Posted on 09/30/2011 5:02:33 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners. Fall is in the air here in East Central Mississippi on this last day of September. It has been beautiful weather for cleaning up outside and taking care of the yard. Our daytime temperatures have been in the 70s with an occasional bump up into the 80s and the overnight lows are ranging from the 40s to the 60s. While I am waiting for Spring to arrive I will be occupied by continuing to hone my skills at home brewing.
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 Summer gardens did well this year and your Fall gardens prosper.
Well, I think the old saying is that your wife is “sweet” and the skeeters know it. I am afraid that you have a bit more vinegar to you. LOL!!! What is so weird about these mosquitos is they are out in the sunlight and during the day. You can actually see small swarms of them.
The Eastern Shore part of the state has beautiful Purple Martin “houses”. I don’t know if I have ever seen them in my region. However, I am now wondering if it is the type of thing where “if you build it, they will come?” I am more than willing to erect one of those houses in the front and backyard. Heck... I’d put them in the side yards, too.
Been getting some nice salad out of the fall greens plot and have the best crop of beets I’ve ever had. No freeze yet so still getting cukes and tomato to put on the salad, and a few canteloupes still out there that I hope will be ready mid-October weather permitting.
Got my overwinter greens planted and they should be coming up soon. Other than that it’s prettty much letting things go a 2 or 3 more weeks then I’m going to start putting the garden to bed for the winter.
That may make even more sense...I am a cranky sourpuss, and drinking my blood might be akin to a skeeter tapping into one of those plastic lemons at the grocery store...yuk!
Okay... you just made me feel a whole lot better! Snakes are horrifying to me! I am talking about run around screaming your head off terrifying. I hope the “Snake Away” works for you. I love your area! However, I think I would be one of those crazy ladies in the neighborhood walking around with thick boots on and carrying all the time right now!!! Good luck to you and please be careful!
LOL!! Mosquitos use to leave my Dad completely alone and swarm my Mom. It used to bother her, too. Finally, Dad said that having a beer (or two) was what kept them away. Mom didn’t drink but I think it was Dad’s way of having a beer and making my Mom think it was “natural mosquito repellent”. LOL!
South FL UPDATE: New Garden Pics
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You don't say? Hmmmm...
By the way, Red...how’s that “mosquito repellent” coming along? :-)
Thanks for the pics. That’s some fence you have. Otta keep the deer out.
I think garden should be fun besides productive and theraputic. Here are some pictures of my fun garden.
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/580822259BmprZp
We’ve had wolves locally. Not quite where I live but getting closer. Recently a pack of them attacked and killed one local hunters three hunting dogs and just today I read of another article about one poised to attack a bow hunter. She felled it with 4 shots from a .44 Magnum.
Thanx, hon - it really was heart-stopping because just a minute before, they weren’t there! Then they were less than two feet away and if I hadn’t seen them when I did....eeek!
I live on 3.25 acres with a run-off on one side of the property and a stream at the back, pretty far away. I never go into the woods in warm weather and always wear thick jeans and boots when I do. This is the first time in 6 yrs we’ve seen copper heads - black snakes, yes, and they’re more afraid of you - but copper heads (as a kind freeper told me) just “freeze” so you don’t know if they’re going to strike or what...creepy. Alongwith “Snake Away”, I’m getting a shot gun - an axe handle length away from a copper head is too close - better to blow them away!
I agree with that. Same goes for gore bull warming. Here is a slide show of the Texas drought. Slides advance automatically.
I had a problem with some vermin digging up the dead fish I put under the hills in the garden. They are no longer with us... My dog tells me when they are out there and I shoot them.. Hard to shoot a gun at night with a scope..
It is going great! I have had a couple of the first one I brewed up and bottled. The Canadian Blonde. I now know what a green beer tastes like! LOL. They get much better after aging in the bottles for a month or more. My Irish stout still has about another week in it’s second stage fermenter before bottling. And I have a Cream Ale that is one week into it’s first fermentation. Next up is a Belgian Trappist Ale after the Cream Ale. Then I am going to brew up a Taddy Porter Ale. Life is good!
Patience is a virtue. Oh, well...it is clear that your winter will be much more enjoyable than ours...
Yes it is! I remember well that we didn’t see that many until everybody started putting up Martin houses. Then they were everywhere. Do some research though. Martins a picky on where they will live. They like Condos high in the air. They are fun to watch also.
How do you do that? What do you mean by "cover"? How much snow do you get; for how long?
I have barn swallows which are just as good as purple martins. In fact, the fact that I have barn swallows may be the very reason that the purple martins refuse to colonize here.
My research indicates that purple martins require a clean, apartment style bird house, or a series of hollow gourds hung on a pole. The bird house is mounted on a sliding pole that can be raised and lowered. The bird house has removable floors so that it can be cleaned out each winter. You should take the bird house down over the winter, or (at least) remove the floors in the compartments. Then, you have to watch for the "scout" martin in the spring. You immediately hoist the clean bird house up a pole (with the floors re-installed) and hope the "scout" bird spots it. He will then bring the rest of the flock back to move in. The trick is to get the martins in before sparrows move in. The two species will not live together.
I can't vouch for these instructions because they never worked for me. In contrast, you only have to leave your barn door open, or a window, to attract barn swallows; and supply open space to fly and a lot of insects for them to catch. They leave in the fall as quickly as they appeared in the spring. That's why barn swallows are easier!
Martins do want a water source but what we and others did was put out stock tanks filled with water or large bird baths. They don’t need a lake or a river just a source of water and it should be large enough for the number of birds. Several bird baths also worked. I know the town where I grew up and this was started had no body of water for many miles.
Yeah, they said the same thing about California’s drought in 1976-77.
“it’ll take years to fill the reservoirs”, they said
El Nino kicked in and the reservoirs were releasing excess water in 6 weeks.
If they tell you decades of drought...prepare for a flood.
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