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Good morning to all of you gardeners. Thanksgiving is next week and I hope all Freepers enjoy a bountiful feast with family and friends. Don’t forget to give thanks, it can turn a meal into a feast. A reminder for those of you who have a frozen turkey, for every 4 pounds of turkey it will take a day to thaw in the refrigerator. A 20-pound turkey will take 5 days so you need to start defrosting it tomorrow. If your turkey will not fit into your fridge defrost it in an ice chest with ice. If the turkey is...

It's a lot cooler now but we still have some flowers hanging on. I spent about an hour at the county arboretum, it's a great place to just sit. I saw the first flock of pelicans coming in today, a few singles have been around, but the migration is really rolling now. There will be ducks coming in any time. Since I retired my schedule has revolved around the tides and seasons, don't count on me to show up on time for anything else!

Although plants have the ability to sense and respond to other plants, their ability to recognize kin and act altruistically has been the subject of few studies. The authors explored kin recognition in Impatiens pallida (yellow jewelweed). By moving their resources into leaves, these plants not only positively affected their own growth, but also negatively affected their competitors' growth. This is the first instance where researchers demonstrated that a plant's response to an aboveground cue is dependent upon the presence of a belowground cue. The concept of altruism has long been debated in philosophical circles, and more recently, evolutionary biologists...

Should Gardeners Urinate Outdoors? The National Trust is the latest environmental organisation to advocate urinating outdoors to help fertilise the garden and save on flushing the lavatory. But is this really a civilised way to save the planet? 13 Nov 2009 Peeing on a compost heap activates the composting process, helping to produce a ready supply of organic matter Photo: GETTY The National Trust is actively encouraging male members of staff to urinate on a "pee bale" at Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire. The straw bale will eventually be spread on fields and flower beds around the stately home. Although it...

Now I love chips and salsa so ended up with about a gazillion of the salsa jars. These seem to me to be just about perfect for canning. So I was thinking about trying to can some bulk veggies that are now pretty cheap, like acorn squash, sweet potatoes, maybe some spinach. When I was a yute my mom would cook stuff, put the jars through boiling water, fill the jars with whatever it was she cooked, then pour molten canning wax over the top - close them up and let them cool. Personally, I've preserved berries by mashing them,...

Good morning to all of you gardeners. Hurricane/Tropical Storm Ida made land fall in Alabama went quickly degraded moving slowly northeast up through and Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia causing considerable flooding along its path. There are many Freeper gardeners this event may have affected. I know the two Freepers, Gardengirl and Gabz who started the original Gardening thread, live in the coastal areas of N.C. and Va. and I hope y’all are safe and well. The indexing/archiving of this past year’s posts is still on going. Please let me know if there was a particular post that you found...

Imagine your city is located next door to a valley water district with enough surplus water to meet your needs but instead your city imports about two-thirds of its water hundreds of miles from the Colorado River and the Sacramento Delta, and pays a premium price for it, resulting in environmental degradation in the process. Do you think this is wise policy for water rate payers in a city that praises itself for its Green City Action Plan? Moreover, as your city conserves more water due to a purported drought, municipal water rates go up because of a decline in...

(Start Rant)Just a small rant about something that maybe isn't so important!I am originally from South Florida but am now living in Virginia. For the past few weeks, I have been trying to find some decent tomatoes. (without success) I have been reading the labels on all of the tomatoes .. Hydroponic and garden grown. Every Single package is from ...Mexico! Why the Hell can't I find Any tomatoes that are grown in the good ole USofA? I know Damn well that the folks in my home state still grow excellent tomatoes! Wouldn't it be less expensive to ship...

Good morning to all of you gardeners. I hope all of you are doing well this first week in November. This past week has been beautiful here in Miss. Highs in the mid 70’s, clear and dry. Great weather to clean up the yard and add to my compost pile but I just could not get motivated to do it. The indexing/archiving of this past year’s posts is still on going. Please let me know if there was a particular post that you found helpful or just interested you.

