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Posted on 11/11/2011 5:06:00 AM PST by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners. Remembering Veterans Day. Here is a big Thank You to all who have served our Country. Just wondering how many of you gardeners are Veterans?
It is a Chilly 29 F here in East Central Mississippi. I have been trying to keep up with the leaves falling off the trees and I am hating the pine needles more and more everyday. I don’t use them in my compost pile because they take to long to break down. I pile them by the roadside and the county comes by once a week and vacuums them up.
I hope all your Fall gardens are prospering.
If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels from Master Gardener to novice.
First hard freeze here last nite. Weather is going to warm up and stay pretty nice though looks like till near Thanksgiving.
Got to make my hoop tunnel and plant the garlic/winter onions and this season is done.
Catalpas - they grow up north, my parents planted one 30 years ago and it is maintenance free. Not trashy other than the seed pods that are easily chopped with the mower. Don’t seem to be invasive. Bees love the flowers.
Mimosa - can’t grow them here but they are my favorite tree. Loved them at my aunt’s house in Alabama when I was a kid, don’t know much about growing them. Love the blooms. Hear they are invasive. Supposed to be highly nutritious fruits that have an orange flavor.
Black locust - if they’re like any other locust, maintenance free and good burning wood. Not trashy, puts off seed pods that are highly poisonous I believe.
Seaberry - takes two to pollinate, male and female so get both. Gets 6 to 8 feet in height. Maintenance free, we haven’t gotten any off ours yet because or male died and we just replanted it last year.
I did not get a single tomato this year. In early October the weather man got it wrong. Forcast was for a low in mid 30’s, but it got down to 28F. Froze everything.
This old combat vet (see profile) has just finished pulling up all the landscape fabric (thanks RD for all that info... it's Great stuff)and the deer fencing from our garden. The "Big Chill" is on the way and we have snow on the ground...
Can't wait to start on next Spring's garden!
Thanks for your reply, especially on those that you’ve had experience with.
Quick research on my part shows that the black locust pods/seeds are not poisonous, but don’t taste good like the honey locust.
Very interesting what you say about catalpas and bees.
I need something to feed bees when the fruit trees aren’t in bloom.
Some other research I’ve recently done shows the Catalpas to be attractive to a certain worm. That could be nasty, or it could be a very good source of protein for feeding fish and chickens.
Here’s another big thank you for all of you who have served our wonderful country!
We celebrated by posting a pic of our favorite veteran (82 yo combat vet of 26 years; served in Korea and Viet Nam) in the local newspaper.
We celebrated by going to a veterans program presented by the elementary school grades 1-3. My grand daughter got to lead the pledge to the flag.
There were patriotic songs, including the national anthem, and songs for each of the services; a slide show of pictures of the children’s relative and their branch of service. Then refreshments for the Veterans and visitors.
It was a really great tribute!
It’s all put to bed. Short days and 20F+/- every night is not conducive to gardening.
We had our first hard freeze last night - so its almost all over for the year. I covered a couple of cherry tomatoes and a few bell pepper plants, and they came through okay.
I picked all of the green tomatoes, and the peppers of any size, earlier in the week. I still have a row of lettuce, one of arugula, and some beets to get in.
That’s going to be it for the year outdoors here, but I love reading about other people’s gardens!
We had some snow yesterday, but my strawberries are still blooming! They just don’t want to quit.
My cherry bush died during the summer, but there was a mulberry sapling growing up through it, so we took care to cut the cherry away from it without hurting it. Mulberries are good.
I’m getting cabin fever a little early this year. Normally I don’t do my seed inventory until around January, but that’s done already. Now I’m anxiously waiting for seed catalogs to come in. Got the Gurneys one, but they don’t carry enough heirloom varieties for me, and their live plants are always DOA when I’ve ordered from them. Still, the pictures help.
I’m trying to get the final details worked out on my house designs. I need to set up a meeting with the county zoning board and I want to be ready. Had to put off building for 4 years due to health issues, it’s past time to get this done!
Best channel catfish bait there is!
I’ve got everything but the seaberry. Do you need to know anything in particular?
Next season I will use a string to get all my plants in a stright row! ;-0
The 3rd row is way off! If you go back a few weeks you can see how far off the 3rd row is and how close it is to the 4th row... Oh well... Farmer friend told me to run a string and tie it to the fence,, DUH, I should have thought of that..
Anyone ever grow beets? I am told they grow well down here. What do they taste like if you roast them or wrap it in foil and toss it in the fire? Perhaps a little butter and cinn? Thinking they should already be sweet if they are sugar beets...
Thanks for the comments.. I owe it all to sheep poop. That area had sheep on it for 15 years. The spot where the garden is happens to be where the sheep used to eat every morning... It had cows on it for 100 years before that.
pine needles: would they work as mulch? Cover a winter garden with them. Living in South FL we don’t get much free mulch. The palm trees stay green year round...
It would be a great mulch.
My rows are all 12’ long and I have a nice straight 12’ pole marked off every 12” for a planting stick. If it’s seed I use a triangle hoe to cut a furrow using the pole as a straight edge. You could also use a length of PVC although it is a little flexible...
Did you get a freeze last night and what are you going to do with all those green tomatoes? You could probably sell some. A lot of people might like a few for Thanksgiving - side of fried green tomatoes - they are also good with breakfast.
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