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Weekly Gardening Thread --- Happy Mother's Day
Garden Girl's Monthly Gardening Column | May 2007 | Garden Girl

Posted on 05/07/2008 7:50:50 AM PDT by Gabz

Wow! What an arctic blast! Can you remember a colder Good Friday and Easter? It wouldn’t be so bad if it had been cold all along, but to be in the high eighties and then wham! Frostbite! And then, to add insult to injury, it stayed miserably cold with repeated heavy frosts until at least the tenth of April! Condolences to all of you who had your warm season gardens planted.

The weather will swing in the opposite direction like a demented weathervane soon enough and we will be miserable with the high temperatures. Sure doesn’t look like we’re going to have much of a spring this year. Looks like it’s setting up to be a dry season, too. On the other hand, the spring flowers and greening up lasted a bit longer than usual this year because of the cool weather. Some years, it seems the azaleas and other pretties are here and gone overnight. This year, with the cool spell, they’re sort of in slow motion—blooming and lasting for a bit. The trees, all russets and golds and bronzes, have kept their early spring raiment on for us to enjoy, instead of turning green right away.

Speaking of remembering—many of you are old enough to remember when summer time meant going barefoot. Except for trips to town or church, shoes were abandoned the day school let out and forgotten until school started back in the fall.

Remember how you had zigzagging paths through the yard so you could avoid the big patches of clover? Remember why you avoided those patches of clover? You went out of your way because the clover was alive and working with honey bees and you didn‘t want to get stung. First, because bee stings hurt, and second, because you knew if a bee stung you it would die. Now, can you remember the last time you saw a honey bee?

Clover is becoming scarce in our over-manicured yards, but honey bees are practically non-existent. Bees are critically important for pollination. There are bumbles, and wood bees, and other lesser bees. They all do a fine job of pollinating—but none of them have the added benefit of giving us honey.

Here’s a scary fact: something approaching 80% of the honey bees in the U. S. have disappeared this winter. Not died outright, because there are no carcasses. Disappeared. The hives are mostly empty, the honey left behind. And not just here—all over the world devastating losses of honey bees are being reported. The correct term for this disappearance of bees is Colony Collapse Disorder—a fancy name for no one knows.

Theories abound. For one, something similar happened in the forties. Some scientists think it has something to do with cyclic sun spots affecting the earth‘s magnetic field—sunspots were worse in the forties, as they are now. Bees use the earth’s magnetic field to guide them as they travel to flowers and then back to the hive. So they all got lost—at once? That’s about as plausible as all of them being abducted by aliens.

Several types of mites and various diseases also plague honey bees—but both mites and diseases leave bodies behind.

Pesticides have also been blamed, but which ones, and why aren’t all hives, especially if they’re in the same place, affected?

So, what happened to the honey bees?

A simple explanation for pollination is this: the bees move from flower to flower, picking up a little pollen here, dropping off a little there, and presto! The plants are happy, the bees are happy, and we’re happy. The plants get pollinated, the bees collect pollen to make honey with, and we get our veggies and stuff. If there aren’t any honey bees to pollinate things, several things happen. We don’t get any honey, and crop yields go down—way down. Some of this can be counter-acted by shaking the blossoms of your crops together, mimicking the action of the bees. This can be done on a small scale, such as in your garden. What happens to thousands of acres of crops?

Of course, with the early warm spell, and then the week long freeze, we may not have to worry over much about not having any bees to pollinate anything this year. The cold weather damaged the fruit crops—grapes, fruit trees, blueberries, and pecans to name a few, and all suffered in varying degrees. The extent of the damage remains to be seen, but it’s a pretty sure bet that fruit prices are going to go out of sight this summer.

Reminders for this month:

May is usually warm enough to plant the things that really crave heat—okra, lima beans, field peas. Sweet potato slips are usually available mid to end of the month.

End of May is time to spray your azaleas to head off lace bugs, and your junipers and arborvitaes and Leland’s to head off spider mites and bagworms. Spider mites are tiny, nearly invisible insects that suck the life out of plants. When they attack junipers and such, usually what you notice first is a branch or one side of your shrub turning brown. Left untreated, spider mites can eventually kill their host.

Bagworms aren’t the ones that build huge webs full of disgusting yellow striped caterpillars, the ones that began in April and are crawling all over everything right now. Technically, those are tent caterpillars, and there seems to be an overabundance of them this year. Yucky they may be, but usually the birds will take care of them. Most of the time, they’re too high for us to reach in order to spray anyway. Bagworms are caterpillars that make a nest of juniper needles and hang from the shrubs and trees like forgotten Christmas ornaments. Of course, with all the chemicals that have been banned, picking the bagworms off may be your only solution.

