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Author Topic: Happy Gardening Day!
lagatta
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posted 18 May 2002 04:06 PM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Victoria Day, the Queen's birthday? Here in Quebec we celebrate Dollard-des-Ormeaux; if I'm not mistaken he was an Indian-killer... Although the weather is dreary, it is the beginning of gardening season in much of Canada.

But Gardening Day could be a metaphorical occasion too, for the greening of neighbourhoods, towns and villages. And although they've been gardening for quite some time now, we will remember Victoria ... where there are beautiful gardens.


From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
nonsuch
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posted 18 May 2002 05:11 PM      Profile for nonsuch     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
No gardening - too cold, and i have 30 Mother's Day strawberries to plant out.

But, there are a couple of family birthdays to celebrate, so the weekend isn't a total loss.

Happy Victoria.


From: coming and going | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Slick Willy
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posted 18 May 2002 06:01 PM      Profile for Slick Willy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Damn it Jim! I'm a doctor, not a damned pond pump mechanic!

Spent the morning and afternoon working in the garden. Pond pump is shot so went and got a new one to replace it. You do know that those sump pumps work every bit as well as a name brand pond pump at about a third the price.

My honeybunch made her first water feature using some of the drift wood and stones she brought back from Victoria and with a little guidence (drilling holes in ceramics) she put together a very nice planter for some bamboo to go on the patio.

Just have the lighting left to install and then bedding plants and we are in business.

I want to change a small flower bed into a raised flower bed and should get started on that in a couple of weeks or so.

I used to love going out to Buchard Gardens when we lived in Victoria but there is something you get when you work hard on your own garden that you don't get looking at the nicest displays.

With luck in another few weeks I'll be able to put the pool fish out and get the lillies growing.

As cold and cloudy it is, it is still summer now that I have gotten my fingers into the earth.


From: Hog Heaven | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
'lance
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posted 18 May 2002 06:17 PM      Profile for 'lance     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Just so I'm clear, Slick... you're going to pump out your pond, and then put fish in it?
From: that enchanted place on the top of the Forest | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
WingNut
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posted 18 May 2002 06:21 PM      Profile for WingNut   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Spent the morning and afternoon working in the garden. Pond pump is shot so went and got a new one to replace it. You do know that those sump pumps work every bit as well as a name brand pond pump at about a third the price.

No! I didn't.

Tell me what you know about ponds, Slick Willy. Tell me! And hyacinths? What eats them? Racoons?


From: Out There | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged
audra trower williams
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posted 18 May 2002 09:02 PM      Profile for audra trower williams   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
My favourite gardening site.
From: And I'm a look you in the eye for every bar of the chorus | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Slick Willy
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posted 18 May 2002 10:46 PM      Profile for Slick Willy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Heh heh sorta 'lance. Water wants to move, so it must be pumped. Fish love this moving water stuff too. As part of the filtration of the pond, we added a stream (birds love this) and hope to have a toad move in soon.

Wingnut, sounds like you are interested in a pond.
You do understand that it is a hole in the ground that you throw money into, right?

For us though it is worth the money and the work as it makes a little spot in Toronto alot more peaceful, seductive, attractive, alive, content, secluded, and stuff.

But more on this later.

We had some last summer and I noticed lots of bulbs busted open. I know some birds will peck at them and we have seen racoons at the pond having a good sniff around. There is a woodchuck under the neighbours garage that comes to the pond each day and I think he may have had a taste aswell.
It didn't much matter to us though as from three plants hundreds upon hundreds came. Also fish love the roots and will eat and spawn within them.
We composted I would guess 350 to 400 some odd plants from the orignial 3.

From tiny to something that could use a punt for crossing ponds kick ass.

They aren't that hard to build and can be from simple to just plain nuts. Ours is small actually at 220 gallons. But small can be under a gallon and up. What I like is the sound that comes from moving water. It has to move over things to create the splashing sound. But that in itself is an adventure in finding stones and bits along the beaches and rivers and parks around Toronto.

As I said earlier my wife brought back some small stones and driftwood she picked up while out on the coast. We picked up some small terracotta saucers and sand and crushed rock along with a oblong deck planter. Added a smiling kitchen god (most call them Buddah) a 60 gallon per hour pump and my wife put it all together. The water collects in the planter where it is pumped up through a 1/2" hose to a hole cut into a 12" long piece of twisty driftwood. It runs down the driftwood into a terracotta saucer filled with some nicely marked stones and trickles back down into the planter through a few holes drilled into the terracotta. Lovely sound, looks beautiful and is a simple way to add contrast and texture to the edge of the patio.

But back to ponds.

The 220 gallon we have now is very nice as it is large enough for a few fish, a few plants and once it is in balance, it take only a few minutes each week to keep up.

For starters, those rigid precast plastic pond liners are great. just dig out the ground, fit it in level and filler up. But that is just a taste.
Once you find out whether you into it or not, you have lots of room to move up to more elaborate ponds that become small eco systems. Yes you finally get to be God.

