BS: In the garden 2007

Subject: BS: In the garden 2007
From: Flash Company
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 11:45 AM

About 5.30 this morning, the frogs in our garden pond struck up with their courting song! I've always heard them first on Valentine's day ever since we installed the pond.
Aint love grand!

FC

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: skipy
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 11:47 AM

Rivit.
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 12:27 PM

Nothing as romantic in our garden pond here in Yorkshire - but there will be any day now. The trouble is that if we get a bad frost it kills the frog spawn.

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 12:31 PM

No such luck with my pond... all I get is duckweed, not even a duck comes for that!

But I do have a snowdrop, a crocus, some winter jasmine and a rose all flowering now!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 12:41 PM

Snowdrops and crocuses here too. My elephant ears are in flower and my Christmas roses look good.

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: Splott Man
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 03:47 AM

I only moved into this house in September, so I still don't know what to expect.
But Daffs about to show, Montbretia looking hopeful, and plenty of Primula that stayed in all winter.

Splott Man

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: My guru always said
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 05:44 AM

Lovely to hear about the routine habits of the frogs! *note to self, install pond somewhere.....*

Aconite's nearly over, Snowdrops & Hellebore in full flow and Crocuses, Bluebells and Primula on the way. Daff's and Montbrecia starting nicely, as are the Lilies.

The Robins are all squaring up to each other, as are the Blackbirds, three pairs of each at least. All nesting boxes cleaned & repaired ready for the rush of 4 types of Tits, but the Woodpecker is already trying to make the entrance holes larger on two of the boxes. The Fox, last year's model, still does not like green vegetables and I don't think he'll change his mind this year.

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 05:53 AM

Ponds are great but you do have to watch that visiting cats don't torment the frogs.

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: *daylia*
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 06:34 AM

the immeasurable passions of frogs in love.....

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: Essex Girl
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 09:17 AM

Garden very waterlogged at the moment, but I managed to cut the grass a couple of weekends ago. The fish have decided that it's warm enough to come to the surface and the birds are voracious. I,m hoping that the pair of Robins who nested in the ivy last year will nest there again. They seem very fond of the bird feeder. Still got some Endive growing and some purple sprouting broccoli which has yet to sprout!

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 06:58 AM

I'm thinking it might be time to put in a couple of potatoes to try and clean the soil up... it's been used as a cat toilet for a couple of years and it's gone rather sour. Nothing I plant there thrives, if indeed it sprouts at all, but the buddliea seems to love it.

I've been putting black sunflower seeds in the feeder again and my tits seem to have forgiven me.

I notice the three remaining daffodils are burgeoning, the tulips are a bit straggly but I'm sure they'll perk up, and I've managed to not kill a rose that needed removing from the fence we've got to replace.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 10:47 AM

A new delight!!

I took a little amble down the garden in the daylight today (was putting the Christmas tree out) and found violets!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: LilyFestre
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 07:20 PM

It is seed catalog time in North Central Pennsylvania and we are busy planning our garden. This year we are trying a few new things, one of which is okra. I make a mean jambalaya but the only kind of okra I can get around here is frozen or has been sitting on the grocery shelf for who knows how long. We found a variety that grows in our zone so we are going to give it a shot! I am also planning 2 strawberry beds. One will have normal strawberries (the one shot kind) and the other will have everbearing strawberries. We have all kinds of wild strawberries growing in the field too! We are going to make raised beds (really...like 4 feets off the ground) in an attempt to keep the bunnies out and for easier picking. I spent an entire summer picking strawberries (on a farm in Austria) when I was 15....yep...the entire summer with my rear-end in the air picking berries and swore I'd never do it again. HMPH. I guess if they are raised beds, it will be ok..LOL. You can't beat the taste of a freshly picked strawberry so I'm willing to budge just a little, tiny bit! :)

Another forsythia bush will be added to the property on my birthday. This has become an annual tradition.

We do have some seeds and the greenhouse section of the house is almost ready to go (lights that can be raised or lowered, table, heated mats, etc) so I imagine we'll be starting tomatoes sometime this weekend.

I love planning for the garden. It gives me something to look forward to and a new beginning each year.

