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Weekly Gardening Thread – 2010 (Vol. 32) September 10
Free Republic | 09-10-2010 | Red_Devil 232

Posted on 09/10/2010 5:09:56 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232

Good morning gardeners. This is the first year that I will have a fall garden. I have decided to try few broccoli and cabbage plants. I decided to visit our local County Co-Op a couple of days ago and they had starts of both and I bought a nine-pack cell of each. I hope they do well because we are still having 90 degree days with overnights in the mid to high 60’s. They also had starts for various types of tomato plants which kind of surprised me.

If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels from Master Gardener to novice.


TOPICS: Agriculture; Food; Gardening; Hobbies
KEYWORDS: agriculture; food; garden; gardening; recipes; weekly
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To: Duchess47

Thanks for the response, we are at 3500ft with temps about the same. Your system ought to work here. I can’t imagine what we could produce with a greenhouse that didn’t get much below 45 degrees. I would think you could have lettuce year round, at the very least an increase of a month either side of growing season which is huge considering this year was June to ? Haven’t had the first freeze yet, but I think after 15 Sept it could be anytime.


161 posted on 09/11/2010 8:49:00 AM PDT by wita
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To: Duchess47

I seldom see flower displays like that anymore. But the gardeners at the Fresno Zoo and Roeding Zoo always planted a couple of displays when I was a child. I always begged my dad to drive by at various seasons to see what they had imagined.

Now that I am older (much older) I realize what a trick it is to plant a display garden. It is more than choosing the right colors for your picture — it also involves finding flowers that are the right height in comparison to one another and also bloom at the same time. It must take a lot of planning.

The Dutch are very good at this.


162 posted on 09/11/2010 8:52:21 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic (Southeast Wisconsin, Zone 4 to 5)
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To: wita

I am going to try carrying some tomatoes and peppers through the winter, along with lettuce and spinach. I just don’t know yet what is possible. I just started this last winter and used it to get a jump on the season with seedlings. I did have flowers on everything and one tiny tomato before it was warm enough to transplant to the garden.

This was such an odd year here for gardening. Frost is hitting part of my garden but not others. I’ve got potatoes dying down and potatoes just starting to bloom. Tomatoes are covered with blossoms but just barely starting to ripen. Green beans still blossoming but the zucchini and yellow squash haven’t produced much at all. I started digging potatoes this morning and found three hills so far with scab. And voles this year - I have never had those before.

I guess that’s why there aren’t many gardens around here. I told hubby what I needed was a 30’ by 60’ greenhouse :) Along with me, all my vegetables are confused also.


163 posted on 09/11/2010 9:44:24 AM PDT by Duchess47 ("One day I will leave this world and dream myself to Reality" Crazy Horse)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

I really appreciate displays like that. I don’t have the knowledge or talent to do something like it but I really enjoy them. I just retired this year - maybe if I can figure out vegetable gardening in my area, I’ll give that a try.


164 posted on 09/11/2010 9:50:12 AM PDT by Duchess47 ("One day I will leave this world and dream myself to Reality" Crazy Horse)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

The flower display is beautiful and the whole area is neat and well kept...


165 posted on 09/11/2010 10:41:12 AM PDT by tubebender (Life is short so drink the good wine first...)
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To: tubebender

Do you remember Roeding Park in Fresno? The gardeners always did seasonal flower displays at the entrance. I don’t know if they still do that; it’s highly unlikely with water shortages and all.


166 posted on 09/11/2010 10:55:25 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic (Southeast Wisconsin, Zone 4 to 5)
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To: Duchess47
I’ve got potatoes dying down and potatoes just starting to bloom.

One of my pots of potatoes never did bloom, but I got lots of potatoes anyway. Or, perhaps the "bloom" was so small and insignificant that I didn't recognize it -- you know, green flowers that look like leaves. LOL

167 posted on 09/11/2010 11:00:41 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic (Southeast Wisconsin, Zone 4 to 5)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
We spent many days at the Park and Zoo but I don't remember the flower gardens. I will ask my "little" sister what she remembers.

My wife and I may attend this Event this afternoon.

168 posted on 09/11/2010 11:05:46 AM PDT by tubebender (Life is short so drink the good wine first...)
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To: tubebender
The flower display is beautiful and the whole area is neat and well kept...

If you are talking about #152, note the grass around the circle. A nursery owner and landscaape expert told me to do that with my circle rose garden, but we finished it too late to start grass. THe snow fell the day after we put on the final touches. Over the winder, we decided to plant low growing juniper instead so it would never have to be mowed. It's taking quite a while, however, to get it established and starting to grow together to cover the bare ground. In the mean time it is a real weeding problem in the bare spots. I had 3 junipers die over the winter of 2008-2009. I replaced them, and 2 of the replacements died during the winter 2009-2010. I'm not going to bother replacing them.

I found that the winter savory up in the rose bed is prolific and is self seeding down where the junipers are supposed to be. I think I'm just going to let that go to fill in the spaces. It's pretty and doesn't grow much higher than the juniper and it keeps the weeds down. The winter savory will turn brown under the snow, but it greens up right away as soon as the snow recedes.

All this long story is just to say that I should have listened to the nursery/landscaper and put in grass. LOL.

