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How many Knotheads are gardners?
How many Knotheads are gardners? (post #151151)
DanCC on Sun, 04/25/2010 - 10:10
I have noticed the traffic being down some myself and I am wondering how many out there are busy with getting there yards in order, vegetables planted etc. I know that after a bad winter here (had 38 inches of snow in one storm) there is a great deal more to do around the yard this year than normal. While I have gotten the most pressing damage cleaned up, I still have a lot of things tthat will need some hard pruning and cutting back to get them back on track to look nice next year. Snow load weight things down a bunch. On the good side my asparagus is at least two weeks early this year and the lettice an spinich that winter over the cold frames are going like gangbusters. Anyone else out there being kept out the shop by 'spring planting' this year?
DanC
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Oh boy! Pruned the fruit (post #151151, reply #1 of 27)
Oh boy! Pruned the fruit trees in early march, gave the rubarb early fertilizer, Pre emergence sprayed the fruit trees, cleaned mulch off the strawberry plants, almost ready for after petal drop spraying of fruit trees. And thats the easy part, veggie garden is more work. Plan on a larger garden this year as a hedge against what obama may do.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
We've had terrible winters (post #151151, reply #2 of 27)
We've had terrible winters for the last few years, heavy storms, huricane force winds, even a micro burst a while back. Mature trees are uprooted others broken off, power lines down. The landscaping is a disaster and it can't be fixed easily. I need some tree climbing gear and a back hoe, it's a never ending battle lately. We are a bit afraid to plant anything until after Mother's day up here but I've added a bunch to the perrenial garden along with a couple of shrubs. Leaves have just started to come out. I already have a few flats of annuals but I have to keep them under cover at night. Once the full moon has past the end of this month, we should be good to go. Loving the extra daylight.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
and so it goes... (post #151151, reply #5 of 27)
I have a wisteria that was trained up over some 6 inch I beam that is sunk in to the ground about 6 feet (Prior owner used to pull tractor motors in the yard, and there is not way that thing is coming out). Anyway the snow load pulled it off the beam and I am going to have to prune it real hard, but I have to wait until it is done bloming for this year, so we will get flowers next year. Gardens don't wait, they are like kids, they set the schedule...
DanC
and there is not way that (post #151151, reply #11 of 27)
and there is not way that thing is coming out......
Unless the post was set in concrete you CAN get it out with ALOT of work, some chain, and a common car jack! You wiil need a post on the ground to support the jack. The chain and hook my take a bit of 'doing to grab'.. And probably you will have to work all sides.
I had to laugh about this post.... . I was a tank recovery mechanic in the US Army Artillary. I worked with the M88 tank retriever.. Not the A1 or A2 modern ones.
See this link.. Just the M88 nothing bad..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M88_Recovery_Vehicle
Guess what.. I tried to pull out a very large fence post (large steel gate postl) at Fort Hood Texas... Back in the very early 1960's. I used the back winch... Long ago so I do not remember the exact sizes. I 'think' the steel cable was 1 inch thick. Maybe 3/4 inch.. Not sure now. Hooked the cable and winch to the post. The casting for the winch gears shattered! Amazing! I have pulled out fully loaded 8 inch self propelled artillery piece like the old M55. Not sure the same gun but looks close but not exactally what I remember it being. I think they were about 40 US Tons...
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/m55-8-pics.htm
Have a great day.. Life is wonderful even if you are having a bad day!
not coming out... (post #151151, reply #13 of 27)
Oh it is set in concrete. It is in fact two 6 inch "I" beams about 8 feet apart, joined together (with welds and gussets) to a third "I" beam about 10 feet above the ground. I had a Deputy Sheriff here one day who had helped in the instillation while he was in high school. According to him, they sunk a 12 inch auger bit into the ground about 8 feet or so, lifted the whole mess up with a fork lift and held it in place while pouring concrete in around the holes. Maybe with the equipment you had in the Army, we might be able to make an impression on it, but it would even then take some work. I figured planting wistera and hanging a poarch swing on it was a better use of time and energy. I will try to post a picture later today.