To be honest, I am at the point where 10,000 gallons does not sound outrageous. But that will be in the future.

When keeping fish in a pond, the same rules apply that you use for keeping fish in a tank.
The pond has to cycle or fish die. Let me know if anyone wants to hear what cycle means.

Feed em, change out some water each week, and give them some cover to hide from the sun and preditors. Badda bing.

I could go for pages here so maybe it would be best to just ask questions. heh heh


From: Hog Heaven | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 18 May 2002 11:12 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I was out planting the veggies this afternoon in the prairie wind. At this point I haven't decided whether I am windburnt or sandblasted.

Rule Brittania!

Bonne fête de Dollard.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
vickyinottawa
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posted 21 May 2002 09:42 AM      Profile for vickyinottawa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
hey, audra, thanks for that gardening site!

too cold to garden here....and me with a mess of plants I bought at a Friends of the Experimental Farm sale last week I did spend yesterday at my sister's place, digging up perennials to take back to Ottawa with me. Better damn well warm up this week so I can do something with them!


From: lost in the supermarket | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Slick Willy
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posted 21 May 2002 10:23 AM      Profile for Slick Willy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Better damn well warm up this week so I can do something with them!

As you wish. Wednesday weather for Ottawa forcasts highs of 19 and warming toward the weekend. Looks like a great time to get your perennials into the ground and tend to some of the other chores.

Not sure if everyone knows about Lee Valley or if it is a little secret. Great place for ideas and really good quality stuff. Prices are a pleasant surprise once you understand that the goods are high quality.

If you haven't been there, you want to be. They do mail order and online sales too.

Sorry for the commercial but I love these guys. The free catalogs are great too.

Lee Valley


From: Hog Heaven | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
vickyinottawa
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posted 21 May 2002 10:42 AM      Profile for vickyinottawa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Lee Valley: Dangerously close to my workplace

Am eyeing the
folding wheelbarrow

Thanks for the weather update....the planting may begin this evening, before my meeting....

[ May 21, 2002: Message edited by: vickyinottawa ]


From: lost in the supermarket | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Slick Willy
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posted 21 May 2002 11:15 AM      Profile for Slick Willy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Lee Valley is big on magnets too. Some how thay have managed to develope some wild magnetic force that makes stuff jump from the shelves to my arms and my credit card to the scanner. If only they could have used this mystic power for good instead of evil.

We strung the hammock up yesterday too. It is amazing just how helpful that thing is in making me think about work. heh heh


From: Hog Heaven | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
vickyinottawa
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posted 21 May 2002 11:27 AM      Profile for vickyinottawa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I am not quite ready for the hammock.... HOWEVER, if the weather holds I might just have to fire up the ca 1952 built-in blender (note to babblers: my kitchen is very retro) for some gardening assistance
From: lost in the supermarket | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
clersal
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posted 21 May 2002 11:52 AM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I too was planning to work in the garden but it is only 12 degrees and cold earth is cold on hands. Maybe by this aft the sun will warm things up and then I will try and plant a few hardy vegetables.
From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 21 May 2002 12:32 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
I was out planting the veggies this afternoon in the prairie wind.

You're a braver man than I am, Arch.... We put off planting until this damned wind dies down. Gusting to 60kph!!!! Crap!

The forecast is also threatening freezing for 3 nights this coming week, so now my house is full of bedding plants that I don't dare put out, even though it's going up to 29 degrees today.

I'm very cross about this weather.... I want to put out my herb garden! I want to plant peas and carrots! I want FLOWERS!!!!

Dammit!

(PS -- We love Lee Valley, too... Good thing we only have mail-order access!)


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 21 May 2002 01:18 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Hey Zoot;

I went out to the garden yesterday, and was literally blown off-balance by the wind as I was watering.

You can still harden-off those bedding plants. I've been leaving mine outside for a week, and they froze (mildly - no damage) only once!

No frost in our northern forecast this week....

Love those Lee Valley catalogues. I find their gadgets intriguing. I look at some gizmo and think, 'That's a great idea,' and turn the page.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Slick Willy
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posted 21 May 2002 01:30 PM      Profile for Slick Willy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
That's what I love about Lee Valley too. Just looking through the catalogs. Last year I got my wife one of those tryst rings. Picked a nice night in August and after a couple glasses of wine snuggling in the garden swing I gave her that and a kiss. Now the rings aren't worth much money wise but it goes a long way when I get neglectful during the playoffs.

Any chance you guys can make a covering with poly over your bedding plants? I know the wind can get under damn near everything.


From: Hog Heaven | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 21 May 2002 02:20 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Any chance you guys can make a covering with poly over your bedding plants? I know the wind can get under damn near everything.

I've considered it, but with a 3-day 50-60 kph blow, chances are it'll wind up in somebody's yard several miles away. Our yard is pretty sheltered, but with new plants, they're still pretty tender and will take a beating. Especially the basil.

