I think you are making wise decisions. You are basing them on your most precious resource, your time. I have had to make similar gardening (not farming) decisions as I get frustrated with fighting against invasive plants in my yard. I also have made decisions to grow things that we eat in my veggie garden, and to stop trying to grow broccoli. I think I have tried for 10 years without one successful flower head. I waste energy and time on raising them from seed, protecting them as seedlings. Picking caterpillars off. Spraying aphids off repeatedly. It makes me a hateful person. And the purpose? So I can say that I grew broccoli organically. Time for me to stop trying
Oh, I LOVE romanesco! I've grown it for 5 years. Every year, something happens. LIke you said, no successful heads. Last year I decided the same thing--not worth the heartache!
Definitely difficult decisions to make, but it sounds like great choices given your particular situation. I love that you garden in a fairly urban area of Denver! I'm up in Loveland/Ft. Collins area and it's great to have some "local" advice for our growing conditions! Thank you! There are some vegetables that I love that I decided not to try to grow anymore due to lack of success or fussiness. Green onions(doesn't make sense), beets(insect pressure), and parsnips(poor size/yield). Same for some lovely flowers like Shirley poppies (vase life), bachelor buttons (going to try scabiosa instead), and even rudbeckia (maybe a different color blend?). Tough choices, but it makes more room available in my raised beds to try something new. Always a gardening adventure to be had. Thank you again for sharing all of your passion and expertise!
My mom who lives in Southeast Denver just removed all of hers. She got tired of combating the Japanese beetle. I still have two roses but they are the type that bloom before the dreaded beetle arrives. They are not good for cutting though. But still pretty in my garden.
I agree with you 100%. I'm in zone 9A and roses suffer in our heat and with our humidity. I had to shovel-prune them this year. I want gardening to be less stressful and more relaxing. I don't want to keep spraying for powdery mildew or fungal disease.
Deciding what not to grow is even tougher than deciding what to grow. I find that most annuals are more work than I want, and they’re expensive to replace every year. That’s why I plant daffodils rather than tulips. Every gardener makes their own choices.
I live in your neighbouring city ( but zone 5), I've started to dig out my rose trees because of that Japanese beetles! I used to go outside early in the morning or right before sunset to catch them by hands but it was really overwhelming.. I'll be very happy to see how you dig out or terminate your rose trees. It was lot of works for me to dig out but the problem is they alway find their way to spout from very tiny little rhizome !!!
I have strawberries in my greenstalk and it’s a game changer! No slugs, basically no weeds, the berries are off the ground and stay a lot cleaner and I can get them to ride through most winters in my zone (6b/7a in MD). Edit to add we have a lot of squirrels (back up to woods) and while I do share some of the lower hanging berries the squirrels don’t tend to climb the greenstalks. Jess at RootsandRefuge also plants strawberries in greenstalks and has had great luck with them (hers were in a hoop house last year).
Down here in my patch of Australia, couch grass looks just like your problem grass, it'll bore right through your carrots. I gave up on growing lemon trees after many attempts and many failors, until this year. I now have a hot house and have a potted one to try onve again. The scent of citrus blossom is heady as I open up in tbe morning, just divine, I eagerly look forward to my first year learning all things "hot house ". Loving your videos ❤
Hi there, so inspiring to hear u talk about the garden plan for next year. I’m trying to grow more native varieties and taking out some of the high maintenance plants. I’m learning to enjoy my garden . If it takes me a lot of effort to keep any plant alive…. I wouldn’t bother with it. Thanks for ur video. 😊
Yup, rid of my roses about four years ago. When people ask if you are the type of person who only sees the thorns, I say, that's the problem, the thorns find me before I see them!
Have u considered using a GreenStalk Planter for the strawberries. Easy to do with the kids & the fruit was great. We were able to propagate using each mother plant's babies right in the planter.
Do they overwinter in raised planters and what zone are you in? I was considering using a raised bed, but buying plants each year would be far too pricey.
As a very novice gardener, I'm so glad I watched this video before I started planning for 2024. I'm also in Colorado, just a bit farther south, and guess what was I was thinking of planting?....roses and strawberries. 😆 I might try a Lady of Shallot but with lowered expectations!
I was super stringent in planning my veg garden this year: what do we love to eat, that is better home grown, doesn't all ripen at once to overwhelm me, that isn't super cheap in the grocery store, isn't a pain to harvest and process. (No more strawberries here: slugs and wood bugs got ours). Squirrels got our figs and grapes. Apples I've decided i grow for the blossoms (since birds peck them to death).
