Christy – my only trick with slugs is to start lettuce early inside, get it into the ground as quickly as possible(meaning that I’ve got to use row covers because that is April) and cut it quickly as I need it. You’ve got to be fast to stay ahead of those buggers.

Good morning. CHS. I do apologize but in light of the RNC promoting the dreadful song I did this

Bush the magic coward lived in a dream
He nearly flunked in prep school, he only got a cee,
Little bushie baby loved to play the tough,
Daddy bought him gifts and things but it never was enough. oh

Bush the evil coward lived in a dream
And frolicked in the Skull and Bones at school he called Yalee
Bush, the bloody coward shirked in his duty
He skipped out from the Air Force and hid behind momee

He snorted coke and drank a lot but he avoided jail
Daddy and Osama made sure that he didn’t fail
In business or as governor, which he treated as a game
Bin Laden paid the debts to rescue him and to cleanse his name. oh!

Bush the murderous coward lived in a dream
And played with other peoples lives in a way that is obscene
They killed as many as they could he and Dick Cheynee
Torture movies are his thrill, he watches with Condi

While at Yale he jerked himself and did other boys
A little buggery with coke brought him endless joy
But one day it came about, he could kill no more
He’s been sent home to Texas still rotten to the core

He’ll bitch and whine in Texas but will take no blame
For all the evil things that he’s done invoking his God’s name
He no longer has Bin Laden to help him holler safe
And when he dies the lines will be long to piss upon his grave

Bush born to money in the land of liberty
Had a chance to do some good but only thought of me, me, me
Bush the fucking coward lived in a dream
And may that bastard rot in hell he and Dick Cheney

Again I apologize.

I tried growing it in a fairly large pot on the porch last year, with a saucer around it that pretty much always had a bit of water from the spring rains. Thought that might serve as a sort of moat to keep the slimy buggers out of my lettuce.

Alas, it instead served as a lure…this year, am going to think about perhaps buying some early, sturdy plants from the greenhouse and surrounding them with some ground shell meal. Have heard that can be helpful, too.

The Peanut will LOVE gardening – guaranteed. Every one of our three, at that age, just adored sticking in the larger things – beans, onion sets, pieces of potato(we did the cutting for the ‘eyes’ of course). We used a planting board with marks on it so that they could put that down and match up the seed or whatever and stick it in – great fun for a while. We were careful to make plenty of breaks because otherwise, it turns into real labor – not what we wanted to teach the little ones that gardening is about..

Must make coffee…brb…

Good morning Christie. Funny that you picked this topic today. Just in the last few days I have been thinking of planting a few fruit trees this year. Last summer I was inspired by the conversations here and tried square foot gardening. It is perfect for me since I live in the woods and the ground is 85% rocks and 15% dirt. I have concluded that I will just grow tomato plants in the future. Research is in order so I can learn about fruit trees. Planning and learning is such fun. Thanks for the inspiration.

i haven’t grown lettuce – but in dallas the slugs could be destructive. this might gross you out, but i used small bowls of beer (buried to be almost level with the ground). the beer is a bait, and the slugs will drown in it. it’s yucky, but it worked.

Mornin Christy, haven’t received any seed catalogues yet. Usually get Johnny’s, Burpees, Totally Tomatoes (lots of peppers in it too) and Guerney’s. Will put in a bigger than normal garden to help get through the lean times, besides it’s far better produce than one could buy at the local Piggly Wiggly. Think the hard times a comin will have more people getting their hands in the soil and they’ll be better off for it.

At our Change is Coming house party a couple of weeks ago, we decided to try to work in our community to foster the planting of community gardens or victory gardens. My sister teaches diabetic education classes at the local free clinic, and most of her patients can’t afford the fresh vegetables they need to be eating. If anyone has any ideas to share about how to do this — or resources we might explore — books on gardening, places that have community gardening, personal experience — it would be great to hear from you.

Here’s my trick for deciding on fruit trees and bushes. You’ll need to know the sunniest place in your yard, a spade and a five gal. bucket(the size the wall board compound comes in)of water. Dig a hole there three feet deep. Pour the bucket of water in there and look at your watch. Note the time and come back 45 minutes later. If there is still water in the hole at that point, don’t try to grow fruit trees there; they will die.

