i just covered the seed with about 1/2in of soil with other perennial flower seeds. i just grew them for their looks. hopefully they reseed themselves as they are really beautifull. no i didnt till them in after frost killed them.
3 Likes
@Katie_didnt_Z4b i just broadcast/rake in, good for bees/looks and i harvest the grain in the fall (makes great flour for pancakes) i let it freeze then compost the stalks (mainly practive no till) its a good summer (ie warm weather) cover crop to keep a fallow area from getting overrun with weeds
5 Likes
Those are deer snacks here.
I love and adore peonies so i say yes just put them some place you don’t care about ants right?
1 Like
No worries about the red ants. My mother grew these when i was a small child and they remind me of her. Think i will give her these first two i harvest. I ordered her some hard to find soda pop and fruit cake this week because all of these are some of her favorites. Love her and want to make her happy for as much time as she has on this earth. Shes been a truly wonderful mom to me always. My sisters took after her and have many of the same qualities.
8 Likes
They remind me of my grandmother! I am very blessed to have her and these were her favorite colorado flower (not bush she has a lot of favorite’s) I just bought her a homemade Wynter ice cream maker so she can have excellent real ice cream without tons of sugar. I have been reaching out every day and i think its a good time to remember what is important in life!
4 Likes
That is so sweet. The smell of peonies reminds me of my mom and dad too. We always looked forward to them blooming, one of the first flowers of spring up north.
4 Likes
My mother always let me cut her flowers as a small boy and i remember blowing off the red ants that were always on the blooms. Was not over 3 years old when that started. She taught me about everything beautiful i know. Art, gardening, poetry etc… My dad taught me about lots of other things but those are not the things he values. He was forbid to mow the yard because he mowed off all flowers. Takes time to cut around them so he found a faster way but that way causes you trouble long term.
3 Likes
My dad’s mom had a long hedge of peonies that followed the curve in their driveway. They call them Memorial Day peonies, because that’s when they boomed. My mom and dad had the same ones. My dad was often the one to cut and bring in flowers for us all to enjoy. He would find the pussy willows blooming in out of the way places and bring those home too. I have wonderful memories of both of my parents and the things they loved.
I am pretty territorial over the yard. I don’t really trust anyone but me to mow! I have too many little trees, shrubs, or flowers in odd ball places that no one knows but me! 
Mowing over plants sure is faster, but definitely not the wisest choice around here either!!!
4 Likes
I am the only person that can mow my yard because someone made it extremely difficult to mow, my wife mowed the yard for my birthday one year and hit a entire row of flowers she helped plant. Needless to say my goal on mowing the yard is 2x a year for the whole thing and it never gets done all in the same day that is to much to ask for in general. What grandma did great at was hating yards and loving dandelions and clover she always had a little area for the dogs and tons of flowers with bunches of peonies and lilacs and mock orange shrubs, she did best with the ones that did good on there own. Although she kicks butt at roses! My mom has a much greener thumb than my grandma and always helped and my great grandma had the greenest of thumbs and the coolest french garden as we all learned from her. She grew enough food for a family of 8 during the depression and before as it was always depressed out here according to her, and did tons of companion planting with flowers for bees. I was lucky but we got good farming genes down from my grandfather.
3 Likes
There is a woman who decided she wanted to marry me once after i picked her cucumbers for her when she needed some help. Did not go around there anymore for awhile because my intentions were kindness not marriage. Took my shoes off and stuck my toes under the vines working my way through the patch slowly. Having grown up around farmers those types have no tolerance for boot wearing in the melon or cucumber patch. She apparently was surprised and impressed no vines were damaged. Some people pick cucumbers like they are stealing them.
3 Likes
You took your shoes off you were gentle and kind and she was sold! Sometimes the fuzz on cucumbers when you reach deep into them gives me goosebumps.
I find it amazing you can teach children in minutes how to properly harvest vegetables and then you have adults that just squish them and rip the plants apart. Sometimes when i see peoples plants languishing I wonder can they not hear it scream?
2 Likes
Guess it takes all types in this world and we all have our gifts and curses. Picking cucumbers gives me a soar back and dirty feet but there is something satisfying about it. When i kept flocks of chickens i would throw all the yellow ones in their pen after i split them open because they loved them. Summer is great when you have a 100 ripe cucumbers and tomatoes! The excess is a blessing. I knew an old man once on the river bottoms who grew watermelons but he only ate the heart of the melon and the rest was cow feed. Its amazing how good a good gardener is to themselves and the people and animals around them. West indian bur gherkins are another favorite of mine.
2 Likes
Oriental poppies are easy for me and have been coming back for years. Creeping phlox and lavender are easy if they are in a spot they like. Calendula and borage are annuals but seed themselves exceptionally well so I can count on them every year.
You really can’t beat those regular orange day lilies though - they call them ditch lillies for a reason!
5 Likes
Marigolds also reseed themselves here pretty well. Pink calendula are really pretty amazing flowers. I keep borage in my strawberries. Do your dogs try to munch on the poppies? Mine are part cow and graze on alot of things, I always worry about chives and garlic but they seem to avoid those.
I had a friend who as a kid would only eat the watermelon hearts and throw the rest of it away but he was from the south, that is sacrilege here, No one has too many watermelons.
1 Like
No way would I do that! I have massasauga rattle snakes around here. I see them around and IN my garden, so I always keep shoes on! I picked up a tomato plant that had drooped over on the ground and there was one coiled up underneath. That gave me a “little” start! After that experience, I keep my shoes ON! 
2 Likes
I dug up a clump of “ditch” lilies for my mom a few years back. I sent part of the clump to her (in Florida) and threw the rest in a grocery bag. The next year, after she had passed, I found that bag in a corner of the yard and the darn things were blooming-still in the bag!
They always make me smile and I sacrifice a small part of my precious yard for them.
Scott
Her favorites were lilacs and I’ve got them too.
3 Likes
I keep forgetting to add a post about a daisy I have. The foliage looks like a succulent and the flowers look like Shasta Daisies. They are called Montauk Dasies and they are terribly easy. Just take a stem once leaved and push it into the soil. It will root, just like a sedum.
The only negative is they stink when pruned, like burnt rubber.
Scott
1 Like
Another flower my family grows but i do not is golden glow. This is a perennial. My mother kept one by the back door when i was young. Never saw this flower outside of my family and with this web search. Its real names is Rudbeckia laciniata ‘Hortensia’ “An heirloom coneflower often referred to as the ‘Outhouse Plant’ as it is very resilient and long lived; flowers in late summer with frilly chrome-yellow double daisy-like flowers, can grow very tall under the right conditions”
7 Likes