Radogast's Non-420 Garden Creation Thread

[Radogast]

The Maine Blueberry is a different plant from all the cultivars.
It grows as large groups of 2 or 3 clones together in a field, spreading more by rhizomes than seeds.

I have a standard blueberry "stick" planted last fall that is probably going to bear sparsely this year. It is chest high with two or three main branches.

We also planted a tiny clump of a pink blueberry this spring that seems like it will establish itself well, but is highly unlikely to produce fruit this year.
These domesticated blueberries can hold their own around other bushes, but are unlikely to "take over" a hillside enough to fight back against the Japanese Honeysuckle. I'd have to breed a clone army. This is my fallback plan in case the Maine Blueberry isn't tough enough to battle it out with a little help.

The wild blackberries in Massachusetts are considered invasive and on the states "do not plant" list. I might be able to do something with a raspberry or other understory Bush berry once I have blueberries established at ground level.

 

[Lester Freeman]

Nice info! I can't wait to see what you do.

 

[GardenFaerie]

What is the pH of your soil in the forest there? I would think pretty low if you have a lot of conifers which drop needles. It's also very mellow, most likely, because of the nature of the forest floor and the layers and fungal mat. I can't grow blueberries. The pH is way too high, but it is also way too hot and not cold enough in winter. I barely get peaches even with the lowest chill hour trees. My favorite is 'Dixieland' for its beautiful smooth skin and sweet fruit. It is a 400 chill hour tree which works well. However, you still have to have the 400 chill hours minimum. I think I have a half a dozen peaches this year on my four year old tree. I also have a pomegranate I need to get in the ground, but I have nowhere to plant it! I may start to encroach into my neighbors backyard. I have no less than ten trees to be planted and no place to plant them. I have a nice Paulownia which is not invasive, a few poison sumac, America beauty berry, 5 redbuds 'Forest Pansy' and a few others...cedar elm, honey locust. Oh, and three crape myrtles. More, but who's counting?

 

[Radogast]

What is the pH of your soil in the forest there? I would think pretty low if you have a lot of conifers which drop needles. It's also very mellow, most likely, because of the nature of the forest floor and the layers and fungal mat. I can't grow blueberries. The pH is way too high, but it is also way too hot and not cold enough in winter. I barely get peaches even with the lowest chill hour trees. My favorite is 'Dixieland' for its beautiful smooth skin and sweet fruit. It is a 400 chill hour tree which works well. However, you still have to have the 400 chill hours minimum. I think I have a half a dozen peaches this year on my four year old tree. I also have a pomegranate I need to get in the ground, but I have nowhere to plant it! I may start to encroach into my neighbors backyard. I have no less than ten trees to be planted and no place to plant them. I have a nice Paulownia which is not invasive, a few poison sumac, America beauty berry, 5 redbuds 'Forest Pansy' and a few others...cedar elm, honey locust. Oh, and three crape myrtles. More, but who's counting?

According to the soil maps, the hill SHOULD be 6.2-6.6 ph. I haven't tested it, yet.

I LOVED my honey locust in Arizona. It wanted to be a four season tree, so sometime near winter solstice it would decide it was autumn and drop all its leaves. About a week later it would decide it was warm enough that winter was over and begin its spring growth.


I took hardwood cuttings of beautyberry in winter. They were just starting to show good leaves and I was hoping for roots, then last week I dropped my temperature / humidity monitor on them from four feet above and knocked off leaves and ripped up branches. I haven't TOTALLY given up hope, but I'm not optimistic.


Radogast

 

[GardenFaerie]

You will have more success taking soft wood cuttings to propagate the beautyberry. You can also collect the berries and either ferment them or let them dry and germinate them. I'd put them into cold for a while and scarify them first, but that may not be necessary. I planted a few new colors of Echinacea today. I love that bright yellow and deep berry color. If there was only one perennial, Echinacea would have to be it. For me, it flowers over and over all summer and is so easy to reseed it around the yard. I also love Nicotiana sylvestris for hummingbirds and other night moths.