Sprinkling diamatecious earth around plants is supposed to be effective against slugs. For the slug it’s like crawling across a field of broken glass.

where i live now, in MA, there really hasn’t been enough sun to do vegetable gardening. the one spot is my main flower garden. but this year i expect to have lots more sun (due to all the tree limbs and even trees that were downed in the ice storm a couple of weeks ago).

so maybe this year i’ll get around to attempting a little bit of vegetable gardening. would love to try some tomatoes if i get my act together in time for them. am looking forward to seeing what good staking advice christy gets.

We used to have enclosed raised beds that could be covered until the danger of frost had past. The slugs were not as big a problem as they were in the flower beds. This year might take some extra care as there will be (hopefully) a lot of slugs fleeing the DeeCee area. *g*

A cousin in France worked for a hospital which provided community gardens for all it’s employees. Large enough plots that many of the gardeners built little garden cottages/sheds. It was magical visiting the garden.

Tomatoes and staking: There are basically two different kinds of tomatoes: determinate and indeterminate. Determinate are ‘bush’; indeterminate are the ones that end up flopping all over the place. You can use tomato cages for determinate ones; just get the heaviest ones you can find or make cylinders of hog wire mesh. For indeterminate ones, we invested in 1×1 stock, tie the plants up and nip out the side shoots. Another way is to put up a whole line of hog wire fencing(with a row of 1×1 at about every 18 inches to staple it to), and train the plants to that.

For folks who live in the mid-Atlantic region like I do, I stumbled across a cool seed exchange for our region. You can order seeds from them — they have a lot of heirlooms. Finding seeds and plants that work well with our hot, humid, sticky summers is a huge plus.

Excellent, nomolos. I do have one nit to pick: verse five, where you imply that Chimpy’s gay, could be seen as insulting to our many gay friends here at FDL.

But other than that, it’s brilliant! And that fact that it’s to the tune of Puff the Magic Dragon adds a little stab at the wingnuts. (Remember some years back when they said it was about drugs?)

another neat trick with the hog wire cylinders is to make them about three feet around and plant three plants on the outside of the cylinder and train them to the wire. Use the inside of the cylinder to throw your compost IN(veggie scraps, etc. – no meat or bones)and to water, just stick a hose down the middle of it. Feeds and waters the tomatoes at the same time.

Out here in LA lettuce and slugs are still going strong. We haven’t had a problem yet, though, with them because we surrounded our raised bed with a thin copper strip. Apparently slugs won’t cross over copper. Who knew?

We found the copper at our local nursery (not home depot). It comes in small, thin strips and is sometimes self-adhesive.

Thanks for the info. I have a very sunny spot with a southern exposure. I live in the west end of the Poconos not that far from you. There are two trees I plan to have taken down and the spot will e perfect. It is an area that has great drainage but I will do your experiment as well.

We used those cone-shaped tomato cages for years, but switched to square ones a couple years ago, and they really work a lot better. And they fold flat for winter storage. They are a lot steadier since they don’t become overly top-heavy like the cone shaped ones do. And as I said, they fold flat, taking up a lot less storage space during the winter. But like selise says, get the heaviest ones you can find because a fully loaded tomato vine is really heavy…

I got Burpee a couple of weeks ago, so they are definitely headed out in the mail.

A seed firm that doesn’t get a lot of press because they are not one of the big names, but which is very good is Pinetree Garden Seeds(New Gloucester, ME) – they have a great web site and sell just a huge amount of stuff. Greatest deal though is that they sell in smaller packages and sell mixtures of things (like mixes of peppers, mixes of cabbages) so that if you want to try something new but don’t want to spend $2.35 on a packet of seeds for something that your family doesn’t end up liking, this is a way to go. they also sell lots and lots of seeds of veggies from Asia, Italy, France, Spain, S. America and so on.

G’morning, everyone. Gardens. Gardens and gardens and gardens. Ohmygosh. So many gardens, so little knowledge. Well, for starters, I’m thinking of doing a major change in the long planters on the deck. Always and ever, impatiens. (Lots of shade, intermittent sun at noon and very late in the afternoon.) Not much into begonias. Other flowers suitable for pots in the shade?

(((Barbara))) – are you talking annuals only? Great plants for pots in the shade: smaller hostas and heuchera(coral bells) – but they are perennials and you’ll want to cover those for the winter.