And the veggie garden is a plot in a community garden, so it's wide open, no shelter at all from the wind. A cover wouldn't last a minute. I usually plant bushy sunflowers as a bit of a windbreak, but they won't be up for a while, and planting carrots and beets in this wind... Might as well not bother, they're gone before they hit the dirt (even more so when the gardening assistant is 4 yrs old!).

quote:
You can still harden-off those bedding plants. I've been leaving mine outside for a week, and they froze (mildly - no damage) only once!

I've been doing just that, but I take 'em in overnight. I need to get them in the ground, though, my 16 mo old is waaaaay to interested in the little pots.

Last year I put my basil under cloches (made from clear plastic juice jugs) overnight for the first few weeks, left them on for windy days. But this wind is just mental.


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Riffraff
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posted 21 May 2002 02:24 PM      Profile for Riffraff     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
The only "gardening" that can be done with this weather in this corner of Canada is to gather wood and twigs for the fire place.
From: Ontario | Registered: Jan 2002  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 21 May 2002 02:25 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Last year I got my wife one of those tryst rings. Picked a nice night in August and after a couple glasses of wine snuggling in the garden swing I gave her that and a kiss.

How lovely! I hadn't noticed the tryst rings. I'll have to go look in the catalogue again. Might have to put a bug in the blond guy's ear... He hates to think anybody's as good at romantic as he is!


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 21 May 2002 02:38 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
How lovely! I hadn't noticed the tryst rings. I'll have to go look in the catalogue again. Might have to put a bug in the blond guy's ear... He hates to think anybody's as good at romantic as he is!

I hate guys like that. They make those of us whose idea of being romantic is to turn down the volume on the hockey game look bad.

Hey, I have a plot in a community garden too!

It's very exposed, so I plan on erecting a 1X4 frame surrounded by poly to shield the plants. Between the wind and the gophers last year, they really took a beating.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Slick Willy
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Babbler # 184

posted 21 May 2002 03:06 PM      Profile for Slick Willy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
I hate guys like that. They make those of us whose idea of being romantic is to turn down the volume on the hockey game look bad.

But Arch, I thought it was old smoothies like you that paved the way for the rest of us stiffs.

I swear one night a month of slathering on the mush and you coast for the next 30 days. Hell with a little extra effort you can start getting cold beer and big stinky sandwiches delivered at the start of the second period.

I mean so I've heard. That is to say if my wife reads this board from work heh heh you know just big talk in front of the boys. heh heh

Sweetie.

Darling.

Oh hell!


From: Hog Heaven | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 21 May 2002 03:10 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Hey, I have a plot in a community garden too!

We've got loads of bunnies in ours... Exercise the dog in the winter by setting her loose in the field, the bunnies lope around while she goes nuts. Had a gopher last year, but there's another gardener, an old farmer retired into the city, who "took care of him" for us... Promised he didn't use poison, and I don't want any more details...

Do you think your frame would affect the light levels? Sounds like an intriguing idea.

I love the community garden plot. We don't have to sacrifice kid-and-dog playing space to have fresh, home-grown veggies. I'm still finishing beans from last year's crop! It's amazing how much you can produce in one little plot.

We're trying raised beds this year, and mulching with straw to keep in the moisture. The raised beds prevent frost somewhat, I'm told, so if we can extend the growing season a week or two, that'd be good.

[ May 21, 2002: Message edited by: Zoot Capri ]


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 21 May 2002 03:13 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
I swear one night a month of slathering on the mush and you coast for the next 30 days.

Men!

I must be higher maintenance. My sweetie brings me coffee in bed every morning.


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 22 May 2002 12:03 AM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Now I really dislike this guy...

Willy, this secret of yours, how do you manage it? It sounds like science fiction to me.

quote:
Do you think your frame would affect the light levels? Sounds like an intriguing idea.

The poly doesn't inhibit light at all. I've seen greenhouses covered with the stuff.

The damn wind blew a flat of plants off my patio table today. Losses are moderate, but sheesh.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 22 May 2002 12:42 AM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Glad to hear there were no heavy losses! Hung up the fuschias on the front porch, will see how they fare overnight. They're up, so they shouldn't freeze.

The blond guy thanks you for the idea, re the poly barrier. He is strongly considering it.

Hoping the wind will die down for tomorrow -- it's supposed to cool off, so that's a good sign. Then we can plant!


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
nonsuch
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posted 22 May 2002 01:39 AM      Profile for nonsuch     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
This year, i'm putting all the delicate stuff (peppers, tomatoes, eggpalnt) in plastic tents. A chore to build and a pain to maintain - since plastic sheet only comes in 10' width, so the tent can't be any taller than about 3', and i have to crawl in there and sweat like a pig while weeding, but they simply won't survive any other way. Everything else will just have to take its chances with global warming.

