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BS: The Late Winter Garden
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Alice Date: 14 Feb 04 - 03:16 PM As I look out at snowdrifts around my house and yard that are several feet deep, I dream about my garden. sigh |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Joybell Date: 14 Feb 04 - 03:54 PM Alice, thank you for the cool image. It's over 100 degrees here and we are burning up. Joy |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Janie Date: 14 Feb 04 - 05:07 PM Joybell, Do you live in the tropics or subtropics, or are you having a terrible but somewhat unusual heat wave? I'm too lazy to figure out on my own just where in Australia you live. Hang in there Alice, spring will come eventually. Just imagine all of your plants resting up now to put on a glorious show for you in the proper season. LadyJean I will definitely check out Select Seeds. Thanks for the lead. New Year's Day I planted 500 tulip bulbs. The tips of many of them broke through this week. Ooooh....the anticipation! Janie |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Joybell Date: 14 Feb 04 - 05:36 PM Janie, I'm way down in Victoria Australia. We do have heat waves during Summer but the last few years they are breaking records. Also the cold fronts that used to bring us rain are passing below our South coast more often than not. We live on the driest continent anyway so it's a worry. If you look at the map of Victoria, and follow the coastline West from Melbourne we are near the South Australian border. Thank you for allowing me to insert a bit of heat into your lovely thread. I'm enjoying the images. Your seasonal changes are much more dramatic than ours. Joy |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Emma B Date: 15 Feb 04 - 07:31 AM one of the pleasures of living in the north of England (there have to be some!) - snowdrops; carpets of snowdrops. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Janie Date: 26 Feb 04 - 09:29 AM Well, we have had some really mixed up weather. After some rain we had a few moderate, partly sunny days. The buds started swelling on the fruit trees and the perennials began to stir just a little. I got the veggie beds covered with black planters paper to warm the soil up for early seeds, and finished pruning shrubs and trees. Then we had 3 or 4 days of dry, windy cold that tended to burn and dessicate new growth. The very tips of the spring bulb leaves turned brown. Now we are waiting for maybe the biggest winter storm of the season. And I thought I was going to plant lettuce, kale, onions and snow peas this weekend, as well as plant out some of my sweetpeas! In truth, after the last several dry, cold, windy days,, I think the garden will welcome another blanket of snow. Janie |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: CarolC Date: 26 Feb 04 - 11:28 AM I saw your garden pictures, Janie. You have a beautiful garden. I saw a tree in bloom in Atlanta on Tuesday. That was the first of those I've seen this spring. Our daffodils are in full bloom now. I've been leaving the potted rosmary plant outside at night most nights lately. JtS built a privacy fence around our patio area and my little squirrel friends love it. They can sit in privacy on the upper cross-piece on the inner side, eating acorns, while peering over the top, watching for danger. I spent a couple of hours with my Burpee's catalogue yesterday. I'm ready to place my order... probably later today. I hope I'm not planting too late. Does anybody know how densely strawberry plants can be planted in a container? (How many per what size area?) |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Feb 04 - 12:05 PM I went to Seattle over the Valentines Day weekend, and surprisingly, it was warmer up there than down in Fort Worth. Here are some photos of the snow that fell on Fort Worth on the 14th. My daffodils bulbs that I waited so patiently to plant after the nights cooled to 55 or lower are now sprouting. For the last 10 days they've been emerging through the leafy mulch. Since this is their first year I will be very careful to not disturb any of the leaves, so that when they go dormant again next fall they'll be established. If you trim or disturb the leaves on new plantings the bulbs don't get properly established for perennial blooming. There used to be irises in just a couple of spots in the yard, and when I dug up those overgrown beds I transplated iris all over the place. I have them popping up in several new beds, and I love the look of the fanned out foliage, let alone the flowers. Several of these beds will now have a mix of daffodils and iris. I found one small patch of iris when I first moved in that were almost orchid-like in their appearance. Most of them are a dusky yellow, attractive, but nothing spectacular. These few in one area were a bright custard yellow, but they didn't bloom last year. I moved some too late, and the rest were trod upon by the plumber who was trying to unclog the line from my washer out to the sewer line. Anyway, I've kept an eye on those precious plants and last fall was happy to see leaves emerge from where I had been afraid all of the plants had died. I have them in three distinct areas of the yard now and am eagerly anticipating their blooms. Will they be as beautiful as I remembered? I've spread them out to lessen the possibility that I could lose them all in the face of another plumbing emergency, and I hope to separate and produce more each year. They really are unusual and spectacular. