Posted on 03/23/2008 11:36:40 PM PDT by nw_arizona_granny
Americans finding soaring food prices hard to stomach can battle back by growing their own food. [Click image for a larger version] Dean Fosdick Dean Fosdick
Home vegetable gardens appear to be booming as a result of the twin movements to eat local and pinch pennies.
At the Southeastern Flower Show in Atlanta this winter, D. Landreth Seed Co. of New Freedom, Pa., sold three to four times more seed packets than last year, says Barb Melera, president. "This is the first time I've ever heard people say, 'I can grow this more cheaply than I can buy it in the supermarket.' That's a 180-degree turn from the norm."
Roger Doiron, a gardener and fresh-food advocate from Scarborough, Maine, said he turned $85 worth of seeds into more than six months of vegetables for his family of five.
A year later, he says, the family still had "several quarts of tomato sauce, bags of mixed vegetables and ice-cube trays of pesto in the freezer; 20 heads of garlic, a five-gallon crock of sauerkraut, more homegrown hot-pepper sauce than one family could comfortably eat in a year and three sorts of squash, which we make into soups, stews and bread."
[snipped]
She compares the current period of market uncertainty with that of the early- to mid-20th century when the concept of victory gardens became popular.
"A lot of companies during the world wars and the Great Depression era encouraged vegetable gardening as a way of addressing layoffs, reduced wages and such," she says. "Some companies, like U.S. Steel, made gardens available at the workplace. Railroads provided easements they'd rent to employees and others for gardening."
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
In Texas, wildfires, extremely low streamflows, barren pastures, and declining wheat conditions were symbolic of worsening drought over much of the state.
Will you be fishing with a pole (enough water) or basket (dried up pools)?
Hmmm looks like I am a little overly anxious to get digging in the soil... I seem to be doing as I usually do and rush the season a bit - at least the indoor part as the ground is frozen after going to 8 degrees last night. But I will have to be careful this weekend as it is supposed to get to 59 degrees and the temptation will be there to dig.
US-CERT Current Activity
IRS Stimulus Package Phishing Scam
Original release date: February 6, 2009 at 10:03 am
Last revised: February 6, 2009 at 10:03 am
US-CERT is aware of public reports indicating that phishing scams are
circulating via fraudulent U.S. Internal Revenue Service emails
offering users stimulus package payments. These emails include text
that attempts to convince users to follow a link to a website or to
complete an attached document. The website and document request that
the user provide personal information.
US-CERT encourages users to do the following to help mitigate the
risks:
* Do not follow unsolicited web links received in email messages.
* Refer to the Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams (pdf) document
for more information on avoiding email scams.
* Refer to the Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks
(pdf) document for more information on social engineering attacks.
Relevant Url(s):
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-014.html
http://www.us-cert.gov/reading_room/emailscams_0905.pdf
I was in Walmart yesteday but did not have time to venture out to the garden section, we were on our way back from the big city and stopped in a small town to pick up brisket.My friend Carol wanted to look for a rug that she found for a great price here, but there were no more and she wanted another.
We covered a lot of territory yesterday, thrift store, Target, Kirklands, Whole Foods, Cheescake Factory for orange chicken and then a stop at a place called Cosi which has the best salad and flat bread pizza and sandwiches you’ve ever tasted.
[How many have been planned?]
(UK) Revealed: The ‘truth’ behind the Briton ‘tortured in Guantanamo Bay’
— “An FBI document outlining the case against a British ‘resident’ held
at Guantanamo Bay has revealed how he allegedly met Osama bin Laden while being trained for jihad at an Al Qaeda camp.”
— “Investigators also believe Binyam Mohamed was planning to
blow up an apartment block in the United States when he was arrested.”
