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Thursday, August 2, 2012

Lessons Learned

Every month Laurrie at My Weeds are Very Sorry posts her most current GOOPS, a gardening oops that she wishes she hadn't made. I love these posts because I make GOOPS constantly. Who ripped out her favorite coneflowers when she thought they had aster yellows but they didn't? Me. Who planted a gargantuan viburnum too close to the house? Me. Who has an entire patch of barely alive, rotten rooted swamp milkweed because it's suffocating in soil the consistency of pottery clay? Me

But along the way as I make all these goops, I learn a few things. The coneflowers will be replaced, the viburnum is there to stay, and I've already created a multi-step plan to rescue the milkweed. Here are the lessons I've already learned this week and it's only Wednesday.


Happy agastache is huge agastache!


I love the soft orange of these flowers.


Deciding to rearrange your pots at midnight isn't as bad of an idea as it sounds. Just turn on all the inside lights to help you see what you're doing. 


 My iris are about 2 ft taller and wider than I ever expected them to be. I'm not sure where to put this pot but for now, this spot works!


Sometimes your local nursery will surprise you by having several pots of the exact plant you've been looking for. This is liatris ligustylis, also known as Meadow Blazing Star, a native plant that attracts monarchs. I tried to grow these last year as bare roots, but the soil was too heavy and they rotted. Guess where I planted them? Right next to the doomed milkweed.


Fat buds line the stems.




When you're out visiting colleges with your daughter, just because you have a small car and the walkways look like roads, doesn't mean they are. That was disappointing. 

41 comments:

  1. I enjoyed this tour of your garden; I have lots of flowers and herbs in containers too.

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    1. I add more containers every year but I think I'm at max capacity right now with 55 pots!

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  2. Ha! You are still learning painful lessons, and that encourages me : ) Your peach agastache is so pale... I'm used to the brighter ones. What a great color it is close up. I thought my soil was too heavy and my winters too wet for agastache, but I went ahead and planted it anyway, expecting an oops, but mine is a happy one like yours. Here's hoping by next week you will have learned many more lessons!

    Thanks for the highlight at the start of this post. (P.S. that walkway is clearly large enough for a car.)

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    1. I've killed quite a bit of agastache but have noticed the peachy orange ones do well in the southeast, along with 'Blue Fortune'. My garden teaches me something new every day. It's a humbling experience!

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  3. Awww, I am so flattered about the Garden Love spot!! I thought I could comment on it in the sidebar, but will have to do so here. . . .THANKS!!! It is nice to know I have inspired more than sympathy in another gardener. Love the little red stone heart.

    You're the best and I enjoy our back and forth on plant choices and design!

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  4. I love your gray pot with irises, nice drawing.

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    1. I love the iris but they grow so quickly I need to divide them again soon!

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  5. Learning from your OOPs is good!! I need to pay attention to my goofs, because the same mistake may happen again! Love the Liatris!
    CNU? Talk to Jan at Thanks For Today, her daughter just graduated from there. We lived down the street from CNU when we were in Seaford.
    Will have to go to Laurie's blog to see other OOPs.

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    1. Yep, CNU was the college du jour in our visiting schedule that day. :o) VA has so many incredible schools its a challenge to pick the one that best suits a students needs. I'm really excited about the liatris!! Just in time for monarch season!!

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  6. Oh Tammy, come climb aboard this boat with me....I'm the captain of the GOOPS boat, didn't you know? I'm a professional GOOPS....but I'm learning so much as I go along.
    Your daughter must have been mortified when you did "that thing" at "that place", that's why my daughter does not travel out with me, except she absolutely HAS to!!

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    1. My daughter thought it was really funny and told all her friends about it. She's used to having a crazy mom. :o)

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  7. LOL!!!! Oh my gosh, I've done that as well! Terrible terrible! It's so embarrassing. I had a little Geo and did the same thing. Good times:) We're on the same page. Maybe it's a universal things with gardeners this time of year on this side of the world. Today I began working on a series of goops from around the garden....things I like and things that have got to be changed. It's never good enough even though the whole pictures looks great, there's some small details that need to be stamped out. Like this post a lot. Have a good Thursday night!

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    1. I think the only thing that stopped me were the giant pots of petunias in the middle of the giant sidewalk. I ended up driving down the bumpy handicap ramp back in to the parking lot. Good times indeed!! :o)

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  8. haha - I've seen some of those 'roads', but thankfully, there were posts in front of the entrance! :) I have lots of goops. It's just a part of gardening! I think the tricky part is learning from them. You'd think after a while, we wouldn't goof so much, wouldn't you? :) So glad you found the liatris ligustylis! That's a garden conquest!