David put chicken wire fencing around every garden. A wee impediment to our beaucoup rabbits. Somewhat effective. But not esthetically pleasing, dontcha know?! Any sure-fire (bwahahahaha) rabbit repellants (apart from slingshots and pellet guns)?

Ahhhhh…coffee’s done. Be right back with mug in tow…

Probably annuals. No good way to protect those pots over the winter.

OK…now, I’m just a very unsubtle person(heh), so I go for maximum ‘bashing in the eye’ color and in my shady spots, I use coleus. You can get so many sizes and leaf types and color combos now. And you can take cuttings at the end of the season and keep them over the winter, too.

Beautiful. Absolutely stunningly beautiful, Nomolos. ;-)

Good morning everyone. I like it as well, nomo. I’m tired of laughing at Bush’s idiocy. I find nothing about him to be funny anymore. He’s been a force of evil destroying everything he touches. Everything, everywhere is crumbling (Gaza, India, Africa) and he deserves to be scorned, not just laughed at. I’d love to see this recorded on youtube.

And then, there’re the hostas. Oh. My. Gosh. You know how they pop up in the springtime in orderly fashion, neat, tiny, compact, separate from each other? And then one morning, you discover they’ve exploded all over the garden and into each other and it seems inevitable that they’re screaming hosta epithets at each other that amount to, “Get out of my space, you green pest!” Debating digging out every other one. I remember that David split them most years, which is fine, but there’s no place left to transplant them. Is there an equivalent of the Humane Society for abandoned plants?

(((Barbara and David))) – hahahaha…oh, you are SOOOO right. hostas are the zuccinis of teh plant world. You might want to check with your state Hosta Society to see if there is Hosta Rescue.

Is there coleus that stays smallish? These are rectangular planters that are just, oh, 2-3 feet long, roughly 8 inches wide and . . . wait, wait! I could get a few different planters. But historically, these aforementioned planters sit on the deck railing, which is on the west side of the house, but is shaded by huge maples, oaks, ash trees.

I really like caladiums in the shade — you get stunning colors, a bulb grows really well in a pot and you can grow them fairly easily. If you start them inside in a pot before the last frost, you get a gorgeous, full plant by the time early summer rolls around.

You just have to remember to bring the tubers back inside for the winter — they don’t do well with cold, but they are perennial if you overwinter the tubers inside. CC sent em some a couple of years ago from friends of hers who grow them in Florida and they have thrived on our back patio in a dappled shade.

Barbara, every time my grandmother would yell at her plants to “grow or else!”, they would grow better and more abundant. Maybe talk nice to them to calm their growing fury? LOL

ahem..I have the Pinetree Garden Seeds catalog right here…p. 57:
Rainbow Mix: 1 foot high. Black Dragon, 6-8″ …so, they ARE out there…and then there are those that are about as big as Cannas!! With leaves about 12-18″ long.

All you have to do with coleus to keep it in line is pinch it back. I think they actually get more full and pretty when you do. But they do come in several sizes — if you ask at the greenhouse, they can point you in the right direction. I think the Wizard series is a smaller one, come to think of it…

thanks. didn’t know what hog wire is, so went googling for images – is it like chicken wire only sturdier? also, what height stakes do you use?

btw, found this site on staking while googling for hogwire images:
http://msucares.com/lawn/garde…..index.html

while i’m asking lots of questions, maybe you or someone else here knows were i can can get a couple more of a plant support i got a couple of years ago and love, but can’t find any more. don’t think i can describe it. will go take a quick pic and post it at flikr.

Good morning friends.

Christy, I sent you a link yesterday to GS’ tomato ladders. We’ve got some and Mr. Rev. loves them. This year’s catalog has extenders to make them even taller.

As for tomatoes, last year he discovered a local favorite, Mortgage Lifter. Once those came to fruit he discovered why they are a local fave. Best of all he grew.

Slugs— when we were in Oregon we used something black and sticky from a squeeze bottle. Can’t find the name of it but someone here probably knows. It seemed to work pretty well.

Our problem is the groundhog living under the deck. BIG problem.

As for letuce, I grew mescalun in a planter box that sat on the rail of the deck. Worked pretty well. May do the same this year with romaine. The birds tried to get to the seed but I put wire mesh over it. Once it got started, the birds lost interest and the squirrels didn’t care.

