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WEEKLY GARDEN THREAD VOLUME 42 OCT. 17, 2014
Free Republic | 10/17/2014 | greeneyes

Posted on 10/17/2014 12:32:51 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: Don W

Be careful. Recovery from surgery is important. If the weather cooperates I’ll be planting some rye for cover crop this weekend.

Still trying to clean up the cyclone that built up while I was gone to Branson.

This reminds me - I had planted some leftover supermarket potatoes to see what would happen and if they would winter over and sprout in the spring.

I actually have a bushy plant about 3 inches tall sticking out of the top of the straw. Hubby says it’ll die back and come out in the spring.


21 posted on 10/17/2014 5:46:33 PM PDT by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: Starstruck

Somehow I just never got into any stuff that involved green tomatoes. My mom used to love fried green tomatoes, but I thought they were yucky. Ditto for the chow chow I tried.


22 posted on 10/17/2014 5:48:20 PM PDT by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: greeneyes
Somehow I just never got into any stuff that involved green tomatoes. My mom used to love fried green tomatoes, but I thought they were yucky. Ditto for the chow chow I tried.

The relish we used to get had a sweet sour taste. A bowl of hot flavored chili with a couple of spoonful's of the relish added kinda off to the side augmented the flavor. I had some chow-chow that I did the same thing with last year which was good but not great.

23 posted on 10/17/2014 6:21:35 PM PDT by Starstruck (If my reply offends, you probably don't understand sarcasm or criticism...or do.)
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To: greeneyes

Got a few cauliflower plants in the ground today. Hope to get some nice big heads like we did last year. My in-laws have a sweet yellow apple tree and it has a lot of fruit. Wife loves it and wants me to graft some onto our pear trees next year.


24 posted on 10/17/2014 6:37:01 PM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (Guns are like parachutes. If you need one and don't have one, you'll probably never need one again.)
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To: Arrowhead1952

We’ll be planting some apple trees next year. The ones we have are too close to the walnut tree, and not doing well.

In fact none of the trees in that orchard are doing well-even the ones that are supposed to tolerate the toxin.


25 posted on 10/17/2014 6:59:15 PM PDT by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: greeneyes

We’re in the final 10 day to 2 weeks of Indian Summer here. Many of the leeks have actually started to form bulbs about twice the size of the main stems. The last of the corn is harvested.

Oddly, the turkeys, which love cracked or whole corn have not the least idea what unshelled corn is, or what to do with it. They just looked at it, then walked away when I shucked and tossed them some ears; the chickens fight over it.

In August, I found some old, rotted squash (both an unknown “squashkin” cross; and a couple of oversized pattypan) from last year that I had stored in a plastic tub in the basement, to get seed from...and forgot about. To clean the mess, I filled the tub with water, and let it sit a few days until it was pretty much liquified, then used it to water the sweet potatoes.

After some rain following a frost about three weeks ago, that area was suddenly full of squash seedlings—then it lightly frosted again, killing them. Then it rained again last week, and by the weekend a bunch more had sprouted. I took pity this week, and potted the 4 strongest looking. They are now putting out their first set of true leaves, and this weekend I’ll have to put them into large containers, and try to over-winter them.

Not sure if I mentioned that my Troy’s engine threw a rod through the block while tilling in corn stalks, but I had a spare from the old tiller, so Wednesday (I only have about 2 hours of daylight left after work) I got the blown engine off; and yesterday, got the new one mounted. It’ll still have to visit the shop for final setup & adjustments, plus the usual end of season service, but at least it’s an hour to 2 hours of shop labor I won’t be charged for.

Yes, the old Kohler engine is a cast iron workhorse that ran better than the much newer alloy-cased Tecumseh engine that blew. It was transmission bearings that did in the older tiller, and it wasn’t cost effective to replace them.


26 posted on 10/17/2014 11:17:12 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Love me, love my guns!©)
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To: left that other site

Hope you had a happy birthday, and a good ride.


27 posted on 10/17/2014 11:20:12 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Love me, love my guns!©)
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To: All
Still fairly warm weather in Central Texas and the tomatoes that managed to summer over are starting to produce. Strangely the bell peppers are doing better now than they did in the spring. Go figure.

Have given up trying to find any frisee (aka curly endive) in stores and have obtained some seeds.

Does anyone have any experience growing it in this part of the world?

28 posted on 10/18/2014 3:19:41 AM PDT by Proud_texan (Straddling the line between ambition and stupidity)
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To: greeneyes
In fact none of the trees in that orchard are doing well-even the ones that are supposed to tolerate the toxin.

Have you tested the soil? Sounds like you may have soil issues.

29 posted on 10/18/2014 4:53:56 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (Guns are like parachutes. If you need one and don't have one, you'll probably never need one again.)
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To: ApplegateRanch

Thanks!
I had a great ride, and then settled in at home with a film-making Documentary and a nice Cabernet.

:-)


30 posted on 10/18/2014 5:19:45 AM PDT by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: Arrowhead1952

No, but Hubby did his usual soil improvement before planting the trees, and so it should be the same as the ones that are doing well elsewhere in the yard.

I didn’t want them planted where he put them anyway, because I wanted to build a basement/root cellar with a carriage house/storage building on top at that spot, when I win the lottery.LOL


31 posted on 10/18/2014 11:15:51 AM PDT by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: Arrowhead1952

I planted some about 3 weeks ago. Have a few tiny sprouts. Do you know how low the temp can go to still have growth?


