Urban Gardening and Landscaping

[ChandraNH]

Okay, got the raised bed built and one more being built tomorrow.  I waited a bit to put out my plants (my neighbors put theirs out right before the last cold snap.  I went by the farmer's almanac!).

The bed cost us about $10 to build (not counting the circular saw we purchased (which he swears we needed).

Photos found here:  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/ ... d8b6cbb2c0

[grovester]

Every project deserves a new power tool, just ask pumpkinstalker!

[shinatoo]

Those look great!

A garage without a circular saw is like a kitchen without a oven.

[mlind]

The beds look great.  If you have tomatoes, use those wire cone-like things to support them.  Install them now.  They are impossible to install after the plants are large.

[KCMax]

Great posts! I'm also stealing the rock bed idea. So simple, yet I don't know why I didn't try it myself.

[warwickland]

The incessant rain has splattered my seeds around.

I tried to till up some additional areas of my bermuda grass yard and the gas powered tillers spines were repelled from the devil grasses roots like BBs on kevlar.

is it just me or is it a crap spring? maybe it's the bronchitis and heavy drinking.


http://ielstyle.com/wp-content/uploads/ ... downer.jpg

[FangKC]

Digging that top level of sod off is the worst. Hate it.

[ChandraNH]

@warwickland

Not just you.  Between the rain and the cold, frosty nights, I'm worried for my plants.  I think I'm going to start some seeds later on this summer outdoors as well.

On a great note, we purchased another power tool (A string trimmer with a power head that allows you to change the end attachment to something else.  so in addition to the string trimmer attachment, we now have an edger attachment and a tiller! attachment).  I'm going to till up an area of the yard and put down some sand and then some paving stones to make a patio.

[FangKC]

I have been taking my plants inside and out for days. I wish the weather would make up it's mind, and stop dropping down into the 30s at night.

[warwickland]

I have a 7 year old lemon tree which is in nightly peril (not unlike myself) that i am deeply protective of. I planted a lemon seed in some dirt in Southmoreland after drinking a particularly fresh 6 pack of Boulevard Wheat, and here we are.

[mlind]

Re cold nights.  Make sure the plants are well watered.  Oddly enough that helps prevent freezing.  Also, cover them at night with plastic to keep the heat in.  Just be sure you take the plastic off early in the am or the heat from the sun will cook them.

[ChandraNH]

Checking back in to see how everyone's gardens are doing.  I've been on the road for two weeks and came home to massive changes in my garden.  The tomatoes are outgrowing their cages, the cucumbers are snaking off into the grass, cantaloupe blooms are appearing, some peppers have formed.

How about your gardens?

Here are updated photos:  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 5f7fb978c1

[FangKC]

Organizers hope to plant change in KC with urban orchards

SkillsUSA volunteers plant fruit trees and bushes in the West Side neighborhood near Penn Parkway.

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/06/24/29 ... hange.html

[DaveKCMO]

did anyone else go to the urban farms and gardens tour? we went to about 6 or 7 stops yesterday, with plans to revisit the refugee farm in quindaro again today.

architecture nerd bonus! the shipping container house in brookside is on the tour!

http://urbanfarmstourkc.com/

[warwickland]

Man I DESTROYED myself in the yard today. I still haven't figured out how to approach the front of the house, but I bought some magnolias today to put against my back fence as a screen to some big ass apartments. everything is so much harder with bermuda grass, though.

i also bought a european palm...everybody around here is so obsessed with tropical type plants, the whole pure native plant movement seems to be thrown out the window and everyone has to have a banana tree, agk. it looks good with the cannas around the yard and the magnolas will fit in. my back yard is a bit of a micro climate with a southern exposure, no wind, and a under a monstrous urban heat island effect (some cannas survive the winter). anybody have any luck with wintering a european palm in KC? I'm in zone 6a, but it's also cloudier in winter over here.

[warwickland]

The palm tree seems to be surviving the winter...i've got a rubbermaid container over it this weekend with some christmas lights for some heat.

I'm thinking about buying a Rhapidophyllum hystrix, needle palm. They survive the winters in D.C. and should be OK in the lower midwest...i'd put it in front of the house the same way as this specimen in DC...


Rhapidophyllum hystrix and Magnolia macrophylla by DCTropics, on Flickr

[ChandraNH]

Yay! It's almost spring.

We're planning on putting in an orchard in the backyard this year, using the backyard orchard culture technique (put 3-4 trees in the space of one and keep them aggressively pruned and no more than 8-10 feet tall, also planting succcessive ripening varieties). The plan is currently to put in 12 trees and create a hedgerow, but this seems to have really caught the boy's attention and we may wind up with 24 trees:

6 apple
3 pear
3 plum
3 cherry
3 fig
3 nut trees

My dwarf citrus trees are doing well (I brought them inside this year). I'm wondering if I could get away with growing vegetables in my front yard instead of foundation shrubs. I am planting sweet potato vines along the side of the house this year (they grow like crazy) in order to harvest sweet potatoes this fall.

[Roanoker]

How nice! I look forward to your updates. Pictures would be nice, but I don't see how you have time even to implement your wonderful plan.

[heatherkay]

I certainly don't have any objections to vegetables in the front. I'm gradually sneaking herbs into our front garden. In our old neighborhood in Roeland Park, there was a house around the corner from us that had planted blackberry bushes as a line of shrubs. Really pretty flowers in the spring and berries in the summer.

[ChandraNH]

Heather, I have an oregano plant in my backyard, that has survived winter very well, and is very pretty. Blackberry/blueberry/raspberry bushes would be a good idea since they look like shrubs. I'll give it a shot.