Gardening

[mapo]

I have several hobbies-golf, fishing, photography, and pub crawling but my passion is flowers. From the time my daffs break ground until the 1st killing frost, my modest sized yard is where I prefer to spend my time. I plant for fragrance and hummingbirds in mind as well as cut flower ability. It is so nice to come home after work and sit out back with a beverage and take in the beauty of God's creations and inhale the scents. The family of hummingbirds (3) that adopted me this past summer wintered here and when it was freezing out, I had to bring their feeder inside at night to thaw and sometimes during the day as well. As you can see in this one pic, the lil feller refused to wait to let me rehang it. Sheesh, I had to set it down to shut the door as I had it in one hand and my camera in the other. My chainlink in back is covered with many annual vines but sweetpea and true annual morning glory in 3 colors will be my choices this year to accompany the honeysuckle and trumpet vine. They are sprouting in 3 windows as I type this. Hopefully, this is the last of the snow upon the ground so I can transplant them outside and get back into detecting as well. Hope you enjoy-Mark

 

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[mapo]

trying to get the hang of posting pics. I did read up on this and since they didnt exceed kbs, thought it was all good-sorry

 

[Unicorn]

Mapo. I am pleased to have come across your post, it's the first one I have read in here about gardening. I too enjoy my garden, and in the summer it's full of blooms, as many as I can get in. Here in England I wouldn't plant any annuals out before May in case any last frosts would kill them, so I was abit surprised to hear that you started planting out so early. I wonder if there are plants that are in the US and not over here? probably many. An English Country Garden is quite something to see, and of course Roses take pride of place. We are supposed to be a nation of Gardeners as you have probably heard I also grow scented plants, there's nothing quite like walking thru a garden that smells of lavender, sweet peas, roses, and many more.
I would be interested to hear more about your garden if you want to post anything. Please ask if there is anything you would like to know about different types of flowers over here.


Shirley

 

[mapo]

I am pleased as well. I knew there had to be more of us out here. Always a pleasure to talk flowers with a "fellow" gardener? And from England! One of my "to visit" places on my list. Yes I have heard of all those cottage gardens over there. And I suspect many rose varieties go back centuries. It hurts my eyes to see some of my neighbor's neglected yards. I used to have 17 roses but moved into a much smaller yard. As far as planting outdoors, I will begin with the sweetpea. Mainly because I cant help myself and they are cool weather friendly. I intend to plant about 20 interspersed with 4 colors of morning glory. I have many pots in my windows and many seedlings to give away and as backups if need be. I suspect further that our weather is much alike with our fair shares of rain and gray. Can we expect pictures from you in the near future? Here is a pic of one of my prized treasures. Take care-Mark

 

[Unicorn]

Mark.... Thank you for the reply. My garden unfortunately is rather small as well. I probably try to cram too many plants in it really, but you know what, I dont think you can ever have too many do you? I would dearly like to post some photo's, but unfortunately I don't have a digi camera, so at the moment it's not possible, maybe soon I hope. There are varieties of sweet peas that are perrenial as well as annual, but for the life of me I just do not know the "proper" name for them. Some of the plant names are hard to say let alone try to spell Anyhow's I think the common names sound much prettier don't you? Coming up to spring is my favourite time of the year. The crocus's are already out, the daffodils are just about thru. Next it will be apple blossom time.
I expect you have heard of "The Chelsea Flower Show" where blooms from all over the World are shown. I will try and get some links for that, and any links that you may find interesting.

Shirley

 

[mapo]

Never was that truer than in the case of scabiosa-pin cushion flower. No, not familiar with the Chelsea flower show. Must be a great effort. We are having our annual garden show here soon and for the last time. Have no idea why. I will post you a pic of my MGB when I can figure out how to downsize it. Did I live a past life in merry old England? Golf, gardening, pub crawling, MG's(2)...No I guess not. If I had, I would have had only one(lol). An old joke in my MG club circle-Why didn't the English produce televisions? They couldn't come up with a design that leaked oil. Love those little buggers. Sad to hear no pictures forthcoming. As for my sweetpea, I kept the pea pods pruned off and by October they were over 7 ft. tall and in full swing. Due diligence. But on a serious note-if I had to choose between gardening and detecting, there would be no soul searching. Take care-Mark

 

[Unicorn]

Good morning Mark. I see you also have a discerning taste in cars, an MGB no less. Have you heard of the Morgan Cars. All hand built, and only about 9-10 per year produced. I believe the waiting list for one of them is about 7-8 years. http://www.morgan-motor.co.uk. I cannot seem to get the link up for their site on here, it is a www. so if you google it, you should be able to get their site up.
Also I have a link for Kew Gardens which may be of interest to you http://kew.org ...now there you are another link that doesnt seem to come up, guess you could google that as well. Hmmm I wonder why.