Good morning gardeners! Happy Halloween. Don't forget to set your clocks back one hour Sat. night! Since things have slowed down I thought I would revisit this years threads and try to locate and archive some of the great posts, advice and info you Freepers have given out over the past year. My objective would be to then put all the posts in to categories like; Fertilizer, Gardening Methods, Flowers etc. And then post all of this info in one thread at the beginning of next year. What do y’all think? Also I would like your input. Let me know...

I commented earlier on the value of White Ibis on lawns and in gardens. These guys are working this section of lawn for grubs and mole crickets. They leave a little hole that looks like it was made by a thick pencil, aereating the soil. They aren't messy like geese and ducks, and don't bother vegetation. Click on the link.

LYONS, Colo.—If you're a gardener or an avid farmers' market customer, suddenly it's all about winter squash and stuff that grows underground. Those trying to eat a local diet might have a dim memory of grandma's root cellar, or they might know a homesteader type who has buried a barrel in the yard and covered it with insulating materials. Turns out, if you want to be chowing down on some Colorado squash in February, you don't need a rig near that complicated. An unheated basement where the temperature stays relatively constant—50 degrees or so—works well in the state's dry climate....

Good afternoon to all of you gardeners. I apologize for the late post today. Well the last days of October are upon us and the garden is finally tilled for the last time this year. I seeded it with an annual rye grass. I also started rebuilding my compost pile. The oak and pecan trees have yet to drop their leaves so I will have to wait for their contribution to the compost pile until November.

Starting in 2010, an international crew of six will simulate a 520-day round-trip to Mars, including a 30-day stay on the martian surface. In reality, they will live and work in a sealed facility in Moscow, Russia, to investigate the psychological and medical aspects of a long-duration space mission. ESA is looking for European volunteers to take part. The ‘mission’ is part of the Mars500 programme being conducted by ESA and Russia’s Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) to study human psychological, medical and physical capabilities and limitations in space through fundamental and operational research. ESA’s Directorate of Human Spaceflight is...

My love is like a blue, blue rose The "blue" rose required 20 years of research by Kathryn Westcott BBC News The blue rose has long been referred to by horticulturalists as the "Holy Grail" of the plant breeding world. Now what is being described as the world's first genetically-modified blue rose will soon hit flower shops in Japan. A Japanese firm has announced that it will be the first to put the unique flower on sale to the public - at a not-to-be-sniffed-at 2,000 and 3,000 yen (US$22 and US$33) per stem, about 10 times more expensive than normal....

In case you missed it, here is the "Pot City, USA" television show recently shown on the A&E Network. It's pretty interesting and well worth your time to watch.

A federal plan to bring renewable energy retrofits within the reach of middle-class homes, announced Monday by President Joe Biden, gave a jolt to local pilot programs with the same goal. The Recovery Through Retrofit report that Biden unveiled is in part a plan to let homeowners dodge hefty financial barriers to retrofits such as installing solar paneling on their roofs, U.S. Department of Energy spokeswoman Jen Stutsman said. The program shares that aim with Berkeley FIRST, a pilot program launched a year ago that allows property owners, over a 20-year period, to finance the large upfront expense of installing...

ANDOVER, Massachusetts — A Boston suburb has some new landscapers that will work for food — a half-dozen goats clearing and maintaining an overgrown public meadow.

Good morning to all of you gardeners. It looks like the rains have finally passed by my area at least for the next week. October is typically one of the driest months here in Mississippi but we have had rain from 4 to 16 inches above normal. It will take a couple of days for my garden area to dry out before I can get in there and clean up a little more and then till in my compost.

Expensive, low-performing idiocy for status-seeking "Early Adopters": "The Hustler Zeon, the world’s first all-electric zero-turn-radius mower, shows what an environmentally friendly piece of yard machinery can do. The four 12-volt lead-acid batteries power twin DC deck motors, driving a pair of blades for a 42-inch-wide cut. The batteries also power twin AC hydrostatic drive motors, one at each rear wheel. The machine can turn on a dime or zoom along at 6 mph. The run time is 80 minutes, long enough to cut an acre. The Zeon costs about $7,000."

