Posted on 11/12/2010 5:10:16 AM PST by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners. Hope all of you and your winter gardens are doing well. Nothing but perfect Autumn weather here in Mississippi. We may be getting some needed rain the first part of this coming week.
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.
Yep, definitely a good link, and a welcome tool to use.
Those solar landscaping lights are sort of disposable. Many do not last more than 1 season. I started out with 36 and about 1/3 of them failed over the winter. There is no way to replace the batteries in the ones I had. In fact I haven’t seen any with replaceable batteries.
After the first season (where I took them in for the winter) I moved them to a new place, and another 1/3 died the 2nd year. They found a new home the 3rd year, and more died. I won’t buy them again.
My daughter worked for Baylor University Maintenance Dept one summer while she was attending summer school. She dragged in a sickly houseplant one day and asked the head gardener what to do with it.
“Give it a Christian burial.” he quipped.
OH dear, I hope this isn’t true for mine.
My batteries are replaceable..
Think I will winter them in for sure after reading your post
we have one more day of good weather tomorrow.. LOTS to do in yard.
My husband has one about 2/3 that size on his office wall, caught in Lake Michigan. We gots fish in WI too.
Thanks, I should clarify that I use fresh from the bag, dry cat litter in the garbage can to keep the chicken manure dessicated. It has not been used by the cat, and if it had it would not be suitable for the pile.
A lot of the nitrogen in chicken manure is in the form of uric acid which breaks down and oxidizes off as ammonia. By keeping it dry it preserves the potency of the nitrogen which is why it heats up the pile so fast.
It was chilly outside this morning, and all six chooks were sitting in the pile with steam coming up around them all...
Bite your tongue, Diana, or pinch your typing fingers. I don't need to hear that.
BTW, am I allowed to brag that my Congressional District (WI 5) had the highest voter turnout in the entire country?
Oh I’m sure they had those Red but they would be plastic. I was at Tuesday Morning and just 75’ away is a Dollar store. Please be careful with that radiator hose as you can break the lower water outlet if it is plastic...
I save the wood ashes out of my stove all winter long in a metal ash can. It allows for hot ashes to cool down safely, and yes I keep it on the stone patio away from flammables. We burn about 3 cords of wood over the heating season, so by springtime the can is full.
Since wood ashes work almost as well as lime for adjusting ph, I cut them into the pile in the Spring as needed. I usually get a good mix of maple and oak leaves and both are quite acidic.
Another thing I have done in spring is buy a large bale of vermiculite from Home Depot, and mix that into the compost as I remove it from the pile. It really helps to lighten the compost, and keep moisture in the soil.
I’ve seen these packages at Home Depot for a compressed coconut fiber material that is supposed to hold water even better than peatmoss. The block is about a foot square and the package says it expands to several times that volume with water.
Anyone had any experience with this stuff??
I’m considering mixing some of that into the compost next spring too. I am building new raised beds over the winter and will need plenty of compost to fill everything. Luckily, the chickens will oblige me with plenty of material....
The chlorine won’t hurt your plants, but water that comes through your water softener can because of the salt, especially, container plants.
Depending on how your house is plumbed, check to see if you have an outside spicket that bypasses the softener.
Of course! That’s really something to brag about. You guys probably saved the state, LOL! :)
No snow so far...but I just walked the dogs and it’s pretty chilly and windy. Brrrr!
Better buy myself a new snow shovel this week!
We have a older dormant potted Amaryllis and wonder if we should repot it and if so, how?
>>Are there there any little squash
>>visible between the vine and the blossom?
Yes, on some there are. I figured that was the result of pollination before moving the plant indoors. But hmmm...
>>you need to hand pollinate that blossom with a male
Heh. Didn’t even know there were male/female squash blossoms. Time to go to squash school evidently ;-}
Thanks!
Well, I registered 137 of those voters. It was a long, long day. 6:30 AM to 12:30 AM Nov. 3, and we still didn’t balance. Most people were nice, but there were a few....
Shut your mouth..!
That's where little squashes come from... :-)
Regular potting soil (Fertilome, not the Miracle Gro stuff -that’s too heavy..)
A heavy pot (to keep it from tipping over) that allows for an inch or so on all sides of the bulb.
Pot it up so about 1-2” of the bulb is above the dirt.
Water, put in sunny window (south or west exposure.) No need to fertilize. If the bulb is healthy, it has eveything it needs right inside of it. Have a stake ready in case you need to prop it up a bit. If it’s getting enough light, it won’t be spindly or droopy and won’t require staking.
Wait...and say a prayer if you’re so inclined, LOL! :)
Amarylis will generally re-bloom if it has had enough down-time. If the bulb is really old, you may just get leaves and no bloom. It’s always a cr@p shoot.
Shameless plug for one of the catalog companies we own. I’m also selling a good variety of Amarylis in my store right now, so y’all come!
http://www.mzbulbfall.com/sp.asp?c=105
My faves are: ‘Elvas’, ‘Rilona’ and anything RED! :)
Crabby 0bama voters...knowing they were going DOWN!
Listen, You!
I’m finding my life goes along MUCH more smoothly if I just face REALITY when it’s smacking me upside the head, LOL!
(Read my new tag line...)
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