Marble Gardens & Fish Ponds

[silent thunder]

So I just discovered this thread and spent the first 30 seconds trying to find where you had hidden the pics...

Then I realized what you were doing and forged on, thinking I may catch the current pic (and subsequently thinking how perfectly taoist it is of you to post the pics then remove them). In the process I got to follow the story and just perceive the reactions and side dialogue...

 

What a uniquely rare way to view your garden good sir, through the descriptive awesomeness of your digital peers!

[Marblehead]

Yeah, I apologize for that but the board allows only a certain amount of disk space for uploads and I had other things to do which required me to delete some of the older uploads.

 

Maybe in my next life I will upload them to a graphics bucket on the net then all I would have to do is link to them.

[silent thunder]

Yeah, I apologize for that but the board allows only a certain amount of disk space for uploads and I had other things to do which required me to delete some of the older uploads.

 

Maybe in my next life I will upload them to a graphics bucket on the net then all I would have to do is link to them.

No way... don't apologize, that was a very cool surprise.

 

edit: and now in haiku

 

don't apologize

that was a very cool way

to view your garden

Edited March 16, 2014 by silent thunder

[GrandmasterP]

Moved this to MH's Marble Gardens thread from Watching the Birds cos it's gardening.

Campsis ( Trumpet Vine) arrived today two nice plants one yellow ' Indian Summer' and one dark orange or red ( can't tell from the label photo) ' Madame Galen'.

Garden Centre run for some John Innes Number 2 to pot them on into.

Thinks I.

" May as well stock up on Number 3 whilst I'm here too."

Not a bag of number 3 to be had, sold out and awaiting delivery.

Number 2 has shot up in price too.

On special offer 3 x 30 litre bags 'only' £12.

It was that price for 3 x 50 litre bags last season!

Talk about hidden price rise by reducing product!

Cheeky John Innes.

Edited April 1, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Marblehead]

Yeah, they do that same scam here in the States. Luckily there is enough competition from various sources so that they don't get away with it too often.

 

Great to hear your plants arrived. Best wishes at getting them established at their new home.

 

I might be buying some vining plants today to replace the passion vines that I removed over the winter. (The Passions were beautiful but grow too fast and are very difficult for me to maintain within the area I had them growing in. Not sure yet what I will be buying. I did see something interesting yesterday when I was out shopping for other stuff.

[Marblehead]

Well, I did buy the plants. Two of them.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougainvillea

 

Mine are the shrub type but I will train them to be more like the vine type. The flowers on mine are a bright scarlet.

[GrandmasterP]

Good luck with the Bougainvillea.

They should grow here, according to 'hardiness zones' we are about Zone 7 or 8 but I don't know anyone who does well with them outside of almost-frost- free Cornwall or South Devon.

Edited April 1, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Marblehead]

Yeah, the upper branches will likely die back over the winter but I am hoping that the root system stays healthy and it will come back the next year like my other tropicals do.

 

If not I will put something else in the area. Trial and error. I'm not afraid of failure.

[GrandmasterP]

Came across this today...

 

"Sitting quietly,

doing nothing

Spring comes,

and the grass grows all by itself."

Edited April 2, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Marblehead]

Yes. I would expect something like that coming from Chuang Tzu.

 

But it does need water periodically which is what I will be doing in a little bit. (Not the grass but the gardens.)

 

You probably get enough moisture so that you rarely need to water?

[GrandmasterP]

It varies.

We had a dry summer last year and had to water outside a lot.

Usually though we get plenty of rain.

We have quite a big greenhouse plus Mrs GMP always has over a hundred big planter pots on the go through the season.

It's my job to water those and it can take above two hours to do them all.

I tend to stagger it though doing a bit each day so everything that needs it gets a good soaking at least once a week.

Those Trumpet Vines came with a warning ' Do not over water'.

I suspect they like dry- ish feet.

[Marblehead]

Those Trumpet Vines came with a warning ' Do not over water'. I suspect they like dry- ish feet.

I never saw that warning but I do know that they are low maintenance plants so likely they don't even need much watering. Mine are planted in sandy soil, which hold little water, and do fine.

 

The Mandavilla vine does come with that warning and the two are similar type plants so I guess the warning is valid. I do water mine when the are just starting new growth for the year but very little after new growth is established.

[GrandmasterP]

We're fortunate with soil.

This place was a market garden ( truck farm) so we inherited some decent soil and what wasn't the best around where their glasshouses were, we've gradually improved.

 

It drains very fast.

 

[Marblehead]

Hehehe. Mine drains reaslly fast because the water can't peretrate through the sand grains except maybe a half inch after three solid days of rain.

 

I watered this morning and noticed that the Daylilies have begun their flowering process. I have one plant that has three flower stocks on it (about five buds).

[Apech]

Hehehe. Mine drains reaslly fast because the water can't peretrate through the sand grains except maybe a half inch after three solid days of rain.

 

I watered this morning and noticed that the Daylilies have begun their flowering process. I have one plant that has three flower stocks on it (about five buds).

 

 

Have you tried a mulch like tree bark on top to hold the water ... or mix in a lot of compost ... I've got sandy soil too and one end of the garden dries too quick ... so I am going to try this this year. I water with sprinklers in the summer when its very dry and hot ... its a must every two days or so in July August.

 

Pine needles are good as mulch too if you can get them.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Apech

[Marblehead]

Have you tried a mulch like tree bark on top to hold the water ... or mix in a lot of compost ... I've got sandy soil too and one end of the garden dries too quick ... so I am going to try this this year. I water with sprinklers in the summer when its very dry and hot ... its a must every two days or so in July August.

 

Pine needles are good as mulch too if you can get them.