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Farmers from North Dakota and Vermont and four others trying to plant hemp seeds at the headquarters of the Drug Enforcement Administration have been arrested. Arlington County police spokeswoman Detective Crystal Nosal says six people were charged with trespassing on Tuesday. They were among 21 people protesting the ban on farming of hemp, which is related to the illegal drug marijuana. The Hemp Industries Association says the protesters turned to civil disobedience for the first time. The group is lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill. They want to grow hemp for non-drug products. North Dakota farmer Wayne...

October 13, 2009 Dr Rowan Williams: 'Dig For Victory Over Climate Change And Grow Your Own Food' Ben Webster The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for “unsustainable” air-freighted food to be replaced gradually by homegrown produce from thousands of new allotments. In an interview with The Times, Dr Rowan Williams said that families needed to respond to the threat of climate change by changing their shopping habits and adjusting their diets to the seasons, eating fruit and vegetables that could be grown in Britain. He said that the carbon footprint of peas from Kenya and other airfreighted food was too...

The top of the frozen apple juice can was stamped with the date, then the word "China." I could not believe it. China? I live in the Shenandoah Valley, at one time the biggest apple producer in the world, and my apple juice comes from China? Maybe it's just this store brand, I thought. But a visit to another grocery store confirmed it. They stocked a name brand, the top of it stamped with the date and the words "from China." I googled "China and apples." Stories and reports came up confirming my ... yes, fear. I hadn't been paying...

Breaking News - An unnamed source has announced that there really never was a Jack. In reality there was only Barry. It was always about Barry. Barry was the boy who went up the stalk, killed the giant and found the magic seeds that would save the world from starvation and provide world peas for all. We are waiting to hear from this same unnamed source about the fate of Barry's cow.

Night fell on the Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park this past Sunday under a full moon and over a sea of mud. (It wasn't strictly mud, but more on that in a bit.) Many in the crowd, especially those in the proximity of the Dell stage, responded the only logical way possible — by dancing, or something close to it. Since the squishy, slippery ground made it a little difficult to move your feet — people weren't so much walking through the grounds at this point as gingerly creeping — Spearhead stepped in to pick up the...

Good morning to all of you gardeners. Running a little late with the post this morning. My garden area is now clear of plants. If the daily rain showers will just by pass me for a few days I will do a final tilling and remove a few more of the roots left behind. To all of you with Fall/Winter gardens I wish you the best.

Reporting from Shepherdstown, W.Va. - Still growing somewhere here on Eric and Gloria Sundback's 100-acre tree farm is the two-story fir that will stand resplendent in the Blue Room of the White House this Christmas. This is because the Sundbacks -- he's 82, she's 83 -- have just turned out a grand champion Christmas tree for a record fourth time, a feat they once mistakenly assumed they were too old to pull off. Now the Sundbacks will once again watch a tree they nurtured from seed, fed and pruned, cast as the glittery showstopper at almost nightly holiday parties, then...

CANTON, Ohio - A teacher from Ohio has won top honors in a pumpkin-growing contest with a 1,725-pound behemoth that could land worldwide bragging rights. Christy Harp of Jackson Township near Canton took first place at the Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin Growers annual weigh-off Saturday in Canfield. She won $2,500 and could claim the world title. Contest organizers say the entry topped the 1,689-pound record-holder grown in 2007 by Joe Jutras of North Scituate, R.I.

Glowing nonstop in the Brazilian rain forest, the newfound mushroom Mycena luxaeterna (pictured both in daylight, top, and in the dark) is indeed a source of eternal light, as its Latin name--inspired by verses from Mozart's "Requiem"--implies. The tiny mushroom is one of 7 new species of glow-in-the-dark fungi found around the world, bringing the total known to 71, according to a study that appeared October 5 in the journal Mycologia. San Francisco State University's Dennis Desjardin and colleagues scouted for mushrooms during new moons, in rain forests so dark they often couldn't see their hands in front of their...

