Posted on 09/01/2024 6:06:00 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The MONTHLY Gardening Thread is a 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.
If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located.
This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.
It is impossible to hijack the Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table Recipes, Preserving, Good Living - there is no telling where it will go - and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us! Send a Private Message to Diana in Wisconsin if you'd like to be added to/removed from our New & Improved Ping List.
NOTE: This is a once a MONTH Ping List, but we DO post to the thread all throughout the month. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest to Gardeners are welcomed any time!
I like that lighting option! We upgraded to some brighter LEDs in the underground garage/basement and they made a huge difference.
It’s not QUITE so ‘Silence of the Lambs’ now when I have to go down there for something from the freezer. ;)
So many brands out there, it’s insane. Most are chinajunk which actually varies in quality. Some are decent but the price difference between commercial, decent retail and junk is quite the wide range.
This ETi brand with 5 year warranty has a “where to buy” link on their website and it actually brings up a couple of places here in Missouri that are B2B suppliers that don’t have a web store or sell to the public. There are a few websites that sell their stuff, including homedepot, but it seems like that’s just ETi getting rid of previous models/closeouts etc.
I don’t know how applicable the 5 year warranty is having bought from homedepot which is a marketplace now or some other website but the fact that they even have a 5 year warranty on everything works for me.
But they don’t make grow lights.
Any recommendations on grow light brands - anyone? I used to think FIET was good but their online reviews have plummeted almost down to 4.0.
LOL - “High Bay Grow Lights” was a useless rabbit hole. Fine print all say 16-30 inches above the plants. They’re all marketed to the cannabis growers so ...
I have had nothing but good results with plain old shop lights for starting seedlings. Even before I had my ‘fancy rack’ that I bought at a deep discount. (And they just have the 2’ shop lights in them!)
Prior to that, bricks and wood shelves worked just fine - and I grew a gazillion seedlings using that setup in a 55-degree field stone basement. And THEN I moved the seedlings to the small (unheated) greenhouse I had at the time to harden them off before planting out.
Seriously. Just rotate your seedling trays every few days. They’ll be just fine under everyday shop lights.
The secret is 16 hours of light ON, then 8 hours OFF. And find a way to move the lights UP or the planting trays DOWN so they’re always 2” below the lights as they grow.
Don’t waste precious dollars on anything fancier than that. And get them while you can! I’m sure Mother Government is finding a way to BAN them as I type. ;)
LOL! Yeah - that’s so YOU, tossing money out the window...and smiling while you do it! ;)
I really have had nothing but SUCCESS starting seedlings as cheaply as I could back in the day when I had NO MONEY and six mouths to feed 2-3 times a day - THREE of them being Teen Boys. :)
I really could’ve used a Milk Cow back then!
I love my ex MIL to the Moon and back. She’s in care now and no longer has ANY idea who I am when I visit her, but I learned so much from her through the years. She was widowed with four boys before she was 40 when she met a Handsome Man who was also widowed and had five boys and a daughter. They married and blended that family. (I married one of her sons.)
Anyhow...she’d tell me, ‘On Monday I’d go to the Day Old Bakery and buy 15 loaves of bread. On Tuesday I’d go to the discount dairy and buy 20 gallons of milk. On Wednesday I’d go to the ‘Scratch-n-Dent Warehouse’ and buy whatever canned goods were cheap to fill stomachs. And when Walgreens had vegetable seeds for sale at 10-cents a pack, I would buy them out!”
They had a large garden, they kept laying hens, and later raised beef, but she was AMAZING in the way she could feed 12 people every day for pennies on the dollar!
All this to say that I come by my ‘cheapness’ honestly! :)
No disagreement with any of that. A few years back we got “adopted” by a stray dog — a shepherd/”something a bit smaller” friendly mutt that was exceptionally well behaved (and particularly great around our sometimes free range chickens). “Lewis” (my daughter named him) didn’t do much chasing, but varmints wisely did not challenge that, and we had no problems with such. The chickens even seemed to understand that Lewis’ presence meant safety* and would tend to congregate somewhat near him.
*Or maybe they sensed that the humans the chickens associated with food also associated with Lewis frequently? Hahahaha!
Unfortunately, Lewis was old and eventually developed hip problems so severe that he’d walk or run around on just his front two feet, hind elevated... We took him to a vet, but hip reconstruction was way out of what we could afford, and would be a temporary solution anyway. We knew we’d have to have him put down soon, but... He did still “get around” on his front legs pretty well, so, we hesitated, and a few days later he just vanished, never to be seen again. Hopefully his “end” was quick. :-(
We’ve had other strays show up since, but all have been aggressive toward the birdies, and my daughter’s 2 cats, so, we had to give those dogs away. Someday if I have more time, we might try to raise and train a puppy...