My little pondling is doing okay. Two frogs, a regenerating cattail; chervil, angelica, irises and violets very happy on the periphery.

With any luck, it'll be warm enough to get out there and do some serious digging tomorrow.


From: coming and going | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 22 May 2002 09:08 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
I mean so I've heard. That is to say if my wife reads this board from work heh heh you know just big talk in front of the boys. heh heh

Sweetie.

Darling.

Oh hell!


HAHA - hey Slick, what do you mean, if she reads this from work? Is your wife a babbler here!? Who is she! WHO WHO WHO!? Enquiring minds and all...

Vicky, you work near Lee Valley? Poor sucker. But you know what? I'd be much more tempted by the Ikea next door, personally. I'd be coming home every day with a new candle, knick-knack shelf, what-have-you.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
vickyinottawa
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posted 22 May 2002 10:37 AM      Profile for vickyinottawa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Well, I have to walk across the Queensway to get to both of them, so fortunately I don't visit as often as I might like to....usually hit the gym next door instead and work out my frustration at not being able to plant

Actually, I did get some of the herbs in last night after work, and this morning took my granny cart down to the Parkdale Market for some dirt so I can get some of the perennials in to the shade garden in the backyard.

Any one else trying to garden without transportation? I gotta say it's a challenge sometimes....my little cart can only handle one or two bags of dirt at a time But it does stop me from over-loading on plants when I visit the market....


From: lost in the supermarket | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Slick Willy
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posted 22 May 2002 11:00 AM      Profile for Slick Willy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
HAHA - hey Slick, what do you mean, if she reads this from work? Is your wife a babbler here!? Who is she! WHO WHO WHO!? Enquiring
minds and all...

Heh I'm not sure. I don't think so but she can anytime she wants to. Sometimes she will be here working and reads what I'm looking at or what I'm posting and it gets us talking sometimes. I just need to watch my Ps and Qs or I could end up giving her the idea that I could be doing a lot more.

Why, she could get the idea that I should be bringing her a cuppa tea in bed every morning too and then where would I be?

Well the sun is shining and the temps are warming up. I best get out and tend to the yard work while things are quiet. With a little luck and a loooooooong network cable I just might be able to Babble and hammock this afternoon all under the guise of working. That's why I wear the headphone mic unit instead of the beerholder hat. Just so people will know what I am working at.


From: Hog Heaven | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 22 May 2002 12:27 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Why, she could get the idea that I should be bringing her a cuppa tea in bed every morning too and then where would I be?

Precisely where you ought to be... In her good books! Were you not aware that it is the man's duty to wait hand and foot on the goddess?

Okay, I have jinxed myself big-time. I shouldn't have bitched about the wind gusting up to 60 kph -- it's gusting up to 70 kph this morning and it's cold to boot. Guess gardening is also out for today.

PS -- Nonesuch, I'm jealous of your violets! It's too dry out here for them to grow.

[ May 22, 2002: Message edited by: Zoot Capri ]


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Slick Willy
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posted 22 May 2002 01:13 PM      Profile for Slick Willy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Were you not aware that it is the man's duty to wait hand and foot on the goddess?

Yeah I heard something like that but I just gave that chick a slap on the ass and made her go make me something to eat and a beer before she had to wash my car. But hey, it's not like I am insensitive or anything. I bought her a nice 10" electric buffer to make it easier to bring out the
shine. heh heh


From: Hog Heaven | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 22 May 2002 01:17 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Willy, yer full of beans, but I like your attitude.

I brought the plants into the house this morning because the wind is beating them up so bad outside. Yeah, and it's cold today too.

I've got the windows closed up, but I smell dust constantly and have a sore throat.
I got them dust bowl pneumony blues. Well, gotta hitch the Oldmobile to the mule and head to the mall...


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 22 May 2002 01:54 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Yeah, I having a 4 day sinus headache from the dust. Went out to my plot yesterday and there's actual soil drifts!

Sky's got that ugly dirty-yellow-brown cast today. Gross.

Unfortunately, I have neither Oldsmobile nor mule... And I don't think Kali the Dalbrador would look kindly on being hitched to the minivan... I think it's short trips on foot for me....

quote:
Yeah I heard something like that but I just gave that chick a slap on the ass and made her go make me something to eat and a beer before she had to wash my car.

As if you're fooling anybody! Hah!


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
vickyinottawa
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posted 22 May 2002 03:25 PM      Profile for vickyinottawa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I can hitch my schnauzer to my shopping cart....but that's as far as I get.
From: lost in the supermarket | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 22 May 2002 03:43 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Yeah I heard something like that but I just gave that chick a slap on the ass and made her go make me something to eat and a beer before she had to wash my car.

Only Slick could get away with this, y'know. Any other guy would have had the cyber sisters all over his ass in about 3 seconds flat.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 22 May 2002 05:51 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Tell me about it.

