Any Gardeners Here? (Photo intense)

[yukionna]

What a beautiful garden you have! Don't you have a short growing season in the summer too?

I have a large iris and dahlia garden. The dahlias are a lot of work, i.e., digging them up each year and then dividing/replanting next year, but they are worth the effort.

[cameront120]

Originally Posted by yukionna

What a beautiful garden you have! Don't you have a short growing season in the summer too?

I have a large iris and dahlia garden. The dahlias are a lot of work, i.e., digging them up each year and then dividing/replanting next year, but they are worth the effort.

Thank you! Our growing season isn't too bad. We don't get really hot temperatures here, so some fruits and vegetables can be kind of tricky. But for perennials its a terrific place. I have several iris, but they didn't do too much this year. We had an unusually cold winter that may be the cause. I just planted dahlia this spring and am getting a few flowers. They should be better next season.

[cameront120]

Originally Posted by davidz71

I'm the vegetable gardener and my wife is the flower garden professional. I do it for the best eating tomatoes, broccoli, canteloupe, cucumbers, corn and straight-neck squash that beats the grocery store any day of the week. My wife has all kinds of flowers but her gardens as well as mine have taken a hit this summer due to drought conditions. I have an irrigation system but the heat has just burned up vegetables on the vine. Even the deer have come out of the woods to drink out of our bird baths and the garden pond. Oh well, maybe better luck next year.

Great pictures by the way. I can't wait to show them to my wife. I'm a lab lover also. Great dogs.

Craig, do you have a cistern or anything like that for storing water for drought periods?

[InsideOut]

Love your Dahlia Yuki! At my last home, I planted a bunch of dinner plate Dahlias...I loved them!

Shari

[davidz71]

Originally Posted by cameront120

Craig, do you have a cistern or anything like that for storing water for drought periods?

No, I just run a water timer off a second faucet I installed a couple feet from the only faucet on the back of the house. I've thought about running a big barrel off the gutters at the back of the house but there is a huge tree with leaves from hell that keep filling the gutters. When I replace them I will put some type of screen over them to keep the leaves out.

Now that you mention it, there was an article in the Nashville Tennessean about a man who came up with a cheap idea for watering. When his neighborhood went to sewer and he was obligated to connect, he converted his old septic tank over to a water holding area. He had a company come in, scrape the grass/dirt off the top of the septic tank, pull the top off, pump the nasty stuff out, power wash the inside and close off the field lines. He then had a submersible pump put in. He ran lines from the gutter spouts to this water holding area. He waters his garden and flower beds from this. What a great idea. I forgot what the capacity is.

[Royce]

WOW! All that looks great. We are at about 7K ft and still waiting for the first ripe tomato. The peas are doing well and we have carrots.

[cameront120]

Originally Posted by davidz71

I've thought about running a big barrel off the gutters at the back of the house but there is a huge tree with leaves from hell that keep filling the gutters. When I replace them I will put some type of screen over them to keep the leaves out.

I've made 5 rain barrels that collect water from my roof. I have one barrel at each downspout from the gutters. These barrels are made out of recycled 55 gallon food grade plastic barrels. The gutter downspout stops just over a hole in the top of the barrel. This hole is cut to a diameter to fit a round plastic eave vent that just pops into the hole and keeps "crud" from the gutters from getting into the barrels. At the base of each barrel, I drilled a hole to accomodate a hose bib (outdoor garden tap). Super easy and cheap. You can just see the blue barrels in one of my pictures. It only takes one good rainfall to fill all the barrels.

Converting a septic tank to a cistern is a great idea. If it was anything like the one we had growing up, it would have held a lot of water!

[aturner4u]

Thanks for sharing the photos. The flowers and dogs are beautiful. It is hot and dry here right now and most things are wilting instead of flowering.

[clancy_boy]

Here is a shot of my wifes plumerias. I snatched some stalks while in Hawaii a few years back and they really have made some great flowers.

[codybear]

Originally Posted by clancy_boy

Here is a shot of my wifes plumerias. I snatched some stalks while in Hawaii a few years back and they really have made some great flowers.

Wowwww!..I love your wife's plumerias!..my fav Hawaiian flower!..we brought some seeds home and tried to grow them..it'd put out limbs and leaves, but would freeze w/our winters here..luckily they have plumeria flower earrings, and plumeria perfume

[clancy_boy]

Originally Posted by codybear

Wowwww!..I love your wife's plumerias!..my fav Hawaiian flower!..we brought some seeds home and tried to grow them..it'd put out limbs and leaves, but would freeze w/our winters here..luckily they have plumeria flower earrings, and plumeria perfume

Seeds???? Nahhh, I just wacked some stalks off from a tree (yes, they grow like trees in Hawaii) and wrapped them in damp newspaper and a ziplock bag. My biggest fear is the inspectors at the AP, but once in the AP they were selling them everywhere - just like I had them. The inspector just looked at them and sent me on.

They are in pots and come indoors during the winter. This year we will chop the tops and replant for more.

[codybear]

Hi Mike

yes, I know about the inspections at the ap! gotta be careful what you bring back to hawaii!! they don't want a lot of stuff we (California) could give them!..especially like pests/viruses, etc...and other states don't want a lot of tropical stuff that hawaii has

[clancy_boy]

Here are my wifes plumerias in red - first time this stalk has bloomed that I have seen. Luck of the draw when all you do is walk down the road in Honolulu and cut off stalks as you go when they are not in bloom. You really cannot go wrong.

[tin sista]

Lovely plumerias! I was surprised to find some, and I bought some stalks a few years back at a stall in the French Market in NOLA (pre Katrina) but had no idea how to root them properly and so they died, now I see there's a website that helps... I wonder if they still sell them down there, I'll have to go back and find out... Yet another reason to go back to New Orleans!!

[codybear]

Beautiful plumerias, michael!..gonna have to get some stalks and try that!

[clancy_boy]

We found our info on plumerias on the web. After cutting the stalk from the donor tree , they have to "dry" or age for a period, then you cut off a chunk about an inch at a time until you find a whitish pulp that is good rooting material - on ours it was about 2 inches from the bottom end that I cut - total length that I got was 14 -16 inches. Then place in Miracle Grow Potting Soil and water lightly with periods of near dry. They looked dead and nearly went to the compost pile 20 times. Then they got some new darker growth at the tips (8 months later!!!) and leafed out, gotten bigger each year.

We cannot plant them in the ground either - even this far south. I was told that extended stays in 45 and below temperatures will kill the plant. So, each winter after dropping all leaves - in they go. They are my wifes favorites.

Mike

[codybear]

Hi Mike,

We had put the seeds in a pot, and they did grow limb and leaves, but because of the low temps, they fell off..and we did try to keep them inside our kitchen on the floor, but they didn't fare ...next time, stalks for sure!..I like the white with yellow centers too as well as the pink, and yellow ones

[Alaska1966]

I love planting flowers. We live in a cold climate. So, it's always interesting to see what the local greenhouses supply each year.
Thanks for sharing your pics.

[cameront120]

Those lilys are very nice. What variety are they? The delphinium are also one of my favorites.

[rebfa]

Wow! I just stumbled across this thread and am wow-ed by the great macro photography! There are some fine photographers on this forum (and some fine gardeners too)!!!