This past winter we had about 10 inches of rain in one night. The water on the slope flooded the ground (nowhere near the house) and did go into the pool. However, that river of water also washed all kinds of seeds for things that I never planted! I was happy to see several native tall grasses, some bunch grasses and some ordinary grazing fodder. So I left them to grow out so I could see what was what. After the wildflowers finish blooming and the seeds dry, I'll go back there and assess certain beds. I really have to have someone come in and address the slope and prepare the areas for rain gardens.

Whatever you do, and I am positive you know this, try not to be tempted to plant any kinds of blackberries unless you use thornless. Oh I was pulling that shit out for years. It literally takes over. It's not worth it to me, but you have a lot of property. I'm jellin over that!

 

[Radogast]

The first plant I planted in my first house was an Echinacea next to the chimney alongside the driveway so we shouldn't scrape the car on the chimney. It was a 1906 house (built across the bay after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.) The driveway and garage were sized for 1906 cars !!!

I loved that Echinacea Bush. It was about 4' tall and 3' side when we sold the house.

The garage was built out of trees from the nearby hills, which at the time meant 14" side by 3/4" Coastal Redwood planks.
The house itself was made with Redwood studs, joists and subfloors. It was worth more disassembled than assembled. I once had to drill a hole for cable TV through the floor at an angle just under the baseboard. I had to buy an extra long drill bit to pass through the Oak floor, 2x12 subfloor on the diagonal, 2x12 sub floor on the crossing diagonal. I guess after the earthquake they wanted a house that would slide rather than crack in a quake.

The backyard had a magnificent Sequoia Gigantea (Mountain Redwood) that had been distributed as a door prize in the Pan Pacific Exposition of 1915(celebrating San Francisco recovery after the quake.) The trunk was about 7 feet in diameter and the top was about 90 feet in a perfect Christmas Tree cone shape.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

 

[shadowman]

Hey Radogast, Love the thread, I hope you don't mind but I just had to subscribe and follow along. I've got many chores to do today but will be back and join in on the garden chat.

 

[Radogast]

Hey Radogast, Love the thread, I hope you don't mind but I just had to subscribe and follow along. I've got many chores to do today but will be back and join in on the garden chat.

You are so definitely welcome my friend

It's not that I post a lot here, but it helps to have a place to muse on what kind of furniture I could build if I had an Alaskan mill attachment for my chainsaw or post pictures of robin eggs, or why I need the universe needs to send me free irrigation tubing for a new pond

 

[Radogast]

Baby Robin update

5 days ago

2 days ago

 

[Radogast]

Robin's have left the nest

Guys two days I have seen no activity see the robin's nest.
Baby robins have flown. An unhatched egg was left behind.
In the out of focus photo, note the true color.

 

[Radogast]

Sunflowers at the hydro store. Started from seed after my last visit

 

[Radogast]

After all the time spent planting seeds and making clones,

It was very gratifying to spend $3.57 per plant and make an instant planter our of a pretty pot and a hunk of Sculpture grade Danby Marble.


The basic pretty pot on a ground level tree stump I varnished last month.
I filled the bottom with rocks taken from digging out the big rock,
Then used promix based soil from male plants I chose not to finish growing,
Then nursery plants tucked in with Dr Earth potting soil.

 

[Radogast]

I spent the entire day focused on plants and gardening.

The .... ENTIRE ..... DAY ....

This is my idea of a perfect day.

From epic struggles in two battles with Virginia Creeper,
To erecting the marble pillar to support a pot of newly enthroned plants,
To planting 3 more broccoli seedlings, 8 creeping thyme mats divided out of 2 happy six inch pots, and transplanting 4 bulbs out of a path.
The shopping trip where I scored nutrients, an led lit mini microscope, a thermometer to measure the new pond, and 10 twelve foot long 1" diameter pvc pipe sections to recirculate water from the low end of the pond back to the high end.

