For Your Summer Rambling

[Camp West]

I am actually zone 5, and have reasonable gardening weather. We have the loveliest cool mountain air on summer evenings. But we are also extremely dry - constant watering, fire danger alerts, and some years we have summer water rationing. I am terribly weary of xeriscaping, but it is sometimes the only way to have a garden without breaking the law and watering when it's not my day. I play by the rules with low-water grasses and succulents and shrubbery, but treat myself to a few luxurious container gardens.

I have noticed that Canna which used to have to be planted yearly here, has been regrowing as a perennial these last years. Tumbleweeds have become prolific, sometimes nearly burying houses in a good wind. Seems like our growing season has ever so slightly become warmer and/or longer...

Thanks for explaining NwMtGardener's whereabouts, the picture helped immensely. Since she is camping and gardening, too, I am sure our paths will cross often. And congratulations on your record breaker, my next snow storm won't be here until tomorrow night. I think I will camp out the storm in my trailer in the driveway, I could bring my laptop and haunt gardening websites! You guys got me through a long winter - I am now well read on black Mondo grass, homemade pesticides, and Southern tropical gardening ... you rock!

 

[Camp West]

That must of hurt, after paying someone to water dead plants.

It really, really did hurt! I had almost 2 decades into some of my perennials. I had been gone for 6 weeks, there was nothing that could be saved. It was like forever losing a good friend. And, I had paid him before I left. In the end, I had a yard full of empty gardens that I got to redesign (went with grasses and boulders and seating), and it opened up the world of container gardening for me...

 

[Nyboy]

I know what you mean like losing a good friend, I haave become very attached to certain trees I have planted.

 

[ninnymary]

Hi Camp West. Welcome to TEG. I too do some container gardening. I find that they are higher maintenance but they give me the space that I need to grow things. Living in the city, you have to use your deck for additional space.

Mary

 

[aftermidnight]

Welcome @Camp West , Coming home to dead plants, what a heart breaker .Yes, I'd say climate change is here, they say here on Vancouver Island we are heading towards a Mediterranean type climate. We have had no snow the last two winters and last summer we had the highest temps in recorded history which by the way has been recorded for over 100 years.
Annette

 

[Camp West]

Hi Camp West. Welcome to TEG. I too do some container gardening. I find that they are higher maintenance but they give me the space that I need to grow things. Living in the city, you have to use your deck for additional space.

Mary

Hi, and thank you! I found I was crowding certain areas with container gardens, till I had the brilliant idea to start hanging some of them. Now I have hanging gardens on the deck and front porch, and this year I am going to hang some from the fence posts. I have found these container gardens are wonderful for gifts to new neighbors or birthday gifts for horticulture lovers. You are right, they require a bit more maintenance, and I find the slightest breeze dries them quickly.

 

[Nyboy]

Your right great gifts, my friends birthday is Sunday, will stop by nursery and pick up hanging basket.

 

[so lucky]

Hi Camp West. Glad you decided to join in. We tend to wander off topic a bit, but no one seems to mind. I agree, the zones seem to be changing. Here in SE Missouri, the summers are hotter and the storms are stronger. 100-year floods are happening about every 5 years. Maybe it has to do with El Nino, but I think climate change is impacting us big time.
Anyway, it does change the way we garden. I think we had a thread about that once....

 

[aftermidnight]

I used to do a lot of hanging baskets, mostly fuchsias and begonias watering wasn't too bad, most were hanging in my lath house, the rest on plant poles that each held 5 or 6 baskets. I used a watering wand on the hose and the job of watering and fertilizing was done quickly. My biggest worry was when it turned hot and windy, I had to take all the baskets down and put them on the ground, put the mister on the end of the hose and mist the air over the baskets every couple of hours during the day, that was a pain and it always happens here the first two weeks in July.
That was when I was much younger. Now I'm lucky if I do a dozen baskets in all, I do have a few ceramic pots with odds and ends in them, mostly ferns and grasses that I spot around the garden. Last year I did a few baskets for our back fence, ivy geraniums, lotus vine, petunias and bacopa, can't remember what else I put in them but they looked pretty good.
When I had a window box on the front porch railing I stuffed it pretty full, impatiens, petunias, nepta for something trailing, short nicotiana and dwarf lobelia. I found it the dwarf spilled over the sides nicely, (trailing lobelia always seemed to look ratty after awhile). A few lemon colored marigolds, ageratum and I can't remember what else, I'm sure I left something out it's been awhile. Schizanthus, Salpiglossis and Viscaria are also nice if you can find them.

@Camp West which plants do you use for your containers and baskets? Of course it depends on where one lives as to what one uses but I'm always on the lookout for new ideas.

Annette

 

[digitS']

zone 5, and have reasonable gardening weather. We have the loveliest cool mountain air on summer evenings

Here is the sort of cool mountain air Camp West is talking about.

This is in a location near my gardens but at the same elevation where I used to (attempt to) garden. We are in a massive high pressure which now seems to be moving into British Columbia.

In the nearby community at 2,500 feet elevation, it was 77°f on Friday, a record. The thermometers dropped to 41° yesterday morning. But, it was a lovely 71° by afternoon. This morning ... 38° !

This is here at 2,500'. Colorado has no location below, something like 3,100 feet. These 35° temperature swings are common in Colorado. Searing afternoon sun, frigid overnight ... maybe a hailstorm the next day. A warm sunny week good for shorts and t shirts ... a foot of snow the following week ..!

Gotta have tough plants in Colorado ...

Steve