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WEEKLY GARDEN THREAD VOLUME 17 APRIL 25, 2014
Free Republic | 4/25/2014 | greeneyes

Posted on 04/25/2014 12:24:10 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. 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: Marcella

I have seen teeny weeny tiny pears today!LOL Great day today with sunshine this afternoon. Ate a salad with homegrown cherry tomato today.

Mr. tomato is now loaded with all sorts of green babies. I don’t think it’s going to take to transplanting very well. Just hope it doesn’t drop too much fruit.


101 posted on 04/26/2014 5:46:00 PM PDT by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: rightly_dividing

Hope you are feeling ok today. Also, hoping that you can be careful and avoid such wrecks in the future.


102 posted on 04/26/2014 5:47:34 PM PDT by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: greeneyes

Thank you, greeneyes. I am careful. If not I would be involved in wrecks all the time. 2 wrecks in 4years is not too bad, considering the terrain that I traverse, only one injury. I ride all over this neighborhood, often with wife’s puppy onboard.


103 posted on 04/26/2014 6:04:04 PM PDT by rightly_dividing (Is there a tagline lost and found?)
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To: Sarajevo

About 30 inches. The boards are 2 X 10.


104 posted on 04/26/2014 6:35:06 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Rip it out by the roots.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
My grandmother could make a cutting of anything she touched grow like crazy. I don’t think she ever BOUGHT a plant — she just gave homes to snippings from her neighbors’ yards.

There are a few plants around work that I'd love to be able to do that with. My office has juneberry bushes with the biggest juneberries on it that I've ever seen, but because they're right in the open I don't want to just go up and clip a sprig. Last summer I snitched a berry that the birds had missed and saved the seeds from it. But I forgot to label them, and now they're mixed up with the rest of my "mystery seeds".

(I really need to get better about labelling things.)

And then around the corner from the office is a stand of wild plums that are just sugar-sweet! I saved the pits, but I'm wondering if I should take a cutting or two. They're growing around a drainage culvert, so I don't think anyone would mind.
105 posted on 04/26/2014 6:37:42 PM PDT by Ellendra ("Laws were most numerous when the Commonwealth was most corrupt." -Tacitus)
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To: rightly_dividing

Glad you’re ok!!!


106 posted on 04/26/2014 6:45:33 PM PDT by Ellendra ("Laws were most numerous when the Commonwealth was most corrupt." -Tacitus)
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To: greeneyes

We have a Facebook group for our neighborhood only. It is my only FB that I do. We just started a garden group that is also closed to our neighborhood only. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it. Yay! more local gardeners!


107 posted on 04/26/2014 6:45:44 PM PDT by rightly_dividing (Is there a tagline lost and found?)
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To: greeneyes

Here in Cedar County, MO it’s full steam ahead! Warm, wet, windy and green! I am planting more this year than I ever have. The tators are up and growing REALLY fast this year. Time to cover them up to their necks.

Have put in 4 of 6 raised beds that measure 4’x3’. Three of them are planted. Tomatoes with a lettuce in between them and carrot and radish seeds sewn around in the 1st. Tomatoes, green bell peppers (for a little shade from the toms), basil, and chives in the 2nd. Blue Lake bush beans and zucchini in the 3rd. Fourth one will be herbs: Rosemary, thyme, Basil and lemon grass that I have managed somehow to grow from seeds. Will throw a few sunflowers in with them for intermittent shade. Fifth and 6th raised beds will be hot peppers and some more staggered lettuce.

Along with the tators in the ground garden there are carrots, cukes, straight and crooked necked squash. East of them, to be planted as soon as it is not raining sideways with widely scattered tornadoes, will be the 3 Sisters using watermelons, cantaloupe and pumpkins as the squashes and more bush beans in staggered plantings. Corn will shadow all of the low crops from the afternoon blaze.
I hope I can keep up with it all. Oh, I forgot the red, yellow and hot peppers in the pots.......Gotta Keep ‘Em Separated. Also forgot the elephant and white garlic and sweet yellow onions that are just exlpoding!


108 posted on 04/26/2014 6:45:52 PM PDT by ExpatGator (I hate Illinois Nazis!)
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To: Ellendra

Thanks!


109 posted on 04/26/2014 6:47:06 PM PDT by rightly_dividing (Is there a tagline lost and found?)
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To: rightly_dividing
That second one looks like the first tool I tried. I barely made a dent in the PVC before my bad shoulder started screaming at me, so I switched to the kind of cutter that looks like a C-clamp. It's slow, especially since I don't have much of a grip, but it worked without hurting too much.

When plumbing the new hose spigot, we used a PVC that was a lot softer, and that one I could use the snipper tool. The pipes I'm building with are a lot tougher.

110 posted on 04/26/2014 7:13:55 PM PDT by Ellendra ("Laws were most numerous when the Commonwealth was most corrupt." -Tacitus)
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To: greeneyes; All

Hello everyone!

It’s been busy and productive these past few days! Darlin and I installed a new hot water heater, so for a few days, we were rather ripe!

I was able to put my sunflowers and my okra into dirt! Also the Echinacea sprouts and chamomile sprouts.

A man came and trimmed out some problem limbs in a large tree in our yard, so we’ve been picking up brush and stacking some firewood! Having that limb gone also gives us some more “full sun” garden space! It wasn’t the intent, but I love that particular unintended consequence!

I started some more T squash. Got them into soil pellets.

Almost wiped out my unplanted green babies in their flats. They are living on the front porch now, and it has been VERY windy, and we were out of place and by the time I got to them, they were very dry, and VERY wilted. I hope I was able to revive them, but I’ll be able to see that tomorrow I suppose.

