Favorite Flowers and yard decor

Subject: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 03 May 99 - 08:27 PM

Ok, I'm not Martha Stewart but I find myself going back to old favorites in my garden year after year. Old English Roses (imagine that my Scottish and Irish friends) are some of my favorites but they are permanent. What I always find myself planting is petunias, Glads, alyssium, nicotiana, peppers (for decoration) and elephant ears. This year I finally have a beutiful selection of Columbine (Ironic, after the massacre eh?). Just curious what ya'll put out this year. This thread will probably sink like a rock but I'd like to know. Ditto, what special quirks do you do to your gardens? I went and bought some of the little concrete thingys the other day. Well, the concrete color sucks and painted figures are even worse. Since my garden is natural southern ohio sandstone I thought I would try to make the little elves look like natural S.O. rock. I found some old cherry stain that I use in woodworking, watered it down with paint thinner and brush the stuff on my figureines. Guess what? The little darlin's look like my sandstone! they sucked it up like a sponge so I'm guessin' it's permanent, Anyway this will probably be the shortest lived thread ever on this Mudcat trotline. LOL Mudcatters.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 03 May 99 - 08:33 PM

Pink flamingos are my decor of choice. No, really! Just check out my morris team's web site listed on the May day/Beltane thread and you'll know why!
Tucker, I'm drooling over your post. Up here in the northlands we don't dare put out much before the middle of May- even if it has been unseasonable warm this week, it could still do a deep freeze! But my daffs are up, my tulips in bud and some in bloom, and my peas are planted! Allison

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 03 May 99 - 09:28 PM

I'Ve an awfull black thumb but my life is mostly in the garden and around plantsmen{Plants-peaple?}. I desighn and make flower-pots for the likes of Martha and historic gardens{the peaple at Smith & HAwken have kept me tap-dancing for years}.I love the portrate of Rubens Peale with Geranium painted by his brother in 1801 on bringing a geranium back from London for his fathers natural history collection in Philadelphia. The pot and plant ended up being given to then president T.Jefferson.A good flower-pots first job is to disapear when it is planted so all you see is the plant. Different plants have different intention so the pots you make for them most miror that. A languid plant gets a languid pot and so on..I think Martha S. will have a chat on plants and pots in the near future.I got to play banjo at the begining of the segment I did with her 2 or 3 years ago.We had alot of fun.Great pizza as well.....I love old apple trees....Apple blossoms.......Cheers Guy~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 03 May 99 - 09:50 PM

Animaterra, although I am so darned glad winter is over I sorely hate it when the tulips and daffs go away, and I dearly love the crocus too. Alas even the Red buds are waning now and I haven't even been into the forest to hunt morels yet. I'd best hurry. Guy, I liked your piece too. I am purely a weed eater man having nursed many blisters as a kid doing the family "lawn". Some time ago I went to Adena, Thomas Worthington's house (first govenor of Ohio and friend and lodge mate of Geo.Washington)in Chillicothe Ohio. Very unique house. I had thought of the early 1800's as so primitive but not so! It taught me a lot about how folks lived then. I't so easy to think of people then living like cave people but nothing could be further from the truth. Anyway what struck me was the garden. It would do a modern soul well to have such a garden but I would hate the thoughts of weeding it. At least by their ways. Me and my weed eater would take days off what it took to do that one. Anyway, I get somewhat smug about our modern gardens but people have always had and loved them.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Susan A-R
Date: 03 May 99 - 10:12 PM

Tucker, until I went to college in ohio, I didn't really know why poeple considered spring to be an entire season. Here in Vermont, it's usually about two weeks at the end of may when things finally get green, blossom and then go full bore into summer. As for me, I stuff anything that will fit into my little plot. I have two apricot trees (which are blooming and I'm hoping they won't get nailed for their early arrival) daffs, lots of tulips, lots of seedham (have to have something in the fall, you know) coneflowers, delphs, bee balm for the hummers, foxgloves, peonies (they came with the place) yellow loostrive, coral bells, mallow, columbine (I like the blue stuff a LOT) Bleeding heart, early yellow primroses, siberian irises, phlox, lupine, anemonies (DON't do it, they spread like mad) and I've also started impatiens, pansys, coreopsis, black eyed susans, and a few other guys. I'll grow Matts Wild cherry tomatoes, some ornamental peppers, basil and a few other veggies, but since I now order produce by bulk, the veggies take a back seat to the flowers. I still mow a tad of lawn, but am gradually trying to shrink it when my husband isn't looking.

Susan

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 03 May 99 - 10:53 PM

I seem to be obsessed with my flowers these days. Here in New Mexico we don't grow a lot of the flowers people have been mentioning (some of which I miss), but I do have long-spurred yellow columbines from the Arizona mountains.

The bulbs are over except for the odd tulip and wood hyacinth, and the late-spring peak of blue flax, penstemons, bearded iris (did you know it's a desert classic?), and those columbines is getting started. And the Salvia greggii that bloomed until the middle of last December is blooming again! And my jimsonweeds have come back! (Actually, they might be better called sacred datura, Datura wrightii syn. meteloides.) No white flower you guys can grow can top the daturas' flowers--too bad they open in the evening and wither in mid-morning, so you mostly see them in the dark.

But I could go on and on...

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Alice
Date: 03 May 99 - 11:20 PM

Columbines come up everywhere in my yard and flower beds. I have too many flowers to list, but here is a page about my last major yard project. The pond plants have grown even larger over the winter, in a large tub in my office/studio. I'll have to wait until June before it's safe to put them out... might freeze.
Alice's pond

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 03 May 99 - 11:43 PM

I am amazed. First of all Columbine is I think my favorite flower (besides roses). I didn't know it had such a long range! Nor about the Iris's Jerry! I guess we are blessed with a real and long spring here Susan, but we share a love for similar plants. I like the windflowers too but I haven't had any problem with them getting out of control. I did with pinks some years back and this is the first year I am trying them again. I think the Scots call them "Bloody Bills", I may be wrong on that one but I don't hardly think so. Anyway, I am again surprised that my threads even got an answer. I thank you all, Alice too. I know I didn't mention your name but I saw your answer and I appreciate it. If I talk too much Joe is going to get a restraining order on me.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 May 99 - 11:57 PM

Alice: WOW! That's realy nice and what wonderful photos, etc. Thanks!