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: GUEST,MMario Date: 26 Feb 04 - 12:29 PM just went out for a smoke during lunch break - and saw some of that funny green stuff that appears on the ground when it's not winter - though it's brown at the moment... not much - just a couple of square feet in the middle of the yard. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: maire-aine Date: 26 Feb 04 - 01:19 PM I have several clumps of Winter Heath (and some Summer Heathers, too) growing in my front yard. The snow has finally melted enough that they have re-appeared. With sunshine an a few slightly warmer days, they'll be blooming soon-- maybe by the weekend. maryanne |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Feb 04 - 01:26 PM My much-hated Bermuda grass is still dormant, but I have some exuberantly healthy weeds taking over the front for now. Creeping charley (a mint) as well as some bed straw and a chick-weed looking thing and something that looks like, but I'm sure isn't, strawberry leaves. I'd love to have a yard full of wild strawberries, so I'm sure this isn't it. Mother Nature rarely does things like that! I don't think it's a wild geranium, either. But it looks familiar, so when it blooms I'll figure it out. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Janie Date: 26 Feb 04 - 02:44 PM SRS--is it maybe "Indian Strawberry"? They have yellow blooms and get a small red insipid tasting berry. Survival food, but not much else. We lived on a farm not far from here for several years that was covered in wild strawberries in late spring. I would take a bucket, go sit down somewhere in the pasture, and pick (and graze) to my heart's content. Not many actually made it to the bucket. I would make strawberry ice cream with the few that I managed not to munch right off the plant. Yum! Here comes the snow. Janie |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Feb 04 - 02:56 PM I'm pretty sure this won't have a berry, but it might be in the same family. Once the flower is out I'll be able to tell. I'll fertilize the hated grass enough (horticultural cornmeal, dry molasses, et al) and the grass will crowd out the weeds. But the grass has to stop being dormant first or I'll only fertilize the weeds! SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Walking Eagle Date: 26 Feb 04 - 03:29 PM SRS--send Mike McGrath a note garden@whyy.org and ask about a product called corn glutten meal. This may help with your bermuda and quack (sorry Geoff)grass problem. Don't forget to listen to his show. Saturday morning 10-11AM EST as well. I'm pushing his show beacause it is quite helpful and he doesn't make you feel like you are an idiot. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Feb 04 - 06:37 PM We have easy access to corn gluten meal here--a lot of that research was done nearby in Denton, Texas. I was just shortening my list when I mentioned that stuff. My lawn will get a mix of agricultural corn meal (I have to use it up from last fall), corn gluten meal, dried molasses, Texas green sand, and lava sand. Lots of anti-fungal properties, fertilizer properties, and trace minerals in that cocktail. I'll also be timing the Neem to knock off the moth/caterpiller squash killers that nailed my garden last year. Visit Howard Garrett's site at http://www.dirtdoctor.com for tons of good information. Your guy probably has a link to my guy--and vice versa. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Bobert Date: 26 Feb 04 - 07:52 PM 6-B Zone, Northern Hemisphere, Blue Ridge Mountain..... Still snow on the ground... Okay, Iz a gardener nut married to a gardener nut. We are members of azalea and camilla socities and have the spring completely planned for new plantings (12 new rhodos, 7 camillas, 20 or so azaleas) to go along with our vast gardens. I love early spring. All the early wild flowers abound. Tooth wort first. Then shooting stars, twin leaf, blood root, trout littly, trilium, Dutchman's britches, larkspur, snowdrops, Jack in the pulpits and the May apple. The wild yams start to climb and the Indian cucumber with its tiers peeking out to see whats happening. The ferns opening and unfolding after a winter's rest.... And then the rhodos, and azaleas and willows and dogwood and red bud come and you