169 posted on 09/11/2010 11:11:29 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic (Southeast Wisconsin, Zone 4 to 5)
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To: tubebender
Now don't sip too much, or you may smash your blueberry thief's new Buick!

The Roeding Park plantings were right at the entrance at the main gate (Olive Ave? or Belmont?). They used to spell out words like "Welcome", or "Roeding Park", or "Fresno".

I'm looking for a picture, but I cannot find one. This one says "entrance" but I remember that arbored walkway as being way inside the park -- certainly not at the car gate.


170 posted on 09/11/2010 11:21:29 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic (Southeast Wisconsin, Zone 4 to 5)
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To: Duchess47
my brussel sprouts are still small.....I hope we have enough time for them to grow bigger....this is the first year I've planted them...for sil who has since moved away with my dtr.....so I don't know what to expect.....

but what an impressive plant....that and kolhrabi are beautiful plants...

171 posted on 09/11/2010 11:29:28 AM PDT by cherry
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Comment #172 Removed by Moderator

To: tubebender

This was my favorite spot. My uncle and his friends caught a mallard duck on the roof of the high school and brought him home. It was my favorite duck when I was 2-3. (My grandmother baby-sat me frequently during those years.) My uncle joined the Navy just in time to be stationed at Pearl Harbor for the big event, and my grandmother made him take the duck to Roeding Park and let it go. I was along for the release, and my aunt swears that I said, "He turned around and looked at me to say goodbye" when they let him go. I don't really remember that, but there are movies of me with the ducks and for many years after that I'd beg to go to the duck pond to find "my" duck! Never did find him. :(

173 posted on 09/11/2010 11:29:43 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic (Southeast Wisconsin, Zone 4 to 5)
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To: cherry

Mine are still small too. About half the size they were last year at this time. This year is the first time I got out and took off the leaves below the sprouts. I don’t know if that is part of the reason or not.


174 posted on 09/11/2010 11:35:25 AM PDT by Duchess47 ("One day I will leave this world and dream myself to Reality" Crazy Horse)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
I've done lazy tomato canning/freezing before...actually, tomato freezes well in sturdy freezer bags..

what I did that was lazy was to just put a whole lot of tomatoes in a big pot and let them cook down...eventually, the peels are loose and after the sauce gets to a consistancy that you like, you can run it thru a food mill( as I call it an "applesaucer") and then return it to the pot for further cooking....of course, the longer you cook it down, the thicker the sauce....

175 posted on 09/11/2010 11:39:13 AM PDT by cherry
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To: tubebender

Re: #170 The reason the pergola is in the middle of the park (and this old postcard identifies it as the entrance) is because that is where the streetcar stopped to unload passengers.

Of course, the streetcar was removed and the rails shipped to Japan to be made into planes and bullets to attack us before I was born. (I hope all the Islamist apologists are reading this.) So, I only knew the automobile entrance, which was opened later. As I remember, there was a large bank of earth built up right where either Olive Ave., or Belmont Ave. ended — right in the middle of the road. THen the road swerved either to the left, or the right, and entered the park. The gardeners planted a display of flowers about 3 times a year to form a picture, or a welcome message of some sort at the entrance. Then, they’d rip out all the flowers, till the earth, and start over. It was fun to guess what the next picture was going to be before the plants got big enough to reveal the plan.

From what I can see from the website, that is all gone. Probably fell to vandalism, or water or labor shortages. I’m guessing the the displays that I remember from my youth were orchestrated by one man, and they discontinued the practice after he retired, or died.

Reading the website, I found that there once was a beautiful Japanese Teahouse in the park, but it was vandalized after Pearl Harbor and the whole thing torn down. I do not remember it at all, and I remember going to the park and to the zoo from age 3. Wiped from the face of the earth. (Islamist apologists, read THAT!)

Also, the Millerton Blockhouse has been removed. The Blockhouse was moved from Friant when the dam was built. I think it had been part of the old Fort at Millerton. I remember playing there when I was a kid. And the Sherman Tank has been removed too. The website says that they have been “moved”, but they don’t mention where.

They are all so PC now!


176 posted on 09/11/2010 12:01:38 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic (Southeast Wisconsin, Zone 4 to 5)
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To: tubebender
A week or two ago, you posted some pics of a local market. Today we went to a large market that was really good, and they also had Produce Row, where small vendors had their stuff. The Produce Row in pictures:

Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket pictures by Mrs.r_d

177 posted on 09/11/2010 12:39:11 PM PDT by rightly_dividing
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To: rightly_dividing

What state is the market in? They have bananas and cactus :)


178 posted on 09/11/2010 12:52:36 PM PDT by Duchess47 ("One day I will leave this world and dream myself to Reality" Crazy Horse)
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To: rightly_dividing

Those are just FReepin awesome RD! I will never post another photo of our wimpy markets here...


179 posted on 09/11/2010 12:56:54 PM PDT by tubebender (Life is short so drink the good wine first...)
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To: Duchess47

It is in Houston Tx. We just found this from an internet search for markets near Houston. We have observed cactus for sale in several markets here...... and several other things that we cannot identify.


180 posted on 09/11/2010 2:01:45 PM PDT by rightly_dividing
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