Shirley

 

[mapo]

Hi Shirley. Kew must be huge. I went to Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC several years ago and at 55 acres, it took all day to see. Kew is almost 6 times that big. Also checked out Morgan. Hand built. Very nice. Won't be buying one anytime soon. Really didn't know they were back in production. I also favor the old Brit bikes,having and old BSA years ago. Would buy another but think Norton 850 this time.
Hey kid, I haven't seen any of your other posts. Do you metal detect? I haven't posted on daily finds yet because I haven't found anything noteworthy yet. You have such rich history there. I live in Washington State. Settlers didn't start arriving here until about 1860. Crusader's finds are mind boggling. Can't imagine finding something that was lost 3,4,5 hundred years ago.
Another thought, if no one else discovers this thread soon, we may have to abandon it. I hope that is not the case. Maybe it is because many of the people here are still snowbound? I am so looking forward to spring.
Cheers-Mark

 

[Unicorn]

Mark......No I don't metal detect, in fact I don't own a detector sad to say. My interest in TH is purely at Garage sales or auctions. In fact wherever its cheaper. My special interest is in antique furniture, and cut glass, both of which I have a few nice items. I particularly like Waterford or Brieley Crystal. As soon as is possible I intend to post some of my things.
Yes I am also sorry that no one else is posting, maybe TH arent too fond of what grows on top of the ground, but more whats underneath it Spring is just around the corner, and that means more time out doors. There is something of interest about what we are doing over here to help with the "credit crunch". We are going back to the old War time saying "digging for victory" and growing more of our own veggies. Will explain further in my next post.

Oh a little side thingie.....people who MD on the banks of the river thames are called mudlarkers, kinda cute eh!

Shirley

 

[mapo]

Hi Shirley, I am new to detecting and still learning the craft. I do love the thrill of the hunt, tho. I'm not interested so much in recent articles but wouldn't mind finding a diamond ring or two. I am bringing my detector along with me today to hunt a client's house. It sits in an historic part of town overlooking the bay. My thought is it has not been hunted. There may be old coins there. Silver and gold are quite possible. I will keep an eye out for waterford for you.
What part of England are you in? Have to been to stonehenge? That would be my 1st call, maybe after a frosty cold one at a pub and a good game of darts.
Cheers-Mark

 

[Unicorn]

Hi Mark..... Been a lovely spring day over here. Managed to get into the garden doing some tidying up. I live in the City of Birmingham, which is slap bang in the middle of England. It used to be known as the City of a thousand Industries, and played a big part in the Industrial Revolution. In fact the MG car was first produced here. It is now the home of the Land and Range Rovers four wheel drives. It was a City of factories, and smogs, but no more I am glad to say. Most of the big industries have gone, and since the "clean air" act of Parliament, we no longer have belching smog chimneys. In fact we can boast of being the European City of culture a couple of years ago. We have good theatre's, many parks, a botanical gardens, and is home to the Royal Ballet school. I do know that you have a Birmingham, Alabama, over in the US. In fact from the outskirts of this City, which is where I live, we are only 30 miles from Stratford-on-Avon, which is set in lovely Countryside. There is a small Town not too far away called Alcester, and its been found to be the site of a former Roman village. Of course you can imagine how much metal detecting has been done in, and around their.
Well I have been rabbiting on abit have'nt I? and I hope you don't find all of this rather boring. Oh! by the way if you don't know what the meaning of rabbiting is, we Brits call it chatting
I hope you had a good day MD and made some good finds. Oh! by the way, I couldn't quite make out what that black bag....was it, and how it's connected to gardening, it looks abit like a golf bag to me lol

Shirley

 

[airborne1092]

I moved my family into a house near the center of town a few months ago and every chance we get, we're outside trying to reclaim the yard and beds!

Fortunate for us, there are covenants against building where we're at and we're on pretty close to a .25 acre piece and we're less than a 1/2 mile from the center of town. Every weekend we are delighted to find some more herbs or fruit-bearing plants that have been neglected, as we try to clear the ground cover and weeds away. Thus far, we've found hiding in the overgrowth, several varieties of mint and spearmint, several sage bushes, Lavender, a huge Elderflower bush and a great looking red currant vine. We also have two apple trees, one ancient and another fairly old. My 3 year old son is onto the idea that we can grow our berries and we've been to the store and planted strawberries and blackberries and several standard kitchen herbs (Cilantro, Chives and Basil) and we have pumpkin starters on the kitchen counter.

LOL - it's typical, I know most of the stuff you can eat, but I have trouble with the flowers! We found some mature (heirloom?) roses still in great shape near our front door and some Hydrangeas in the back of the property, along with many others, I'm still trying to learn. I would have never thought gardening can be so relaxing, esp. seeing the finnished (?) product.