Big reminder: Don’t forget that Mother’s Day is this month. Flowers are always a great gift!


TOPICS: Food; Gardening; Outdoors; Weather
KEYWORDS: gardening; spring; stinkbait
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To: chickpundit
What did you do with all your tomatoes and squash? I mean besides eating them fresh?
61 posted on 05/07/2008 2:42:37 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
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To: Red_Devil 232

Yay! You’ll have to ask someone else for fig recipes—I just eat them!


62 posted on 05/07/2008 3:41:33 PM PDT by gardengirl
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To: gardengirl

Do you think I will have any figs this year? When do the flower?


63 posted on 05/07/2008 3:46:44 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
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To: Gabz; gardengirl; Diana in Wisconsin; CrappieLuck

First off, I LOVE your articles gardengirl. I imagine they are very popular with your readers.

I haven’t been on FR, or the garden threads lately, because I’ve been gardening. I have built several flower beds, did some MAJOR landscaping jobs the past few weeks, since my strong brother is here to help me.

My brother and hubby have built me four beautiful window boxes, and of course I have them full of flowers.


64 posted on 05/07/2008 4:17:53 PM PDT by girlangler (Fish Fear Me)
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To: Red_Devil 232

Keep them watered and you should have plenty of figs this year. As for flowers, they are unnoticeable.


65 posted on 05/07/2008 4:21:31 PM PDT by gardengirl
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To: girlangler

Thank you so much! Coming from you that means a lot! I have so much fun writing them! Judging from reader’s comments, they like them too! I did send you a couple via freepmail, but it was way back, and then I think you were sick, and then you had company, and then I got swamped at the garden center... LOL

Sounds like your beds are doing great! We got the garden planted—now if we could just keep the squirrels out! Window boxes! Ooohhh! I wish!

How’s your mom doing? Still the envy of the neighborhood?!

Gotten any fishing in? My guys went flounder gigging last night. Tide was flood high. Said they made a little money. :)


66 posted on 05/07/2008 4:27:14 PM PDT by gardengirl
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To: girlangler; Gabz; gardengirl; Diana in Wisconsin; CrappieLuck

Her articles a very good! I happen to be lucky and have a copy of the paper she is published in (April) and she signed her article. Came with the fig tree she sent me.


67 posted on 05/07/2008 4:32:21 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
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To: Red_Devil 232

Thanks, RD!


68 posted on 05/07/2008 4:33:08 PM PDT by gardengirl
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To: DManA

DManA,

In our Minnesota climate, wait awhile before pruning it back. Our spring is very late this year and it might still leaf out higher up than that. I’d wait a couple more weeks.


69 posted on 05/07/2008 4:37:20 PM PDT by mplsconservative
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To: gardengirl
I am somewhat worried about the Bees around here. I have seen none. Could be the shrubs along my fence line have yet to bloom. Their flowers really drew the Bees in last year.

Last year during a yard sale my wife had we met a guy who traded some of his pure, country, local honey for a couple of things my wife was selling.

He saw my garden area and commented on it ... I told him that I was not seeing any honey bees just the big ol' Bumble Bees ... he said if I see any honey bees around here they are probably his (he lives about 20 or so miles away). That is when we started trading his honey for what he wanted of ours. Wonderful stuff!

I am missing the big ol' Bumble Bees this year. I hope they return!

70 posted on 05/07/2008 5:07:29 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
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To: mplsconservative

Thank. I JUST bought it and planted it. I was doing a little googling and saw one web site that by pruning it back to about 10 inches encourages it to develop the trunk. Does that sound nuts?

Lots of buds swelling up here. My lilacs have a bunch of proto flowers on em. Looks like it’ll be a good year.


71 posted on 05/07/2008 5:15:45 PM PDT by DManA
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To: Red_Devil 232

I would cut up the cherry tomatoes, drizzle with olive oil, salt, and roast them slowly in the oven. I made zucchini bread and brownies. I found a recipe for parmesan zucchini bread that was savory rather than sweet. I froze some as well, although zucchini gets kind of soggy frozen. If you shred zucchini and freeze it and use it for bread later, it’s pretty good though. And of course, I gave some away. This year, I’m planning to learn how to can my own tomato sauce.

I’m anxious to hear what others end up doing with their produce this summer. It’s always nice to learn new ideas and recipes.


