Posted on 10/01/2024 6:10:14 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The MONTHLY Gardening Thread is a 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.
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It is impossible to hijack the Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table Recipes, Preserving, Good Living - there is no telling where it will go - and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us! Send a Private Message to Diana in Wisconsin if you'd like to be added to/removed from our New & Improved Ping List.
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“I remember there was an odd house with an unusual layout in it. Lots of doors and passageways and easy to get lost in.”
Those are my FAVORITE dreams! I watch WAY too many home improvement shows - and have participated in WAY too many REAL improvements on this 1900 farmhouse. :)
Now that I think about it, I have NEVER lived in a ‘new’ house. Ever. But, all of my ‘stuff’ is antiques and/or second hand, so that’s obviously where my ‘taste’ (or lack thereof) lies! ;)
I rarely grow potatoes. They are cheaper than cheap in WI. We grow second only to Idaho.
And my LOVELY neighbor informed me to stop buying potatoes. He has TONS to share and Beau is helping him sort cattle tomorrow, so he should be coming home with a sack full. :)
Noted. No Till Growers. :)
Hey, if I had a neighbor who would give me fresh potatoes in exchange for anything, I would! Those little baby ones I grew on a whim were some of the best potatoes I’ve ever eaten. Was it just my imagination? They just tasted so good! Even better than I can get at the orchard market that harvests them that morning.
I have always been a vivid dreamer, and I do mean ALWAYS. My Mama used to tell me that she knew I would be smart because I would tell her about my elaborate dreams as a 4 and 5 year old.
The only time I lived in a “new” house was when we moved from Marietta, Georgia to Columbus, OH. We need to move quickly if I didn’t want my husband to come home every couple of weeks while we sorted out a move. We had two children at that point, one son, not quite 3, and a daughter about 9 months old. He had been gone every week since our son was 6 months old, and we saw him on weekends. I was desperate to have him home in one place.
He was offered a good job in Columbus, but they wanted him right away. There was exactly ONE house that was ready for us to move in quickly. It was a builder’s model home that was the last one in the neighborhood after everyone bought what they wanted and got to their specifications. They couldn’t seem to unload it. Enter a nearly desperate young family with a time crunch. It had good bones, but it was far from ideal. It was in a neighborhood, and I had grown up sorta in the boonies or at least, neighbors were not close by. So having neighbors was (for me) a new experience.
However, my husband had grown up like that. He rode a bike in his neighborhood and delivered papers. He had an ice cream man. It sounded kinda cool, so I acquiesced. We were only a mile from his job, and we only had one car, so it seemed doable.
Well, it turned out fine. The kids made instant friends. I have tried to fit it to a neighborhood frame of mind ever since. I’m so-so at that. I like having privacy, and I don’t care what color your house is, or what your mailbox looks like. Just don’t get in my way, and I won’t get in yours. I PROMISE!!!
As for antiques and secondhand stuff? Girl, that’s all I have! Except for the one piece that we had an Amish family make to our specifications and dimensions. It’s a “media chest”. It has 3 drawers for our DVDs, and a door with two shelves on the other side. On top it has space for our DVD player and one of his speakers. It was made to fit the space, and we picked the wood (acacia) and the stain (rustic cherry). It’s a beautiful piece. The young man drew an illustration of it, and when everything was agreed to, we gave them our deposit. Two months later, it was ready for pickup. That was a fun experience. Love the Amish! (Oh, and I totally understand the desire for no more technology or “progress”.)
Bump for Morning Coffee! :)
Being from the South, I grew up on hot tea in the morning, and iced tea the rest of the day. Though Grandpa and Grandma had Folgers at the ready for their friends when they played canasta (or hot tea again if they preferred).
When I moved to the Midwest, I had to get used to coffee so that I could begin to fit in. I needed a LOT of cream, and some sugar, but it did take hold. These days, that IS the beverage that wakes me up from my dreamy dreams. Hot tea is for sometimes in the afternoon, and I like hibiscus tea if I can find it.
