All gardeners in the Midwest - the Japanese beetles are here! Found a few on the baby willow trees yesterday and sprayed with Sevin Dust. This morning I sprayed the roses, some of which were showing damage, the raspberry canes, and some baby oak trees. These creatures are nasty and voracious. They will strip a raspberry, eating both leaves and fruit! Sevin Dust gets them away but must be reapplied every so often, especially after a rain. It is harmless to people and you can spray it on food producing plants.
We didn't have too much trouble with the damn things when we lived in town, but hereabouts they are plentiful - and hungry! And there were a couple on the raspberries!
There is only one weeping willow and it is two acres behind the well. The other four are a hybrid sort that has a more upright habit. They are also at the back of the lot. Our next door neighbor put in a pond, and they built up an embankment almost to the property line, thus causing us to have a very very low spot on our side of the property line, which is usually kind of swampy and is where we planted the willows. If the deer ever leave them alone they will be very pretty indeed. They will also make a nice windbreak.
I cannot remember the name of the willow but I think it was in Stark's catalog. They use it as a windbreak around golf courses and such. Mine usually smell of cayenne pepper and rotten eggs from the RepelsAll that keeps Bambi from nibbling the new growth away.
Yum yum yummy!!!!! We have yellow crook neck squash and green bell pepper. The greenbeans are about 1/2 the size of a #2 pencil. The tomatoes are big and fat and still green. This is one southern mama who does not do fried green tomatoes. The speckled butterbeans have flowers. The carrots are a wash.
I pruned the basil, Italian parsley, and dill to dry and have enough to share with others. It has been a couple of years since I planted corn but it is doing wonderful. It is growing and hilled it up the other day. I love to hear the leaves rustle in the breeze.
Rum, meat ain't meat without garlic. I can't think of anything I don't add a smidgen of garlic to. That means even cookies or cakes. Seriously. It grows wild in our yards. What southerners think is wild spring onions growing in our yards is really wild garlic.
Well, my gooseberry bush has suffered again. Its leaves were flourishing and then disappeared overnight. Then the leaves appeared again and the bush was flourishing. Now they are all gone again.
I think it's gooseberry sawfly. Presumably a flying critter, that leaves a larva which turns into a voracious caterpillar. Any suggestions, gang?
Nothing in my garden seemes to be thriving this year. However, I have dosed everything with Epsom salts (which contain magnesium and sulfur) and then a week or 10 days later gave another boost with Miracle-Gro. Some things are now showing movement/growth. At long last!!
I was given some sweetcorn plants which I have never tried growing before. I followed advice on this thread. Those plants are growing nicely, best thing in the garden. They are underplanted with low-growing crawly plants like marrows/zucchini/squash/round cucumber.
If I were relying on my garden this year, I think starvation would be imminent :( .
Hey Kimberley what is this about "hilling up" corn? Do I have to rake up the soil, like with potatoes? Not going to be possible, with the underplantings, which I have seen recommended in a number of places. Presumably the raised soil is to improve the wind resistance of the plants?
This may or may not work for the caterpillars it certainly works for white fly and mites and aphids.
Fill a bucket with warm soapy water(I use Dawn Dish soap, which seems to be the most effective)
Then go out and really douse your tree/bush. be sure to get the undersides of the leaves too and do not use sparingly... IF you have n of those pump sprayers use that.
but I like to just take my buckets of water and heave them over my bigger plants.
You would be surprised how effective this is.... and the plants love the dish soap.
any way it also works for powdery mildew.
I think the bugs don't like the flavor of the soap.
I have used safer soap but i find it really harsh on my skin... as in I get the tingly hands .. I am assuming it has sulfa/sulfer in it which I am allergic to but I can have my hands in the dish soap all day and no worries.
Also the dish soap really gives the plants a boost for some reason. I am not sure why!
Also the dish soap really gives the plants a boost for some reason. I am not sure why!
It's because most dish soaps currently contain phosphorous.
Plants like that.
