That is way cool.
Rhododendron?
Rhododendron?
Your 2020 Garden “Build thread”
- Thread starter Markos
- Start date
Ahh yes good eye. I have 11 in my yard. They are all blooming, as are the Azaleas. May is a gorgeous month in the PNW.
Quick update on Mary's raised beds. We have them all full except for the one which will have the sweet corn. That will be planted in the next few days. Here's how it looks:
Onions, cabbage, & broccoli.
Peas, cucumbers, and beans.
Potatoes and bush beans.
Here's how the grapes are looking. This Dolcetto will be flowering in 10-14 days.
Onions, cabbage, & broccoli.
Peas, cucumbers, and beans.
Potatoes and bush beans.
Here's how the grapes are looking. This Dolcetto will be flowering in 10-14 days.
Our azealeas are usually a two (maybe) week event, usually get frosted....around the ides of April; this year, the longest spring in anyone's memory, we had them for a month...our native rhodo's not until next week or so...right now its time for the mountain laurel (rhodo cousin). Snowed Thur, Fri, and Sat in the mtns, about 30 mins from here. I had to cover the blueberries and the veg garden Sat nite because of the freeze. Our last frost date is usually April 15. High 60 today, 70 tomorrow, 80 Wed...maybe 90 by Sun. Crazy.
Mary's beds look great, L'grvy! My beds are a little more, ahem, Bohemian...
Mary's beds look great, L'grvy! My beds are a little more, ahem, Bohemian...
I’ve spent a lot of time in TN and NC. It’s the only other place that I have seen large rhododendron in the wild. I will always hold the smoky mountains close to my heart.
Snapped some pics of the blooms. I forgot to do the ones in the front. Some are just popping out, including one that gets the most sun. We have several varieties of azaleas planted but they are tiny. I’m envious of the magnificent examples in my neighboring properties.
My house is way back against the corner of my lot. Fortunately my neighbor was an arborist for the city of Seattle. The longest direction of my lot runs against his property. His entire double lot is all native plants, some of his own proprietary variety. He has no grass, just cement pathways through the Rhodies, Azalias, lilacs, etc. The view from our back windows is spectacular in May. We count our blessings that his adult children maintain the yard. I seriously worry about them selling the property and the next owner chopping it all down.
Looks fantastic! I love the precision on the rows of crops. I suppose that comes from laying down production crops. 
I’m giving a third try at getting shade grass to grow in my backyard. 1 failure was contractor not grading correctly or putting down enough topsoil & using wrong variety of sod. 2nd failure was mine & my dogs’ fault—got busy & ignored it & didn’t notice the dogs had made a romping area. This time I bought a different mix of seed at the suggestion of Ag Extension, re-did the grades for better drainage, tilled, cultivated, and raked the soil and then put the green seed cover on everything exactly how the extension instructed. If it doesn’t survive I’m going to pull some plants from a property w an old house site on it and use all the landscaping rocks I have & call it good. I don’t enjoy this work, but the last 2 landscaping cos I hired botched jobs & I thought I’d give it a go. Planted a Japanese maple last month—so far so good. But if anything survives it will be a miracle.
Grass is by far the most challenging this for me. I think that it has a lot to do with where you live. Someone in the midwest can do almost nothing and have a seemingly perfect bed of grass.
It’s easy here so long as it’s in the sun & you’ve got topsoil on the red clay. But shade grass isn’t made for the crazy temp swings & summer heat/drought, and you’ve got to get the sauce just right with the seed mix, soil, etc. Oklahoma State actually engineers grass varieties and is a great resource. You can take soil samples and pics of your area and they’ll guide you best they can, but they’ll still tell you there’s no guarantee.
Our dill was decimated. Apparently a bad year for slugs. Went slug hunting tonight. Will do this for 3 or 4 days.
Soft shell escargot, no?
Hate the nasty things. Only thing that bothers my shitake mushrooms. but tiny ones. Beer traps work, but hate to waste the beer.
Hate the nasty things. Only thing that bothers my shitake mushrooms. but tiny ones. Beer traps work, but hate to waste the beer.
steve in reno
Well-Known Member
June 12
Eating from garden
Eating from garden
steve in reno
Well-Known Member
June 12
Eating from garden.
Eating from garden.
steve in reno
Well-Known Member
June 12
Eating ftom garden.