We rent, so I've not gotten into too much, except making a small patch up by the house and at the end of the driveway. When mom moved to CO almost 4 yrs ago, I transplanted some wild, mountain geraniums, blue flax and wild mountain mint, along with snow in summer. I added some verbena and tansy. The tansy got huge and tried ot take over, so I gave the whole plant to a friend and now this year I see a small section as left behind and is coming in nicely. In the back I've a huge stalk of last years hollyhocks and some pinks that should be showing up pretty soon. grwoing season ehre is not that long either. I've always had huge pots of catnip which i harvest - keeps 'em happy all winter. It didn't come back up int eh ground last year, so I guess I'll have to start again with the potted stuff. I just hope no narcs ever come looking through my freezer!

This year, we've noticed a little cottontail seems to like the mint and grass, so has been hanging about our front yard and the neighbour's. I always tell the "rabbie" Hi. I have some of those quick garden rollout things which you water and voila all kinds of wildflwoers are 'sposed to come up. I wasn't up to putting them in last year. This yr. I intend to. Maybe they'll camoflauge the dandelions I refuse to poison even though my nighbours glare at me. I harvested their roots one year and made a tincture for a friend who needed a liver transplant. he is fine now, no need for a new liver nad off of SSI, not entirely due to the dandy-lion, but we all feel sure it helped.

This year, also, I hope to find a transplantable ladyslipper orchid on the mountain. They are so beautiful.

Hey, TuckMan, thanks, this is fun. Oh, and I want to do some Cosmos this year. They were one of mom's favourites. But, really it's way too early to be thinking about this here.

kat

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 04 May 99 - 12:14 AM

Hey Kat, thanks for dropping in. I almost always put out Cosmos, I love the name for one thing. Makes me think of one of my favorite TV shows of all time (Carl Sagan). Oh yeah and dandelions.....they are magikal. The Indians have a wonderful story about a feud between the animals,plants and people. Good Lord I am rambling again. My lot is 40' X 160'. Not a lot to do anything with, on the other hand I have a six room house that I live alone in. Except for 2 dogs, 3 cats and 7 goldfish named Ralph. Chicken and feathers, too much of one, not enough of the other

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 04 May 99 - 12:38 AM

Good thread, Tuck! I have a two acre lot at 8000 ft elevation here in Colorado, and I am fighting off the urge to make a big YARD out of it. We've got about a 50 ft strip around the house that I have alotted as garden, the rest I want to leave natural- standing dead aspens, fallen logs, weeds and all.

About this time we start to get the Pasque Flower, the first bloomer of the year. They are small furry shoots with purple blooms, and one day there are none, the next there are thousands all over the forest floor.

I have planted a couple trees near the house- Russian Hawthorne because I like the twisted branches and brightness of the small leaves, and Nanking Cherry because of the firecracker explosion of pink blossoms in mid-may. I like, frankly, hearty perennial flowers like bleeding heart, columbine, black-eyed susan. In our harsh climate you figure out what will come back every spring, and that's what you like.I used to try to grow tomatoes up here. I'd prune, and fertilize, and cultivate, and nurse along the plants til I got some modest fruit about October the first. At that point the freeze would set and we'd be eating fried green tomatoes for a week. Finally had to give it up (sniff).

Lawn decor- benches scattered around. I would like to put in a small pond for koi this year. We'll see.

LEJ

LEJ

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: DonMeixner
Date: 04 May 99 - 12:52 AM

We live in an Erie Canal era home built on thecanal in 1854. We try to plant the yard with flowers and shrubs that would have been around then. Rose of Sharon, Soldier Rose and Hibiscus where among the first decorative plants used routinelly(sp) in this area. As were English roses and Ivy. We are surrounded by Lemon Lillies, Tiger Lillies, Irises and Narcissus. Since much of my yard and a part of my house was leveled by a wind shear in September we are able to rethink our yard a bit. (Good bye thirty foot Magnolia) This year we'll plant choryopsis and Caster Oil Plants

Don

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Llanfair
Date: 04 May 99 - 04:03 AM

I was all ready to go to work when Isaw this thread. I suppose I'm going to be late now. it's 8-30 am ish. My house is built into the hillside, so the top of the garden overlooks our roof, and everyone else's in the town. I have a greenhouse up there, which is full of fuchsias, geraniums, and vegetable seedlings waiting to go out in June, when all danger of frost is past. There are two grapevines in there as well. I am creating a potager in the garden, little bits of this and that in each raised bed. Because it,s such a long haul up the garden, Ikeep a few chickens and a couple of geese up there so i can compost their poo and eat the eggs. It;s about as self sufficient and ecologically sound as I can get whilst I still work full time. Having said that, I'd better get there soon. or I won't have a job!! Hwyl, Bron.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 04 May 99 - 06:48 AM

Don's climate seems more like mine and since I live at the terminus of the Erie Canal (some of the locks are still there on the outside of town) I reckon we have pretty close weather. I had Rose of Sharon when I moved here 25 years ago. I shaped it like a tree. The only problem I had was it was all the time making seedlings in areas I wanted something else to grow. What I didn't image when I started this is all the different climes. EJ is up there in the mountains at 8000 feet. I don't know what grows at that height besides maybe edelweiss. Since Koi are a variation of carp I would reckon they'd do well there too. They do well here in my computer room. I bought a plastic concrete hod, a small pump and went into the forest fetching rocks to put in it and to surround it. Then I put house plants around it. Looks good and I love the sound of the flowing water. One drawback. Makes me want to use the bathroom a lot.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Alice
Date: 04 May 99 - 09:23 AM

kat-- check out the ladyslippers on this page. I got them last Mother's day.
(You have to scroll down when you get there.)

fishbowl of ladyslippers
alice in montana

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Vixen
Date: 04 May 99 - 09:38 AM

Great thread, 'Cats!

I'm glad it didn't sink!

Alice--I love your ponds. I collect waterfalls, myself, cause I don't have to dust 'em, and they're too big to bring inside--but I never thought of taking pictures of them!

