| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Miss Bee Haven |
Posted - Apr 03 2007 : 07:40:31 AM
What plant or project did you start in your innocent springtime optimism that grew(and grew...and grew...) into the Kudzu of your gardening life? Mine started with a garden tour in Cincinnati, Ohio about 15 years ago. Two young guys were growing bamboo in a raised bed. I convinced myself(and the dh) that this was possible - THEY were containing it--why couldn't we? "It's so beautiful". And for 5 or 6 years it was lovely, as I sat under it with a glass of iced tea and looked up towards the filtered sun through the delicate leaves. I meditated on the genius of the film maker Akira Kurosawa, and how he was warned not to shoot film up through bamboo at the sun. But he did and it was magnificent!
And now, 10 years later, the honeymoon is OVER!! It's ten feet tall and coming out of the bed ten feet in all directions and coming towards the house! It really IS the fastest growing thing on earth and it's coming for my sunroom. If I fall asleep out there, I'm afraid it'll come up underneath the floor and spear me through the heart as I lay napping!
And last week, my boss, who I dearly love, asked me for 'a start'. He's determined to try it. All I can say is: "Treat it like Hannibal Lecter -- keep it contained and don't turn your back on it or it may devour you!!!"
"If you think you've got it nailed down, then what's all that around it?" - 'Brother Dave' Gardner |
| 11 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Woodswoman |
Posted - Apr 04 2007 : 4:26:10 PM
I just wasn't thinking...
I threw a bunch of rotten gourds in our compost bin.
That spring we used the compost on our garden.
We had those @#$%# gourds EVERYWHERE-we had to keep ripping them out so they wouldn't pull down the tomatoes, smother the peppers, strangle the greens, etc.
Won't do that again!!! |
| brightmeadow |
Posted - Apr 04 2007 : 3:13:19 PM
The year I planted corn and didn't fertilize it because I wanted to be completely natural. The stalks were 3 feet high and the ears were 3 inches long with 20 or 30 kernels each. One coworker took pity on me and brought in a dozen ears from his garden.
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
Visit my blog at http://brightmeadowfarms.blogspot.com ,web site store at http://www.watkinsonline.com/fish or my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~brightmeadow |
| katmom |
Posted - Apr 04 2007 : 09:19:06 AM
Mima,
you are right about the raspberries,,,my blackberries started to take over in my garden, it even made it's way over to my hydrenga bush(on the other side of the fence).It sends out "runner roots" just like mint plants do!!!
I thought I had eradicated all but one plant last Fall, but sure enough I have it sprouting all over my garden this Spring, and my one remaining bush is loaded w/blossoms. Oh well, the local birds love the berries....
>^..^< |
| katmom |
Posted - Apr 04 2007 : 09:07:47 AM
Only One!!??...LOL!
I could fill a garden journal, of "graceful mistakes",,but I always enjoy a challenge....like my onions going to seed,,,,EVERWHERE...my purple morning glories climbing up my almond tree & the shed & anything else that stood still for more then a day,,, the cantalope vines to close to the chicken wire fence that my tortise was able to munch on...let's not forget the squash that grew from 6" over night to "Killer Zuchinni" by morning, it tried to take over my garden!. And then there was the year of canning beets...My poor hubby ate canned beets for a year, he still shudders when we walk by beets in the market...
As long as we garden, we will have successes & failures,,,,It is one area in my life that I do not mind having failures,,infact rather enjoy it 'cause I can laugh at it & myself...'course my neighbors draw the blinds & lock the doors when I come walking over with a basket of tomatos, zuchinni & beets....maybe I need to grow something different this year! LOL!
I haven't told you about my artichoke plant story yet...I'll save that story for another time!!!
tata-4-now
>^..^< |
| happymama58 |
Posted - Apr 04 2007 : 07:43:04 AM
I had a nasty bare shady spot that ran the entire depth of one side of my house (2 houses ago). Nothing would grow there but dirt and scraggly weeds, but the "expert" at the garden store sold me on something called (wrong spelling) "Houtinya achuna" something or other. He warned me that I needed to put a border around it that extended an inch or so into the ground, so I put a plastic border 2 1/2" deep.
Well, it was pretty (for a vine) and smelled wonderful. It also grew like crazy ------ everywhere except in the spot I wanted it, which is where the info included with the plant said it would be very happy (shady). It spread everywhere and was so invasive! It was even trying to choke out my zossia (spelling)!! I dug and cut and dug and cut everytime I saw it, and I had daydreams of just digging and then burning everything!! It was horrible.
How did I finally solve it? I didn't. We sold that house and moved (not because of that plant)!
Some people search for happiness; others create it.
Please visit me at www.marykay.com/pmiinch |
| mima |
Posted - Apr 04 2007 : 07:32:40 AM
All your stories made me laugh!!! I've also got crazy morning glories! And now there are also rasberries bushes coming out of the lawn! I didn't know berries were like weeds too! |
| ddmashayekhi |
Posted - Apr 04 2007 : 06:54:37 AM
One year I decided to put a bunch of vine growing flowers in my deck boxes. I thought they would look so pretty hanging over the side of the front deck, which is two stories high. It didn't take me too long to realize the difference between the flowers that grow on a trellis & the ones that trail. No matter how hard I tried to train them to go down, they kept climbing up. By July, they looked so stupid, that I hard to tear them all out.
Dawn in IL |
| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Apr 03 2007 : 10:23:22 AM
Janice that's too funny. That house in Cincy must have been the one next door to our friends in Clifton. "The Bamboo Sky" as we call it has blocked the sun forever from both yards.
My mishap: I decided the first year that I moved into my little cottage that I would grow catnip for my two cats, wouldn't that be sweet? I had a nice space in the garden, and boy did it grow and grow....and attracted ALL the stray cats and other neighborhood cats! Aside from all of the outdoor cats coming to my yard and rolling in the catnip, crushing my other plants by default, my two inside tom's were fit to be tied, parked in the windows growling all the time and making these horrendous MAWWWS all hours of the night. Then the strays outside started fighting with each other because it was "their" territory, so I'd had it.
The third week after I planted it, I ripped it right out of the ground and dried it. My guys still had catnip, just another way!
"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." Margaret Atwood
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| DaisyFarm |
Posted - Apr 03 2007 : 09:41:00 AM
I grew Atlantic Giant pumpkins in an old compost bin, figuring the children that come to the farm with their parents would get a kick out of them. And they did, but by fall I had SIX 300+ pound pumpkins!! I ended up selling one to an artist who brought me back a picture of an amazing relief carving he did on it of a cowboy. The others...tons of compost! Even the chickens were sick of them!
Di |
| lamarguerite farm |
Posted - Apr 03 2007 : 09:20:08 AM
Planting too much Zuccini!! However, I've decided to go ahead and plant a bunch of extra stuff and donate what we can't use to the food bank.
Lemon Balm can be a little pesky as well. I find it coming up in places I never imagined it could get too.
Blessings,
Missy
If you have a dream, even if you don't feel qualified to accomplish it, just try your hardest.-Maggie Jensen
http://18happyhens.blogspot.com
http://LamargueriteFarm.etsy.com |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Apr 03 2007 : 08:56:48 AM
One time in a fit of insanity I planted heavenly blue morning glories in the middle of my big garden..to grow over a little arbor bench (willow) that I had in the center as a resting spot. I had it pictured and loved the idea...but hey...morning glory (in calif) took over and I fought that stuff for years. It WAS pretty..but then was so so so pesty. I know better now. I would do scarlet runner beans instead..pretty, but gone at the end of the season.
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
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