New environmental laws are changing that because soaps containing phosphorous, when released into watersheds, promote algae growth which, in turn, strips oxygen from the water. And that's some "bad chicken".
It's because most dish soaps currently contain phosphorous.
Plants like that.
New environmental laws are changing that because soaps containing phosphorous, when released into watersheds, promote algae growth which, in turn, strips oxygen from the water. And that's some "bad chicken".
I went to the Dawn detergent site... apparently dawn hand dish soap does not contain phosphates per the company but according to some online person it did before 1998.
Twinky, baby, if you have caterpillars you should be able to see them. Pluck them bad boys off, put them in a glass jar with some water. Let them stew for a couple of days in the sun. Spray your plants with this rotteness. It is a great deterrent(sp?) Any dead decomposed bug will do for the entire garden.
Yes, you have to hill corn. If your rows have other food growing in them then you must get soil to hill up the corn. My corn, as well as everything else, is planted in raised rows. I hilled the butterbeans and greenbeans yesterday. The stalk is too spindley to hold up the bush. I don't plant runners so I have to hill them up. The roots of corn grow near the top of the soil. Thus, the need to be hilled. By the time the corn is harvested the soil is hilled up around the stalk some 12 inches. That is why corn can be planted close together in the rows but a good distance from row to row. Once they get near maturity, as far as height goes, they support each other with their leaves.
Two days ago I posted the size of the greenbeans...guess what...I picked greenbeans yesterday. That is how quickly they matured. The spring rains have been good. Honestly, I am a bit surprised myself how quickly the greenbeans matured. The maturation for this heirloom says 70 days. Mine matured more than 20 days less than that.
The butterbeans are still threads, due to the replanting. But they are coming along.
Now, as far as phosphates go...just use wood ash. As natural as it comes. Old limbs fall from the oak and pecan trees and we burn it. We can do that where we live. It has to be worked into the soil 6 to 8 inches.
Twinky, your hard work and care will pay off. You are doing all the right stuff.
Mean thing to do with the caterpillars. But if it works...
I haven't seen any on the bush, but then, it's not in the most accessible of places. When I find 'em on the brassicas and on other things, I chop them in half with the secateurs.
A bonfire is good, then work the ash in. I missed having one last fall. I have got something, a brazier wannabe, to burn wood in, so that I can use the woodash.
This has been my most unsuccessful year ever as a gardener. It was a lawn before it was a vege garden; previous house-owner had tried a vege garden and didn't get on well with it and so turfed it when she put the house on the market for sale. She wasn't much of a gardener, though. Probably trying to grow illegal plants, LOL. I wonder if there was something dormant in the soil and it had just enough in it to support one decent year's growth (last year). But then, I worked in a large quantity of mature hoss muck when I built the garden. Lots of clay-ey stuff, and rocks (field brash) not too far down.
It takes years of care to get a decent soil. My mum's cottage's soil has been worked for over 300 years and is so beautiful and light, it will grow anything. So different from her other house, only 250 yds away, which had been a field before my dad's 25 years of work on it and then her own and my further 25 years or so. ...My house is probably over 120 years old. Who knows what the garden has been used for?
Wood ash (potash) will help to increase the potassium level but not the phosphorous level.
Fertilizers, such as Miracle-Gro, serve to supplement the three key nutritional requirements of plants---nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. It's important to know the individual requirements of the plants you are fertilizing. For instance, the main requirement for sod is nitrogen. (Lightning "strikes" release high levels of nitrogen and cause the affected area to green-up and grow quite nicely. But, you certainly can't control where lightning decides to strike.)) That's why Miracle-Gro makes a special recipe just for grass that is high in nitrogen. Their other products are formulated with this same concept in mind. Taking this one step further, consider that the soil you are trying to grow veggies in was previously used to grow sod, which placed a high demand for nitrogen on it. Around this part of the country, you can somewhat predict the future for a particular piece of farm land. What I mean is, if a particular piece of land has historically been used for corn and soy beans but is now being used to cultivate sod, it's a pretty good bet the land is being deliberately played out of its nitrogen supply in anticipation of non-agricultural development.