72 posted on 05/07/2008 5:20:09 PM PDT by chickpundit
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To: Red_Devil 232

We haven’t seen more than a handful of honeybees for years. 2 is a major sighting. Last year a local beekeeper put a hive on my boss’ farm, about 2-3 miles away as the bee flies, and we saw more than I’ve seen in forever, but still not many. I think 10 at one time was the most, and they were on the eleagnus. We have lots of people coming in and complaining about wood bees—bumbles that drill holes in any type of wood. i hate to kill any bees but they will destroy porches, siding, barns, etc if you don’t get rid of them.

Side note—wouldn’t wood bees be great if you could say—Hey, you! I need a hole right here, this deep!


73 posted on 05/07/2008 5:33:55 PM PDT by gardengirl
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To: gardengirl

The big black and yellow Bumbles Bees are what I have been seeing. And yes, they do make their homes in any kind of wood. I have shovel, hoe and rake handles that have these beautiful and perfect round holes in them produced by Bumble Bees. I had some 2x4’s stored in a overhead rack in my car port they put some beautiful round hole in them. They got evicted when I realized where the saw dust was coming from!


74 posted on 05/07/2008 5:51:05 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
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To: chickpundit
Roasted slowly in the oven .... yummmmmm! I did that last year with a bunch of tomatoes that just ripened so fast we could not eat them all. It took about 8-10 hours on a very low oven ... drizzled in olive oil. It was hard not to just eat every one of them as they cooled! Those that we did not eat right out of the oven I saved by bagging and freezing them. Whooooa! Makes a great sauce for pasta!

I also canned a few tomatoes, not many, just a little kosher salt and some lemon juice and then processed in a water bath.

Never done the canning before. We opened one jar about two weeks ago and had them as a side ... My oh ... My! Great and fresh tasting, my wife was impressed!

75 posted on 05/07/2008 6:09:22 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
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To: girlangler
My brother and hubby have built me four beautiful window boxes, and of course I have them full of flowers.

SUPER!!!!!!!!

76 posted on 05/07/2008 6:43:09 PM PDT by Gabz (Don't tell my mom I'm a lobbyist, she thinks I'm a piano player in a whorehouse)
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To: gardengirl; Red_Devil 232
Keep them watered and you should have plenty of figs this year.

That's it --- after reading the exchanges about figs between the 2 of you the past few weeks, I'm just going to have to try them...........just have to figger out how to convince hubby :)

Red, I'm really swamped this weekend, but if you remind me next week I'll pull together some fig recipes for you.

77 posted on 05/07/2008 6:46:13 PM PDT by Gabz (Don't tell my mom I'm a lobbyist, she thinks I'm a piano player in a whorehouse)
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To: chickpundit
This year, I’m planning to learn how to can my own tomato sauce.

The Ball (canning jars) website has great info and they have what is considered the bible of books on canning, the exact name escapes me, but I'm sure it is on their site, just google it!

Actually canning tomato sauce is not as difficult/complicated as canning just plain tomatoes.

I’m anxious to hear what others end up doing with their produce this summer.

With any luck, I'm going to be selling a lot of mine, either fresh or as jelly or fresh salsa. Lots of folks seem to like hot pepper jelly, but can't be bothered making it, and I love making it!

It’s always nice to learn new ideas and recipes.

Recipes? I love recipes, and I would love your recipe for your zuccini parmesan bread!!!

78 posted on 05/07/2008 7:04:15 PM PDT by Gabz (Don't tell my mom I'm a lobbyist, she thinks I'm a piano player in a whorehouse)
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To: Gabz
The only reason I have been on this fig thing is because my wife mentioned she used to eat them fresh off the tree when she was a little girl growing up in Shreveport, La. And I remember eating them the same way as a little kid when I lived in California. Then the last couple years my Aunt would give us a couple of her canned jars of fig jam. Good stuff!

I have no idea what I am doing with fig trees, other than I hope to get at least two figs off of them so my wife and I can taste them fresh again! Crazy?

79 posted on 05/07/2008 7:12:36 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
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To: Red_Devil 232

Not crazy at all!

As a teenager I spent my summers in Sarasota, FL. My grandparents’ nextdoor neighbor had a fig tree by the side of the house that faced our lanai. We were welcome to those figs whenever we wanted them. They loved the tree itself, but didn’t care for figs.

My grandparents are now gone, but my Aunt still lives there. I will have to ask her if the fig tree is still there.


80 posted on 05/07/2008 7:28:25 PM PDT by Gabz (Don't tell my mom I'm a lobbyist, she thinks I'm a piano player in a whorehouse)
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