Lemon Balm
Posted on 10/22/2010 5:49:06 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Oh dear RD, I fear you have a severe case of the vapors...
Thanks for the advice L. I may have to stop by there this weekend. I want to find a few thing for the garden like onion sets. My bell peppers are the size of baseballs already. I missed one and it is red now.
I know this is not the time to plant trees. Did you happen to notice if they had any citrus trees there? I want to plant a tangerine tree in the back yard.
We use citronella candles to keep the mosquitoes away. That and skin so soft help when I am playing with the dog in the yard.
Good grief- I was totally blindsided on that one. I have to clear my mind of that image before I can go work on cleaning up the garden if I don’t want it contaminated for next season.
We have lemon balm all over and someone said that if you rub it on your skin, it keeps mosquitoes off. I haven’t tried it.
They grow their own trees and have knockout orange and lemon bushes - didn’t see any tangerine, but wasn’t looking.
I can recommend the newish ‘Chandler’ Strawberry, very vigorous and setting fruit right now.
All the bulbs they carry are deer-proof.
I’m really excited for all the winter flowering vines (Pink Jasmine, Winter Honeysuckle, others) I got for a buck a piece. They have three 50% off tables with fantastic perennials, mostly stuff you’ve never heard of. They’re into
exotic, eclectic plants with unusual and striking flowers.
I tried to do that with my garden, but my wife wouldn’t volunteer to do the work...maybe we need to have some kids so they can “volunteer.”
On another note, after spring’s garden was completely scorched by the Florida sun and heat - not to mention the insect toll taken.
I have tried a different approach for my fall garden. I moved it so that it was right outside the back door of the house. I made a square foot garden using the oak lumber from our futon that broke over the summer and I subsequently disassembled. Still have pieces left over. This weekend,
I got all the dirt, vermiculite, and sphagnum moss together and mixed it all up. Made a grid from some cable tv wire I found hanging from a giant wooden pole in the front yard. I stapled lengths of it in place on the perimeter of the box. Planted the grids with broccoli, beans, tomato seeds and a plant i bought for some strange reason at Homie D the previous week, lettuce, spinach, red beets, cucumbers, and sowed together radishes and carrots.
Armadillo visited that night and dug it all up. So I figured he had found all the grubs there were to find and fixed it. Same story the next night. This time, I got out the roll of 1 foot tall chicken wire I had gotten at St. Vinnie’s for $6 and made a perimeter fence on top of the box. He hasn’t been back in there since.
Some of the radishes are already up as are a couple of red beets I think and some spinach and lettuce. I was rather surprised. Oh, and I also mixed some “turkey poop” into the soil when I mixed it together...this ought to be an interesting experiment. :)
Ya just had to show it, didn’t ya? :-D
Meant to add the new garden is 30% vegetable and the rest aromatic. If the flowers or foliage don’t smell fantastic, it didn’t go in.
We had a bit of rain last night the first in 7 weeks and we're hoping for a break of a couple of hours to finish shredding the corn stalks, Statice and Marigolds to top off the 2 piles we have going and start a new one...
Yep...it was just spitting snow outside my window here in the People’s Republik of New England...wife is spitting blood.
Since the link goes to the current live radar, it’ll be gone in a couple days.
;)
OK. Thanks for the advice. I have a few things to do this weekend, but may stop by there on Monday after our DR appointments. The wife and I both have followups.
I will look at the bulbs. We haven’t found much the deer DON’T eat. My neighbor keeps us supplied with strawberries. He planted over 200 plants last year.
This NY gardener grows 45 different roses and asked me if there are any Rosarians in our diverse crew?
I missed this earlier, but have never heard of lemon balm.
LOL. I guess you are really into the gardening now. It just started to rain here at the camp. Looks like a small passing shower, but it is wet.
Noticed your comment about pulling up some boxwoods-how big were they? I have some (well actually about 2 dozen-YIKES)of those nasty bushes that I would love to tear out. Been debating whether it is possible to do it by hand or do you think I need to use a chain around the base and yank them out with the hitch on my pickup? I’ve heard of people removing them that way. I am so tired of them...they are sucking the water and nutrients out of the soil-they were originally planted as a border to several of my flower beds. Ugh! Are their root systems shallow? Just wondering. Trying to get an idea of how much of a bugger it is going to be to remove them......
It’s cool stuff and kind of looks like spearmint and smells like lemons. I love hitting it with the mower out in the yard. The fragrance is great. But it is rather invasive and grows everywhere. You can make tea from it but I haven’t done so. I’m pulling the stuff up and replanting it elsewhere to make way for rhododendrons.
Good I can get back to my denial. We’ve had insanely beautiful weather this fall and no one wants it to end.
we have as well...it started here in FL a couple of weeks ago and has been beautiful since then...I think the Orlando Slantinel said currently 79 degrees on their website...
Lemon Balm
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