to Home Depot with her so she could get some Kilz. She made me go. Made me.
While she was in the store, I thought I'd just stroll through the garden center. DD got her Kilz and met me out there. Then we saw the blanket flowers. They were reaching for me, crying and begging to be taken away from the flower orphanage and given a good home. So they were. To complement the orange in the blooms, I had to get some bright yellow dwarf zinnias. Had to. I couldn't take the blanket flowers without taking their friends, too.
They have all been planted and appear to be extremely happy on their honeymoon so far. We'll see how they feel after our daily downpour.
ETA: Just so you know, I wouldn't have fallen for the begging and crying BS, but DD is a pushover. She wouldn't let me leave them there and made me buy the flowers. On my own, I wouldn't have done it. She made me do it.
They do look quite nice in the space where they're planted.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2021 14:30:57 GMT -5
I went to get soil right after my earlier post. All of the plants in the house are now in fresh soil, except for one that I didn’t plan to fool with anyway. It’s a good thing I did it, because the philodendron/pothos my cousin gave me probably would have died soon if I hadn’t. I’m going to figure out which plant it is one of these days.
I knew my corn plant had gotten pretty big. After wrestling it outside, I realized it’s bigger than “pretty big”. If it didn’t lean, it would be as tall as I am. The leaves are as long as my arm.
Anyway, I’m hot and sweaty and tired. I am done playing in dirt for the year, inside or outside. I’ll supervise whenever Mister decides to plant his hostas.
Darnit, I forgot about the darn lemon tree needing to be repotted. Crap!
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happyhoix
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Post by happyhoix on Jul 12, 2021 15:25:05 GMT -5
I went into the sweltering heat this weekend to try to find where the damned grapevine is coming from that has spread all over the kitty willow, found a neglected pocket of weeds that had gotten four feet tall (the trifecta of evil, blackberry, privot and that huge plant that gets the purple berries that the birds eat and then crap purple craps everywhere), then also noticed how the border along the blue rug junipers and the yard has been overrun with grass and weeds, stormed into the house all soggy with sweat screaming ‘we’re selling this house’ to DH.
So - typical July weekend.
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ken a.k.a OMK
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Post by ken a.k.a OMK on Jul 12, 2021 15:38:36 GMT -5
Sounds like Poke Weed. You have to kill it if it gets big. It has long tuber like roots that can't all be pulled out. Don't let it go to seed!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2021 15:38:51 GMT -5
@pinkcshmere Go to www.gardeningknowhow.com and search for growing lemon trees in containers. It will tell you everything you need to know about your lemon tree.
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ken a.k.a OMK
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Post by ken a.k.a OMK on Jul 12, 2021 15:42:30 GMT -5
Hot, hot hot. Chance of pop up T'storms everyday. I just watered because it needed it. Transplanted the last Hyacinth Bean and Mexican Sunflower seedlings. I know it's not a good time in this afternoon heat but I've put it off too long.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2021 16:06:31 GMT -5
@pinkcshmere Go to www.gardeningknowhow.com and search for growing lemon trees in containers. It will tell you everything you need to know about your lemon tree. I’ve Googled how to take care of it. I did a brief search while I was still in the store and considering buying it lol. Whenever I’ve Googled any of my plants or ones I’m considering, that website is the first one I click on. Lots of good info imo. I do try to do my own research, but I still ask questions here because I value y’alls opinions. In some cases, I value the opinions and advice I get here on the boards more than what some random person that I don’t know wrote in an article on the Internet, even though you all are technically strangers too. Mister already put the lemon tree in a new pot for me. He came out on the deck and I said I’d forgot about repotting it, and he said he’d do it. So I hurried up and brought him a pot and the soil before he could change his mind, and he did it. Yay!