Yes, I do mulch with Cypress mulch. But when it rains hard the water builds up and washes the floating mulch down hill. There is mulch everywhere except in the small flowering plant gardens. I can't really put any in those areas because those are mostly areas where new plants are grown from seed.

 

Yeah, I wish I had composted more before I started growing in the smaller garden areas but it just didn't happen. The soil is very poor where the vine plants are but the Creeping Trumpet and the Bleeding Heart do well. When I plant Mandavilla they do well for only one year in the most part. Last year I had four and so far this year only two are coming back with new growth.

 

I'm pretty sure the Bougainvillea I just planted will be okay once they are established as they are supposed to be drought hardy.

 

Actually, for the non-woody plants I have, the only place I could put down mulch would be at the Daylilies but I did manage to enrich the soil before I planted them. I use Preen in those two areas to control the weeds as they propogate via tubular growth underground.

 

And yes, I have to water every other day during the summer if I don't get rain. My smaller flowering plants I grow in the summer are mostly of a tropical nature and can take the heat but must have lots of water. Catching rain in the barrels when it does rain helps out a lot with that. (My utility water is very expensive.)

 

But over time the rotting mulch is building up the soil so after another fifty years I will likely have a pretty rich soil in my yard.

[Apech]

Yes, I do mulch with Cypress mulch. But when it rains hard the water builds up and washes the floating mulch down hill. There is mulch everywhere except in the small flowering plant gardens. I can't really put any in those areas because those are mostly areas where new plants are grown from seed.

 

Yeah, I wish I had composted more before I started growing in the smaller garden areas but it just didn't happen. The soil is very poor where the vine plants are but the Creeping Trumpet and the Bleeding Heart do well. When I plant Mandavilla they do well for only one year in the most part. Last year I had four and so far this year only two are coming back with new growth.

 

I'm pretty sure the Bougainvillea I just planted will be okay once they are established as they are supposed to be drought hardy.

 

Actually, for the non-woody plants I have, the only place I could put down mulch would be at the Daylilies but I did manage to enrich the soil before I planted them. I use Preen in those two areas to control the weeds as they propogate via tubular growth underground.

 

And yes, I have to water every other day during the summer if I don't get rain. My smaller flowering plants I grow in the summer are mostly of a tropical nature and can take the heat but must have lots of water. Catching rain in the barrels when it does rain helps out a lot with that. (My utility water is very expensive.)

 

But over time the rotting mulch is building up the soil so after another fifty years I will likely have a pretty rich soil in my yard.

 

Ah I get you ... it just runs off ... so the sandy subsoil is compacted. You probably need to break it up then, deep ploughing for instance ... but you can't do that in an established garden. I grow vegetables so there's always an opportunity between crops. I think maybe just put a load of peat or similar on top and edge it in so it can't float off. Do you get torrential rains like storms?

[GrandmasterP]

Double digging here.

We also top dressed with John Innes Number 3 for five years.

At the end of each season when the planters are knocked out we riddle all that and that goes on too.

We've raised the poor areas by about nine inches since 2006.

I bought a Mantis tiller to save double digging a couple of years ago but it is so much messing about to get going and then needs such a lot of wrestling to keep it from burying itself that I went back to the spade.

Edited April 4, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Marblehead]

Double digging here.

 

Yeah, I could go one season without having anything in an area and build it up but I just love seeing the life out there too much.

[Apech]

Yeah, I could go one season without having anything in an area and build it up but I just love seeing the life out there too much.

 

 

Do it one patch at a time maybe.

 

My neighbours all have mechanical tillers but I don't have enough land to justify so I use one of these

 

 

you wack into the ground and soil goes everywhere ... great fun ...

[Marblehead]

Yeah, I have used those before.

 

And my areas too are too small for any powered tools. I have the tools to do the work - just waiting for someone to offer to do it for me.

 

Of course, if I did one area at a time I would ruin what I have built up regarding the plants re-seeding themselves. Except for Pansies my areas do their own thing when their season comes 'round. Right now I mostly just have to weed, feed, transplant and water.

[GrandmasterP]

We very rarely buy in plants or seeds.

Mrs GMP saves seed and overwinters tender plants indoors plus she takes lots of cuttings.

If something self seeds, as a rule; we let it.

Year before last she took out most of the Nasturtiums as those were taking over in one bed and we picked up seeds.

Hence last year we didn't have many Nasturtiums and I missed them if truth be told.

Confession time is that I have been sowing Nasturtium seeds unbeknownst to Mrs GMP this past week.

This past week the Spiraea has come into flower pure white lighting up a darkish corner and it's next to some Euphorbia Griffithii with dark green leaves and about four foot tall in a drift.

In amongst the euphorbia some orange wallflowers are starting to show and it looks a picture in that bed right now.

More to come.

I love springtime.

Edited April 5, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Marblehead]

Hehehe about the Nasturtiums.

 

I actually get two Spring times here, one for the summer plants and one for the winter plants.

 

I still have lots of Snapdragon seeds in the freezer. The ones I pulled out last year and put down are doing great. I will likely end up buying the Pansy seeds and working with them from there. I just don't get Pansies coming back the next year and that is strange because the Violas do great reseeding themselves and the two are of the same family.

[GrandmasterP]

Same here.

Violas self seed for fun.

Pansies don't so we buy them in as bedding.

Winter Pansies are amazing.

Even in snow they have flowers

[Marblehead]

Same here. Violas self seed for fun. Pansies don't so we buy them in as bedding. Winter Pansies are amazing. Even in snow they have flowers

Yeah, I love the Pansies but they are the first of the winter flowers that die back when it gets hot here. I have a couple that are already wilting back from the heat. But they are so beautiful during the winter with all their varying colors.

 

My roses (five plants) flower all year long off and on. They will flower, then take a break to store up more energy then start putting out new growth then new flowers.