The rhizome grass (similar to Bermuda grass) was probably encouraged/financed by government “soil/grass” building from the government programs. So wonderful that today’s farmers have more wisdom. Love your decision-making process. I live in Vermont (originally from San Diego) building up my front yard with woodchips and cardboard. Will be a flower grow stand…no roses, thank you! 🤣
I am eliminating potatoes from my home vegetable garden. It is killing me because I have lots of memories associated with harvesting them with my mother and we love eating them. We had a huge problem with potato beetle this past summer and even with picking every day, I eventually had to resort to spraying BT. Even with that, my production was down. I am going to skip a year and grow something that will give me joy, like flowers.
Hear hear! I’m actually having the same thoughts of eliminating the number of roses that I have devoted tons of my time taking care of them for the past summers. So much so that I doubt that I ever have time to enjoy them. Endless pruning and spraying, well, the results are rewarding, I just feel that I don’t have the time and energy to keep up. 😅
I took my roses out years ago for the same reasons. We’re also removing a lot of big ornamental grasses because of our age and adding more small decorative shrubs.
It is good that you are deciding to move on from things that are not working for you. I have a hard time getting rid of plants that are not working for me. I would suggest digging the roses now and giving them away or selling them so that they will have the whole winter to grow roots in their new homes, that is if your ground is still not frozen.
I have small garden in zone 4b. I grow roses because i love them, most are DA. I have beetles come eat my roses too but its manageable for me since its a small garden. Crown princess magareta and Litchfield angel roses are fewer thorns and long stem, good for cutting. Queen of Sweden shreds too fast for me! I have squrrels eat my strawberries that i had to pull them out too. But this year i will grow some in container for the kids. I will use some mesh to protect them, thats my plan. It’s sad that you have to get rid of the beautiful roses. Good luck with yr garden in the coming years !
Thank you for sharing, so often others only share the perfections of their gardens and it feels like I’m failing because of many challenges you describes with JB and squirrel/rabbit pressure, I tried Clarkia for first season. It’s beautiful and the only positive I’d say it served as great trap crop for JB, and spared a lot of my basil and zinnias, but I don’t think I’ll plant it again.
Thanks for sharing. I'm going to pull out my strawberry patch this year too. Too many problems with pests and just seem finnicky overall, havest timing has to be perfect, doesn't seemto be worth it. Ive had better luck with raspberries.
I am glad you are keeping Lady of Shallots! I am hoping to source it after seeing it in your videos. As a home gardener in zone 3, tbh, covering roses once a year is actually far, far easier than starting seeds indoors and building a hoophouse. And they bloom. I haven't managed yet to get zinnias bloom in 4 years of trying. For me, they are high maintenance, and I will be strating them indoors this year and, yeah, building a hoophouse for them and stocks. Lol. I kinda agree on tulips, however, mostly because they leave that pointless patch in the middle of a bed whenever you plant them in any quantity that makes a good visual in the Spring, plus lifting them is not fun.
Good for you!!! It’s hard making those choices. I have a raised bed of strawberries that I love. The edges die out over the winter- zone 2b/3 northern Alberta but I love snacking on them while working in my other raised beds. I can’t do ground beds anymore. The only rose that I love is old fashioned Hansa bush roses purely for the smell!! Nothing else does we’ll in my yard. I need to try lisianthus!
I’m old enough that my brother and I were made to wear short trousers til we were 12. Our mother loved roses, but refused to prune them, hence our legs were ripped to shreds. I hate roses. Unfortunately, my wife loves them, but I have only allowed her 3 climbers, out of the way on a fence and I prune them HARD! 😂
Yes--my uncle was a rosarian and had an infection from a rose thorn when younger--he almost ended up losing his arm from it! They can be really dangerous. I've just found there are so many other beautiful ones I'd rather spend my time on like lisianthus and NOT risk the pain and annoyance of roses! The scent is amazing so we will keep the ones with the least thorns!
I pulled my strawberries this year too! They were not very good producers, and what they did produce was small and I had to share with wildlife too. I think I’m giving up on cauliflower at least for next year. I did everything by the book this year and got big beautiful plants and zero cauliflower heads. I had the same issue with broccoli but I’m going to try one more year of sprouting broccoli. I’m also not growing any indeterminate cherry tomatoes. My indeterminates will all be beefsteak types and sauce varieties. I’m going to grow dwarf cherry tomatoes in a greenstalk. I love how early they produce but they just get so messy and viney by the end of the season.
I struggle every year with Japanese beetles on my two heirloom roses. There seems to be nothing that works. It goes from beautiful blooms to total devastation until the first cold weather when the bugs are finally gone. A smaller second flush appears, but it has not been without a lot of disappointment. . .But I cannot give them up as they have deeply sentimental value for me.
