Hey Y'all! - Garden Plants and Gardening Forum

Maggidew · 11-29-2007, 04:36 AM

I found this site while playing Scrabulous on Facebook, I'm glad I came!

I am a transplant - from western Oregon to the Piney Woods of NE Texas. I came to Texas in 1996 looking for more sunshine in my life and boy did I find it. I have also found a whole new world of plants and animals. I met my husband here, he had been raising peafowl for many years as a hobby and we quickly expanded our menagerie, and then nearly as quickly reduced it to a manageable level. Some animals just don't respect the flowering plants the way they should

Ken and I started out our garden in the hardest red clay and iron ore rock soil I had ever seen, I thought the soil in western Oregon was difficult, but this was so much worse. It's very rich in what plants need to grow, but it was very hard for them to root into. Ken is our local 'Compost King', he collects bagged leaves from a nearby gated community and dumps them into a huge pile (about 20 feet across and 6 - 7 feet high) and lets them sit there for as long as possible before using the end result in planting holes and for top dressing. After 10 years of adding good organic matter - and quite a few applications of gypsum to break up the clay - we have some pretty good soil to grow all the plants we just have to try.

We have tried a lot of plants here, some really love it, others have not done so well. This past Spring we had more rain for longer than in any of the previous years I had been here and I lost a few things that were forced to stand in water for way too long. Ken had been building raised beds for me to use as propagation beds, I am now planning to replant some Rosemarys and other plants to those raised beds to keep them high and dry.

Our current favorite plants are Gingers (all kinds), Elephant Ears (Colocasia, Alocasia and Xanthosoma), Bananas (Ken's current 'crush'), Plumeria, Brugmansia, Bouganvilla, Hostas (testing some for heat tolerance here), Toad Lilies, Chrysanthemums (Ken likes the cascading type Mums), Louisiana Iris (trying seeds from our existing plants), Palms, Banana Shrubs (have a few cultivars of what was classed as Michelia, now moved back to Magnolia(?)) and a few hundred other things - LOL!

One of my goals is to not use any synthetic chemical pesticide (a challenge) and to limit the use of Bt so as to not harm the butterfly population. I have planted a lot of butterfly attractors including Buddleia, Passion Vine, Lantana and as many Salvias as I can and the butterflies love it all! They love the Clerodendrums too, but some of those have GOT to go - they are taking over the back yard.

Now that we have our free-range chicken population under control (from 200+ to maybe 20+) we are seeing more lizards, frogs and toads as well as more Praying Mantis and other beneficial insects. Of course we also saw more grasshoppers (big, fat ones) late in the season but in all they weren't too bad.

Well, I guess I have taken more than enough space here. I am looking forward to getting to know all of you and all of this site in the coming year.

Maggidew · 11-29-2007, 04:50 AM

Oops, forgot to add that we are about 30 miles from Tyler, TX where they have the annual 'Azalea Trails' tour. I am not sure why, but my success with growing Azaleas here has been limited, to say the least. I will have to pick the best spot I can find and try them again.

smgardener · 11-29-2007, 08:23 AM

Welcome Maggiedew! Wow, the Azalea Trails looks like a great event.

lspichkin · 11-29-2007, 12:03 PM

Hi Maggiedew,

Wow. It sounds like you have quite an operation going on there in Texas. I would love to see photos of your garden. If you're interested in posting them you would just upload them to a site like flickr.com (it's free..) and them link to them for your posts by putting the links within image tags that look like this - [IMG] link goes here [/IMG].

I've thought about putting in some raised beds as well as having a few free range chickens but space is an issue for me here in Los Angeles....

Saturn · 11-30-2007, 12:30 AM

Welcome Maggidew, It sounds like you are coping with the different growing environment well. Butterfly attractors sound like something I should look into. Good luck in your growing.