On the morning of last year's annual Sunflower Fair in La Porte, Indiana, a family, appearing a little lost, walked up and down a crowded street, looking in vain for the table to sign up their entry. They carried a large sunflower with them. If no one noticed the exhausted, grieving look in the family's eyes, that was understandable. The Sunflower Fair is a place of happy noise: rides and music and food booths. It is La Porte's fall festival, and people from across northwest Indiana come to spend a Saturday in the midst of the milling, chattering crowds....

A 74-year-old Lakeland woman was attacked and severely injured Saturday evening by five raccoons, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's office animal control section is investigating. There is no word on the woman's condition.

A little more than three weeks ago I chopped a pile of garden cabbages and embarked upon another potentially dangerous kitchen experiment. I was determined to make sauerkraut. The recipe called for a pail (or crock), shredded cabbage and Kosher salt. It's easy. Simply layer the cabbage in the pail, sprinkle with salt and repeat. And allow the thoroughly natural process of decomposition to commence. As an aside - I would remind my 46 readers that you can do this yourself at home with little risk of injury. Other than chopping with a big, sharp chef's knife you will run...

Good morning to all of you gardeners. I started the clean up of my garden this past week. I am taking my time doing it. I started with my tomato plants and decided not to use them in my compost pile. I do plan on pulling up my landscape fabric and saving it for next season. I would like to plant winter rye grass in the garden but would like other advice from y’all. What would be a good cover for this area until spring?

If you're going to be in N.E. Florida this weekend, come visit! IT'S FREE! Just West of the SR16 & I-95 exit, off of CR208. look for the KFC, Agriculture Center Drive is the next left. Go all the way to the end.

Massachusetts residents say they are under siege from this year's large crop of acorns as the hard nuts have been falling from trees like rain. Greg Roberson and Neil McIsaac of Brookline, Mass., said they routinely encounter the nuts as they fall from area oak trees, creating safety hazards while in the air and once on the ground, The Boston Globe reported Saturday. "Every time I hear one, I think it's a kid throwing a rock at me," Roberson said. "They're falling everywhere." "I've nearly broken my neck several times," McIsaac offered. "There are tons of them."

Fruit grower Ken Morrish was left stunned when he found a golden delicious apple on his tree split exactly half green, half red down the middle.Ken Morrish, 72, of Colaton Raleigh, Devon, did a double take when he grew a Golden Delicious apple split down the middle - one half was green and the other red Photo: ARCHANT The fruit's striking colouring is thought to be caused by a random genetic mutation at odds of more than a million to one. The apple has caused such a stir in the village of Colaton Raleigh, Devon, that Mr Morrish is inundated...

Good morning to all of you gardeners. Rain! Rain! Rain! Constant trains of thunderstorms have brought my gardening to an end for this year. My tomatoes could not handle all the water and they have drowned. My other garden plants have succumbed to the big wet also. Once things dry out a bit I will be digging up the garden and concentrate on building up my compost pile. I will miss the fresh tomatoes but have more than enough canned to get through the winter months. I enjoyed my garden very much and will now work to make next years...

Pie makers and jack-o'-lantern carvers may want to nab a pumpkin while they can. A cool summer in Minnesota, and much of the Midwest, could result in fewer pumpkins for sale this fall at farmers' markets and retail outlets. "It was too cold of a summer. The heat wasn't there," said John Blonigen, who grew about an acre of pumpkins this year on his 6-acre vegetable farm near Paynesville. He sells to local retail outlets. Instead of the usual four to five pumpkins on a vine, he's seeing two to three. "I don't know if there's going to be enough...

I am asking all FR Chefs to help me out in finding the way to purchase the finest salts of the world. I know it can be spendy. I am not looking for Williams-Sonoma type salts. I had an oppertunity to witness a person tell me of a very black salt, lava salt and they thought it could have been from the Mid East. Any links to the best salts of the world would be much appreciated. I was givin Cleopatric. but to no avail. Thanks Chef Freepers.

