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BS: Gardening, 2009
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 27 Mar 09 - 07:47 PM Calmari!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 27 Mar 09 - 07:04 PM lol! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Mar 09 - 06:46 PM Hic! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 27 Mar 09 - 06:30 PM Hurray, Sins! Two days of rain, and a third one on the way. Won't be gardening any this weekend. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: SINSULL Date: 27 Mar 09 - 02:10 PM The tulips are poking through the ground where the snow used to be. There is hope... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Mar 09 - 11:28 PM My son bent over the garden and was poking around the onions while I unlocked the side door this evening. "Wow! Look at all of those snails!" They were all over, so I got a beer and put a couple of bowls out. And I removed and stomped probably 30 of the buggers. Beer trap. The snails didn't get all of it. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Mar 09 - 11:39 AM I've grown dahlias only once, and they came up and were pretty, but I didn't know much about gardening back then and the pests got them (including one small child with no adult supervision as a pest). I dug up a large spiderwort in the woods across the road from here when I first moved into the house. I put it in a garden and for several years it was swamped by weeds but kept coming back. I was afraid I'd done it in last summer when I dug up that bed, but I knew where it was and I kept the roots in place. And voila, it is coming up again this spring, unfettered by all of the weeds! This is so nice! I wish there was more than one. My across the street neighbor had one, but I think he finally killed it off. This is when I need to go poke around in the woods (that are left after the development was put in) and see if there are any more. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 25 Mar 09 - 10:29 PM If I cut down a dogwood and put a raised bed on the town right-of-way right by the road, I think I might can get one spot that gets pretty darn close to 6 hours of sun a day. Not big - maybe a 10 or 12'x3' bed. If so, that would be the one place I might be able to grow tomatoes and/or dahlias. (Gawd, I love dahlias, hard as they are to keep sufficiently fed and watered.) This year, I'm going to grow a couple of tomatoes in containers in that spot and see how they do. If they do well, then dahlias would also do well. It occurs to me that tomatoes and dahlias have similar water and fertilization needs, and I'm wondering what it would look like to alternate tomato vines with large dahlias, especially varieties with those lovely dark red leaves. Either really good or really-ahem- "interesting." What do ya'll think? I'm not sure if they are susceptible to similar deseases and pests. Never had much problem with disease with the dahlias, but earwigs were pretty hard on the blooms. Have had nothing but problems with disease and pests in the tomato department. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 25 Mar 09 - 07:50 PM Yeah, Maggie, like in a fish... What ya do is plant the tomato right over Mr. Blue Gill and that fish will feed it for the best part of the season... Honest... It works.... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Liz the Squeak Date: 25 Mar 09 - 07:20 PM Found my periwinkle in flower today, the clematis is indeed flourishing, with buds on and everything, the violets have survived living under a pile of rubble for 3 months and the bay tree is in full bloom... Still no daffodil flowers though... strange that. LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 25 Mar 09 - 04:36 PM Blue gill as in fish? We're getting our rain. It's coming down inside a drum, based on the racket outside from the thunderstorm overhead. Of course my irises are now out and get tested by the wind and pelting rain. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 25 Mar 09 - 04:13 PM We don't have nettles but we have plenty of blue gill and one of them under a tomato plant is like the real deal... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: The Sandman Date: 25 Mar 09 - 02:15 PM carrots like leaf lettuce and chives,when you have harvested your carrot,do not store them near apples. tomatoes are aided by stinging nettles |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 25 Mar 09 - 10:35 AM I poked carrot seeds in near my new tomato plants yesterday, and I'll plan to put a few more in every few weeks. I put my few pepper plants in, and have some seeds to try out this year (Hatch chiles, mild). We're still waiting on that rain. There's a mama mallard out in the yard again this morning, I think she's looking for a nesting spot. Two years ago she set up house in ornamental grasses next door in the corner of a garden. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 25 Mar 09 - 08:02 AM Hmmmm, super dirt??? Okay, Donuel, I'll bite.... As for the acid soils, gypsum works well... And it's cheap... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: The Sandman Date: 25 Mar 09 - 07:29 AM I am going to try burning half the saw dust[I have a cheap supply],and mixing it with sawdust to reduce acidity.,and then using it as a fertiliser. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 25 Mar 09 - 12:32 AM I hate to ask. "Super dirt?" SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Donuel Date: 24 Mar 09 - 11:54 PM I am really excited about making the super dirt for our fertile garden that will last for decades without fertilizer. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 Mar 09 - 11:14 PM This morning my first yellow iris was open, and this afternoon another half-dozen had followed suit. I expect an explosion of iris this week, and this is always when I mow the lawn, trim, and then take photos of the yard and house. It's the best it will look all year, for sheer flower power. I have some blue iris this year, given by my next door neighbor. And she had a bag with a bunch of yellow ones "and there is this big glorious fancy one in there, but I couldn't tell which it was when I dug all of these up." So if I want to find it I have to plant all of them and wait till next year. I don't think I got that bag planted last fall. I have two boxes and another bag of sprouts so I'll put in a new bed out front. And hope no one out walking picks this one if it comes up down by the street. Janie can tell you stories about yard flower poachers. So far I've been lucky and they've avoided me. There were some folks who got all of my next door neighbor's fancy pots on her front porch a few years back. We're a little gun shy about putting the dollars in pots and plants out again where someone might decide to do the five finger discount some day when no one is home. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 24 Mar 09 - 08:01 PM Well, I'm about sick of plants today... Our first shipment came in at the garden ceneter and it took 7 of us an hour to unload it... Pricing is next and then I guess that the P-Vine will have me out putting the artosts touch to the arrnaging of the center... But not was all bad... The nurseery sticks a few "sample" plants on the truck and one was a deciduos azalea that the P-Vine had never heard of (wonders!!!) and was budded nicely and about 3 feet tall and it was $12 so we took it... Of the 34 camelias we bought we have now sold all but 14... All if the fall bloominf sasanqua have been sold... I sowed the clover seed in the acre that I just disced for the deer... PJM (PMJ?) azalea is trying to open... Bleeding hearts are pokin' up... Gosh, 3 weeks and it will be morell (mergals) mushroom time??? Oh yeah, we got 20 Encore azaleas from the NC nursery... Then I come home and check my email and there's an email from the hybridizer, Buddy Lee, to9 the P-Vine about azalea stuff... Small world... Well, I'm about beat... Happy gardenin' everyone and keep them rambles comin', Janie... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Sooz Date: 24 Mar 09 - 01:19 PM Picked the first rhubarb on Sunday. Beautiful display of daffodils in a carpet of violets at the moment.The first salad crops are just showing and potatoes went in today, |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 Mar 09 - 12:26 PM But I want my eggplants! I'll be doing some companion planting. The rain appears to have missed us. A band was headed this way but petered out before it got here. All we got was a little extra humidity. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: The Sandman Date: 24 Mar 09 - 11:27 AM eggplants can be used to plant near potatoes to catch colorado beetles,the beetles prefer eggplants. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: The Sandman Date: 24 Mar 09 - 11:13 AM early potatoes grow wellwith cabbage peas sweet corn and beans,plant a double rowalternating with peas the peas produce Nitrogen for the spuds.potatoe grow well after a rye crop. nasturtiums help potatoes.potatoes and sunflower stunt each other. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 Mar 09 - 10:27 AM Oh, I forgot to add a link. I don't have a mattock, but for years I used pulaskis when I worked for the Forest Service. I use Ben Meadows to get some of my tools that the local garden shops don't carry. Like my Swedish brush ax. Take a look through this site to see if you can find a replacement handle for your spade fork. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 Mar 09 - 10:21 AM I was driving home from dropping my son at the school bus and passed a neighbor out walking. I rolled down my window and asked Jeff how his garden is doing. He beamed! It's like being asked about your only child, to ask a hard-core gardener about their garden. :) He has onions in now, as do I, and he has potatoes in. I'll go look at his. I'd like to grow some, but never have before. He said he got about a bushel last year. His wife thins his onions for him by pulling every other one when she needs green onions for cooking. I have a bunching (green) onion ready to bloom (I left a few in last fall) and I'll let it. They were good so I'll collect the seed. Neither of us had good tomatoes last year. He likes eggplant. We need to find a food bank that might appreciate the extra. Those were topic highlights. Janie, alas, I never worked out a bed with the exposure and bare soil you described for those poppies. But I am still going to try putting some in along side my veggie garden, I'll have a spot. We have such a long growing season, you never know what can grow here and you'd be surprised at that second season we get in the fall. It sounds like you have a lot of activity going on in that new yard. And I completely understand the difficulty of looking at the old yard and the lack of care. My ex has the house where I put in gardens and trees. It has become beds of Asian jasmine (I had veggies and flowers at one time) and the trees are getting big. Baldcypress, sweet gum, dwarf yaupon, Afghan pines. I wish I could have taken my trees with me. :-/ Back to the new house: My neighbor and I are both hoping the rain predicted today comes. With the damp earth he'll re-till his garden and do the rest of the planting--and I'll dig a bunch more of the bed I started over the weekend. When I went out to get my newspaper this morning I walked sedately in order to not startle the mallard pair who were waddling around the garden. I hope they're sticking to snails and slugs. They walked across the road and onto my neighbor's lawn. They're usually out back in the creek, so I wonder if they're looking for a nesting site? A pair nested in the ornamental grass in a corner of my next door neighbor's garden a couple of years ago. I wonder if this is the same duo? Lots of nests this time of year, and it is time to put out the purple martin house for the younger birds who are returning now and don't have nesting sites yet. A web site from a local garden center said it should be up about a month after the first start returning, and this is the right time. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 24 Mar 09 - 09:22 AM wood ash is alkaline, and provides other nutrients, but it takes more of it than lime, and can damage seedlings. From http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/envirohort/426-313/426-313.html "You can use wood ashes as a soil amendment. They contain potash (potassium), phosphate, boron, and other elements. Wood ashes also raise the soil pH; but you must use twice as much ash as limestone for the same effect. Ashes should not come into contact with germinating seedlings or plant roots as they may cause root burn. Spread in a thin layer over the winter, and incorporate it into the soil; check the pH yearly if you use wood ashes. Never use coal ashes or large amounts of wood ash (no more than 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet), as toxicity problems may occur. " Haven't grown potatoes, but googled the question and found many suggestions. Since they are also a nightshade, keep them away from tomatoes and egg-plant. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: The Sandman Date: 24 Mar 09 - 08:46 AM apart, from using lime,isthere another cheap way of reducing the acidity of soils. what companion plants do potatoes like ,and which have an adverse effect. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 24 Mar 09 - 12:24 AM I LOVE my garden fork. It is a good one with a great grip that fits my arthritic hands perfectly, and has the sturdiest of tines. It snapped flush with the top of the metal sleeve that the handle slides into that holds the tines on. (I think I had probably cracked it previously right along the top of the metal sleeve.) I don't see how to release the business end from the broken handle so I can replace it. Anybody know how to do this? I also bent the slicing end of a fairly heavy mattock last fall, prying rocks and tree roots out of the ground to level a place for the shed Sister and I built. Guess I need to buy one of those tall, heavy, iron thingies that you can use to jab or pry with, or slice ground to plant bunches and bunches of tree seedlings, and or a crowbar, (but they often aren't long enough to get the leverage needed to get deep-rooted shrubs or tree roots out.) I've broken several otherwise good garden tools in the past, using them as a substitute for a pry bar. Maggie, did you sow the poppy seeds? I'm about to decide that whatever is sprouting where I sowed mine are not poppies. The true