Re: Weekend

Have you considered Arizona Cypress [Cupressus arizonica] for your screen? Grows fast, drought tolerant, great windbreak, not unattractive [a ton better than C. sempervirens, the cemetery tree]. Soil Conservation Districts used to give them away every year. 

On Apr 2, 2007, at 11:40 AM, Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT wrote:


I was busy outside too. Went to Theodore Payne to buy native plants on
Friday, of course I spent too much. I got atriplex canescens (saltbush,
on sale!), salvia clevelandii, s. leucophylla, s. "Pozo Blue", prosopis
pubescens (screwbean mesquite), penstemon heterophyllus and p.
spectabilis, yucca whipplei (an impulse) and erigonum fasciculatum
(california buckwheat). That replaces most of the xeriscaping that died
in the Big Freeze. I put them all in the ground on Saturday, managing to 
puncture my hand with the hopefully gopher-repelling chicken wire. I
asked the guy at Theodore Payne if he thought that would work and he
just laughed mournfully. But we agreed it would be better than nothing.
And then I went around the yard and dug up a bunch of volunteer pines
and junipers to fill out along the back fence. We'll see if those fare
any better than the natives. I want the natives, dagnabit, for birds and 
other wildlife but I really want to stop looking at the neighbor's junk
pile and I'm getting desperate. I briefly considered the hated Siberian
elm, but I'm not that desperate yet. Oooh...just had a thought...I could 
try chilopsis back there too.
I planted a lot but not all of the heuchera, geraniums, nepeta and
artemisia I bought from Bluestone, and got some weeding done. I got rid
of the dead foliage on the lemon grass but sadly there was no green
evident underneath all that, another victim of the freeze. I'll leave
the stump for a while and see what happens. My hakonechaloa grass has
returned, yay, and the azaleas look very nice finally. The camellia
sinensis doesn't look good at all, but I'm not sure why. The roses have
buds but I have one rose starting to bloom and one that is just barely
starting to leaf out, funny. I lost some nandinas to the freeze too, but 
not my expensive ones.
I need to get the tomatoes out of the greenhouse and start hardening
off, and I need to plant more of the veggie garden. Actually the list of 
what I need to do is about 4 pages long, but I am trying to prioritize,
and at least I'm not bored.
Oh yes and we have cat and kitten living underneath the teahouse. To my
complete astonishment husband suggested we trap and socialize the
kitten. However his first attempt succeeded too well, he got mom and
kitten and then both got away trying to transfer them out of the trap.

Cyndi


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On
Behalf Of Theresa W
Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2007 5:10 PM
To: gardenchat@hort.net
Subject: Re: [CHAT] Weekend

I did get some planting in late yesterday PM- got the seeding tomatoes,
edamame, cilantro, dill, lettuce and even a couple of radishes planted.
    This am, I got around to cleaning out the border of the back yard
(soon to be lawn) so that water now actually runs off the back porch
into the lawn area (Yeah! success!). I also was at HD today and got the 
rest of the parts to replace the sprinklers out back.  That's the last
thing I have to do, before giving a final raking to refine the
level/slope of the soil, and then next weekend I'll seed it.  Hopefully
the roof guys are coming tomorrow to start ripping off our old roof and
replace it with composite shingle- no more stupid cedar shake. It still 
amazes me that anyone would thing putting relatively thin, easily
decomposable wood on the most abused surface of a house, was a good
idea.  Good riddance I say!  I cordoned off the back yard with bright
tape in hopes that it keeps stay feet off my newly manicured/tilled
soil.

Theresa



james singer wrote:

Busy weekend. Saturday morning we hustled to HD for some potting soil
and a few fibrous begonias for pots on the veranda, and ended up also
buying a new back door for manse. Then headed to the farmer's market
for a few vegetables--tomatoes, spring onion, summer squash--and also
bought a couple of 1-gallon mints--spearmint and Jamaican
spearmint--from the plant guy. We also had our eye on a nice dill
plant but by the time we got around to it, it was gone. Was almost
noon by the time we got home and began potting up the begonias, the
mints, and the edible hibiscus [Abelmoschus manihot] that we got a few



weeks ago--only to discover that we had not purchased enough potting
soil the first time abound. To get the potting soil refill, we went to



Lowe's [which is closer than HD]. At Lowe's, Ms Fatma was taken with a



bright red fibreglas pot for the Florida room [plant and two draft

choices to be named at a later date].

Once we got the pot home, we found a nice little neanthe bella
[Chamaedorea elegans] clump in the back waters of the front patio for
it, and transplanted the palm.

Sunday, we trimmed up the queen palm and started to clean up the
Bismarckias--until the battery on the chainsaw pooped out. Have to
finish that tomorrow or Tuesday. We potted a few cuttings, basil and
pencil plant, that had rooted in water on the kitchen sill. Rearranged



a bunch of pots on the front patio and took pictures to send to Ms.
Fatma's son. About 2 PM I figured I'd had enough and poured myself a
toddy. Weather both days has been exceptional--65 in the early AM,
warming to about 81-82 by 2 PM.


Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.1 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Sunset Zone 25
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]

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Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.1 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Sunset Zone 25
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]

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