We also have invasive rhizome grass, so I moved the strawberries into raised beds when we made them. Yeah, that won’t stop this stuff, lol! I ended up planting them in pots which so far so good, but we would need an awful lot of them to get enough to make jam, freeze, etc. I’m eliminating anything we don’t really eat much of (eggplant & radishes) and things that take up too much room for the teeny harvest we get (broccoli).
I have Bermuda grass and it's the devil himself. It's taking over everything. 😢 i think I'm going to all raised beds but Eden that won't keep that Bermuda grass out. On roses...I've decided the same. When they look good they are awesome and when they don't...they don't. Too much work and my skin is thin and fragile at 61... So it isn't worth it.
Omg…you are so correct. We just removed our strawberry bed this weekend as well. It started as two small snips I planted and took over the entire 9 foot bed in one season, and climbed out of the raised bed into the pathways. Huge attractant for Japanese beetles. 🤮 very little harvested for the amount of real estate they take. Two seasons was enough.
I had rose weevils this year and ended up pretty much losing all of the June roses. At the end of the year it was white flies attacking the leaves. I hear you but my heart isn't ready yet!
I think it's sad that you're getting rid of the strawberries. I'm thinking about putting them in a raised bed and enclose them in a wire berry cage next year in my own garden. Something that is a more permanent solution. I wonder if this might be something that could work for you, too?
I don’t think I will do any cabbages next year. They required so much babying to keep the cabbage moths away and ended up being more of a trap crop. I’m not doing mums next fall, unless I’m deadheading them all the time they end up rather ugly and the squirrels jump all over them so they split. Have you tried growing your strawberries in a green stalk or something similar like Laura at Garden Answer? I have them in my greenstalk and have also companion planted garlic in the greenstalk figuring they’ll help deter the squirrels. We’ll see if it works!
I completely understand this and am having to make some of the same decisions on my tiny plot (0.16 acres 😂). I do love dahlias but, they’re so expensive, they don’t really come in until the end of the season, when I usually have to get back into my studio for work, and I usually just do once or twice a week for harvesting and their window is very small. So I’m sure they’re great for full time Flower farmers, they just don’t work well for me. So I’m increasing my chrysanthemums and asters instead. I ended up deciding that the roses are mostly just for me; the amount of time they take to harvest and care for doesn’t make sense for my bouquets. The other thing I’m doing is any perennial that does the same job as an annual is getting swapped out (esp natives), and I’m experimenting with overwintering.
It is very funny but I just pulled all of my strawberries and I decided that if the roses don't make it this winter oh well I'm not dealing with all the trouble. Mine have also been a problem with black spot and bugs eating them. I'm to old to deal with this. Peonies can replace the roses and I will just buy strawberries for now at my local fruit stand. This year we had ducks and the Japanese beetles were far less destructive. We got the Muscovy ducks and at the end of the season we just cull and freeze for eating. Worked really well.
I'm also not growing roses for cutting anymore. Im not growing bachelor's buttons or gomphrena anymore either. The gomohrena never have tall enough stems (unless I cut below a node, which i dont like to do because them stem below is always at an acute angle, & its super fragile & difficult to arrange with. Same with bachelors buttons... theyre too short to trh to use for my market bouquets.
I started sweet potato slips from tubers which was very labor intensive. I ended up with only a handful of slips but I harvested fewer potatoes than the number of slips I planted! Zone 5b is just not a long enough growing season. They are out for good. It is also relatively easy to get good inexpensive organic sweet potatoes from our food co-op. No more bullies in my flower beds, if they take over and spread too widely they are getting removed.
Same! I’m zone 5b.I planted a ton of slips, had this huge mound of vines and was so excited. Went to harvest at the end of the season and had these tiny little sweet potatoes that look like pinky fingers 😂
I decided not to grow ageratum, carnation. cosmos, tagetes and statice. Instead I will grow more my 3 best sellers. Zinnia, Sun flower and lizzies. Also more setaria, dara and fountaingrass. Also I might skip ranunculus because of the mice problem. I will plant xatnip to get neighbours cats to visit us more often.Snapdragons are a l8vehate thing fot me but I need spikeflovers. I will try salvia and vwronica next summer. Any experiences or thoughts on those?
I totally agree regarding high maintenance plants. And of course, you've got to consider time investment much more as a commercial grower! I did a major revamp during COVID and gave away a bunch of plants. I'm not willing to baby. I'm lucky that roses do well for us without much care, and we don't have Japanese beetles (yet).
