Gardening, anyone?

Lucy55

HI Ladies..

I've been lurking here for a while, and wondered if you would mind if I joined you. I love looking at your beautiful plants / flowers :-)

I have a new love.. Coleus plants.. I love their beautiful colours, how they can live beautifully in complete shade, but lots do well in the sun too.. I'm the part of Australia I live there really is no winter so they don't ever die back.. Yep.. I'm obsessed. 😱

Lucy55

A pot I've stated a couple of weeks ago, all coleus plants, in my front yard

Lucy55

Another bed of coleus, combined with some other plants,..It's also just a new garden.

in our front yard

Jackbirdie

welcome Lucy! It sure is different gardening in Oz. I love coleus too. The really big leaved lime green one is my fave!

DivineMrsM

I remember my parents growing coleus in the house when I was growing up. Last year, I filled a large pot with a number of different ones of different colors and kept it on the back porch. Yours are lovely Lucy and how pretty your new garden is

Jazzygirl

Welcome Lucy! Of course you can join us! We tend to be quieter here in the US winter months, but spring is springing up all over here in the great American southwest and other areas so you should start seeing more posts here.

I love your coleus and gardens. I remember those plants were some of the first I ever had in pots when I was young. Brings back some great early memories of my plant interests from my youth!

Wren44

Welcome Lucy. Coleus are so beautiful and easy to grow. I've started sprigs in the kitchen when an old plant got leggy. That's a good size for a garden. Easy to take care of. Ours is out of hand, unfortunately. What part of Aus are you in?

Lucy55

Thank you ladies for your warm welcome.. :-) Im from Queensland.. an hour north of Brisbane.. It is sub -tropical.. A nice climate because you can grow virtually anything, any time of the year.. I love it.. but I also love how you have the definate seasons, and the excitement of what each season brings to your gardens.. :-)

I grew up further south, where we did have some winter frost, and the spring gardens were just magnificent, with everything coming to life.. People there seem go to so much more bother to plant annuals to make a beautiful spring display !

Lucy55

Here's a pic of my new Bangkok Rose that I potted over the weekend.

Jackbirdie

Some wonderful bco ladies who live some hours from me but in the same state came and helped my clean up my spring border- I have not returned to vigorous health and I was panicking. They stayed over, did a lot of work, and we had lots of nice chats, a tea party, some champagne and a nice dinner. Here are a few shots of my "helping hand"

Jackbirdie

lo

Jackbirdie

a lot of work! And a little play. Sorry for being a space hog. I'm just so happy and grateful!

Helping hands

Jazzygirl

Jackiebird- I love, Love, LOVE that some of the bco sisters came to help you with your gardens. Isn't it amazing the connections we make here and lovely things that happen that are so unexpected? Your gardens look so nice and those ladies did a nice job. I would be grateful too, and thanks for sharing the lovely photos.

My weeping cherry is really coming out now and thinking I will have something good to share with you by this weekend. We are getting another blast of cooler weather/rain, probably snow in the mountains tonight and through tomorrow.

DivineMrsM

Lucy, such a pretty rose.

Jackie, your flower beds are shaping up nicely. What will you plant in that wooden planter? That is sooo lovely that you had help from bco friends!

The weather will be in the 60s here most of the week. Really lifts my spirits. I did a tiny bit of trimming on a few of my knockout roses today. I was very excited to see some leaf buds on a grandiflora I planted last year. It makes me so happy that it survived the winter. I never grew a grandiflora rose before. I had a hard time finding one for sale around here, and the one I bought didn't cost much and it didn't do much last summer. I'm hoping after a year of getting established it will take off this yea. We'll see!

Lucy55

Devine.. Thank you.!! so glad that your grandiflora made it through the winter!

Jazzy.. Can't wait to see pics of your Weeping Cherry :-)

Katy.. How lovely you met up with some of the BCO girls. :-)

Jackbirdie

Jazzy- Yes! Bring on the weeping cherry! Looking forward to seeing that!

MrsD- that vegetable plot needs some amendments and compost first. I moved into this house on August 1 last year. Already planted were cucumbers and yellow squash, and a few tomatoes. In the greenhouse was all tomatoes. It was nice to have it all already going, but I felt the cucumbers (which make me burp) and the squash take up way too much space. And in the greenhouse there were more tomatoes than I could keep up with. When my wonderful friends cleaned up those areas, they noted the soil didn't seem very well amended or cultivated.