— “U.S. authorities claim Mohamed fought against anti-Taliban
Northern Alliances forces and, because of his UK residency, was
selected by Al Qaeda and trained to construct and detonate a radioactive ‘dirty bomb’.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1135491/Revealed-The-truth-Briton-tortured-Guantanamo-Bay.html?ITO=1490
-— UK: High Court urged to reconsider torture ruling
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/4539305/High-Court-urged-to-reconsider-torture-ruling.html
40 Blooms Hummingbirds Can’t Refuse
You’ll love the traffic these flowers provide.
by Joe Kegley, Birds & Blooms
Imagine several gorgeous hummingbirds hovering around your garden, each vying for a dining spot. Once they’ve found your flowers, it’s likely they’ll come back all season long. That was the case in Joe Kegley’s Charlotte, North Carolina yard, when he snapped this picture (right) of a hummingbird at his bee balm.
Planting a hummingbird garden is no different than creating a perennial border, mixed container, or any other garden. There are dozens of annuals, perennials, trees and shrubs from which hummingbirds feed. Which ones should you choose? It’s easier than you think! Here are our top 40 picks, spotlighting 10 favorites, to get you started...
Red Flowers
People often associate hummingbirds with the color red, and for good reason. These inquisitive birds can see red from a great distance, so offering a patch of red flowers to hummingbirds is like a neon “EAT” sign on a lonely highway.
Mix in Annuals
Annuals ensure long-blooming flowers that immediately produce nectar. From the time the migratory hummingbirds return north from their tropical winter grounds until they leave in the fall, the birds are sure to stay well fed.
Plant in Clusters
To get the attention of hummingbirds, cluster blooms together so they shout, “Dinnertime!” Combining plants with staggered heights will bring depth to your garden, as well as providing hummers with a nectar buffet.
Cascading Blooms
Hummingbirds have the ability to fly forward, backward, and even upside down! Some nectar flowers have adapted specifically to accommodate the agile fliers. The blooms hang downward, so only hummingbirds can reach the sweet treat.
Tube-Shaped Blooms
These flowers provide large amounts of nectar deep at the base of their blooms. Hummingbirds can easily reach this food with their long, tubular tongues, while bees and most other nectar-loving insects are left out.
Top 10
1. Bee Balm (Monarda didyma)
* Perennial; Zones 4 to 10.
* Color: Red.
* Blooms: Summer.
* Size: 3 to 5 feet tall; spreads 18 to 36 inches.
* Care: Moist, moderately fertile soil; light shade to full sun. Deadhead flowers to keep them blooming and to limit reseeding.
2. Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
* Perennial; Zones 2 to 8.
* Color: Red.
* Blooms: Summer.
* Size: 3 to 4 feet tall; 2 feet wide.
* Care: Fertile and moist soil, partial shade to full sun. Works beautifully with other native plantings.
3. Butterfly Bush (Buddleja species)
* Shrub; Zones 4 to 9.
* Color: Purple, pink, and white.
* Blooms: Summer to fall.
* Size: 6 to 15 feet tall; 4 to 10 feet wide.
* Care: Grow in sun to light shade. Considered invasive in some regions.
4. Trumpet Vine (Campsis radicans)
* Perennial; Zones 4 to 9.
* Color: Orange-red.
* Blooms: Summer.
* Size: Climbs to 40 feet.
* Care: Grow in full sun in moist to dry soil. Tolerates poor soil. Blooms better with little or no fertilizer.
5. Snapdragon (Antirrhinum)
* Annual.
* Color: Varies with variety.
* Blooms: Until frost.
* Size: 6 inches to 4 feet tall; 6 inches to 2 feet wide.
* Care: Grows in full sun to part shade in moist soil. Regular deadheading needed.
6. Salvia (Salvia spledens)
* Annual.
* Color: Red, purple.
* Blooms: Until frost.
* Size: 1 to 3 inches tall; 9 to 14 inches wide.
* Care: Keep soil at roots cool and moist; grow in full sun or part shade in southern regions. Deadhead flowers to keep blooming.
7. Fuchsia (Fuchsia species)
* Perennial; Zones 10 and 11; annual to north.
* Color: Red, pinks, purple, white.
* Blooms: Until frost.
* Size: Trailing to 3 feet or available in shrub form.