And, though the topic here is not lawns, here is a link that helps to establish this basic concept of first determining the proper nitrogen/phosphorous/potassium ratio for the particular plant being fertilized.
And, though the topic here is not lawns, here is a link that helps to establish this basic concept of first determining the proper nitrogen/phosphorous/potassium ratio for the particular plant being fertilized.
OK - PLEASE TAKE THE FOLLOWING WITH A SENSE OF HUMOR.
Since Waysider brought up fertilizer and ended up with lawns - that is GRASS - we come to the following conclusions.
a) All of you must live in Egypt where locust infestation is a daily event.
b) Monday - the Southwestern Butt-Licker bugs have destroyed my potatoes
c) Tuesday - but the cabbage is fine
d) Wednesday - the Midwestern Cornfield bugs have destroyed my flax seeds
e) Thursday - but the tomatoes are fine
d) Friday - the Central European commie infiltrator bugs got to my tomatoes
Woe is me - my garden is gone
Now if we consider that there is a crop that WS discussed briefly that grows healthily almost everywhere (a lawn) - one might call it a lawn or one might call it "grass" - but HEY whatever you call your grass/lawn the problem is solved as long as you are growing grass. Heck there are even special serving dishes/utensils for serving grass. Some are glass, some are stainless steel, some are ornate, some are simply functional. Don't forget to heat the grass while serving - and don't forget to share, that is pass it along.
Twinky, the catterpillers are mean to your garden. They are destroying it, right? There are some caterpillars (and true pillars of the garden community) that are beneficial. But if a bug is destroying my garden it is them or the food. Since I don't eat caterpillars the food growing in the garden wins every time.
It has taken me quite a few years to amend the clay soil in our area. Compost. I am going to try something new this coming fall.....the lasagna method.
This may or may not work for the caterpillars it certainly works for white fly and mites and aphids.
Fill a bucket with warm soapy water(I use Dawn Dish soap, which seems to be the most effective)
Then go out and really douse your tree/bush. be sure to get the undersides of the leaves too and do not use sparingly... IF you have n of those pump sprayers use that.
but I like to just take my buckets of water and heave them over my bigger plants.
You would be surprised how effective this is.... and the plants love the dish soap.
any way it also works for powdery mildew.
I think the bugs don't like the flavor of the soap.
I have used safer soap but i find it really harsh on my skin... as in I get the tingly hands .. I am assuming it has sulfa/sulfer in it which I am allergic to but I can have my hands in the dish soap all day and no worries.
Also the dish soap really gives the plants a boost for some reason. I am not sure why!
You can also add one ounce of Listerine to the gallon of soapy water. Set your hose end sprayer on one ounce (If you have one) and spray the bush. Don't do it within two weeks of harvesting. If you have mulch near the bushes it may attract a certain kind of caterpillar. . . soft mulch brings one. . . hard mulch another. If you do spray the decomposed bugs back on the bush. . . it may deter the bugs, but attract larger things like crows who will just eat the berries.
You can always hang a dead crow near the bushes. . . that deters them! :) Gross, but farmers do use this to keep birds out of their garden. YUCK!!
I must not have read enough. . . I am confused as to why you would need to hill corn? We have never done this. . . I have never seen it done? Is it because you are planting beans along the bottom?
It must have been back a few pages, but someone posted about Willows. I bought some from a mail order thing about 10 years ago. . . accelerated growth. . . the size of a pencil when I got them. We moved them all around the property. . . . drove hubby crazy. . . finally I lined the side of the garden near the road with them. . . we composted them with the sheep "stuff" and they took off. Huge trees now. They don't weep, but they are the talk of the town. They just grew like crazy. . . full size trees and a nice block for the road.
At the same time I planted the willows I planted a scrub tree that I dug up from under a high tension wire. One scraggly root hanging. Everyone laughed a me. Told me it would never grow. It is a mystery tree. . . but it now tops the house. We put it behind the playhouse in the back and it gives lovely shade in the summer. . . . .
