I've never divided Irises before! I know next to nothing about Irises. About 9 years ago a 90 year old lady in our church had the most beautiful Iris bed I had ever seen next to her house! I admired it, and she asked if I would like some. I said yes. So when she divided her Iris bed she gave me some. Now, I expected six or eight Irises. Oh no! She gave me two garbage bags full of Irises! Bless her heart! She is such a sweet person. So, I took them and then tried to figure out what to do with them so they wouldn't die. I stuck them in the ground in the center island flower bed in the back yard. And, lo and behold, they grew and bloomed. I had beautiful huge white Irises, deep purple Irises, and lavender Irises. Again, knowing nothing about Irises I watched them come up year after year. But recently I began noticing fewer and fewer flower stalks. This year out of my whole bed I had only 8 purple slower stalks and two white ones. Knowing there had to be something wrong I began watching YouTube videos about Irises. And, I learned that they had to be divided about every 3 years. Wow! I've never divided mine. No wonder they were blooming less and less. So, this year I decided to do the dastardly deed! I dug them all up and divided them. Now I have to find places for them in my garden and replant them! I fixed the island flower bed and planted 18 of my newly divided plants - just like I learned on the YouTube videos. Just out of curiosity, I decided to count how many new Irises I had. Holy mackerel! I now have 100 plants to either get back into the ground or give away. But, hey, at least they didn't cost me anything extra. Looking forward to seeing which ones grow and bloom and what colors they will be.
Hey, this is fun! Earning acorns by doing something I love to do: posting colorful pictures of my garden plants and flowers. Then turning around and using the acorns to purchase microbadges that show the areas I specialize in. Which in turn creates a micrcommunity of people with the same interests and specialties.
My garden is in Eastern Virginia.
Photography has been a life long hobby of mine that fits in very well with my gardening. I like to create a photographic record of my garden every year. In the NGA I have a place I can share those pictures with others who appreciate pretty pictures, and plants!
And what would a garden be without wildlife? I love feeding birds and have discovered a way to keep the squirrels from eating the seeds that doesn't cost me anything extra. I love sitting at my kitchen window and while I am eating breakfast and drinking coffee, watching the birds at the feeders. I've had a birdhouse on a fence post at the back of my property that has been vacant for years. Yesterday I watched a pair of wrens coming and going all morning. I really enjoy seeing these little feathered creatures: black capped chickadees, cardinals, wrens, house finches, tufted titmouse, an occasional woodpecker, morning doves, hawks, one peregrine falcon, the occasional family of ducks, etc.
This will be the first post in my shiny new gardening blog! Yea!
I originally searched for a gardening group on Facebook. Found one that seemed to be good. It had over 400,000 members in it. I thought, "Wow!" I posted a picture of a plant I was given but didn't know the name. Within a day I had several people tell me what it was. Sounded great! Then they decided to split the group because too many people were posting pictures of their gardening efforts. They said "that" group was only for asking questions and getting problems answered. The new group was going to be for posting pretty pictures of personal gardens. When I went to that group, lo and behold, it was only for posting pretty pictures, but not for asking questions and getting answers. Needless to say, I quit both groups.
Then I found this website. The more familiar I get with the features of The National Gardening Association site, the better I like it! It's giving me the best of everything I wanted in a social, interactive group that allowed dialogue, personal pictures, etc. etc. Hopefully I will learn things as I use this site to benefit my garden, help others that might want my input, and make some friends along the way. All in all I think this will be a win win situation!! Yea!
