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canpakes wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:22 pm

Doc, if that’s an actual image of the end result of your strip conversion, I’d say that it looks great.

Regarding pollinators, may I ask what quadrant of the state you’ll be relocating to? Asking given the huge differences in climate between them, and how that’ll determine planting choices.

I’ve been experimenting with pollinator and hummingbird-friendly plants over the last couple of years since converting our strip. The poppies are coming into ‘round 2’ after our light rainstorms, and some of the penstemon are proving more dependable/adaptable than others. Size and color differences within the family are great. A current favorite are the electric blue ‘Wasatch’ type.

Watching a thousand bees do their thing in the midst of a full bloom of poppies is pretty relaxing. : )

- It was my house, except we painted it green and added a porch pergola.

- We moved to the northeast quadrant.

- You flipped your strip?! I’m super into that. If you want to share a picture of it I’d be interested. I love watching watching the bees here because they’re so docile. We had a lot of Russian Sage planted in the yard and it was strangely comforting to watch the bees hang put in them. We also got a surprise this year - because our milkweed propagated so well these little guys set up camp in our yard:



- Doc

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:54 pm

- You flipped your strip?! I’m super into that. If you want to share a picture of it I’d be interested.

I don’t have any good pics of the strip as a whole as it’s hard to capture in an image. It’s only 30” wide so pics don’t capture detail at the distance needed to grab a wider shot. I did take a couple of pics of a few of the first round of flowers, though.

These were nursery castoffs identified only as penstemon, but they appear to be p. grandiflorus:




The poppies will bloom well in spring, but die off pretty quick as soon as summertime temps hit. Then they’ll make a second, less showy appearance in the fall.




Wasatch penstemon has a great blueish color. The hue can range from this slightly purplish tone, to more sky-blue …



We like a more natural, rangy look, given that the width of the strip limits what we can place within it. Hidden from view are actually a few small agaves and bear grass - this winter will be their initial test of cold-weather survivability.

I love watching watching the bees here because they’re so docile. We had a lot of Russian Sage planted in the yard and it was strangely comforting to watch the bees hang put in them. We also got a surprise this year - because our milkweed propagated so well these little guys set up camp in our yard: <snip>

What are those little critters?

canpakes wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:22 pm

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 01, 2021 3:17 pm

I flipped my strip years ago, but planted double knockout roses:



which were pretty, but not very useful for pollinators. That’s something I always regretted doing, so moving forward I’m thinking of my space as an oasis for life, a way station for the things we need to maintain balance with the mechanisms of life. It’s sounds kind of hippy’ish, but there’s wisdom there.

- Doc

Doc, if that’s an actual image of the end result of your strip conversion, I’d say that it looks great.

Regarding pollinators, may I ask what quadrant of the state you’ll be relocating to? Asking given the huge differences in climate between them, and how that’ll determine planting choices.

I’ve been experimenting with pollinator and hummingbird-friendly plants over the last couple of years since converting our strip. The poppies are coming into ‘round 2’ after our light rainstorms, and some of the penstemon are proving more dependable/adaptable than others. Size and color differences within the family are great. A current favorite are the electric blue ‘Wasatch’ type.

Watching a thousand bees do their thing in the midst of a full bloom of poppies is pretty relaxing. : )

In this area, we call that a hell strip. I have no idea why. Anyway people downtown are turning their hell strips into flower gardens and their front yards into vegetable gardens. Plenty around here do xeriscaping. While going back and forth to hospitals downtown I was able to lay eyes on the hell strips and front yards. They look like an explosion of LIFE IN COLOR!!! You'll see, for example, a property like the one Cam showed only the front hell strip is filled with Mammoth Sunflowers(!!!) and kind of serves like a privacy screen for the house. Other houses have small hoop gardens or raised beds right in the front yard.

People in our gardeners group that have to deal with HOA's are totally jelly of the houses downtown!! We also have plenty of um...discussions...about front yard lawns vs. growing food in the space.

This year, I intentionally decided to plant perennials that are attractive to pollinators and on the list of deer resistant plants. I ordered 7 bare root Denim and Lace Russian Sages which look like the regular Russian Sage but a bit smaller. I gathered up seeds for Coneflower, Black Eyed Susans, and Cosmos. One day (after overthinking where I was going to place the seeds in the front flower bed) I decided to "do it like a preschooler would do it". Emptied out all the seed packets into a plastic container, went out there, scratched back the soil and threw them all in around our Salvia (which the deer hate and the pollinators love).