Every time I slip from the garden path of political correctness around here I have some dame givin' me a load of earache.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
clersal
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posted 22 May 2002 05:59 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Right on. Watch that tongue. I put in the patates today, or if you like, les pommes de terre.
From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 22 May 2002 06:57 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Aie! Attention mes oreilles!

So who DOES say "pommes de terre?" Cara Sposa and everyone else I've met from France says "patates."

Do they use only "patate" in Quebec?

I know a guy from Beauport who call spuds "pataks" sometimes.

By coincidence, we're having Raclette pour souper ce soir.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 22 May 2002 06:58 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Holy Cats!!!! It's pissing rain out here!!!

The forecast was for showers, not deluge!

And I just noticed this second, a fine hail to go with that deluge....

The prairies.... Such an inviting climate....


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 22 May 2002 07:38 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Every time I slip from the garden path of political correctness around here I have some dame givin' me a load of earache.

Maybe that's because when the women are seriously talking about feminism around here, you have gone out of your way to show your contempt for it, whereas Slick has shown time and again that he is quite supportive of feminism and its goals. Could that be it, Arch?


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
DrConway
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posted 22 May 2002 08:11 PM      Profile for DrConway     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Well, if living in Saskatchewan meant I got to own my very own home free and clear I'd put up with the hail and all that too.
From: You shall not side with the great against the powerless. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
'lance
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posted 22 May 2002 08:14 PM      Profile for 'lance     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I'd like to live in Saskatoon, but I confess I've never cared much for Regina. (Sorry, Zoot Capri!)

My father, from Saskatoon, tells me I must have excellent taste...


From: that enchanted place on the top of the Forest | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 22 May 2002 10:20 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Well, if living in Saskatchewan meant I got to own my very own home free and clear I'd put up with the hail and all that too.

We're not free-and-clear owners, Dr C, but we've got a nice, big character place for about a third what my SIL was offered for her 2 bedroom bungalow in Marpole.

quote:
...but I confess I've never cared much for Regina. (Sorry, Zoot Capri!)

It has a subtle charm -- and you have to know where to look for it.

Love it here. Saskatoon's got a river, but we've got a much better park. And it's been home for 4 generations...


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
nonsuch
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posted 22 May 2002 10:39 PM      Profile for nonsuch     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
"And I just noticed this second, a fine hail to go with that deluge...."

I thought the prairie climate was good, because "it's dry cold". That's what my people in Manitoba always say.


From: coming and going | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 22 May 2002 11:09 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
"it's dry cold"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!

It's not the Manitobans, usually, it's the Torontonians. And they always say it like it's a good thing, as if we have it easier....

Let me explain prairie cold. Yes, it's dry. The reason it's dry is because it's SO damned cold at -40 that the temperature itself sucks the moisture out of the air. Add to that a good, hefty wind that gathers speed as it whistles across the flat plains, and you have the kind of cold that not only crystalizes your breath as it leaves your body, it actually sucks the moisture right out of your body!

Thanks, but I'll take a damper cold any time! At least it won't cause skin damage in under a minute.

Oy vey, dry cold..... LOLOLOL!!!


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
'lance
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posted 22 May 2002 11:42 PM      Profile for 'lance     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Let me explain prairie cold. Yes, it's dry. The reason it's dry is because it's SO damned cold at -40 that the temperature itself sucks the moisture out of the air. Add to that a good, hefty wind that gathers speed as it whistles across the flat plains, and you have the kind of cold that not only crystalizes your breath as it leaves your body, it actually sucks the moisture right out of your body!

Yabbut... when we arrived in Calgary in March, it was cold. I mean, god/dessdamned cold.

But weirdly enough, I didn't mind it. Now, it's true I'm a Torontonian manqué, having done seven (7) years there (1982-1989; I Got Out the day before the Skydome officially opened, figuring God/dess was finally about to put Hir little finger down on the place, like a cigarette ember that had smouldered too long. And so it proved. Naturally, I've been nostalgic for it ever since).

But I'm from the Ottawa Valley, so this seemed like proper winter. It was somehow bracing. After 12 years in BC, I felt like I was back in Canada.

Now, I admit I didn't have to be out in it long. Back in Vancouver, I did field work 12 months a year and barely noticed a difference (OK, the Jan./Feb. cold could seep into your bones, somehow, but that's different from having your skin frozen). It's been a bit slow for me of late, field-wise, so I was spared frostbite. Still, I've experienced worse. Next winter, I'm sure the novelty will have worn off.


From: that enchanted place on the top of the Forest | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 23 May 2002 02:05 AM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Maybe that's because when the women are seriously talking about feminism around here, you have gone out of your way to show your contempt for it, whereas Slick has shown time and again that he is quite supportive of feminism and its goals. Could that be it, Arch?

Frankly, Michelle, I don't give a darn.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 23 May 2002 08:39 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Oh, my apologies, Arch. I assumed when you were complaining about the "dames" who give you "earache" that you did give a darn. My mistake. I didn't realize you were just trolling the feminists on babble yet again. Thanks for the heads up.

