Weekly Gardening Thread (Happy Easter!) Vol. 14, April 6, 2012

Friday, April 6, 2012 | JustaDumbBlonde

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Good morning, FRiends and fellow gardeners! The weather has cooled-down a bit, the sun is shining and my grandgirls have been here all week. I am one happy blonde today.

It rained again 2 and 3 days ago, so I haven't even disked up the garden spot yet, but that will get done Monday.

All of the fruit trees and bushes that I've planted are doing very well and the regular rains have been perfect to keep them moist and off to a great start! Some of the raspberries that I planted were established plants, and some were bare-root canes. Many of the canes have come alive with new growth, and the others are showing buds this morning.

A visit to the apiary this morning showed a good buildup of comb and honey stores. They say that the Spring following a drought will yield little honey flow, and half of my hives are going along with that. The other half is building comb and producing honey like crazy, so I don't know what to think.

For those of you traveling for the weekend, I wish you a safe trip! And I wish each and every one of you a blessed Easter. Enjoy!

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.

This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.

It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread ... there is no telling where it will go and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!

[ApplegateRanch]

Cocozelle, AKA Italian Marrow Squash, is very similar to zukes, and may be what zukes were developed from; or may be a variety of zuke.

1. a squash plant having a dark green fruit with skin mottled with light green or yellow. 2. a squash resembling zucchini.

Normal picking sized zuke in back; approximately 'equally young' cocozelle in front...not my photo/squash.

Look what happened to my heirloom squash! They're enormous (biggest my husband and I have ever seen) and I finally harvested them. Organic cocozelle taste similar to zucchini but a little sweeter. You can purchase seeds from Botanical Interests. I donated the largest squash to our church food ministry because we have plenty, what will we do with them? (:

That gal, whoever she is, is holding mature cocozelle about the size of the ones that I grew in Southern California using rabbit manure compost that I mentioned earlier. Those bushes got to be over 4' high & 5'-6' across, with enormous leaves that made it easy to miss picking some until they were big enough to use as a canoe. Shucks; there were times those plants made my wife disappear while picking under them.

[rightly_dividing]

I found a crummy phone picture of a few of the items that I saw somewhere around here. It does not do justice to their watermellon size or their squash looks!. Some look like 20lbs or more! A family feeder for sure.

[SunkenCiv]

I’ve got some seeds started indoors, and the easy stuff (crookneck squash) is up. By this time next week I’ll probably be killing a giant in the clouds, wait, that’s wrong...

[Darth Reardon]

Those purple things are not cabbages?

[rightly_dividing]

My guess is that they are cabbages. Theese are old pictures and not very good ones from a cheapie phone. We have found many things at the markets in Texas that we have no idea of what they are, like these root crops

or most of the stuff in this photos, other than the cactus leaf and pineapple

The cactus leaf can be purchased prepared; that is skinned of the pricks and diced up ready to cook.

[tillacum]

Red, here is some information, please pass it on to other vets who may not have gotten the word. For those of us shopping at Lowes and other stores which give vet discounts, this helps.

Veteran Driver License:

The Dept of Public Safety shall include the designation “Veteran” on the face of any class or type of Texas driver license issued to a Veteran.

To be elegible for the Veteran designation to be placed on their driver license, the Veteran must present a DD-214 or DD215 (corrected copy of DD-214) signifying they received an honorable discharge or general (under honorable conditons) from the branch of service in which the person served.
The website: htt-://www.tvc.state.tx.us/latest-news/entry/information-from-the-department-of-public-safety-regarding-the-veteran-driv

If one likes, there are specialty license plates. You can support your service by displaying military or veteran plates. Same rule applies, as above. The website is:
http://www.txdmv.gov/vehicles/license plates/qualifying/military.htm

Or one can call the Waco district office: 254-772-6225 - Shelly
The Granbury district office: 817-573-9622 - Taylor

[tubebender]

I set some type of new record this month when I got 99% gemination of my Sugar Snap peas that I started in the foam Speeding trays plus Lady Bender got 94.3% of her dwarf Snoo-Peas in cells. Now if the blast rain would stop we could transplant them...

[Red_Devil 232]

Thank you very much for that info. I knew about the special Tags but not about the Veterans designation available for the Tx DL. I wonder how many other States do this?