A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Propery, in need of MUCH help

Hello all!

We recently purchased 26 acres, lots of pine trees, wetlands with 2 ponds appx 60x60' each. Two areas have been cleared so far so I have shady and sunny areas. NO color but the green grass and pine trees. We are building the house appx 1800 feet from the front of the property so I have this long driveway with NO color, the front is blan, the ponds look to be made made, dug out to build up the road.I have absolutely NO experience in gardening. PLEASE HELP!!!! I have attached a link with pictures.

Thanks

http://groups.msn.com/theglassonion01/property.msnw?albumlist=2

was thinking, do you have any carolina jessamine or wisteria on your property? would you know it if you saw it?

Sorry, I have NO idea what either would look like but I can research both. Certainly no blooming thing.

Hi glass onion!! Welcome to the forum! When I saw your driveway, the first thought in my head was....wouldn't that be beautiful lined with crepe myrtles! The have such pretty flowers and smell wonderful. After a few years you would have a beautiful drive with all flowers. They come in a variety of sizes and several colors. If I'm not mistaken they are calle dthe lilac of teh south so it shouldn't be a problem to grom them alond the drive. rose of Sharon are also really nice as well. Hope this helps!

Crepe Myrtles, how BEAUTIFUL! I really like these. I think they will look lovely on the driveway. The rose of Sharon are beautiful too! Thanks for the suggestions, I researched a picture of both and am learning a lot. Thanks and please keep the ideas coming!

Welcome to the forum glassonion! If I had that much space I would definitely get a spot set for a compost pile. Weezie is the compost queen and she can give you some great pointers. Do a forum search on compost and all her notes will pop up. With that much land you're going to need some good stuff to work with and some place to put all your trimmings...tada...a compost pile! Basically you'll want it somewhat close to the kitchen for easy access with kitchen scraps but far enough away or at least down wind a bit.

And I agree, the crepe myrtles would be gorgeous. Or magnolia trees would look great too. Or a mixture. Are you thinking of doing any color schemes?

Thanks Garden Gal,

A composite pile, great idea, hadn't thought of that. I would like a magnolia tree where the drive way crooks. If you will look at the pictures again, you will see a large red UGLY container on the one with the driveway. That container is on the neighbors property only a few inches away from our property line. There I would like to have a 10 ft stone privacy fence to cover that HORRILBLE thing and place a magnolia tree there.

As far as color, I don't care much for red but I think anything else goes. I don't want to line the driveway with just one type of bloom because it's so long I'd like pretty sights along the driveway with lots of color but not have it too busy. Maybe little areas with different looks. What do you all think??

great idea about the stone wall with a magnolia. if you get one, make sure you get a container grown one 'cause the ones you dig up around here do not transplant well at all. a friend of mine (who lives in springfield) even got her husband to literally scoop up, roots and all a small one with a back hoe, and he had already dug the whole for it, so the roots were not hardly disturbed at all, and it still didn't make it! that was their 3rd or 4th attempt at it, and gave up and bought one that is just fine

oh yeah, you have to remember that almost NOTHING will grow under a magnolia, if you look at the ones on bay street, you will see that mostly it is mulch under them. so plan your site accordingly.

Thanks for the advice. You're right, my parents have a huge magnolia tree in the front yard and we wondered why nothing would survive under it. THat't the only thing that I want on the concrete wall so that should work perfectly. Thanks! Keep your ideas coming!

I first would like to say, Welcome to the Garden Helpers Forum, we are certainly glad you found us.
We ALL love gardening here, and as you can see from the responses, everyone's getting into helping you with your "Brand~New~Slate!!
Ask all the questions and we will try to answer them all.........

I would also like to add one thing about gardening, when you are just begining~is....
...................Patients................

Don't start off tooooooo big... You may end
up disappointed, or the task too large and throw your hands up too early before you've gotten
half way started...
There's alot of disappointments in gardening, and it's tough to loose a plant, but if you do, you
need to learn from that, what happened, how it happened, and try not to do it again...
It's alot of work, and I find my self, when lugging hoses around or one (thousand) things on my list to do, and can't get there fast enough...
And I say to myself, why am I doing this?? Because you love it!! I say Ohhhhhhhh!!