DanC
Okay here is the picture I (post #151151, reply #14 of 27)
Okay here is the picture I promised. As you can see it is a piece of work.
DanC
Finally a weekend with no (post #151151, reply #3 of 27)
I LOVE Plants! I cannot grow (post #151151, reply #4 of 27)
I LOVE Plants! I cannot grow them..
They all die on me. I have many spring plants the come up every year. For about 40 years or so. If I plant new things near them they just die? My weeds can grow in abundance! If I plant local wild flowers (I love them and some will say that they are only weeds).. I think not.. My wild flowers never survive?
Most of my back yard is filled with, I think, is Red clover.. I LOVE IT! But my planting of local plants never survive.. Chicago area hear... Zone 5 here? Maybe zone 7? Opinions....
Have a great day.. Life is wonderful even if you are having a bad day!
Close, but not quite zone 7.... (post #151151, reply #6 of 27)
We are just at the edge of zone 6, with zone 7 being just about Richmond (100 miles south). In some ways this is a great area to garden in because with careful selection you can grow both northern and southern plants. I have lilics in the back yard as a hedge by one fence line and on the other fence line, my neighbor has camelias. I also grow a great crop of weeds... I planted hops vines a couple of years ago in the hope they would out grow the virginia creeper and so far so good. Now I just need to find that beer receipt....
DanC
Dan, Gardening is a passion (post #151151, reply #7 of 27)
Dan,
Gardening is a passion for me although I complain to my wife every year that think I'll cut back..... then get more plants. She just laughs at me.
I do some veggies like tomatoes and peppers but for me color is the key and I do mostly flowers. I have seven different gardens, combining full sun to partial shade. One of my favorites is a cottage garden I put on a slope facing the driveway; monarda, lots of different phlox, poppies, astilbe, Heliopolis,meadow rue, fennel, hyssop,eupatorium,day lilies,Shasta daisies and asters.
Another area is dedicated to a variety of sunflowers. One garden I use exclusively for dahlias. I love having a blast of color at the end of the year. I just expanded that garden so there is 30 in there. The other end of it, I use for annuals like giant zinnias. The border is done in tall grasses with fruit trees behind it.
Like you I'm a zone six. I'm fortunate to have lots of sun and good soil. This time of year is tough as you know, getting it all ready and ship shape. What makes it all worth while is in the evening my wife will say to me "Let's walk around the park"
If I ever learn how to post pictures here I'll put a few up.
Peter
It is a passion.... (post #151151, reply #8 of 27)
I agree with you that it is a passion. I am not the flower gardener you are by any means. Most of my attention is in the vegetable garden. My wife is the flower gardener and the general staw boss. I am doing a patch of sunflowers this year (at least I ordered the seeds). We are not blessed with good soil; here on the edge of the mountains, we have heavy clay that requires lots of sand and organic matter to get any kind of til to the soil. I understand why so many of the colonial buildings in this part of the county were made of brick -- clay is everywhere to make bricks.
I too will post some picture when I fuge out how...
DanC
We grow a vegetable garden (post #151151, reply #9 of 27)
We grow a vegetable garden every year - for the most part organically. RIght now the peas are about 8" tall, we.ve got potatoes in, spinach, lettuce, various greens. Our winter kale has bolted so the flavor is going south. In about a month we'll get to the squash, cukes, tomatoes eggplant, etc.
Our soil is heavy clay and too, the ground is soggy all winter and won't dry out until late in the spring. I've put in raised beds for veggies.
sounds great... Pulled our kale out... (post #151151, reply #10 of 27)
Your garden sounds close to mine. My peas are not quite as far along. peas are always kind of hit or miss around here. We tend to have short springs and there is not always enought cool weather for them to get up and bare a crop before the heat arrives. I have not planted by warm weather crops yet as our last front date in mid-May. I wintered over leeks this year for the first time and they should be ready in a few weeks. Then I will plant that bed in cucumbers for pickles. I also planted bulb fennel, carrots, lettice, spinich, garlic (wintered over) and shallots (wintered over). We are getting about a pound of aspergus daily right now. For the next couple of weeks it will be asperegus for breakfast, lunch and dinner --- we are always looking for new ways to cook it.
