What have you done today in the Garden?

Thanks for that, they've spread like wildfire. Fighting for space (and winning) with some hebes and the bluebells.
They've surrounded the peony that has come up in this position each year for decades.
The bit of weldmesh on stakes, stops it from flopping over the path once it has flowered.

 

DHR lookin good. All your maintenance efforts all season has paid off. Beautiful garden and the wisteria are gonna be a blooming show.

 

Becky was putting pine bark mulch under the blueberries and found tthis old vine. What grows like that alien life form? It has a very rubbery vine.

I have been replanting mondo.

 

That is the worst !! I call it "potato vine'' but that's not the true name. It's all over florida and south georgia too. The vines laiden with thorns, are green to start then as they climb the trees the old wood gets brown and once in the tree you need a four man team to pull them down. Leave a tiny root in the ground and they grow back again.

 

Anniekay I believe you mean wild japanese wisteria that is extremely invasive . They are an ecological threat in the US.

The hard woody vines twine tightly around host tree trunks and branches and cut through bark, causing death by girdling. On the ground, new vines germinating from seed or sprouting from rootstocks form dense thickets that smother and shade out native vegetation and impede natural plant community development. As girdled trees die, canopy gaps are created which increase the amount of sunlight reaching the forest floor. While this may temporarily favor some native species, it also stimulates vigorous growth and further spread of wisteria.

Not all wisterias are invasive American wisterias are not, many new hybrids are really quite tame and beautiful.

DHR and myself both have wisteria vines, that are trimmed to perfection every few months to keep them from spreading outside our gardens. They have never gone to seed due to constant trimming. I have had both Chinese and Japanese wisteria in my garden over 30 years and it has never traveled any further than the arbor it has been trained on & same for DHR. We are responsible gardeners and aware of the issue to control them in our gardens by practicing responsible gardening techniques.

Regular trimming and pruning is the key to beautiful spring blooms and growth. Wisterias will not bloom if not trimmed back on a regular basis. I think that is why wisterias are in our gardens for the spectacular spring blooms that provide enjoyment from the stylliazed blooms fixed on arbors in our gardens.

What else is invasive in my garden there are the buddliea’s. I have them in my garden as well and they have not escaped in the wild . Trimming and proper maintenance is essential to keeping this shrub from spreading. The blooms that attract butterflies every year I look foreword to the mass amounts of different butterflies that arrive in spades every year. New hybrids of buddlieas do not spread and have delightfully amazing new colors and easier to maintain.

In Oregon a clematis vine ‘virginiana’ is also invasive . I have that one too and in 30 years it never escaped outside the boundaries of my garden. Again proper care , trimming and maintenance is key.

When I planted many of these invasive plants they were not on the invasive list and regularity sold by local nurseries. Well…that’s how old I am… and some day I will eliminate them when I cannot maintain them any longer. For now I regularly threaten the wisterias if they donot bloom after all my trimming and care . I expect the massive bloom performance of their long panicles , fragrance and watching the hummingbirds enjoy their nectar.

 

@Pacnorwest I don't know how it happened but I was replying to a post by Dirtmechanic of a photo they posted.




I know that's wisteria. Either the post was deleted or it's in another thread ??? Oh wait, now I do see Dirt's post. That's not wisteria.



I put the ring around my nectarine, nailed it in and added 5 bags of mulch. Now I've got the shade garden being watered as it's so dry I can't get weeds out, root and all, very easily and that sets me up for weeding, fertilizing and mulching that bed tomorrow.

 

Your post is posted under DHR post showing wisteria vines. I couldn’t imagine why you called them potato vine.
Because in Florida and Georgia wisterias are extremely invasive as mentioned in your post.
So now I know air potato vine is in Florida and Georgia.

Maybe next time might be helpful for a quote to be used in the same post the reference it’s ment for. ‘thanks. No harm no judgement. It’s all good.

 

I know!! but look again !! The potato vine pic is there now !!


I looked that up. It's Smilax or Bear Brier. You can actually eat the tips and young leaves.

 

Unfortunately it;s not on my page. And for good reason.. will pm you why…

 

Today I hauled more arborist chips and spread in the kitchen garden. If that's the final wagon lad (it isn't), the garden is in the best shape of any spring in ten years. Only some areas around the borders and a couple of paths between raised beds remain, and those are optional.

I started re-laying the lines of drip irrigation emitters. They are in place for two beds now. Im waiting for the filter, timer, and pressure-reducer, before testing and repairing the emitter lines. It's hard to see the lines, but they are there.



