Good vibes to the rose!
Thank you for the lilac pruning tips!
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Okay, that makes me feel a bit better 
I didn’t prune the entire thing. I still have some that are pretty tall and I’ve got flowers, so I didn’t want to get rid of those yet. I think when summer officially starts, though, I’ll do more hard pruning and hope for the best!
Thank you 
It’s difficult because I have no clue what half the stuff is, and some of it propagates on its own and spreads! That one bush in the backyard that has two maples growing up through it spreads through the root system and then pops back up through the soil to try and grow new plants 
I pulled out so many last Spring, but they just come right back. That Juniper (I think that’s what it is…) in the back needs to go, too. It’s too close to the other trees, and the top of it is breaking off!
I’m sure my partner will do a lot of digging to get stuff up, but getting my Jeep positioned right to pull things out will be difficult because of the street I live on 
I’ll have to be careful and time things just right, or we might have problems!
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@Susurrus it took 3 years for my pineapple to have a baby pineapple. I can’t wait until it’s ready to pick! I have other pineapple plants that I need to put in bigger pots so they will grow.
I harvested rosemary a few weeks ago and finally finished putting the dried rosemary in a jar this morning. I’m going to need a bigger jar.
This is just one branch.
The jar I used is one that’s tall to hold spaghetti. It’s almost full and this is just my first harvest. I’m going to be drying rosemary all summer long!
I have bugs eating my canna lilies and my basil. Has anyone ever used Neem oil? I wanted to use something that wasn’t poisonous and I sprayed the plants this morning. It doesn’t smell good!
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One benefit of the rain is that my garden looks great.
My hanging boxes had to be moved when the deck was torn down and they are waiting to be put back up after I refinish the wrought iron railings.
Monarda (Bee balm) and lemon balm.
Cherry tomatoes, bean plant climbing higher than the pole, cucumber flower.
Mugwort (fallen over), valerian root hiding under the catnip, Catnip (taking over) and marshmallows.
Shade garden with hostas, astibles, roses, daylilies, sundrops, irises, jack in the pulpits, and local ferns.
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@Artemisia your gardens are looking fantastic!!!
Here’s my garden update:
Warning, probably too many pictures of plants!
The small hosta raised bed.
The candy corn spirea is almost turned to it’s final color. And the purple bee balm plants are growing like crazy. The little perennial sunflower with the fantastic foliage is well on her way as well (far to the right, next to the two tone rock).
The hostas along the back side of the house. They get no shade yet they are the biggest hostas I have.
A few hostas along the fence line. All the clematis (but one which I lost over the winter) have buds. It won’t be long before I have flowers. In between the two hostas, I’ve planted catnip and curly rush (new this year). I had to block them off with rocks and pots because one of my greyhounds loves to hunt chipmunks and they have an escape tunnel along the fence line. She has dug up more things than I can count. Until I finally figured out why she was so interested in that space.
My 5 horseradish plants are up and doing well! These are new this year.
One of my 11 asparagus plants. This was the first one up and so the tallest. This is the first year for them so they are all skinny and spindly looking. I guess it’s just as well that they say don’t harvest them for the first three years. That wouldn’t make much of a meal.
The new silver mound artemis plants (one in the shadow of the bird bath). My first rosebush (put in last year, she’s looking so good. I tell her that every day).
The new cat mint and my mugwort. They are settling in nicely. I know the lavender plant looks dead but it has put out some green leaves at the very bottom. So she stays. The yarrow in the back (year 2) has settled in nicely.
This is the other yarrow in the same raised bed. It’s got buds. I hope for flowers fairly soon.
This is my milkweed patch. I got two of those monarch butterfly decorations this year knowing they’d be perfect here. I’ve circled some of the milkweeds on their way up. I’ve counted 20 shoots so far.
A few things appear not to have made it, but on the whole I’d say 98% of the stuff either survived the winter, or survived their being planted in my yard this year.
Happy gardening everyone!
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I now know what all of these are that are growing around my house, too they must be really popular here in Maine. The previous owner of our house planted them everywhere!
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Mainer’s tend to be nutty about hostas. They can grow in full shade and are really hardy. Since it’s cold and not as sunny as the southern half of the country, they work perfectly.
I have to admit to a rather large collection of hostas. Every year I add a few new varieties.
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@Artemisia - it all looks so wonderful and green!
@veronica1 there’s no such thing as too many photos of plants!
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Great pics!
It’s the bane of being a new homeowner - moving into a house where you have to deal with someone else’s bad landscaping. I’ve never been in a house where we haven’t had to tear out bushes that were planted too close to the foundation.
I have 2 small trees by my patio. Except, they’re not trees. One is an overgrown Rose of Sharon, and it’s intruding into an also-overgrown burning bush. They’re like 15 ft tall - my husband has slowly pruned them into more tree-like shapes.
It’s sad what happens by simple neglect.
Anyway- you’re not alone!
Looks like you have a good handle on things, though. Keep us posted!
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@Artemisia and @veronica1 your plants are beautiful!
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It’s definitely apparent! I think they’re pretty, so hopefully I can save some of them when we do more gardening. Things just need to be more organized and less…thrown together:laughing:
Yup, you’ve got that right! The people who lived here before fancied themselves carpenters and professionals in everything they did…except they absolutely were not I might post some pictures of the ridiculous stuff we’ve found that we’ll have to fix in the house in another post, because it’s really amazing that they thought it was all a good idea!
Of course! I definitely plan to!
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The good news is that hostas are very hardy. It’s hard to kill them. And they thrive on benign neglect.
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Well, that’s good to know, then! Thank you 
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Flowers in my side garden - Astilbe, White climbing Rose and Daylily
Marshmallows (hoping they bloom this year!), Catnip & Mugwort
Veggie garden with beans and tomato plants growing like crazy, my container gardens that usually live hanging off the deck railing but had to be moved for the re-decking.
Veggie garden, Oregano
My first green beans of the year.
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The first harvest has arrived - hooray! 
All your plants look awesome, @Artemisia. You’ve got some beautiful gardens! 
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Such an amazing garden!! It’s doing great! Your flowers are so beautiful 
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OMG how exciting!! 
You have so many beautiful things growing in your garden!
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It looks wonderful! I love your setup.
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Some more stuff is starting to flower here and growth has been awesome. I was happy to have added a bunch of herbs this year, feverfew, mugwort, valerian, sweet woodruff and sweet william. I added another lavender plant, another lemon balm and two more sage plants.
Two of my 10 clematis have opened flowers. The rest are all pretty close.
My new grape vine has started doing exactly what a grape vine should.
My dappled willow has pinked out beautifully.
The feverfew has put out some flower buds.
The sweet woodruff settled in really quickly and is putting out new growth. (The things circled in yellow were some unknown bonus plants that came with the woodruff. I decided to roll the dice and see what it becomes.)
It looks like it will be a good year for blackberries. They’re blooming everywhere here.
And I went on a rock hunting trip to my favorite mine. Got a bunch of new yard/garden rocks. All the black is black tourmaline to protect us and all my plant babies. I also got some more larger quartz pieces to make sure the energy that is protecting us is always charged.
Hope all your gardens are magical!
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Beautiful flowers and plants! Love the rocks you found.
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