Posted on 02/03/2012 6:59:49 AM PST by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners! Red Devil here. JustaDumbBlonde and her husband are on their way up to Montana for a well deserved vacation. She should be able to post the thread from her remote Montana location next week. I am sure she will continue with her plans for a soil structure thread next week. Her Thread subjects are so informative and interesting. Although I have not been real active on the thread, I read each and every post. Y'all have been doing a great job!
I should be able to get some sort of a garden going this year, at our new location in the Marshall, Tx area. Crossed fingers on the garden! Peggy has done a super job of juggling her new job at a Shreveport Wal-Mart with all the running around to find a house, with a nice sized fenced in back yard, and getting the utilities turned on. It has been real hectic and energy draining for her. What a great Wife and partner! I am one lucky guy!
Lets get gardening!
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.
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Weekly Gardening Thread (Seeds) Vol. 2, January 13, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 3, January 20, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (U.S. Hardiness Zones) Supplemental Vol. 1
Weekly Gardening Thread (Soil Types) Vol. 4, January 27, 2012
Just moved from RI to Texas last Sept. Evidently my HOA does a drive by and cited me for having weeds in my “turf”. I am new to this environment and have never seen some of the weeds that are popping up in my lawn. I spent most of the winter pulling up these twig like weeds, enough to fill 3 lawn bags. I have put Scott’s weed 2 on my lawn and it is starting to turn the clover brown but there are other weeds that seem to be thriving on the weed killer. I would appreciate anyone from the Texas area that has any advice short of replacing the whole lawn?
What part of Texas did you land in?
HOAs are the bane of conservative home owners. HOAs are populated by noisy liberal busybodies!
It's wonderful to have a great wife, ain't it? We should do a thread sometime on how great our wives are; a chance to talk-up our better halves.
The big maple tree is tapped and the sap is flowing!!!
The boiling down to syrup will begin tomorrow.
East Tennessee maple syrup.....yummm!
So glad you’re both safely settling into new home!
“East Tennessee maple syrup”
Where can we purchase?
The weather here has been WAY too warm. Noticed the fruit trees are budding, I even had a dandelion that had bloomed and gone to seed under the plastic tunnel. The rest of February is looking decent but all it takes is one cold spell. Sure going to miss my sweet peaches this year if they get zapped.
Got all my seeds ordered and managed to spend more than I budgeted, surprise surprise, but a few things I’ve never planted like tartary buckwheat and red lambsquarters and quinoa. Excited about that.
Started some sprouts for eating, going to be starting the first seeds for plants really soon.
Sounds like I might need to brew up a nice East Tennessee Maple Irish Stout!
I excused myself from veggie gardening for the past 6 months, due to the horrendous drought we are suffering from in central Texas.
Fighting the heat & paying for high water bills just made it unrealistic - so I folded the garden & let it rest...
This past 2011 we had all of 14.2 inches of rain. The normal is a little over 30 inches.
Due to the slight increase in precip so far this season, I decided to try again.
Late this January, I planted some carrots, beets, onions & turnips. Everything is looking good so far.
The onion sets seem to be getting a foothold & the turnips have broken the soil surface.
I got taters ready to plant in the next day or two.
January 2012 we’ve had 1.7 inches of rain. So that’s a fair start.
On the horizon, the forecasters are giving us a 50% chance of showers the next couple of days. I’m praying.
Barb is expecting her new ducklings (Indian Runners) early next week. I surprised her with a collapsible brooder and a heat source for the ducklings. It will accommodate up to 20 chicks, so come my birthday, April 4th, when the first group of chicks (6 each of Black Jersey Giants, Red Stars and Cuckoo Marans) arrive, the ducklings should be out in the yard and the chicks will be in the brooder.
The remaining chicks, Balck Copper Marans, will arrive in August.
I have the design for Coop II almost ready to submit for a permit. Fortunately, the town doesn't require frost-proof footings (48") for separate sheds, so we can use deck blocks. That will save a lot of time. This design will be more "people" friendly, so Barb shouldn't be whacking her head like she did on the first one.
I need to get Coop II done so that I can be ready to work on the raised garden beds. With the "Obama Recovery", gardening and preserving is going to be very important!
Are you growing the quinoa for its grain?
What city or what part of Texas didja move?
Yeah, the whole family likes it and it’s good for you. Sister is wheat intolerant so in part growing for her too.
I read about your tragedy on last weeks thread. I am glad to hear that you are making a nice recovery with a new Coop and new residents!
Raining here in Mississippi also!
Good Morning Red... I glad you can have a garden down yonder. I haven’t been feeling well lately but I’m sure some sunshine will help but I’ll be 79 this year so I may just have to slow down. I’m headed to the Church to load up some trimmings and Redwood needles and branches to dump in the gulch behind my storage shed.
Best advice is to never ever move into an HOA neighborhood.
Feb. is the month to put out weed and feed. Just keep at it and kept the lawn mowed for the nosey busybodies.
Howdy, howdy. We finally were able to replace our riding mower and coolbreeze made a point of getting one that is user friendly for the manual transmission challenged woman of the house! So I will at least be able to pull that chore off his hands and maybe then he will be more inclined to get to work on tilling before mid July :)
My trial green house (pvc and plastic) has worked well. A few nights I would turn on a heater or put a bucket of wood-stove coals in the g/house.
All I grew were greens for the chickens - nothing tricky. I did try a new fertilizer - kinda gross but it was very diluted chicken poo. The plants loved it and are thriving. I could eat those same greens however I refer you back to my previous statements regarding poo.