The one cat will occasionally kill a squirrel - we get such “presents”, or smaller, voles in particular, on the back porch occasionally, but even a half-grown ‘possum? No way. The cat isn’t dumb, and can always come to the back porch for dry cat food after the chickens roost back in their henhouses.
You mention a chicken coop inside a wood/tree line? Yikes! That sounds like just asking for trouble. (Granted, ours are inside widely scattered shade trees, but it’s no wood line.)
Ah, well, if I trap a ‘possum, the chickens get a nice treat!
I’ve saved a few seeds from a fruit from whatever those orange color tomatoes I described previously are. (Few seeds per tomato, but I think I have about 30 seeds, so even if only 25 % germinate and “recruit”, as the fisheries biologist says, that’s enough for us.)
The plants are looking poor now - not sure if we’ll get any more production from them or not.
Will they stay true? No way to know!
Ya’ know, maybe my approach can change: I have a couple of those small battery powered “inflators” used to inflate air beds, small “rubber” rafts, etc., for camping and such. These sometimes have “reducing nozzles” that might give a decent jet of air. “Inflator” accessory kits (nozzle assortments) are also available for these inflators.
I don’t need high air pressure here - just good air velocity. (More or less a Venturi effect.)
Now, to find and dig one out. I don’t think we’ve inflated an airbed since we bought our pop-up camper 8(?) years ago...
We got 1.5” rain Saturday night. Some sprinkles yesterday then rain most of last night and it’s still coming down.
I traveled out of state for a wedding late last week and over the weekend. We returned last evening, so just catching up on the gardening thread.
I’m getting more excited for you and your mom with each passing week. It won’t be much longer! Hurray!
We were out of town from Friday through yesterday, so I’m just catching up. Those books look great! Is the fourth picture from the Herbs book?
That was a great read. Thanks for sharing it. My mom died 7 years ago on my brother’s birthday, which comes up in about a week. My lil sister and I were in the hospice room with her when she passed. It was an experience I’ll never forget.
My older sister would never leave her room, hardly for a few minutes. After an extended few days of her having little sleep, we all begged her to let us take over for one night so she could get *some* rest. She was going off the deep end, but couldn’t see it. I think Mom waited until she knew my older sister would genuinely be asleep, and in a brief moment, tiptoed out of this world when my little sister and I stopped watching her breathe. My little sister and I were still holding hands with her as the angels beckoned. It was the middle of the night, right around 2 am.
I’ll never forget my mom. She was the best. I get my love of gardening from her, and she from her Mama. Whenever I visited, I took great pains to care for her houseplants and everything in the yard. It was an honor and a privilege to care for such a great lady, even though she had forgotten who I was. That was her dementia taking over. She had a few clear moments with me in her last week, though, and that was soothing.
Give your Mamas hugs! You never know when it will be your last one.
I am green with envy! How beautiful!
Yes. The Herbs book is SO PRETTY! It has a number of recipes each for each herb.
Well worth the $2.09 I paid for a $24.99 book! SCORE! :)
Paw Paw Heaven! :)
Rosemary Chicken Mac & Cheese. ‘Nuf said! :)
Similar recipe: https://kitchendivas.com/easy-rosemary-macaroni-and-cheese/#recipe
Score!
That photo with the old door knobs and herbs just took me. I have a “thing” for antique knobs and back plates. Reminds me of my Grandma’s house that I grew up in. My brother owns the house now (we all gave up our portion of it for various reasons), and I hope he never changes those old locks unless it’s absolutely necessary.
When we bought this house, it has an old fashioned vibe to it, so I replaced the modern backplate on the front door with an antique back plate with a glass knob. That old timey stuff is so charming. I’m a bit of a Mary Bailey in that regard. Just fix it and make it pretty (or functional) again. Don’t toss it!
Oh wow! Yum yum yum!
The ‘chicken palace’ was an old shed my brother refurbished so the location wasn’t one chosen for the coop - it was use what you have. Despite ‘improvements’ & fixing places where critters got in, they would always find a new place to dig, climb, squeeze, or whatever. There was another smaller coop in the yard ... I helped put up the fencing for that one - buried fence at least a foot deep (or more) all the way around. Except for one small spot ... of course, the fox found that spot & massacred 5 chickens in one night.
No permanent ‘coop’/run for me. I want a chicken tractor & after looking at some commercial ones, I ‘think’ I can keep the critters out & keeping it moving should help keep the critters guessing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.