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WEEKLY GARDEN THREAD VOLUME 48 NOVEMBER 29, 2013
11/29/13 | greeneyes

Posted on 11/29/2013 3:57:22 PM PST 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. 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!

NOTE: This is a once a week ping list. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest are welcomed, so feel free to post them at any time.


TOPICS: Gardening
KEYWORDS: agriculture; food; gardening; hobby
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To: greeneyes

Nichols has them 10% off if you call and give the code ‘elephant’. They still have them now too. If your ground isn’t frozen you could put some out. Or put them in large pots in a garage or somewhere that wouldn’t freeze the pot solid.

They like dry hot weather in the summer. That’s all I had to read about them LOL.


161 posted on 12/02/2013 7:00:56 PM PST by Black Agnes
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To: rightly_dividing
I do have some meds that I have to take now, but I have a backup plan. For high blood pressure, there's several herbs and teas, but also the best to bring it down quickly is beet root juice. So I have to learn to grow those beets for plan c. I also have a book all about bringing it down using diet. Didn't work that great IMHO. LOL

I am doing research on a backup for the cpap machine, and that's a bit expensive, but doable, so I have started saving for it. Plan C is is to use the bed wedge to sleep. I actually had a chance to try that out for 5 days, when my machine accidentally didn't get loaded last summer. Wasn't Ideal, but still worked pretty well.

162 posted on 12/02/2013 7:03:34 PM PST by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: Black Agnes

Thanks for the heads up. I am basically going to have to curtail my purchases for a while. I want to buy a bunch of clothes for my grand daughter’s family and other necessities to replace some of the more critical items, since they lost every thing in the fire.


163 posted on 12/02/2013 7:06:21 PM PST by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: greeneyes

Oh no! That’s terrible!


164 posted on 12/02/2013 7:10:16 PM PST by Black Agnes
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To: greeneyes

I wish that I could get by with herbs and teas and other home remedies. It would save us about $250mo after the insurance card gets soaked, and we use generics as much as we can. So far, we can pay it because we dont get out much and dont use CC’s, no car payments, or anything other than just day to day livin.


165 posted on 12/02/2013 7:20:47 PM PST by rightly_dividing (Phil. 4:13)
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To: rightly_dividing
Well they don't work as well as the meds, but at least it's a plan. I always ask for generic. In 2008, I overhauled my diet and started an exercises program. I was down to just one pill, and hoping to get off medication entirely.

Then along came other stuff, so I need to start over on the exercises, but I have to take it slow and not overdo it.

166 posted on 12/02/2013 7:36:44 PM PST by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: Black Agnes

It’s not a good thing, but we are so fortunate. All the kids got out without any harm. So we thank God for the good fortune that preserved their lives.


167 posted on 12/02/2013 7:38:13 PM PST by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: greeneyes; JRandomFreeper; rightly_dividing; sockmonkey; Nepeta; Silentgypsy; ApplegateRanch; ...
greeneyes said: “I do have some meds that I have to take now, but I have a backup plan.” rightly said: “I wish that I could get by with herbs and teas and other home remedies.”

I'm going to write a prepper article about this for Survival Podcast where I write articles. The thrust of the article will be what you need to store, if anything, that is readily available right now but you would be incapacitated without it. Take an inventory to determine if there is something you absolutely cannot do without and still function.

I have extreme dry eyes. I put a drop of Walgreens brand eye ointment in each eye before I go to sleep. If I don't do that, the covering over my cornea will rip when I open my eyes, either one eye or both. The eye cannot be kept open due to the pain. It hurts like hell and you will shut your eye or eyes. The eye has to be closed, a bandage put on it and tape used to provide enough pressure to keep the eye shut. It takes three days for the eye to repair itself. I am useless for three days because there is still pain there.

The eyes work together as a pair and when one eye moves, so does the other. If both eyes are closed, the pain from the torn one is not as noticeable because it doesn't move as long as the other one doesn't move, so you end up with both eyes shut as much as possible for those three days.

A tube of the ointment is over $5 and that is the Walgreens brand, the cheapest one. Liquid drops don't work, it has to be ointment to stay on the eye all night. One tube, and they are very small, will last a month and maybe a month and a half. I keep trying to buy two at a time to try to build up a stock, but I can't seem to get enough of them to last a year. I think I have three extras now and that is not enough. I must remember to get more.

My sister-in-law was here and saw me use mine and she has that problem and has had hers rip before, so now she uses that, too, every night.

