Re: [SG] softhearted gardener

Well, Susan,
        Now you know how nurseries begin...... Except that when you have a nursery
and sell plants you can no longer give them away except as a bonus plant
whit a good order. (No one will purchase a plant form you if they know you
will be giving it to them) The extras usually end up in church gardens or
similar community projects. (This years projects are already assigned)
        I continue to add new beds to the garden each year and then go back and
replants areas so that the garden continually grows as does the nursery.
Build 3 new display beds last summer 4 foot wide and 48 feet long. My new
partner is into sun plants and herbs so here we go into the yard now...
sigh. Obviously I am not the one to tell you how hold back on the reigns...
just had to reply with an understanding smile on my face.
        Gene Bush     Southern Indiana    Zone 6a     Munchkin Nursery
          around the woods - around the world
genebush@otherside.com     http://www.munchkinnursery.com

----------
> From: Susan Campanini <campanin@ntx1.cso.uiuc.edu>
> Subject: softhearted gardener
> Date: Thursday, April 15, 1999 10:30 AM
>
>       Often people write into the list because they need help growing a
> particular plant.  I think I have the opposite problem.  Yup, most
> everything grows too well for me and I'm too softhearted and the result
is a
> garden problem, so I need some advice and moral support.
>       The worse trouble softheartedness in the garden has gotten me into
> was actually in a prior garden, when we had perfect germinating
conditions
> in a cool basement.  The problem then was that we grew far too many
> wonderful rock garden plants and border perennials from seed, the
seedlings
> survived too well, and the plants almost all made it, so we spent the
entire
> spring every year building new raised beds and planting--with no time
left
> for maintenance.
>       Okay, now in the new house there isn't a basement and we're not
> doing seeding projects.  But here we have made a gravel walk in between
14
> raised beds (6 square, 8 rectangular) on the sunny east side.  It turns
out
> that the gravel is a perfect medium for self-sowing!  It is totally
> impractical to allow seedlings to remain in the walk, so I am trying to
> train myself to pull them out, but it's hard because I feel like each one
is
> a potentially great plant...
>       I try to deadhead, but it's a big job that needs doing on an
> on-going basis and, incidentally, seems to always need doing when it gets
> really hot and humid out there and lots of other activities are going on
> too.
>       We've done some transplanting of course, and we try to pot things up
> and give to friends,neighbors, and colleagues at work, but both of those
> efforts take garden space for the transplants and the work to plant them
or
> time and energy (and people timing, which is tricky) for passing on
plants
> and it's a big garden and we have full-time jobs and other hobbies too
> (except in spring, of course).
>       To make matters worse, besides the self-sown plants I have trouble
> removing, I'm often loathe to pull something up that is growing in a bed
and
> unidentifiable to me. After all, sometimes a plant can seed and then die
and
> the seeds lie fallow for a while and it could be a favorite hard-to-find
> alpine that I thought was lost forever ... but sometimes it's just a new
> weed or one that doesn't look like itself until it's too late and it's
taken
> over and crowded out some of the plants that were supposed to be in that
> bed!
>       Then there's the problem with creeping plants that creep too far.
> It seems so harsh to just take a scissors to them and yet I know that
they
> cover other smaller plants and rob their sunlight.  I guess I'm always
> thinking I might overprune and kill them (sigh).
>       And, of course, there are the very successful perennials that get
> bigger and bigger and bigger every year.  I know, I know, you're supposed
to
> divide them, actually dig up perfectly rooted plants and chop them in
> pieces!
>       This year is THE YEAR OF MAINTENANCE--we have decided.  We will put
> annuals in the containers (one of my joys in life) of course and put
> perennials in place where something has disappeared if we find such a
spot,
> but we are building NO new beds and, mostly, buying few new plants
(famous
> last words...).  We want to learn (after sooo many years of gardening
that
> it's embarrassing) to do garden maintenance.
>       So:  How do you manage to do it?  Please send advice to a
> softhearted gardener.  Thanks!
>
> Susan and David in Urbana, Illinois, zone 5b (in bloom now:  aubrieta,
> arabis, alyssum, phlox, pasque flowers, species tulips, daffs, squills,
> bloodroot, erythronium, fritillaries, anemones, hellebores, epimedium,
wood
> poppy, corydalis, pulmonarias, rhododendrons...and more)
>
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