Mine’s getting there. Pictured here are some of my luscious Betty Boop roses. They sit near some indigo salvia and some chartreuse spirea and the combination is pretty great. Most of my roses are opening up and I’m doing my best to keep up with the weeds. Which brings me to this little adventure in weeding……


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I was trying to start a children’s kitchen garden at Presby yesterday morning, and was lucky enough to have the help of two volunteer families. Unfortunately, there were a LOT of weeds to be pulled before the planting could start. Fortunately, I had the help of some very persistent young gardeners. JUST LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THESE KNOTWEED ROOTS THAT THEY PULLED UP!! I didn’t have a tape measure handy, and maybe that’s a good thing. I’m not sure I want to know just how deep the knotweed goes.
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In other Presby news, the irises are at their peak this season. If you haven’t been by yet, you risk missing a kaleidoscopic spectrum of beauty.

18 replies on “How’s Your Garden?”

  1. Gorgeous roses, Fran. My small herb garden is doing pretty well despite the schizo weather we’ve had lately. I’m going to Presby later today. Hopefully it doesn’t rain!

  2. A noble effort re the knotweed, but that stuff is NASTY, and pulling it just encourages it to spread. Much as I hate to say it, it really needs systemic treatment with glysophate (Round-up).

  3. Because of all the rain we had this spring, all of my bushes have grown BIG (Japanese maple, holly, astors) some to the point of needing to be cut back a bit.
    Salvia, clematis, irises, rhododendron…all doing well. My neighbor down the street has the most beautiful peonies I’ve ever seen…is there such a thing as peonies envy? 🙂
    What hasn’t done well: azaleas. They were here today, gone tomorrow because all the rain washed the blossoms off. Bummer.

  4. Also, about my irises: I must have the only irises in creation that grow horizontally, not vertically. Otherwise, they are perfectly healthy…anyone know why they do this?

  5. Our azaleas came and went, too, Mrs. Martta
    Our roses are just opening up, our clematis is probably ready to open tomorrow or the day after. Our irises are fine, our salvia, our catmint, all good. Our young sassafras trees are doing really really well. The crab apples are going bonkers, as are our barberries.
    Whatever happened this past winter and early spring brought us a whole lot more birds, however, than last year.

  6. Just a reminder — there is a Yahoo Group MGEC2004 that you can join and ask questions of local gardeners, perhaps even a Master Gardener or two!
    And you can always call with questions to the Master Gardener Helpline at (973) 228-2210.
    Cary

  7. We love our year-old pit bull to death, but she has been the ruin of most of our gardening efforts from last year. When she’s not outright eating our plants, she’s plucking leaves or flowers off them and tossing them in the air.
    We have a few survivors, but it’s pretty barren back there now. So much for those sprays that supposedly make plants taste bad. I think she considers them salad dressing.

  9. Heh. True enough! Nothing left for them.
    And she’s done a good job of driving away the possums that used to wander around back there from time to time. (Not that they particularly bothered us.)

  10. You might want to take a look at this:
    https://www.dogpack.com/health/poisonplants.htm
    There’s a huge list of plants that can kill dogs.
    My dogs just used to rip branches off of shrubs. Never ate the leaves, just tore the plants to pieces.
    They also dug HUGE holes.
    I stopped leaving them outside. Now they sleep all day (probably dreaming of devouring plants).
    Cary

  11. Good lord–thanks for posting that, Cary. I knew about a couple of those, but had no idea the list was so long.
    She has in fact probably chomped a few rhododendron leaves. I had no idea they could hurt her, and I’m glad I know now!
    I do sometimes let her run around in the backyard when I’m working in the dining room and can keep an eye on her (as she gleefully destroys the yard), but I won’t be doing that anymore. Thanks for the heads-up!

  12. Mean bunnies ate my parsley and coriander. Time to channel my inner Fudd.
    Kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit…

  13. It’s a jungle out back. POKEWEED!!!! All over my garden…and thorny weeds…Bushes all too big (16 bags full and I’m still not done done cutting them back)…wish I could afford a gardener…

  15. This thorny, prickly things are the hardest things to get rid of, next to poison ivy. We don’t want to use chemicals, either, because 1. we have a dog and 2. the chemicals might kill the non-weeds as well. So we’re trying to do what Geoff is doing on the hill at the end of our property.
    You always read about “blights and mites” that attach rhododendrons, roses, etc. but where are the ones that attack poison ivy, the prickly weeds with thorns, and the dandelions?

  16. Garden is going great. The roses are really spectacular this year. I love sitting in the back with all of the bees ‘a buzzin’ and the birds flitting about chirping and tweeting.
    I heard a bird a week ago singing it’s heart out at 3 A.M. in the morning. I stood by my bath window and listened for a good 3 or 4 minutes and it was just riffing like a maniac. I don’t think it repeated itself once.
    What the heck kind of bird does jazz solos at 3AM?

  17. Thanks for the tip, Cary. I’m going to plant a whole hedge of dog-killing plants in front of my house. Do you know what poison plant is especially attractive to dog owners? I’m thinking particularly of the one who never cleans up when his little Cocker Doodle poops on my front lawn.

  18. I think the thorny weed tree is called Devil’s Walking Stick. It’s all over my back – I just pluck them out one by one by one by… you get it.
    I’m going to plant a ball eating bush, so when stray neighborhood balls come onto my property it eats them.

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