I've posted a picture on alt.binaries.pictures.gardens of the new hosta
border around the black cherry shade garden. Other than top dressing the
spaces, securing the bricks with rebar and maybe locating some more
bricks to level the raised edges, and watering, I hope this endeavor
will wow me as much as the young plants are wowing me right now. Names
like 'Scooter', 'Gold Standard', 'Orange Marmalade', 'Paradise Joyce' (I
had to have HER, the woman who lived in this house's name was
Joyce)'Kathryn Lewis', (my mom's name is Catherine)'Inniswood',
'Revolution', 'Stained Glass' I planted ferns around the eastern
edge.....picture of those tomorrow. Slowly getting back to the ol'
madgardener, been distracted by the males in my family too much. the
fairies are all ticked off at me.............
maddie, up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking English
Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36

I saw the pic and it sure looks nice to me? I have cantelopes up the kazoo!
I never grew them before and I think I may have to drop several on eaxh
porch in this development! 6 lousy plants and I have a dozen starting to
round out already. If all the flowers make on I am literally screwed! I
stopped all the neighbors and asked them to take all but two they see? I
don't like them but wanted to see them grow!
Maybe next year I will mess with gourds and pumpkins.

--

Betsy
"madgardener" wrote in message
...
I've posted a picture on alt.binaries.pictures.gardens of the new hosta
border around the black cherry shade garden. Other than top dressing the
spaces, securing the bricks with rebar and maybe locating some more bricks
to level the raised edges, and watering, I hope this endeavor will wow me
as much as the young plants are wowing me right now. Names like
'Scooter', 'Gold Standard', 'Orange Marmalade', 'Paradise Joyce' (I had to
have HER, the woman who lived in this house's name was Joyce)'Kathryn
Lewis', (my mom's name is Catherine)'Inniswood', 'Revolution', 'Stained
Glass' I planted ferns around the eastern edge.....picture of those
tomorrow. Slowly getting back to the ol' madgardener, been distracted by
the males in my family too much. the fairies are all ticked off at
me.............
maddie, up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking English
Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36

"betsyb" said"Maybe next year I will mess with gourds and pumpkins."

Been there done that this summer for first time. Planted 10 birdhouse
gourds...WAY to many for the spot I prepared. They are now making their way
into the nearby woods! This was taken a few weeks ago so you can imagine
what they look like now. two would have been plenty.
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/commun...iew=thumbs&ck=

http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/commun...iew=thumbs&ck=

I found a wild pumpkin growing in the foxglove bed in early spring thanks to
the local squirrels.
Moved it near a log pile and it is now climbing into the trees. This is when
it was a baby. I need
to take a more recent picture. Several really odd looking fruit. Some green
striped, some yellow
and some both.

http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/commun...iew=thumbs&ck=

http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/commun...iew=thumbs&ck=

BTW Maddie I love your hostas. Some many different kinds! Good to see you
back.






"betsyb" wrote in message
...
I saw the pic and it sure looks nice to me? I have cantelopes up the kazoo!
I never grew them before and I think I may have to drop several on eaxh
porch in this development! 6 lousy plants and I have a dozen starting to
round out already. If all the flowers make on I am literally screwed! I
stopped all the neighbors and asked them to take all but two they see? I
don't like them but wanted to see them grow!
Maybe next year I will mess with gourds and pumpkins.

--

Betsy
"madgardener" wrote in message
...
I've posted a picture on alt.binaries.pictures.gardens of the new hosta
border around the black cherry shade garden. Other than top dressing the
spaces, securing the bricks with rebar and maybe locating some more
bricks to level the raised edges, and watering, I hope this endeavor will
wow me as much as the young plants are wowing me right now. Names like
'Scooter', 'Gold Standard', 'Orange Marmalade', 'Paradise Joyce' (I had
to have HER, the woman who lived in this house's name was Joyce)'Kathryn
Lewis', (my mom's name is Catherine)'Inniswood', 'Revolution', 'Stained
Glass' I planted ferns around the eastern edge.....picture of those
tomorrow. Slowly getting back to the ol' madgardener, been distracted by
the males in my family too much. the fairies are all ticked off at
me.............
maddie, up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking English
Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36

betsyb I saw the pic and it sure looks nice to me? I have cantelopes up the kazoo!
I never grew them before and I think I may have to drop several on eaxh
porch in this development! 6 lousy plants and I have a dozen starting to
round out already. If all the flowers make on I am literally screwed! I
stopped all the neighbors and asked them to take all but two they see? I
don't like them but wanted to see them grow!
Maybe next year I will mess with gourds and pumpkins.

