Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

Did some more planting this weekend as it was sunny and in the 50s. A welcome change from last week's snow disaster.

Overall shot of the yard. Notice all the bananas are in the ground now.



Closeup of one of the corners. Each corner (total of 2) have 66 violas, 6 hens and chicks and 1 ensete maurelii.



Closeup of the bed snowing the magnolia grandiflora 'Edith Bogue' and yuccas.



The perennial bed. Variegated grass has started poking up, planted some Lupine, hostas aren't up yet and neither are some other perennials. Hope they all made it.



My musa basjoo. Have some other tropical stuff on the way to add. Will surprise you with it later. Let's get growing!



Another banana bed. Orinoco and ensete maurelii in here. Have some EE's on their way to fill the gaps.



And of course, my favorite -- AND FIRST -- trachy. Planted July, 2008.



Like I said, more is getting added later this week!

Re: Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

Very nice and neat!

Re: Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

Your yard is looking better than ever! Truly amazing you are doing this in zone 5!
Nice work :D

Re: Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

Looks great! And dont worry about the hostas, they will come back up! Mine popped up out of no where and I dont even remember seeing them all summer. And last year they popped up in pots and I didnt even plant them there!
My bananas are starting to go in the ground too. Next 5 days here are in the 70s at least. Finally growing weather has come!

Re: Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

That looks great, pretty soon the neighbors are going to be dropping by asking for pups.

Re: Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

That looks so beautiful. You really set the bar high in your neighborhood!

~JaNan

Re: Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

Beautiful! You would make a great neighbor.

Red

Re: Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

:08::08::08:
Very nice. Good job. Be proud. Thanks for posting the pictures.

:08::08::08::08::08:

Re: Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

Beautiful landscaping Tim, do you leave the Trachy out year round?

Re: Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

looks great, all othose nannas are gonna get HUGE this year in the ground. hopefully us zone 5's have a hott summer !

Re: Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

Thanks for all the comments guys. Yes, all the trachys (I have 6 of them) stay outside year round. The big ones by the house I enclose in foam boxes and have a space heater in each set at 40F. The four smaller ones out by the sidewalk I ran an experiment on them last winter. All I did was enclose them in homemade mini-greenhouse (2x2 wood frame with poly stapled on it) and strung a string of 100 mini Christmas lights around each. They came through the winter just fine.

My oldest one by the house has been in the ground since July, 2008. Planted him as a tiny 3 gallon.

I started this hobby in 2008 and have gradually increased my stock every year since. This year I must have spent 10-16 hours getting the front yard beds ready, lol and I'm still not gone. I have a bunch of stuff on order that is scheduled to arrive this week.

Here is how things looked toward the end of last summer.







This year has more! :)

Re: Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

Wow, Absolutely gorgeous!

Re: Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

wxman;
You're making me feel guilty :o That looks waaaay too neat, now I have to run out & mow the dang lawn!!! :rollerbananadone:

What sort of dark mulch/chips are you using?

Re: Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

Wow, do you just take all those guys and stick them in the basement to over-winter? That's a lot of bananas for zone 5, and it looks like you're trying to make your garden look like it is zone 10.

I over-wintered musa basjoo in the ground successfully for the first time ever so I'm planning on getting ensete maurelii as well as ensete glaucum, but I"m not sure if I can do the same and just plant them 1-2ft deeper than soil depth to over-winter them.

As far as taking them indoors and putting them in the basement, don't you have problems with rotting? I'm still kind of a newbie at this.

Re: Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

Bob,

My lawn is a mixture of Penncross creeping bent grass and A-4 bent grass. Mowed at 1/2 inch every other day. :) It's tedious to keep up, but worth it. As for mulch, it's just the black mulch that Menards carries for $2.59 a bag.

Steve,

Yeah they go in the basement under a grow light system. They are heated to 68 degrees and watered once a week. I use a special soil mixture that you can't make soggy if your life depended on it: 25% topsoil, 50% perlite and 25% woodchips. As soon as you add water, it's running out of the holes at the bottom of the pot. I don't think you'll be able to overwinter ensete maurelii in the ground. They almost beg to rot in cooler temperatures and winter will definitely take them out for you. Best bet is to dig up and store dormant or overwinter like I do.

And, yes my goal is to have a zone 10 looking garden. :) I despise zone 5. :)

Re: Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

I know from whence you speak; I'm formerly from Algoma (due East of G.B.)
I came out to CA to thaw out after a particularly nasty winter & the following fall, packed up my seabag & here I am!:nanadrink:
I went the next 5 years without getting frostbit, or even getting snowed on for that matter!:woohoonaner:

Re: Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

LOL.. see signature :P

Re: Finished my beds... (well almost)
 

2b? How do you stand it? Can you even plant bananas in the ground in the summer?