Tucker--as others have pointed out, renting makes serious gardening somewhat pointless. But I have a small patch of vegetables every year, and I out a few annuals in pots and window boxes and such. I'm saving for a place of my own that I will turn into a "rank wilderness of fern and flower." A lawn, in my opinion, should be large enough for a cookout with croquet, no larger!

V

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Margo
Date: 04 May 99 - 09:52 AM

No time to garden with my two kids. But one flower I love is the primrose (at least I think that's what they are). They bloom happily in frost, and when the weather finally turns warm, they whither away. They are all different bright colors and I see them here in Washington a lot.

I also love deep purple lobelia planted alongside bright orange marigolds. Such a stark contrast, but beautiful.

Alice, I've never seen your website. It's wonderful! I want to have a homepage just as well organized and interesting. Good health to you.

Margarita

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 05 May 99 - 04:35 AM

Alice, I eavesdropped to see your ladyslippers. I had heard of them but didn't recall ever seeing them. Very pretty. Thank you Vixen, I never thought this many would write about their lawns, but what diversity eh? Margarita, it seems you are taking to the computer quite well (if the same margarita in the earlier thread). Cool.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 May 99 - 04:45 AM

Alice: your ladyslippers are gorgeous! Thanks for the link.Is that your butterfly artwork, too? Simply beautiful!

Thought of some annuals which I love, marigolds and esp. Jolly Joker pansies; they are purple and orange together. I had them on the front porch in Mystic one year when the FedEx guy came by, said those ar our company colours, the co. would probably like to give out seed packets of them as a promotion. So I gave him all of the info. Thye usually are jumbo sized and the contrast of deep purple and orange is really beautiful. I alway get compliments.

Also love moss roses. Alice, how do I link photos into the internet. Is there an easy way?

Thanks,

katlaughing (great thread TuckMudder!)

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 05 May 99 - 05:16 AM

thx Kat

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Alice
Date: 05 May 99 - 11:23 AM

Kat, I can receive Mudcat personal messages, but for some reason I can't send them, except as a reply to one I have received. The new message page freezes, so I can't choose a name to send to. Email to me --> [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 05 May 99 - 12:45 PM

All right, I admit it, I don't just do flamingos! I planted honeysuckle on my scraggle border this weekend; I'm starting my veggies and also planting bleeding heart, black-eyed Susan, columbine, and nasturtiums this month. We live next to conservation land where we have protected ladyslippers, jack-in-th-pulpit, and trillium, all signs of the season as they arrive!
I go a little crazy this time of year!
Allison

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Penny
Date: 05 May 99 - 12:55 PM

One of the things I try to do is to grow herbs for cooking. Parsley, but the snails get it. Mint, from the strains my grandad grew, but the snails get it. Chives, but the snails get them (even five foot off the ground in my porch). The sage is being trimmed into a neat bush shape by the snails. They don't like lavender, they don't like thyme (but it's going), but the marjoram isn't coming up as it should, so I dare say they/ve got that, too. Lemon balm is taking over. I'm going out there on the next wet night, and it'll be brine at point blank range.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: DonMeixner
Date: 05 May 99 - 01:49 PM

Renters do have gardening issues no doubt. One of the neat things my job allows me to do is design fun things for people with disabilities. One of which was "The Collapsable Plant-A-Matic" wheelchasir accessible garden for patio or deck. Basically its a shallow planter with bins thatare removable and the stands are desk hight for wheelchair users. No good reason they can't be used by renters for the same purpose. I'll send photo copies to any one who wants. Contact me by private E-Mail at

Old [e-mail]

Don

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Ross
Date: 05 May 99 - 02:23 PM

Tulips are the favorite at my house, but so short lived. No one has mentioned the tip that seems so prevelent, beautiful spot in the country, surrounded by rusted car body planters filled with blackberry vines. Hard to beat & easy to grow.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 05 May 99 - 03:04 PM

Yes, Penny! Herbs, too! I have great success with lavender, but I always kill any rosemary I buy. Kitchen herbs are great- I have a special plot for them. They have just started showing so I forgot to mention them!

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 05 May 99 - 03:09 PM

Tucker, out here there are more wildflowers at 8000 feet than at (say) 5000 ft. Every time I'm up in the mountains in August and I see all those flowers that I can't grow (purple geranium, Rocky Mountain iris, scarlet gilia, etc.) I wished I lived up there. But when my salvia shrubs last into December and the crocuses start in January, I'm glad I live down here at 5600 feet.

And now I've got Corsican pansy seedlings, which are supposed to bloom in every month of the year. We'll see.

Yes, I rent. I could lose everything I've planted. My method for dealing with this problem is denial.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Robin McG
Date: 05 May 99 - 08:03 PM

Alice, I took snuck a peek a your ladysslippers,they're beautiful. We have some by the cabin in northern Michigan but they are endangered here so we can only take pictures. how lucky you are! It's morel time here Tucker, been looking but its really dry..had the same problem last year hope it doesn't affect the blueberries too. Jack-in-the=pulpit is also an old favorite. I could go on and on.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: McMusic
Date: 05 May 99 - 09:37 PM

Pink flamingoes and white-washed tractor tires.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Mudjack
Date: 05 May 99 - 09:48 PM

My favorites are the many varieties of wildflowers that come up each spring. They are as welcome as spring itself.Unlike the roses and and tulips and lilacs that my Mrs. fusses over, these little guys come up each year and go away without a whole lot of time spent on pampering them. They are beautiful and best of all like nature intended them to be, they come without a fancy price tag. Some folks around here call them weeds, but I prefer the hi-brid name, "wildflowers". .....Mudjack

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: alison
Date: 05 May 99 - 10:22 PM

Hi,

Used to love snowdrops and bluebells at home. Hard to find over here.....