11-29-2007, 04:36 AM	#1
Maggidew Green Gardener Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Piney Woods of NE Texas Posts: 2 Blog Entries: 1	Hey Y'all! I found this site while playing Scrabulous on Facebook, I'm glad I came! I am a transplant - from western Oregon to the Piney Woods of NE Texas. I came to Texas in 1996 looking for more sunshine in my life and boy did I find it. I have also found a whole new world of plants and animals. I met my husband here, he had been raising peafowl for many years as a hobby and we quickly expanded our menagerie, and then nearly as quickly reduced it to a manageable level. Some animals just don't respect the flowering plants the way they should Ken and I started out our garden in the hardest red clay and iron ore rock soil I had ever seen, I thought the soil in western Oregon was difficult, but this was so much worse. It's very rich in what plants need to grow, but it was very hard for them to root into. Ken is our local 'Compost King', he collects bagged leaves from a nearby gated community and dumps them into a huge pile (about 20 feet across and 6 - 7 feet high) and lets them sit there for as long as possible before using the end result in planting holes and for top dressing. After 10 years of adding good organic matter - and quite a few applications of gypsum to break up the clay - we have some pretty good soil to grow all the plants we just have to try. We have tried a lot of plants here, some really love it, others have not done so well. This past Spring we had more rain for longer than in any of the previous years I had been here and I lost a few things that were forced to stand in water for way too long. Ken had been building raised beds for me to use as propagation beds, I am now planning to replant some Rosemarys and other plants to those raised beds to keep them high and dry. Our current favorite plants are Gingers (all kinds), Elephant Ears (Colocasia, Alocasia and Xanthosoma), Bananas (Ken's current 'crush'), Plumeria, Brugmansia, Bouganvilla, Hostas (testing some for heat tolerance here), Toad Lilies, Chrysanthemums (Ken likes the cascading type Mums), Louisiana Iris (trying seeds from our existing plants), Palms, Banana Shrubs (have a few cultivars of what was classed as Michelia, now moved back to Magnolia(?)) and a few hundred other things - LOL! One of my goals is to not use any synthetic chemical pesticide (a challenge) and to limit the use of Bt so as to not harm the butterfly population. I have planted a lot of butterfly attractors including Buddleia, Passion Vine, Lantana and as many Salvias as I can and the butterflies love it all! They love the Clerodendrums too, but some of those have GOT to go - they are taking over the back yard. Now that we have our free-range chicken population under control (from 200+ to maybe 20+) we are seeing more lizards, frogs and toads as well as more Praying Mantis and other beneficial insects. Of course we also saw more grasshoppers (big, fat ones) late in the season but in all they weren't too bad. Well, I guess I have taken more than enough space here. I am looking forward to getting to know all of you and all of this site in the coming year.

11-30-2007, 12:30 AM	#5
Saturn Green Thumb Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: The Great Abyss Posts: 48	Welcome Maggidew, It sounds like you are coping with the different growing environment well. Butterfly attractors sound like something I should look into. Good luck in your growing. __________________ -l:SATURN:l-

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11-29-2007, 04:50 AM	#2
Maggidew Green Gardener Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Piney Woods of NE Texas Posts: 2 Blog Entries: 1	Oops, forgot to add that we are about 30 miles from Tyler, TX where they have the annual 'Azalea Trails' tour. I am not sure why, but my success with growing Azaleas here has been limited, to say the least. I will have to pick the best spot I can find and try them again.

11-29-2007, 08:23 AM	#3
smgardener Grounds Keeper Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 132 Blog Entries: 9 Images: 10	Welcome Maggiedew! Wow, the Azalea Trails looks like a great event.

11-29-2007, 12:03 PM	#4
lspichkin Administrator Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: West Hollywood, CA Posts: 199 Images: 88	Hi Maggiedew, Wow. It sounds like you have quite an operation going on there in Texas. I would love to see photos of your garden. If you're interested in posting them you would just upload them to a site like flickr.com (it's free..) and them link to them for your posts by putting the links within image tags that look like this - [IMG] link goes here [/IMG]. I've thought about putting in some raised beds as well as having a few free range chickens but space is an issue for me here in Los Angeles....