A rooftop prairie, nestled 10 stories into Chicago's skyline at one of the nation's most posh addresses, is a working metaphor for renewable living: It elevates as it grounds. As Illinois' virgin grasslands inspired endless possibilities, so does the 100-foot-high urban meadow by Douglas Hoerr lift the spirits of those venturing out to this Windy City roofscape. While the garden appears to float amid neighboring Gold Coast skyscrapers, it is also symbolic of Midwestern stability; it's as if the plants send taproots down through the oh-so-luxurious building below and anchor it to a reality deeper than the glamorous district on...

Good morning to all of you gardeners. For most of us this summer’s gardening season is almost over and some of you have started fall/winter gardens. I thought it would be interesting to find out what you have planted in your winter gardens and also what you are doing now to prepare for next springs garden. If you have a favorite recipe for the foods you have grown or just a recipe you would like to share please feel free to post it.

Researchers have figured out a way to plug into the power generated by trees. Scientists have known for some time that plants can conduct electricity. In fact, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that plants can pack up to 200 millivolts of electrical power. A millivolt is one-thousandth of a volt. And although the popular potato or lemon battery experiments have shown that an electrical current can be generated by creating a reaction between the food and two different metals, power is harvested from trees through a different mechanism. "We specifically didn't want to confuse this effect with...

PAPUA New Guinea police are hunting the leader of a sex cult who promised villagers a bumper banana harvest if they engaged in public sex. The man and his followers fled naked into the wilderness when police tried to arrest them over the weekend, the Post Courier newspaper reported. The newspaper said the villagers in Morobe province, about 200km north of the capital Port Moresby, had been promised their banana harvest would increase 10-fold every time they had sex in public. It said the cult leader was wanted for a range of alleged offences over the past four months, including...

For Britain's struggling fruit farmers, things could be about to go even more pear-shaped... A Chinese farmer has invented baby-shaped pears - and he is planning to export his novel idea over here. Plucky farmer Gao Xianzhang has created 10,000 of the mini marvels this season and he plans to take the fruits of his labour to the UK and Europe. Britain could soon see the arrival of the pears, which are shaped like mini buddhas. If the idea catches on, sales of the mini pears could hit the profits of British farmers who are already struggling to fend off...

I figured since I had two questions, I'd combine them into one thread to make my referencing simpler and one less for everyone to look at. :) How does one truly know if a site that sells heirloom seeds is REALLY selling heirloom seeds? That's my 'caveat emptor' question. Secondly, I'm needing a cleaning kit for my carbine, but the non-specialty stores seem to have just American standard caliber kits. IIRC, isn't .308 the same as 7.62mm in diameter? Thanks for your help!

Just found out about this magazine and wanted to share.

Some people cancel holidays abroad, others stage yard sales or start shopping at low-cost supermarkets. To that list must now be added a new way to get through economic hard times: grow cannabis. Law enforcers on the west coast of the US and in the middle states straddled by the foothills of the Appalachian mountains are reporting a common trend. It is boom time for marijuana cultivation, and much of the incentive they say is to beat the recession. So far this year, police in parts of the country where cannabis is traditionally grown have chopped down plants with a...

Much was given, many were lost on this day, A man of terror tried to take our spirit away. Do not let our new found spirit and unity fade, As you look on this flag, remember this day ... 9-11-01

DURANT — A bad breakup or a lovers’ quarrel are the leading theories Bryant County officials have for finding nearly $500,000 worth of someone’s property strewn about a Durant area street last week. Just as surprising as the overall value was the property itself: 236 potted, high-grade marijuana plants. "Strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” said Chuck Carroll, field supervisor for the District 19 Drug Task Force. "That (a domestic dispute) is the first thing that came to our minds. Someone wanted this marijuana to be found.” "We got a county commissioner to dig us a hole and furnish some diesel,...