OT: how do your hydrangeas look this year?
I kinda got obsessed with gardening this summer. My home has a lot of preexisting garden space, but I added quite a bit, rototilled the rest. All in all it comes out to around 2,000 square feet of garden beds.
I planted 19 limelight hydrangeas to create a hedge on my property border, 5 dwarf bigleaf hydrangeas, 5 endless summer hydrangeas, one smoothleaf hydrangea, 2 climbing hydrangeas on my north facade, azalea, 4 kinds of weigela, a butterfly garden with 5 butterfly bushes, black eyed susans, coneflowers, blanket flowers, daisies, coreopsis, butterfly weed, garden phlox, creeping phlox, liriope, a rose garden with 4 knockout rose bushes, 3 climbing roses, 3 creeping roses, 12 hardy hibiscus rose mallows, 3 varieties of sedums, several varieties of hostas, coral bells, brunnera, catmint, dianthus, bleeding hearts, blue fescue, varieties of daylilies, Vining black eyed susans, Mandevilla, rabbit's ear, geraniums, salvias, oriental lilies, tiger lilies, a dahlia that was destroyed by a storm, several varieties of ornamental grasses, a Japanese Maple, clematis, and I trained a wisteria onto my brick siding with hooks and a wire. I also planted pumpkins, gourds and sunflowers. One grew to 9 feet tall.
Tbh this is the first time I've actually seen it all listed out like this and I realize now that I have a problem.
Anyone else into gardening? I don't recall there ever being a gardening thread.
August 27th, 2021 at 11:35 PM ^
as white as a coldplay concert. What do you use for color?
August 28th, 2021 at 12:01 AM ^
I'm glad you posted here, "Number 7".
I've used that exact same Rick Leach avatar as my userpic for almost 20 years in a couple other Michigan sports forums. I first used it in a WorldCrossing U of M Forum that disbanded about a decade ago when the WX platform discontinued hosting public forums; then still to this day in a small remnant of that WX forum that has since been affiliated with a very large and long-standing Detroit Lions Forum:
https://www.detroitlionsforum.com/forums/forum/sports-discussion-forums/university-of-michigan
(I also go by Rob F there but mostly lurk and rarely post these days)
Ok if I whine that I sure wish I had that userpic? ?
August 28th, 2021 at 6:31 AM ^
Ironically that pic of quicksilver lighting (who ABSOLUTELY should've been the player today in the "there are" thread) was also my first avatar. Then one day I noticed someone else has it (maybe you, maybe him) so I changed to the pic of my wife in a bikini.
August 28th, 2021 at 10:08 AM ^
You wife was "Quicksilver Lightning II"?
I kid, I kid...
?
August 29th, 2021 at 2:45 PM ^
One of my favorite bits of all time is this one:
So do you have any nude pics of your wife?
NO!!!
Wanna buy some?
August 28th, 2021 at 1:15 PM ^
OK by me to whine, but I'm hanging on to it! (It's a cropped SI cover, as you probably know). I was going to post about it in the "Explain your avatar" thread, but figured it was too obvious/uncontroversial to say anything about. I posted to the "Explain your username" thread instead. That's par for the course for me: long-time member, slow-but-steady poster.
Wish I could say, oh by the way, I AM Rick Leach, but that's not the case. (Related story: I started subscribing to the Motown Tigers message board in 2005 (on the day Cameron Maybin was drafted, IIRC). I picked the username LeFlore, but after a year or so, started to worry that people would think I was Ron LeFlore (my favorite '70s athlete, along with Rick Leach). So I changed it to LeFlorist, which people kinda loved.)
August 28th, 2021 at 6:17 AM ^
There are many different varieties of hydrangeas with color. Endless summer (bigleaf) are wife-pleasers, but they love shade. If your soil is acidic, they will produce blue blooms, and the higher the pH, the pinker they'll get. Don't be intimidated by this though, there are soil testing kits at any big box store and you can easily alter the pH naturally with different types of fertilizer. Or you can just let it go and see what happens.