I’m up north in Frederick and haven’t had problems with the Japanese beetle yet thank goodness. I dont know why- maybe bc our soil is so hard and clay like grubs can’t grow in it? I just did some research and I did inadvertently plant a lot of repellents- have catnip, chives, allium and I always plant annual geraniums, nasturtiums and marigolds. Guess they are working. Now if anyone could help with grasshoppers! They were a scourge this year and destroyed my veg garden seedlings, two forsythia, tons of flowers a nightmare and nothing organic helped- i would spray insecticidal soap and neem oil on the plants and come out next day and there would be ten grasshoppers munching away. People mentioned netting but then i would block pollinators off flowers. I researched and couldn’t find many solutions.
You are selling most of your rose bushes. This may cut down on your powder mildew issue:: more space = more air flow. I hung a Japanese Beetle trap this year around my dahlias and that did the trick.
I grow potatoes in buckets now - very easy, especially when their green leaves grow like crazy…I can move them so they arent falling over other things I want to grow. Just make sure the buckets have a lot of drain holes.
I am not growing Lisianthus this year. I grew them just for me, but the time investment is growing from seed is just to long and I could grow two crops in the space the Lisianthus takes up.
I don't do anything with my roses during the winter. I live in Indiana Zone 6. Am I supposed to be doing something with them? Mine are fine every year.
My Japanese beetles were not just covering my roses, they were on everything. I'm on the shore in Maryland, they came in June, I was still pulling some in Sept. They were even buried in my double hollyhocks, I cut those to the ground they were so ugly. This yr I'm trying assassin bugs, there are 3 native to my area, fingers crossed they take out at least half, that way I'll still have some sanity over summer.
Fell into a pit of bougainvillea as a child and was stuck for a few hours. I just don’t do thorns. We have one Chrysler Imperial that my grandfather planted in honor of my grandmother and that’s the only one that I didn’t remove. We are in 10b hot and dry. I don’t water them or prune them and they do well until now . November is when the pm hits in Los Angeles the worst because we finally get an inch of water.
i know what you mean. those jappaneese beatles are a mennise on my roses. this next year im not going to be adding to my roses. i like to add 1 new one to my garden each year. but not this comming 2024 season
I have found that I have better luck with getting roses from Heirloom Roses VS David Austin love my David Austin's. I can get David Austin's from Heirloom Roses but I have noticed that my David Austin's require a little bit more maintenance than the florabundas and other types
I'm removing lamb's ear!!! I thought it was a sweet, soft texture in bouquets. Now it's coming up in the cracks of the toilet seat 🤣
I think you are making wise decisions. You are basing them on your most precious resource, your time.
I have had to make similar gardening (not farming) decisions as I get frustrated with fighting against invasive plants in my yard. I also have made decisions to grow things that we eat in my veggie garden, and to stop trying to grow broccoli. I think I have tried for 10 years without one successful flower head. I waste energy and time on raising them from seed, protecting them as seedlings. Picking caterpillars off. Spraying aphids off repeatedly. It makes me a hateful person. And the purpose? So I can say that I grew broccoli organically. Time for me to stop trying
Oh, I LOVE romanesco! I've grown it for 5 years. Every year, something happens. LIke you said, no successful heads. Last year I decided the same thing--not worth the heartache!
Definitely difficult decisions to make, but it sounds like great choices given your particular situation. I love that you garden in a fairly urban area of Denver! I'm up in Loveland/Ft. Collins area and it's great to have some "local" advice for our growing conditions! Thank you! There are some vegetables that I love that I decided not to try to grow anymore due to lack of success or fussiness. Green onions(doesn't make sense), beets(insect pressure), and parsnips(poor size/yield). Same for some lovely flowers like Shirley poppies (vase life), bachelor buttons (going to try scabiosa instead), and even rudbeckia (maybe a different color blend?). Tough choices, but it makes more room available in my raised beds to try something new. Always a gardening adventure to be had. Thank you again for sharing all of your passion and expertise!
My mom who lives in Southeast Denver just removed all of hers. She got tired of combating the Japanese beetle. I still have two roses but they are the type that bloom before the dreaded beetle arrives. They are not good for cutting though. But still pretty in my garden.
I agree with you 100%. I'm in zone 9A and roses suffer in our heat and with our humidity. I had to shovel-prune them this year. I want gardening to be less stressful and more relaxing. I don't want to keep spraying for powdery mildew or fungal disease.
Deciding what not to grow is even tougher than deciding what to grow. I find that most annuals are more work than I want, and they’re expensive to replace every year. That’s why I plant daffodils rather than tulips. Every gardener makes their own choices.
