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Weekly Gardening Thread – 2011 (Vol. 27) July 15
Free Republic | 07-15-2011 | Red_Devil 232

Posted on 07/15/2011 5:13:42 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232

Good morning gardeners. It has been another week of hot humid weather. My little garden got its small share of a 60% chance of rain yesterday afternoon. A nice pop up T-storm spent about half an hour dropping a nice steady rain on my garden. There is a 70% chance of rain today. If the percentage for rain is not above 50 the pop up T-storms seem to pass me by. I did get to harvest about a dozen ripe tomatoes this past week but they are on the small side. My replacement paste tomato plants are coming along just fine so far. I will leave them to develop in their 5 inch peat pots for a couple of more weeks before setting them out in the garden.

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.

I hope all your gardens are flourishing.


TOPICS: Agriculture; Food; Gardening; Hobbies
KEYWORDS: garden; gardening; recipes; weekly
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To: Red_Devil 232

$3,770 each? Good thing those Buck Boards only need 2 of the them


321 posted on 07/19/2011 8:35:43 PM PDT by tubebender (The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some very good ideas)
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To: tubebender

Yeah, and they don’t need a tire.


322 posted on 07/19/2011 8:47:29 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
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To: tubebender

Yep! Hang up the hat and put the pipe down, Dude!


323 posted on 07/19/2011 8:51:30 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
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To: Red_Devil 232

Meanwhile back in the garden... I dug some taters, cut a head of lettuce and put together some garlic and took it over to our daughter’s MiL this afternoon. She has a heavy duty sewing machine and does some alterations for us. We gave her a gallon of raspberries 2 weeks ago and she made a pancake syrup and gave us back 6 ounces of it.


324 posted on 07/19/2011 8:55:38 PM PDT by tubebender (The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some very good ideas)
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To: tubebender

I pulled all my winter squash plants out of the garden today except for two Honey Bear Acorns - I have some seedlings started to replace them later this summer.


325 posted on 07/19/2011 9:19:16 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
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To: tubebender

Not a friendly neighbor. I’ve only heard rumors of the car collection. He turned a horse barn into an auto barn — not a popular thing to do in this neighborhood. We know the contractor who lost the bid to do the remodeling and extension. The previous owner of our property almost didn’t sell it to us because she didn’t trust us because we didn’t have (and weren’t going to have) horses. Of course, she was a bit of a nut.

The interesting thing is that none of the fire department members who blocked my road and staked out a fire perimeter would even talk about how the fire started. It turned out that (from the newspaper) he had a burn permit that got out of hand. It was such a windy day that I cannot imagine the city giving him a burn permit. I think somebody was doing a little CYA. No charges were brought, as far as I know.


326 posted on 07/20/2011 5:26:16 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: Red_Devil 232; rightly_dividing; tubebender

Those wheels remind me of ancient charioteers where the bad guys attached knives sticking out from the wheel hubs and sliced the legs of horses as they galloped by. Brrrrrrr.


327 posted on 07/20/2011 5:32:37 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: Red_Devil 232

Almost. The rabbits are not there yet this morning, but I bet they come back. It’s strange they do not seem interested in the Sweet Potato vines at all, but they are VERY interested in the gazanias.


328 posted on 07/20/2011 5:35:33 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: Red_Devil 232

A lot of those 24” wheels on da brothas rides are rented. The are places in Mobile and elsehwere that rent them by the week, and I know they have rent-a-shops eslewhwere, I would guess Jackson Ms. may have them, Memphis for sure. After moving I spent a lot of time on Craigs List looking for wooodworking tools. CL is a huge deal in Houston, many thousands of add each day. Looking through the Misc or Auto, I learned to speak a new auto language. Da Brothas take a large car, Caddys or 70’s large Buicks or Olds, called slabs, the lower them with air bag suspension or hydraulics and they are bagged, add Swangas(Elbows or Pokes)and you are starting to get somewhere. You have a “78 Olds slab, bagged, and Swangas” I forget the terms for custom paint and interior and sounds. But, you get the idea. Thats all mostly a Houston style, I have only seen one slab up here, 40 miles north, and I think he was lost.


329 posted on 07/20/2011 6:05:19 AM PDT by rightly_dividing
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To: afraidfortherepublic
I am very surprised that cities have not made those illegal, for the reason you mentioned.
330 posted on 07/20/2011 6:09:49 AM PDT by rightly_dividing
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To: rightly_dividing

Well, it was hot and dry that day with high winds. Either this neighbor had no permit but has a lot of influence at city hal, or the fire department issued a permit in error.