In all, despite my near disaster, I feel happy about progress. I hope everyone else is better at plant - parenting than I am! LOL!


111 posted on 04/26/2014 7:37:29 PM PDT by TEXOKIE (We must surrender only to our Holy God and never to the evil that has befallen us.)
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To: Ellendra

I have cut pvc with a jig saw, or a 4” rotary grinder, if your dad has one, but the edges are full of burrs and need to be cleaned up with medium sandpaper after cutting. I have some tools that cut it quickly, but they are air powered tools that you probably would not have.


112 posted on 04/26/2014 8:07:39 PM PDT by rightly_dividing (Is there a tagline lost and found?)
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To: rightly_dividing

Dad’s hidden a lot of my tools, but I’ll see if I can find a hacksaw or something.

Between the two of us we have a lot of power tools, but my hearing has gotten so sensitive lately that I can’t use them anymore without 2 layers of hearing protection.

Thanks for the advice!


113 posted on 04/26/2014 8:23:40 PM PDT by Ellendra ("Laws were most numerous when the Commonwealth was most corrupt." -Tacitus)
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To: Ellendra

A hacksaw will work your shoulder to death cutting lots of pipe. Do not try to use a Skill saw, too dangerous.


114 posted on 04/26/2014 8:45:44 PM PDT by rightly_dividing (Is there a tagline lost and found?)
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To: greeneyes

Would you be willing to share the pickle recipe? I love pickles, and making them.


115 posted on 04/27/2014 12:11:58 AM PDT by hearthwench (Debbi - Mom, NaNa, and always ornery)
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To: All

I have our beet and radish seeds in and the potatoes planted. Our hoops are all wrapped like burritos. Though the temps overnight are still in the 30s, the thermometer in one bed showed the temp was in the 70s. I will get the lentils in next, then massive planting of seeds the beginning of May.

Covered hoops are a must up here at the top of Idaho. We used electrical conduit. I rigged a series of heavy nails and bolts in the size of the arch I wanted the hoops to conform to. We centered each pipe with me holding one end and my husband the other and got a ton of them bent quickly. My husband hammered holes about 1’ in each spot the ends go and I shoved them in. I do not remove them, using them for tying beans, peas and other vining veggies to or rigging string “trellises”. I may get a couple of bolts of cheap tulle as summer covers to keep the bugs out until plants start blossoming.

For composting, I dig a pit, place any kitchen or garden waste every few days. Top with a little of the dirt dug out. Repeat until full and covered. Dig a new pit next to it. Repeat. A year later, compost. This year, the now-3 1/2 week old chicks (got 4, got 4 more Wednesday), will add good poo to the compost pits. We will eventually get eggs and meat in the bargain, the “ chicken tractor coop” (waiting for the rain to stop to build), will be wheeled all around the perimeters of the gardens and the meadow for the chickens to do some serious bug control. Another win.

I grow 30 varieties of vegetables, herbs and medicinal herbs. I have two pitiful blueberry bushes and will go for the native huckleberries next time. We have a josta berry bush doing well. It is a cross of currant and gooseberry. My strawberries are always abundant by June. I am constantly digging baby runners and moving them to the ever-growing strawberry boxes. I have 45 sq. ft. of strawberries this year. I am also planting persimmons, a variety that is cold hardy. You know you live in a short growing season area when you find sub-arctic tomato and pepper seeds exciting. ;) my husband is better at greenhouse growing, so I put him in charge of the tobacco, tomato and peppers seed starting chore. I am glad he has that talent. I get leggy plants.

We may build a cattle-panel hoop house for a winter greenhouse this year. The hard part is watering in the winter. It would mean burying pipes and bringing a spigot into the greenhouse.

May your gardens all continue to thrive!


116 posted on 04/27/2014 1:03:13 AM PDT by hearthwench (Debbi - Mom, NaNa, and always ornery)
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To: hearthwench

Will do as soon as I find it. Sometime between now and when the zukes and cukes are enough to make a batch. See I start with a recipe and make changes, but I keep notes, so I have to find those notes.


117 posted on 04/27/2014 1:03:43 AM PDT by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: TEXOKIE
Hubby is a procrastinator. Many years ago, we had a hot-water heater that quit working. No money to buy a new one. Hubby said he was going to take it out, and clean out the sediment, and try to get it working.

Time went on and 6 months later he finally got going on fixing it. See we used my granny's old trick. Heat up some water on the stove. put it into a shower can. Soap up all over and then use the shower can to rinse off.

Wasn't too tough, and I really didn't think too much about it. One of his buddy's made him feel a bit ashamed over the delay by telling him what kind of trouble he would be in with his wife, it it was his house.LOL

118 posted on 04/27/2014 1:08:55 AM PDT by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: ExpatGator
Great going. You'll have some good stuff to eat for sure. Interesting that we actually have the same size beds. Most of mine were originally 3’x 8’, but I added dividers to make them half that.

That gives me 12 beds and one 2’x4’, which helps me with rotation planting and organization. My arms are not long enough for 4x4 beds.

I am very happy with the taters progress here. I planted some Butte Russets, Dakota Pearls, and some sprouted leftovers from the grocery store.

I am a little worried that I might have let my garlic get a little too dry. They are already turning yellow. and that usually doesn't happen this early.

119 posted on 04/27/2014 1:15:38 AM PDT by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: rightly_dividing

If it wasn’t for my kids posting pics of the grand kids, I would never ever get on facebook for any reason whatsoever.

I can’t stand Zuckerberg, and the idea that once he got all these people signed up, then he went to the corporations and sold them on his being able to report on all sorts of stuff for marketing purposes without people’s consent or knowledge just makes be boil.


120 posted on 04/27/2014 1:19:55 AM PDT by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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