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I'm converting my suburban midwestern lawn into prairie plants because I hate mowing. I planted several hundred plants in front of my house last year and now it's time to work on the back. I put in a big order with Prairie Moon and here is what I have planned for my first round of plantings: Andropogon gerardii (Big Bluestem) Sporobolus heterolepis (Prairie Dropseed) Schizachyrium scoparium (Little Bluestem) Chasmanthium latifolium (River Oats) Panicum virgatum (Switch Grass) Sorghastrum nutans (Indian Grass) Bouteloua curtipendula (Side-oats Grama) Carex molesta (Field Oval Sedge) Eragrostis spectabilis (Purple Love Grass) Artemisia ludoviciana (Prairie Sage) Echinacea purpurea (Purple Coneflower) Asclepias syriaca (Common Milkweed) My backyard was entirely buckthorn and Tartarian honeysuckle when I moved in. I'm still working on removing the buckthorn that pops up after two years, but I'm hopeful that I've exterminated most of it.
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Feb 9, 2024 17:16
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 23:07 |
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Discussion Quorum posted:Good luck! I seeded a xeristrip on my property with prairie verbena and pink evening primrose. Where it widens out, I've seeded various coneflowers, lanceleaf coreopsis, lemon mint, and Engelmann's daisy. Sadly, we have had such a warm winter that I am wondering what germination is going to look like for things that want to be stratified. I threw down a bunch of seed mix amongst my plants for stuff I wasn’t able to buy in plug form, like partridge pea, plus some freebie mixes from Prairie Moon and MNL. We are also having an unseasonably warm winter with low precipitation so I hope that things still come up. I learned of the existence of prairie parsley (Polytaenia nuttallii) through one of my plant groups. It’s a host plant for the black swallowtail caterpillar, so now I’ve got another thing to add to my list of things to plant this year. I have surprisingly few photos of my garden as a whole because it’s not terribly photogenic yet - tiny plugs spread out a foot to two feet apart on a backdrop of wood mulch doesn’t photograph very well.
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Feb 10, 2024 03:28
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Why plant kale when you could plant a leafy green that doesn't taste hateful and bitter?
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Feb 13, 2024 20:13
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Marsupial Ape posted:So, now I’ve nearly killed my bok choy seedlings in the grow tent, I’ve discovered that they are cool weather plants. Apparently, all leafy greens are. I’ve been playing around with hydroponics since November. Had a lot of fun…murdered a bunch of plants. I've always wanted to give hydroponics a try. Did you buy a system or build your own?
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Feb 13, 2024 21:26
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Marsupial Ape posted:I’ve also got a plan for container gardening on my back porch. I have to do something with all these goddam Tidy Cat buckets. I have a seemingly endless supply of plastic buckets from horse supplements. Now I might have a use for them!
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Feb 13, 2024 23:11
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Pioneer42 posted:I had a huge stack of empty Vitalix buckets that I turned into planters by just drilling holes in the bottom for drainage and filling with soil. I forget the plastic code that they were stamped with, but they are supposedly food safe. They have turned out great and now I can keep just over fifty peppers going during the summer. That's the dream. I want to grow so many varieties of peppers but I'm so limited on space in my raised beds so I usually just stick to bell and jalapeno.
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Feb 14, 2024 16:02
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Chad Sexington posted:A little frustrated that the leaves I've had collected since fall 2022 still hasn't really composted into leaf mould. Maybe I could be watering/turning it more. Is there any reason not to use my fresher shredded leaves as mulch? Turning is key to making great compost, but I've seen people rig up clever ways to aerate their compost piles by drilling a bunch of holes in a piece of PVC pipe and sticking that in the pile. I leave the leaves in my garden as mulch and it does just fine so I don't see why you couldn't use your shredded leaves as mulch. I was thinking about getting a head start on my mulching this year as we haven't had measurable snow in months but we finally got a few inches on Wednesday. Everything beyond the retaining wall and up the hill will be getting mulched and then planted with natives. My yard looks really horrible here but this is what I'm working with. I would eradicate the lawn entirely but I have three dogs that need a lot of space to run. 
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Feb 16, 2024 15:48
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Dr. Eldarion posted:Are there some good guidelines somewhere on filling raised beds? I'm going to be making some this year that should be ~2 feet tall. I have some sand and a bunch of fallen branches and old firewood I was going to throw in the bottom, but that still leaves quite a bit of space. Presumably not all of that needs to be top quality amazing soil, right? Know any farmers or horse owners? Compost is a great way to fill raised beds for cheap or even free if you're willing to do a little work.
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Feb 27, 2024 18:09
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mischief posted:Those flowers really are stunning. Every year we have the same discussion and swear we're going to use some random corners of the garden to grow flowers and I never get past anything more than marigolds. Plant some perennials and you only have to do it once!
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Feb 27, 2024 20:01
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therunningman posted:Thanks! She has done a tremendous job of carving out our half an acre on into a small, dense flower farm! I help with some organizing and building things but it greenery is all hers. This looks like heaven. Hot tip for anyone looking for affordable trees, shrubs, and native plants - check out your local soil and water conservation district to see if they have a tree sale. I just purchased three 36-plant kit trays for less than $200. The same kits purchased through the nursery would be $350 plus shipping. Your local SWCD is also a great resource if you want to go back in time and remember what the pinnacle of web design looked like in 2005. I don't know what plants the kits will contain until they show up, but they will be a mix of plants native to my area. Here's what I picked up:    And now we wait two to three months for everything to show up. Please say a prayer for me in hopes that this order doesn't show up on the same day as my other large order, and that I get my site prep done well in advance.