People in my part of town (all 5 acre lots, or larger — much, much larger) can get a burn permit after their burn area is inspected by the fire marshall. It must be a certain number of feet from any building and in an open area (away from trees and other brush). Ours is a cleared area out back in a field and is ringed with granite cobble stones. The grass around the cobbles is kept mowed very short. We watch the fire with a tank of water on hand to suppress any flame that threatens to jump out of the ring (about 15 ft. in dia.). Some people have burn barrels, instead.

But, this guy decided to burn his FIELD, and it got out of control. Like I said, either he has influence at City Hall, or City Hall made a big mistake. Lots of CYA going on.


331 posted on 07/20/2011 6:24:56 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: rightly_dividing

LOLOLOL!


332 posted on 07/20/2011 6:26:54 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: rightly_dividing

http://www.ovenall.com/moblog/images/010712_B.jpg

http://media.youdrivewhat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/funny_Car_318.jpg


333 posted on 07/20/2011 6:29:54 AM PDT by rightly_dividing
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To: don-o; Mrs. Don-o
I('m just posting this so you can see what I've been battling, and so that I'll have it here on FR as a ready reference:

English Ivy

Boston Ivy

Virginia Creeper

and...

POISON IVY!!

As in... "Leaves of Three, Leave it Be!"

334 posted on 07/20/2011 7:17:15 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (One man's poison ivy is another man's spinach.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
I didn't see your original plea for suggestions, but as I was reading it and, before I read what you chose, I was thinking "she needs some sweet potato vines for that". LOL!

What I would have done with that pot (and I have admired that kind for awhile now), is make a ramp with some soil, so that I had about 12 inches in height and some sloped-off width, and placed the pot so that it didn't appear to be all of the way fallen over. Then I would have done a mixture of coleus and sweet potato vines in both the pot and covering the ramp, to where it would have appeared that the plants escaped and rooted once it 'tipped over by accident'.

There are some sweet potato plants that are green leaves with a deep burgandy edge, and they look so great with sun coleus. You can accent with a light green sweet potato vine in a spot or two.

I've been meaning to comment on your latest garden photos, which are absolutely gorgeous. We've been picking peas and shelling them to sell, and I'm working 18 hour days trying to keep up with those, as well as my garden and my other chores. I still need to can a bunch of things. Whew!

Keep that great garden going! I'm jealous!

335 posted on 07/20/2011 7:22:54 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde (Don't wish doom on your enemies. Plan it.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Okay, I have that Virginia Creeper stuff everywhere and do my best to stay away from it ... does it make skin itch?


336 posted on 07/20/2011 7:25:32 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde (Don't wish doom on your enemies. Plan it.)
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To: JustaDumbBlonde
No, I don't think Virginia Creeper makes the skin itch. The berries have oxalic acid, so would give you a belly-ache if you ate a bunch ...but most people wouldn't be tempted, and the birds eat them happily and readily. And poop out the seeds, which I think is one reason why it spreads so much. I'm trying to get rid of The Creeper because it's covering walls and utility poles and is threatening to take down our telephone and electrical wires.

And it's actually mixed in with the Poison Ivy, which makes pulling hazardous. In the Fall when it gets cooler, I'm going to hit the biggest clumps with Round-Up. And after it visibly dies down, I'll send out #2 Son dressed in long sleeves and pants, and gloves, to pull and tear away.

337 posted on 07/20/2011 7:51:50 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Gardeners abhor a vacuum.)
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To: JustaDumbBlonde

I am so pleased with your reply because I considered coleus but didn’t see anything for sale so late in the season, unless it was already included in a mixed planting (which I didn’t want to take apart to replant).

I’m glad to hear that Sweet Potato is a good choice. I haven’t walked all the way out back to check on this pot (and I did do the “banked soil spilling out” treatment) this Am, but the rabbits have already been out there. I’m going to have to re-train the dog to chase them. I’ve spent 9 years telling him not to chase the rabbits. Re-training will blow his sweet little mind. LOL

Maybe next year will just be 2 , or 3, colors of sweet potato. I love those vines (they are a little hardier here than coleus). I was so shocked to find a big old potato in the pot one year when I used them in mixed plantings. I was afraid to eat it because I’d used a lot of fertilizer that wasn’t “food grade”.

How is thhe cotton going? I read that the Texas crop is pretty well ruined this year.


338 posted on 07/20/2011 7:51:51 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Gee. Do you have something against #2 son? Obviously #1 is #1. LOL


339 posted on 07/20/2011 7:53:38 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Thanks for the reminder and the great pictures. We had the electric company out here a month ago because of sporadic outages. They informed me that 1) squirrels had built a nest at ground level and chewed up the lines where they go underground and 2) we had poison ivy growing on our pole. I’ve never seen it around here, but I’m going to be careful.


340 posted on 07/20/2011 7:57:55 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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