I still laugh and mutter " Tell me something isn't going to grow!"
Farmers shoot them to hang on the edge of their gardens. . . old timers. It is a disgusting deterrent, but I guess effective. I just think it is gross.
And yes, same thing I told my children. . . don't handle them.
Waysider may or may not remember what I learned the hard way - the creosote some bozo gives you to spray on the railroad ties around the flowers beds do not benefit the patch of grass where you dump out the remainder and spray the container clean.
Limb Leader nearly provided us with more organic fertilizer than we could ever want.
Waysider may or may not remember what I learned the hard way - the creosote some bozo gives you to spray on the railroad ties around the flowers beds do not benefit the patch of grass where you dump out the remainder and spray the container clean.
Limb Leader nearly provided us with more organic fertilizer than we could ever want.
But it did grow back eventually.
WG
I remember slapping creosote on the railroad ties but I don't recall that specific incident.
I drove by the old place recently in the course of a work day.
It seems the BRC may have been returned to its original usage as a party barn. At least that's what the sign at the edge of the parking lot indicates.
I thought at first that the house out front had been torn down but on closer examination, discovered it was buried in weeds and overgrowth.
Of course, the good news is that, somewhere underneath all that brush and bramble, there are some railroad ties that are probably in pristine condition.
Picked more greenbeans and yellow crook neck squash today. Just noticed today tinksie tiny butterbeans. Still waiting for that first tomato sandwich from my garden. Yes, my garden produces tomato sandwiches. I dun tole ya I got some bodacious compost.
Twinky, did you ever get your garden soil tested?
Can't purchase creosote anymore, right? Used that on the railings around the horse pens in my other "life."
We had hail two night in a row, couldn't get everything covered so lots of the garden took a beating. All the herbs took it well, but tomatoes and peppers got hit. Hopefully they will recover!
My brother planted a huge garden with all types of potaoes--we'll have potatoes for the winter--blue, red gold etc!
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kimberly
gc, black eyed peas are for luck and collard greens are for dollars. I plant enough collard greens the end of August to last us all winter long. Oh, honey everybody, I have maters and more maters.
kimberly
Bramble, so sorry about your garden. Our weather has been crazy too. This time of year we are accustomed to the feeling of a hot wet towel wrapped around the face when we are outside. But it has
kimberly
When referring to the herb garden I meant the annuals. I broke down and watered/fertilized the dill and basil. I am hoping for a comeback. The perinnial's (sp?)are forging on. Nothing seems to f
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RumRunner
Bacon - food of the demi-gods. GARLIC - food of the high gods - especially when served with rare/raw meat
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Watered Garden
All gardeners in the Midwest - the Japanese beetles are here! Found a few on the baby willow trees yesterday and sprayed with Sevin Dust. This morning I sprayed the roses, some of which were showing damage, the raspberry canes, and some baby oak trees. These creatures are nasty and voracious. They will strip a raspberry, eating both leaves and fruit! Sevin Dust gets them away but must be reapplied every so often, especially after a rain. It is harmless to people and you can spray it on food producing plants.
We didn't have too much trouble with the damn things when we lived in town, but hereabouts they are plentiful - and hungry! And there were a couple on the raspberries!
You realize of course that this means WAR!
WG
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waysider
Are you on well water there?
Those willows will seek out groundwater and draw down the immediate area of the aquafer.
That might have a direct effect on the functionality of your well and related equipment.
Cottonwoods and alfalfa grass will do the same. Alfalfa will send roots down 100's of feet in search of water.
That's good news if you are trying to dry out a wet area and bad news if you are not.
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Watered Garden
There is only one weeping willow and it is two acres behind the well. The other four are a hybrid sort that has a more upright habit. They are also at the back of the lot. Our next door neighbor put in a pond, and they built up an embankment almost to the property line, thus causing us to have a very very low spot on our side of the property line, which is usually kind of swampy and is where we planted the willows. If the deer ever leave them alone they will be very pretty indeed. They will also make a nice windbreak.