You know, it took me 20+ years to even begin to get used to how it is up here. I guess that why Tom Petty’s “Southern Accents” song fits me just right. I do everything with a Southern accent. Try not to hold it against me. ;)
That media center sounds lovely. I love handmade things above all others. ;)
Just wanted to bump this to let you know I’ve been a coffee drinker since age 4. My Grandma always had ‘the perk’ on the stove and she drank it black and straight outta the boiling pot. I come from a VERY German family.
My sister introduced me to Hibiscus Tea. Have you ever been to this tea-related site? I get their catalog:
https://www.republicoftea.com/all-teas/c/all_teas/
That same year Dad & Grandpa started to ‘let’ me play Cribbage with them. If I could hold a hand properly and not drop any of my cards, and do ‘the math’ myself, I was old enough to play.
Me: *Sniveling over some perceived Cribbage injustice.*
Dad: “There’s NO crying in Cribbage! I’m just trying to make you a better player!”
Beau and I are cutthroat Cribbage players and play at least once a day. I smoked him for many months, but he’s a quick study and has been paying me back in spades - literally, LOL!
In my ‘career’ I’ve had both a PERFECT 29 hand - against my Dad no less; my Crowning Cribbage Achievement - and a few weeks back I got a 28 hand against Beau.
Boy! Our conversations go everywhere! Now, back to our Regularly Scheduled Gardening Program, LOL!
I’m pumped about the tea link!
The ROT hibiscus was the first one I had tried. This was several years ago. Then I couldn’t find it again, and after a while, stopped searching, figuring they had discontinued that product. I am HAPPY to learn that I was wrong! Thank you!!
I learned to play cribbage when I was a teenager. My Dad played it all the time. He had several boards, but I amazingly got first dibs on one of his nicer ones when he passed away. So I have two. One that he bought for me when I was in college, and that one of his after he passed. I haven’t played in a while, but now that cooler weather is becoming a thing, bringing the cribbage board back out is a good idea.
Noted on that! Shoot, these orange tomatoes could even be the new result of just such an accident, and the growers didn’t realize what was popping up!
The one thing I could possibly do is get a few cuttings while the better of these plants is still alive and try to get starts off them, then try to get them through the winter. I’ve had a little success with this in the past. However, some varieties just don’t seem to survive well, and most if not all lose vigor after a couple cycles or so, as if they “know” they are supposed to be dead. Nor do most seem to take off quickly when moved outdoors — smaller plants in the 6-packs usually grow faster even with new garden or potting soil around all. Possibly my “overwintering” conditions are just not all that great for the overwintered plants, even if they survive.
Best table apple I’ve discovered so far: Sweet Tango. Aldi had them for $1.29 a pound a couple weeks ago. I’d never tried them B4.
That apple tree dying in our yard produced apples very similar in taste to Granny Smiths, but smaller, slightly more yellow when fully ripe, and not quite as good in storage. Almost like 2/3 of the way from a gold delicious to a Granny Smith.
I can’t seem to grow apple trees from seed. They get 2” tall and die. :-(
We actually survived what was supposed to be a “end of growing season freeze”. NWS recorded a low of 34 deg. F instead of the predicted 30 deg. F. But we never got below 36-37 deg. I’d covered a lot of plants, but even the uncovered Zinnias in the open in the front yard survived. I believe the fog that developed (both nights) must have been the savior. (Small “s”!)
I actually e-mailed our NWS Office the early evening of the 1st predicted freeze night: They always declare these the “end of the growing season”, not taking into account I suspect that there are a lot of gardeners* who move at least plants in and out (or cover them) until it just gets ridiculous to do so, sometime in mid-November, usually, for us. (Zone 7A) But I’ve kept tomatoes producing at least a few fruits until Thanksgiving one or two years!
*Lots more gardeners than farmers, tho’ of course the acreage and $$ are vastly bigger for the farmers!
