Garden and Yard Talk

[Huntn]

Winter is over in Houston, we had the last gasp last week where lows were in the low 30’sF, sad to see it go, too short lived for my tastes, from here smooth sailing a few months of what I would describe as our Spring tolerable weather before the harsh oven-like temps that kick in sometime in May. Time to get to work in the garden.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Got going a little late in the year, but I’m trying starting from seed indoors this year. 5 types of tomatoes and 4 types of peppers.

 

[Huntn]

I’ve got 2 small bags of wildflowers (1oz each, one perennials, one annuals) to refresh our wildflower strip that was taken over by Cosmos. Cosmos is not a bad plant, it thrives in heat and drought, profusely blooms, but growing to 7-8’ and then needing to be staked to keep it upright is not conducive to what we want. And it puts out a huge number of seeds. This year most of them will be pulled up, so I want to give something else (shorter) a chance. This strip is only about 3’ wide, so 4’ max would be a better height.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

I’ve got 2 small bags of wildflowers (1oz each, one perennials, one annuals) to refresh our wildflower strip that was taken over by Cosmos. Cosmos is not a bad plant, it thrives in heat and drough, profusely blooms, but growing to 7-8’ and then needing to be staked to keep it upright is not conducive to what we want. And it puts out a huge number of seeds. This year most of them will be pulled up, so I want to give something else (shorter) a chance. This strip is only about 3’ wide, so 4’ max would be a better height.

We have a down sloping hill behind our cabin that's mostly just dirt and small and medium rocks. We started seasonally scattering wildflower seeds. It makes for great blooms but I think it only lasts one season.

 

[Huntn]

We have a down sloping hill behind our cabin that's mostly just dirt and small and medium rocks. We started seasonally scattering wildflower seeds. It makes for great blooms but I think it only lasts one season.

My impression is there are different factors, typically the annuals put out 100s of seeds, maybe more each. The birds might eat many. My experience so far is that the perennials don’t really last where we plant them, annuals seem to be a better option.

 

[Huntn]

Ref: Wild flower strip by driveway- I threw down 2 ounces of seed and got an explosion of growth. There is one established plant that seeded the edge of the neighbors lawn, so I went over and weeded, got about 20 plants and was delighted when the roots came up with the plants. So they all got planted in the wild flower bed.

new growth


View attachment 680

Unidentified plant I should know the name…​

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Ref: Wild flower strip by driveway- I threw down 2 ounces of seed and got an explosion of growth. There is one established plant that seeded the edge of the neighbors lawn, so I went over and weeded, got about 20 plants and was delighted when the roots came up with the plants. So they all got planted in the wild flower bed.

View attachment 22161new growth


View attachment 680
View attachment 22160
Unidentified plant I should know the name…​

If you have an iPhone and take a picture of a plant if you tap the circled i at the bottom it will bring up an option to ID the plant.

 

[Huntn]

If you have an iPhone and take a picture of a plant if you tap the circled i at the bottom it will bring up an option to ID the plant.

I learn something everyday, thanks .
Sadly the Plant Snap app failed to ID the plant, and I think my iPhone came closer, but not sure it got it right calling it Rock Soapwart.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

I learn something everyday, thanks .
Sadly the Plant Snap app failed to ID the plant, and I think my iPhone came closer, but not sure it got it right calling it Rock Soapwart.

View attachment 22174
View attachment 22175

I've used third party plant ID apps in the past. It's a nice newish feature on iOS, but yeah, it doesn't always nail it but they didn't either. At least you can try taking more photos and you didn't pay extra for the attempted ID.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Found out about this service for free wood mulch from one of the gardening content creators I follow on YouTube. You have to appreciate the downsides by their own admission on this video.

 

[Huntn]

I learn something everyday, thanks .
Sadly the Plant Snap app failed to ID the plant, and I think my iPhone came closer, but not sure it got it right calling it Rock Soapwart.

View attachment 22174
View attachment 22175

I have masses of Cosmos, i assume Sulfur Cosmos coming up and it is hard to tell if it is because the mixture of annuals I planted was heavy with Cosmos or because last years Cosmos crop dropped masses of seeds. The Wife and I have decided we are taking a break from 9’ tall Cosmos so they are all going to be pulled up, or maybe leave a couple. Last year, most were susceptible to winds and rain and being blown over, plus a 3’ wide strip of dirt is just too narrow in my opinion to handle them and look good. We are shooting for 3-4’ tall or smaller plants.