I cannot remember the name of the willow but I think it was in Stark's catalog. They use it as a windbreak around golf courses and such. Mine usually smell of cayenne pepper and rotten eggs from the RepelsAll that keeps Bambi from nibbling the new growth away.
WG
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kimberly
Yum yum yummy!!!!! We have yellow crook neck squash and green bell pepper. The greenbeans are about 1/2 the size of a #2 pencil. The tomatoes are big and fat and still green. This is one southern mama who does not do fried green tomatoes. The speckled butterbeans have flowers. The carrots are a wash.
I pruned the basil, Italian parsley, and dill to dry and have enough to share with others. It has been a couple of years since I planted corn but it is doing wonderful. It is growing and hilled it up the other day. I love to hear the leaves rustle in the breeze.
Rum, meat ain't meat without garlic. I can't think of anything I don't add a smidgen of garlic to. That means even cookies or cakes. Seriously. It grows wild in our yards. What southerners think is wild spring onions growing in our yards is really wild garlic.
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Twinky
Well, my gooseberry bush has suffered again. Its leaves were flourishing and then disappeared overnight. Then the leaves appeared again and the bush was flourishing. Now they are all gone again.
I think it's gooseberry sawfly. Presumably a flying critter, that leaves a larva which turns into a voracious caterpillar. Any suggestions, gang?
Nothing in my garden seemes to be thriving this year. However, I have dosed everything with Epsom salts (which contain magnesium and sulfur) and then a week or 10 days later gave another boost with Miracle-Gro. Some things are now showing movement/growth. At long last!!
I was given some sweetcorn plants which I have never tried growing before. I followed advice on this thread. Those plants are growing nicely, best thing in the garden. They are underplanted with low-growing crawly plants like marrows/zucchini/squash/round cucumber.
If I were relying on my garden this year, I think starvation would be imminent :( .
Hey Kimberley what is this about "hilling up" corn? Do I have to rake up the soil, like with potatoes? Not going to be possible, with the underplantings, which I have seen recommended in a number of places. Presumably the raised soil is to improve the wind resistance of the plants?
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leafytwiglet
This may or may not work for the caterpillars it certainly works for white fly and mites and aphids.
Fill a bucket with warm soapy water(I use Dawn Dish soap, which seems to be the most effective)
Then go out and really douse your tree/bush. be sure to get the undersides of the leaves too and do not use sparingly... IF you have n of those pump sprayers use that.
but I like to just take my buckets of water and heave them over my bigger plants.
You would be surprised how effective this is.... and the plants love the dish soap.
any way it also works for powdery mildew.
I think the bugs don't like the flavor of the soap.
I have used safer soap but i find it really harsh on my skin... as in I get the tingly hands .. I am assuming it has sulfa/sulfer in it which I am allergic to but I can have my hands in the dish soap all day and no worries.
Also the dish soap really gives the plants a boost for some reason. I am not sure why!
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waysider
It's because most dish soaps currently contain phosphorous.
Plants like that.
New environmental laws are changing that because soaps containing phosphorous, when released into watersheds, promote algae growth which, in turn, strips oxygen from the water. And that's some "bad chicken".
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leafytwiglet
I went to the Dawn detergent site... apparently dawn hand dish soap does not contain phosphates per the company but according to some online person it did before 1998.
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kimberly
Twinky, baby, if you have caterpillars you should be able to see them. Pluck them bad boys off, put them in a glass jar with some water. Let them stew for a couple of days in the sun. Spray your plants with this rotteness. It is a great deterrent(sp?) Any dead decomposed bug will do for the entire garden.
Yes, you have to hill corn. If your rows have other food growing in them then you must get soil to hill up the corn. My corn, as well as everything else, is planted in raised rows. I hilled the butterbeans and greenbeans yesterday. The stalk is too spindley to hold up the bush. I don't plant runners so I have to hill them up. The roots of corn grow near the top of the soil. Thus, the need to be hilled. By the time the corn is harvested the soil is hilled up around the stalk some 12 inches. That is why corn can be planted close together in the rows but a good distance from row to row. Once they get near maturity, as far as height goes, they support each other with their leaves.