get those full moon nights where you can see the colors even at midnight.... And its till up the veggie bed and get things all ready fir another great summer of eating right out of the garden at night... I've got a new bed this season which I carved out last year. It's gonna be a euphorbia bed with just eniff other contrasting plants to make it intersting. I had lots of eiphorbia and dug it up last year and moved it all together so this summer it will fill in and become a real statement.... Anyone interested in odd evergreens? Me too. I've got a real nice evergreen (partial shade) garden.... Anyone got "green spiral" growin'? Er' sky pencil? Umbrella pine? Columnal bayberry? Bobert |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: CarolC Date: 26 Feb 04 - 08:04 PM You get ramps there where you are Bobert? I miss ramps in the spring. (Have I asked you that question before?) |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: GUEST,MMario Date: 27 Feb 04 - 08:47 AM Bobert - I'm jealous! YOu have a MUCH better climate for azealeas and Rhodies then we do here in the finger Lakes - many of the varieties just aren't hardy enough for our winters. Have you ever been to Dexter Estates/Heritage Plantations in Sandwich Mass? Many many varieties - some that were hybridized but never released. I don't remember how many hundreds of varieties there. Peak bloom is usually sometime in May for Heritage Plantations - Here - usually closer to Memorial Day - and sometimes mid JUNE!!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Bobert Date: 27 Feb 04 - 09:51 AM Yeah, CarolC, you did ask me about Ramps and I forgot what they are but if you had 'um over in Sheppardstown, WV, I'm sure I got 'em, too. Remind me what they are again. No, MMario, we haven't been to those gardens in Massacuttes. 'BOut as far north as we've ventured is Longwood Gardens about 100 miles north of us. Actually, if ya' join up with yer local azalea society, you'd be surprised what these hybrediziers have been up to in coming up with hardy plants... Plus it's a great source of plants. These folks will give you the shirt off their back if ya' even jus' pay them a compliment... We are in the Northern Virginia chapter. Don Voss is in our chapter and since we are in 6B rather than 7A like them we are involved in experimenting with various *yet-to-be-named* azaleas to see if they will survive our climate. Now that's purdy cool. Speaking of climate, whe have thses funning looking things that I've built out of fencing wire and microfoam that are cylindrical that we cover out first year camilias with. If they survive the first year under them then they will more than likely survive the next year without 'um, unless, of course, we get -5 degrees but that doesn't happen but about every 30 years. Lowest temp this winter has been +3. Oh, jus' thinking about the gardens get me going... Gonna be 60 degrees on Sunday... Bobert |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: GUEST,MMario Date: 27 Feb 04 - 10:03 AM bobert - with all due respect.... PPPFFFFFLLLLLLLLRRRRRRTTTTTTT!!!!!6 miles from us they are zone 6. Because we are further from the lake AND higher in elevation we can't count on anything not hardy to zone 4. except the stupid aquatic parrot's feather - which isn't suppossed to survive freezing at all - but seems to do fine - even in the bucket that freezes solid. Daylilies are another reason I wished I lived just a wee bit further south...seems all the best varieties aren't hardy in my area. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: CarolC Date: 27 Feb 04 - 10:11 AM I thought I might have, Bobert. They're wild leeks. (Scroll down to see the leaves.) I didn't have any when I was in Shepherdstown, but good ramping grounds are highly guarded secrets, so you have to have some very good friends who are long time locals to know where they are. I was only in Shepherdstown for about five years, and I didn't get to know anyone with that kind of history in the area. I had ramps when I was living in western Maryland (Garrett County). I hope you get to try them some day. They're delicious. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Feb 04 - 11:25 AM MMario, there was a nursery in Marysville, Washington that specialized in rhodys and azaleas. I went shopping there when I was taking a gift to a friend who lives in the Nooksack Valley at the Canadian border. Needed to be able to tolerate the shallow water table and the cold winters. They had what I was looking for. I think you should get online and search out nurseries with specialties like that. You could probably mail order something, or have someone pick up a plant for you if they're passing by such a nursery. Bobert, I'm practically drooling on my keyboard over your list of flowers. I miss my northern (Washington state) climate with all of the great spring stuff--wild flowering currant, trillium, skunk cabbage, colt's