LQF

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: Bee
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 11:05 PM

I envy you for these early Springs! All is frozen solid here, and no frog will sing until around April 14th. But in March the ice will break up, flocks of handsome mergansers will land in the lake and stay a few days courting, the males looking silly sticking just their heads under water, to keep watch when the female dives. An eagle and an osprey or two will hover hopefully, the osprey to steal fish, the eagle looking for a weak bird to catch.

And I'll pile some more rocks in random bed-shapes on the bedrock, filling the middle with bought soil, and coax a little garden out of black spruce territory.

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: dianavan
Date: 17 Feb 07 - 03:14 AM

Bee - It sounds lovely and peaceful. Where do you live?

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: Bee
Date: 17 Feb 07 - 08:44 AM

On the rockiest, foggiest coast of eastern Nova Scotia, dianavan, but about a kilometre inland on a bog-fed tiny lake. Glaciers stripped the soil, and the main vegetation is spruce and tamarack. Lots of bogs - I'm not sure where you live, but bogs here are peat bogs, wet but without much (or any) open water, supporting sedges, pitcher plants, wild orchids, bladderworts, bog laurel, black chokeberry, foxberry and the like. We've several very near, including one that's been almost overcome by spruce in our back yard.

It is peaceful, but a desperate spot for gardening!

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: sian, west wales
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 06:53 AM

OK - I know I posted to this thread this morning ... dunno where it ended up!

Anyhoo ...

I have, after a gap of some 13 years, taken on an allotment again, jointly with my neighbour. We only found out that we were successful in our application (this is a very posh set of allotments!) on Thursday, which was almost too late to buy our seed potatoes. There wasn't a decent type left on the market by noon on Saturday, but we've managed to get King Edwards and Romano. I've ordered online some Pink Fir Apples, plus six 'rare breeds'.

Our strategy is to concentrate on things we wouldn't easily buy in the local farmers' market, which is just the next block over from us.

So I've bought some runner bean seeds (Pink Lady?) - a kind that dates back to the 1850s. Also, some yellow wax beans and long (foot-long pods) climbing green French beans. Some of these new-fangled 'asparagus peas' (anyone tried them?) and some Pomodoro tomatoes. Oh, and some purple brussel sprouts, and these beetroot that are white with concentric red circles when you cut them open, and some purple/blue pumpkins which ought to look particularly spooky when made into Jack-o-Lanterns.

I've got my comfrey ready to plant down there, plus assorted other herbs. But no 'Herbs' - as there's a rule book entry about 'that kind of thing'.

Anyone else 'alloting' or veg-ing in general?

sian

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: Flash Company
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 09:48 AM

My 100 year old pear tree has just started to come into flower. We know it is 100 years old, it was on the original site plan for the house drawn in 1908. and was a big enough tree to have a swing in when Sheila was a child.
Sheila is one of those remarkable people who have never lived anywhere else, she was born in the front bedroom of this house,and has been here ever since!

FC

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: Mr Happy
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 10:07 AM

Lost our Victoria plum tree to disease some years back.

I sawed the rotten wood off but left a stump about 1m high.

It's sprouted new branches over the years from the rootstock, but this spring's the first time there's been any blossoms on it, so hopefully may get some fruit too this year.

Not sure what kind though, maybe damsons, anyone know what I might expect?

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: leeneia
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 10:50 AM

Sorry I don't know about the plum tree, Mr. Happy.

I'd like to pass on the word about a wonderful plant I found a few years ago. It is called Siberian dianthus, and I ordered seeds from Park Seed Co in South Carolina.

Despite being called "Siberian" it thrives in our hot summers. (Summer can be hot and dry or hot and humid here.) It is a pereniel (sp) and forms mats with spiky foliage and purple-blue blossoms. It is very tough, and I just love it.

Info is here, but the color in the photo is a little too turquoise, at least on my inexpensive monitor.

http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&mainPage=prod2working&ItemId=0745&scChannel=Top%20Ten%20Seeds

Subject: RE: BS: In the garden 2007
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 01:10 PM

Planted my potatoes yesterday.... some of the Maris Pipers from the vegetable rack had started to sprout, so I planted them. If we get potatoes, good... if we don't, the "lawn" has had a good turn over.

LTS