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 05 May 99 - 10:42 PM

Jerry, As the wee ones say it"way kewl". I couldn't image it had I not crossed over the Rockies in a Greyhound bus when I was 15. I'll never forget the sight of seeing something white in background in summer. Eastern Appalachian lad that I was, I had no fathom as to what the white peaks on the horizon was on old Rte 66. As every moslem is requried to go to Mecca once in their life, every american should be required to travel America by land, coast to coast. Ok, guys and dolls, I know I am ignoring the northern climes. I may do that for mudfest. I am just commenting to Jerry. As I said, I am at 700 ft above sea level and considered a "hillbilly", I'd say Jerry rates a mountaineer status.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 05 May 99 - 10:56 PM

Dear Robin and Mudjack, GeeZ, I am missing the greatest time to be in the woods here! Crapola, I gotta work more than I want to. I am retired, don't have to work, but damn, I do the emergency notification devices so many elderly and infirm rely on and they are such a trip to talk to that I can't give it up. Robin sometimes you can't help but trip over the Morells here, sometimes you can't find any, but the hunt is always fun. Mudjack, I always enjoy a hunt for pink flamigos, the plastic sort. They are invaribly the plastic sort here in the north.(I know, I caught the error too}. I was amazed in florida when I actually seen a real PINK flamingo, without wire legs. Thanks for the input all.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 May 99 - 08:41 AM

well...my authentic, fifties pink flamingoes were found at a "tag sale" (50 cents a piece)in someone's yard on Point Judith, Rhode Island and they are way too kewl to go outdoors in the weather here, so.....they are perched in the pots of some of my larger houseplants and everybody love the useof them in my eclectic decor.

I love the wildflowers, too. The prairie is just gorgeous when they all come out and tehir time is so brief. indian Paintbrush lasts all summer, but others are so fleeting. One of my favourites in marisposa lillies; Mom used to dip them in wax when she was a little girl to rpeserve them.

I mentioned renting, but I didn't mean it keeps me from doing any gardening. Mom passed on her green thumb and I couldn't live wihtout a patch of something to tend. DonMeixner, I do use pots and planters, which I can take with me, but what a good idea you have! I once delivered meals on wheels in CT. There was an old man who couldn't bend much anymore. He's set up a big table in his yard and had allof his veggies and flowers in boxes on it. I thought how sensible; juts stand there and easily weed, prune, etc. Your planter sounds wonderful.

This is really a nice thread.

kat

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Robin McG
Date: 06 May 99 - 08:03 PM

Tucker, you're right the hunt for the ilusive morel is always fun. Watching the woods come alive after its winter sleep makes one truly appreciate life. I hope to one day find the place I can trip over a morel. Your work sounds rewarding but take some time to smell the woods while it's still spring.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 06 May 99 - 09:27 PM

Thanks Robin, I am making it a point to go camping this weekend and searching for Morels. It'll also be a time to take Oldblue and Miss Daisy out and I hope introduce my son-in-law to camping. He's in his thirties and never slept in a tent!!! Poor laddie! My daughter gets a hoot out of him, but he's her beau, and I like him too. I am almost afraid to turn him on to the great outdoors, especially to show him and my daughter a very private, sedate, swimming hole out in the forest. 'fraid I'll end up with another grandchild...Seriously, hehe right, I need to get out there, even if all I find are inkcaps

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From:
Date: 07 May 99 - 12:59 PM

the lilies of the valley are coming up on the north side of the house
------

White Coral Bells

White coral bells
Upon a lender stock
Lilies of the Valley
Deck my garden walk.

Oh, how I wish
That I could hear them ring
But that can only happen
When the fairies sing.

(check out the Flying Pig Campfire Songbook) click

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Alice
Date: 07 May 99 - 01:18 PM

hmmmm strange. I just noticed that my name is no longer showing up automatically in 'from'. How did that happen?

alice

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Alice
Date: 07 May 99 - 01:30 PM

White Coral Bells lyrics were posted by me. alice

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: hotspur
Date: 07 May 99 - 02:06 PM

What a great thread! I grow mostly herbs, veggies, and edible flowers. I have two herb plots and plowed up the front lawn last summer to make a third, a sit-down, formal herb garden. OOH, i'm so excited! There's not much in it right now, only golden sage, English lavender, Jacob's ladder, marigolds, and borage. That will change. i'm planning to make a thyme walk, and mound German chamomile around the little fountain in the center. I'm also going to put in Echinacea (purple coneflower), evening primrose, Heal-all (prunella), horehound, breadbox poppies, maybe? The possibilities!

P.s. Penny, have you tried Diatomaceous earth to get rid of your snails? you should be able to find it in a co-op or farm supply store. Or, you can try surrounding the plants with cardboard or hair clippings(makes the snails dry out.)

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tony Burns
Date: 07 May 99 - 02:07 PM

Where do you guys find time for gardens with all the music and Mudcatting going on? I am impressed. With all this knowledge I'm hoping someone can answer the questions below.

1) I was in a the woods last weekend and noticed that red and white trilliums did not seem to grow together. My somewhat brief observation makes me think that white trilliums need/like more light than the red ones. Would any of you hortilogical Mudders care to comment on my observations?

2) I know some songs that mention the plant broom. I have unsuccessfully searched the web for a picture. Does anyone know where to find a picture of broom?

btw - my favourite yard decor is friends making music.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Llanfair
Date: 07 May 99 - 02:25 PM

I haven't got the cleverness to show you a picture of it, but it's a shrub that grows wild on our Welsh hills. The flowers are yellow, and look like small sweet-pea flowere. The cultivated ones have different coloured flowers. and they smell wonderful, enough to knock your socks off. They are in flower now in Britain. Hwyl. Bron.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 07 May 99 - 03:27 PM

Hotspur, you didn't mention your location. Silly me, when I started this thread I didn't take into account the fact we are global here, so while it's spring here in Appalachia I guess it's fall in Oz

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Robin McG
Date: 07 May 99 - 03:35 PM

Tony, I think the trilliums you noticed were probably different species. Tucker, let us know how your camping trip went always amusing to go with a novice. There's nothing like a grandchld either! Good luck with the morels.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Robin McG
Date: 07 May 99 - 03:47 PM

Tony, I sure wish I knew how to use those blue cliky things. I went into askjeeves who directed me to Infoseek who had a picture of the broom plant and discription. I hope you can understand my directions I'll have to learn how to use those blue clicky things one day!

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Robin McG
Date: 07 May 99 - 03:47 PM

Tony, I sure wish I knew how to use those blue cliky things. I went into askjeeves who directed me to Infoseek who had a picture of the broom plant and discription. I hope you can understand my directions I'll have to learn how to use those blue clicky things one day!

