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Intro
Hi! My name is Brea and my husband and I just bought our house last summer so this is our first year that we are delving into the gardening thing. DH takes care of the usual lawn maintenance but he's leaving the gardening up to me.
I don't know much and luckily the previous owners had a great eye for this stuff and planted a bunch of gorgeous perennials so we have a great place to start, but there are some things that I want to get involved with and I imagine that I'll be looking to here for some help along the way.
When we first moved in we planted a small dogwood tree in the back yard. It was a gift from my parents and I love the idea of planting something as soon as you move in and watching it grow with you over the years.
We have a water tower that's just behind our property and blocked off by a chain-link fence. The previous owners planted a barrier of bamboo blocking the water tower from view in the back yard. It's wonderful, but I am constantly kicking down new stalks of bamboo at the moment as it's trying to take over our yard and grow towards the house.
They also had two rose bushes that have gotten huge. I want to get rid of them, but I am a little daunted by the task because of all the thorns and how thick the branches are.
I look forward to "meeting" you all on here and to our first attempt at gardening this spring!
Re: Intro
Welcome! From everything I've read, bamboo just does that. You can trench it, but you're always going to be pulling stuff up. Info here: http://www.bamboogarden.com/barrier%20installation.htm.
In my limited experience, killing a rose bush is a lot easier than moving it. I had a miserable specimen the previous owners had planted too close to another, healthier one. There was no way to dig it up without killing the good one, so I just pruned it down below the surface. I put a piece of cardboard where it had been, and piled four inches of dirt on top. The next spring one tiny sprig grew up, and I pruned that out too. This year, nothing. But I was starting with an already sick plant. If you know someone who wants it, you can prune it to a few short stems (like bareroot roses have) and let them dig it out. If you don't like it because it's just too big, you might be a little late this year, but many roses do well with a pretty hard pruning.
Anyway, welcome again! What region are you from? Do you have any favorite gardening sources (magazines, books, blogs)?
"The meek shall inherit the earth" isn't about children. It's about deer. We're all going to get messed the fuckup by a bunch of cloned super-deer.- samfish2bcrab
Sometimes I wonder if scientists have never seen a sci-fi movie before. "Oh yes, let's create a super species of deer. NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG." I wonder if State Farm offers a Zombie Deer Attack policy. -CaliopeSpidrman
Thanks for the link! I had found several online today (while I was thinking about it) and that is probably the most thorough of the ones I saw. I just sent it to my DH.
And thanks for the tips on the rose bush, we will probably just ride it out for this year and worry about it in fall.
We are in Maryland and at the moment I don't have any favorite gardening resources but I am definitely open to suggestions of things to check out! I really feel like a novice
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