foot, forsythia, pussy willows (they were out when I was in Seattle a couple of weeks ago!). Okay, fess up, have you ever gotten out of the car after work, intending to head into the house, but decided to step around the corner for a minute just to take a look to see if something or other is out yet in the yard? And 30 minutes later find yourself still in your work clothes, carrying the briefcase or handbag, bending over and strong-arming weeds out of the garden, a trail of roots and weeds on the turf along the path you've followed? Why is it that the soil is just perfect for weeding when you're not really dressed to do it, and you don't really have the time for all of the weeding that there is to do? SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: GUEST,MMario Date: 27 Feb 04 - 11:38 AM Thanks Stilly - the USDA hardiness zone maps don't give me hope though - we have this little pocket climate that puts us right on the edge of 4b,5a hardiness zone - and the USDA puts the Nooksack Valley mostly in 6, with some 5b. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Feb 04 - 11:44 AM Looks like you need to buy yourself a yak and plant sphagnum moss and just learn to live with your arctic conditions! |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: GUEST,MMario Date: 27 Feb 04 - 12:25 PM actually - I looked into yaks at one point - our snow cover is too deep for them here. Ditto with musk oxen. It's just a little frustrateting - since our growing season is about a month shorter then people just a few miles away - and the folks in TORONTO can overwinter stuff we can't - and we are quite a bit south of them.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Bobert Date: 27 Feb 04 - 05:15 PM CarolC. Nope, ain't got them drittters. The leaf reminds me of a "shooting star" leaf... Heck, why would anyone want 'em? They is poisonous. Now I have found a little ginsing but not nuff to sell... SRS, Yup, sure do. Gardeners is some curious folks and one thing fir sure, if they see somethin' they'z gonna stop and ask 'bout it 'cause gardeners is also very generous folks an' most 'ill tell ya' everything they know. I ain't ven gonna tell you what I have planted in the way of flowering plants since the native woodsy wild flowers done got you droolin'... MMario, Sorry 'bout that but there's still lots of rhodos and azaleas that 'ill survive yer artic climate, ain't there??? Lot of ferns are hardy, too... And evergreens.... Bobert |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Feb 04 - 07:59 PM Maybe MMario needs to visit the yard art place and find some nice concrete sculptures to put out instead of plants. Create a sculpture garden! Bobert, I have gardeners on either side and across the street from me, and it isn't uncommon to see one of us toting a bucket of some plant or other over to the neighbor for them to transplant. I've handed out a lot of iris and grape hyacinth, sacred datura, and lantana, and the guy across the street has given me a couple of fine prickly pear cactus starts and every so often brings over his edger to tame my Bermuda. I've planned my yard so it sort of merges between the houses on either side of me while at the same time being distinctively different because of the species of things I've planted, and the pattern (or lack of pattern) I've chosen. My next door neighbor dug up a couple of plants called "Rock Rose" down in Austin and brought them to me--they look like Rose of Sharon (but if you try to search on the "Rock Rose" plant name by itself you get XXX-rated web sites because there must be a stripper by that name or something). (It's a pavionia, and I think it's in the mallow family). I visit a local nursery and search in their plants to find well-adapted plants. And it almost goes without saying, I hand out a lot of produce during the summer. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Bobert Date: 29 Feb 04 - 01:06 PM SRS, You and I could talk fir hours about gardens and favorite plants!... The idea of sharing plants is so cool. Do you have any plant waps in your area? We have a number of propagators in the two societies we're members of and they propagate and Hyberdize all kinds of stuff. And lots of it. Way too much. Kinda like gardeners who plant 20 tomato plants, don't can and then give goobs of stuff away in late July thru Septemeber... These folks is just like them. I got a basement full of stuff in pots to get palnted next month, plus a "heeling bed" full of stuff. Glad to have 5 acres to mess with! Bobert |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: CarolC Date: 29 Feb 04 - 01:22 PM Hey Bobert. Ramps aren't poisonous. You know if it's ramps or not by the smell. You can't miss it. When I was living in Garrett County, I used to hear stories about how school teachers wanted hazard pay for having to endure the smell of ramps on the students in the spring. But ohhhh.... they are delicious. Especially fried with potatoes, or in scrambled eggs. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Stilly River Sage Date: 29 Feb 04 - 01:34 PM Here are a couple of organic tips for those who will actually experience spring pretty soon. I had this recipe hanging out on my kitchen counter for ages, and today on the organic gardening program heard it given again, so I'll mix some up for the weeds in the lawn right now (the lawn is till dormant). Use this in warm sunny weather. It will burn the folliage on those weeds, but since the grass is dormant, it won't harm it at all. It doesn't kill the roots, but to hit the cool-weather weeds with this now you'll kill them off. I'm planning an application of this over the dormant garden also where some of the creeping charley has gotten established. For those of you who have mosquitoes to repel, mix Mix this and spray it on yourself to keep the mosquitoes off while you're outside. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Peter Woodruff Date: 29 Feb 04 - 07:08 PM My late winter garden is my early spring garden. I have 100 tomato plants, 100 pepper plants, and 18 basil plants coming up now! I plan to put these seedlings into a greenhouse I am constructing before I transplant them into raised beds outside. For me spring has already sprung. Yay! Peter |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Bobert Date: 29 Feb 04 - 07:56 PM Yeah, Peter, yer either a serious canner or the kinda guy who all yer neighbors love 'cause they won't have to plant nuthun' knowin' that yer gonna givin' away so much stuff come August and Saptember... CarolC: I thought I read that them ramps was poisonous? Heck, so'z some mushroom but we sure ate 'nuff of 'em in the 60's and 70's, didn't we? Okay, maybe not you... But, nope, we ain't got 'um. I even asked the P-Vine who is the master gardener (I'm the under-gardener) and she siad, "Nope, we ain't got 'um." SRS: Ya' got any home remidies fir wild violets. They grow in our grass and in out beds and if we don't bath fir a couple o' days will take up housekeepin' in our hair... All the "Round Up" type stuff only works on 'um afetr the leaves get growing good. By then, we got a couple thousand of them on out 5 acres.... Bobert |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Walking Eagle Date: 29 Feb 04 - 10:48 PM MMario, there is a small nature reserve just west of Albany, NY that looks as if a small bit of VA dropped out of the sky. There are actually wild rhodies growing there. Check the NY State website for parks and nature reserves, or something like that, and I'm sure you will find mention of it. Best time to visit would be around June or early July. Isn't there an old time music festival in Altamont at that time? |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Stilly River Sage Date: 29 Feb 04 - 11:16 PM Peter, what do you do with all of those tomatoes? I plant a dozen or so and I give a lot of them away even with all we eat and cook and freeze. I have great luck with eggplant, chard, peppers, and squash, if I can keep the moths from laying their eggs on them (their larvae will reem out a squash plant in nothing flat). I grow things I eat or can give away--I should try some okra this year. I don't care for it to eat, but the neighbors love it. We enjoy trying to grow new things (gardening is a great form of recreation). Bobert, the "Dirt Doctor" Howard Garrett would no doubt tell you that once your grass starts growing fertilize it with some dry molasses and horticultural corn meal. They will encourage the grass enough that it will crowd out the weeds. But you could try this recipe I gave you above for now--knock off the top of it until the grass can crowd out the roots. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Walking Eagle Date: 01 Mar 04 - 01:04 AM Bobert, What have you got against wild violets? I think they are beautiful in my yard. I guess it goes to prove that one persons' weed is another persons' beauty. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Janie Date: 01 Mar 04 - 09:02 AM WARNING!!!!MAJOR THREAD CREEP TO FOLLOW!!!! Bobert, Check out some of the Ramp festivals in West Virginia in the early spring. One big one is at Richwood. Ramp story: Jim Comstock, a very talented satirist, was the editor and publisher of a little paper called "The West Virginia Hillbilly" out of Richwood, WV. (I recommend a book called "The Best of the West Virginia Hillbilly" as a great anthology of some really funny stories.) Ramps have a wonderful, mildly garlicy taste, and an extremely pungent smell that won't quit. The only way to defend yourself from someone who has eaten ramps is to eat them yourself. Kids used to be sent home from school because their odor was so offensive. One spring, Jim added ramp juice to the ink used to print the "Hillbilly." The paper had a very large circulation throughout the state. The post office threatened to stop delivering if