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Opti
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Post by Opti on Jul 12, 2021 16:20:39 GMT -5
Well shitohdear! Nobody's posted on this thread since the 8th? What? It's raining? It's too hot? Too humid? This is only mid-July, kids. Those gardens aren't going to tend themselves! As for me, I'm not the Biscuit Bitch on Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday so I have to get my skinny butt perpendicular out there and deadhead and weed and tidy up in general because I don't have garden Heinzelmännchen. It has rained buckets on and off for the past few days and is expected to keep it up most of this week so by week's end, I may get lost in an overgrown lawn. That's okay. I keep forgetting to fill up the mowgrasser gas can. BBL I wanted to post here the other day, but could not find the thread. I found lanternfly nymphs on my one Asiatic lily and a couple on my older rose. I have sprayed both with Insect soap containing Neem, but they seem at best annoyed and fly off. Right now it is above 90 and I didn't see any of them there, but who knows. I think they have infested the tree in front of the neighboring building. Maybe they migrated their spotted asses over my way when the super and his helper were cutting apart parts of that tree that fell during the storm, and may have had a lightening hit. Very interesting weather lately. I am hiding at home a lot, because being caught in torrential downpours and the like don't interest me. Inside lily pieces I salvaged from the landscape emergency are almost all spent. Only one of the tiny side lilies is hanging on. Gave skinny pig one stalk from the vase as it was green and only had the stamen left.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2021 16:35:59 GMT -5
I went into the sweltering heat this weekend to try to find where the damned grapevine is coming from that has spread all over the kitty willow, found a neglected pocket of weeds that had gotten four feet tall (the trifecta of evil, blackberry, privot and that huge plant that gets the purple berries that the birds eat and then crap purple craps everywhere), then also noticed how the border along the blue rug junipers and the yard has been overrun with grass and weeds, stormed into the house all soggy with sweat screaming ‘we’re selling this house’ to DH. So - typical July weekend. Around here, it's a form of Ligustrum and the annual visit by Cedar Waxwings has led them to be named "Brown-breasted, Purple-crapper birds"
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2021 4:26:59 GMT -5
The foliage on the iris in both the front and back gardens has turned brown. It's ugly and time to cut it back. What's with all the maintenance for flowers? It's a nuisance. Can't they just grow and die back on their own and leave me out of it except to admire them?
If the rain holds off, I'll get started in the front garden this morning. Somebody please send some Heinzelmännchen to do the garden chores.
ETA: OK. I'm dressed and coffeed. It's daylight and overcast but not raining so it's time to go out and deadhead the salvia. Then on to the front garden.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Jul 13, 2021 9:12:20 GMT -5
Thought about you yesterday @missrigby I was at Home Depot and bought some plants
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2021 9:29:27 GMT -5
My intentions were good, but yanno how something gets started, then it's oh, look, I should do that right now, too. Then it's while I'm at it, I'm gonna do this. Etc, ad infinitum. That's the housekeeping version. This morning was the gardening version. So. Lots got done in the garden, but the bed of iris in the front garden didn't get touched. The bed of iris in the back garden didn't get touched, either.
The salvia got deadheaded, though, and lots of weeds are no longer among the living. The gomphrena that I tried to start from seeds was really struggling so I moved it all to a spot where it has grown well before from plants that came from the garden center. And where I can see it from my spot on the patio. Helpful hint: growing gomphrena from seeds is a waste of time, an exercise in futility, and a waste of seed $ that I could have spent on plants instead.
Now I'm tired. Tomorrow is another day. The ugly brown iris foliage will still be there tomorrow or maybe even longer depending on how many times there's an oh-look-shiny! event.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Jul 13, 2021 10:23:30 GMT -5
I don’t have any of my happy flowers (the daylilies in the wood planters on the deck) today. They both only have a few buds growing right now too. I cleaned them up last week, so hopefully they’ll give me a lot more flowers again soon. The May Night salvia in the pot that I thought had mostly died is growing green foliage again. I’m confused about that plant. All of my rosemaries have a few yellow leaves at the tips. I’m not sure what’s causing that either. Sigh. They may be getting too much water, it’s rained a lot since last Thursday. I haven’t gotten more soil yet to finish repotting the houseplants. Maybe I’ll go get some today. It’s not scorching hot today, so this is a good day to do it, in between rain showers. Yellow leaves usually mean too much water. I'm not familiar with rosemary, though. I planted my first one this year
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2021 5:02:47 GMT -5
Okay, then. We all know about the road that's paved with good intentions, right? But we probably won't get any rain until around suppertime so I have no excuse to ignore the ugly brown iris foliage in front of the house. Tackling that is my mission today.
I wonder if the gomphrena plants I moved yesterday are happy. Can't tell until it's light out.
One of the things I miss about living way way Up North is summer morning daylight. The birds would start singing around 330, it was twilight by four and daylight by 5ish. We had window air conditioners that didn't get used very often so we could hear the birds. It was a nice way to wake up.
Of course, in winter it started getting dark at 4 in the afternoon...