32 posted on 10/18/2014 11:18:28 AM PDT by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: greeneyes; JRandomFreeper; rightly_dividing; sockmonkey; Nepeta; Silentgypsy; ApplegateRanch; ...

The little Cherry Punch cherry tomato plant refuses to die and has 11 small tomatoes on it. I’ll try to keep it alive through the winter by bringing it inside. I have a Tromboncino squash growing up an iron archway, and there are two small, like one inch, baby squash on it. The five Mandarin oranges on the dwarf tree are finally beginning to turn from deep green to a lighter green, hopefully meaning the color orange is on the way.

A week ago this past Wednesday, I thought my 3 1/2 pound Yorkie, Prissy, was gone. She went in the backyard when Bob took something out and he came back in – he didn’t see her go outside with him as he was carrying a big box. Being in the backyard wasn’t a bad thing as she couldn’t get out – except she did. The gate going to the driveway hadn’t totally clicked shut as the spring was loose. The last time we saw her was about an hour before we missed her.

I went outside in the front of the house, looked up and down the street and started calling her and got no response. Bob had already made good, big signs and put those on either side of the mail box. Then, we got in the car and rode up and down streets close to us and no dog.

Then, we went to the Vet office close to the house and went to the dog dept. of our town and down the road to the other dog dept. of the next town. The way these towns are, one street belongs to one town and across the street belongs to the other town. Our close area is a mixture of the two towns. All three places we went were on one street on the same side.

I thought for sure someone had picked up this little dog with a pink bow in her hair, and took off with her. I was miserable. She didn’t have a collar on as a collar mats up her hair since she is a long haired dog. I knew if I got her back, she was getting a microchip immediately and would also wear that collar even if it matted her hair.

Within a hour, Bob answered the phone and a lady said she had our dog and would bring her right over. She had called the dog dept. of one of the towns and they gave her our address and phone number since we had just been there no longer than an hour ago.

The woman came, a beautiful, young woman. She had taken her two kids to the school near us and saw this little dog standing in the middle of the road which she said looked like Prissy was saying, “I need help.” She took her home and made pictures of her, put her on her Facebook page to see if any of her friends knew where this dog lived. Then, she called that dog place and got our number.

We went back to the vet with Prissy and made an appt. for the next day to get her chipped. I also found that round collars instead of flat collars, don’t cause matting on long haired dogs. I ordered a round collar and a new tag with her name and current phone number. So, she will wear two tags – one due to the microchip saying where to call, plus she will have the new tag and collar when it gets here. She is wearing the microchip tag and old collar right now.

I truly thought she was gone. The house was so quiet without her and the backyard was quiet – she wasn’t anywhere. I never want that to happen again. The gate has been fixed so it solidly shuts and we make sure it shuts when we use it.


33 posted on 10/18/2014 11:48:49 AM PDT by Marcella (Prepping can save your life today. Going Galt is freedom.)
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To: Marcella

I’m so glad that you got Prissy back!


34 posted on 10/18/2014 11:51:07 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Marcella

So glad you found her pretty quickly. That tomato plant will be nice this winter.


35 posted on 10/18/2014 12:04:08 PM PDT by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: Marcella

Ditto on the “glad you got Prissy back” Sentiments. Also, I’ve been thinking about you (aka, worrying) and hoping you don’t catch any respiratory or worse diseases at those crowded casinos.

I have lots of greens, a smattering of tomatoes, salad stuff, and am trying to stay out of the grocery stores as much as possible. I almost sprinted away from the cart return area this am as a small child in one of those carts that looks like a car was coughing to beat the band there.


36 posted on 10/18/2014 12:14:27 PM PDT by sockmonkey (Of course I didn't read the article. After all, this is Free Republic.)
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To: Proud_texan
Have given up trying to find any frisee (aka curly endive) in stores and have obtained some seeds.

Not sure where in Central TX you are, but I bought some at my Mom and Pop nursery here in Central TX, and I think it was from Peterson Bros nursery in San Antonio..

37 posted on 10/18/2014 12:21:28 PM PDT by sockmonkey (Of course I didn't read the article. After all, this is Free Republic.)
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To: Marcella

Wow I am so glad you got her back. My little 10 pound maltese/yorkie mix always goes out on a leash. We have 10 acres but no fenced in yard and with owls and hawks I would never let him out alone. He is chipped but wears a collar too with our phone number on it. About a year ago I was leaving our house and found a female yorkie just standing in the middle of a busy street. I drove up to her, opened my car door and she came right in. I drove 2 miles to the vet and he checked to see if she had a chip, she did, and I called it in and got her owners number. She lived about a mile from my house and had dug under the fence. Chips are great. Our local animal shelter does them for 10.00 twice a year.


38 posted on 10/18/2014 12:28:33 PM PDT by MomwithHope (Please support efforts in your state for an Article 5 convention.)
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To: sockmonkey

Just north in New Braunfels. Thanks, good to know, appreciate it.


39 posted on 10/18/2014 12:41:51 PM PDT by Proud_texan (Straddling the line between ambition and stupidity)
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To: Marcella

Glad you had a happy ending to the Prissy saga. It is terrifying to have one get away like that.


40 posted on 10/18/2014 3:25:50 PM PDT by rightly_dividing (Liberals donÂ’t think along the same lines as Americans--FReeper ScottinVA)
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