[ May 23, 2002: Message edited by: Michelle ]


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Slick Willy
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posted 23 May 2002 09:58 AM      Profile for Slick Willy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
It has a subtle charm -- and you have to know where to look for it

Oh it does not.

One thing it dies have that is inspiring is the hoarfrost on the trees in winter. They get frosted just as you see in movies of evil frozen antagonist lairs.

The wind is insane and has always been so. The winters are long but you do see the sun when it's cold. And the seasons are really screwed up there.
What is it, about a week of spring, a month and a half of summer, 3 weeks of fall and 40 weeks of mind numbing cold and snow.

There is a big park in the center of town with a lake but last I saw of it it was a toilet for geese and the lake is just about big enough for a small canoe.

Does Regina still hold the world record for longest bridge over the smallest stretch of water?
Do they still sell t-shirts to visitors that says "I drank Regina water and lived"? And mosquitos, you don't know from mosquitos. You can lose five pounds just walking to the car.

But the housing is cheap. A no great shakes bungalow in Toronto costs more than a nice five bedroom, three car garage on a half acre with pool.

Regina housing


From: Hog Heaven | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
clersal
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posted 23 May 2002 12:40 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Lettuce, Swiss Chard and Garlic is in. Tomorrow the Green Beans. No carrots, no onions, no radishes. Zuccini, Cucumber and tomatoes a bit later.
From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 23 May 2002 01:13 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I've limited my planting to vegetables with big seeds, such as corn and broad beans, as the wind is too violent to make carrot planting worthwhile.

Things have calmed somewhat today, though.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
'lance
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posted 23 May 2002 02:10 PM      Profile for 'lance     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
It has a subtle charm -- and you have to know where to look for it.

I found the same of Edmonton. Hated it first time I was here (fall 1999), like it now.

When I'm travelling for work reasons, I see the worst of cities -- industrial sites, derelict as often as not, and hotels.


From: that enchanted place on the top of the Forest | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
vickyinottawa
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posted 23 May 2002 02:49 PM      Profile for vickyinottawa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
got the herbs in yesterday....plus the stuff I lifted from my sister's garden over the weekend....lily of the valley, solomon's seal, periwinkle, lamb's ears... hooray!
From: lost in the supermarket | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 23 May 2002 02:57 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Oh it does not.

Now that's just not nice, Willy. Cut it out.

Sure, we get wind, but usually it's manageable. We don't get smog, we have lots of sun, and the spring/summer and fall are usually pretty nice. We get about 3 months of deep cold (extreme cold snaps come and go, last about a week to a week and a half at a stretch on average), but even that has its pleasures -- like the hoarfrost, ice crystals sparkling in the air. And what better excuse for a roaring fire in the fireplace?

And then there's the fact that one can be out of town in any direction from our place in 5 to 15 minutes.

And sunsets! You've never seen such sunsets as we get out here!

quote:
There is a big park in the center of town with a lake but last I saw of it it was a toilet for geese and the lake is just about big enough for a small canoe.

Now that's just plain nasty.

Wascana Park is quite beautiful. The lake, I will admit, is not the most clean and clear, but it's man-made and on the prairie, where clear lakes just don't happen. Wascana is also linked to numerous other parks from the north-west corner of the city to the south-east, all with bike paths and green spaces. We have a higher percentage of space devoted to parks in this city than the majority of Canadian cities.

We've also got some cool little neighborhoods springing up, like Cathedral Village. Lots of old character houses, all services you need within walking distance, arts festival every spring, lots of active community involvement. Good place to raise kids.

quote:
And mosquitos, you don't know from mosquitos. You can lose five pounds just walking to the car.

Not when it's dry or windy. You probably have more of 'em up north, around Prince Albert, where the prairie turns to forest and they get more moisture. And around Yorkton, which is again more damp. And no worse than Winnipeg, Calgary or Edmonton, or so I've observed.

You know, people always make Regina out to be such a hole... It really pisses me off. It's actually pretty insulting.

And the link you posted -- That house is overpriced. Somebody'll probably wind up paying at least $20,000 less for it.

[ May 23, 2002: Message edited by: Zoot Capri ]


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 23 May 2002 02:58 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
I'd like to live in Saskatoon, but I confess I've never cared much for Regina.

Saskatoon's OK, but Saskatudlians get pretty smug when it comes to Regina. I'm not sure why. I don't remember people even mentioning Saskatoon while I lived in Regina, but here people are always mocking the Queen City.

Maybe Saskatoon is jealous of the 'Riders.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 23 May 2002 03:01 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I've always seen Saskatoon and Regina as roughly equivalent. If it would make Saskatonians feel better, I'm perfectly willing to let them have the 'Riders....

(But I maintain that Cathedral is way better than Broadway! )


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 23 May 2002 03:10 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
I've always seen Saskatoon and Regina as roughly equivalent.