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Penny
Date: 07 May 99 - 03:55 PM

Hotspur, thanks, I'll try that. My mother's method is just a bit not my taste: large jar (Horlicks for preference) of brine. Insert snails by hand. Our garden had dozens of them. I don't like pellets, though I'm using them at the moment, and can't get soot. I've tried lobbing them into the middle of the lawn for the thrushes. They never took to the beer.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Mudjack
Date: 07 May 99 - 04:01 PM

Tucker,
I'm not the "Pink Flamingos", but did do my share of bus riding as a youngster. About age eight(circa 1950's) recall a bus ride down the Grapevine grade that drops into Bakersfied and caught a dynamic view of bright California poppies as far as the eye could see. Calif's state flower at its best showing us another side to The Golden State.Today you would be lucky to see the valley floor through the smog. Thank's for reminding me of those kind of unforgettable visions in memory. Mudjack

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 07 May 99 - 04:03 PM

Hey, Alice, do you know (same tune):

Three shiny leaves upon a slender stalk
Lovely poison ivy decks my garden walk!
Oh, don't you wish that you could stop and touch?
But you know you mustn't 'cause you'll itch too much!

Allison

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Alice
Date: 07 May 99 - 04:47 PM

Allison, funny!

Also, I noticed that I spelled "slender" without the "s" in White Coral Bells... oh, well, I was barely awake this morning when I checked in.

It is interesting to do an Alta Vista search on White Coral Bells. I did before posting this morning, and even found a 4th grade curriculum using the song to analyze Hayden.

Regarding the plant called broom, here are some photos from an Australian website blue clicky thing for broom

For those with a Mac, I find it handy to use an apple "sticky" (one of those little notes that look like a 3M post it note on your computer screen) to keep the basic html code to create 'the blue clicky' links. It is fast and easy that way to copy and paste the code from the sticky note into a message, then copy and paste the URL and give it a name.

alice

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tony Burns
Date: 07 May 99 - 05:53 PM

Oh, the broom, the bonnie bonnie broom ...

Violent as well as bonnie. Here's a quote from one of the sites, "Seed pods explode on hot days in summer, flinging seeds up to 2 metres from the parent plant."

Thank you Robin and Alice.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 07 May 99 - 09:47 PM

mudjack, believe it or not I actually went to california in 1965 on a greyhound bus from ohio to california via route66.Iwas 16,pissed because I couldn't buy alcohol in other states,so I had a teenage attitude, but I made it there anyway. That is when the magnitude and majesty of our country first impressed me. One, it took three days to go across, even from the midwest, second the diversity of our wonderful, beutiful country. I had wondered why people from far away wanted to see America! Silly Boy! This is a great country, beutiful people, beutiful terrain Start in Ohio

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 07 May 99 - 10:19 PM

I was thinkin'when I made this thread no one would answer it, Lordy was I wrong! Thank you all so much. tommy

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 08 May 99 - 03:13 PM

This is a great thread, thank you for starting it Tucker. Maybe someone out there can help me with a gardening problem that's driving me crazy!

About three years ago a friend's mother gave me a cutting from what she said is an 'old-fashioned' rose bush. That single cutting has turned into a wonderful bushy shrub. It's seemingly very healthy, has beautiful leaves, puts out several new shoots a year and produces lots of buds.

The trouble is that not one bud has matured into a flower. One day everything seems fine, the next there are green worms/caterpillars burrowing into or out of the bud (I can't tell which) and eating the inside of the bud. I've sprayed but that didn't do any good.

I've looked through rose books, garden books and web-sites and haven't seen this problem mentioned. I've even posted my question to garden chat lines and had not one reply.

I'm almost desperate to see this bush in flower, can anyone help?

Duckboots (using a friend's computer)

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 08 May 99 - 04:14 PM

Rick, maybe you have a multi-flora rose. They are little more than a bush and when they do flower the roses are wee things. The rose companies use them to graft onto (seed grown roses are EXPENSIVE). Another useless tidbit about them. The Government talked farmers in the 30's into planting them as living fences. That was all fine and good, except that birds love to eat their seeds and they drop them everywhere. Well, I can live with a wild rosebush except sometimes they grow huge and if you are hunting or walking in the woods they are a royal pain in the behind. I was in the woods a few hours ago and the darn things are everywhere. Oh, this is cool. I caught a salamander and now he has joined my seven goldfish named Ralph in my pond by the computer. Thanks for the compliments folks.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 08 May 99 - 04:42 PM

Thanks Tucker. Rick Fielding wouldn't know a good rose from a bad one. I think his expertise lies in knowing whether a mandolin was made in 1923 or 1924 ---from how it smells! I'm just borrowing his computer. I'll go back outside and check my poor rose for more worm damage.

Duckboots

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 May 99 - 05:42 PM

My friends swear by little pans of beer among their strawberries, every year a bumper crop, to keep the snails out. Maybe the dish size helps? I think they use something almost like a saucer, only a little deeper.

Hotspur, have you any of the herb books by Adelma Grenier Simmons? She is a wonderful old woman who owns Caprilands in North Coventry, in the middle of Connecticut. I've lost count of the books she's written on herbs and gardening and gardens. When I met her in 1987, she was in her 80's and STILL going to Oxford every summer to lecture. She is a world reknowned expert, who also holds high tea every Sunday, reservations required! She dresses in flamboyantly elegant purple capes and hats with long, long feathers and has pagan statues all over the gardens, as well as ones of St. Francis everywhere, and a permanent Maypole. Her prices are still very reaonsbale and she's got every rare and special things you can think of as well as products made from the herbs grown there.

If any of you ever get a chance to go there, I promise you will be delighted. The atmosphere is peaceful, loving, incredibly heady with scents, and full of delights for the eyes.

Another wonderful place in CT is Logee's Greenhouse in Danielson.Another old woman, Mrs. Joy Logee Martin. My brother and I were fortunate to have made friends with her and be invited into the old family Victorian home, where she had pictures of her family, including her father who not only started the world-famous greenhouse, but also SEWED all of his children's clothes, himself! Extraordinary family and the plants are outstanding. They have more houseplants than Caprilands, but also have fabulous herbs. They are known for their rare houseplants. Her daughter in law actauly writes guest columns for the NYTimes and other pubs on saving the plants of the rainforests. She's had her life threatened for wanting to do this.