Two days ago I posted the size of the greenbeans...guess what...I picked greenbeans yesterday. That is how quickly they matured. The spring rains have been good. Honestly, I am a bit surprised myself how quickly the greenbeans matured. The maturation for this heirloom says 70 days. Mine matured more than 20 days less than that.
The butterbeans are still threads, due to the replanting. But they are coming along.
Now, as far as phosphates go...just use wood ash. As natural as it comes. Old limbs fall from the oak and pecan trees and we burn it. We can do that where we live. It has to be worked into the soil 6 to 8 inches.
Twinky, your hard work and care will pay off. You are doing all the right stuff.
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Twinky
Mean thing to do with the caterpillars. But if it works...
I haven't seen any on the bush, but then, it's not in the most accessible of places. When I find 'em on the brassicas and on other things, I chop them in half with the secateurs.
A bonfire is good, then work the ash in. I missed having one last fall. I have got something, a brazier wannabe, to burn wood in, so that I can use the woodash.
This has been my most unsuccessful year ever as a gardener. It was a lawn before it was a vege garden; previous house-owner had tried a vege garden and didn't get on well with it and so turfed it when she put the house on the market for sale. She wasn't much of a gardener, though. Probably trying to grow illegal plants, LOL. I wonder if there was something dormant in the soil and it had just enough in it to support one decent year's growth (last year). But then, I worked in a large quantity of mature hoss muck when I built the garden. Lots of clay-ey stuff, and rocks (field brash) not too far down.
It takes years of care to get a decent soil. My mum's cottage's soil has been worked for over 300 years and is so beautiful and light, it will grow anything. So different from her other house, only 250 yds away, which had been a field before my dad's 25 years of work on it and then her own and my further 25 years or so. ...My house is probably over 120 years old. Who knows what the garden has been used for?
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waysider
Wood ash (potash) will help to increase the potassium level but not the phosphorous level.
Fertilizers, such as Miracle-Gro, serve to supplement the three key nutritional requirements of plants---nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. It's important to know the individual requirements of the plants you are fertilizing. For instance, the main requirement for sod is nitrogen. (Lightning "strikes" release high levels of nitrogen and cause the affected area to green-up and grow quite nicely. But, you certainly can't control where lightning decides to strike.)) That's why Miracle-Gro makes a special recipe just for grass that is high in nitrogen. Their other products are formulated with this same concept in mind. Taking this one step further, consider that the soil you are trying to grow veggies in was previously used to grow sod, which placed a high demand for nitrogen on it. Around this part of the country, you can somewhat predict the future for a particular piece of farm land. What I mean is, if a particular piece of land has historically been used for corn and soy beans but is now being used to cultivate sod, it's a pretty good bet the land is being deliberately played out of its nitrogen supply in anticipation of non-agricultural development.
And, though the topic here is not lawns, here is a link that helps to establish this basic concept of first determining the proper nitrogen/phosphorous/potassium ratio for the particular plant being fertilized.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/4000/4006.html
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RumRunner
OK - PLEASE TAKE THE FOLLOWING WITH A SENSE OF HUMOR.
Since Waysider brought up fertilizer and ended up with lawns - that is GRASS - we come to the following conclusions.
a) All of you must live in Egypt where locust infestation is a daily event.
b) Monday - the Southwestern Butt-Licker bugs have destroyed my potatoes
c) Tuesday - but the cabbage is fine
d) Wednesday - the Midwestern Cornfield bugs have destroyed my flax seeds
e) Thursday - but the tomatoes are fine
d) Friday - the Central European commie infiltrator bugs got to my tomatoes
Woe is me - my garden is gone
Now if we consider that there is a crop that WS discussed briefly that grows healthily almost everywhere (a lawn) - one might call it a lawn or one might call it "grass" - but HEY whatever you call your grass/lawn the problem is solved as long as you are growing grass. Heck there are even special serving dishes/utensils for serving grass. Some are glass, some are stainless steel, some are ornate, some are simply functional. Don't forget to heat the grass while serving - and don't forget to share, that is pass it along.
