A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

If I had brassicas sitting out like in your photo they'd be gone in minutes! No pigeons in your area?

No pigeons really, though they do try to eat from the bird feeders in winter and bully the chickadees! Then they're gone for the year. I'm quite curious, what do pigeons do to brassicas?

It's the strangest thing that one collard, I inspected today and I don't see any worms anywhere but it seems to be growing funny. The leaves are a bit misshapen, while the other is more normal?

 

[heirloomgal]

Well, the plan for my new rose bushes has utterly failed. They hate being under the arbour; I would have thought they'd like it under there, but they are communicating a hard 'no'. They'll have to eke out the rest of the summer there though because I have no where else to put them right now; maybe they'll make it, maybe not. The shrub rose at least should be good until next year. Oh well, I tried. It was a good idea... in theory.

A new clematis is blooming for the first time, and its yet another purple. However, this is a dramatic deep burgundy purple. Intriguing. So far, I like it. I dug up the red poppies today and bagged them up for a friend. That's done. I don't want to make any compromises with this front yard garden project in terms of keeping anything that I'm not 100% in love with.

One thing I'm noticing with my new veggie & flower set up though is the tremendous amount of petals being dropped by the peonies as well as the mock orange into the beds. It's a thick carpet of drying petals at their feet. This is somewhat charming when the petals are freshly fallen, much less so as they turn brown and dry up. Not easy to rake up either as they slip between the tines. Looks more and more untidy as time goes on. I used my soil sifter and a shovel, to try and get rid of them that way, but I only achieved moderate success. A puzzler indeed.

 

[Decoy1]

No pigeons really, though they do try to eat from the bird feeders in winter and bully the chickadees! Then they're gone for the year. I'm quite curious, what do pigeons do to brassicas?

They eat them voraciously, from the edges inwards, often just leaving the veins.

More and more of my vegetables here are netted. Certainly all brassicas all year, to protect from pigeons and from egg-laying butterflies. More recently all alliums, in my case to protect from allium leaf miner. Peas are extremely attractive to pigeons. I have to net peas early on at ground level and then when they achieve any height, as they sit on them and munch away. The idea of an ornamental vegetable garden wouldn’t work here at all well, unless you really like the appearance of netting and mesh! Lettuces can be very pretty and so far can be grown without protection. And chard fares quite well, although occasionally nibbled a little. Tomatoes are OK until they catch blight. Beans, squash and corn are fine. But not much else!

 

[ducks4you]

Well, the plan for my new rose bushes has utterly failed. They hate being under the arbour; I would have thought they'd like it under there, but they are communicating a hard 'no'. They'll have to eke out the rest of the summer there though because I have no where else to put them right now; maybe they'll make it, maybe not. The shrub rose at least should be good until next year. Oh well, I tried. It was a good idea... in theory.

A new clematis is blooming for the first time, and its yet another purple. However, this is a dramatic deep burgundy purple. Intriguing. So far, I like it. I dug up the red poppies today and bagged them up for a friend. That's done. I don't want to make any compromises with this front yard garden project in terms of keeping anything that I'm not 100% in love with.

One thing I'm noticing with my new veggie & flower set up though is the tremendous amount of petals being dropped by the peonies as well as the mock orange into the beds. It's a thick carpet of drying petals at their feet. This is somewhat charming when the petals are freshly fallen, much less so as they turn brown and dry up. Not easy to rake up either as they slip between the tines. Looks more and more untidy as time goes on. I used my soil sifter and a shovel, to try and get rid of them that way, but I only achieved moderate success. A puzzler indeed.

If my roses can survive being strangled by blackberry canes, Yours should hang in there until you move them, just keep them watered.

 

[flowerbug]

Well, the plan for my new rose bushes has utterly failed. They hate being under the arbour; I would have thought they'd like it under there, but they are communicating a hard 'no'. They'll have to eke out the rest of the summer there though because I have no where else to put them right now; maybe they'll make it, maybe not. The shrub rose at least should be good until next year. Oh well, I tried. It was a good idea... in theory.

A new clematis is blooming for the first time, and its yet another purple. However, this is a dramatic deep burgundy purple. Intriguing. So far, I like it. I dug up the red poppies today and bagged them up for a friend. That's done. I don't want to make any compromises with this front yard garden project in terms of keeping anything that I'm not 100% in love with.

One thing I'm noticing with my new veggie & flower set up though is the tremendous amount of petals being dropped by the peonies as well as the mock orange into the beds. It's a thick carpet of drying petals at their feet. This is somewhat charming when the petals are freshly fallen, much less so as they turn brown and dry up. Not easy to rake up either as they slip between the tines. Looks more and more untidy as time goes on. I used my soil sifter and a shovel, to try and get rid of them that way, but I only achieved moderate success. A puzzler indeed.

the most delicate roses i ever had (as a kid i tried to grow them and often had to replant - but the neighborhood ladies were always happy to have whatever extra blooms i could harvest) did the best in an eastern bed in front of the house so it was protected from the hottest part of the day, but some of them didn't last long. some will be full sun or mostly full sun loving plants (the climbers probably are indicating that they like at least half a day of full sun).