Only the Cosmos managed to come up. I was really hoping for the Black Eyed Susans (my favorite flowers of all time--top of the list) but Cosmos never let me down so I accepted it. It didn't take long before I realized I had a volunteer gardening assistant!

This is Mama. She specializes in dead heading deer resistant flowers.




*That rope stuff is not used for a clothesline. It's a place to hang art to dry.

OMG canpakes! I would kill for that!!! So beautiful and natural looking! I die!

Here's a photo of a new hell strip transformation.

Jersey Girl wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 01, 2021 11:02 pm

In this area, we call that a hellstrip. I have no idea why. Anyway people downtown are turning their hellstrips into flower gardens and their front yards into vegetable gardens.

We’re finally seeing a lot more of that around here, too. I like that the idea of a front yard not being limited to ‘lawn only’ is gaining wider acceptance.

Plenty around here do xeriscaping. While going back and forth to hospitals downtown I was able to lay eyes on the hellstrips and front yards. They look like an explosion of LIFE IN COLOR!!! You'll see, for example, a property like the one Cam showed only the front hellstrip is filled with Mammoth Sunflowers(!!!) and kind of serves like a privacy screen for the house. Other houses have small hoop gardens or raised beds right in the front yard.

Lots of giant native sunflowers pepper yards around here, too. I have a few in our front yard right now. If they come up naturally, I’ll usually let them stay, if they’re not in the way of anything. They look great with sage, and coneflowers.

This year, I intentionally decided to plant perennials that are attractive to pollinators and on the list of deer resistant plants. I ordered 7 bare root Denim and Lace Russian Sages which look like the regular Russian Sage but a bit smaller. I gathered up seeds for Coneflower, Black Eyed Susans, and Cosmos. …

Only the Cosmos managed to come up. I was really hoping for the Black Eyed Susans (my favorite flowers of all time--top of the list) but Cosmos never let me down so I accepted it. It didn't take long before I realized I had a volunteer gardening assistant!

This is Mama. She specializes in dead heading deer resistant flowers.

I like Cosmos and will try them next year. Last year and this, I tried BES, calendula, and blanket flower from seed, and they took off well. The BES came back this year, if not looking a little floppy, lol. They are such a ‘cheerful’ flower - those and Shasta daisies, which could never have grown in my old neighborhood.

Canpakes, that’s bee-utiful. Seriously gorgeous, I’m a huge fan of California poppies and poppies in general. I really like that people are moving away from lawns as a status symbol and more i to gardening. When I was stationed at the Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey, that’s where I discovered yard gardens, as in your whole yard, can be normalized and incredible. I’m looking forward to this gaining momentum in our region.

Here’s a pic of a happy sunflower we grew in our garden this year:



10 ft up that one, and virtually no supplemental water. Crazy.

Also, milkweed beetle:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraopes_tetrophthalmus

- Doc

canpakes your photos are out of this world! I forgot all about the Shasta Daisy seeds until I read your comments. Not one of them came up. So I toddled off to the garden center at Walmart and picked up a few potted ones. Will put those in the ground and hope for the best but Mama and her friends have their own idea about what constitutes deer resistant.

They did not touch the marigolds I planted! Marigolds are probably one of my least favorite flowers yet there it is.

This is what I hoped to create:




Here's what actually happened thanks to Mama and her friends. I can't bring myself to be totally ticked off by them even though the ate everything in sight including my shade garden Hostas and Columbine. They're all nursing mothers. They didn't touch the Salvia that grows to my waist. I'm not that big so I don't think I'm bragging.

Does anyone grow micro greens? If so, how hard are they to develop? I've been eating them like it's my job over here. Does it cost much to grow them in terms of equipment?

Jersey Girl wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:31 am

Does anyone grow micro greens? If so, how hard are they to develop? I've been eating them like it's my job over here. Does it cost much to grow them in terms of equipment?

My wife grows micro greens in a mat that's about a 1/4" thick, no dirt. Hydroponic multi greens are really simple to grow. If you get really high tech you can water them with a timer and just check on them once a day to make sure there's no mold growing. I grow wheat grass and barley for my rabbits hydroponically. Also really simple. I buy a 50lbs bag of wheat from a feed store for $11 and it will last about a month. It will yield me about 450lbs of wheat grass if I let it grow to about 6 or 7 inches tall. Wheat grass is great for shakes also if you want to try it.