Even without the brownie, bold red wine and good company, it was a great day.

I love learning from plants and nature.

 

[GardenFaerie]

That is also my kind of day. Back when I could garden all day, Mark would come out to check up on me and if I was covered in dirt (which I usually am when gardening) he loved it! He's even said his favorite vision of me is when I'm covered in dirt and garden gear!

I have to battle my Virginia Creeper, also. I have it growing in one area which also covers the fence. I want it on the fence even though it will eventually tear that fence down. I like the privacy, but it creeps along into the bed and I have my brand new 10 ferns to plant over there in that shade bed. Right now the mosquitoes are simply torturous.

JOF

 

[Radogast]

Virginia Creepier is a newly identified plant. I like it's looks, but it keeps giving me the itch.
I am planting English ivy and white clover where Virginia Creeper is removed.

This morning I put on my mud and mosquito clothes and laid 80 feet of 1" PVC conduit from the downstream end of the new pond(former swamp) to the upstream end. I have a 1" flow about four times the flow of a garden hose. I'm hoping this will be enough to hold back the scum.

So now I have a shady pond 80' long by 10-15' wide. Water temperature this morning is 62°F.
Known inhabitants are bullfrog, water strider, mosquito larvae and drowning plants.

Time to shower and dress for the mall.

Radogast

 

[GardenFaerie]

I would think long and hard before I set English Ivy loose. It will strangle everything, literally, and eventually it will want to grow up your trees to establish a canopy up there. Ivy is a vine in its immature stage, but it wants to form a tree. It does this way up into the canopy of your healthy trees and kills them. Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) is a native plant. English Ivy:

Noxious Weed Control Board (NWCB) | WA State | Weed Detail Page

Please don't do this to yourself. You have no idea how noxious this weed is.

 

[Radogast]

Sitting at my wife's desk looking at trichomes through a microscope, a Great Blue Heron walked by.


(Look below the bird house to the right of the iron pole)

 

[Radogast]

Installed 4 bulb x 4' T5 Grow lights in the crafting room yesterday.

$75 each on Amazon.com (PM for a link
to Dyold for the link.

After working under the Sunleaves T5 lights my wife decided they would be great for or 5' by 5' crafting table.
The crafting table is at bar height. I ran ropes and eye screws to raise and lower lights as needed.

No exactly garden, but by rules these are off-topic photos that go in off-topic threads.

The lights are visually and physically HALF the weight of my Sunleaves T5s

Switches for the inside pair, the outside pair or all four bulbs

I went a touch Streampink in my cleats to tie off the ropes.

 

[Radogast]

Weeded ferns from the potato patch today

 

[SoilGirl]

Installed 4 bulb x 4' T5 Grow lights in the crafting room yesterday.

$75 each on Amazon.com (PM for a link
to Dyold for the link.

After working under the Sunleaves T5 lights my wife decided they would be great for or 5' by 5' crafting table.
The crafting table is at bar height. I ran ropes and eye screws to raise and lower lights as needed.

No exactly garden, but by rules these are off-topic photos that go in off-topic threads.

The lights are visually and physically HALF the weight of my Sunleaves T5s

Switches for the inside pair, the outside pair or all four bulbs

I went a touch Streampink in my cleats to tie off the ropes.

Hiya Radogast! Loved you in both the hobbits So that was 75$ for just the bulbs right? for that setup I'd need the whole thing, not just the bulbs, when I was on Shadow's journal I meant the mini little CFL bulbs that he's using in the converted wardrobe, the little spiral ones not the long tubes 'cuz I've got tons of old reflectors and clamps and stuff for those sort of bulbs

But thanks for sharing this with me, I can't answer PM's yet haha. I'd like a nice long-tube CFL setup, but for some of the prices I've seen on them I might as well just get another LED panel >.<