G’morning Christy, Toby, Barb et all,
I know what a tomato and a slug is, but other than that, I can’t share much personally to this thread. Just in case I’m not the only unfamiliar here, I’ll share what I just wikied re Hosta:
*
Hostas are extremely popular, hardy herbaceous perennials grown primarily for their beautiful foliage. They are easy to grow, shade-tolerant plants. Leaves come in a wide range of shapes, colors, sizes, and textures and may be solid in color or variegated in different combinations of blue, green, white, and gold. The plants are low maintenance and are widely available in nurseries and garden centers. Many catalogs also offer a large selection of hosta plants, with more than 2,500 different cultivars on the market.

Hostas originally came from Japan, China, and Korea. They were first introduced to Europe in the late 1700s and then came to the United States in the middle 1800s.
*
herbaceous? That’s new to me too.

hmm, maybe I’m not calling it the right thing. What I’m calling ‘hog wire’ comes in a roll; it’s wiven wire – the holes are about 4″ square. There are things called ‘hog wire panels’ that are actually used to make pens for hogs and of course those are just a hugely greater, heavier wire. I’m talking about the rolled fencing; chicken wire is not heavy enough; the plants would pull that down immediately.

Burpee catalog came yesterday. Last year the Mr. had a gift cert. for them and most of what he wound up getting wasn’t very good. Not very good tomatos and awful blueberry bushes that barely survived and didn’t do much. I think we’ll use someone else this year.

Gotta go for a while.

I only have the Jung Seeds & Plants catalog at the moment. I thought seeds with a deep psychological edge might be interesting. Pitched other David catalogs as they came in because they made me insanely sad. But finally got a grip, and said, “Whoa, babe! You’re gonna need these for reference!” Note to self: Pinetree Garden Seeds. Merci!

Herbaceous vs. Woody: when you get a hard frost, herbaceous things(like hostas and butterfly weed), die back to the ground and then come back up in the spring. Woody – is like lilacs – they don’t die back.

That was David’s philosophy, I think. Speak softly and carry a big bag of mulch! *g*

I love hostas. We have them in our yard and they thrive in our nasty humidity. Any plant that does that is a keeper in my book. *g*

Ian is upstairs with sadness, I’m afraid.

Christy – conditions in my yard are so iffy that there are two plants that work all the time: hostas and heucheras – they are sure fire and no matter what happens, they come back up in the spring and give us beautiful leaves and flowers. i love ‘em.

Thanks, Christy. Pinch-back. Finally tumbled to that with our north-facing boxes filled with pansies. Never thought of it for coleuses. Colii. Coleae. Urgh.

I have nothing BUT shade, and coleus are wonderful. They’re a riot of color all summer. I haven’t had much success keeping them over winter though. And to get maximum growth of the beautiful leaves, you have to keep the little spiky “flowers” nipped off.

Sweet potato vine comes in a variety of colors and is great if you want something trailing to offset the coleus, and I also use vinca vine. Both do OK in shade, too. And of course, impatiens.

Excellent article in today’s Raleigh paper (via the Washington Post) on books for gardeners. The “Post” (for some unknown reason) has the best House & Garden section of any newspaper I know.

http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/1346605.html

BTW, re: hostas and caladiums. My dearly departed FIL was a horticulturist of some note. (Used to be at Asst. Dir. @ the NatArb and then built the CBG.) He LOVED hostas and caladiums. Thought they were hardy, beautiful and offered unparalleled planting opportunities.

2 yrs ago I mistakenly planted cherry tomatoes instead of the full sized variety. I was disappointed at first but they’re ready so much earlier in the season that I really loved it and plan to go back to it. Every night I’d grab a few for the dinner salad, as opposed to waiting till August to reap the benefits of my planting. I’ll never plant lettuce. Slugs aren’t the problem, rather they fill up with earwigs. I once rec’d lettuce from a friend, dumped it into a colander to wash and had earwigs (100’s) crawling everywhere. Yuk.

Did everyone’s mind do its own internal google? First thing I thought of was Teddy Kennedy. Middle East ugliness abounds.

Thank you Toby. So, my mexican sage is herbaceous?
I don’t have the stones to go to Ian’s post yet. Still working on cup number 1; just 6:00 am here.

We have a very small yard — we joke that it’s really meant to be a postage stamp. LOL So the bits of plants that I get into it have to be carefully selected. I have some perennials that I love — yarrow, hostas, a butterfly bush, some russian sage — that come up each year. And I try and squeeze my veggies in and around the flowers along with herbs, it really is a sort of kitchen garden at our house.

