Posted on 05/27/2023 5:38:43 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Your local hardware or gardening center will be clearing their seed racks for the next year and are motivated to sell. You can usually pick up packets for $1 to $2.
Rockport & rocks....Better to live on rocks in MA than up north in the Allagash in ME where its all water and mosquitos! :0
I hope that God continues to bless your ministry!
I got a lot of rain here, probably more than an inch!
My pet peeve is things that are tangled, garden hoses especially and yarn. That thing looks very unappealing.
It fizzled out on the west side of Columbia. Didn’t get a drop at my place.
An inch of rain in exchange for a few bales of wet hay would be a good trade right now.
Botanic Garden Forced To Euthanize Rose Bush That Pricked Child (The Onion)
GLENCOE, IL— Acknowledging that the decision was distressing but ultimately the correct course of action, Chicago Botanic Garden officials confirmed Friday that they were forced to euthanize a rose bush after it pricked a child.
“This morning, we made the difficult choice to end the life of our 15-year-old rose bush after it injured one of our guests,” said Botanic Garden spokesperson Bill Werner, who noted that the woody perennial was not considered aggressive, but it had pricked caretakers at least twice in the past.
“Although the plant was only protecting itself after a child bypassed a one-foot-tall guard rope and entered the enclosure, we had to take measures to protect the boy from further injury. A groundskeeper humanely sprayed the rose bush with Roundup, and that area of the garden will remain closed while we dig up its roots.”
Werner added that the Chicago Botanic Garden would continue its rose breeding operation despite calls to halt the program.
https://www.theonion.com/botanic-garden-forced-to-euthanize-rose-bush-that-prick-1826486145
Return to Wild Rose..
In Northern Illinois the Skokie Lagoons used to be a favorite North Shore Teenage parking place / make out spot. I wonder if that survived it's being converted into a Botanical Garden?
It was baled yesterday afternoon. It’s been so dry this spring the grass didn’t grow like it normally does.
Most years the two fields will make 25-30 5’x5’ rounds. 12 bales to feed the girls’ horses for a year with enough left over to trade good neighbor Dave for the baling bill.
This year it made 14 bales and I’m going to hang on to all 14. I’ve got a feeling I’ll be feeding hay before the summer is over. If we don’t get some decent rains through summer and fall it’s likely I’ll have to buy more to get them through next winter.
(botanical gardens.....Rhetorical question....it does not matter and neither of us knows!)
Wild Rose, WI is one of my favorite places to visit. Great cheese at the Wild Rose Creamery and as an Added Bonus they have a Fish Hatchery!
I spent many summers in Wautoma with my Grandparents - Wild Rose was always a fun day trip. If we were good, we got Ice Cream at Milty Wilty’s on the way home! :)
Today, I just realized that I haven't seen or heard any of my chickadees, which were around thru this winter, since I think early spring.
I haven't heard any of their cute "twee-hee's" in the morning which used to be a regular welcome sound.
Last summer I noticed a number of brown headed cowbirds coming to my feeders for the first time as well as the usual red wing blackbirds.
This summer, the number of the cowbirds and blackbirds has increased tremendously.
I'm wondering if the permanent presence of the red wing blackbirds and now the influx of the cowbirds are responsible for the ultimate disappearance of my chickadees and the goldfinches...........
And for the record, I am shooting the cowbirds with my pellet rifle every chance I get and I can't believe how many I have shot over the past month and a half.
Any suggestions on how I can get my chickadees back would be appreciated.
Got one 15 gallon sprayer. Would have got two but I had already been to Lowes and Walmart. Did good at Lowes as far as not spending too much but at Walmart, got a 12" frying pan(non-stick with no PFOA, cadmium or lead), 9x13 T-fal roasting pan with rack and an air fryer.
Been wanting an air fryer for a while. We have a 12" cast iron skillet but cast iron isn't good for everything. Needed a roasting pan bad as ours is an old super cheapo thing and seen better days.