If power went out and stores were closed for many months, I could not function without that ointment and right now, those tubes of ointment are just across the street in Walgreens. I'd like to have 12 tubes to know I've got enough and then not use any of those tubes now. That is over $60 but it also means I function or not.

Is there something available to you right now that you absolutely must have in order to function and it doesn't take a prescription to get it?

168 posted on 12/03/2013 8:16:46 AM PST by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
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To: greeneyes; JRandomFreeper; rightly_dividing; sockmonkey; Nepeta; Silentgypsy; ApplegateRanch; ...

CALLING ROSE PEOPLE:

I have two David Austin rose bushes/plants in the dirt ground of the garden that didn’t get killed in the summer of 2011. I have not touched them since then and they were growing totally out of order with long branches here and there. About two days ago, I whacked all of them off with manual hedge clippers.

They are not exactly symmetrical as I just whacked off limbs. It is my understanding they will grow large again in spring.

Do I need to do something to them now? The limbs, rather I should call them stalks, not limbs, are short but I could cut more - should I do that or leave them the way they are now which is about one and a half feet tall. Don’t tell me I killed them as I have a hard time cutting anything off a plant in the first place.

What about rose food? I don’t have any. Should I apply rose food and if so, what and when? I don’t have a bottle sprayer thingy that attaches to a hose so it needs to be something I can mix in a big water/sprinkler jug I have or it needs to be granules to sprinkle around the plant which would be the easiest thing to do.


169 posted on 12/03/2013 11:15:28 AM PST by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
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To: Marcella

Hi Marcella,
I am by no means a rose expert-all of my roses have contracted a terminal virus called “rose rosette virus” so my confidence in rose care has really gotten whacked this year-no pun intended. I went to the davidaustinroses.com website. There is some helpful info there on pruning and fertilizing.
I don’t believe you need to be fertilizing now. It’s better to start that when new growth starts popping out. They say pruning is best done late winter but it is not an exact science. The reason why you don’t prune now is that you don’t want to stimulate growth now and also the plant might have more die back between now and spring that would necessitate you needing to prune even more dead stuff off in spring. I wouldn’t worry about your recent pruning. You are in zone 8? Someplace warm? Shouldn’t be a problem. I certainly wouldn’t worry about it. You can add compost to your roses now. That wouldn’t hurt and compost is good for everything. Hope this helps. At least you aren’t like me-I’ve 9 knockout roses I need to completely dig up and dispose of. Plus about 4 climbers in the back yard. I’m so depressed about it. Trying to figure out what to replace the knockouts with-they were all across the front of our east facing house. I’m thinking of trying azaleas or something.


170 posted on 12/03/2013 11:31:53 AM PST by murrie (Mark Levin: Prosecuting stupidity nightly.)
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To: Marcella
If power went out and stores were closed for many months, I could not function without that ointment and right now, those tubes of ointment are just across the street in Walgreens. I'd like to have 12 tubes to know I've got enough and then not use any of those tubes now. That is over $60 but it also means I function or not.

What ingredients are present in this ointment?
171 posted on 12/03/2013 11:41:09 AM PST by Nepeta
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To: murrie

Talk about depressing: Because I love roses, after much research, I went with David Austin roses due to their resistance to disease. My back garden space was covered with David Austin Roses and the lattice on the back wall was covered with climbing David Austin roses. All these roses were variations of pink.

They were cooked in the 104-107 heat in 2011 and except for these two, they all died. You can imagine how bad I felt, all these roses gone. I pulled them all up as there was nothing else to do.

These two that are still alive were on the left side of the garden and they got a bit of shade during the afternoon so they didn’t burn up.

Thanks for your suggestions. I will copy them so I won’t lose it.


172 posted on 12/03/2013 11:52:37 AM PST by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
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To: Nepeta

“What ingredients are present in this ointment?”

I keep the extras in the fridge so I got a box out and the wording is so tiny I can’t read it. I’ll go to their website and look it up and can get the ingredients there so give me a few minutes to do that.


173 posted on 12/03/2013 11:58:23 AM PST by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
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To: Nepeta
I have thought if worse came to worse, I could put Vaseline in the eyes but that wouldn't be sterile and I don't know if Vaseline would harm the eyes.

On the net now, they are charging $7.99 for a tube and if you buy another it's half price. I am getting them for something over $5 at their store. The other brands are as expensive as they are selling Walgreens for now on their website. I hope their net price is not because they just raised the price in stores, too.