August 28th, 2021 at 4:39 PM ^
Types of hydrangeas are sensitive to the ph balance of the soil which varies from zone to zone. If you want a blue flower and you live in an alkaline zone add an acidifier like ammonium sulfate. For a white flower in an acid zone add lime.
ifier
August 27th, 2021 at 11:36 PM ^
I too am addicted to gardening, according to my better half. I don't think it's a problem. Let's plan on having a gardening thread just as soon as the basketball team(s) win championships!
August 27th, 2021 at 11:37 PM ^
Here's my kid with the giant sunflower.
August 28th, 2021 at 8:54 AM ^
My wife planted sunflowers around the lightpost next to our mailbox. Unfortunately the deer started nibbling them. Supposedly urine keeps the deer away. I like pissing in my yard, but the houses are close enough to each other that I didn't feel comfortable whipping it out under a light post (very often anyway.) Tried using a bottle once, but the sunflowers weren't that important to me. The deer got them.
August 27th, 2021 at 11:37 PM ^
Earlier this summer? Dehydrangeated.
Since then: overhydrangeated.
Do I now get credited for inventing two new words in one post?
August 28th, 2021 at 7:21 AM ^
Don't hydrangea under a barrel.
August 27th, 2021 at 11:45 PM ^
Two words my friend: lasagna gardening.
Seriously, no tilling. Just layer wet newspaper (to kill the grass), grass clippings, chopped up leaves, other composting material, repeat… In 6-8 months you’ll have the best raised bed soil you could dream of.
I’d love to see a gardening thread on here. Count me in.
August 27th, 2021 at 11:51 PM ^
Not bad but the rhododendron and Russian sage are BANGING …. Literally everything in my garden is doing well tho.
Acreage with lots of sun and a creek running down the middle of my property helps
August 28th, 2021 at 9:45 AM ^
I've not had any success with rhododendron. Flowers were ok but foliage thinned out and ended up being very leggy.
August 28th, 2021 at 10:38 AM ^
Are they on the west side of your house?
August 28th, 2021 at 11:08 AM ^
We are in our third home. Tried them at the first two...with the same results each time. They don't really fit with the style of our current house so didn't want to bother trying a third time.
Haven't seen any in my area that look decent after blooming.
August 28th, 2021 at 1:01 PM ^
Mine is in the front of the house, which faces East. It gets direct sunlight from about 10am to 4pm. In my experience they don’t like a lot of direct sunlight.
August 27th, 2021 at 11:54 PM ^
We had over a thousand tulips this past year and expect to have two thousand this spring.
August 28th, 2021 at 12:10 AM ^
I sure hope you don't have any ground moles in your yard.
August 28th, 2021 at 12:03 AM ^
I'm only able to grow beets and cabbage.
August 28th, 2021 at 12:35 AM ^
Don’t be so modest, I hear you grow a fair amount of potatoes.
August 28th, 2021 at 5:31 AM ^
The most worthy member of the vegetable family.
August 28th, 2021 at 1:09 AM ^
We have a 1/2 acre yard. Not overly huge, but big enough to be annoying to mow grass. I'll just come out and say it...I hate grass. I hate mowing it. I hate the pressure to keep it dandelion free with chemicals. It's a monoculture ecosystem that is so unnatural. So I'm waging a slow guerilla warfare on it by ripping out sections every year and planting perennials galore, ornamental grasses, bushes, and trees. It's great fun, excellent exercise, and very satisfying. Our yard is slowly morphing into a bird sanctuar. The perennials are mostly natives - the black eyed susans and coneflowers thrived this year. I'll be downing a dying spruce this fall - that will open up another huge section to plant next spring. I can't wait.
August 28th, 2021 at 5:46 AM ^
I love this! I’m down in my 1/3 acre lot to little enough grass to only weed whack. I am reminded of something I heard from a landscaper though, which was the savannah theory of human evolution. Namely that we came out of the trees in savannah areas and like to be able to see for some distance to avoid predators. And that may be part of why people like mowed grass lawns. At any rate, keeping a very small grass area near the walk and door may feel right. Of course you might just do it with mondo grass or sedge.