* Care: Requires moist soil: check pots twice a day in hot weather. Pinch back flowers.
8. Columbine (Aquilegia species)
* Perennial; Zones 3 to 9.
* Color: Red, pink, blue, purple.
* Blooms: Spring to early summer.
* Size: 1 to 3 feet tall; 6 to 24 inches wide.
* Care: Low-maintenance plants that prefer moist, but not wet, soil. Reseeds itself.
9. Phlox (Phlox species)
* Perennial; Zones 3 to 8.
* Color: Pink, red, blue, and purple.
* Blooms: Spring to fall.
* Size: Up to 3 feet tall; 12 to 24 inches wide.
* Care: Needs well-draining soil in full sun. Deadhead to extend their bloom time.
10. Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
* Perennial; Zones 4 to 9.
* Color: Orange.
* Blooms: Summer to fall.
* Size: 1-1/2 to 3 feet tall; spreads 12 inches wide.
* Care: Well-drained soil; full sun. These plants will wander to where they’re best suited in your garden.
sponsored by our partners at Birds & Blooms
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More Sure-Fire Hummingbird Flowers
Shrubs, Trees, and Vines
Dropmore scarlet honeysuckle
Lilac
Mimosa
Morning glory
Rhododendron
Scarlet runner bean
Weigela
Annuals
Cleome
Flowering tobacco
Geranium
Hollyhock*
Impatiens
Lantana*
Nasturtium
Petunia
Zinnia
Perennials
Gayfeather
Gladiola*
Hosta
Penstemon
Primrose
Yucca
*In some climates
bee balm
fuchsia
columbine
butterfly weed
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LOL, you are going to learn more than you want, with the tobacco.
You will find it is fare easier to trade booze, than the tobacco, made from scratch.
If the new tax on tobacco goes through, you will see a nice profit on your product.I
I will be surprised if a paper shredder works, you might try a meat slicer, if you can form bundles of the leaves and not loose a finger in the process.
I am suspecting that it will be tough as leather, after it is cured.
Welch grape juice wine recipe:
[One version, not the one I made, I used a balloon on top that got real big and then went down, it is what we traded for the tools, during a flood to those who needed a drink.
granny]
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/welchs-grape-juice-wine-21093/
Welch’s Grape Juice Wine
Recipe Type: Extract Yeast: Wine yeast Batch Size (Gallons): 1 Original Gravity: 1.095 Final Gravity: .996 Boiling Time (Minutes): 0.0 Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 30 Additional Fermentation: Rack until clear Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 30
Welch’s Frozen Grape Juice Wine
2 cans (11.5 oz) Welch’s 100% frozen grape concentrate
1-1/4 lbs granulated sugar
2 tsp acid blend
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp yeast nutrient
water to make 1 gallon
wine yeast
Bring 1 quart water to boil and dissolve the sugar in the water. Remove from heat and add frozen concentrate. Add additional water to make one gallon and pour into secondary. Add remaining ingredients except yeast. Cover with napkin fastened with rubber band and set aside 12 hours. Add activated wine yeast and recover with napkin. When active fermentation slows down (about 5 days), fit airlock. When clear, rack, top up and refit airlock. After additional 30 days, stabilize, sweeten if desired and rack into bottles.
__________________
Broken Leg Brewery
[My recipe did not call for the enzyme or acid blend...granny]
Welcome to the thread and gardening.
With a bad back, you need lots of Peppermint, try long hot soaking baths in it. Boil a quart of the leaves for about 5 minutes, cover and let steep till cool, pour/strain this into a tub of water, it feels good.
Lavender, check for the old healing varieties, useful for healing and used to flavor foods.
The hot peppers and even the more common peppers, are high in vitamin C and the hot peppers can be ground mixed in olive or almond oils and used to rub on where it hurts, of course you can add beeswax and make a salve.
Ginger, and Fennel [not the bulb making kind] for gas and rubbed on pain and many other uses.
I usually look in the herb books for the subjects that concern my old body and then choose the plants from those used in the cures.
