Posted on 01/31/2014 12:38:35 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!
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They’re amazing, aren’t they? And there are two more long stalks covered with flower buds.
Guess I’m now an orchid grower!
I think I’ll just leave them as is and not fuss with them, after all if it ain’t broke why fix it? and they seem to be really thriving right where they are, even amid a mass of honeysuckle vines.
My DH also believes everything planted should have a purpose — he planted a Southern California apple tree that is now shading my prized roses! Don’t know what to do, he’s SO proud of those apples but the tree is causing my roses not to bloom.
Hi—
Thanks for the info.
It’s amazing isn’t it? Couldn’t believe it when I found it in the midst of a bunch of overgrown honeysuckle vines.
I’m now an orchid grower! I’ve always gone to orchid shows and admired them at the county fair but have never grown them before.
Guess I’d better look into how to take care of them - or maybe not since they seem to be doing just fine without any fussing. I’m not even going to move or transplant them.
Gravy and biscuits along with keeps mine here at a bare minimum.
/johnny
That’s a pickle. Short of making stem cuttings and starting over, or digging up and transplanting, I don’t know what you could do.
My hubby made a garden plot, and it just happened to have a butternut tree on the s.west side. It was just a tiny thing. Now, years later it produces great nuts, but half the garden patch is worthless for regular produce. The only thing that grows there is polk.
Plus even the sunnier spots are limited because of the toxins made by the butternut. Can’t plant tomatoes or potatoes for example.
My grandson loves squirrel. I can still hunt in the wilds of our local butcher/rancher. (laughing) He is turning into quite the hunter at age 11. He doesn’t mind the skinning and the rest either. We found a youth compound bow for him on sale this Christmas. He is planning on getting this year’s turkey for the family feast.
Deb
She is talking about starting a garden, but may wait. She and her husband miss Texas and may move back.
My friend Bob was overrun with squirrels and finally started trapping and relocating them. Despite his efforts, he didn’t seem to be making a dent in the squirrel population, which was really a puzzle to him. One afternoon, he was out working in the yard and noticed a pickup truck he didn’t recognize, stopping up the road near a wooded patch of land next to his property. The driver got out, went around to the back, pulled out some live traps .... and released a couple of squirrels! As fast as Bob could trap them, somebody else was releasing squirrels back at his location .... puzzle solved.
Sometimes after dinner, it’s good. Amoretta over icecream.
BTW- Welcome to FR and the Gardening Thread!
I'm ready for spring to really get here. This one nice day a week is driving me nutz.
/johnny
Thanks!
~Q~
Of course I see that some weeds are already coming up in my lawn..arggghh.
I dumped a bunch of cayenne..ok, I accidentally used chili powder the first go round today..along my front curb to discourage dog walkers from letting their dogs use my front yard for their bathroom.
I yelled at one guy today, and he just looked at me as I'm yelling, "You know I don't like you letting your dog pee in my yard. Dog pee kills my plants. Please get your dog out of my yard. Please get your dog out of my yard."
He must've been a zombie because he just stared, and stared and never said a word..In fact, he had to come back about 25 ft. to stand there and stare.
/johnny
I don't think he can really hurt it, so I'll let him continue. He'll figure out if it's good for him or not. ;)
/johnny
I'm happy with the charcoal production. The kitty litter bag that I'm reusing to store charcoal holds 20 lbs.
I'll probably wind up with 200 lbs of charcoal from the junk wood I collected from the neighbor.
Of course, I'll need to reduce the size of it before I add it to the garden, but that is what hammers and grandkids are for. Carbon black washes right off of 'em.
/johnny
About throat: My husband had to have his left carotid artery on his neck cleaned out. During surgery, a nick was made on that left vocal cord and he had no voice. Time was allowed to see if he regained voice and he did not. At the end of two months without voice, we were sent to a foremost vocal cord specialist in Houston. He is the chosen vocal doctor for opera singers all over the world. Opera plays in his offices as background music.
He told me the worst thing for your throat is water and if you are having trouble with your throat due to a cold or whatever, always add something to water, could be tea or drink coffee, chocolate drink, Kool-Aid, put honey in it, anything but just water.
That first visit, he made a temporary fix for husband by putting a certain substance on the bad cord so it would meet the other vocal cord. The bad cord was never going to get better, would never move. In a couple of weeks, we checked husband into a Houston hospital on same street where voice doctor is, and an operation was done to permanently seal something to the bad cord so it would meet the other cord.
