New plants!

[ChanellG]

Thanks, Maddie! I finally got everything repotted - well, except for the marigolds. There are so many of them, I just don't know where to put them! My grandfather is growing a few things in the back yard so I set some marigolds in between his plants and something is already eating two of them.

Some of the older plants needed repotting as well. I divided up one of the gingers (ornamental), but I am running out of containers. I have two more that I am saving - one will be for carrots, which I need to get started with this week, and the other I may use for nasturtiums. Of course, I am running out of room, but I wouldn't mind a few more

 

[taskeinc]

All your new plants look very healthy and reading and raring to go in their new home. You know you'll have to take a picture once you get them planted in the ground and you'll need to keep us up to date on the progress. Looking at your nice plants makes me want to go to Walmart or Pike Nursery right now, and I probably would if I was not watching Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals - Miami vs Indiana ..

 

[ChanellG]

All your new plants look very healthy and reading and raring to go in their new home. You know you'll have to take a picture once you get them planted in the ground and you'll need to keep us up to date on the progress.

LOL! (re:game)

They aren't in the ground, they are all in containers. I live with three other family members and sometimes people don't respect your space so... I did stick a few marigolds in the ground around the plants my father and aunt helped my grandfather plant (he's 90 and blind). He used to grow a lot of stuff and insisted on "making a garden."

The containers also make things easier during winter and hurricanes when I need to move stuff around and protect plants.

 

[Babble64]

I was "skunked" on clearance items....not late enough in the season here. Since money is pretty tight right now I'm rather proud of myself for not giving in...it would have been so easy and my hubby wasn't going to say "no". I think in another week or two I'll find some good stuff to make work...and then I can love it all summer long!

We also had plans for a vegetable garden this year, but a family emergency/situation interfered with that. So....we decided rather than pushing the issue this year we'd just prep the space over the next few months and do it next year. I think we might have to do a few potted veggies this year though!

 

[ChanellG]

We also had plans for a vegetable garden this year, but a family emergency/situation interfered with that. So....we decided rather than pushing the issue this year we'd just prep the space over the next few months and do it next year. I think we might have to do a few potted veggies this year though!

I know what that's like. I have moved out and back a few times since hurricane Katrina due to work being done on the house. If I and my plants have to move again I think I'll lose it! I'm going to try my hand at carrots, spinach and lettuce, though I'm not sure the greens will last beyond July unless I can create some shade for them.

 

[Philphine]

just learned a new cheapskate option today. i've been trying to wait out lowes to see if/when they cut their tree prices down next. they've been at 25% off for about a week. but i decided to quit gambling and get the tree i wanted. the saleclerk told me though, that if they cut the price any time in the next two weeks, i can bring my receipt back and still get the discount. so i may still get it for a bit less.

 

[ChanellG]

Cool! Apparently they can also keep track of your purchases. My mom has some kind of card that they scan at checkout so that if you have a problem and have to bring a plant back, it's in the system and you don't need your receipt.

However, she forgot about the card when we were there until after the transaction had been completed and there was nothing that could be done about it - which I think is ridiculous since we all know that all she would need is to have the transaction number to pull up the purchase history.

 

[Philphine]

if she used a card to pay (not the lowes card. whatever bank/credit card she might use i mean), she may still be able to. i got some blackberry bushes early in the spring and two died. i couldn't find the reciept, so i called to see if maybe i could just get an exchange of new bushes (what i was gonna do anyway). they told me if i had paid with a card they could look it up and give me the refund. i had, so they did.

 

[ChanellG]

That's good to know. So far all of our plants have been healthy and problem free. She had been about to give up on a peach tree and it suddenly sprang to life recently. I guess you just never know... I am waiting to see if my dormant grape vine will spring back to life. It was only $1.75, so it won't be a great loss if it doesn't, but I'm really hoping to be stuffing grape leaves in a few months. (No grapes for a while.)

 

[happyflowerlady]

I love shopping at Lowes, and they almost always have stuff out in the back in the clearance section. I hope to get down to our local one soon, and see what they have. I usually check out Walmart, too, but they don't always have stuff on clearance like Lowes does. My mail order plants just came yesterday, so I have strawberries and asparagus to plant tomorrow, and I got some of those little bush cherries as well. they are supposed to grow about 5' tall, and I am going to use them for kind of a privacy hedge as well as looking forward to some cherries from them.

 

[ChanellG]

I would love to establish an asparagus bed; I hear it takes a while to get it going. I just don't think I have enough space for it :-( I'm sure it's much cooler where you are than it is down here, my strawberry plants are thriving, but I don't expect any berries from them over the summer.

Even with being in the shade and in indirect light for part of the day, I think it's just too hot for them. As it is, winter lingered, spring flip flopped and now summer's moving in and my blueberries still haven't ripened.

 

[Babble64]

ACK! I don't have nearly the energy and motivation that you folks have! I think maybe I'm a gardener in my mind only sometimes! I look out the window and think of things I'd like to do but don't get out there to do it! Still, it is fun hanging out here and listening to what-all everyone is doing. And maybe there will come a time in my life when I have the time and energy (at the same time!) to make something of my ideas.

Chanell....you've spoken of having to move your potted plants due to hurricane season, so I was surprised to see that you have a strawberry bed. I admire your motivation to get an asparagus bed going under those conditions!

 

[ChanellG]

Babble, it's not an actual strawberry bed, at least not yet. I have just two plants in these large pedestal planters. When I found out strawberry plants were sort of perennial I decided to try my hand at them. I'll let them spread a bit to make mini beds and then prune them to increase production. I will probably need another planter, but I don't intend to try and produce that many berries, I just don't have the space.

During Isaac last year I just moved all the plants closer together and they did okay, but it was just a category 1 storm. I'm not sure what I would do if there were a bigger one to deal with.

 

[maddie]

Babble, it's not an actual strawberry bed, at least not yet. I have just two plants in these large pedestal planters. When I found out strawberry plants were sort of perennial I decided to try my hand at them. I'll let them spread a bit to make mini beds and then prune them to increase production. I will probably need another planter, but I don't intend to try and produce that many berries, I just don't have the space.

During Isaac last year I just moved all the plants closer together and they did okay, but it was just a category 1 storm. I'm not sure what I would do if there were a bigger one to deal with.

That sounds like a lot of uncertainty you have to go through. I wish I could grow some strawberries here.. I love them.

 

[ChanellG]

It is, Maddie. Fortunately most years the storm season is relatively quiet for us as we are a bit of a ways from the coast. One year hurricane season was followed by a tornado. Before then we NEVER had tornadoes in this area. For three consecutive years there were tornadoes on almost the exact same past. It was the second year that brought it to my neighborhood.

My strawberry plants are doing so well! One in particular has really taken off; I think it is the one that didn't have a tab in the container - which means I have no idea what variety of strawberry it is. It has so much more new growth on it than the other plant, it may even be trying to flower, but I can't tell yet.