There are many more, but I have had only one cup of coffee and am still half asleep.
Throughout the thread there are suggestions, posted as I found them, I am sorry they are not in order.
production of food in the city.<<<
It is a shame that this is not all over the country and not just tied to the radicals of the green/gore/type.
In England, an amazing amount of gardening goes on their ‘allotments’ sites.
I enjoy seeing the before and after photos of their efforts.
Even the islands in the middle of the streets are planted.
Imagine all our freeway centers planted with useful plants, even if it was only plants to make gas out of, as freeway plants would collect lead and other poisons from the gas in the cars.
Yes, we would have a ball with a project like this and could pat our selves on the back for the extra foods that folks had to eat.
Of course, growing food from scratch, would require a cooking school, to teach folks how to use them.
I heard of one community, that used the septic tanks that had been made and were not up to code, so they wound up with giant planter boxes and formed a community garden of them....an internet pal’s husband was involved in the project.
Since I grew up in this area I’m all too familiar with our warnings. We are close to Ft. Hood, the largest military post in the country. We did not have those nuke drills like I hear other people had growing up, the teachers in elementary school told us that in the event Russia sent Nukes that Ft. Hood was one of the places that would get hit first.<<<
A few minutes ago, I posted a clip from a news list that comes to me each day, from Jeffrey Imm.
I thought it important enough to be sure everyone knows how serious the threat is.
Dr. Bill Wattenberg, of kgo.com and pushback.com, is a real life nuclear physicist, who has had a part in most of our nuclear weapons for the past 40 or 50 years.
His radio program on weekends is all kinds of science, on kgo.com, he has been on the radio about 30 years.
He says that we will be hit with a nuclear dirty bomb in the next 5 years [that was 2 years ago, that he talked about it].
He says any terrorist with a machine shop, can make one, and I talked to my brother, who worked with them in the 1950’s and he said yes, if one had the materials required he could make one, except he is not a real machinist, just a good ‘make things guy’.
But Dr. Bill says it is not the bomb that will kill you, unless you are hit with the debris, you can wash the nuclear materials off your body and hair with laundry soap and seal and get rid of the clothes you had on.
Your real danger is from the people all over the country who will hit the freeways, with no supplies and no place to go, so they are going to come after your supplies.
Dr. Bill is part of the planning team of scientists for the Gov, on how to survive and what to expect.
Tngop, see post 9770, LOL, Wneighbor has all the answers.
Sounds good to me.
Even in Kingman, they had the colorful cabbages in the flower beds, instead of flowers.
Why not a package of the colored swiss chard, true it is a hybrid, and the seeds won’t be true, but it is pretty and will taste good.
Nothing is prettier than a Luffa vine, young, the luffa’s are used in food and called Chinese okra, when mature they can be skinned and made into a scrub pad for body or dishes.
I grew a pot of them in the house one year, at 4 am the lovely flowers will open, you can almost hear them, I still have the macarame ropes strung around my ceiling, if I get another pot to grow.
I like the malabar spinach for a hanging pot and grew it indoors for years, for myself and for the parrots, it has a large stem and pretty round leaves, about the size of the hand palm.
The yard long bean grows well in pots and if you will leave the stem of the bean on the plant, it will produce more beans from that flower stem.
Pinch the bean off, on the bean part, not the stem as most folks do.
LOL, I am not a real fish lover, except for tuna and we did have a casino at Laughlin that did a beer batter fish fry on Friday nights, and it was wonderful.
Good that you are going out to dinner, you earned it and need a rest.
Thank you for taking your neighbor with you.
I know that everyone calls when you loose a loved one, but after 6 months, folks forget that you are still alive and even more lonely.
When I first met him I thought he was a really formal tense guy. He’s much more relaxed now. <<<
It takes time for a normal man, to understand his creative mate.
Bill said once, that he took the chance of marrying me, because I was “different”.
Of course we had a ‘learning period’, that took a couple years.
