Garden Gym Club


(Stickin' with mammoth) #41

The kitten, Bella, has found the catnip. She’s a responsible drug user, though, she only partakes of a little, goes apesh!t crazy for a few minutes, then gets back to chasing invisible animals and getting underfoot. I guess you don’t need many mind-altering substances when you’re already zonkers.


(Jane) #42

First the flowers - my husband’s domain…

Bee balm
Bee%20Balm

Cematis
Clematis

Fringe Tree
Fringe%20Tree

Hiwire Flyer climbing rose
HWF%20Rose

Flower bed near the house
Propane%20Bed

Red climbing rose
Red%20Ckimber

Peach rose
Sammy%20Rose

Climbing rose topped by clematis
Rose%20Clematis


(Robin) #43

Also my husband’s domain. Bless them!


(Jane) #44

And my vegetable garden - my domain. Everything I started from seeds or direct sowed seeds except the onions, potatoes and 3 of the 19 tomato plants.

Cucumbers
Cukes

Green and wax beans
Green%20and%20Wax%20Beans

Lettuce
Lettuce

Onions
Onions

Peas
Peas

Potatoes (shhh… I know)
Potatoes

Squash and Zucchini
Squash

Tomatoes
Tomatoes


(Robin) #45

Wow. Here is where we diverge. This is awesome!


(Jane) #46

You don’t see this color in clematis very often:

Red%20Clematis


(Stickin' with mammoth) #47

Gorgeous! I have a funny story you’d appreciate.

Back in my garden design days, I was gathering info for a bid for a little old lady. She was very sweet and very earnest but didn’t exactly know her plants.

She said, “And there’s this vine I like, I’ve seen it around, with the nice purple flowers? Clitoris, I think it’s called–”

“I believe that’s called clematis,” I added quickly.

Had to look away for a good 30 seconds to wipe the grin off my face.


(Jane) #48

Thank-you!

We are especially appreciative this year because last year we had a late hard freeze and my fringe tree didn’t bloom and it hurt a lot of my other perineals and they just weren’t as spectacular.


(Jane) #49

:laughing:


(Jane) #50

You mentioned flooding - we had the worth flood in the history of this property back in April. All 3 beehives were swept into the woods - we recovered one and it miracuously made it.

Our chicken coop outer run was badly damaged and my vegetable garden had almost a foot of leaf debris in it, fences down, pea fence in the corner… My neighbors and their 2 hard-working teenagers came over and helped us. The mom, daughter and I hauled several dozen wheelbarrow loads of debris out. My peas hadn’t climbed the fence yet, but were flattened. I set the fence back up, removed the debris and in a fews days they popped back up. Onions and potatoes didn’t care. The rest were still in my greenhouse (thank goodness!). Many of the rose bushes were leaning over to the ground and we uprighted them and tamped the soil down around them. Looking at these pictures you would never know how bad it was.

Here is the view from the deck on the back of my house - chicken coop in front, garden in back. As you can see we wisely built the house way up on the hill! This pic is from last year:

This is what I woke up to a few weeks ago:

And my garden where the squash are now planted:

IMG_7947


(Bob M) #51

Whoa! That’s some devastation. I hope everything comes back well.

I plan on cutting down some “invasive” trees and doing some other work this weekend. Will do that instead of jogging, I think. Supposed to be hot, though. I’ll have to go out early and get done early.


(Stickin' with mammoth) #52

Geez Louise, my back hurts just looking at all the damage. Glad you had some help. I want a Sherpa!

Glad, too, that the chickies were able to perch above the liquid bulldozer.


(Karen) #53

Oh Heavens above that looks awful, I would have been in floods, :sob: no pun intended, I hate to see all the love and hard work that goes into building the garden to see it washed away like that!

I nearly cried this morning after the heavy rain last night washed out my mothers day gift from my daughter. I had sent her a photo only yesterday showing how it was still blooming lovely and she replied that she was so glad I hadn’t killed it off and then this morning all the petals had come off :sleepy:

Fortunately the other plants don’t have such fragile petals.


(Jane) #54

I was in tears most of the morning, then rolled up my sleeves and started cleanup/repairs. We built everything in that meadow with just me and my husband, so we looked at each other and said we could fix everything. And we did - eventually.

I lost about $500 worth of bee boxes I never found but won’t need them until next year. I may build my own with the price of everything and shipping going through the roof. Need to round up some scrap wood leftover from other projects because lumber is crazy expensive now also.

We were hiking the woods near the creek looking for the bee boxes about a week after the flood and spotted a bright blue mound over by a tree. It was the lobelia from one of our flower beds that got washed away. My husband scooped it it and carried it back to the flower bed, replanted it and it is doing well.


(Stickin' with mammoth) #55

Thank you for ending the story on this nice note, it’s hopeful and heartening. Not just the lobelia, but the husband, as well! Ha!


(Karen) #56

Nature is beautiful but can be so wicked too. Glad to know your lobelias were so resilient and are doing well. Very sad to lose the bees, I love bees. As you mentioned thank heavens your house was built on the hill and you didn’t lose everything indoors too :heart:


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #57

Always bee kind to them, and they will bee kind to you! :bee: :bee: :bee:


(Stickin' with mammoth) #58

Honey, you’re going over the deep end with the dad jokes, they’re beginning to sting.


(Jane) #59

When I am trying to scrub the dirt from under my fingernails after planting or pulling weeds (should wear gloves but don’t) I cut them short to make it easier… then discover how difficult it is to count stiches on a knitting needle with short fingernails!!!

My hobbies are not compatible LOL


(Jane) #60

OTOH… my beekeeping :bee: hobby doesn’t care how long or short my fingernails are since they are securely protected in long gloves!

eta: would love to post pictures of my inspections but would have to take my gloves off to operate my phone camera. I have done this in the past when they were calm. Maybe soon when I am not robbing their honey. Or have my hubby suit up and hold the frames while I take the pics