Garden stuff

[velvetpage]

sassy_fae and I took a look at my back garden. The prevalence of moss and the lines of the massive old tree in a neighbour's yard convinced both of us that only deep-shade plants will manage there. However, there is a hosta there that migrated from the backyard next door, set up shop, and is now (according to Jenn) reading to be divided into six or seven smaller hostas. Can anyone tell me if I should do that now, or wait until fall, or at some other time? I'm thinking a bag or two of topsoil, a few hours with a shovel, and the expertise of a friend, and I should have an entire row of pretty green hostas in my backyard.

There's also enough sun along the edge of the garage, at least in the spring before the tree fills out, to plant a strip of spring bulbs. I desperately want some spring bulbs next year - maybe even enough to get me off my duff in October to plant the darn things. :) I want daffodils and hyacinths and crocuses. I've already got lilies - they're growing along the back fence, untouched and loving it for as long as we've been here. I've also got a good-looking Rose of Sharon that just needs some pruning. Again, advice - do I prune it now, or wait until fall?

My composter needs some attention. I've never turned compost before, and don't really know how to go about it, but there's probably some black gold at the bottom of it from all the grass clippings Piet's put in there over the years. The top layer is corn husks from last summer. What do I do with this stuff?

Comments

In case you didn't notice...

[catsarah.livejournal.com]

...it's not just my thumbs that are green ;3

Don't wait til the leaves open, you'll damage the plants less if you divide before they open. Make sure each clump has 3 or 4 good well rooted shoots per division. sometimes they have side shoots that have no roots and those won't take as well. I could either continue to explain how to do this, or I could come over one afternoon and help you do it. I may even be able to donate some Hostas to your collection (I have some smaller variety white and green).

Prune the Rose of Sharon now before most of the buds come out. I can show you how or prune yours for you, I have two (well one and a half now) really nice R of S in my yard backyard.

http://catsphotogallery.infohost.no-ip.org/DouglasGardenPics/ You can have a peek through that folder...I'll see if I can find some R of S pics and some hosta pics to throw in there too. I have (had? might have been lost in one of several hard drive crashes) pics of before and after pruning.

You can do a couple things, depending on what kind of composter you have. If it's movable, you can move the composter over one width and open the top and ford the compost back into it and when you get to the good stuff at the bottom you can put it in a container/bag or spread now. Or, if you want to leave the composter in the same place, get a tarp, scrape off the stuff that's not rotted, and once you get out the good compost, put the old stuff back in. (clear as mud?)

Hope that helped. Let me know if you want me and my clippers to come down and help. I work for tea and cookies :D

Re: In case you didn't notice...

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I may just take you up on that. :) You're the third person who's offered to help me with my garden!

Re: In case you didn't notice...

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

*grins* It'll be a team effort, but we'll get Erin gardening!

I wasn't sure if it was already too late for hosta division, as they've already started to get green buds. I'm going on a 10 year old memory of my ex's mom dividing them. I have exactly two hostas now that I have a house, but I put them in as babies last year, so I won't need to worry about dividing yet!

I'd like to watch the division and pruning process too! (I believe the division is as simple as a clean sharp shovel) as I'll need to do it eventually!
My parents have rose of sharons from my grandfather, and I'll be getting some from them, so any experience in keeping them happy will be handy.

I look forward to meeting you one of these Friday nights! It's always nice to have extra company when losing at Settlers to Erin ;)

Re: In case you didn't notice...

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

And I was nice, too! I wasn't cutthroat at all! I just got better rolls, and had a basic strategy (lay low and make sure no one notices you're winning until you've won.) I even helped her with suggestions and a few trades.

You two can sit across the table from me and discuss my strategy while I win handily, and in a much more cutthroat fashion.

Quote: "See? I'm nice to newbies. " *steals a card from Piet for the third time in a row*

Re: In case you didn't notice...

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

*giggles* It hardly counts if you're sharking Piet while he does his mildly put-upon look of flusterment!
Win in as cut-throat a fashion as you want, as long as I've got little wooden pieces to play with, I'm happy :)

Re: In case you didn't notice...

[catsarah.livejournal.com]

Yes yes! Very nice...I even had lots of cards left at the end of the game and many many wooden pieces too! What? That wasn't the object of the game? Darn! :/

Re: In case you didn't notice...

[catsarah.livejournal.com]

So long as the leaves aren't open too far, you can divide them any time in the spring. It's best to pull the entire clump that you want to divide up, wash away dirt, check out the roots and cut the divisions so they have good roots for each division. A clean sharp knife is more precise and kinder to the plant than a shovel.

I have many many many many (did I say many?) rose of sharon babies to donate O.o Takers?

And I wonder how easy it is to form alliances in settlers...or blockades so someone doesn't win ;3 MOi hhahahahah!

:D

Re: In case you didn't notice...

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Oh, we do that to Piet all the time. :)

I've got at least three Roses of Sharon in the backyard already, and only one of them is staying.

Re: In case you didn't notice...

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

I can see how a sharp knife would be more more precise! Anna (the ex MIL) had a lot of shade and huge front and back lawns. When she divided the huge hostas every few years, she was all day at it, even using the quicker shovel method.

Forming blockades and alliances is easy enough in Settlers, especially if someone is well into the lead! Bear in mind that blockading Erin earns her wrath. She usually plays to win, but at that point, she'll play for world domination :D

[urban-homestead.livejournal.com]

I hack my hostas with a shovel, and so far, they've always forgiven me. As everyone else has said, get them early, before the leaves unfurl.

The easiest way to turn compost is to have two composters. Then you just shovel the contents of one composter into the other composter. But if you just have one, open up the bottom door, and shovel the half-composted stuff from there into the top of the composter until you've gone full circle and you see stuff coming out the bottom that you know you've already turned. Then water it and put the lid on. If you do this every weekend, you'll have usable compost every month.

If there is a clear bifurcation in your compost layers, it's better to get all the compost out, stir everything together, and then fork it back in. A single type of input does not compost very well - the more combined it is, the faster it breaks down, so long as you get a good carbon: nitrogen ratio.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I think I'll do that latter, then. It should do wonders for the muscles in my arms!

[urban-homestead.livejournal.com]

I always find my compost is in two separate layers in early spring, but once I do a thorough stirring, I don't usually need to do more than the bottom-to-top type of turning for the rest of the summer. Although, in my case it's the bottom of composter A to the top of composter B so that I always have one full one (fuller composters break down stuff faster) and one open for new stuff. One thing I LOVE about the City of Toronto is their openness to helping people reduce garbage and water use by providing low-cost composters and rainbarrels. Is it the same in Hamiliton?

I was thinking about this post last night, and wanted to add (sorry for the unsolicited advice I'm bombarding you with!), if you literally meant you were going to put the hostas in a straight line, you might want to rethink that. It's a plant that looks a little goofy and sparse in a straight line, at least until it has had a chance to fill back out after division, which can take a couple of years. My border hostas are in a zig-zag pattern
X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X
_X_X_X_X_X_X_X

which looks good, but usually I cluster them in threes like this:

X.X....X....X.X
.X....X X....X

which, for hostas, looks a little better, and then they spread out into nice clumps.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I'm okay with unsolicited advice from experts in areas where my own knowledge is as sparse as a recently-divided hosta. :)

I will consider the zigzag pattern, but my backyard is truly tiny - from garage to south fence is about twelve feet, and they'll be going along the south fence. I'll have to think about how deep I want them going.