Watering keeps everything cleaned off here. Its dry here too.)-: And dusty)-: You live in San Diego? I thought the weather was nicer there(-:

Well on the other hand my junk is getting washed daily the natural way.My new garden is a pond most of my flowers in that bed are dead due to all the rain. My daughter suggested that we put a canopy over it.I am thinking that might be a good idea as we are dealing with more rain again today.I guess the good Lord knows what we need. WeeBug

I live in the East County and the weather gets up to 115 for a few weeks then bumps down high 90's-100's till end of September. Not much in the way of rain this year and we have red clay soil.
Hard to garden and I'm thinking of doing rock/boulder gardens for next year.Too hot to work out there till October,I was thinking of making concrete boulders and rocks. Interesting thought.Might put faces on them or fossil leaf patterns.
Julie

Most of my junk is in the backyard. Our house has a lot of windows and doors in the back, so I get to enjoy looking at my garden and junk everytime I walk by a window.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:161924}}

misspistachio we just got through our drought.Well sort of it has been raining.Here is my trick for green lawns. Ironite.Hook it up to a hose spray the lawn and in a few weeks GREEN!

The faces sound cool. Did you see HGTV yesterday? they had a guy on there that has carved faces in rocks for years. It was pretty amazing. From NY. Geez your weather sounds like it is here for the summer. Its way to hot. I thought SD was the perfect place to live. Guess nearer the ocean would be cooler?

Not much for expecting a garden to look clean, except for deadheading, and such. Not sure which parts you want clean?! You spray plants to keep them from being dusty, then you get sunburned leaves.

Some suggestions I've tried:
- My wrought iron birdbath rusted within days. Tried all the typica methods to resolve it -- reapplying inhibitor, rub on stuff that is supposed to change rust to a new kind of surface, and just plain ole scrubbing it off constantly. Nothing worked. Then I waxed the surface! Now I'm rustless -- lots of algae, but no rust. LOL (Next birdbath won't be made of rustable metal. LOL)

- I have "compost buckets" (really just a small containers that a plant came in) in each section of my yard, while watering each night (container garden), I just throw the deadheads and weeds in those. When they get full, they go to the bigger compost bucket, and container is returned.

- Being both cheap and a disabled container gardener (I'm disabled, not my containers or garden LOL), I am always keeping an eye out for ways to raise my containers. Right now some of my herbs are growing in our old large gas grill, with both of the side areas (one shelf just to hold the plater on, and the other side was a burner with a cover, so the cover is permanently down) used to hold their own containers. One side is just a Dollar Store plastic container growing a couple of basils, while the other side holds another thrift store find -- a child's toy plastic wagon, converted into a nursery for herbs. (Holes drilled through the bottom of the wagon, of course.) Our next grill, a round charcoal pit that we didn't use long, before remembering how bad we are at starting charocal burning, is now a lovely container with two ornamental peppers in it. The peppers will be mounded perfectly to the shape of the grill when they are mature enough to start producing peppers. The Radio Flyer red wagon bought at a flea market last summer, holds two of our cuke plants, and, since the holes drilled in it are so small, it takes long enough for all the watering to leave the containers and wagon, that the plants are soaking up the water almost 21 hours later. (Also waxed the wagon, which prohibits rust from showing up quickly.) And, on the opposite corner of my garden (which is only 16' X 16', and is really just a slab of concrete covered in lots of containers) I have a round, plastic child's picnic table from WalMart as my plant stand, sitting underneath a large arched trellis I bought two years ago. Either end of the trellis has one leg in a deep container, while the other foot is out of it. One side carries my Clematis to the top of the trellis, and the other side awaits my perennial hibiscus and hummingbird vines to get to the size where they need it.

I also have a couple of metal shelving units tied to the chainlink fence for smaller containers, and a few big to huge containers full of plants.

We get enough rain for it not to get noticably dusty, and I wish we could have a few spider webs. Got more bad insects then beneficial bugs and birds, so much of my gardens' messy look is due to the insects eating holes through juat about every leaf older then three days old. Still, I am feeding birds and butterflies, plus, obviously growing produce, so I'd rather have holey leaves then chemically treated holeless leaves!

I do have to sweep occasionally, but generally, any extra dirt and leaves on my ground are squirted down the drainage hole. I'm thinking the only way to keep your garden clean, if you have that need, is to pick up the falling leaves, rake as needed, and, if you have spider mite web problems, "wax" your leaves with Neem soap, as needed, instead of hoping they don't get scorched after splattering them with water in the heat of summer.

Truly though?! Only perfect garden can be found in photos in garden books, and half an hour before and 15 minutes after the picture was taken, I can all but guarantee another leaf fell and ruined the perfection again. LOL

Our theory -- if you don't like the mess YOU clean it up! Got anyone complaining about your "messy" garden, hand him or her the rake, towels and water. LOL

I'm really impressed with all of your garden techniques Valentinebear. It sounds like you have quite a set up to make it easy for you to get to.

As for the weather in the NE, it's been quite hot here the past few days, unbearable to be outside. When I get home in the late afternoon, I give everything a good watering to cool off the plants and the grass, even if we had some recent rain. We had a real nasty storm again last night, lost power and all. And - I have used small beach umbrellas to shade some of my delicate plants from the sun. You spend too much on nice plants to have them dry up and wither away in the sun so I do what I can to protect them.

I don't think the question was about plants, but about how dusty and dirty our garden junk gets! I noticed that the few pieces that I do have out, are covered with asphalt dust (black, because my garden is next to US highway 29--very busy) and when I am in the garden a lot I use the hose on them. Other than that, you just have to wipe them down occasionaly. With glass you can use rainX and then hose them.

Maybe some cans of compressed air? Or if you're lucky to have an air compressor, that helps blow off the dust. Might have to stick with 'rock' colored stuff tho!

Ughhh..don't miss Oregon too much right now, we're sweltering in the heat too. Not even nice cool marine breezes to cool off the valley (I'm in Salem). Lucky for us we're on a well for irrigation, so I can keep everything nice and wet right now.

I'm just north of you in Oceanside and i really don't have a big problem with that.Of course our water isn't restricted yet,so we water at least twice a week,for the yards and the hanging plants all have the water crystal things in them,so get waterered as needed.
Kathi

Thanks for all your sugestions.
Kathi,Oceanside isn't far from here.My son lives there.Small world.

We're in the process of putting up a fence along one side of the property,clearing out the useless junk and just overall cleanup.My father passed away in April and we are finding that my parents have been Grand collectors of junk for years.Lucky thing is that I've been lurking around here for a while and have designated certain piles of 'keep' junk that I will be able to use (for gardens)when the work is done. The yard is fairly large (1/3 acre) very dry,not alot of grass. My mother isn't able to do much anymore so I'll have the run of the place. I love all the ideas that come thru here and look forward to incorporating them in the yard.

Thanks a bunch
Julie