Salad and cabbage so far
Eating ftom garden.
Salad and cabbage so far
Great job @steve in reno!
Our crops are doing poorly this year. Squash are on track but all the salad stuff is growing very slow and/or decimated by slugs. I’m on slug patrol now, but the cool weather hasn’t helped with growth.
Fortunately the lettuce, kale, and arugula is doing fantastic in the greenhouse. We will only grow the salad stuff in the greenhouse going forward.
Our crops are doing poorly this year. Squash are on track but all the salad stuff is growing very slow and/or decimated by slugs. I’m on slug patrol now, but the cool weather hasn’t helped with growth.
Fortunately the lettuce, kale, and arugula is doing fantastic in the greenhouse. We will only grow the salad stuff in the greenhouse going forward.
m_thompson
Well-Known Member
I just went looking for poultry mesh to keep the critters out. It looks like everyone has the same idea, and very few stores have any in stock. Home Depot a few towns over had some and the posts. I cut and MIG welded several posts together to make a hinged gate. My wife was amused at the number of car tools that I used for gardening. I put out some "treats" for the woodchuck and haven't seen it in a while.
steve in reno
Well-Known Member
I don't have slugs or very many other bugs. I assume they don't like 5% humidity. About the only bug I have, doesn't bother the garden plants. If I don't catch them during cleaning they scare my wife....go figure.
I do like Escargot, but I don't think those are the correct type. No, I won't try one.
Growing in the high desert is a challenge. It can be 90 degrees one day and 40 degrees the next with howling very dry wind, and snowing the next. It can snow from Sept to June
By the way, that scenario happened last week. I had to add a small amount of heat to keep it near 40 degrees
My hoop house has saved my butt many times. 1' foot of snow will make it look sad, but veggies are fine inside.
My corn is finished planting and up, except for newest.
I do like Escargot, but I don't think those are the correct type. No, I won't try one.
Growing in the high desert is a challenge. It can be 90 degrees one day and 40 degrees the next with howling very dry wind, and snowing the next. It can snow from Sept to June
By the way, that scenario happened last week. I had to add a small amount of heat to keep it near 40 degrees
My hoop house has saved my butt many times. 1' foot of snow will make it look sad, but veggies are fine inside.
My corn is finished planting and up, except for newest.
Rex Kapriellian
Well-Known Member
Hi Folks,
I’m not doing much work on the e9 at the moment, especially given that most of my “work” is buying parts from Europe.
I wasn’t planning on a garden this year due to travel. Plans are changing so the garden is en route. We typically grow a lot of squash, beans, onions, radish, arugula. The only tomatoes that do well are cherry tomatoes. It’s very dry here in the summer, but not very hot. It can also get wet here in august and mess with the tomatoes. We also use water-filled insulators around the few tomato plants to help with the PNW morning chill.
If you are in the habit of watering by hand, I highly recommend drip irrigation. The parts are super easy to put together and you can hook the large plastic line up to garden hose threads. I have all of mine on timers, but they are just cheap (~$40) 4-way garden hose timers. My setup is permanent, including the main tubing, I just don’t use fancy hard-wired timers.
This morning I picked up some sand and compost. We turn our beds every year but the soils is getting too clumpy and clay-like. Some of our crops didn’t do well last year, and we think it is the solid condition. Feel free to chime in!
View attachment 88307
Beds turned, they need sand, compost worm castings, etc. We also buy a few thousand ladybugs and let them loose on these three beds.
View attachment 88308
We use marigolds as a “zinc” to keep the PNW slugs off of the vegetables. The ones grown from seed always end up being the hardiest in the end. This year we will be using our greenhouse for lettuce and greens. We don’t usually do this so I’ll have to pay more attention to temperature and humidity. I did add wax-filled (D-Jet AAV style) pistons on the roof windows, which help keep things ventilated.
View attachment 88309
Hopefully the garden will look something like this in August. Last year some rodent chewed up all of our apples. I like to think it was a squirrel or raccoon but in all honesty it was probably a rat.
View attachment 88310
i like the flat trees.Apples look amazing.
Thanks!
Did another slug run last night. Maybe 20 or
so. It’s been a while. Squash are growing slow. Please are all done. Blueberries will be ready next week!
Rex Kapriellian
Well-Known Member
Wow