he did it again. Stunk up every Post Office in the great state of West Virginia! Back to gardens: I would have thought zone 6 too cold for camillas. what varieties do well there? I miss all the spring ephemerals. Most of woods around here are too dry and piney for them to grow in abundance. SRS--would love to see your gardens (and everyone else's) Janie |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Bobert Date: 01 Mar 04 - 09:54 AM Janie, Thanks fir the laugh and I'll see if I can find the book. As fir out zone, it's 6B and we're growing April Snow, Lady Van Sittert and Elenor Haygood, all of which are hardy for 6B... As fir the violets? I don't mind a few but they are invasive and invasive plants and gardening don't mix too well... Think English Ivy here... Or bamboo... I've got some of both of them and fight to keep them from going to unwanted places... The violet, unlike either ivy or bamboo, however, makes thousands of tiny black seeds and all it takes is a little wind and, wah la, thousands of new plants... I've found that euphorboia is a rather invasive plant, also and am trying to get it all into a large bed, let it fill out and then deadhead the plants before they can reseed themselves.... I know that this may make a few of you green (no pun intended) with envy, but we've got hundreds of baby linten rose plants that are coming up from the seed of the parent plants... Talk about some nice plants to take to a plantswap, they're it... The nusereries get like $15 fir one danged linten rose plant... 65 degrees here today.... Iz gettin' excited... Bobert |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Mar 04 - 04:31 PM Time to get the mower tuned up. It was new a couple of years ago--but I've hit may share of hard things that probably put chips in the blade. New spark plug, what else? Anyone out there ever do work on lawnmowers? SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Mar 04 - 04:35 PM "my" share. Gotta use the preview screen! Nearest lawnmower miss: baby bunnies. I took the top off of a nest, but all of the babies were fine. I caught a couple and stuffed them back in the hole, one got away, one stayed in the hole to begin with. The three calm bunnies left with mom during the night, the fourth renegade turned up, we fed him some baby animal milk from Petsmart and he disappeared during the night, hopefully with mama. I keep the lawn mowed shorter next to the house now, to discourage close-in bunny nests. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Walking Eagle Date: 01 Mar 04 - 05:26 PM Good idea for the first couple of mows. After birthing season, I'd recommend you raise the height of your mower blade to three inches again. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Joybell Date: 01 Mar 04 - 06:10 PM Well it's just gone into Autumn here. We've never called it Fall because the only leaves that change colour and fall are on introduced trees. Lots of my eucalypts are in full flower now and the smell of honey is in the air. I'll collect some soon for our orphaned Brush-tail possum. Eating the flowers gives a golden tinge to her nose from the pollen. She's really cute all grey fluff with white-tipped ears and black-tipped tail. Our baby magpies have been released but they stay close to the house demanding hand-outs and singing to us in exchange for their food. A pair of Wedge-tail eagles are soaring high above us. They seem to have increased their range to include our place. Their nesting tree is on the sleeping volcano 15 kilometers to our North. Not far for an eagle. Bunjil, the God of the Aboriginal tribes who used to be here, could shape-change into a Wedge-tail eagle. When it came down to it Bunjil wasn't able to help with what happened out here. He and his wife are still up there, though - watching. Joy |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Bobert Date: 01 Mar 04 - 06:29 PM Yo SRS, Change the oil. If its a walk behind, just get out a pan, take off the cap at the lower front part of the engine that says "Oil" and turn the mower on its side. It will take about a minute fir the old oil to drain out. Then right the mower and use a funnel to put new oil in the same hole. If there isn't a dip stick then fill until its just below the loest threads in the casting. Now, take thre air filter cover off and clean the filter. You can clean it with water but be sure it dries before putting it back. Lastly, if after you've done all those things, sharpened the blade and it won't start, you may have to turn the mower on its side again and drain the old gas into the pan with the oil in it and fill the tank with fresh gas.... If that don't work then your ignitor is bad and you'll have to PM fir directions on replacing it... Bobert |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: dianavan Date: 01 Mar 04 - 09:16 PM In like a lamb and out like a .....? It was beautiful, sunny day in Vancouver. Noticed the