Poppies?

[ninnymary]

Are the oak leaves already broken down in the compost? How much compost do you have? I'd say if you have lots of compost already made to go ahead and mix that in.

Mary

 

[thistlebloom]

There are sure to be better things around for free than buying bags of dirt!
Any boarding stables nearby? Llama or alpaca farms? Friends with bunnies?
If the oak leaves are pretty well broken down they should be fine. Can you rake them against a fence and run over them with a mower to chop them up? (The fence is to keep them from blowing all over kingdom come.)

 

[KD_Olive]

I can't imagine that 5,000 california poppies would only cover 100 sq. ft. The plant gets kind of medium size, maybe about 1-2 ft wide. You surely do not need 5,000 seeds!

Mary

They didn't survive anyway Mary... I have a few, but am about to dig up the few I have tomorrow..the soil needs replacing...

 

[KD_Olive]

I actually have a horse and cows, about 20 miles away. So it will take a good bit of effort, but I can get some manure...

 

[Nyboy]

I do wish I had a front porch. Sadly people prefer privacy now a days and rather have back yard deck. Sorry I have a habit of high jacking threads.

 

[KD_Olive]

There are sure to be better things around for free than buying bags of dirt!
Any boarding stables nearby? Llama or alpaca farms? Friends with bunnies?
If the oak leaves are pretty well broken down they should be fine. Can you rake them against a fence and run over them with a mower to chop them up? (The fence is to keep them from blowing all over kingdom come.)

We now them in our yard every year...we blow them

There are sure to be better things around for free than buying bags of dirt!
Any boarding stables nearby? Llama or alpaca farms? Friends with bunnies?
If the oak leaves are pretty well broken down they should be fine. Can you rake them against a fence and run over them with a mower to chop them up? (The fence is to keep them from blowing all over kingdom come.)

That's a great idea! Thanks!

 

[KD_Olive]

OK, so today, I dug up several wheelbarrow fulls of the leaf "compost" (there was a good bit of leaf matter with a white mold growing on it) and mixed it in the beds. I went to Home Depot and bought a bag of organic soil and some flowers (foxglove and verbena). I added the purchased soil to each hole and filled in around each flower. Hopefully they will survive. If not, I'm ready to take a stick of dynamite to the whole lot! Every muscle in my body hurts!

 

[flowerbug]

How to sow poppies

we just took the seeds and sprinkled them around where we wanted them to grow. after that they self sow a billon tiny seeds that will go all over so if you want to grow them in a specific area it might be rather hard to control them without a rather tall border to keep them from blowing around or being splashed around. we had them growing all over the front gardens and still have them showing up. i think when i was mowing yesterday there was one growing in the bottom of the front ditch of all places (which was about 130 feet from where we first planted them many years ago).

 

[Dahlia]

Ok, now that I'm sure I have a flower bed full of weeds sprouting rather than petunias, I've hoed out my beds and am trying to decide what to plant. I'm an extremely busy nursing student, wife and mom of 3 littles, and graduation is in MAY! Hooray! With that being said, I was thinking of sowing seeds in my beds and pretty much ignoring them until after graduation. I'm thinking poppies? Gosh,they are just so pretty to me! I have zero experience with these, but I've heard they're easy growers and thrive in sandy, rocky, poor soil which is exactly what I have. They get 6-7 hours of sunlight a day.. I need something I can use and abuse so to speak! lol! Any suggestions?

Thanks guys!!

I bet poppies would be a good choice! We have poppies just growing wild in many places here in the Pacific Northwest. Seems they live by themselves just fine with no help from humans!

 

[Branching Out]

This year Pandora Poppies grew nicely from seed, and I saved some pods. I have the pods in a small glass jar for now; I am afraid that the dust-like seed will be hard to deal with if I crack the pods open. There is also a Blue Poppy that I purchased as a potted plant last year. It set some pods as well so I will hold on to those and sprinkle the seeds on the soil once autumn sets in. How to mark the location though, so I don't forget that the seeds are there and did them up by accident? 🤔