Posted on 04/11/2014 12:34:19 PM PDT by greeneyes
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks.
No matter what, you wont be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isnt asked. It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. There is no telling where it will go and... that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
NOTE: This is a once a week ping list. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest are welcomed, so feel free to post them at any time.
Marcella, unless we get hit by ice storms, you’re certain to get lots of food this year! You’ll probably be up to your eyeballs in canned produce, and dragging shopping bags full of tomatoes to your neighbors!
“youre certain to get lots of food this year!”
I so hope that happens. Would love to give someone tomatoes.
I’m using dixie 3 oz cups for the small seeds, and 5 oz cups for the larger seeds. Also using waxed orange cartons and used styro cups which I washed after using them.
I have a couple of plastic cake containers and a cookie container that I am using like a mini greenhouse, putting the cups on the base and covering them with the clear plastic lid. I stick a toothpick under the dome a couple of places so that a teeny amount of air can circulate.
Hi to you too. Whatcha been up to?
I find it hard to deal with thinning too. It just seems so unkind, and wasteful. LOL I wind up just planting stuff using the spacing they advise after thinning.
Then if one of the little plants doesn’t germinate or dies (gasp) I just plant another seed or transplant another plant.
Ugh. Hate the mosquitos. Love the flowers. This time of the year, my hyacinths are blooming and smelling sooooo good, and the yellow daffodils and tulips looking so perky - I love the spring flowers, too bad they won’t bloom for the whole season.
Hi all, spring is here. It’s been in the 50’s, one day it I was 60 and tomorrow it will hit 70. Then a cool down. The daffodils are about 4 inches up, grass is just starting to get green. Still a last few small piles of snow in the woods. Got our new compost bin up and running and today spent a couple of hours (I work slow these days)getting a new birdbath settled and the dripper hooked up. Still can’t turn the outside spigots on but we will be ready. Garden is still too wet and frozen under the surface for any tilling yet. Too bad the cold winter did not kill off the moles.
Spring has finally sprung. A few bulbs are pushing through, and one snowdrop has even bloomed. So far, 2 garlic shoots have emerged, and the rhubarb is beginning to develop shoots. Don’t rejoice too soon, though: snow is in Sunday & Monday’s forecast agin.
The perennial onions and walking onions are already up, as are 3 volunteer onions that seem to have been missed in last year’s harvest.
Our younger doe kindles Tuesday before last; the other one will get bred in a week or two.
Today we bought chicks: 6 Black Jersey Giants, and 12 white Cornish Cross broilers. Also while in Rapid, we got another 2,400 pounds of free compost at the recycling yard.
When we got home, I had an email from Jung’s that my potato sets have shipped.
2,400 lbs of FREE compost. Wow! I would surely love a deal like that. My favorite price for stuff. And I was sitting up late looking at methods or equipment to grind oak leaves small enough to use in making compost. What a difference 2000 miles can make!
Getting ready for The easter Music at my Church (I am the director of Music) and TWO(count ‘em!) Student recitals.
So I have been a little busy!
But not too busy that I forget to water my plants. LOL!
I intend to have squash and cantaloupe this year.
/johnny
I spoke too soon. This morning the radishes are up and happy. At the crack of dawn, I threw out some various seeds. I’m trying some chinese celery for the first time and hope it’s not too late and hot. It’s already been in the 90s. The package says sowing through April so we’ll see. We’re supposed to have storms tomorrow so the tomatoes and peppers will have to wait until next week.
I keep forgetting to put the okra and NZ spinach in water to soak so I’m headed that way right now. I really like the NZ spinach because it goes strong through the hot TX summers unlike the other varieties which bolt in the heat.
Joe Bastardi’s Saturday Summary might be of interest to your ping list.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3143712/posts?page=3
We just planted cherry tomatoes today - along with Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter and Black Krim tomatoes. Put them in the tiny four-shelf green house which sits in the 6X8 ft greenhouse. We both got tired of rolling it in and out of the dining room every night! We also planted sugar pumpkins, zucchini, melons and green peppers. Packages say “6 to 8 weeks before last frost” which is approx. Memorial Day around here!
Just saw this article on yahoo about the feds raiding customers of garden stores:
3 or 4 weeks ago, we got 2,050 pounds of it. Another load, and I’ll have enough to till 1.5-2” of it into the east half of the garden.
Not easy, but well worth it: drive 60 miles, and be loaded; drive back. Shovel it out into a stock pile. Shovel into garden tractor trailer, and spread on the garden, then till it in.
No way I could make anywhere near that amount of compost; and it would be even more work involved.
I am curious, are you using the same BT that is effective against cabbage loopers and such? For example Dipel(tm)?
I probably won’t use it at the farm. Too lazy. Planning on four acres of cucurbits this summer.
We all know where it leads: Eventually citizens are subjected to all manner of unconstitutional crap, and there's a total loss of freedom, privacy, and security from governmental abuse.
We had the DEA in St. Louis observe a young man buying “meth precursors” and followed him all the way to my driveway. He was a local handyman, and the lady from the VA was there helping my Dad, who was home bound.
She had called the guy and told him that she had some carpet she wanted him to rip out and replace. Dad's bath lady from Home Health had just finished and left just before he arrived. So the front door was not locked.
I was in the basement office paying bills. An officer came to the patio door and knocked. He was very polite, and asked if he could look around. I said sure. He came in, and began explaining what was going on. Finding nothing, we went upstairs.
There was 4 or 5 of them milling around my living room, and about 15 more on the front lawn. One of them asked me if my husband was home, and could he come and see if he knew the young man. When Hubby came out I was talking to Mr. Polite, and didn't catch him before he opened the door and stepped out on the porch (Hubby doesn't ever move slow).
The guy closest to the porch was a jerk and overly excitable. He was saying whoa whoa where do you think you are going, and started patting him down. He asked what do you have in your pockets, so Hubby started emptying his pockets, and pulled out his little bitty pocket knife.
I thought the guy was going to have a heart attack yelling and screaming and snatching the unopened knife away. That's when I lost it, and hollered at the jerk. We engaged in a little less than friendly back and forth.
Hubby told me to shut up, and let them do their thing. They asked him if he knew the guy. He told them no, he looked familiar, but he really didn't know him.
Then, jerk wanted to know, if that was true, how come he knows your name? I told him that Hubby taught school for 30 years, and there were a lot of people who knew him, knew where we lived, and we wouldn't recognize them at all.
In short order, they were done with us, and we sat down in the yard chairs and watched the 3 ring circus. They kept Dad's helper outside in the sun grilling her and she nearly got heat stroke before they finally gave her some water-all the time jerk kept coming over and telling us that he knew her and she was “in it” with him 100%.
Finally, having nothing to speak of, jerk came over, and told us that she was innocent, and please not to fire her. They were confiscating the meth precursors, and turning it over to the prosecutor who probably wouldn't prosecute, but if he did we would be called to testify. They also told handyman to stay away from our house.
Since jerk was acting a little nicer, I just pointed out to him that he would get better results from John Q citizen if he would be a bit more polite. Naturally we had a few more words back and forth.
And what was the precursor? A bunch of match books with the fold over flaps. Handy man claimed he picked them up for a relative’s wedding, and they were going to put the engraving on them at home to save money. Well maybe that's true and maybe it isn't.
Pretty slim to be grabbing him. Even slimmer to swarm our house just because he pulled in our driveway.In a parting shot, I told them my Dad was watching TV in the back bedroom and they had neglected to inspect it, and didn't they want to look at it(dripping with sarcasm), and they said no that's not necessary.
Thanks for the link. Bastardi’s the best.
It grow indoors in the winter better than spinach too.
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