The last couple of years, we’ve had a nasty thistle infestation — I think it came in with some mulch I bought in bulk and I’ve had the worst trouble getting rid of the buggers. So this year, I’ve put down a huge layer of mulch — from a more reputable source — for the winter and spread around some Preen to keep the seeds from sprouting.

I hate having to use any sort of herbicide, but the thistles were strangling out every other plant in the yard — literally. I’d pull one out and three would grow back — nasty buggers.

Well, if your mexican sage comes back for you in the spring after disappearing for the winter, then yes, it is. In my garden, however, we have either perennials…or dead things. :(

Oh, yes. I remember your thistle problem. My only answer to thistles and dock won’t help you: our field was full of them before we got goats. They fixed that situation within a year. Once we got rid of all of our livestock, though..back they came…

Christy, I have butterfly weed, butterfly bush, Joe Pye Weed and the evil-smelling nicotiana in David’s butterfly garden (east side of house). Also butterfly weed in one of the larger gardens (north side of house). We have the most amazing butterfly visitation all summer long. Of course (?) there are multiple other flowers everywhere to attract them. They seem to like good old fashioned zinnias, too. So do I!! Planted in random profusion.

I think you and I have exactly opposite soil type and weather. It’s an interesting contrast.
I’m thinking, now that I have a little caffeine flowing, that I should put more effort into a garden than I have in the past. The ash and soot from the fires is supposedly a great natural fertilizer. Could be a boost.

From Wiki: A herbaceous plant (or in botanical use, a herb) is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level.

Doesn’t mean an “herb” as we think of them.

I like the Hosta varieties with fragrant flowers. Another name for Hosta is Plantain Lily, and some varieties have white, lily-like flowers that are very fragrant. The ones with purple flowers aren’t fragrant, mostly.

I’ve always been a gardener; growing corn, green chilis and all sorts of stuff and then canning it. I think my tomatoes from 1998 should be thrown out, tho!

I have some probs with the gardening this year. I have Rabbits! Wascally wabbits! AND, even worse, an Ailanthus altissima “Queen of Hell” tree next door, which every time I disturb my earth, sends up choking root babies into my yard.

My idiot next door neighbor planted it for “shade”, it doesn’t even do that very well.
So, I’m conflicted about a vegetable garden this year.

Edgar Cayce ( the sleeping prophet) prophesied about these times and said anyone who didn’t have some land on which to grow food would go hungry. But he didn’t say anything about invasive trees or the gangs of starving homeless people running around just waiting to harvest your……well, harvest. Or, Rabbits!
Frankly, I’m rethinking the whole thing unless I can get community involvement going here…Big “IF” in my community.

:::::::sigh::::::::

Something that I dearly love to pick up is the Southern Living annual gardening book — they pull all their articles on gardening from the year together in a single volume by season. I have several years of them, and they are so fabulous this time of year when the ground is frozen.

I’d bet a lot of the plants in them would work perfectly where you are these days. I have to pick and choose, since I’m on the upper range of the South…but I love the color in them nonetheless. Their garden photography is gorgeous.

True about no fragrance purple flowers. But they make a wonderful addition to a cut-flower bouquet. Verra purty.

Barbara – if you like butterflies, you might try this plant too: DILL!! We put in dill and got the most amazing yellow and black butterflies and then gorgeous caterpillers to visit. It was just fantastic – I have pictures someplace of them.

Ohmygosh! Dill! Who knew? I have room for it. Another thing to buy. {Kaching!}

Something that does have a lovely fragrance and is a deep purple is heliotrope. The most amazing scent, and butterflies stick to it like glue. If you can find an heirloom variety, and not a hybrid, it does wonderfully in partial shade.

Dill, parsley and fennel, actually — all are feeding foods for caterpillars of various butterfly types. :)

Here’s a page from the University of Minnesota on plants for your region, Barbara.

Good Golly. Thanks. Now off to google Plantain Lily…
And, Kassandra, thanks for the EC thoughts. Thinking about about what we’re headed into, the realization that I have to grow stuff in my yard that my family will be eating, that thought pushes out the laziness in my mind. Must take care of family. Must make use of the small patch of yard I do have. Must not be selfish.