It has been so warm - East TN - everything is sprouting - not good.
Last year’s pickles were not as good as last years. Does anyone know if vinegar loses its potency with time?
Will I ever get used to raising animals for food? I mean,,,they TRUST me.....guilt.
13 raised beds filled with compost and dirt Project Complete - I'll spare you pics of fresh dirt - will share when they're sprouting later. Planting early season seeds this weekend. Woohoo!
We have received seeds from 5 other gardeners who offered to share their heirloom seeds (1 via this thread, the others via youTube). Buying seeds in nice, but using seeds from other people's gardens adds something extra special to the experience.
Here are some of my favorite YouTube gardening channels:
Praxxus 55712
Voodoo Garden
Growing Your Greens
Ahavah Farm
MI gardener
Garden on!
It’s warm in Texas, too. There isn’t a year that goes by without people wringing their hands that the Fredericksburg peaches aren’t going to make that year because of a freeze in April. Happens every single year. Good luck with yours.
I am in Keller.
My suggestion is to employ the HOA people - since you are new to the area and unfamiliar with the flora, so to speak, ask them to please tell you what are weeds and what are not. Use their finickiness to your good!
Two days after I moved in I walked into my bedroom and was greeted by a enormous spider. I swear it was something out of a sci-fi movie.
I planted pansies in my flower bed and the rolly poly bugs thought I was serving lunch. Don’t get me started on fire ants. I will never go outside barefoot again.
Please keep yourself and your first wife healthy, Mr. Bender. Don’t over work yourself!
so cool, my big maple got zapped by lightning a year ago and fell down. I was so sad we had lots of good syrup from that tree. It’s amazing how much sap you need to make a small jar of syrup.
We haven’t had rain this year yet, so this is BIG.
Jeeze I have never felt so bad!
Be advised, every year in Texas exotic weeds fly in on the wind. The stuff I'm digging up in San Antonio, with deep, thick roots, I've never seen before. I've been here for a VERY long time.
Good luck!
Welcome.
Temps hit low 80s on Wednesday and will be close to that today. Some trees are already budding out. My garden likes the weather, but we have had freezes in March. Tomato seeds are in pots.
I’m on the way to the doctor this AM, and mayber the hospital later. I slipped and fell on our lovely ice last week and pulled my husband down right on toop of me. Hubby is fine. I am still hobbling around, so I’m finally seeking medical treatment. As near as I can tell, I streched ligaments that were never meant to be streched — at least not in those directions. As a consequence, I have swelling in my knees which makes it difficult and painful to move.
OMG, I hate going to the doctor. I’m told by my SIL (who played football and who has had 2 knee ops) that they’ll probably stick a needle in my knee(s) to drain fluid. Wish me luck.
Oh No! My prayers and wishes are with you!
Big snow storm here in Colorado! Got 2 feet of snow over night and it is supposed to snow all day Friday.
It’s so good to hear from you, Red Devil! I hope JADB has a wonderful vacation!
Good to hear from you. Glad to hear you will have a place to garden at your new place.
Not much going on here in Missouri. We have had a rather mild winter interspersed with freezing temperatures, and a little snow. The new map shows us in zone 6, so as I go through the nursery catalogs, I anticipate having some increased choices with respect to perennials.LOL
Have a great weekend and God Bless.
Trial "bug-out" run? LOL
Only about a trace of snow "cover" here, with that "cover" just in the shady areas.
The snow promised 2 weeks ago got lost in the mail, so was reshipped for delivery on this Tuesday. That package got rescheduled for Wednesday; then that delivery date got moved back to yesterday, then today; now, it appears to be on indefinite back-order.
Without it, the ground will thaw way too soon, causing plants will prematurely break dormancy, and maybe even need to be watered.
Crab grasses are a real problem in Texas. Up where you are...I can’t remember the name of the tall, grassy weed... but if you pull it out wrong, it sprouts more and more tall grassy weeds. UGH. I lived a little north of Dallas and nothing short of crawling around on hands and knees performing extensive weed extraction helped get rid of those things.
It’s been so warm this season that grass is now starting to grow in San Antonio and my neighbors on either side are popping crab grass that is seeding like crazy. It’s all I can do to keep it from my weed free lawn. The birds are nesting and my begonias never faded from summer!
Good luck and welcome to Texas!!
I have been watching the weather and y’all are supposed to be getting pummeled with big time snow! It has been raining here all morning and was supposed to get up to 70° here today but I doubt it gets out of the 60s.
Great that you got a new mower! Glad you will get to ride and mow now! I will have to haul mine back and forth between here and Texas to keep our property here in Ms groomed.
She didn’t say what they were doing but I bet they are going up there to hunt! Hope she bags a big ol’ Elk!
Your prayers are powerful. My doctor prescribed a diuretic (instead of a needle in the knee) and another week of rest! He also said I ould postpone a planned colonoscopy for a couple of weeks (Yay!) which means that I can take aspirin and Aleve and stuff like that. I feel better already. All in all it has been a good day!
Thank you.
That sounds like a song lyric...
Any plans for curtailing your complaining neighbor? Does he dislike your architecture? Animal noise? Smells? Or, is he just a jeolous curmudgeoun who hates the fact that you have pretty birds and he has none?
Sorry about your chicken and duck mini-holocaust. That’s awful. Glad to hear you are re-building and getting more ducks. Will you be giving some of the ducks the axe? For your dinner table and freezer? Duck eggs sound good?
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