Happy degrassing!
August 28th, 2021 at 5:59 AM ^
Good. I hate massive lawns. What a waste and a bunch of work to keep it "perfect". My uncle lives in the LA area and he said the neighbors thought he was crazy for taking out the lawn and putting in a bunch of native plants to the area that do much better and don't take loads of water.
A family friend moved out of her house and my mom wanted me to mow her lawn to keep it up. I really didn't want to but she convinced me since people may think it's abandoned and break in, steal scrap metal, etc. But it felt so ridiculous. It was much more beautiful than a couple inches of green grass. Long grasses, "weeds", little various flowers all over, lots of bugs trying to escape their impending doom at the hands of a mower. Of course it's nice to have a little lawn if you got the property for cookouts and sports and what not, but I really don't understand the football fields I can see all over in the suburbs where I'm from.
August 28th, 2021 at 6:11 AM ^
I have a similar feeling. I do enjoy caring for my lawn, but not so much of it. So I'm trying to find ways to cut back on the green without adding more work.
August 28th, 2021 at 6:39 AM ^
I guess I'm the oddball here cause I've got a pretty big lawn (3 acres) and love cutting it. After a series of misadventures with yet another incompetent landscaper I finally broke down this past May and bought a Hustler zero-turn mower with a 60 inch cutting deck, along with an electric push mower and weed-wacker. Takes me about an hour to do the riding part and then another hour to do the hill and other areas the Hustler can't get to with the push mower and trimmer.
I find it to be both great exercise and great thinking time.
August 28th, 2021 at 7:35 AM ^
Part of my problem is time allocation. I'm at that stage in life where the little wigglers take up a lot of my time, but if I could spend all day working on my landscaping I would totally take on anything.
Remember that scene in Rush Hour when Chris Tucker says "Don't ever touch a black man's radio!"? Well I think there's a similar expression that goes "don't ever touch a middle class suburban dad's lawn." Most of my neighbors have lawn care contracts but I would never dream of letting anyone touch my lawn.
And I upgraded to a zero turn this year as well. The only problem is that I have literally no flat terrain and so I was limited in what I could get. I found one from Weingartz that has a steering wheel which makes it capable of maneuvering the hills, and since I have 2 acres to cut it has reduced my mowing time by half. The problem is that while it has a hitch like my old Deere tractor, it really can't handle any of my tow behind equipment, so I may have to rent a dethatcher and spreader so that I can overseed this fall. I've had to fertilize with a push bucket, which, yikes.
August 28th, 2021 at 9:53 AM ^
We have an 80 x 150 lot in an older inner-ring suburb. Relandscaped three years ago and left a 24 x 24 patch of grass in the back. Going to replace it with plantings and crushed stone. It's way too shady and a waste of effort and water to keep the grass looking decent.
August 28th, 2021 at 8:44 AM ^
Over the years I've grown to hate cutting/trimming the lawn. When we built our house, we left too many trees standing - a virtual forest inside the fence. So I've been cutting them down little by little over the last few years, sometimes bringing in a pro service to top some that are close to objects. I've cleaned it all up, and should finish it out this Fall/Winter. This will open up ~1 acre inside the fence, the rest of the 5.5 acre lot is forested - so nobody will encroach on our privacy. Unfortunately, this leaves about 50 stumps that will need to be removed. Can't wait for that.
Why do I say all this? Because the JD belly mower can't get close enough to anything to avoid trimming. I have about an hour on the tractor, and 1.5-2 hours of trimming. I really need to find a way to cut that down... But with the forest, and all the ducks/geese/chickens we have running around, I have to be conscious of snakes (incl copperheads) so I can't just let it all grow.