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2021 8:55:33 GMT -5
Got started on the iris bed but holy cow it's big. As in maybe 30' x 30'? Bigger? Only managed to cut back (and dig weeds) from about 20% of it. Rome wasn't built in a day, and the iris bed won't be tidied in a day, either. When I sat down on the teeny tiny patio to admire the garden in back, I got a wild hair and decided to move a few more things. Just a few. There are now black-eyed Susan plants in between blanket flower plants. I had a couple of BE Susans that really needed to be divided. So they were divided and replanted. These aren't the big ones the size of daisies; their petals are finer. I don't know the name. And the gomphrena? They are either extremely happy or very good at faking it ETA: I went out again and cut more but didn't clean up any of it. It's just too drippy humid and hot. And yeah, it's big, but after looking at it again, probably only 20x20, not 30x30. I'm just a whiney wimp.
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Jul 15, 2021 20:37:13 GMT -5
My sweetspire (clethra alnifolia) is in bloom and a light vanilla scent is in the air. For a change, here is a small shrub which doesn't mind wet soil. Dislike dry soil. Require full sun or part sun. Grows under three feet tall by three feet wide. Will very slowly spread over multiple years time. Not my picture but this is what it looks like. Bloom time is mid-July in zone 7b. Mine grows in morning sun/afternoon shade.
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happyhoix
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Post by happyhoix on Jul 15, 2021 21:15:23 GMT -5
My sweetspire (clethra alnifolia) is in bloom and a light vanilla scent is in the air. For a change, here is a small shrub which doesn't mind wet soil. Dislike dry soil. Require full sun or part sun. Grows under three feet tall by three feet wide. Will very slowly spread over multiple years time. Not my picture but this is what it looks like. Bloom time is mid-July in zone 7b. Mine grows in morning sun/afternoon shade. That’s beautiful Tenn. Never heard of it before.
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Jul 15, 2021 21:54:46 GMT -5
My sweetspire (clethra alnifolia) is in bloom and a light vanilla scent is in the air. For a change, here is a small shrub which doesn't mind wet soil. Dislike dry soil. Require full sun or part sun. Grows under three feet tall by three feet wide. Will very slowly spread over multiple years time. Not my picture but this is what it looks like. Bloom time is mid-July in zone 7b. Mine grows in morning sun/afternoon shade. That’s beautiful Tenn. Never heard of it before. There are several species of Clethra. There is a pink one too.
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Opti
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Post by Opti on Jul 16, 2021 6:33:04 GMT -5
Are they better grown south of zone 6? I sprayed the rose again, and one nearing adulthood lanternfly nymph was on it in all its red and white spotted glory. The white moths are out too, one flew in my face. Too bad I no longer have my male water dragon. He thought they were the best treat ever. And given last night's noise and perhaps now. I think our special cicadas have hatched again.
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Knee Deep in Water Chloe
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Post by Knee Deep in Water Chloe on Jul 16, 2021 10:27:22 GMT -5
Miss Rigby, I bought zinnias earlier this week too! I also bought some marigolds. I had two empty pots, and we cannot have that! Then, DH decided that we needed additional foliage in a certain spot for the wedding ceremony, so, Wednesday, he bought three types of coleus. Dear goodness.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2021 11:05:07 GMT -5
I don’t have any of my happy flowers (the daylilies in the wood planters on the deck) today. They both only have a few buds growing right now too. I cleaned them up last week, so hopefully they’ll give me a lot more flowers again soon. The May Night salvia in the pot that I thought had mostly died is growing green foliage again. I’m confused about that plant. All of my rosemaries have a few yellow leaves at the tips. I’m not sure what’s causing that either. Sigh. They may be getting too much water, it’s rained a lot since last Thursday. I haven’t gotten more soil yet to finish repotting the houseplants. Maybe I’ll go get some today. It’s not scorching hot today, so this is a good day to do it, in between rain showers. Yellow leaves usually mean too much water. I'm not familiar with rosemary, though. I planted my first one this year [img src="https://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff155/JiminiChristmas/ymamsmiles/smile.gif" src="//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png" alt=" " class="smile"] If that’s what’s wrong with them, at least it’s not my fault this time. We got a LOT of rain over several days. Sometimes it seemed to only be raining in this area, sometimes Mister and I would be on the phone and whoever was at home would mention the rain and it wouldn’t be raining where the other one was. Or I’d be talking to my Mom and it would be pouring down at our house, but not where she was. It was nice not to have to bother watering stuff for several days, but we didn’t need THAT much rain every day lol.
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