Me too, which is why I don't understand Saskatudlians' attitude of superiority.

I don't know Cathedral, but I once called Broadway a "smug backwater of ersatz bohemianism" on my radio show.

Do you listen to Regina Community Radio? I have, on the 'net a couple of times. It sounds OK. We used to brag that ours was the only station of its kind in Saskatchewan. Our signal is so weak that sometimes one cannot hear it even in Saskatoon, while people all over the planet can listen to cjtr.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 23 May 2002 03:20 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
I don't know Cathedral, but I once called Broadway a "smug backwater of ersatz bohemianism" on my radio show.

Well, Cathedral is pretty bohemian. The majority of the artists living in the city are in the neighborhood (I wouldn't say we're smug, per se). But there's also an amazing mix of socio-economic classes that manage to cooperate through a very active community association and a designated community school.

Edited to add:

CJTR is only a few months old, and while I've listened some, I know some of the people involved in getting it started up. I'm really encouraged that it's up and running, because the rest of the radio stations (except CBC, which I like) really suck.

Ya gotta problem with bohemians?

[ May 23, 2002: Message edited by: Zoot Capri ]


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 23 May 2002 03:45 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Ya gotta problem with bohemians?

Nah, just the "add cappuccino and pose" variety.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 23 May 2002 03:50 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Oh, well, that's all right, then.... As I tend to order lattes at the local coffee house and it's hard to pose with a pair of small kids climbing all over you....
From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Slick Willy
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posted 23 May 2002 05:39 PM      Profile for Slick Willy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
No offense intended Zoot, I lived there for a few years and escaped. Different strokes for different folks and some people love Regina.

quote:
And the link you posted -- That house is overpriced. Somebody'll probably wind up paying at least $20,000 less for it.

I agree but here in Toronto you wouldn't touch that place for under 300k. And if that isn't shocking enough you should see what you can get for their asking price here. heh heh

I guess you just get jaded after leaving Regina for a normal city like Toronto. Sure the air may be toxic but with the cheap price of bottle air who cares? Not to mention we got the Leafs and that in and of itself makes Toronto the best place in Canada.

please address all flame mail and letter bombs to
[email protected]


From: Hog Heaven | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 23 May 2002 05:51 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
I guess you just get jaded after leaving Regina for a normal city like Toronto.

AAAAHahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, you've just redeemed yourself with humour -- Toronto, NORMAL!!!! Hah!!!!

Me, after a week or two in Toronto, I also feel a need of escape. Nice place to visit, but no way could I live there. My head clogs up within a few hours of arrival.

I know about the housing price thing in TO and Vancouver. Friends in TO, friends and family in Van. Even cities like Edmonton and Calgary, we'd have paid twice what we did for something comparable to our place.

But out here, for what they were asking ($154,000?) you should be able to get at least a big garage included, and likely some other extras.

[ May 23, 2002: Message edited by: Zoot Capri ]


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 30 May 2002 02:09 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
The garden is in!!!!!! The flowers are planted!!!! The sun is shining and it's been hot for 3 days!!!!

Spring is finally sprung!


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 30 May 2002 02:30 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Three hot days in a row, with a nice rainfall last night and this morning to refresh and cool.

Life is good.

Now, if only I had a garden. I guess I'll have to stick with the playground.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 30 May 2002 03:15 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Take what you can get and run with it BABY!!

I think I'm going to go water something....


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 30 May 2002 03:21 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Well, I'm still considering Grasshopper's idea of doing some guerrilla veggie gardening around town. We'll see. I'll have to get a hand spade, a bag of soil, and some easy-to-grow veggie seeds. Wouldn't that be neat if there were tiny little plots of carrots and radishes and stuff in public parks?
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 30 May 2002 03:23 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Very keen, if the parks people don't yank 'em out... Give it a shot and let me know how it goes!
From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
clersal
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posted 30 May 2002 03:27 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Lettuce has sprouted.
From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
skdadl
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posted 31 May 2002 11:40 AM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Since I have yet to do almost anything in the garden (really badly timed trip ), what's up around here has already run away from me, and boy am I feeling overwhelmed. I'm gonna need a scythe just to get to the herb garden and the tomato patch, where the rhubarb is screaming at me "We should have been cooked two weeks ago!"

How did this happen? Right up to mid-month, it was too cold and wet to do anything, mow, plant, weed ... But suddenly, it's too late! Calm me down. Promise me one step at a time will work. Send practical encouragement.


From: gone | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 31 May 2002 11:46 AM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Hum a little Percy Grainger, haul out your hoe, and get to it.

When gardening, keep in mind the immortal line from the classic film, Roadie:

"Everything works if you let it."
Meat Loaf

courage

[ May 31, 2002: Message edited by: Arch Stanton ]


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 01 June 2002 09:55 AM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
The meteorologists are saying that it is drier here now than it was at any time during the dirty thirties.

I can believe it. We had snow last year, but nothing - snow or rain - yet this year.