Anyways, You also, need to get to
know your own backyard first...
Have you been where you are for a tad~bit?
Do you know the sunniest area's, and shadey spots, or wet areas, or really hot, hot places...
And how long the sun is, or what tall tree shades what???/ Somethings to think about ............

And something you may not think of right in the begining is where on your property may flood,
if it rains tooo hard in a quick time.
(I have that problem, and it's like a small running creek for about 3 hours before it goes down.)
Maybe wait a season to go full force.
Or do containers, we have alot of container gardeners here that can help you.


For me when I first started gardening,
at this time of year, I got a ba~zillion of
those books, catalog's, magazine's from the grocery stores even, and read my fool head off.
*that's where I put it,
(I knew I'd put it somewhere's* Just kidding!!!)
But, I read anything I could get my hands on,
#1. to learn all I could
#2. to memorize pictures of flowers, leaves, bark, etc.
#3. to get my self out of shoveling, dishes, cooking, laundry, and just about anything else I could think of.
#4. to be able to sit still, all curled up on my couch with a cup of hot cocoa, tea, hot cinnamin drink, stay in my jammies, or sweats, and slippers, and robe and a soft comfortable blankie.
And just read, read, read...

Those mail order catalogs, supply you with alot of good growing information, with out having to buy a really expensive book (although those are wonderful if you do have one) But if you have enough of those catalogs, I guarentee you,
if you spend enough time with them,
you'll feel more comfortable getting plants.
And starting somewhere's.

You also said, you were building the house,
that's not even up yet?
I would wait on plantings until you get the building up and the big machinery out..
Those things can tear up landscapes and gardens in no time.


Have you ever grown veggies before?
Do you know what you want to grow or
which type of items to grow??
What kind of vegetables, do you
already have perennials, or annuals????

There was nothing or no gardens on the property
when you bought the land??

I'll sign off, you are probably close to

Happy Gardening!!!

Weezie

Hi Weezie,

Thanks for your EXPERTISE!!! Just what I needed, some things to think about to help me make plans. We purchased the property in April so I pretty much have an idea where the wet spots are. The main house isn't built yet so I'm not planning anything there but in the mean time I'd like to work on the entrance, the driveway and ponds. I do have an area where I'd like to do the vegetable garden that's very sunny, relatively dry but the soil seems to be rich. We will soon clear the drive way leaving nothing but large trees. I'd like for it to look like a state park with lots of little areas, waterfalls, vines, blooms, picnic areas etc.

I know you're right, I don't want to jump in too fast and get overwhelmed especially since this is my first attempt. I am an indoor decorator sort of sad that I know nothing about the outside but perhaps that will be helpful with color coordination.

There was absolutely NO gardening on the property. It's not just a forest though, someone lived on it before so it's great that the road was in place, 2 large clearings etc but no dwelling. Our cottage is just about finished but like stated we have the carriage house to build and the main house. Of course this will all happen over a period of time. Construction on the carriage house won't start until fall.

As far as veggies, I'd like bell peppers, onions, potatoes, carrots, greens, cabbage and more! I'm getting so excited!! I can't wait to start! I just want to start out slow and I have to work on a budget because I know gardening can be very expensive.

ALSO, I'd like a fruit AND nut grove. I'm doing a little research on both which will be in different locations on the property. I'd like cherry trees, lemons, oranges, apples, apricot, grape vines and more. I know that I can't do this all at once, this will take YEARS to complete, but I'm just trying to create a map of how I'd like for the place to look in 10 years, with the nuts, fruits, veggies, flowers, ponds, houses, trees and everything else and just take on one project at a time. We'd like to do most of it ourselves and we are pretty much starting from scratch but that's the beauty in all of it. I will be taking a lot of before and after shots of everything.

Thank you so much for your excellent ideas, just trying to educate myself on gardening as much as possible. It's amazing what I've learned in only a week! Thanks again and please feel free to pass along any suggestions!