Got my shade cloth up but need to adjust it.
Mater plants are attached to lean and lower lines hanging from the trellises I made last week.
One third of what I spent at Lowes was for three more mater plants. Cherokee Purple, Black Cherry and an Early Girl just to fill out the 3 for $12(4" pots) which is the sale their having to get rid of end of planting season Bonnie stuff. Regular price is $7 each this year. I gave one plant of each of the three mater varieties I started from seed to my neighbor buddy so this sort of replaces them.
They had a ton of spice plants at Lowes with the same 3-for deal but I'm not getting into all that this year. Just more mater madness and some Shisito peppers and pole beans.
The Early Girl(50 days) will have to hurry to be the early tomato because the Red Deuce(71 days) from the Amish already have maters on them and one of my Chadwick Cherry plants is flowering. The plants I just got from Lowes are small. All indeterminate though which I like for everything but paste tomatoes. Hopefully this Summer won't be quite the scorcher like last Summer was.
I thought I had two varieties of volunteer tomatoes but they're all potato leafed which means they'll all be Brandywine, the only potato leafed I grew last year. Didn't get any last year due to the heat, cracking badly, bugs and general low fruit count so it would be nice to taste one this year. I ate plenty of cherry maters last year until the goats got in there and stomped the plants down. Big buck up and died for no apparent reason a few months ago and I added feed lot panels around the garden so that won't be a problem this year.
The tank sprayer is normally $80 and was on sale for $60. Kinda wish I'd have gotten two. Now I just need that $60 drip irrigation kit. Will be easy to connect to the pump on the tank sprayer as it's just a 3/8" hose and hose clamp.
According to the Q & A for the kit, the output when using all 100 foot of drip line is 50 gallons of water an hour or .83 gallons per minute. The pump on the tank sprayer is 1.0 gallons per minute so it should be just right. In fact, I have about 50 foot of row so I'll either be using half the system or double up on it and run two drip lines on each row with emitter holes offset by half so they're every 6 inches instead of 12.
You got some good deals! My Walmart carries the ‘Bonnie’ plants and the price has really gone UP this season. No Shisito Peppers this year. :(
Also, a new vendor ‘Taylor Farms’ is selling there. They have plants that are further along and in bigger pots (6” it looked like) but they’re asking $6 and up for those!
No one seems to be buying them; I’m in there once a week.
And potting soil! Ugh! Over $8 for a 1 cf bag of Miracle Grow. My greenhouse grown fall-into-winter greens just got a price bump!
Scalping. How can DIRT cost so much more? How can plants?
Glad I start so much of my own.
*RANT OVER*
A local nursery here in East Tennessee sells 2.8 cu ft bags of Pro-Mix (loose fill) for $14. Not bad compared to everyone else...
I’m hoping it’s cyclical - I’ve had more Cowbirds and Red Winged Blackbirds this year than normal too, now that you mention it.
For me, Goldfinches come and go throughout the season.
I’ve only had a few Hummers and the Orioles are pretty much gone now - busy nesting and raising babies, eating bugs and berries - don’t need the Grape Jelly right now.
If you can change up the seed-type you’re offering, that may bring back more Chickadees:
https://birdgap.com/best-foods-black-capped-chickadees/
The weather plays a part, too. For me, we had a very cold May, and now it’s gone straight to hot and humid. That effects birds and they’re probably looking for food sources that also have a near-by natural water source, beyond the birdbaths we offer in our yards.
I’m pretty limited on what I can get locally - unless I drive 30+ miles from home.
I will tell ya this, though: I’ll be digging up some of my good garden soil in my raised beds this fall as things are petering out and I want to fill flats in my greenhouse for extended growing. I can always put it right back in the Spring.
Take THAT, Dirt Scalpers, LOL! :)
They're on my hit list after I saw one trying to get into my chickadee nest box and kill the last remaining fledgling about 3 years ago......
Maybe the Blue Jays are winning this round?
Fire for effect, LOL!
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