washintonia 🌴 My first ever outdoor planting 🌴

[JohnAndSancho]

Volunteer Washies from @Fusca, who I have tagged in 196 posts this week. I didn't sleep, so I figured I'd sweat less if I went out at 7am. NOPE. Anybody who does this for a living has my utmost respect. I broke up lots of grass and gravel, found the brick barrier and started digging along that before I said screw it and just laid the landscape timber down to mark it. 

I dug my holes way too deep, and they're in a mix of good organic soil and native soil after I shook out inches of grass roots out of it, then drenched everything. It drains. They didn't fall over. They're not under the eaves of the roof to catch condensation and rain, they'll get plenty of sun, and I warned the cats that I know how to dig more holes. The bigger one looks like it's leaning a little but I'll undoubtedly have to go back and add more dirt at some point and mulch the bed. They look ok for sitting in a box for a week. 

 

Anyway, pics. 

[Harry’s Palms]

Good luck on those👍. Harry

[JohnAndSancho]

I know how much everyone loves night time flash photography garden pics, so.... 

 

This is the bigger of the 2 Washies. This is very much a "use what you've got laying around" project, so I've got pieces from an old broken window screen holding it up until it starts to root. 

This is the smaller one. Looks kind of sad and droopy but I'm hoping it'll recover. I'm using the cardboard to smother the grass, I'll lay more down tomorrow and attack it with the rake and hoe again. It's deep rooted grass with gravel underneath so it's fun. 

I'm planning to just use these old landscape timbers to border everything off and keep the mulch from going everywhere once I get out all the grass and the remainder of the wisteria roots. I wanted to dig the drain deep enough to where it can go under the timbers and flood the yard and not my bed. I need to figure out something to line the sides of the drain with - I miss the good old days when you could get like 2 miles of plastic landscape edging for $9. 

I'd like to find a decent sized cheap Sabal Minor or two or 12 to throw in here but this is very much a 3rd world poverty project. Maybe I'll get lucky and find a small one in the woods. 

[happypalms]

I like your style job well done. Has the cat been to London to visit the queen! 

[JohnAndSancho]

6 minutes ago, happypalms said:

I like your style job well done. Has the cat been to London to visit the queen! 

Actually yes. There was a nice big turd on top of one of the bricks I'm using to weigh the cardboard down. I know I mentioned this earlier but I did let the cats know I'm not afraid to dig another hole if they tear up my plants. I think these Washies are just unhappy since they were sitting in moss in a box for a week. All the Philodendron cuttings that came with them looked a little heat stressed too but they'll recover. You know I only kill the really rare expensive plants. 

[happypalms]

I like your style job well done. Has the cat been to London to visit the queen! 

[JohnAndSancho]

Not trying to violate my own HIPAA rights here or anything, but I'm not in the best of shape and I take a lot of meds that drain me and make me very suceptible to heat and humidity. So I get started at 6:30 am attacking this stupid Wisteria. Y'all I swear it looks like I was digging a grave. Every time I thought I had the end of it, it changed directions on me. I dug and dug and pulled and pulled and dug and dug and pulled some more, and after I had a 2 ft diameter hole, I was up against the house, I just said screw it and hit it with the loppers. 

I broke down some more cardboard to lay down over the grass, and I found a dead kitten in one of the boxes. 🤢 

After I cool off and hydrate and my heart slows down, I'm going to go throw some more cardboard in a couple other spots and grab a few more timbers and maybe I'll plant out some of my baby Sabal Bermudana. I'll take pictures then. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Sooooo freaking close to lining up just right. I know it's like a 20 second cut but sooooo close. 

 

Just a little bit more to go on my French drain. I guess because this is Mississippi it could be a Cajun drain. I want to plant something that won't get too tall on the right of it, but it's gotta be able to take the sun. 

 

Yeah, it's basic. I'm not doing all those fancy circles and ovals yet. This is my first rodeo. 

 

I need to get back in the habit of naming my plants. This one can be Droopy. The new spear coming out is solid though. 

 

This one, I dunno. Welcome to Mississippi, little homey. That sun ain't no joke. I hope it adapts quick. 

 

I backfilled the Wisteria hole as much as I could stand to. I'm really thinking I want to put the Butia x Lyto in there. It's big, and we now know that it's bombproof. 

 

I had 2 more landscape timbers I really wanted to use, but they're kind of full of ants right now. 

 

Anyway I guess when I take Sancho out again, I'll show these Washies the picture of Big Bertha from LA, and tell them they need to toughen up. After I yell at them I'll water them, because Christ on a cracker it's hot. 

[JohnAndSancho]

I didn't do anything today, but pictures anyway. The other day i very stupidly dug into the wisteria hole again just because I wanted to know how fast this soil actually drains. I'm used to little pots filled with bark that drains in seconds. I flooded this hole and it took a few hours. Even worse, now yellow jackets are coming in and stealing my mud. 

 

I haven't even finished killing all the grass in the front yet, I'm pretty much exhausted just from walking my dog, I sweat like a goat just standing outside, and I'm already eyeballing and imagining other spots in the yard. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Progress. Slow, but progress. The cultivator is my favorite thing in the world right now. 

The bigger of the 2 Washies from @Fusca - I think both of these fronds are new. The rest just absolutely cooked in the sun. Looks like it adapted real quick. 

 

Lil' Droopy over here too

 

Ok so just for reference, these bricks once upon a time were the border of this flowerbed. I'm pretty sure these bricks were from the house my grandfather grew up in, so they're easily 150 years old. I'm using his tools to dig out and reclaim my grandmother's flowerbed from years of grass. I dunno if they'd be proud or if they'd think I'm crazy for planting palms on old farm land in East Mississippi - probably a little of both. There's another line of brick under here somewhere, too. Eventually I'll clean them up and find something cool to do with them. 

 

I chased the rest of them off, but Hugh stuck around to supervise. His full name is Hugh Jass for The Simpsons fans. I'm gonna have to find some kind of fencing or plant something they hate, because I really don't want this to turn into a litterbox.