OOOH. Never thought of THAT! I guess I rarely do cut flowers, probably because I don’t have anything to cut, since almost nothing grows in my shady yard. I think I could cut the coleus, too, but I simply never think of it. I have 4 or 5 pots along the sidewalk from the steps to the driveway, all loaded with spikes, coleus, a couple of impatiens or something else colorful, and vinca or sweet potato vine. That and my hosta are about the extent of what I can grow. No veggies, unfortunately, but we have a good local farmer’s market!

Just google’d it. Gorgeous! Appears to grow in low bushy clusters?

Ooooh — and here’s a handy chart of larval plants from the same source! Sweet!!!

Oh, wow. Thanks! Living in Zone 4 that has occasional Zone 3 tendencies makes things a little bit tricky. Growing season is longer here than in, say, Duluth (Zone 3), though. And over time, David found some amazing things to grow here. A peach tree, for crying out loud. Yield last year (its first) was one peach, but it’s a start!

demi — if you have a small patch, check out Square Foot Gardening. I loved the book and incorporated some of the stuff the author talks about, adapting it to my tiny yard by tucking in various plants into my flower garden here and there as well as for the planting in the one really sunny patch I use for tomatoes and peppers.

I am just back from seeing the first TV reports on the Israeli attack on Gaza on Spanish TV, you will not probably see these without heavy censoring. Deepest apologies for the OT. If anyone with a beating heart can justify what I have just seen, you are among the damned. I have commented earlier that there is a shadow over those who practice the festival of the lights. I was mistaken. It is a pall of blood, of the innocent, of the powerless, of the disenfranchised. May God damn every cognizant person who is either involved or supports such violent outrages. I vow that never again will I buy or give support to Israel, its government, or its people until the victims all assure me they have forgiven these murderers. Deepest apologies for transgressing this holy posting.

When I lived in the Detroit area, I used to get all of my planting stuff at Bordine’s, a HUGE local garden center. They had (among other things) hundreds of hosta varieties. They also did their own impatiens mixes, and since I left I’ve tried to duplicate the one I liked that was shades of burgundy and medium and light pinks. Expensive, tho….their imp flats were (at the time) something like $12.99.

Good morning everyone.

I had a lot of luck with Sluggo to get rid of slugs. It took a whole season however I haven’t seem them in 2 years. Also, getting rid of any leaves in your yard helps.

My brain was, a 5 am, still not functioning….and I absolutely agree and I apologize.

solai At 31. Please be my guest…. what is mine is yours!!

I’m not sure you’re supposed to use the words “larval” and “sweet” together. Ha.
Kidding. Just that larvae gives me the erppies. *g*

Ian has a post upstairs on that very topic…

Ohmygosh. I sound as though I know something about gardening! Apparently I absorbed more from listening to/watching David than I thought. Am realizing that making much of the gardens I now am called to tend is a very big deal this year. Steep learning curve, though. Crikey! And here is my personal online advisory team. Booyah!!

We have similar issues here. I’m in a pocket of zone 5 — but our summers tend to be more like zone 6. Winters can get bone cold here, and finding perennials that can stand the extremes of temperature is not easy. I’d suspect that you all have it even worse. *g*

I should go check it out from the library. I remember seeing a show many years ago about that, maybe PBS. Last year I designed a garden with 3 ‘ round sections, because I found some fairly wide plastic garden edging that I thought would do the trick. Thought I’d put the circles on two sides, against the house for shadier things and up against the fence (mfr) for the sunny stuff and have paving stones down the center. I even got the boys to rototill.
That was the plan, but I never planted. Stuff’s still out there, though.

Barbara and I have the same, actually – the trick is not to be seduced into taking too many risks. that’s why I stick with hostas and heucheras…that’s why we always have The Big Blue Tarp(tm) around for the veggies…be prepared.

Fennel, the herb not the veggie is great for bees also. It’s become one of my favorite plants. The feathery foliage adds nice variety to the foliage, the flowers are small yellow clusters that magically transform into fennel seed.

You can use the foliage for dressing, marinades, works real well with chicken and fish too.

My fondest memories of my grandmother revolve around her garden and her kitchen. We actually transplanted some of her favorite azaleas etc. to this yard when she went to “the home”.

Ya’ll are giving me the urge to fix up mother’s flower beds this spring and “channel” Grammy. One of the things I miss the most about NYC is the availability of fresh cut flowers. Having them in the apt. always made me think of her.