Haha, yes, here our Internet (fiber optic now) service is through the small local phone company. That makes the Internet service pricey, but it DOES consistently run @ ~ 70-80 mbps, download and upload, which is really much more than we need! The last time I had a serious problem* their head tech turned me over to his assistant, who was very helpful, and has been able to answer a number of other questions since, including about local cell service reception problems. We mostly communicate by e-mail.
*E-mails from certain (legit!) senders were getting blocked, and it turned out to be a bizarre problem (stuff way over my head) at the service our Telco buys web service at.
Less Chinese chili paste for less spicy, right?
Right.
PM sent to you about the Access Point. Thanks!
Woo hoo - we have WiFi!!
The tech came out & the former owner had ‘modified’ the initial install - tech was NOT happy, but this also explains why trying to resolve the situation over the phone wasn’t working. It was a “cluster you-know-what”.
We needed a 2nd router in the shop to talk to my router in the house. The ethernet cable in the office didn’t work, so we ended up in the basement with a flashlight, tracing cable. Instead of going to the office, it went up by the chimney! We found the working cable in the cabinet by the fireplace. The tech drilled a new hole in one of the shelves so my router could sit in a good spot. It is close enough that the TV in the living room can plug directly into the router (no buffering).
So what else did the tech do?
Switched our service to another plan for better speed, less money.
Drilled the hole for my router to sit in a better spot..
Got us signed up for a phone (mom needs it)
Is also a ‘class A’ contractor & maybe can help get my balcony situation straight!
Electrician came this morning & got dryer plug changed out. I got the dryer attached to the vent & washer is hooked up. I do have to level the washer & it will be good to go.
Plumber was in touch - he has asked around, no one interested in ‘old’ washer & dryer. I have a call in to Habitat for Humanity to see if their Re-Store will take them. They are 13 minutes away & if I can wrangle the washer on the trailer (dryer is much lighter so I can handle it)), I could haul them over there myself (if they won’t pick up).
Excellent news! And on so many fronts! Congratulations!
All GREAT news! We expect ‘reports from the field’ every 15-20 minutes now. ;)
Guess what we have? Box elder bugs. There were a couple of very cold nights (freeze warnings) & now it’s balmy, with the sun warming up the back walls of the house (& the cracks between the bricks & door frames). A few, not the masses of last spring - I sprayed in the cracks really well back then, so I am hoping that knocked down the number. I definitely need a trip to the co-op for more spray.
I suspect the pace of things happening will slow down considerably now, so reports of ‘happenings’ should not be so fast & furious.
All commercial apples are ‘grafted.’ There are a variety of sturdy grafting stocks, and that grafting stock determines nothing more than the HEIGHT of the tree.
I always buy semi-dwarf which never get more than 10’ tall, which is comfortable to pick from a ladder if you’re short like me, or from the ground if you are a 6’3” Beau, LOL!
I have never heard of anyone outside of ‘Johnny Appleseed’ having success with apple trees from seed, but then...how do you explain wild apple trees? We have a number of them on our property.
Must be Aliens! ;)
Two five-gallon buckets of BEAUTIFUL Red Norland taters arrived home with Beau, this afternoon. He played ‘Cowboy’ today and helped the neighbor sort cattle. Happy, Happy!
Supper is Roast Chicken, baked taters and a tossed salad.
Life Is Good! :)
Our scale wasn’t good to us this morning, probably as a result of eating “normal” food this weekend: sub sandwiches, meatballs, charcuterie boards, pizza, etc.
I made an “executive” decision to go lighter and try to get back on track. Our butcher gets Faroe Island salmon flown in daily. He has a connection. So I ran over there and bought two center cut fillets. It’s a splurge, yes. Hubby smokes it over pecan wood chips. It is dressed with lemon, EVOO, fresh dill, and Herbs de Provence. Sides will be wild rice mixed with jasmine, and steamed asparagus. Tossed salad with vinaigrette. No bread.
Gotta start somewhere.
Yes, Life is Good! :)
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