DanC
Picute of veggie patch... (post #151151, reply #15 of 27)
Here is a picture of the veggie patch.
DanC
That's a nice looking patch (post #151151, reply #16 of 27)
That's a nice looking patch Dan, I like the straw but around here it's simply another place for the gigantic slugs to hide. Our weather has been horrible this spring: It rained 25 of 30 days in April and it was cold. It froze the two previous nights so the garden has been on hold. I did get a trailer load of mint compost last week to put down into some of the empty beds and sprinkled a llitte around the raspberries.
Garden pests. (post #151151, reply #17 of 27)
Thanks for the nice words. SLugs are not a huge problem around here. We do have them from time to time and a little beer traps or diatomaceous earth takes care of the problem. My critter issues are of the small, furry ones that hop. I was pleased to see a bit of fur on the ground next to the garden the other day and I suspect that the owl that lives the large oak tree across the road had some hunting luck. That old owl is a far better at pest control than anything I have ever seen at the store. Of course the deer aren't bother by him.
DanC
I can grow and keep all (post #151151, reply #12 of 27)
I can grow and keep all different colored.. I have lilics!
Have a great day.. Life is wonderful even if you are having a bad day!
I guess the answer is... "a lot" (post #151151, reply #18 of 27)
I am also a gardener. I built a new raised bed at our new house this spring. It has organic soil that is seed husks and compost - no weed seeds! I planted only veggies this year - crookneck squash, peas, onions, potatoes, 4 peppers and tomatoes. They are doing great so far - far better than any other garden I have had. No weeds so far and no pests yet either. I am gearing up for the beetle battle though, & I expect deer attacks and caterpillar snipers at any time.
No weeds!!! (post #151151, reply #19 of 27)
That just plane is not natural. Weeds are everywhere. how can you call youself a gardner without the battle of weeds? Good Luck, I hope you have found the secret to weedless beds. I spent an hour this morning weeding mine. Fennel is looking very good as are the peas. Aspergus is just about done; peas look to be another week or so. The strawberries are doing well. My wife put up the first few jars of jam yesterday. Looks like strawberry ice cream this weekend. I have been building a few trellis for the tomatoes. I find that I can play a bit with things I am putting outside -- the first time I did lambs tongue's was on a garden piece. You should post a picture of your weedless beds!!
DanC
OK - not totally weed free (post #151151, reply #20 of 27)
I do have to pluck about 7-8 weed sprouts per week out of it. I am wondering what it will look like next year though, after all of the weeds around it have spread their seeds. I am not confident that it will remain so nice. It will be easy to weed though, even if it does get some in it. I'll try to post a pic.
My garden so far (post #151151, reply #21 of 27)
OK here are a few pictures of the bed so far. The peppers haven't taken off as well as I expected so far, but they look healthy, so maybe they will fill out more later. That's the big space by the tomatoes. The potatoes are getting huge though.
loved the no (post #151151, reply #22 of 27)
SEI too, loved the no weeds!
I'm all for a new gardening standard. Weeds are what I can grow in abundance. The bugs do not seem to bother them a bit?
One of my problems is identifying weeds from the 'good' plants. I cannot grow a common Sunflower that thrives here in my area! And the common Hollyhock.. Yes, I love that flower?
I did have sucess growing many Canada thistle ( Cirsium arvense ) that is a persistent perennial weed in the northern half of North America. My many Cardinals just love them.... BUT.. I have more Thistle than I can deal with!