I could go on and on, but instead will do the blue thngy, so you can see for yourselves. The openign page for Caprilands has a picture of Mrs. Simmons, so you'll see what I mean. Have fun!

Caprilands

Logees

katlaughing

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 May 99 - 05:48 PM

Okay, lets try the Caprilands one, again. Here ya go:

Caprilands

Sorry.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 08 May 99 - 06:40 PM

Thank you Kat, you are a joy on this site. Duckboots! Now that is original, I may have to write a song with that in it, kinda like chicken lips, no insult intended.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 May 99 - 06:42 PM

Aw, shucks, TuckMudder, why thank kew!

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 08 May 99 - 06:44 PM

Kat, you are so quick!

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 08 May 99 - 09:57 PM

Tucker, I've been browsing through my gardening books and I'm almost certain that my rose bush isn't a multi-flora. My rose bush would have lots of flowers if it wasn't for these pesky green worms burrowing into the buds. Comparing the one half-chewed rose that did bloom to the roses in the book, it looks like an old garden rose very similar to Comte de Chambord.

I've consulted my gardening friends, but nobody else seems to have encountered this problem. If anybody has any ideas, I'm willing to try them because I'd sure like to see this bush in bloom.

Kat, I've heard about the beer cure although I thought it was for slugs. I think the dish has to be buried so that the lip is level with the soil and the slugs/snails who are attracted by the smell can fall into it. I hate killing things in the garden, even by accident, but slugs are such revolting creatures, primeval slime!

And Tucker, I can't wait to hear that song!

Duckboots

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 08 May 99 - 10:24 PM

Ok, Duckboots, ya know your rose better than I lad. Try this. Get some tobacco, either a plug, or a few cigs, or an un monica cigar(sorry, couldn't resist that one) and soak it in a liter/quart of water over night. strain. Mix with one tablespoon of dish detergent, one tablespoon of Epsom salts and a can of left over beer, drink heartily and camp by the bathroom. Just joking, Anyway, put this in your sprinkler and douse your rose with it. That should take care of your problem. I have terrible problems with grubs but not on my roses. Any solutions to that?

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Alice
Date: 08 May 99 - 10:30 PM

Duckboots, it could be rose midge or another insect on the list that you can read about here.

I found the page by using an excellent search engine for gardening, the Ohio State University Fact Sheet DATABASE
alice

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Alice
Date: 08 May 99 - 10:42 PM

Tucker, by the way, I almost killed some plants by using tobacco solution on them. I heard it was a natural remedy, and then later found out that it causes mosaic virus. Now I know why one guy who was a chain smoker complained that he always killed every rose he tried to grow. You can read about it here.click

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 08 May 99 - 10:47 PM

Thank you Alice. I had read that cure all in one of the pop culture things but honestly it didn't work well for me. I thought maybe I did something wrong (I sometimes do) but I thought I would pass the info on to Duckboots in hope he would do better. to those of you who want to confine this thread to music.....see why we mudcatters like it here....thanks again Alice

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 08 May 99 - 11:02 PM

Well, Tucker, I almost ran out to try your nicotine solution but luckily I read Alice's post first. Now I suppose I'll have to drink the stuff!!

Alice, my sister told me something about using cigarette ash in a solution with water and dish detergent, I forget what she said it's supposed to do but do you think that would also be dangerous?

I'll check the websites you send and hope they have an answer. You know these pests have appeared on this particular rose three years in a row but haven't infected other roses close by, I have an uneasy feeling that they're end product of something that is in the buds.

Duckboots, by the way, that's Ms Duckboots to you Tucker my friend. Oh, while I remember, what did you call the salamander? Is it another Ralph? Is it a Ralphette, perhaps?

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 08 May 99 - 11:20 PM

Now Rick Lad ya hae me on that on. Should I call my Salamander "Sally"? I'll settle on the best name

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 08 May 99 - 11:21 PM

Alice, what great sites! I'll read more when I have some time but they're sure to be useful.

I thought at first you were right about the rose midge but reading a bit more it's close but no cigar. These things are green, about an inch long and leave a hole into or out of the bud. They don't seem to have effect on the leaves or stems.

It looks more like the description of the rose tier, although I hadn't noticed a black head and they don't touch the leaves at all.

I'll read more tomorrow, at least now I feel like I'm on some kind of track.

Thanks everyone

Duckboots

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 May 99 - 11:45 PM

Rick, I think you're right about it being for slugs. Sorry. Also, I don't like killing things either. That's why my neighbours call my front lawn "dandelion row". I have made medicinal tinctures from them before and just cannot bring myself to put any kind of poison on our Earth Mother. I don't consider them weeds, so...there they grow!

This is fun!

katlaughing, TuckMudder, I always was a "quick-draw" Hehehe

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 09 May 99 - 04:12 AM

In my front yard I have (in the middle of the lawn) a holly bush that kinda takes care of itself except I have to prune it back every coupla years, a camelia bush that's overgrown: when I tried to prune it, nothing grew back where I trimmed (luckily on the back side), so I haven't cut it since. Next to it is a wild plum tree that just grew up when somebody spit a seed into the yard. It just keeps growing everywhich way, mostly up, but is beautiful for a couple of weeks in late February (we have early springs here in California). Lots of plums--small, sweet, make a great jelly (or ice cream topping if I don't add enough pectin)--most of which grow too high on the tree to make harvest easy. I had some kind of pine next to the driveway, but it died when a neighbor kid peeled the bark from around a foot of the trunk. I cut it down mostly with a pruning saw--stripped all the branches (vere carefully when I was working near the power line that feeds my neighbors house). Had all the branches and the top 6 feet or so of the trunk (maybe 25 feet total height) when a neighbor brought out his chain saw and took it down, me pulling on a rope tied to the top of what was left to keep it from falling on anything but me, and cut the trunk into manageable size logs--damned things were so hard they didn't burn worth a damn. Only other thing growing in the front yard other than grass and weeds is a rhododendron--the local wild type with small but long lasting purple blooms. It used to have another variety grafted into it, with big pink and white blooms which wilted immediately upon picking; the native one only came up from the roots as the pink one was dying. Oh, and a hydrangea on the side of the house that blooms beautifully all summer long no matter how badly I ignore it. Neighbors come over asking permission to clip a few blooms.

