FrazzledApril's Blog

R.I.P. My Little Friends
Apr 29, 2008 | 9:02 AM PST

Well, we had a freeze *again* last night... I went to survey the damage this morning and more than half of my plants have died.  On a positive note though, I bought them from Lowe's and they do offer a 1 Year Guarantee.  All that I have to do is pull them up and bag them and take them back to be replaced.

Its so sad though, I'm really not used to this.  Our high today will be 47... tomorrow is supposed to be sunny with the high back in the 60's and from there we should have smoothe sailing.  I don't think I'm really equipped to live in a climate that offers only 5 real months of weather conducive to growing viable plants though... really.  May, June, July, August & Spetember... by October we're getting freezes and they (apparently) last all through April.

When we move, I know this for certain -- it will not be into any climate lower than zone 8.

 

Butterfly Bush, Foxglove, and Valerian
Apr 27, 2008 | 1:47 PM PST
Tags: foxglove , valerian , butterfly bush

Now for the few perennials I have :)

These pictures are not the best quality and I'll add more later, as the season continues, but for now -- this is what I've got.  I'm also interested in learning how to collect and store some seeds from these guys and am really hoping that they do well for me :)

These are the 3 butterfly bushes, freshly planted (the small green bushes between the still bare trees)

Here are the foxglove -- 4 of them.  One is in the large pot and the other three are there to the left:

Here are the red valerian -- first in the pots still and then freshly planted:

 

 

 

Some of my Annuals
Apr 27, 2008 | 1:40 PM PST

Here are a few of the annuals I have planted... I'm on a quest to learn how to collect and save their seeds now.  These are all freshly planted and so they have not had much time to spread and grow -- but here they are:

These are unidentified for the moment -- I have pictures of them in the identification section of the forums though, so hopefully I'll find out shortly :)

Those are Dianthus

I'm also unsure as to what these are...

Coleus

Snap Dragons

I also have impatiens, begonia, and ageratum.

Periwinkle
Apr 27, 2008 | 1:34 PM PST
Tag: Periwinkle

I'm using periwinkle as a ground cover in one are of my yard.   I had been doing research over the net regarding what types were good for my area and had my heart set on periwinkle... and LO!  To my delight -- look what popped up this spring in that very area!!

I ordered 200 more little vines from a seller on EBay and got them last week -- and have planted all of them, because although I hear that the periwinkle will spread on its own, this only covers about 20% of the desired area and I wanted to help it along.

Apparently my Gram and I were on the same page as far as what we'd like to use in this area :)

I didn't see this last year... not sure how I missed it, but I didn't see it.  Now, lets see how it goes.

 

Hosta
Apr 25, 2008 | 10:05 AM PST
Tag: hosta

Here are my Hosta plants.  I'm unsure as to how long they have been here... but I can't recall them ever NOT being here... and I used to spend summers in this cabin when I was a kid. 

I have been reading about Hosta, and apparently I can pull these gently out of the ground and separate them, making more room for them and also adding more to different places in my yard.  I'm really excited about this because I spend more than I'm really able to afford on the yard and this measure would be FREE -- free is completely in my budget :)

This is what they looked like a week or so ago: (the hosta is in the ground, behind the potted tomatos)

Here they are yesterday:

 

Brussel Sprouts
Apr 25, 2008 | 9:58 AM PST
Tag: brussel sprouts

Erich loves brussel sprouts and while shopping at Lowe's we found some and so we bought them.  I've never grown brussel sprouts, but I figured if they were selling them here -- then they must be ok to grow here.  You'd think that was the case anyway -- but Lowe's has pulled some fast ones on us in the past.

Last year, my veggies didn't do as well as I'd hoped and so this year I decided to pot them all and just place the pots where my garden was supposed to be -- this was I can more accurately control the soil, drainage, etc.  So far, the little brussels have taken off, but I'm a bit more than a little concerned after having seen some pictures that other people posted.  Those little guys can get HUGE... and my brussels are each in gallon pots.  This could be a disaster.  Well... then again I could always go out and get bigger pots for them and gently transplant them if needed, couldn't I?

So here they are... I planted them about 2 weeks ago and they were just tiny little sprouts at the time.

My Gardening Blog!
Apr 25, 2008 | 9:47 AM PST
Tags: North Carolina , New Garden

I have never used a blog specifically for gardening.  I used to have a little notebook where I kept my information, but after we moved, I can't find it.  I doubt it would be of much help anyway -- I used to be in zone 9 and am now in 6, so the things I'm planting now are entirely different.

The soil in Florida was rich and from sandy to loamy.  Up here in North Carolina it doesn't seem quite as rich and it's rocks in clay, with little drainage and we get the "real winters" that of course, you don't experience in Florida.

Last year was my first year here and it was all but a disaster.  The only thing that did well were the impatiens... and while they were very pretty for a while, I was hoping my perennials would live to see another spring... they didn't.  I've been researching exactly what I might have done wrong... looking into sun/shade, my soil type, etc, etc... just to find out if pperhaps I planted the wrong things in the wrong places.

Hopefully this year will go off swimmingly -- it better, because I have spent a small fortune ~ hahha!