Jennie&Tim on 21/11/2006 at 03:09

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Some great ideas here :) . Thanks in particular for the propagating tip about the rosemary, my biggest one is a varigated variety I haven't been able to find locally again, Raindrops or Sundrops or something like that. I got it six years ago and don't quite remember. It has yellow up the center of each leaf. My pink rosemary and Tuscan Blue are just babies yet.

Pavlovscat, if you want to replace the rubber with another long-lasting mulch you could go with gravel, and have a nice zen time with rakes. You'd want those delicious flamethrowers to weed though, 'cause everything likes to grow in gravel. Also, I'd recommend gradually loosening the ties to your oak trees, starting in your least windy season. Being too stringently controlled results in a weak trunk, because the tree never has to develop it's own strength; and isn't good in the long term. I'd keep a watch on them this Spring and see how much new growth your branches make, then ask a local nursery if that's normal for them in your area. A good nursery will also be happy to tell you what kind of tree you have if you bring in a leaf. Failing that, see if your county extension agent or local master gardeners can do the same. They're often at county fairs here. Most trees do best with fairly minimal care actually, and some trees actually prefer it kind of dry and don't like a lot of water. (http://www.treecouncil.org.uk/info/stakes.htm) The link gives some advice about unstaking a tree.

At least here, blackberries are easy to root, they naturally tip root all the time. They are tasty, but do take a look at the berries on the wild one before you bring it into your yard. There are some viruses that do nasty things to the berries, and you don't want to infect your soil.

My new gardening fork has been shipped, but the tracking number isn't in the system yet. Phooey.

Schala_Zeal on 23/11/2006 at 03:17

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Jennie&Tim, you seem very knowledgable about gardening.

In the last year I have become really interested in gardening. I am still a n00b at it though. I plan to learn a lot more. We just moved to a new house and our backyard is a wreck! The trees are overgrown and crowded, and the two decks on either side of our salrium are rotted and a bit tipsy. We had this really really ugly vine hanging over the one deck. It was disgusting! Thankfully my dad cut it down before I got out a lighter and danced around the flames.

We have this tiny little patch of grass and we want to just exchanged it for a really big deck. On the other side of our yard though we are putting in grass. The sad part is, we have to take out all of our gardening space! I hope my mom will at least let me put in a small yet productive garden.

We have wild sage growing in the hills behind us. We are in the start of the desert, with baby cacti, damn near put my hand in one while climbing it, and a really strange terrain.

Thanks for the information by the way!:D