I live in your neighbouring city ( but zone 5), I've started to dig out my rose trees because of that Japanese beetles! I used to go outside early in the morning or right before sunset to catch them by hands but it was really overwhelming.. I'll be very happy to see how you dig out or terminate your rose trees. It was lot of works for me to dig out but the problem is they alway find their way to spout from very tiny little rhizome !!!
I have strawberries in my greenstalk and it’s a game changer! No slugs, basically no weeds, the berries are off the ground and stay a lot cleaner and I can get them to ride through most winters in my zone (6b/7a in MD).
Edit to add we have a lot of squirrels (back up to woods) and while I do share some of the lower hanging berries the squirrels don’t tend to climb the greenstalks. Jess at RootsandRefuge also plants strawberries in greenstalks and has had great luck with them (hers were in a hoop house last year).
Marylander here too, I'm on the shore, grew up in Perry Hall.
Down here in my patch of Australia, couch grass looks just like your problem grass, it'll bore right through your carrots. I gave up on growing lemon trees after many attempts and many failors, until this year. I now have a hot house and have a potted one to try onve again. The scent of citrus blossom is heady as I open up in tbe morning, just divine, I eagerly look forward to my first year learning all things "hot house ".
Loving your videos ❤
Hi there, so inspiring to hear u talk about the garden plan for next year. I’m trying to grow more native varieties and taking out some of the high maintenance plants. I’m learning to enjoy my garden . If it takes me a lot of effort to keep any plant alive…. I wouldn’t bother with it. Thanks for ur video. 😊
I don't bother digging up Dahlia tubers and other tender perennials. I quickly mulch them and if they don't make it so be it.
Yes this is what I’ve been researching for
Yup, rid of my roses about four years ago. When people ask if you are the type of person who only sees the thorns, I say, that's the problem, the thorns find me before I see them!
Have u considered using a GreenStalk Planter for the strawberries. Easy to do with the kids & the fruit was great. We were able to propagate using each mother plant's babies right in the planter.
Yes, I’ve never cared for using plastic containers for edibles but I’ve heard good things, glad they work well for you!!
Do they overwinter in raised planters and what zone are you in? I was considering using a raised bed, but buying plants each year would be far too pricey.
Good Morning
Yeay nice sharing about Rose and garden . Thanks you
As a very novice gardener, I'm so glad I watched this video before I started planning for 2024. I'm also in Colorado, just a bit farther south, and guess what was I was thinking of planting?....roses and strawberries. 😆 I might try a Lady of Shallot but with lowered expectations!
Strawberries grow well in raised garden beds or wicking beds. Wicking beds are easy to net and you will be able to enjoy strawberries.
I was super stringent in planning my veg garden this year: what do we love to eat, that is better home grown, doesn't all ripen at once to overwhelm me, that isn't super cheap in the grocery store, isn't a pain to harvest and process. (No more strawberries here: slugs and wood bugs got ours). Squirrels got our figs and grapes. Apples I've decided i grow for the blossoms (since birds peck them to death).
The rhizome grass (similar to Bermuda grass) was probably encouraged/financed by government “soil/grass” building from the government programs. So wonderful that today’s farmers have more wisdom. Love your decision-making process.
I live in Vermont (originally from San Diego) building up my front yard with woodchips and cardboard.
Will be a flower grow stand…no roses, thank you! 🤣
ok made it to the end. what i am not growing is Wheat this year. tried it. its labor intensive. ill just buy flour from the store
I am eliminating potatoes from my home vegetable garden. It is killing me because I have lots of memories associated with harvesting them with my mother and we love eating them. We had a huge problem with potato beetle this past summer and even with picking every day, I eventually had to resort to spraying BT. Even with that, my production was down. I am going to skip a year and grow something that will give me joy, like flowers.
I’m so sorry, hopefully taking a year or two off that crop will help reduce the pressure!
Hear hear! I’m actually having the same thoughts of eliminating the number of roses that I have devoted tons of my time taking care of them for the past summers. So much so that I doubt that I ever have time to enjoy them. Endless pruning and spraying, well, the results are rewarding, I just feel that I don’t have the time and energy to keep up. 😅
I’ve been debating on the roses too. We’ve done all that you’ve done - but now I feed to beetles to the chickens so that’s a plus 😂
I took my roses out years ago for the same reasons. We’re also removing a lot of big ornamental grasses because of our age and adding more small decorative shrubs.
