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Gardening

liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
My north shore of Boston garden is coming up. There is much maintenance to do that I haven't gotten to yet. It's not ready to be shown in its present state, so I haven't had anybody over yet. I'm a perfectionist, I guess. Soon....

Here's the big Rhododendron. Blooming nicely, as it does without any help from me, every year. If only all bloomers were as reasonable as this rhodie.
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Below is the big rock retaining wall. Creeping Jenny and Creeping Charlie co-exist here. There are volunteer ferns, which I love, and a few Alliums put there by the house's previous owners amongst the orange Daylilies. I love the orange Daylilies. I love those Alliums. Well, I love this whole rock wall.
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This is the "flat bed." My conception was a mixed bed of ground covers, with different colors of foliage and different textures. It's grown into something different, not quite all ground covers. It needs some attention as the balance is off. But the hostas are not yet fully fluffed out so I need to wait a bit before rearranging. The ground covers at their premium best yet, but they are doing OK so far. Deer ate the Blue Rug Junipers. Such a surprise. They will take half the summer to recover.
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The big Hosta bed in the back is up, but not yet fully fluffed. The Japanese Magnolia that I over-pruned last season is looking OK so far. Maybe I didn't over-prune it. We'll see. There's an empty spot under that tree that drives me crazy. I'll be putting some Ostrich Ferns in there.
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Oh, the hose is there. Darn. I use that hose, frequently. I've gotten lazy and just leave it wherever it was when I last turned it off. I'm trying to get this grass to grow. It won't. Too much shade, and too many weeds. If I kill the weeds, I'll also kill the new grass plants recently germinated from the seed I put out. The big Hosta garden occupies the area off the frame to the left, and the rock wall is there on the right. The big Rhodie is in the foreground. Up back are the orange daylilies. I am not a daylily snob; I love the common orange ones. I'll post images when they bloom. Orange Season happen mid-July.
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liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Boston is surrounded by towns all touching each other. Those north of Boston itself, close to the ocean, north enough to feel non-metropolitan, are called the "North Shore." There's a South Shore too.

I have a big yard, touched on all sides by woods full of mature oaks (and beeches, and birches, and white pines, and maples). There are houses right next to me, but thickish woodsy areas divide the properties. There's an animal highway through the woods across the top back of my yard, connecting the areas to my left with areas to my right. All kinds of mammals travel that highway. I have to defend my plants from deer and rabbits. They like to eat my garden. And voles like to eat the plants' roots. It's a never ending battle.

In the winter my neighbors and I can see each other's houses, but not so much in the summer. Those trees provide serious shade over my yard, so I have a shade garden filled with shade-loving and shade-tolerant plants. It's not a flower garden for that reason, although there are things that bloom.

Those oak leaves have to be raked in the fall. The oaks are a major part of my garden for those reasons, the shade and the raking. They reside along the edges of the property. I counted the ones immediately against the edges of the "civilized" part of the yard, the ones whose leaves fall inside the areas I control, and whose leaves I rake. I found 42, I think.
 
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newboots

Angel Diva
42! Wow!

Your artistic talent is abundantly obvious in your gardens.

I have moved away from my beloved gardens. I’m trying to be content with planting vegetables at my daughter’s and working at a garden center. The garden center actually fills a major part of my plant-longing. And it pays! Not that well! And the people who count steps tell us we walk 8-12 miles each day we work. A coworker told me I had lost weight!
 

liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
42! Wow!

Your artistic talent is abundantly obvious in your gardens.

I have moved away from my beloved gardens. I’m trying to be content with planting vegetables at my daughter’s and working at a garden center. The garden center actually fills a major part of my plant-longing. And it pays! Not that well! And the people who count steps tell us we walk 8-12 miles each day we work. A coworker told me I had lost weight!
I'm not working at the garden center this summer, the one I worked at two summers ago. I miss it, but am too busy with other stuff to do it this summer. Probably I'll get back to it next summer. I'm enjoying reading your reports about your work. You could post pictures in this thread of the plants there; that would be fun to see.
 

racetiger

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I love lilacs. I moved to a new place last fall and was pleasantly surprised this spring that the bushes along the fenceline are Lilacs!
Yesterday I planted my first garden! I have a 10 x 10 square with a couple plants / rows of each of tomato, green pepper, green beans, onions and squash. I grew up with a garden and every time I travel home in the summer I raid it . Ive lived in apartments for so long so I was never able to have my own. Im excited
 

newboots

Angel Diva
I'm not working at the garden center this summer, the one I worked at two summers ago. I miss it, but am too busy with other stuff to do it this summer. Probably I'll get back to it next summer. I'm enjoying reading your reports about your work. You could post pictures in this thread of the plants there; that would be fun to see.

I am currently assigned to vegetables! Largely because I can answer questions about growing them, and there isn’t any heavy lifting. I think the most interesting photos I could take would be the Red Darling Brussels sprouts (supposed to give the plants a head start before the cabbage moth worms discover them) and the tatsoi - beautiful and delicious.

After veg season, it will be interesting to see where I could work. I am exhausted at the end of every day and everything hurts! (We are down two employees in vegetables/herbs - a broken ankle and a meniscus tear.).

But I love it. I’ll pull out my phone and photograph anything fascinating I run across.
 

Jenny

Angel Diva
Here’s the giant nursery that we have around here - went shopping there last Friday. The top picture is the retail store. Altogether, between the two facilities, they have 21 acres of growing space.

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Here we're standing at one end of the shopping floor. Can’t see all the way to the other.
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newboots

Angel Diva
I think you would walk more than 8-12 miles a day at that place!

I took some pics while shopping at my garden center. No time when I’m working.

Hansel and Greek, cute finger-size eggplants.

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Red Darling Brussels sprouts. In theory, they are harder to find for the cabbage worms! I bought some.
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Oh, here is Hansel!

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Naming huge tomatoes. Honorable mention to Beefsteak, Big Boy, Better Boy, Big Zach, Belgium Giant.
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newboots

Angel Diva
I was delighted to learn that all of our edible plants are organically grown and non-GMO.

Some of our heirloom tomatoes (the first one is hard to read: Georgia Peach):
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not pictured: German Johnson, Black Krim, Brandywine, and about a dozen others. They sell out fast!
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newboots

Angel Diva
I posted this elsewhere, I think. A fox family lives in the woods next door and the kits freely roam through the nursery. They’re a problem (menacing the cats, killing birds) and we are trying to discourage them (imagine a toddler trying to pet one) and not get them accustomed to people. But that doesn’t stop us from taking pictures!

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Jenny

Angel Diva
@newboots - Oh, the foxes are cute! But I can’t imaging them wandering around freely.

@liquidfeet - Nursery is called Countryside Gardens, and is in Allendale, MI. In the top photo, the shopping area is the middle section. The photo I took from one end to the other is from the back corner from the entrance, across to the other side. The right side of the shopping section is annuals and hanging baskets. The left side is perennials, grasses, hostas, shrubs, trees. They have vegetables both sections.
 

Jenny

Angel Diva
You're not likely to get anything unusual there, though, they just have a plethora of all the usual suspects. There are better places to go around here if you’re seeking something out of the mainstream ordinary.
 

newboots

Angel Diva
Oh, the foxes are cute! But I can’t imaging them wandering around freely.

I asked if I was supposed to turn the (gentle spray) hose on them, but it hasn’t gone that far yet. It’s illegal to trap, relocate, or kill them, so we watch, enjoy, and try not to encourage.

They aren’t in a public area in these photos. They are more crowded. But I’m sure they cross through those areas. We are out in the country.
 

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