So my plan is fewer tomatoes in the greenhouse, but add lots of basil, which I read last night is a natural pest deterrent, and other favorite culinary herbs, like tarragon, flat leaf parsley, cilantro, thyme, and others. And I'll try to keep the herbs growing all year in the greenhouse.

In the square raised planter box I will keep continuous leaf lettuces and arugula going. I seem to never have enough arugula. Great for salads and instead of lettuce on a sandwich for an interesting taste twist.

In the big bed I am thinking green beans (so easy and I love them!) maybe one yellow squash, and I might try some carrots. I need to try to go through a seed catalog and make a few sensible choices. I'm sure everyone understands here that shopping a seed catalog in early March is like strolling through Whole Foods when I'm hungry.

And my Farmers Market, which opens May 1, will have starts. Yum!

DivineMrsM

Jackie, oh I love that Whoole Foods comment and it's quite true! My husband is the vegetable gardener around here, but I have input to what he plants.

I trimmed up a few more rose shrubs today, and rooted around the soil of a few plants checking for signs of life. It looks like a cute little butterfly bush I planted last year made it thru winter, sometimes for some reason those bushes get killed off. I also saw tiny leaves on a coneflower I put in late last year. And the clematis are starting pop a few leaf buds.

There's some white vinyl fence in the backyard whch just gets covered in big green splotches from the flowers growing in front of it. Can't wait to pull out the garden house and scrub that thing!

queenmomcat

Katy definitely with you on the 'looking through seed catalogs in March' feeling. But wistful about the greenhouse.

Jazzygirl

Good morning ladies, not quite in full bloom yet, top still has some opening to do, but the lower branches are so pretty with the flowers, that I had to share this morning!

DivineMrsM

Jazzy, spectacular weeping cherry

Jackbirdie

Spectacular was also the first word that popped into my head when I saw it!

queenmomcat

Unseasonably warm weather here prompted me to go out and wrangle my Rosa Kiteatericae (possibly a climbing Cecile Brunner, but with thorns like fish hooks. Big ones.) I'm raked stem to stern, and there's another half of the canes to go tomorrow....happiness.

Jackbirdie

Queen- very satisfying work indeed. Well done.

I thought I had lost this plant, having not cared for it well over the winter. It's tarragon, arguably my favorite herb. Today I discovered 3 little bits if new growth just before I was going to throw it in the compost heap.

I am so grateful it's not dead it earned a coveted spot in my sunny kitchen window until it can make it outside.

queenmomcat

Phew, lucky tarragon! I've wanted to do that for a while, but for me the poor things just turn toes up. Mints, on the other hand.....next time, I'm planting mint under the Rosa Kiteteatericae, right next to the catnip. Let them fight it out. But a happy hour grubbing around in the dirt and leaves; my nails are sad, my rose resentful, but I'm calm.

Lucy55

Jazzy... Your Weeping Cherry is just gorgeous.!!

Jackbirdie

high winds left me with this mess this morning. I asked the handyman to look at it. It was all made with light (cheap) poles and connectors, and most of the connectors seem to be broken. He says it's not worth saving.

It was here, all planted with tomatoes when I moved in last year. So I didn't spend any money on it, even thought it a bit unsightly, but it delivered great fruit for 3 1/2 months. I might have to pay to have it taken away though.

Sniff.

Jazzygirl

Hi ladies- I was out last night for a business dinner and the parking lot at the restaurant was filled with bloomed pear trees. The end of the day sunlight made them so beautiful. The fragrance on these is divine too!

My friend who came in for a visit this weekend wants to go to the botanical gardens later today so we are going to do that!

jnKinna

Definitely having a spring fever attack! I love getting my hands and tootsies in the dirt.. have fun when it gets warmer!

DivineMrsM

Never met a botanical garden I didn't like! Can't wait to tak a few in this year, too. Enjoy the excursion, Jazzy

woodstock99

Just put all our container plants back out after the winter we never had so hopefully our yard will be looking like this in aft months! This is one view including out sweet Coco, my painted shed and one of my favorite bells from an artist outside ofSanta Fe on the way to Taos. TGIF!