My early spring blub plants seem to survive nicely. I never tke them out of the groung. I only cover the soil with my huge amount of Maple leaves. I do admit that my bulb plants change growing each year. Some grow one year and others another year. I have no idea what will bloom in early spring or late winter..
I CAN grow potatoes, asparagus, corn, peas and beans. I love tomatoes but I hardly ever get many? Never tried bell peppers because they make me sick! Maybe Peanuts would work for me? I have never had a Rose survive. I get tall plants but no roses?
I wonder... I have more that just a few common garden snakes around my place. They seem to do OK unless I am mowing the lawn. I go really slow but still kill a few in a season. I do NOT try to kill them. Not a big fan of snakes, but I think they have a place on this planet, just as I do..
I have never used weed killers or other poisions in my large back/front yard.. I get tons of Robbins every year. They seem to feast every day? I never used chemicals because my children loved to play in the grass (full of weeds)....
My children (many women and the, Of age, boy) now married and off to a new place in life.
I find no dead animals in my yard that I have not seen a stray cat trying to haul off a baby bunny....
Life is so strange.. We love cats and they kill a baby bunny for no reason at all. They were FAT CATS I have seen trying to get under the fence with a baby bunny.. They gave up and dropped the now passed saving baby rabbit and jumped over the yard fence... Life is so strange
Have a great day.. Life is wonderful even if you are having a bad day!
What is a weed.... (post #151151, reply #23 of 27)
As long as it is green and survives being cut, it is not a weed in the lawn!! We have an acre and a half and I don't use any chemicals etc either in the yard. Too expensive for that much lawn. The vegetable garden gets mostly organic treatments as the chemicals are too hard to use without burning or overdoing. It is just about impossible to over fertilize with compost etc. I don't much in the way of root crops around here at all. Western Maryland is just about all rock and clay and there is a reason they make bricks out of clay.
I was once told that if you have a bunch of snakes around, don't get too upset as the alternative is an explosion in the rodent population that they are living on. We don' t have many snake around nor do we have the rodents; I have always attrributed that to the hawk that hunts from soem of the tall trees across the road. One morning here recently, the hawk caught some breakfast and proceeded to eat it about 10 feet out side the dining room picture window. We moved our meal into the kitchen.
DanC
I have always attrributed (post #151151, reply #24 of 27)
I have always attrributed that to the hawk that hunts from soem of the tall trees across the road. One morning here recently, the hawk caught some breakfast and proceeded to eat it about 10 feet out side the dining room picture window. We moved our meal into the kitchen.
I live VERY near the big airport here in Chicago.. O'Hare airport. MANY Halks around here? Maybe because we have MANY different birds and 'tree rats',,, I think the common name is a tree squirrel?
My mistake.. I feed the local animals, winter and summer, and I had to learn how to live with them..
And then again maybe I just rasied food for the local halks?
I think about God.. I then think why the local animals have to be killed (in pain).. To feed a top predator...???
OK get on my case. I think that a God would never allow this for a baby animal.. Maybe for a human that was from birth 'out of line" ALWAYS..
Have a great day.. Life is wonderful even if you are having a bad day!
Yucky Red Cherry crop (post #151151, reply #25 of 27)
Too wet ,too cold,few bees and a nasty case of fungus. Only one qt. :-( Will have to settle for a batch of muffins and not many cherry pies.
Tons of Strawberrys growing, hope they fare better.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Fruit trees and pasture grass (post #151151, reply #26 of 27)
If tending a few fruit trees and irrigating my pastures for horse food counts, then I'm a gardener.
The photo show some of the pasture and at the edge you can see my peach and apricot trees. The big cottonwoods are across the highway.
Bret
Does that count... (post #151151, reply #27 of 27)
Of that counts... your garden is just a little different scale. Working the land in a systematic way that yields produce (or fruit) or that adds beauty to feed the soul makes a garden. Clearly the fruit trees count as produce and for my money your pasture not only produces food for the horses, but the green space add beauty to feed the soul.
DanC