Posted on 09/13/2013 1:04:36 PM PDT by greeneyes
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.
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There are hose repair brass parts in my outside storage room and there are gaskets. My husband had all those type things. I suppose if I had to, I could deal with a repair. However, this plastic hose and fittings are all plastic and nothing is going to save this pitiful hose - it's going in the trash as soon as the good hose and sprayer gets here.
When I get the new Craftsman hose, I'll check to see if it says don't drink the water. I have seen hoses in stores that say in big letters on the package that it's safe for drinking.
Spent 2 weeks cleaning out the barn after we had our dear last dairy goat Mira put down at the vet. Barn has a concrete floor and drain and I spent 2 weeks doing each of the 4 sections of slabs scrubbing and then painting with 3 coats of Behr’s Deckover (a great product for wood decks or concrete). Just finished on Friday and yhe barn in quiet and clean andwhat do I see about an hour ago? A big fat female groundgog in Mira’s old outside pen nosing around. That’s all I need is her tunnelling under the concrete. So I got out our .22 and (with a scope) got her at about 120 feet. The n I took out a nice mac n cheese casserole out of the oven. All in all a good morning. Canned a half bushel of tomatoes yesterday.
Thanks RD. We stopped buying the 50# bags of birdseed at Costco as Lady Bender and I are too damm old to get on in the cart and then into the pickup. Have you tried Nyger (Niger) (thistle) in net bags for the finches?
-The rest of the posters are normal people-
I know you ain’t referring to me.
You are a worker to clean the barn like that and canning that many tomatoes. I haven't bought a water canner yet since I haven't convinced myself I can grow food.
I suppose I could start a list using the gardening thread, of weird/eccentric people and have posters self identify. I'll put you on the weird/eccentric list.
For some reason, there are no destructive critters on my property, and for some reason, they seem to avoid it. ;)
/johnny
She bought some kind of thistle last year, but I don’t know what kind. Since I posted, I drug out my dad’s old birding books, and in the group was a book on Texas birds. I don’t know why he had that because we lived 400mi from Texas, but I’ll take it.
Wife gets the 2-25lb bags for the same reasons, she can’t handle a 50lb bag at the store or at home.
Thank you. I’d hate for anyone to be misled.
Coming soon, pics of hummingbirds.
There are two weird people who post here - one is me and one is JRandomFreeper - Johnny. The rest of the posters are normal people.Ruh-roh... Is "normal" good? :) We, too, have a sizable deck that "literally" wraps around half the house, however, the portion of the deck shown on the image faces north and the sunlight from the eastern exposure is mostly blocked by trees... The western exposure (and some southern, however, it too is blocked in part by trees) is okay, but I wonder if it's enough to succeed with vegetables. Do you have pictures to post of your deck? You are getting me pumped up to start more containers (even if only for flowers)...
What a great picture, thank you...
“For some reason, there are no destructive critters on my property, and for some reason, they seem to avoid it. ;)”
If I were a destructive critter, I wouldn’t go to your place unless I wanted suicide by Johnny.
I had another busy Saturday, but I managed to stop before I worked myself to a migraine this time. There are 2 slow-cookers with spaghetti sauce still cooking down. The tomatoes were waterier than usual and somebody keeps messing with the temperature settings, so it’s taking longer than usual. I’m also having to defend it a lot, that’s getting very annoying!
I did manage to get out to my land, and found that all the plastic sheeting that I’d gotten laid down so far had blown loose on at least 3 sides each. The only corner that didn’t blow loose was the one that had a big rock on it in addition to the landscape staples. So, I took the hint and went rock-picking. Fortunately the hayfield nearby had just been harvested, wand the rocks were all nicely exposed. I found enough to weigh down the 4 sheets that were out there, and even was able to lay down a 5th. More amazingly, I was able to carry those rocks! With my back and shoulder problems, that’s astonishing!
My squash vines were still going, but the stems on the intividual squash were turning brown and drying out, so I picked two and brought them home. The weather keeps swinging a little too close to freezing, and I won’t be able to run out and rescue them if there’s a hard freeze during the week. I also clipped a few chickpea stalks that were turning brown, so they can finish drying inside. I’d rather let them dry in the field, but I’m hedging my bets right now, just in case.
It’s raining right now, so I get to do indoor stuff. Studying, canning, and seed sorting. Not all at the same time.
I don’t have a picture. I do have a new digital camera and haven’t read the directions yet. My son, a director of documentary film, will be here around Oct. 1 and I’ll hand the camera to him so he can tell me how to deal with it.
Instructions on most anything these days is so small you can’t read it and the letters on these directions are in light gray colored print. Good luck with reading that. I decided not to deal with it until he comes. Then, I can take pictures and put them on here. I’m not big on taking pictures or being in them but gardening pictures are different as they have a purpose.
My deck is a large square and sits only about 6-7 inches off the ground. Son and I will get it organized as right now it’s just a mass of containers in no order.
The best reasons, for me at least, to use container gardening is, I can move the containers around so I can put them in the shade, thereby they are not fried by this Texas sun all day, and I can keep an eye on them easier to keep the squirrels from eating them, plus they are in potting soil mix that has no killer insects in it. My Yorkie is also good to know if a squirrel is anywhere on the deck - she knows it even though she is inside - she rushes to the door barking like a killer Rottweiler.
I finally got a handle on growing here when I went to containers and the inside grow lamp on a stand. I tried planting seeds in the garden dirt and they were eaten by birds and squirrels. They can’t eat them if I put the seeds in seed starter mix in paper cups and put them under the grow lamp.
So, I would say you will have luck growing anything in containers. My deck is now “The Marcella Food Container Company”. I am “President for Life” of this company. :o)
I can't lift 25 lbs. When I got this last potting soil mix at Lowes, I saw the 25 lb. bags and tried to lift one and couldn't. I have small bones so my wrists are small and not strong and advancing age didn't help - I can't lift a 10 inch iron skillet and keep it level. I had to go to lighter weight skillets and pans.
You have seen me and I'm not large enough to have a lot of strength.
I've always said, “Men are good for lifting heavy objects and killing spiders.”
“The rest of the posters are normal people.” “Hey! I resent that remark!!!”
Do you want to be added to the “Weird/eccentric list?” So far, the list is Johnny, me, and rightly_dividing. :o)
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