--

Betsy
"madgardener" wrote in message
...
I've posted a picture on alt.binaries.pictures.gardens of the new hosta
border around the black cherry shade garden. Other than top dressing the
spaces, securing the bricks with rebar and maybe locating some more bricks
to level the raised edges, and watering, I hope this endeavor will wow me
as much as the young plants are wowing me right now. Names like
'Scooter', 'Gold Standard', 'Orange Marmalade', 'Paradise Joyce' (I had to
have HER, the woman who lived in this house's name was Joyce)'Kathryn
Lewis', (my mom's name is Catherine)'Inniswood', 'Revolution', 'Stained
Glass' I planted ferns around the eastern edge.....picture of those
tomorrow. Slowly getting back to the ol' madgardener, been distracted by
the males in my family too much. the fairies are all ticked off at
me.............
maddie, up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking English
Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36

maddy that looks wonderful i love your choice of hostas. i just got a number of the stainglass ones myself i just love them and hope to make a new garden on the north wall of our house this year .
i am also wanting to create a new bed under a tree i have raised from small--its at least 15 feet or more tall now--also i would love to create one under our apple tree. i guess im a little afraid to try it because of hearing about not changing soil levels on trees and a lot of other things .
can u tell me how u did your bed other than putting the earth right on top of the ground and creating from there. like did u take out any grass and if so did u dig down around the top roots of the tree at all?
any info u can give me or anyone else here can give me on doing this would be greatly appreciated. thanks everyone. cyaaaa, sockiescat.

Elaine wrote:
"betsyb" said"Maybe next year I will mess with gourds and pumpkins."

Been there done that this summer for first time. Planted 10 birdhouse
gourds...WAY to many for the spot I prepared. They are now making their way
into the nearby woods! This was taken a few weeks ago so you can imagine
what they look like now. two would have been plenty.

LOL looks like the gourd and punkin vines are takin' over!

I found a wild pumpkin growing in the foxglove bed in early spring thanks to
the local squirrels.
"wild" pumpkin? nahhhh, just a seed that escaped from either a bird's
taking off with it and dropping it or a squirrel spacing it out after
burying it for safe keeping.....

Moved it near a log pile and it is now climbing into the trees. This is when
it was a baby. I need
to take a more recent picture. Several really odd looking fruit. Some green
striped, some yellow
and some both.

that's what a punkin really looks like! bet it would make bodacious pie LOL

thanks, I've tried many times to share incredible things with my garden
friends, and the times I've sat down to write, I've been distracted to a
degree that the time has slipped past me snatching pictures is the
only way it seems right now........have too much go share and talk about
.. madgardener up on the soaked and damp ridge, back in Fairy Holler
where the night critters are lustily singing praises of the monsoon we
finally got today to rinse off the scorching heat like drunken bikers in
a packed bar, overlooking a steamy, high summer soaked English Mountain
in Eastern Tennessee zone 7 (where it feels like zone 8 or 9) Sunset zone 36

sockiescat wrote:

maddy that looks wonderful i love your choice of hostas.

I'm going for textures. Had there been more varieties of whiter ones
I'd snatched them up. I hope they don't mind the tight quarters for
now. I'll gently space them out as they put their roots into the soils
around them once I top dress them. I already see a kind of pattern if
the plants will co-operate for me.

i just got a
number of the stainglass ones myself i just love them and hope to make
a new garden on the north wall of our house this year .
knowing how large these plants will get, I know I will HAVE to give them
more room than they have currently. I have two varieties swallowed up
by the enormous leaves of the rampant perennial begonia you see in the
background, but I adore the effects of the heavily veined leaves on the
undersides of those begonia's. Going to sit down and get a shot from
underneath. and try and capture how HUGE a few leaves are.

i am also wanting to create a new bed under a tree i have raised from
small--its at least 15 feet or more tall now--also i would love to
create one under our apple tree. i guess im a little afraid to try it
because of hearing about not changing soil levels on trees and a lot of
other things .

that's bullshit. I built a raised bed of chipped trees and such around
the perimeter of the black cherry tree one year out of desperation to
distribute what seemed like an endless pile that never dwindled. The
chipped trees and leaves and what not provided a humusy enviroment that
the tree adores, the shade lovers tolerate quite well, the fair and
faint of heart dissolve and the tough and steely survive. I'm surprised
at who returns every year thicker and hardier than the year before. Thus
the size this year of the Begonia leaves. The ferns also surprised me
at their return despite how bony ass dry it gets underneath that tree.
The tree is quite greedy for moisture.

I shored up the edges of the humus and have added more soils and leaves.
the stuff is at least a foot above the actual ground the tree sits in,
but the roots have risen to take advantage of the earth that's above it.
A mightly gust would topple the whole mass and it would resemble one
of those surreal divots you see after devistating storms that take out
200 year old trees with the islands of soil around the roots. I've
considered that. But so far the tree is doing fairly well.

can u tell me how u did your bed other than putting the earth right on
top of the ground and creating from there. like did u take out any
grass and if so did u dig down around the top roots of the tree at
all?
no grass was growing underneath the tree. The shade after spring was
dense enough to prohibit good growth. I love shade perennials and just
started adding things, including bulbs that don't mind dappled shade.
I'm surprised at the success of some of the plants. Other's I'm
learning. A good dry loving shade plant that will perform well is
Epimedium. I have a nice clump starting under the black cherry at it's
trunk that is thickening up nicely. I have another two clumps of two
kinds a friend gave me under a young pawlonia tree that I just plunked
into the ground near the tree. Hosta's compete really well for moisture
once they're established and are so cool to see their fleshy shoots
poking up in mid spring when you think they're never returning. Next
year will be a hoot as I search for these different shoots and that
large blue one. (gotta post the picture, it was growing at my MIL's
house up in Grand Haven, Michigan and I COULDN'T leave it up therE!!!
maddie
any info u can give me or anyone else here can give me on doing this
would be greatly appreciated. thanks everyone. cyaaaa, sockiescat.