Right now, we're trying to clean up our compost bins and we're looking at buying or building a bat box to attract some bats. We see a few out every dusk and we like the benefits of having them around, we're just not sure is our locale has any laws or restrictions against attracting them; Something I'm looking into ATM.

I'm just happy to finally have a place where I can do more than just mow the grass (i.e. a place other than base housing!) and the landlord has pretty much given us carte blanche!

Any suggestions you have or ideas to improve or help me in this little venture would be much appreciated!

 

[River Rat]

Mapo, Unicorn, & Airborne ~

Mark, I admire your gardening skills, beautiful flowers ~ love the old tools on your fence.

Shirley, I always love the look of the English gardens...they're just so picturesque.

Air, sounds like you finding pots of gold (all the hidden plants), good luck with em...post pics when you can.

Flowers is another of my hobbies, I have so many and always planting more than what I can handle. The weeds are bad in LA, so I'm constantly pulling up or spraying. I have some tropical plants, that was only identified by a garden forum. No clue to what they were, took pics & posted, members were able to help me. Y'all may be interested in this site... http://www.thegardenhelper.com/
I've posted many flowers under "My Daily Snapshot" here at TNet, including this pic, these ground covers were IDed by the garden forum. I'm Magnolia4moi on the forum, drop by and check out all the flowers from around the globe.

RR

​

 

[mapo]

Welcome to this thread river rat and airborne. Thank you for the kind words, rr. When I moved here three years ago there were no gardens. Grass and weeds up to the foundation. What a waste of good southern exposure. This year I have expanded a little and cut in a small garden primarily for my bird bath. It allowed me to plant an additional dozen or so plants. That is a big deal when you have a yard just larger than a postage stamp. I envy you, airborne. You have an empty canvas to paint your masterpiece. As far as suggestions, that is a personal thing. I grow mainly flowers. I do plant tomatoes and this year added 2 cuke plants. They are all thriving. You have the space to grow it all depending on exposures. My thing is attracting both humming birds and the local species. To that I have been very successful. It is nice to come home after a long day and just sit on the back deck with a favorite beverage and take in all the sights and smells.
Try to get some pics on here and we can go from there airborne. Unicorn and I took our conversation private because we thought there was no interest here besides us. Glad to see you both! Happy hunting and gardening-Mark

 

[EddieR]

I love working with flowers! I have half a gazillion in my yard but since I bought my pizza shop I just can't find the time to get out and take care of them like I once did. But they are still beautiful now, even though they need to be weeded. My coneflower is in bloom, along with the roses. Many more are starting to bud out....I can't wait!


Eddie

 

[Unicorn]

Welcome to our little circle of Gardeners, River Rat, Airborne, and Eddie. Hi there Mark, good to see you again. Our English Country garden is just about coming into full bloom now. I just wish I could post some pictures, I am just about coming to the end of my roll of film ( don't have a digi camera...yet) When its finished I will post some. Mark, your garden is coming along great, and yes there is nothing more enjoyable than sitting out on a Summers evening, taking in the scent of the flowers. We are growing a few tomatoes, and runner beans alongside the flowers, just using as much possible space as possible. We have lillies, roses, pinks, fuschias, busy lizzie, geraniums, I could go on lol. We also had a nesting box on a trellis for one of our native birds called "blue tits" they are so tiny but very pretty. Well they did use it, and I am proud to say I became the Mother of 3 little fledglings lol Our cat took great interest in this box, and the day that they fledged I had to pick the 3 of them up and put them in a safe place until they were strong enough to fly away. A garden can be a very theraputic place to work in, especially at the end of a busy day.

Take care all, and happy gardening Mark. regards Unicorn

 

[mapo]

Hi Eddie and welcome! Do you prefer to garden in a speedo? No really, do you?

 

[EddieR]

Hi Eddie and welcome! Do you prefer to garden in a speedo? No really, do you?

ummm............noooooo........

 

[airborne1092]

Mapo,

Your garden looks great! Being from that area (lived at Ft. Lewis for 5 years and born and raised in/around Everett) I know all too well the 'green' that grows up there is mostly Dandilions and Alder trees! LOL I think it's great when you can start something in the ground and grow and maintain it. I was always better at killing the shrubs off!

Unicorn,
Your English garden sounds great, too! We had a Goldfinch rear a chick in one of our birdhouses and we found it one day hanging out on our patio. We scooped it up and put it closer to the barn, under the large Apple tree near the bird feeder. Unfortunately, an hour or so later we noticed a couple of ravens had ran the other birds off and much to our horror quite a few yellow feathers floating around. They scattered off when we stepped out the patio doors... (

I didn't mean to bring you all down! Dispite all that -

I'll post some pics of my place soon! (sans feathers )

 

[mapo]

eddie. I was just teasing(your avatar) he always wears a speedo
airborne, thx-I am close to the base.i am ex navy myself. now go plant something!