WEEKLY GARDEN THREAD VOLUME 48 NOVEMBER 29, 2013

11/29/13 | greeneyes

[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.

[greeneyes]

Thanksgiving was good. Hope you had a good one too.

[tillacum]

We had a large quail population at the ranch, until 1986 when the flood hit here. The 2 pastures al riverside were under 12 feet of water, and the fire ants rode in. I haven’t seen a covey in quite a few years.

[tillacum]

Beautiful.

[tillacum]

I know what you mean. Hubby always shakes his head and chuckles when I spice my sliced lemons to put under the turkey skin. But he likes the taste. I brined my turnkey in apple cider this year and then did the lemon thing. It turned your pretty good. The dressing picked up a little fruity taste, it was good.

[Arrowhead1952]

Surprised my daughter with some home grown rosemary for the turkey. She says it is powerful compared to what she usually gets at the store.

Not much different to report from central Texas. Turnips are almost ready for harvesting. Cold air is finally gone though. It's over 50 here this morning.

I gave our daughter and SIL two pots of rosemary when they were here a few months ago. I found several limbs that were laying on dirt and they had a good root system, so I potted them. She was very happy to have cheap, fresh rosemary, rather than the store bought stuff.

[Texas Fossil]

Thank you very much for the info. Yes, I know about PVPA and patented varieties of seed. I am in the planting seed business.

I suspect the ones I saw listed on the web were older non-PVPA or heirloom varieties.

I did find that the state of MO has a nursery that ships bare root 1 year old stock for their residents. It is not clear from the website if they will sell to out of state, they do ship out of state.

[bgill]

We had an invasion of ants in the garden. Huge mounds. But they can stay until this weather improves. I don’t like cold.

[JRandomFreeper]

That happened in a lot of places.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

Ants got 20% of my peanuts that I planted this spring. They are difficult to get rid of without harsh poisons. I'm concerned about the health of the soil microbes, so that limits what I can use on the ants.

It's a conundrum.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

My kids just dropped off some lemon grass stalks. My son-in-law expects me to cook with them, but it's too much. I need to figure out how to propogate them.

/johnny

[bgill]

The last of the green tomatoes brought in before the freeze don’t look like they’re going to ripen so they’re going into the freezer today for a future green tomato pie or cookies.

Hugs about your feet. Mine had the dremel sander treatment Wednesday to make sure they’d not fail on turkey day.

[Darth Reardon]

Stick them in a few inches of water in the sun. When they have a couple inches of roots they go in the dirt.

[JRandomFreeper]

That's pretty much what I did. I'm using rainwater, and they are on the sunshelf where it is warm. I wonder how they overwinter? I can make room for them in the cold frame if need be.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

And thanks! This is a new one for me. The only thing perfect about the situation is my ignorance. ;)

/johnny

[bgill]

Glad you survived the eye drops and your eyesight is better.

I sent hubby and son to Walmart for their Thursday night tv sales. We’d been reduced to a old 13” one and can’t read the menu or news scrolls. They were in and out of Walmart in 5 minutes!

I was going to stuff stockings with homemade jelly but need the cabinet space so sent everyone home with several jars.

[johnsmom]

It was down to 21 degrees here last night so I hear you on the Zone issues. Hasn’t been that cold here even in the dead of winter for years. Even so, it gets up to the 50’s during the day and we try to roll back the cover’s if only for half a day.

I was worried about one of my neighbors too. He is an older man who likes to bully everyone, I suppose, because he is bored. He hasn’t said a word about it (thank goodness) and we’ve had the flock for about 5 months.

We are in a “restricted” neighborhood and the house behind us (not under covenant) came up for sale. We bought it for rental property and part of the agreement is we get to use the backyard for gardening and coop. It was the only way to one up the homeowners association.

City ordinance does limit our flock size but as long as nobody complains we are good to go. I built an attractive coop and we keep everything clean to avoid odor. We even fenced off a paddock area for free ranging but the girls need supervision. They are bad to jump the fence into the garden area when no one is looking. We decided against a rooster because of noise. Usually get an egg a day per chicken so we had plenty available for Thanksgiving recipes.

Luckily my husband is very proactive in the garden and we work as a team. I generally keep up with the weather and he helps me when a cold snap requires extra manpower.

This is only our second winter garden and we didn’t expect such cold weather so early on. We had to order the row covers online and they got here the day before the first freeze. The plastic was when we went into panic mode and it was all that was available quick and economically.

So far so good. No loss of any plants except a couple of ferns we were trying to save. We are going to cook a big pot of greens tonight and make cornbread. Good eat’n.

Having trouble posting pics but will try one of the coop.

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[bgill]

I went out to feed the homeless cat and saw that the garlic that was planted 2-3 weeks ago is starting to peek out. It’s the first day I’ve seen the cat in several days since some Jehovah Witnesses scared it off. Don’t know what they did to it but hubby heard some noise and stepped outside to see the cat running off so proceeded to have a little come to Jesus meeting with them about it and sent them on down the road.

[Silentgypsy]

Emphasis on the “worried” part.

[bgill]

Boiling water sometimes helps to move over a bit.

[Marcella]

greeneyes said: “When it comes to preparedness, it is wise to copy Marcella. LOL”

There is a reason to copy me and it's because I have researched preparedness/prepping for over 13 years and updated my methods and equipment when new models/types were better than I had. If no people found anything worthwhile to them in what I have done, I would be a failure in helping anyone.

As of today, 41,620 people have gone to my prepper articles on Survival Podcast website. Those people were helped by those articles.

Why do I write them? Because most people have a life and I don't, so I have time to research. It makes no sense to keep that to myself when others can use it.

Then, I started on planting earlier this year. I knew nothing. Now, I know something thanks to you guys and my digging around on the internet.