The honeymoon was over the night that he came home and found the stove full of boiling pots, he marched over, still dripping from the cold rain, raised a lid and asked “what’s for dinner?”....
That was my paper mache period, it was news paper being cooked down...LOL
Americans are turning in increasing numbers to their back yards to save money, with leading US seed merchants reporting a dramatic surge in early sales of carrots, tomato and pepper plant seeds.<<<
Interesting and dangerous too, as it points out that we are going to have a seed shortage this year and next.
Thank you, your answer is wonderful and far better than mine were.
I knew that you would know the answer to this one.
I was at WalMart yesterday and they had some packets of seed for 20 cents. I haven’t seen that in a long time. <<<
Those will be the old varieties of seeds and they are what grow here.
I have good luck growing those seeds, here the dollar store and Thrifty drug also has them.
The small packets are also useful for the planting of pots, as you can now afford to have a pot or two of ‘every thing’ out there.
I had a simmilar experience with the Dept. of Agriculture. Years ago, mostly as a hobby, my husband and I planted several acres as a “pick your own bouquet” garden. It was lots of work but lots of fun. We transplanted 15 to 20 thousand seedlings that we had started in our greenhouse every spring. We would transplant 200 to 400 seedlings in the morning, go home for lunch and a nap and repeat the process in the afternoon. We did this for several weeks and then started the weeding and cultivating process. Then we opened the garden to the public for picking. People just loved to come and arrange their own bouquet as there was nothing similar to this in the area.
Anyway, it got so people would make requests for certain plants and we would oblige if possible. Local restaurants loved to send one of the help for fresh herbs. One request was for sweet annie from the artemesia family. It was an aromatic plant which grew 5-6 feet tall and the branches were used as a base for dried wreaths. We planted several rows at the further end of our garden and one day I was surprised to see a car with a Dept of Agriculture insignia parked at the side of the road with a tripod set up and some sort of telescope on it with the sights trained on my sweet annie. I wanted to go out and invite them to a closer examination of my crop but hubby just wanted to keep them guessing so I stayed away.
Unfortunately, old age caught up with us just as we had established a loyal following and I decided it was just too much. When I announced my decision to end the gardens, one restaurant owner was so dismayed that he offered to send his help to assist us with the transplanting. LOL Wonder if he had checked with the help first. Anyway, the greenhouse planting and watering was also a big item so we threw iin the towel and sold the 10 acres.
This period was when we started the hugh compost piles and I learned to just love compost. Hubby would soak a load of compost with water and we would put a shovelful beneath every transplanted seedling and the compost
would stay moist to nourish the seedling through much of the summer. I put out a sign in the fall for people to put their bagged leaves in the field and would get hundreds of bags. This along with manure and loads and loads of seaweed made for nutrient rich compost.
Wneighbor-my compost furnishes me with veggies throughout my flower beds. Squash tomato, cuke and watermelon seeds sprout in my flower beds every year. I just leave them where they spring up unless they are in my way and I think they are very attractive in my flowers. Many flower seeds come from my compost as I compost the old plants full of sseeds every fall. Haven’t started a cosmos plant in years and they are still coming up everywhere. Likewise gloriosa daisies.
Tried to post 9797 to you also but fouled up somehow.
Think of all the beauty and joy that you brought to folks lives.
There was a time, when on Friday, I cleaned house and arranged flowers for all the rooms.
Today, it is silk flowers [not for me] and flower arranging is a lost art.
Over the years, I have often read of people who could make a living, raising herbs and specialty vegetables for sale to the restaurants.
Your compost is priceless and should go in every plants planting area.
When I set out tomato plants, I dig a hole on the slant, line it with potting mix [compost would be better] lay in the tomato plant, so that I get as much of it under ground as possible and have only the top leaves still on it.
By doing it this way, I get roots all along the stem and a firm base for the plant to grow on.
All those small bumbs on the tomato stems will form roots, in water or in the ground.
Getting old is for those who do nothing, it did not please me to find out that my mind was still young, but something happened to the rest of me.
Airlock?
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