Posted on 05/01/2025 6:15:12 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
You will have a happy garden and the grandchildren will enjoy playing in those piles! And, their immune system will get a good workout! (....make certain they have had had their tetnus shots!)
Grands playing in the poo pile??? LOLOL
DiLs would hang me then stab me then shoot me THEN kill me if such a thing were to happen under my supervision.
That’s a lot of shipping charges. The 43 and 8# bags are cheaper per pound.
Thanks for thinking of that anyways.
Oh, it’s Baptisia! That’s why I recognized the leaves!
We had a mature one in the landscaping at my Garden Center and that thing would come back from the DEAD each year to her full 10-foot glory in a single growing season, even up here in Zone 5a. (So, it’s basically a WEED, LOL!)
We had a ‘very insistent customer’ that wanted THAT shrub and would pay whatever we asked to transport it and transplant it to her garden. We did - for a RIDICULOUS sum of money. ;)
OK! So I’m NOT totally nuts - but you still, TEMPORARILY, ‘Stumped The Chump!’ :)
Tell Mrs. Augie I’m still waiting on my ‘Jachmanii’ Clematis to bloom - it might still be a while yet. :)
I happened to stumble across this article, which is basically throwing cold water on the opinions of many a gardener (including myself) and many a Forester, that juglone from Walnut trees damages some types of other plants:
file:///E:/My%20Docs/7050/Gardening/Juglone.article.pdf
Now, I do have some problems with the article, such as it leaving out at a couple points the clarification that no one I know of ever said juglone badly affects all or even most other plants: SPECIFIC plants or plant families are usually cited.
However, it is true that the “formal” evidence (such as having dozens of well run studies to go by) is rather modest.
So, I’ll toss out something really off the wall: Walnut trees at times emit a fairly strong fragrance. I suspect it repels some insects. What IS this fragrance, chemically speaking, and could it be the actor?
Also, fellow FReeper gardeners, what veggie do you find most susceptible to (suspected) juglone poisoning? I have extra tomato plants and eggplants in particular. I could take a healthy young plant, place it in a large pot in soil from under our largest Walnut tree, place that in an ideal spot, and observe it, right beside a fellow plant in “ordinary” garden soil that tomato plants have been growing well in.
Thoughts?
Thanks!
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=fish+bone+meal&crid=QY7C1TWAMBPR&sprefix=fish+bone+mea%2Caps%2C605
This one is about $44 for 10 lb delivered. Walt's Fish Bone Meal (10 LB) Brand: Walt's Organic Fertilizer Co. Typical N-P-K analysis: 4-16-0
I will.
Thanks.
My beagle says.....
Thanks Diana!
Oops - Try THIS for the link:
And you can download the paper from there.
Nice resource. They have one that will fit the hole but it’s a weird thing. Single core 5/8” thick. Looks kinda funny since the tanks are standard 3” thick or so to fit hoses and cap.
Looked at it this weekend and see where the metal mesh guard in front of it has a dent. The battery goes right in front of the radiator so I must have bumped the mesh with a battery and now it’s rubbed through.
Kind of good news because at least that’s a better reason than dried and deteriorated copper. Pretty sure I’ll be able to fix it.
Had a heck of a storm here last night. Very high winds, tornado warning, electric is out. Won’t be surprised if I hear that twisters touched down somewhere.
Instant coffee from the hot-ish tap water this morning. yum
I’ve also run across some discussion and experiments when it comes to planting tomato plants “deep”, shallow, or in a shallow trench. Most advice is “deep”, but some experiments show a larger root system develops when the young plant is turned sideways and placed in a shallow “trench”, then turned upwards at the leafy end. I can see this working best with “spindly” starts.
Interestingly, production varied very little between the 3 methods if plants were kept well watered but not over watered, in a good soil (etc.) environment. Commenters replied that deep planting was needed if watering was sporadic in dry summer climates. OTOH, others pointed out that water “pooling” above a layer of dense clay could cause weak and diseased roots, making deep planting problematic. (I believe I have some trouble with this, sometimes.) There is also the problem of turning the plant “upward” at the end of horizontal trench.
Cutworms can also be a problem with deep starts of young tomato plants, as the base of the plant is usually tougher than the tender upper half - which stems I’ve found cutworms and snails to love...
What about a 4th option? Dig a short (12” long?) trench that runs from shallow to, say, 10” deep? (Trench length & depth can depend on how tall and spindly the young plant is.) This helps quite a bit with bending the plant “upright” as it exits the ground. It also works out well for “spindly” starts. It doesn’t help with cutworms and snails, however...
A final benefit is that if one has semi-permanent support for their tomato plants, on can rotate the location of the root ball around each support, from year to year. (Probably one should avoid placing the root ball under pathways!)
Thoughts?
I planted a few tomatoes yesterday with this slanted trench approach. We’ll see how it goes...