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    1. Liatris lig. is available online but I was so excited to find it time for monarch season. I gave a few plants I wasn't thrilled with the ax so I could have room in my pots for them. If I could only figure out where to put more, I'd go back to the nursery!!

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  9. Thanks for being so honest, Tammy. It keeps us smiling and we all learn from each others' lessons, too. I'm just picturing you arranging pots on the porch at night--sounds dangerous! ;-)

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  10. In retrospect, it had the potential to be. I developed rotator cuff tendinitis last fall from all the heavy landscaping I did. I was in so much pain after putting in my rain garden and landscaping a friends yard this spring, I ended up on some pretty serious meds and back into physical therapy. However, after resting for several months I was able to drag that heavy pot around with no pain. Woo-hoo!!! Actually, I figured out a way to roll it a bit to minimize shoulder stress. :o)

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  11. I am always telling my kids the best way to learn is from the mistakes we make. Oh my, that is hilarious about the "road"; no, walkway. :O)

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    1. I tell mine the same thing. :o) Using that logic, I am a genius since I make mistakes all the time!

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  12. I've sure made mistakes. Part of the gardening process as far as I'm concerned. I just correct them and move on and you are doing.
    Cher Sunray Gardens

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    1. All the mistakes and things we learn along the way keep gardening interesting and humbling.

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  13. Do overs is part of the comfort of gardening-too bad the rest of life isn't always so generous.
    I would love to hear your daughter's version of the walkway incident.

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    1. I think she immediately tweeted that were were driving on a sidewalk and having a blast. :o)

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  14. Oohh, have you done that too?? Thankfully my son wasn't with me in the car when I did it, or I would have heard that story been told over and over! As for our gardens....well, I do my garden in the spirit of trial and error and my errors teaches me just as much as my successes :-)

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    1. I agree about the trial and error! :o) My family is so used to my wackiness that they've moved on from sidewalk driving to my other daily absurdities.

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  15. Goops - I make them all the time, now I know what to call them. The incident at your daughter's college, since it's not garden-related, is that an Oops? Photo of Liatris and butterfly brilliant!

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    1. I wish I had taken the photo of the liatris but it came from Prairie Moon, the site I've linked the caption to. Sorry for any confusion. I'm very oops prone. It makes life interesting. :o)

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  16. I want that orange agastache!!!! I have Black Adder & Golden Jubilee, both have blue flowers. Orange would be wonderful.

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    1. I bought it from High Country Gardens, an online nursery. I'm not sure if they have the same cultivar currently available. If you want the cultivar name, just let me know. I also have a much shorter soft orange agastache that is also thriving in my humidity.

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  17. OMG, CM, I am so jealous of your orange agastache! Mine usually die on contact with the soil! I just can't grow them! Walkways vs. roads, good one! xxoo Nancy

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    1. Agastache need really good drainage or they'll die. Try them in a pot. :o)

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  18. Every gardener makes mistakes, it is a good way to learn (unless those mistakes are too expensive, of course). I can't believe you were rearranging those pots, they look so heavy :). The agastache is very pretty, I have a pink one and hummers love it. I need more.

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    1. It took a while to move them and I'm pretty sure I looked ridiculous while doing it, but their previous arrangement was bugging me. The iris pot was super heavy so I had to get creative since I could barely budge it.

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  19. Interesting ... Agastache has come up twice today as I've surfed the Blogosphere? I wonder if I need to look at it much more carefully as a garden plant? "Huge" is a very attractive thought for my 'Cottage Garden'! The orange bloom would pop next to the hot pink Monarda and Hollyhock ... hum! BTW - LOVE the potted plants, big time! :)

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    1. I'm not sure if the orange agastache would survive your winter, but 'Blue Fortune' will and it gets really big. It's the #1 pollinator magnet in my garden. :o)

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  20. Replies
    1. Agastache aurantiaca 'Shades of Orange' I bought it online from High Country Gardens. It's not available this season but another agastache that looks just like but is smaller is 'Acapulco Orange'. It's on the website and in the current catalog. They like strong drainage but they also more water and compost than most agastache.

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  21. I love the word goops, makes our mistakes sound so cute! Gosh, I think most of my garden has been designed by trial and error, luckily most of my plants forgive me. I love the tall container vase you have on your step with the decorative grass, they go beautifully together.

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  22. Mistakes are endlessly frustrating, but I always learn a thing or two. I hope the hunt for a college went well. Does this mean you will have an empty nest? That will be a big adjustment!

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  23. So very glad that you visited my blog.
    Best regards and have a nice weekend.
    Łucja

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