purple heather all along the walk home and then...a gorgeous purple azalea in full bloom. Looked up and noticed that the oriental cherries are filled with plump buds. Soon it will be raining cherry blossoms. d |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Janie Date: 02 Mar 04 - 08:39 AM Got home last night and the first of the reticulated irises were blooming! Woooowoooo!!!!!! Janie |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: GUEST Date: 02 Mar 04 - 09:18 AM well the canada geese are flying west in the mornings and east in the evenings - and the DOMESTIC geese are walking north... a flock of them crossing the highway this am about 5 miles from anyplace I know that has geese - very stately - single file - and headed due north. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Bobert Date: 02 Mar 04 - 09:28 AM We got thousands and thousands of them Canadian Geese who ain't got a clue 'bout Canada. They live round these parts year long. Oh sure, the idiots will do a fly around once 'er twice a day as if they had a clue where they were going and why... but they don't... Speakin' of birds, which really is kinda part of a garden thread, saw my first robin yesterday and the Little Hawk's junko's, who I birdsit and feed all winter, are on their way back to his place in Canada... And, Janie, I lied. The April Snow camilla will live in 6B but the buds won't. I'm gonna try one of my winter cages on it next year to see if that works... Bobert |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Stilly River Sage Date: 02 Mar 04 - 10:42 AM Bobert, it still runs, I didn't take the gas out this year, though I intended to. It stayed warm so long that I kept mowing, and then at intervals this winter there were things that needed knocking down. I use an additive to keep the gas from messing up the mower. But that's a good idea, I'll go through the steps in your list. Thanks! (I've sharpened axes and shovels and adzes and pulaskis, can I use a file and sharpen the mower blade in the same way?) SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Bobert Date: 02 Mar 04 - 03:02 PM Yo, SRS, As cheap as blades are you might just wanta replace it but if have a elctric grainding wheel they make short worl of shapenin' mower blades, but if ya' don't and don't wanta buy a new one then a metal fine and some elbow greese will work. Don't worry about trying to file it down to remove the all the chuncks out of it that you got runnin' over all the stuff you klost in the tall grass 'er it'll probably take days. Best time to take the blade off is while yer draining the oil. Take you a big stick and jam the blade against the body where the grass get blowed out and then its probably about a 17mm (5/8 top 3/4 inch) wrench to loosen the single bolt (Counterclockwise) to remove.... Ahhhh, be careful not to let the gas trickle down the outta the tand when you turn it on itside 'cause the gas may try to do this tru the vent hole in the cap. Good luck and let me know how things turn out... As fir me, things are a tad more complicated since I have two garden tractors. One fir mowing. One fir pulling a cart. Plus two weedeaters, two chainsaws, two other walk behind mowers, two garden tillers and a nasty old Grevely walk behind rotory bush-hog all to keep running properly.... Bobert |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Stilly River Sage Date: 02 Mar 04 - 11:26 PM Bobert, I believe my neighbor across the street has a grinding wheel in his garage/shop. He loves it when he can trot out one of these tools for some neighborly favor (I have set aside a few tasks that I could do easily myself because they are the kind of thing my neighbor enjoys, and when you're retired and puttering around all day it's nice to have someone ask you for some help that you can easily provide.) This is the guy who gave me some cactus in exchange for some lantana. A hawk was cavorting over the creek this weekend, its cry an expression of joy in the sunshine. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: The Late Winter Garden From: Janie Date: 03 Mar 04 - 10:49 AM Joybell--what a great job you do in conveying a sense of place. I wanna see it! A Gardner's Creed (from the Times-Columnist, Victoria BC, 1997) I want it. I want it all. I want it now. If everyone else has it, I must have it too. If it will not grow in my zone or is prohibitively expensive, I want it most of all. I am perfectly willing to forego any necessities of life in order to have it. I recognize my horticultural dependency. I recognize your horticultural dependency. I will willingly aid and abet your dependency, as you will mine. Any money saved by virtue of comparison shopping equals found money and therefore is not counted as spending. If I planted everything that I have already purchased, I must immediately buy more plants. At this point it is customary to recite your VISA number from memory. Love, Janie |