leaves are just now starting to show as tiny little blips, but they are too dark a green, and my memory is the cotyledon leaves strongly resemble the first true leaves, which these don't. (You'd think I would know for sure, as long as I have been growing them! Old-timer's disease, I guess.) I haven't given up all hope - like larkspur, poppies take at least 30 days to germinate - but I should see signs very soon, or write them off. I've never waited so late to sow them before. My neighbors must find me a strange sight, bending over that bed every morning and evening, peering closely at the ground. Bobert, that hellebore you gave me is the loveliest, creamy white, with no trace of green. I have another species with pink flowers of a slightly different form that is also doing well. I'm eager to figure out where to plant them and get them at home in the ground. I also brought the solomon's seal with me that you gave me a few years ago. They are starting to emerge. I have 3 or 4 pots that I couldn't remember what was in them, and suspected that whatever was in them had died. A lily is starting to break through in one of those pots. I have no idea which of the lilies from the old garden I may have dug. I had a bunch of them, and thought I had run out of time and had not dug any of them. I also notice a few lilies emerging under trees here. They look pretty spindly and probably have not been fed or tended for a long time. Judging from the foliage, they are probably asiatic, or possibly tiger lilies. I'll probably dig them up, put them in good deep beds, feed them, and see what happens over the next few years. I'm realizing that asiatic, tiger, and species lilies might do quite well along the borders of the property where they would get some morning sun. Maybe mixed in with lady fern? I had also forgotten that I had dug a few species tulips, and they are well up, but don't look like they are going to bloom in the pot. They were in heavy shade and were hidden behind other pots, and I just noticed them this weekend when I was moving stuff around. The rabbits have done some nibbling. I'm sure they are Tulipa humilis, but they were dormant when I dug them, so I don't know if they are Persian Pearl or Eastern Star. Guess I'll plant them and find out next year. Found a tiny little patch of bluets in the front yard! And black oil sunflowers sprouting under the bird feeders. They'll peter out as soon as the trees leaf out. With the time change, it is now daylight when I pick up my son on alternate weeks. I sit in the car on the street and look at the remnants of the garden I left behind with mixed feelings. Here by the road is the mixed patch of reticulated and crested irises, over there, the pheasant-eye daffodils that didn't bloom for years is covered with bloom. Here and there, the wonderful species Red Ridinghood tulips are in full bloom. In another spot, the lace-cap hydrangeas that I didn't have time to dig (and they were only 2 years old), look to be surviving. The bleeding heart and trout lilies are visible from the road, as are the hundreds and hundreds of daffodils and heirloom hyacinths. All neglected, (and by me for the last 18 months I lived there,) and some simply run over by ex-hubby's truck or lawnmower. Sad, to see the neglect, even recognizing that if I still lived there, I no longer have the time, nor the energy, to keep that garden up. It was not a low-maintenance garden, either in size or in the nature of the plantings. At the same time, it is gratifying to realize that as long as he doesn't simply mow everything down, (and even if he does), that garden was and that soil was attended to sufficiently that many plants will remain, especially the natives, and the good soil that I both brought in and built will still be there, and irises and bulbs, and self-sowing native plants that feed the birds and shelter the rabbits will be there for generations to come. Some day, a young couple will buy that house in winter or mid-summer, and marvel at what pops up in the oddest places come spring, just as I did my first spring and summer at that house. I love these gardening threads and having the opportunity to share and read about the rest of you who love gardening. As many of you know, the last few years have been tough, personally and professionally, and I was beginning to think I had lost the energy and the will to start anew. I have no plans or clues right now, and no money to spend on mulch or hardscaping, edging, or anything else. But as spring marches forward, and I get out out there and play in the dirt, marvel at the miracle of emergence, get a sore back and dirt under my nails, and learn what you kindred gardening spirits are up to - listen to your enthusiam - my spirit is renewed and I accept that my cup runneth over, even when I don't see it. Thanks. Thanks for letting me ramble. Especially, thanks for sharing your own love and experience of the renewal found in fostering the natural world. Thanks and hugs to you |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Mar 09 - 10:16 PM Seventy percent chance of rain tomorrow. It would be nice, another good soaking before I make the next pass and dig more of the new bed. I'm about 1/3 of the way into it now. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 23 Mar 09 - 08:26 AM That time of year, SRS... Spring will wear you out no matter the size of the project... Yeah, there's always ten things to do before you can do what you planned to do... Just 'cause I have a farm tractor don't mean that I'm exempt from the same pressures of broken stuff and a list of things to do that is all screaming for me to do them... After work today I have to cut back all my pampas grasses... I really don't like that job but it has to be done... 2 weeks before the tiller man and I still need another load of chicken manure... Oh well, it will get done... Hey, ya'll... Go easy on them garden forks... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 22 Mar 09 - 11:55 PM I operate on a scale that is wheelbarrow and spade fork sized, not like Bobert's tractor and tiller operation. This I posted over in MOAB and I'm tired so I'm not retyping it: This was one of those days in the garden when every time I wanted to start one task I realized I had to back up and do something else first. As a result, I have cleared up an old compost pile by adding it, sans sticks, to my new compost pile (the sticks in the old one meant it didn't break down like it should have), I cut up and stacked at the curb several large tree limbs that I took down last summer, I dug a new bed (the sod from that generated the compost pile work) and made a run to Home Depot for manure and ran past the park site for free compost (lots of wood chunks in it, I use it more like a mulch around the edge of the garden and to mark the path where I can step in the garden). I planted some tomatoes, and as a bonus, fixed a bicycle for some kids who were kind of far from home, it was dusk, and they thought they just needed a hammer to pound the handlebar into place. It needed a hammer and an Allen wrench, and after that little break, I finished planting and mulching tomatoes. Peppers tomorrow. MOM, I'm bushed. I knew I had to keep moving until I finished everything (including fixing dinner) because once I sat down (now) I probably wouldn't want to get up again. And I don't. Janie, I'm on my third spade fork in this house, and it is just seven years. A friend gave me the wheelbarrow, and last fall I put on one of those tires on it that never goes flat (cost as much as the darned wheelbarrow probably cost, but what a luxury to not pull out the compressor every time I want to use it!) I bought cheap cotton gloves at Home Depot (something like a dozen pair for $4.99) and I go through those fairly fast. I'm to the point of having to take out things I put in a few years ago because they're too crowded or I've changed my mind. I hate cutting stuff down, I transplant when I can, but the yard is taking shape. I'm finally creating some shade. Unlike you, I had none until fairly recently. Now I have a couple of spots for tender plants that don't like full sun. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 22 Mar 09 - 06:11 PM But ain't it fun, Janie??? Look at it this way... You have nowhere but up to go... Right??? You should have seen this hog farm when we bought it... The P-Vine and just went on a sightin' walk... We have one extra Mugo Pine (6'H 10'W) that we found a spot for... 2 Festigiate Boxwood and False Cypress we found homes for... And the last or my $2 Akaskan Oine we found homes for... One Smoke Bush is still a head scratcher... BTW, breakin' tools is God's way of telling ya' that it's beer-o'clock... LOL B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 22 Mar 09 - 05:58 PM Potted up the violas yesterday. Also bought chives, parsley, rosemary and greek oregano, and got them put in pretty pots today. Trouble is, there is no landscaping, or arranging. The few garden beds there are here are not well placed. They are also planted with stuff I don't want. I've got pedestals, pillars, statues, assorted birdbathes, etc. All bought for my old Victorian era house and garden, and just sort of dropped anywhere out of the way when I moved last summer. Now I'm accumulating pots of plants that are being dropped anywhere there is sun. It sure looks like a hillbilly lives here right now. Makes sense, I guess, since I are one;>) The soil is too wet to work in right now, but it is perfect for digging out unwanted stuff. I dug out a bunch of nandina that were right up against the foundation, a few azaleas that were poorly placed and in ill health - probably from old age. Also a truckload of variegated lirope, which I do not care for, and still have heaps more to dig. And I snapped the handle on my garden fork, which was a good excuse to quit for the night. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 22 Mar 09 - 04:46 PM Ended up about 67 degrees today... Stray Dafodils in the woods bloomed today... The hybrids are a tad behind... Survived the discing... Cpouple scarey parts but tractors and hills make for those... The disc discovered and enearthed a number of large field rocks (approx. 100 pounds each) which I kept having to stop for and load into the bucket... Ended up with about 20 of them and allready incorprated them into the hardscape... The P-Vine has been cutting back lirope all afternoon... We have several large pampus grasses that need it also... I found that easiest way to cut it back is to take twine and tie it into a tight bundle and then cut it with the chainsaw... Goes very quickly that way as opposed to other methods I've used over the years... Well, that's about it fir now... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 22 Mar 09 - 09:36 AM It's been a tad chilly here so we don't have anything in bloom as yet... Well, I forgot the Lenten Rose hellebores which have been in bloom for the last 3 weeks... But today is going to 62 and looks as if things are warming up slowly so this week oughtta be more interesting... Shoot, 3 weeks until morell mushrooms will be up... Yummy... Well, today is going to be another tractor day... There is an area behind the field I disced yesterday that never got cleaned up of the junk that the hog farmer who used to live here left... Yesterday I started pushing old sheet metal roofing that he had kept into a pile and now the tirck is getting the pile pushed up the hill where we can load it to take to the recyclers... Reckong its gonna be a couple ot tons... Well, gotta get after it... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Liz the Squeak Date: 22 Mar 09 - 05:01 AM Daffodils have failed to flower. Lots of leaves but no flower buds. The hyacinth flowered, but before the stem had formed so that was a bit of a let down. The snowdrop also failed to flower, as did the majority of the crocuses. I do have roses in bud, just showing colour and the violets have been doing their thing under a pile of twigs and rubble. The bay tree is in blossom (pretty little lime green, looks stunning against the dark green glossy leaves) the clematis is positively swelling and the tits are loving the insects. Saw my first wasp last week, a queen looking for a suitable nest spot.. hope she doesn't choose anywhere near here... Still haven't managed to cut down the buddliea bush that needs to be trimmed before anything starts nesting in it - which is what has happened for the last 3 years! Hopefully they'll all think it too open after the snow brought down a large branch of it. LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Mar 09 - 05:05 PM Have you been following the news of the Obama garden at the White House? This is such great news! link to map. Seems like an awful lot of spinach, though. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 21 Mar 09 - 02:33 PM Found violas! Off to plant the strawberry pots. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 21 Mar 09 - 12:33 PM I just came in from discing a one acre field where we are going sow clover in the hopes of keeping deer over there and not in our ornimental gardens... Gonna let it dry a little and disc it once more this afternoon... One more trip to Tony Weakleys chicken farm for manure and the veggie garden will be ready for James, the tiller-man... He has a 6 foot tiller on the back of his Ford tractor and tills up everyone's gardens in the spring... $35... That's cheap considerin' that his tiller is probably about a $3000 machine... This is the P-Vine's 2nd Saturday at the Page Coop Garden Center... Hope she doesn't bring home anymore work for the poor hillbilly... Last week she met this guy and sold him some cryptomeria yoshinas... He's a city boy and don't know about shovels so she hired me out to do the planting... Okay, I'll make some beer money but... We also potted up 15 boxwood festigiata yesterday that we bought when we were in NC... They were field grown and came home in in my trailer in plastic trash bags... 30" plants and some of the root balls took up most of a 5 gallon pot... Took 6 down to the coop this morning... Half the camellias have been sold... Better than half of the hellebore Lenten Roses have been sold... Our biggie shipment from Raliegh will be here Monday... Yeah, I guess it is spring, ain't it... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Mar 09 - 12:04 PM Let the gardening begin! Spring is here, it's a nice day, several days ago we had enough rain to soften up the turf and it's still good digging. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Kent Davis Date: 15 Mar 09 - 11:13 PM Here in the hills of SE Ohio we're enjoying our first harvests of 2009. On Friday, the eldest dug about 90 walking onions (aka Egyptian onions) for the Farmer's Market. Several people asked if we grew them in a greenhouse. We didn't. We planted some 2 years ago and, every spring, more and more of them come up. Yesterday, the youngest & I dug up the last of last year's parsnips. I had only eaten them cooked, but she thought they might be good raw. She was right; they were sweet and crunchy like a carrot, but with a distinctive taste and aroma of their own. Kent |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 15 Mar 09 - 12:12 PM No, sniff, I didn't... It would have been virtually impossible to have moved it yet again... I left it on the block foundation I built for it and with the covered front porch built onto it... I did, however, bring my 1953 30 foot Spartanette trailer which is set up at the back of the farm with "real" electricity, heat, air conditioning and indoor plumbing... It acts as my music studio and a 2nd guest house... Tad on the primitive side for adults, however... But I like it... But I miss that ol' double decker bus... Sho nuff do... I have had ideas of trying to work a deal with the guy who bought the house (with bus) but those thoughts never last too long... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 15 Mar 09 - 11:59 AM Sounds like a good offer, for a short visit! Did you move that double decker bus down there to use as your guest house? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 15 Mar 09 - 11:50 AM On a more serious side, we have had two days of beautiful saoking rain... Thank God!!! The P-Vine get 34 camellias in at the plant center on Friday and 10 sold as of yesterday afternoon... That's great because most people around here really are clueless about them because most folks don't realize that there are new cultivars which are zone 6 hardy... We also bought 63 Lenten Rose hellibores on out trip to N.C. and about 15 of them have sold... Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Boberdz has gotten himself into a real pickle... Seems that the P-Vine has been awarded the contract to furnish 230 plants for landscaping of the soon-to-be renovated train depot and she threw poor ol' me into the proposal as the installer!?!?!... 230 plants X one hole per plant = 230 holes to dig!!!! My back hurts just thinking about that... Plus she has me going off this afternoon to look at another potential customer's house to work up and draw out a design... Meanwhile poor ol' Boberdz has his regular job of renovating an old hotel, plus occasional performances, a concert series to run and getting in out large veggie garden and cleaning up all the gardens from winter... I need help... Any volunteers out there.... Comfy guest accomodations and very yummy country cooked meals available... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 15 Mar 09 - 08:59 AM I rest my case... :~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 14 Mar 09 - 10:15 PM P-Vine's logic makes perfect sense to me:^) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 14 Mar 09 - 09:05 PM Different story, SRS... The P-Vine has taken a job running the garden center at the local farm coop... She may actaully make some money... Nah... That won't happen... We agreed that this spring we weren't gonna spend any money on the gardens... But then there is woman thinkin' that goes something like this: "Well, it was money we wouldn't have if I weren't workin' at the garden center..." (???) Well, I know that women know about this thinkin' but it's like Greek to me... I'm thinkin', "Geeze, if yer making this money then why not bring it home as monet rather than a bunch more plants"... But this is men thinkin' and as much as I also enjoy messing around the gardens I don't understand this thinkin'... I mean, we have close to a 1000 azaleas in various stages that need to be moved... We also have greenspire eronyomous and boxwwod that we have propagated that need new homes... What we don't need is more plants... (Shut up, Boberdz... This is a gardening thread...) Geeze... B;~) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 14 Mar 09 - 08:39 PM So you went to this nursery to look? Went for the free food at the open house? :D |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 14 Mar 09 - 07:14 PM We ain't buying nuthin' this year, SRS... Other than "Sweet Slice" cukes, which we'll get some seeds off Mr. Clifford, we have seed for everything else... Even have Celebrity tomato seeds... And the chicken manure is free... Life is good... Reckon we gonna have to start our seed in a week or two... May 15th is about as early as you can transplant them 'round these parts... Seems that transplanting too early stunts their growth... B~ |