A big pine spreads over one corner of the back yard, and over my covered patio, as well as the neighbor's yard and house--I've had to pay to have some of it cut, but generally it takes care of itself, kind of minds its own business, forming part of the aerial pathway for squirrels traversing the yard (there's a squirrel nest high in the tree--sometimes the squirrels sit in the tree gnawing the cones and dropping the cores on my dogs. Fifteen feet from the pine, in the center of the yard are a pair of bushes, a six foot high juniper which seems to be always full of cobwebs and a pyracantha which grew up from the roots of a previous bush which had grown too big and too lopsided and tipped over, giving me some needed (at the time) excuse for exerting myself heavily, again with the pruning saw (handy old tool). There's some kind of tree in the very back of the yard which seems to have come under the fence from the neighbor's property in back--big, long, dark leaves, small white blossoms in the spring, followed by tiny orange fruit which I've never seen any birds or squirrels eat, and I've never tried, never will, I guess.

More grass and weeds, a mess of flowers of some kind growing from bulbs which seem to duplicate themselves, a scraggly bouganvillia (sp?), a once strong, fragrant rose which is now small and scaly, some tree roses and honeysuckle--I guess that's it. I mow the lawn from time to tome, water less than I should, and the lawn shows it--I uproot some dandelions every now and then, pull up the burr clover as it appears, but most of my yard care time is devoted to picking up dog poop.

Now how'd I get mixed up with all you hard-gardenin' types? --seed

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Robin McG
Date: 09 May 99 - 06:48 AM

It took me a while but I just got it. If you take a cross country trip starting in Ohio you'll miss alot of country! Nothing compares to Michigan's Upper Penisula for beautiful terrain and people. That still leaves alot of country out so I guess the best place to start is our own backyards, then follow the wind.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Margo
Date: 09 May 99 - 12:47 PM

Duckboots, I wonder if you have a Florabunda rose. I have heard a description of that one and it sounds like yours as you have described it. Sorry, no remedies here. I wish I had time to grow things. (young kids take all my time)

My husbands want to build a greenhouse this summer so we can grow food year round. I am looking forward to fresh organic veggies in January!

Margarita

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Alice
Date: 09 May 99 - 12:47 PM

Duckboots, I should have mentioned this before... when the insect appears on your plant, cut off some of the plant tip that shows the bud and leaves as well as the worm. Put it in a plastic zip bag and take it to the County Extension Office (should be in your local courthouse, or thereabouts). The entymologist for your county can then identify the problem. Having a bit of the plant helps show what your are dealing with. It is your tax dollars at work, so you should take advantage of their expertise.

alice

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 09 May 99 - 12:58 PM

Margarita, how many husbands DO you have? Maybe I can get Heather to score another hubby to help her in the garden! Thanks for the info, I'll pass it on to her. Thanks also Alice. I don't think we have county courthouses in Canada, but there should be an equivalent. "Ms. Duckboots" will probably return this afternoon.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Paul G.
Date: 09 May 99 - 02:54 PM

I'm not much of a horticulturalist, but I just had to add that here, near the banks of the St. Johns river in northern Florida, the white jasmine blooming at my front door smell nearly as sweet as the naval oranges which blossomed 8 weeks ago in my back yard. Particularly at night, the jasmine fragrance is nearly overwhelming. My day lillies are budding, a good two weeks from full blossom, and my pink, bright red, and violet crepe myrtles are a good month away from blooming. It's 90 degrees here today...ah, spring in Jacksonville...

Blessings,

Paul G.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: DonMeixner
Date: 09 May 99 - 11:23 PM

The day was fresh, the sun was bright and just above the peak of the house when I stepped into the garden. I planned my time carefully. An hour from "now" the sun would have created a pool of shade where the Adirondak chair sat. Thats when I would take my first break. I finished my cup of coffee, Folgers, black, and set the up on the chair arm. Built wider than normal for that very purpose. I advance towards the tiller. Checked its fuel level. Set the choke and dropped it out of gear. I grabbed the starter rope and placed my hand where the legend on the Tecumseh 5-horse said place hand here. The first pull is always tentative but the second pull requires authority. I pulled and the starter rope came away in my hand leaving the engine running but with no way to restart the tiller should it stall. I tilled for the hour I'd planned, gaining about a quarter of my garden. I took a break as planned for coffee and with no way to restart my tiller I turned to mowing the lawn. Not more than five minutes into the sideyard and the mower engine setup, never to turn over again. So at 11:00 am I switched from coffee to Killian's and read the Farmer's Almanac in my Adirondak Chair befor going into the shop and seeing what damage I could do to some sterling. The seekend didn't start to well.

Don

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: SingsIrish Songs
Date: 10 May 99 - 02:19 PM

Right now, after having moved into a townhouse in LA area (more specifically San Fernando Valley region) from the heart of San Francisco, I can at least enjoy a container garden on the patio. I've a variety of flowers (begonia, impatiens, colius, verbena, allysium) and of course a couple each of bell peppers and tomatoes (gotta have fried green tomatoes in the summer!) Then I am going to keep replanting the lettuce container...

My dream is to eventually live in a home with a yard so I can have a better vegetable garden, and a small pond (like we had at my folks) work on a few container bonsai trees, have lots more flowers including roses, chinese for-get-me-nots, gladiolus, and my utmost favorite Irises! (Esp. the purple bearded ones)

Mary Kate

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Peter T.
Date: 10 May 99 - 02:21 PM

Dear Duckboots,
This is of no use, unless you think that having a poem about something is better than not having one about something. From Willie Blake, 1760's:
THE SICK ROSE

O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
- William Blake.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 10 May 99 - 02:48 PM

I been havin' some hard gardenin', I thought you knowed,
I been fightin' them wild blackberries, way down the road,
I been havin' some tough hoein', weed whackin', leaf blowin',
I been havin some hard gardenin', Lord.