Time to dig out my book called The Annual Garden by Loewer.

Barbara, OT, here. What was the latest on the count? Last I read Franken ahead, Coleman not many options….anything more recent?

Also OT: Here in Austin, home of Alspaugh (sp?) formerly of FEMA, burned down on Christmas Eve. No, not funny. But some of the comments were, such as maybe he will like trailors….(no one injured…renting, because his own home was being treated for mold.) Yep, no safe place.

TobyWollin, where are you (geographically speaking)?

Get to know some of the folks who work in the local nurseries. They are passionate about what they do, and know the area you live inside out.

Franken up by roughly 47 votes. Here are some snippets from MPR:

The Minnesota Supreme Court has denied a motion by Republican Senator Norm Coleman’s campaign calling for an investigation into whether double counting occurred in the U.S. Senate recount. Also today, justices extended the deadline to count any wrongly-rejected absentee ballots. (12/24/2008)

Winner of U.S. Senate race unknown until 2009
The winner of Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race will not be known until early next year, and may not even be seated when the U.S. Senate convenes on Jan. 6. (12/24/2008)

Coleman campaign goes back to the Supreme Court
An attorney for the Sen. Norm Coleman’s reelection campaign today asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to stop the state canvassing board from certifying the U.S. Senate election until officials can resolve any double-counted votes. (12/23/2008)

As for tomatoes. I always let them trail and put straw under them as mulch and to keep the fruit off the ground. they seem to set the fruit better and more abundantly.

I’ve used, with great success, this guy’s homemade, organic recipes for fertilizer for everything from my lawn to flowers, vegetables and trees. Believe or not, most plants like a little bit of booze and caffeine to really get them cranking! Especially roses; they love red wine (mixed with other stuff, of course)

Check it out: http://www.jerrybaker.com/inde…..#038;ID=27

I used this pamphlet primarily for almost everything:
http://www.jerrybaker.com/inde…..ProdID=895

You know, this is spot on. Have been going to a small, family-owned nursery for the few odds and ends I’ve contributed to our gardens over the years. They can make me smart! A very tough assignment, but do-able! *g*

Upstate New York – if you look at the USDA zone map, there is that blue Zone 4 tongue that goes straight down I81…I’m in there, except that my topography has a big Northwest to southeast slope in it, so we can get killer frosts into June and in September…listening for frost warnings is a big deal Chez Siberia-on-the-susquehanna.

I’m thinking you will do this. David left you a wonderful gift in those gardens, didn’t he?
I think there’s always a wonderful present inside the big challenge.
Is it too early for serendipidous philosophy?

Thanks…the eyes are watching, you know. I am also interested in the next chapter that seems to involve Neiman Marcus ;)

Universities are often great resources for gardening outreach/education. Anyone in the Twin Cities who loves flowers/plants etc. would enjoy:

http://www.arboretum.umn.edu/g…..tions.aspx

Never too early! And quite wonderful this day. Sometime I’ll speak of the horrible battle going on with David’s adult children. Jeebus!

I’ve been thinking about doing the Master Gardener program here. Has anyone done that through their extension service? Have always wanted to do the program…

Barbara! Adding insult to injury?
I’m sorry to here that. Oh, that mister death does have a stranglehold on people doesn’t he?
A good friend of mine, the one I call my fairy godmother, who is 90, just lost her husband of 68 years. She told me a long time ago, that when people cry at funerals, they’re really crying for themselves.
When we don’t want to face who we are, we nit pick about anything and everything else. Maybe?

Oh, you should do it! University of Minnesota has an extensive program. I suppose this is one of those things that doesn’t lend itself well to online learning?

That program is very big in these parts. My WaPo link up at #52 has a click though to purchase the manual used for the MG program at UMd.

I’ve looked into here a few times and I always miss the starting date. I know you’re required to volunteer a certain amount of hours in exchange for the program here.

I think it would be a great experience, except for my butchering of latin plant names.

Maybe. Primary culprits are DIL and SIL who have served as mouthpieces for daughter and son. We’re talking vicious. Ack. Enough.

I am not at all sure that is true about tears. Losses are huge. I had sent something about that the other day. In my work I have thought the loss of a long time marriage is the hardest one…life completely changes. (My 2 cents)

Off to little French cafe for coffee (yes, more of it!) with friends and little bro. He goes home tomorrow (again). Thanks for all the tips!!