Oh my god, I am learning so much. You should become a teacher
Thanks so much
It is good that you are deciding to move on from things that are not working for you. I have a hard time getting rid of plants that are not working for me. I would suggest digging the roses now and giving them away or selling them so that they will have the whole winter to grow roots in their new homes, that is if your ground is still not frozen.
Agree.. I'm growing flowers that in my area thrive.
I have small garden in zone 4b. I grow roses because i love them, most are DA. I have beetles come eat my roses too but its manageable for me since its a small garden. Crown princess magareta and Litchfield angel roses are fewer thorns and long stem, good for cutting. Queen of Sweden shreds too fast for me! I have squrrels eat my strawberries that i had to pull them out too. But this year i will grow some in container for the kids. I will use some mesh to protect them, thats my plan. It’s sad that you have to get rid of the beautiful roses. Good luck with yr garden in the coming years !
Thank you for sharing, so often others only share the perfections of their gardens and it feels like I’m failing because of many challenges you describes with JB and squirrel/rabbit pressure, I tried Clarkia for first season. It’s beautiful and the only positive I’d say it served as great trap crop for JB, and spared a lot of my basil and zinnias, but I don’t think I’ll plant it again.
Thanks for sharing. I'm going to pull out my strawberry patch this year too. Too many problems with pests and just seem finnicky overall, havest timing has to be perfect, doesn't seemto be worth it. Ive had better luck with raspberries.
I am glad you are keeping Lady of Shallots! I am hoping to source it after seeing it in your videos. As a home gardener in zone 3, tbh, covering roses once a year is actually far, far easier than starting seeds indoors and building a hoophouse. And they bloom. I haven't managed yet to get zinnias bloom in 4 years of trying. For me, they are high maintenance, and I will be strating them indoors this year and, yeah, building a hoophouse for them and stocks. Lol. I kinda agree on tulips, however, mostly because they leave that pointless patch in the middle of a bed whenever you plant them in any quantity that makes a good visual in the Spring, plus lifting them is not fun.
Good for you!!! It’s hard making those choices. I have a raised bed of strawberries that I love. The edges die out over the winter- zone 2b/3 northern Alberta but I love snacking on them while working in my other raised beds. I can’t do ground beds anymore. The only rose that I love is old fashioned Hansa bush roses purely for the smell!! Nothing else does we’ll in my yard. I need to try lisianthus!
I’m old enough that my brother and I were made to wear short trousers til we were 12. Our mother loved roses, but refused to prune them, hence our legs were ripped to shreds. I hate roses. Unfortunately, my wife loves them, but I have only allowed her 3 climbers, out of the way on a fence and I prune them HARD! 😂
There's a few thornless and almost-thornless varieties! Maybe those would work for both of you?
Yes--my uncle was a rosarian and had an infection from a rose thorn when younger--he almost ended up losing his arm from it! They can be really dangerous. I've just found there are so many other beautiful ones I'd rather spend my time on like lisianthus and NOT risk the pain and annoyance of roses! The scent is amazing so we will keep the ones with the least thorns!
I pulled my strawberries this year too! They were not very good producers, and what they did produce was small and I had to share with wildlife too. I think I’m giving up on cauliflower at least for next year. I did everything by the book this year and got big beautiful plants and zero cauliflower heads. I had the same issue with broccoli but I’m going to try one more year of sprouting broccoli. I’m also not growing any indeterminate cherry tomatoes. My indeterminates will all be beefsteak types and sauce varieties. I’m going to grow dwarf cherry tomatoes in a greenstalk. I love how early they produce but they just get so messy and viney by the end of the season.
I struggle every year with Japanese beetles on my two heirloom roses. There seems to be nothing that works. It goes from beautiful blooms to total devastation until the first cold weather when the bugs are finally gone. A smaller second flush appears, but it has not been without a lot of disappointment. . .But I cannot give them up as they have deeply sentimental value for me.
I cover them with insect netting but the beetles are longer lived every year. So much frustration and hard work. Ugh!
We also have invasive rhizome grass, so I moved the strawberries into raised beds when we made them. Yeah, that won’t stop this stuff, lol! I ended up planting them in pots which so far so good, but we would need an awful lot of them to get enough to make jam, freeze, etc. I’m eliminating anything we don’t really eat much of (eggplant & radishes) and things that take up too much room for the teeny harvest we get (broccoli).
Yes, we cut broccoli for the same reason, too troublesome!!!
I have Bermuda grass and it's the devil himself. It's taking over everything. 😢 i think I'm going to all raised beds but Eden that won't keep that Bermuda grass out. On roses...I've decided the same. When they look good they are awesome and when they don't...they don't. Too much work and my skin is thin and fragile at 61... So it isn't worth it.