Here are the tube ingredients:

Active Ingredients
Mineral Oil 42.5% , White Petrolatum 57.3%

Inactive Ingredients
Lanolin Alcohols

174 posted on 12/03/2013 12:10:02 PM PST by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
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To: Marcella
Here are the tube ingredients:

Active Ingredients Mineral Oil 42.5% , White Petrolatum 57.3%

Inactive Ingredients Lanolin Alcohols


This is all cheap stuff. Couldn't you use your canning equipment to put together a sterile batch? It's not convenient, but this is something you need, and having an alternative in tough times is a good thing.

I'm trying to think of a good dispenser you could use that could be sterilized the same time as the ointment--a glass syringe comes to mind.
175 posted on 12/03/2013 12:40:56 PM PST by Nepeta
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To: Nepeta

I’ll think on this and see if I can come up with something. Thanks for the suggestion.


176 posted on 12/03/2013 1:19:45 PM PST by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
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To: greeneyes; JRandomFreeper; rightly_dividing; sockmonkey; Nepeta; Silentgypsy; ApplegateRanch; ...
I have several comments based on what I'm doing now.

First, I'm looking on the net for cheap black nursery pots with a circular or square measurement of 14, 15, or 16 inch that keeps that diameter/square to the bottom of the plant. I haven't found any “cheap” ones. I'll keep looking.

Next, I gathered all my planting papers to separate the orders from the planting information I've been collecting:

If you now have planted Egyptian Walking Onions, here is some information to know:
Planting in the Fall: “This is the optimum time to plant these onions. Topsets planted at this time will grow roots and leafstalks only. The leafstalk will die back for the winter. The topset will develop into a small onion bulb in the ground and store enough energy to carry itself through the winter. A leafstalk will reemerge in the spring and the plant will grow throughout the spring and summer to maturity. More than likely, there will be no topset growth the first summer, but some plants have produced topsets their first summer after planting in the fall.”

Then, rightly, I have the planting schedule for Conroe from that Texas state whatever you call it place. We should start certain seeds in December - rats, this is December.

Start seeds (didn't put all of them here but put what I consider the most important):
Broccoli Dec. 19-Jan. 2
Brussels Sprouts same as above
Cabbage same as above
Cantaloupe Feb 13-Feb 27
Carrots Jan. 18-Feb 13
Egg plants Dec 19- Jan 2
Lettuce Dec 19-Jan 2
ONIONS Dec 12-19
PEPPERS Dec 19-Jan 2
TOMATOES Dec 19-Jan 2

I don't have many days until I'll have to start the onion, pepper and tomato seed. Are you used to planting seeds inside this early?

Also, I got three different kinds of peas because I like peas and the start seed date for those are English peas between Dec 29-Jan 28. Southern peas between Feb. 27-March 26 and Sugar Snap which I think all mine would be called, between Dec. 29 and Jan. 28.

My comment on this gardening/planting job I have taken on, is, it TAKES ALL YEAR if you live in the south. I've got living food plants outside and you northerners are piling on blankets and sitting in front of the fireplace with hot cider or whatever. I will have a few nights of maybe a few degrees below freezing starting Friday night and then it will warm up again.

Yesterday and today was sunny and warm enough you didn't need a sweater. That is pretty much the way winter is here. February is usually our coldest month which wouldn't bother you up north people. We won't have ice and snow and if we did, it would melt in an hour or so.

177 posted on 12/03/2013 3:58:27 PM PST by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
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To: Marcella
It's too late to take pictures of the broccoli, but I planted that over a month ago.

Same with the cabbage and onions.

I won't plant tomatoes and tobacco and those type things until the end of January.

Yes, it's a year around thing. Especially if you plant in the dirt, as I do.

/johnny

178 posted on 12/03/2013 4:02:27 PM PST by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: JRandomFreeper

But, you start your seeds inside right? I’ll have to set up my frame with the grow light, inside in about two weeks.


179 posted on 12/03/2013 4:09:03 PM PST by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
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To: Marcella

You can send your warm weather here. Our forecast is for 30-40 next sunday-possible precipitation. I am committed to helping slaughter 24 chickens.

I’m already cold just thinking about it.


180 posted on 12/03/2013 4:16:44 PM PST by murrie (Mark Levin: Prosecuting stupidity nightly.)
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