 

[Huntn]

I went out back to work in the yard and this Chickadee ((I think, small black and white bird) was flitting around under our gazebo apparantly in distress and every so often I would hear this best described as a screech, but could not identify where exactly. I thought it was on the roof , and along this particular wall we have 3 potted snake plants. I looked into a thick growth of snake plant spears/leaves, saw nothing, then I rotated the pot and there was a juvenile bird maybe 2” long which had gotten itself wedge between 2 of these leaves. It was stuck. So I pried it loose, grabbed it and took it to the back side of the yard and set it on a ledge. It seemed tired, or maybe what do I do now and it sat there. Before long the mother found it and they flew away.

Besides that having fun straightening out, cleaning up the back yard, a huge crop of energetic weeds striving to inundate everything withe their presence, Need to do this before the baking days start.

View attachment 717

Mr Lincoln

Honey Suckle, Mandavia, Yellow shrub rose

Wife likes roses because they love the heat.​

 

[Huntn]

I recently discovered that your iPhone has the built in ability to identify plants. It does not appear that my iPad shares this ability. From your photo album, select a picture of your plant, touch the ”i“ icon at the bottom of the page, select the leaf icon-“look up plant”, and voila an identification with images of possible matches will appear.

 

[mollyc]

I recently discovered that your iPhone has the built in ability to identify plants. It does not appear that my iPad shares this ability. From your photo album, select a picture of your plant, touch the ”i“ icon at the bottom of the page, select the leaf icon-“look up plant”, and voila an identification with images of possible matches will appear.

Oh, thank you! I knew my phone could do this but didn't know how...I had an 8+ for almost five years so this is a new capability for me.

I planted a bunch of dahlia and zinnia seeds yesterday, finally. I should have started them indoors two months ago, and then since I missed that window should have sowed them outdoors about three weeks ago, but here we are, better late than never (hopefully).

 

[mollyc]

I recently discovered that your iPhone has the built in ability to identify plants. It does not appear that my iPad shares this ability. From your photo album, select a picture of your plant, touch the ”i“ icon at the bottom of the page, select the leaf icon-“look up plant”, and voila an identification with images of possible matches will appear.

Oh, thank you! I knew my phone could do this but didn't know how...I had an 8+ for almost five years so this is a new capability for me.

So! I found a plant on my walk today that I wanted to look up and tried this. Nothing worked. Did some googling, read some Apple help stuff, read some MR articles, and everything seemed like it should work, but I couldn't get the Info button with the star - mine was just a regular info button. It turns out that I had "Show in Look Up" disabled as a preference under Siri & Spotlight. I usually turn off Siri suggestions because I find them annoying. Once I enabled that setting, the Star Info button appeared and I was able to identify the plant.

Anyway, thanks for bringing this up, because I tried to use it awhile ago and when it didn't work I forgot about it. Happy to have it enabled now!

 

[Huntn]

Oh, thank you! I knew my phone could do this but didn't know how...I had an 8+ for almost five years so this is a new capability for me.

I planted a bunch of dahlia and zinnia seeds yesterday, finally. I should have started them indoors two months ago, and then since I missed that window should have sowed them outdoors about three weeks ago, but here we are, better late than never (hopefully).

My wife started zinnias and cosmos from seed this year.

 

[mollyc]

My wife started zinnias and cosmos from seed this year.

oh, yes, i think i had a packet of cosmos too! and some poppies. i wish i'd started them indoors like i did a few years ago; we'll see how fast they sprout and grow.

 

[Huntn]

28 May 23- Nature Tamed, no this is not natural, but we like it. Temp mid 80s.

Cosmos, Yarrow, Zenias, Vinca

Rose, Yarrow, Lantana,

Honeysuckle

Plumara (just sprouting), Rose, Vinca, Lantana, Honeysuckle.​

 

[Huntn]

Over the weekend, pulling some Saint Augustine trying to grow out across my driveway, in the hot of the morning, before the baking period of the day, I disturbed some fire ants, took it nonchalantly and ended up with about 10-15 bites, wearing flip flops too, no socks. I vanquished all the attackers. I don’t normally do yard work in my flip flops. This was by the driveway on my way to the car. Went back to the garage to fetch some fire ant killer and sprinkled that around the site.

Fire ant bites are individually feel little bitty burning sensation, not so bad, but a couple of days later in the middle of the night, the itching woke me up and of course that had to be scratched vigorously and you feet are not the most convenient location. I’ve always said that pain is better than itch. Two days of on and off itching is worse than the original bites!

 

[Huntn]

I‘m watching Gardener’s World. (BBC) and they featured a garden based food coop and I had a vision of Station 11 a simpler time in my imagination when people worked together in small groups for the common good. It was appealing and here one was and strange that it would take a post armageddon scenario or colonizing another planet, to possibly see that on a broad scale, the planet scenario would likely be high tech, but who know?