This is the daylily "Ice Carnival" that the cement contractor guys trod and smashed to smithereens (do they have smithereens in UK or The Netherlands?) I planted two divisions in containers and one in ground. It's starting to make a come back.



Here it was another part of the colony two weeks ago. Better shape than the division I potted up.



It was my fault - I knew it would get smashed but didn't have the energy to move it before they did the project. It needed dividing anyway, but would have done better without all of the smashing .

I replanted some clumps of Crocosmia "Lucifer" that were somehow embedded in the roots of a rose bush that I dug up lastvweek and replanted. (no photo). I was going to throw them away (I have lots of Crocosmias) but then figured, the heck with it (actually I didn't say "heck"), I like them and they are almost bullet-proof, and hummingbirds like them, so I planted them. I might regret it - there are mint roots entangled with the soil. That rose also had a violet clump in its roots. I replanted that too.

Rufus was the smart one. He stayed in the shade.



The lettuce plants are growing nicely. Also the snowpeas at the other end of the raised bed.



That one has drip lines now too. After taking that photo.

Gravenstein apple blossoms.



Tasty Red (Czech columnar variety) apple blossoms.



European Pear (Rescue and Orcas) blossoms.



I'm chuffed the David Austin English roses are doing so well in their containers.



Hoping for rose blooms by mid May. Barring a freeze or other disaster. Also, the lilacs look promising this year.

 

Great looking garden and veg @Daniel W !! Especially love those apple blossoms !! So pretty.
I wish I had a watering system. My system does all the watering by hand mostly. Save the shade garden where I use a hose end sprinkler.

 

Yesterday started sowing the wallflower seeds into toilet roll tubes with a peat free apc, I always cover them with a bit of vermiculite, not doing much today my back is playing up.

 

I got one section of the gutters cleaned. It was full of pine needles & leaves from large Doug fir trees that overhang that area. Thank goodness they were dry and easy to get out. It’s basically compost in each scoop. I will wait til my neighbor can help with the rest. It took all I had to get up and down that 2 story ladder and I’m happy most of it is done. Now to the barn and out-buildings.

I merely started the dethatching process for the lawns. I'm so glad that I listen to what my body is telling me, instead of going gung-ho best to take it slow and easy. Needless to say, I'm putting that task on the back burner til tomorrow.

For the up-coming week I have dog training classes to teach at my home for 4 days. Some clients have signed up for obedience sessions. Sits and stays… here we go….

Yesterday was a day of rest and restoration . Today I trimmed a few more branches from the small understory tree collection in the front section of the garden. To open up a bit of sunshine to the area. They still look good, and pleased that they have recovered so well from a previous attack by unscrupulous people.

Lots of other things on my list like removing moss and lichen off of everything that doesn’t move. My goodness the assault driveway is bright lime green … who knew there were so many different challenges this early in spring.

Thank goodness good weather today so hopefully I can knock a few things off my list.
Have great day everyone.

 

Let's see, I started at 9:30am and because I jump from one thing to another, I finally was done ai 3:04 pm !! I start one thing then I see a branch needs nipping off over there, then I see I need to get water on something, so I multitask and end up with the thing I started (and would have finished had I not jumped around) only 1/4 done !!

I watered the grass I transplanted day before yesterday and other areas that had ruts where I had filled those ruts in with dirt. Watered all the rest of the fruit trees, pruned the Pomegranate (which has a few fruits coming on), Since the hose was in my hand and I was near both bird baths I had to stop, scrub those out and refill them.

Then I started clearing the Virginia Creeper off my fence, trimming the Wisteria off the fence and carried that stuff out to the ditch for pickup. 4 wheelbarrows full not counting the tree branches I trimmed that were blocking air circulation in the shade garden. After that I started weeding the shade garden. I got 1/4 of it done, fertilized that section then put the sprinkler on that section for an hour to wash the fertilizer in.

I'm headed out now to shut off the sprinkler then I'm done for the day !!

 

You ask about smithereens in England Daniel, and I thought immediately of the green glass smithereens here when I decided to do some dusting on the top of the high cupboards in the kitchen. I have to reach these cupboard tops from the landing on the stairs over a galleried area, and managed to hit a lovely old apothecary bottle which was one of my special treasures. It fell and smashed into smithereens all over the place.
Today's smithereens in the garden however were more weeds and very overgrown brambles and unwanted shrubbery. Zigs came and helped me with it as he had the chain saw and a bit more muscle.... very rewarding job though, and now we just have to get a load of stumps dug out too. It should be a good bonfire when the job's completed!