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Feb 28, 2024 16:55
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For those who wish to dream even bigger than a trunk load of mulch, there is a service called Chip Drop where you can get an entire truckload of mulch for free. The only caveat is that you get an entire truckload of mulch. For most of the summer last year I had a pile twice the size of my Honda Civic sitting in my driveway. It took forever to spread it out over my yard. This year I opted to have a palette of bagged mulch delivered. I underestimated how much mulch is on a palette because the dang thing is taller than me. Pinus Porcus posted:Watershed Councils also do this. Our local one will even provide free native plants to anyone one has water on their property. I've been planting about 30 trees in the back quarter acre of my property.... Great tip! Some of my local watershed district offers grants to homeowners for projects that improve water quality. mischief posted:Is this how I end up with chickens finally? Fresh eggs and free compost! I've got four hens. They're really a lovely addition to a garden.
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Mar 1, 2024 17:35
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Alterian posted:How many of you are thinking more long term about some of the larger things you plant outside? I've always made sure to plant things that are comfortable in my current growing zone and higher because of climate change. My area just got bumped from a 7b to an 8a officially. I had my suspicions. I used to just barely be able to grow bay laurel. It would get a little too cold and die back every coule of years. I've had this current one going for about 5 years now and its a small tree. My figs are also doing amazing. Minneapolis moved from 4b to 5a with the recent zone change. I talked to an arborist about my needs and concerns as I plan to live at my current residence for a long time. I was really bummed to find out that the changing climate would make my site unsuitable for larch or paper birch. We decided on a swamp white oak and a hackberry for my front yard because they are both hardy trees with lower risk for future diseases and pests.
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Mar 18, 2024 15:27
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Mountain mint (Pycnanthemum virginianum) has fibrous roots rather than rhizomatous roots so it won't spread as aggressively as mentha species. Downy wood mint (Blephilia ciliata) is another mint that is not as aggressive. Both of these are edible and native to the US. I highly recommend finding a mint that is local to your area to help your local pollinators! I'm currently shopping around for price quotes on planting trees. I've gotten anywhere from $450 to over $2200 for a single bur oak.  There are differences in sizes, but even the same size tree can have hundreds of dollars in price difference. I'm leaning toward spending a little more and going with the ISA arborist who has been taking down invasive trees in my yard.
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Mar 22, 2024 16:41
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Justa Dandelion posted:How's everybody's garden going so far? Still under several inches of snow, and not much is happening until May. I do plan to do some mulching as soon as the snow disappears and fence off some areas so that my dogs won't tear up my new plants by running all over them.
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Mar 30, 2024 15:08
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Atahualpa posted:Well, it's a work in progress, but here's what I've got now: I don't really have any advice since my plants live in the ground rather than in pots, but wanted to say that this is a lovely little setup. It looks so serene and peaceful.
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Apr 2, 2024 20:40
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I planted some herbs but haven't planted much else. I started a little tea garden in my front planters with garden sage, sweet mint, spearmint, and lavender. Any other herbs I should get for a tea garden?
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Apr 26, 2024 15:59
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Discussion Quorum posted:My use case is culinary rather than tea but I find that thyme and chives are my #1 most used. All good ideas. I use a lot of thyme and parsley in my cooking so I will be picking some of those up as well. Jhet posted:Tea. They won't last as a perennial in zone 5 but it might make a nice annual. I don't know why this didn't occur to me. effika posted:For tea: Lemongrass tastes like poison.
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Apr 26, 2024 17:04
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Picked up some chamomile and another variety of lavender for my tea garden, as well as some cilantro, roma tomatoes, jalapenos, bell peppers, and some annuals for my front porch. The weather is supposed to be under 45 degrees at night time for the next week or two so I'm keeping them indoors until it warms up. I'm picking up two large trays of native plants this week. I still haven't finished prepping the area where I am planning to plant them because I can only function under the extreme pressure of a looming deadline.
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Apr 29, 2024 15:38
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CommonShore posted:What are everyone's garden goals this year? Philosophically, I mean? 1. Finish planting my front yard with natives. 2. Experiment with some annuals in pots. 3. Grow tomatoes and peppers in pots. 4. Make some progress on planting my backyard with natives. 5. Install some kind of water feature. I live near a busy freeway so I'm looking to cover the sound with some pleasant white noise.
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May 3, 2024 15:35
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Picked up three trays of plants from a local SWCD tree sale. I ended up with lots of wild ryes and asters, plus some brown-eyed susans, mountain mints, columbine, coneflowers, and more. It took me a couple of hours to get all of 108 them in the ground but by far the more annoying and time-consuming task was fencing off all of the new plants with chicken wire so that my three dogs don't trample my new plants. In the new few weeks I'll be getting 80+ more plant plugs, mostly grasses, and hopefully finishing off a large chunk of my front yard prairie.
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May 6, 2024 15:49
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 23:07 |
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Lead out in cuffs posted:How are those galvanized raised beds? I've seen some people using them around here, and figure they're probably a fairly cheap way to do it, but I worry about them overheating in summer. I like mine but I have a male dog who likes to mark his territory so the bottom edges of my beds are starting to corrode. My raised beds in my backyard don't get full sun so I decided to start a cut flower garden in them instead. So far I have poppies, salvia, and avens. It's my one area where I am planting non-native flowers.
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May 11, 2024 16:07
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