Great view. Yes, a perfect morning...and your Cow Friends, too! :)
I love having the cows (and Stew!) on pasture, now. The other day when it stormed, the Heifers surrounded Stew (who is smaller than they are) and put him right in the middle of the herd, as if he were one of their own babies. So sweet. Total instinct, because none of them have even HAD their first babies yet.
I plant my tomatoes deep - up to the first set of leaves. They are usually 8 weeks or so old when they go into the ground and of May. Every tiny ‘hair’ on the stem has the potential to become a root.
I put 1/2 cup crushed eggshells and 1/2 cup bone meal in each planting hole. Water in, throw the large square cage over them, re-adjust the straw mulch and get on with my life. ;)
When we grew for market, my FIL trenched his tomatoes - same reason - you want lots of root development for strong, productive plants. His variety of choice was ‘Celebrity.’ That’s all he grew and we always had TONS of tomatoes to sell at Sunday Farmers Market and to a few local restaurants. It doesn’t crack, good shelf-life and was bred at the UW Madison, so both everyday Customers and Chefs liked the local nature of that tomato. (I still grow it.)
That’s beautiful! It’s a rainy day here today.
I just got back home from Florida around 1 am. Long travel day. My first flight was delayed because the incoming flight was delayed. That had a domino effect. I was lucky to catch my connection, but my checked bag wasn’t. After going to baggage claim and never seeing it, I realized that my app said it was loaded on the later flight. Now the app says it’s enroute for delivery, but we will see how long that takes. I’m glad I’m at home when a delayed bag happened, and not at my destination. That would be such a hassle.
I had a wonderful time at my niece’s baby shower. Most of the family was there. So after the shower, and once my brother arrived, I told them the good news that our daughter is pregnant with a girl! It was very exciting! So my niece and my daughter are both having little girls, and they’ll be about three months apart, providing that all goes well for both from here.
A few years ago, my brother and BIL had old landscaping taken out at the family business which is next door to the family homestead. The boys didn’t know that my Grandma had planted Gloriosa lilies there back in the 1930’s. My mom LOVED them, and always talked with us about them. Of course, the boys had no idea, and little interest. My sister was able to go back through the yard “waste” pile and managed to find several tubers of those beautiful lilies. She transplanted them to her own yard, and now 3 years later, they’re a very small portion of them growing, and some were blooming.
On this trip she decided to see if she could give my older sister and me a couple of the younger ones, hoping that we might be successful with our own transplants. It will probably work well for my older sister as she’s in St. Pete. My research is telling me that up here in Indiana, it will likely only be an annual. I’m going to give it a try in a pot, and will baby it. It says it needs a trellis to climb on. So wish me luck! I’ll be searching for the right pot that maybe I can bring inside once it gets too cold for it outside.
Any recommendations about caring for Gloriosa lilies is greatly appreciated.
My sister and BIL are wonderful hosts, and I had an amazing time with everyone, but I am glad to be home.
Right - just for some reason, in that area to the west and WSW of Marion, IL, it seems an unusual number, over the years, have tracked due east. This last one actually turned ESE from E when it acquired F4 strength near its end. I know a “right turn” is not unusual for extremely strong tornados - this one was just going east already...
Thank God this beast DIDN’T behave typically, SW to NE, or follow a path just a few miles north — “Little Egypt” doesn’t need that kind of wrath from above. (As if anyone does.)
“Celebrity” are good tomatoes, exactly as you describe. Disease resistance has been good for me, too. The taste to me is good but not great, but I do lean to the “sweet-tangy” types for taste. This is the first year in several I’m not growing any Celebs, but that’s just because I’m trying out so many other breeds that I have no more room for any Celebrities...
My cousin, when we visited NC last year, gave us some tomatoes. Several red ones and a couple large ones that were more pink than red. He declared the ‘pink’ ones were his ‘sandwich’ tomatoes. Mom said they were the tastiest tomatoes she’s ever had. My cousin gave me the name & I thought I would remember it .... looked at ‘pink’ tomato names. One was German Johnson & I have never grown it .... if you have, do you think it would be a ‘tasty sandwich’ tomato? I might try to find one to plant for mom.
It may be due to geography.
I’ve noticed it can play quite a role in how storms move both here in NH and where we lived in NY. NY got most typical prevailing southwesterlies.
Here in NH, the storms come up from the ocean, particularly nor’easters, so it’s frustrating to try to figure out if a storm is going to hit you or not. You really have to watch the radar and see what kind of track it’s taking.
This morning, I was at the grocery store at 7:00, shopping for the ingredients needed to prepare lunch for tomorrow when we have company. By 9:00, I had the cinnamon apples & Chef John Green beans in the slow cookers, which included baking bacon for the green beans & Quiche Lorraine.
Mom got up around 9:30 and announced "I have news for you - the company coming tomorrow has canceled!"
🤬
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