After rereading my interminable post above, I couldn't resist this bit of parody. I would never, not ever, use a leaf blower (but "lawn mowin'" sounded too tame.

Anybody got any more verses based on everyday* activities?

--seed

(*not that gardening is for me an everyday activity--or even every week; every month, maybe, in a good month)

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Alice
Date: 10 May 99 - 03:10 PM

I been doin some fast typin', I thought you knowed,
I been surfin' some long hours, some slow to load,
I been doin some loud singin', copy/pastin', bandwidth wastin',
I been doin' some fast typin', Lord.

;->

alice

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Alice
Date: 10 May 99 - 03:18 PM

really, --seed, that was way to much fun and easy for me to write, SO NOW you've got me started.... oh, NO! I can't stop the lyrics from just forming in my mind!!

I been doin' some emailin', I thought you knowed,
I been tryin' for smooth sailin', chat room won't load,
I been doin' the anagram makin', not forsakin', biscuit bakin',
I been doin' some emailin', Lord.

OK, I had better quit now... I haven't even showered yet today, and it is after lunchtime... just can seem to get offline.... addicted? you talkin' to me? ... no, no... drag me awaaaaayyyyy......

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 10 May 99 - 04:56 PM

I've been doin' some net surfin' I thought you Knowed.
I been hittin' the weirdest sites, 'fraid my mind's been blowed.
"Dylan's garbage", "Norman Mailer", "Mark McGuire" and "sex change sailors",
I been doin' some net surfin' lord.

I've been doin' some hard mudcat, I thought you Knowed.
I been watchin' those "BS" threads, lord how they've growed.
Fav'rite flowers and yard decor, some want none, but most want more.
I been doin' some hard mudcat, lord.

Better get doin' some hard lawnwork, I thought you'd known.
"Duckboots" sweatin' out the back, luggin' a load of loam.
'Bout her plants she loves to boast, but I'm afraid her rose is toast,
I better do some hard lawnwork, lord.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Kathleen Morgain
Date: 10 May 99 - 06:18 PM

Slug/snail repellent that works here in spring with damp soils. Save empty tin cans, both ends removed, to use as collars around plants, twist copper wire around can tightly. Work can about an inch into soil around plant. Works like the copper strips sold in garden stores but cheaper. Gives the plants a chance to outgrow the snail damage stage. (give the little slimy ones little electric shocks) -Kathleen

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: LEJ
Date: 10 May 99 - 07:09 PM

Finally had a full day off yesterday and I spent the first warm spring day of the season gardening- and by gardening I mean A) Cut up a 30 ft Aspen and a 20 ft lodgepole pine, both fallen in our recent heavy snows, with a chain saw B)Shoveled out the driveway curve where a 1/2 inch of mud had accumulated C)hooked the De-thatcher to my Lawn Tractor to clear the grass of pine needles, then hooked up the aerator and core aerated it. 4)Fertilized same

At some point during this process, it occurred to me that Spring gardening in the Rocky Mountains resembles a military operation. First comes the all out blitzkrieg in which you marshall all your heavy equipment in the attempt to subdue the encroaching forces of chaos. Then the mopping-up operation, with plenty of rakes and garbage bags, and at last the peace process and a return to civilized behavior. At least until next Spring.

LEJ

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Alice
Date: 10 May 99 - 07:20 PM

yes, LEJ, I went from struggling with the snowblower to strugging with the power mower... alice

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: LEJ
Date: 11 May 99 - 02:02 PM

Yep, Alice. I discovered that I had taken my plow-blade off the lawn tractor about 3 weeks too early (again). Springtime in the Rockies, I guess. In fact, ARRGGHH, it's snowing right now.

"The Cabin-feverish" LEJ

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 May 99 - 02:12 PM

Yea! For mother's day, I got marigolds, verbena, tuberous begonia, some special pansies, trailing petunias and geraniums. Potted them all up; put them out back and in the front yard. Looked SO pretty. Monday a.m. we frantically brought them into the garage because of snow (thankfully it didn't stick, just spit all day); today, same thing. Had to open the garage door so they'd get a little sun; brought the geranium and begonia inside on Sunday, thank goodness.

Last night, under much cloud cover, we also had thunder, with snow. It's definitely springtime in the Rockies. Mom and Dad used to sing a song titled that. I'll have to see if bet can find the lyrics and post them, AFTER I check the DT for them!

katlaughing, whose glad she has 4wd!

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: LEJ
Date: 11 May 99 - 02:45 PM

Katlaf, there was a movie by that name in the 30s, starring good ol Gene Autry. He sang the song during the course of the film, but I'm not sure if that is where it originated.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Peter T.
Date: 11 May 99 - 02:48 PM

Katlaf, Gene Autry! (also Leadbelly and many others). (speaking of Gene, we have not heard in awhile from the other Gene, the great DT stalwart, in awhile)....
Yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: SeanM
Date: 11 May 99 - 03:06 PM

Ah, sometimes it makes me glad to live in Southern California (Stop throwing pinecones! OUCH!)

Really, though. Living the renter's lifestyle in Long Beach, and not much room for plants on the second floor, what with no sun on any of our exposed patios.

I try peppers, though. Chilihead that I am, I had about 4 varieties last year. Sadly, the winter killed all but the red bells. I'd love to get grow lamps for the poor things, but every time I ask for 'em, I get told 'We don't sell drug paraphenalia here'.

Sigh...

M

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Tucker
Date: 11 May 99 - 09:50 PM

Well Hi all, I've been off a wee time, doin' my gardenin'. Well I have ta thank ya all but me and the slugs and my stupid salamander and 7 goldfish named 'Ralph, are all doing fine, going through sobriety programs. Ever envisioned a 12 step program for goldfish? Well it seems that when I kidnapped 'Sally Tuckmudder' he was hidin'a lot of booze under his gills, and the wee ones hadn't had it before. He'd been stayin' stewed' to the gills. One salamander at a time....

Subject: RE: Favorite Flowers and yard decor
From: Alice
Date: 11 May 99 - 11:31 PM

SeanM, I have an elderly aunt who has lived in Long Beach for many, many years. She has rows of tea roses by her front door, and a tree that grows huge lemons in her back yard. My, how I envy that climate... but still love living far from an urban area.