So are you only going to keep 3 varieties of roses? I would love to know all the other roses you think are worth keeping.
I think the 3 she mentioned are what she's keeping: lady of shallot, queen of sweden, earth angel. The rest, whatever they're called, are going.
I just removed all my strawberries yesterday. They are just too much work for too little reward for me.
Omg…you are so correct. We just removed our strawberry bed this weekend as well. It started as two small snips I planted and took over the entire 9 foot bed in one season, and climbed out of the raised bed into the pathways. Huge attractant for Japanese beetles. 🤮 very little harvested for the amount of real estate they take. Two seasons was enough.
I had rose weevils this year and ended up pretty much losing all of the June roses. At the end of the year it was white flies attacking the leaves. I hear you but my heart isn't ready yet!
I think it's sad that you're getting rid of the strawberries. I'm thinking about putting them in a raised bed and enclose them in a wire berry cage next year in my own garden. Something that is a more permanent solution. I wonder if this might be something that could work for you, too?
I don’t think I will do any cabbages next year. They required so much babying to keep the cabbage moths away and ended up being more of a trap crop. I’m not doing mums next fall, unless I’m deadheading them all the time they end up rather ugly and the squirrels jump all over them so they split. Have you tried growing your strawberries in a green stalk or something similar like Laura at Garden Answer? I have them in my greenstalk and have also companion planted garlic in the greenstalk figuring they’ll help deter the squirrels. We’ll see if it works!
I completely understand this and am having to make some of the same decisions on my tiny plot (0.16 acres 😂).
I do love dahlias but, they’re so expensive, they don’t really come in until the end of the season, when I usually have to get back into my studio for work, and I usually just do once or twice a week for harvesting and their window is very small. So I’m sure they’re great for full time Flower farmers, they just don’t work well for me. So I’m increasing my chrysanthemums and asters instead.
I ended up deciding that the roses are mostly just for me; the amount of time they take to harvest and care for doesn’t make sense for my bouquets. The other thing I’m doing is any perennial that does the same job as an annual is getting swapped out (esp natives), and I’m experimenting with overwintering.
It is very funny but I just pulled all of my strawberries and I decided that if the roses don't make it this winter oh well I'm not dealing with all the trouble. Mine have also been a problem with black spot and bugs eating them. I'm to old to deal with this. Peonies can replace the roses and I will just buy strawberries for now at my local fruit stand.
This year we had ducks and the Japanese beetles were far less destructive. We got the Muscovy ducks and at the end of the season we just cull and freeze for eating. Worked really well.
I'm also not growing roses for cutting anymore. Im not growing bachelor's buttons or gomphrena anymore either. The gomohrena never have tall enough stems (unless I cut below a node, which i dont like to do because them stem below is always at an acute angle, & its super fragile & difficult to arrange with. Same with bachelors buttons... theyre too short to trh to use for my market bouquets.
Gonphrena and bachelors buttons are time intensive cut flowers for sure, I hear you!! I don’t grow either anymore either, totally understand!
I started sweet potato slips from tubers which was very labor intensive. I ended up with only a handful of slips but I harvested fewer potatoes than the number of slips I planted! Zone 5b is just not a long enough growing season. They are out for good. It is also relatively easy to get good inexpensive organic sweet potatoes from our food co-op. No more bullies in my flower beds, if they take over and spread too widely they are getting removed.
Same! I’m zone 5b.I planted a ton of slips, had this huge mound of vines and was so excited. Went to harvest at the end of the season and had these tiny little sweet potatoes that look like pinky fingers 😂
I decided not to grow ageratum, carnation. cosmos, tagetes and statice. Instead I will grow more my 3 best sellers. Zinnia, Sun flower and lizzies. Also more setaria, dara and fountaingrass. Also I might skip ranunculus because of the mice problem. I will plant xatnip to get neighbours cats to visit us more often.Snapdragons are a l8vehate thing fot me but I need spikeflovers. I will try salvia and vwronica next summer. Any experiences or thoughts on those?
I totally agree regarding high maintenance plants. And of course, you've got to consider time investment much more as a commercial grower! I did a major revamp during COVID and gave away a bunch of plants. I'm not willing to baby. I'm lucky that roses do well for us without much care, and we don't have Japanese beetles (yet).
Oh good, I hope they stay away from your plants! They can be a nightmare!