Mostly, I agree with you. In this case, however, I think there was/is a boatload of guilt from children who blew off their father for years and, when his dire illness was revealed, said (and I quote), “Well, if you need something, I suppose you can call us, but we’re pretty busy, so we won’t be able to help much.” And they held true to their word. Must. Shut. Up.

((Barbara))) — been there with a sib who would not help when my mom had dementia – if you need an electronic shoulder, let me know…

I’ve been in the middle of that sort of thing a time or two for clients, and I will never understand how people can be so fricking greedy and nasty at a time when others are grieving, except that they clearly see an advantage to be had from being that way when the other side may be at a weak point.

I’m so sorry you are going through something icky. We have some family-by-marriage that are going through something like that now with a parent with alzheimers — how you can be greedy about crap before the person has even passed is beyond me. The thing I always told clients was that karma comes back to bite folks in the ass…whether they expect it or not.

Hugs, hon. If you have friends who have any experience dealing with this sort of thing, then lean on them and ask them for help. Or at least for an ear or two as a sounding board. It helps to be able to vent, if nothing else.

Didn’t mean to lessen the power of loss. I realize that loss is huge. Just saying we usually aren’t shedding tears for the one who has passed, but are moved by other emotions.
You probably know more about this than I do, though.

Pixie Dust

Hey Christy! Thanks for the gardening thread. Way too cold for me to go out and start the work today, but I can sit in the LR and dream and visualize. That’s where you started this post, isn’t it? I’m Dreaming Of A Green Garden.
Now, when I’m driving through the neighborhood and see garage sale signs, I think I’ll start looking for garden tools, books, that stuff. It’s always nice to plan ahead.
And, you know, I like to look at how things are connected. How these posts circle. Reading about the ugliness in Gaza, and then the bit about how we treat each other during grief and loss…there’s a similar selfish ugly in it, doncha think?
But, thanks for this morning’s PUAC.

OT to Christy,

I may have a degree from Chapel Hill, but today, I’m a Pat White fan. Really want to see him break the quarterback bowl record.

Go ‘eers.

That’s……………..weird… in the sense that I’ve been doing lettuce in pots on the porch for at least four years now and never had any problem with slugs. Hmmm…possible variables. Usually start with sets but have done seeds. Always use bagged soil; never garden soil. Porch = second story. Could that be the difference? Fairly easy for them to crawl onto a porch near the ground but unlikely to hump their slimy little souls up a flight of stairs?

Note: I’m just starting at the top of the thread and working on down so hope others have some good solutions…..because the miserable little bastids have completely descimated (sp?) the leaves of some heirloom lilies I put in pots ON the ground this fall. The only revenge is watching them melt away under a pinch of salt.

Go ‘eers, indeed. We’ve stocked up on game munchies and are ready to cheer…

I think the second story is your answer on that one. Mine is a single step up from the ground level, and much easier for the slimy little buggers to get to, I’m afraid.

Maybe it’s great if you have lots and lots of dill but I only do a few plants in pots and the caterpillers just chew it right down to nubs……no foliage or seed heads left. Hate to do it but if *I* want any dill to use, they have to be removed (as in permanently).

Pulled off all the seed heads this fall and scattered them in the yard so hopefully there will be plenty for all of us next year. :-)

Do you by any chance have some porch railing? If so, you might try getting some of those new-fangled plastic pots that straddle the railing or some pot hangers.

“Sometimes, I think the best part of my garden is the few weeks of winter dreaming it gives me each year.”

that’s my most successful period each year. *g*

If you live in the Bay area, here is a great site for tomatoes:

http://www.growbetterveggies.com/

Cynthia, at Love Apple Farm gives great advice. I grew tomatoes in pots last summer following her instructions – (I have major problems with groundhogs or some troll-like varmints that eat everything I grow from underneath) and she has a whole section on how to prepare the pots – adding stuff like eggshells, aspirin, fish heads, etc. It was fun and I got good tomatoes! I also grew beans and peas in pots with good results too – I have a small yard, so using the pots allows me to position them in the sunniest spots.

what about laying down a “dessert” moat of sea salt between the slugs and the pot of lettuce? or does this potentially ruin the ground for next year if the salt escapes the moat?

I meant “desert” but I guess “dessert” works, too.