August 28th, 2021 at 9:01 AM ^
Preach. We got rid of most of our grass and put in shrubs, trees, and flowers—including hydrangeas to stay on point for this thread. I love it. Grass is such a waste of water and doesn’t help global warming or protect animals. The thing that kills me the most is when people buy a patch of forest Up North and then replace all the beautiful trees with acres of grass.
August 28th, 2021 at 9:35 AM ^
Ditto. I bought my house in 2017 and have slowly been turning the yard into a series of perennial/rose beds with clover paths between them. The clover is really nice to see when it's in bloom, the bees love it, it doesn't need to be mowed as often, and it doesn't require watering or fertilizer.
August 28th, 2021 at 10:13 AM ^
Good plan, I started doing the same thing in my yard at a home I owned for almost 20 years, was about 3 or 4 years into the project when I sold that place.
August 28th, 2021 at 12:43 PM ^
This is awesome. PLANT LOCAL GRASSES, FLOWERS AND TREES! Protect and nurture the pollinators.
August 28th, 2021 at 5:45 AM ^
As condo residents, we don't have room for anything that can't grow in a planter. But the MGoGirlfriend tried her hand at growing three different varieties of cherry tomatoes. Except for making the rookie mistake of not getting tomato cages that were big enough, it was a great success. Add those to her basil plant and the mozzarella she gets from the local Italian market, and we've had fresh caprese salad since July.
She also got a different variety of hibiscus that's supposed to be a perennial (we'll see in the spring.) It took longer to blossom, but when it did, the flowers came up like little white satellite dishes. Gorgeous.
August 28th, 2021 at 6:08 AM ^
That's hardy hibiscus, also known as rose mallow, which is supposedly a native plant. They need tons of water but the payoff is worth it. I have 12 (I think). Some of the newer varieties have impossibly dark foliage, my favorite is called starry night, followed closely by midnight marvel.
August 28th, 2021 at 7:48 AM ^
Yup, that's the one. And the leaves were beautiful even without the flowers. Thanks for the heads-up on the other varieties - we'll look for them in the spring.
August 28th, 2021 at 8:48 AM ^
My first dog, a golden retriever, ate every flower that bloomed on the hibiscus trees we had. He stretched his neck out like a giraffe. We never saw a bloom for more than a couple of hours, and haven't had a hibiscus since...
August 28th, 2021 at 5:55 AM ^
I grew some pot
August 28th, 2021 at 7:34 AM ^
Cool thread. Gardening is one of those things that, though I don't do it myself, impresses the heck out of me.
August 28th, 2021 at 7:43 AM ^
this is probably my favorite OT thread, ever. really nice.
August 28th, 2021 at 8:30 AM ^
I have been thinking of putting in hydrangeas. Those of you with them, do you get mantid egg sacks on them?
August 28th, 2021 at 8:37 AM ^
I have three hydrangea bushes (?) that predate my time in the house, and I've been here since 2009. They are usually pink, purple, and blue, but they've been pretty white and brown for most of the summer. I recall reading somewhere that despite their name and common knowledge, it's fairly easy to overwater them, but I definitely neglected mine this summer.
August 28th, 2021 at 8:58 AM ^
I don't really talk about hydrangeas ever, but my wife and I had a conversation about how this has been a great year for hydrangeas, both ours and all of them in the neighborhood. Must have been more rain or something.
August 28th, 2021 at 9:32 AM ^
Love this post!
Garden lovers take note that the Belle Isle (Dutch designer Piet) Oudolf Garden had its official opening today.
August 28th, 2021 at 9:42 AM ^
Holy shit! You killed it with the variety of plantings. We have more of a modern home and went with mass plantings of fewer varieties. Three types of hydrangea. Large expanses of lariope. A few other grasses. Boxwood. Thinking about taking out some of the lariope and putting in some Russian sage for a little more color.
August 28th, 2021 at 11:48 AM ^
Here in Southern California we’re getting barely enough water to sustain our avocado and citrus trees. Michiganders, enjoy your rain and the plants it sustains.