I’m up north in Frederick and haven’t had problems with the Japanese beetle yet thank goodness. I dont know why- maybe bc our soil is so hard and clay like grubs can’t grow in it? I just did some research and I did inadvertently plant a lot of repellents- have catnip, chives, allium and I always plant annual geraniums, nasturtiums and marigolds. Guess they are working. Now if anyone could help with grasshoppers! They were a scourge this year and destroyed my veg garden seedlings, two forsythia, tons of flowers a nightmare and nothing organic helped- i would spray insecticidal soap and neem oil on the plants and come out next day and there would be ten grasshoppers munching away. People mentioned netting but then i would block pollinators off flowers. I researched and couldn’t find many solutions.
@@kmsch986 frustrating!
I grow strawberries in the original 5-tier GreenStalks. I have 2 towers but could probably use another 2 with my strawberry eater.
I’m wary of growing in plastic but I’ve heard many people liking their green stalks! Does it help with the squirrels?
@@BlossomandbranchNo problems with rodents just ants and fungus gnats when the towers were in a pop up greenhouse.
Not growing roses, I get it. I ripped all mine out because of the Japanese beetles. I can’t handle it anymore.
You are selling most of your rose bushes. This may cut down on your powder mildew issue:: more space = more air flow. I hung a Japanese Beetle trap this year around my dahlias and that did the trick.
Interestingly the only ones that get PM are the moonlight in Paris, it’s surprising how much varietal has to do with it!
Ugh. Strawberries and potatoes have failed me EVERY. YEAR. I desperately wish I could grow both - my family eats them like they’re going out of style!
I grow potatoes in buckets now - very easy, especially when their green leaves grow like crazy…I can move them so they arent falling over other things I want to grow. Just make sure the buckets have a lot of drain holes.
I only know how to pronounce “Shalott” because of the Anne of Green Gables PBS movie. 😂
Oh man, the BEST!! Loved that version, couldn't get into the "Anne with an E" series!
I am not growing Lisianthus this year. I grew them just for me, but the time investment is growing from seed is just to long and I could grow two crops in the space the Lisianthus takes up.
I don't think I could give up my roses but I'm just a home gardener. Bonny
I don't do anything with my roses during the winter. I live in Indiana Zone 6. Am I supposed to be doing something with them? Mine are fine every year.
My Japanese beetles were not just covering my roses, they were on everything. I'm on the shore in Maryland, they came in June, I was still pulling some in Sept. They were even buried in my double hollyhocks, I cut those to the ground they were so ugly. This yr I'm trying assassin bugs, there are 3 native to my area, fingers crossed they take out at least half, that way I'll still have some sanity over summer.
I'm doing the same for similar reasons.
Fell into a pit of bougainvillea as a child and was stuck for a few hours. I just don’t do thorns. We have one Chrysler Imperial that my grandfather planted in honor of my grandmother and that’s the only one that I didn’t remove. We are in 10b hot and dry. I don’t water them or prune them and they do well until now . November is when the pm hits in Los Angeles the worst because we finally get an inch of water.
Had the same problem with my Strawberrys. No longer grow them. Sad.
I am really considering ditching the Dahlias, for the same reasons. They are more maintenence than my roses...to me.
Have you tried ducks for Japanese beetles
Getting rid of my strawberries as well!!!!!
Between the weeding, thinning and low crop yield I’m over it haha, I have a great grower nearby I can source from thankfully!
GOTTA DO SOMETHING ABOUT 🪲JAPANESE BEETLES‼️
Which rose do you end up keeping?
I LOVE roses and so do the deer and pronghorn so…no roses for me. In nature or from afar and love them
Bag-a-bug works great for trapping Japanese beetles.
I would like to get rid of the molds.
They have a new BT strain that works for Japanese beetles.
I try and make my life easy. Whatever makes it to the following year, I grow. What doesn't... see ya. 😂
You could grow the strawberries in containers if want
Our squirrels would think that was a buffet we placed out for them, haha
@@Blossomandbranchsquirrels are a pain. Most of ours locally are an invasive species, so I'm allowed to hate them.
Ahhh..."Mildew in Paris"...oops, I mean "Moonlight in Paris". In a rose group I am in, she's known as Mildew in Paris...
Oh SO accurate 😂😂
i know what you mean. those jappaneese beatles are a mennise on my roses. this next year im not going to be adding to my roses. i like to add 1 new one to my garden each year. but not this comming 2024 season
Have you tried David Austin roses
Yes, our Lady of Shalott and Queen of Sweden varietals are both David Austins.
I have found that I have better luck with getting roses from Heirloom Roses VS David Austin love my David Austin's. I can get David Austin's from Heirloom Roses but I have noticed that my David Austin's require a little bit more maintenance than the florabundas and other types
Have you ever grown roses from seed?