If you ever have carotid neck surgery on either side to clear that artery, you risk permanently losing a vocal cord. The neck surgery had to be done as his artery was plugged 95% and they feared he would have a stroke before they got the surgery done. His eyesight on his left eye was also going away due to not enough blood getting to his eye due to that clogged artery. His eyesight was fine after the surgery.
BEANS AND RICE CHEMISTRY TO PRODUCE PROTEIN:
The chemistry part: Beans and rice do not have to be eaten in equal amounts in order for the body to break it down into complete protein. Denise Hansen, the dietitian tells us in, “Eating off the Grid” (you really need this book), that the ratio of 3 or 4 portions of grains (rice) to 1 of legumes (beans), is sufficient. Let's see, that's about 4 tablespoons of cooked rice (grain) and 1 tablespoon of cooked beans (legumes), or about 1/2 cup cooked rice and 1/8 cp. cooked beans, or 1 cup cooked rice and 1/4 cup cooked beans. Get the idea? Be sure to eat enough rice with the beans and be sure smaller children don't just eat one or the other. Said another way by Utah State University: “Dry beans average about 22% protein in the seed, the highest protein content of any seed crop. They contain all essential amino acids, except methionine. Methionine can be obtained from corn, rice, or meat.”
COOKING DRIED BEANS:
Dried beans are hard things that have to be made into soft, plumped up things. Cooking dried beans seems to mean a long time of boiling, boiling, boiling, using a lot of fuel - example: I have a bag of 15 bean soup mix, have to soak beans overnight, then simmer them two and a half hours. I also see recipes on the web saying simmer pinto beans for four hours. I'm not using that much fuel in an emergency situation. (In today's world, with power, when I do bean soup, I put it all in crock pot and let it do it's thing for about 5 hours.)
Rather than write the instructions for cooking beans in Cooking off the Grid, I'll just tell you what I did when I followed them, very simple. For this experiment, I used one cup of dried pinto beans. I rinsed them to remove any dirt. Put them in a pot with water to twice the depth of the beans. Brought them to a boil and boiled (don't simmer), for two minutes (just two minutes!). Removed them from heat and let them sit 1 hour. Poured off the dirty soak water. Covered with new water, added 1 tablespoon oil and 1/2 tsp salt as it said, boiled them 30 min. and they were totally done. Beans that will cook to soft in this thirty minute final cooking are black, white, red, pinto, kidney, garbanzo, etc. Lima beans, large or baby, need 45 min. final cooking time.
Some type beans do not need soaking/puffing up before cooking - lentils is one and they cook in 30 minutes. Others are split peas and black eyed peas.
/johnny
I’d like to reiterate that I’m growing seeds of different varieties of the same food, such as onions and peppers and tomatoes and cucumbers, to see which grows best here so it’s an experiment rather than growing enough food I could live on it. That comes later. It’s also an experiment to make sure I can grow food since I haven’t before I started in easy summer last year.
I’m finding different varieties of peppers, I have six kinds, are all difficult to grow in that their seeds are temperamental as to whether they want to grow or not. I have peppers up and not all seeds have sprouted, either, and won’t at this late stage, but they are still very small seedlings when seedlings of other plants have grown out of their original small paper cups.
I have five kinds of tomatoes and they are all 5-6 inches tall with good thick stalks for their size.
It’s important with a grow lamp for the lamp to be very close to the cups, at the top of the cups, when seeds are first planted in the little cups. As the seedlings grow, keep the lamp near the top of the plants. If you raise it too high, the stalks reach for it and then have thin, spindly stalks which is the mistake I made last year.
I have four kinds of onions and the Parade Bunching Type are 7 inches tall with the others being 5-6 inches tall. I had to thin all of them and put in larger pots and I only kept three or four of each. Again, this is an experiment as there aren’t enough onions there for me to consider those my total onion food.
I am counting on the Egyptian Walking Onions to be my major source of onions because they produce more on their own every year. I have done nothing for them during the winter, didn’t cover them, and they are in a wood planter on top of the dirt garden. I looked at them this morning, and they are still green but bent over. If they live up to their press, they will start growing in their cycle of reproducing in spring. Can’t eat any this year as their cycle will produce more onions walking in the planter and by next year, there will be enough to eat and still have enough going through the cycle to produce more.
Outside, carrots, turnips, strawberries, and the blackberry sticks are green and fine. I have some sweet potatoes in a 10 gallon grow bag and I need to dump that and get those potatoes out (if there are any in there as that was a first attempt). I’ll do that in a few days.
I'm gonna have 5 kids between the ages of 2 and 13 in the house for a few hours.
I've got to go find all the firearms and put them up.
/johnny
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