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waysider
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kimberly
Funny, Rum, very funny.
Twinky, the catterpillers are mean to your garden. They are destroying it, right? There are some caterpillars (and true pillars of the garden community) that are beneficial. But if a bug is destroying my garden it is them or the food. Since I don't eat caterpillars the food growing in the garden wins every time.
It has taken me quite a few years to amend the clay soil in our area. Compost. I am going to try something new this coming fall.....the lasagna method.
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RumRunner
Flawless! Thanks!
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geisha779
You can also add one ounce of Listerine to the gallon of soapy water. Set your hose end sprayer on one ounce (If you have one) and spray the bush. Don't do it within two weeks of harvesting. If you have mulch near the bushes it may attract a certain kind of caterpillar. . . soft mulch brings one. . . hard mulch another. If you do spray the decomposed bugs back on the bush. . . it may deter the bugs, but attract larger things like crows who will just eat the berries.
You can always hang a dead crow near the bushes. . . that deters them! :) Gross, but farmers do use this to keep birds out of their garden. YUCK!!
I must not have read enough. . . I am confused as to why you would need to hill corn? We have never done this. . . I have never seen it done? Is it because you are planting beans along the bottom?
It must have been back a few pages, but someone posted about Willows. I bought some from a mail order thing about 10 years ago. . . accelerated growth. . . the size of a pencil when I got them. We moved them all around the property. . . . drove hubby crazy. . . finally I lined the side of the garden near the road with them. . . we composted them with the sheep "stuff" and they took off. Huge trees now. They don't weep, but they are the talk of the town. They just grew like crazy. . . full size trees and a nice block for the road.
At the same time I planted the willows I planted a scrub tree that I dug up from under a high tension wire. One scraggly root hanging. Everyone laughed a me. Told me it would never grow. It is a mystery tree. . . but it now tops the house. We put it behind the playhouse in the back and it gives lovely shade in the summer. . . . .
I still laugh and mutter " Tell me something isn't going to grow!"
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waysider
If you should discover a dead Crow or Bluejay, do NOT handle it!
Contact your local authorities.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060901185431.htm
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geisha779
Farmers shoot them to hang on the edge of their gardens. . . old timers. It is a disgusting deterrent, but I guess effective. I just think it is gross.
And yes, same thing I told my children. . . don't handle them.
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geisha779
ooops
Edited by geisha779
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Watered Garden
Waysider may or may not remember what I learned the hard way - the creosote some bozo gives you to spray on the railroad ties around the flowers beds do not benefit the patch of grass where you dump out the remainder and spray the container clean.
Limb Leader nearly provided us with more organic fertilizer than we could ever want.
But it did grow back eventually.
WG
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waysider
I remember slapping creosote on the railroad ties but I don't recall that specific incident.
I drove by the old place recently in the course of a work day.
It seems the BRC may have been returned to its original usage as a party barn. At least that's what the sign at the edge of the parking lot indicates.
I thought at first that the house out front had been torn down but on closer examination, discovered it was buried in weeds and overgrowth.
Of course, the good news is that, somewhere underneath all that brush and bramble, there are some railroad ties that are probably in pristine condition.
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kimberly
Picked more greenbeans and yellow crook neck squash today. Just noticed today tinksie tiny butterbeans. Still waiting for that first tomato sandwich from my garden. Yes, my garden produces tomato sandwiches. I dun tole ya I got some bodacious compost.
Twinky, did you ever get your garden soil tested?
Can't purchase creosote anymore, right? Used that on the railings around the horse pens in my other "life."
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Bramble
We had hail two night in a row, couldn't get everything covered so lots of the garden took a beating. All the herbs took it well, but tomatoes and peppers got hit. Hopefully they will recover!
My brother planted a huge garden with all types of potaoes--we'll have potatoes for the winter--blue, red gold etc!
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