13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
There's nothing wrong with taking soil from a tomato growing area and working it into soil in a perennial garden. Whatever pest/disease might be present via growing tomatoes in one spot for years is very unlikely to pose any real hazard to ornamentals.
Potting soil is fine (I compost it along with plant trimmings and leaves) as a garden amendment. You just don't want to use mixes with a lot of perlite, as it's very lightweight, comes to the surface and looks funny.
brer - take a chill pill. Relax. Planting things doesn't have to be a pass/fail effort.
Thanks to my parents practicing organic gardening for 50 years, I have healthy, slightly-acidic sandy loam where I live. I began winter sowing perennials, shrubs & trees back in 2009. The trees (dogwood, apple & pear) are now taller than I am. I used MiracleGro Moisture Control potting soil back then and haven't noticed any less success in my garden beds after planting out winter sown plants along with the soil they were grown in.
If your garden soil is healthy to begin with, whatever you plant out should grow well. I'm not in your zone. My parents practiced organic gardening for 50 years before I moved here. It never hurts to test your soil and keep track of the moisture your garden receives each season. Mine receives adequate rainfall each year to sustain my garden beds so I don't sweat whether or not it's healthy. That may or may not be true of yours.
TIP: Don't panic. Healthy plants generally survive. Keep in mind Ma Nature has kept the planet green the past few millennia.
You're in Zone 7 so a lot warmer than where I am. I recommend you have your soil tested so you'll know if it's clay or loam. Some plants thrive in clay soil; others don't. Do your homework and find out which will survive where you are. The information is readily available on the Internet.
Have all the plants I set in the soil thrived where I am? They haven't. Did I expect them to thrive where I planted them? Of course since I didn't know then what I know now.
A garden can be a colorful adventure and a journey. I hope you can calm down and just enjoy the trip. Last I knew, growing plants wasn't a Pass/Fail test.
The link below takes you to the Missouri Botanical Garden. Just do a search for the plants you want to grow & you'll have information about growing conditions.
TIP: Acquaint yourself with botanical names.
Here is a link that might be useful: Missouri Botanical Garden
Hey PSG! We did get some of that "wet stuff falling from the sky" - actually quite a lot of it in 24 hours, after a record January without ONE SINGLE DROP! You can bet my garden and trees were doing a happy dance along with me. I had put out every tub and bucket I have and many overflowed but I'm afraid we will be back to whining about our drought pretty soon. Your three gallons a minute seems better than a treasure of gold to me! I'm always glad your area is as beautiful as ever though. Min
My plot at home is 18 steps long and 9 steps wide. The allotment is a half plot, so 125 sq metres - about 1345 square feet - but I only grow vegetables there with a few self sown annual flowers. It's plenty for me. If I had more space it would become a source of guilt for not being out there enough.
Yes, it is very prickly!! :)
I wish the birds would plant it in other areas. I haven't seen any saplings around the base that I can actually get to without being pricked, so I'd have to remove some stems. I was hoping to be able to propagate from cuttings (the article says I can, but the link is broken), which I've only ever done with succulents, so I guess I'll try it and see how it goes.
Yes I am in Central Texas, near Lockhart, with blackland clay soil.
The article posted above hel
I am out by Hamilton Pool area on the fracture zone of the Edwards Plateau.... limestone marly stuff. If you want, I can dig up a few and pot them up. We could meet in Austin or San Marcus. I find them sprouting under where birds like to collect. They will sprout under trees too.
Yes, the plant is a bit vicious, but not much. but it stays in one spot so I am not afraid. One can make jam out of the berries.The deer do not bother it which is a huge plus around here, and it does not take over. It also is a mother plant for other species because it protects seedlings from the voracious deer. It is a plus in the wild.. It is my holly substitute. They are not that fast a grower. There is a silver leafed one that I would love to get my hands on. there is also Texas Barberry that is a relative of it that only grows in my area. I have an immense one that a biologist was aghast when he saw the size.
MIn3, my dream too. But I will settle for my husband fixing the lights on my 16' trailer so I can go myself. I have asked for rocks more than once. I always pick up some when I go swimming down by the river. My large backpack and car are sorely overworked. I want larger rocks... never too many of them.
Right now we have a "cold spell", temperatures just below freezing, a powder of snow, and most of the plants keep going.
I picked those Hellebores and ivy today, gratefull to find anything, tomorrow is my aunt's burial, and I wanted to bring flowers but not just any greenhouse stuff or heavily sprayed flowers flown in from Africa or southern America.
She gardened as well, different style, but we could talk plant stuff hours for ages. So, a thanks to all tough winter flowering plants ( and our mild climate...),
Have a nice weekend, bye, Lin
That's interesting. My 'La Belle' spreads some via the roots (I figure it is because of its sterility), but never had it happen on my plain persicifolias.
Did she mean specifically that those cultivars don't spread as aggressively by seed? If so I wish I would have gotten those before and saved a lot of problems, lol!
CMK
I LOVE all your support.
Unfortunately, Nova Scotia is being hit with its first real winter storm - I've been out shovelling three times (insanity!)
Boy, am I ever dreaming of gardening now!
Then again, you may all have to come dig me out of a snow bank come spring (I'll be sprouting along with the LOTV:):)
Cheers,
Dina
Dear Peren.all,
Cement….brilliant!!!!
Hmmmmmmm…..first, I'll dig that trench to Australia, then…
I'm seriously impressed, but also because of the spring runoff you mention - I'll have to show your photos to my husband to see what he thinks - we have sloping on the west side of the house (you can see the sloping in that first photo I posted-- the spring runoff seeped into a crack the first spring we were here. He dug down and repaired it, but I think at some point, we need to look at a longer term solution.
Do keep us updated on that battle of the Titans:)
Cheers,
Dina
Rouge, in the meantime I could always replace the wrongly named clematis with 'Omoshiro' I have this one in a pot, also bought from GI. It wasn't doing too good where I had it planted so dug it up and planted it in a gallon pot last summer. Just noticed this morning it had two strong buds showing at soil level and two above. This might work climbing out of the patch of Mt. Bluet.
A few years ago I divided an old (50+ years) clump of Christabel iris that was no longer blooming well because it was so overcrowded. I divided again last year and now have more clumps than I can count. I gave away hundreds of rhizomes at that time, too. A few were mushy and got thrown into the compost heap, but those grew leaves anyway! I don't think I could kill this plant if I tried, so it's a good thing I like it!