Ok, so I'm completely new at gardening and it's rather exciting to see stuff live and grow and it's mine! But, of course, there's the downside of seeing something fail as well.

I joined the Arbor Day Foundation thru thier website and recieved my 10 free flowering trees (which I don't even have enough yard for that many trees!) and I also purchased some shrubs & a flowering cherry tree & a self pollenating peach tree. Along with my purchases, they sent me free - 2 red maple seedlings, and 4 forsythia seedlings. I planted the cherry tree first.. and I believe it died. When it arrived, it had some green blooms on it, and about 2 weeks ago, it was nothing more than a shriveled stick. *sigh* So, my 2nd shipment finally arrived with my 10 free trees. I took out the cherry tree (very upset, I wanted a cherry tree badly), and replaced it with a redbud. I hope this one lives. At the same time, I planted in the very front of my yard, 2 washington hawthornes. Of course, being all seedlings, I have 3 things that look like sticks sticking up in my yard, surrounded by mulch and rocks. The rocks, believe it or not, came from the ground where I had to dig the holes. Oh my.. as if clay isn't hard enough to dig, I had rocks every time I put my shovel down.

The 4 forsythis all look great!! One even had a yellow blossom on it right after I planted them. It fell off of course.. and what looked like sticks, now has a bunch of green on them, looking a lot less like sticks now!

The peach tree, I hope it lives. It went in the ground, and had a few green leaves on it as well, just like the cherry tree did. I haven't been back to look at it in 2 days, but will be checking it this morning. I only have planted one maple so far, and thinking, I shoulda planted the other one. So far, the maple hasn't done a thing. It looks no different than when it arrived. I have the other one still, ready to go in the ground, but really, no place to fit it. It looks better than the one I planted!!

The shrubs I planted were Arborvitae, and at least 1/2 are looking good, the other half look mostly ok.. but we'll see.

The biggest mistake we made was 1)tilling the front of the house for a flower bed and 2)not realizing there were still some old pumpkin or squash type seeds still sitting there from last halloween. I had a box of pansy border seeds and thought I was getting pansies after about 1 1/2 weeks.. but the dang leaves just kept growing and growing, and look like they've been taken over by aliens they are so huge!!! Only to realize, oooops, these are NOT pansies! *sigh* I want pretty color flowers, not a pumpkin patch!

I have a digital camera, not the best for quality photos, but it works. I'll have to take some pics and post em for ya. I know hotlinking isn't allowed, but is it ok if I post a link to where I'll have the pics on a server space we rent?

Meg

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I reject your reality, and substitue my own!
My favorite digital camera photos that I took.
My family, garden, and a bunch of misc. photos!

Meg

On the Arbor Day - - some things do fantastic - some things - welllllll - don't.

Follow the directions (brochure) they sent you on planting.

What I did was to containerize most of the seedlings - provides a better idea of just what is going to make it. (The ones I planted directly in the ground - not good - - but was not sure if it was my own rocky ground - though - with much experience I do make the hole much bigger than I would without the rocks and backfill with top soil.) The Red Maples - - good luck! I really mean that - - out of 4 Red Maples from the Arbor Society - I got exactly 0 living. On the other hand - the flowering trees and forsythes - they are doing well. Lost one or two - but ....

Provide good watering for them - - I found that to be best.

Jon

I have a seriously weedy yard.


And then I noticed I'm also getting some kind of wild growing ivy this year as well..


Meg

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I reject your reality, and substitue my own!
My favorite digital camera photos that I took.
My family, garden, and a bunch of misc. photos!

And I have a few more pics, but I'll make this the last one for now. I dug up all those rocks from that one hole where the stick is planted. It's supposed to be a Washington Hawthorne.


Meg

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I reject your reality, and substitue my own!
My favorite digital camera photos that I took.
My family, garden, and a bunch of misc. photos!

quote:

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Originally posted by weezie13:
Meg,
You wrote;

quote:

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And then I noticed I'm also getting some kind of wild growing ivy this year as well..

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To me, that looks like wild morning glory... Is there a picture of the very growing tip, or end of vine??? That can be a hard booger to get rid of, if that's it???

And you have a lovely bunch of weeds,

quote:

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I have a seriously weedy yard.

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I see ragweed, then golden rod, then some more rag weed... and some dandelions'!!!!

But nice looking squashes you have there, they look very happy!!!

Thanks for all the great pictures!

Weezie

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Oy, too many quote and /quote thingys for my brain at 5am!!! I'll just reply here at the bottom..lol.
First- I'll try to get a pic in the daylight today of the ivy. It's popping up all thru my yard, but very noticable near the one shrub that was already planted in my yard when we bought the house, and I liked it well enough to keep it. It had a match on the other corner of my house, but it died.

Second- you forgot to mention CLOVER. I see that more than grass in my yard..lol. Oh, wait, maybe you couldn't see that since I was just taking a pic of the side of my house where some of the weeds have taken over. I have more kinds of weeds and if ya like, I'll take a pic of them too before I start hacking again..lol.

And lastly, glad ya like my squash patch. Er, I mean my pansies? I was taking such good care of them, weeded that area the best I could, hubby tilled with power tiller, put up that nice wooden border, fresh topsoil, mulch, and watering everyday, diligent about plucking any weeds popping up.. and was so happy to see my pansies sprouting up!! Then, mortified to see how large they were getting, and still no blooms!! Oh, but my girls, were thrilled when I told them what I discovered it was.

Ok, anxiously awaiting daylight to take more pics of weeds for ya.

Meg

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I reject your reality, and substitue my own!
My favorite digital camera photos that I took.
My family, garden, and a bunch of misc. photos!

Eugene,

I actually did dig a pretty decent sized hole. It's kinda hard to tell from the pic, but it's at least 2+ feet around, and I dug down at least a foot, thru rock & hard clay. UGH. That was horrid. And I used top soil, not potting soil, or any of the fancy stuff, as the directions actually said that would possibly be bad for them. And what I didn't know initially, is that while it's important to have a few inches of mulch, you shouldn't have it touching the tree itself. So far, my arborvitae shrubs and forsythias, doing great, but the trees.. enh. I just hope for the best now. I need to get a few pots to put some in, and I'm going to try to see if they will start out better inside.

I did put them in a bucket to soak for awhile. They sent a note, saying they ship them while in a dormant state, and that they need a few weeks to bloom. I really do believe the cherry tree died.. but I didn't pitch it yet. I put it in a bucket, and I'll give it a couple weeks to see if any change occurs.

Meg

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I reject your reality, and substitue my own!
My favorite digital camera photos that I took.
My family, garden, and a bunch of misc. photos!

Wow Annette, that gives me hope!!

I just got them all in pots yesterday. I have a few in the ground, but if they don't survive, hopefully, the ones I potted will do well, and I can replace them. I wish I had thought to pot them sooner, so maybe they would have all lived.

Now, my only dilemma is this.. do I leave the pots outside on my deck, or bring them in the house? It is summer, I'd think they'd be ok outside. Also, if I'm going to leave them in the pots to see how well they do, when would be the best time to plant them in the ground if any survive? Fall, or next Spring?

Meg

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I reject your reality, and substitue my own!
My favorite digital camera photos that I took.
My family, garden, and a bunch of misc. photos!