I got a sprinkler for the garden this spring.

I put some tomatoes, peppers and cabbages out in the ol' allotment last night. The soil was like light sand mixed with powder. I decided to irrigate. I put the sprinkler on at 8 pm and returned at 6 this morning to find my plants were under water.

I guess that means that 10 hours under a sprinkler is a bit much?


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
skdadl
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posted 01 June 2002 10:43 AM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Da da da
Da da
Ya da da
Da da
Ya da da da
Da da
Da da da
Da da.

-- Percy Grainger

(I've always been told not to water at night because it encourages bugs and mouldy things, no? I thought we were supposed to get up at 4 a.m. to water.)


From: gone | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Slick Willy
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posted 01 June 2002 10:43 AM      Profile for Slick Willy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Yes just a little bit.

All you need is about an inch or two. You can buy a gauge or use the tried and true ol' timey method, a cup. Sure it doesn't offer all the high tech advantages like lines on it and official rain measuring cup status but wo cares? heh heh

Just put the cup where the water from the sprinkler will fall into it and wait till you guess there is an inch or two in the cup. Baddabing You da rainman.

Even better is a rain barrel hooked up to the evestrough around the house. So when weather does make with the cats and dogs, you can save the water to use it as needed.

Also I read something about watering during the day. There is a myth that is you water later in the day when the sun is strongest, the beads of water on the plants will magnify the light and burn the plants. It just ain't true. As a matter of fact it gives excess water a chance to evaporate a little and helps to prevent mould.

From what I've heard, best time to water is early morning. Best time to cut the grass is early evening to give the lawn time to recover before the sun hits it and photosynthisis begins for the day.


From: Hog Heaven | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 01 June 2002 11:53 AM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Since I have a 25 minute cross-town drive to the garden I can't be there to monitor my moisture levels.

I've never heard of raindrops causing the sun's rays to burn leaves before. I'd guess the Creator would have figured that one out on his own and set up a system of checks and balances.

I don't water in the middle of the day because the water evaporates in the sun before it has a chance to soak in.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 01 June 2002 06:21 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I tend to water in the evening. I am not an early morning person. I'm lucky if I manage to get the kids fed and their clothes on the right way first thing in the morning.

One of my gazanias is blooming this afternoon.


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
vickyinottawa
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posted 01 June 2002 06:45 PM      Profile for vickyinottawa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
My roomies think I'm nuts 'cause I often garden in the early a.m.....the dog gets me up anyway, so I figure, what the hell.

I just got back from a work trip to discover that I've missed about 1/3 of the Irises... I have 2 different kinds. The massive ones will bloom this week - hooray!

The stuff I planted in my shade garden before I left town seems to be doing well...most of my herbs are rockin' - I never thought the french tarragon would be perennial, but it's really growing well.

Today I planted pumpkin seeds in my front yard. Part of my rebellion against lawns. Wish me luck. I can't think of anything cooler than a pumpkin vine winding through the grub-destroyed grass


From: lost in the supermarket | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 01 June 2002 11:13 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Way to go Vicki! Pumpkins in the front lawn...marvellous idea. A person could grow Howard Dill's Atlantic Giants in a lawn and tell the neighbours that the fruit are lawn gnomes.

On another note...I checked the allotment this aft and found my rice paddy of this morning has reverted to its semi-arid state.

But it's a humid semi-arid state.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 02 June 2002 02:58 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring...

Finally a little natural moisture. It's been really dry, I've needed to water every day. I missed one, and my cabbages are looking dreary. I fear I will lose all but one. Will have to replace them, as Ms B requested cabbages to grow especially (no idea why, other than borscht, we don't eat a lot of cabbage... But she's 4 1/2, and she's got her own section of the plot this year to grow what she likes). Tomatoes and peppers seem to have weathered it, though.

We have a weed problem with sunflowers this year -- we planted 'em 2 years ago, last year they seeded themselves a bit, so we had them again, and this year! Holy cats! They're everywhere! I've pulled out tons already, and the neighboring plot will have to as well, or risk getting overrun. I gave some to another community gardener who happened to ask what they were. Nice to dig them up and see them of some use instead of becoming mulch!

I like your pumpkin idea, vicki, but I think I'll stick to lawn -- need kid and dog playing room in the yard... But my front yard pansies, fuschias and impatiens are doing great and look nice. Now I'm going to paint the second coat of bright yellow paint on the front screen door if the rain lets up....


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Slick Willy
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posted 02 June 2002 03:44 PM      Profile for Slick Willy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Made a little trip out to the nursery yesterday and was very happy to find the water lillies were in. Picked up a white one and a red night bloomer.
Also my wife found a corkscrew rush that really looks interested. Aswell a hiacynth I hope to get to bloom this year. Not sure what went wrong last year but we had tons of vegetive growth but no blooms.

And a couple of Fusia hanging plants. Never knew they were so fragrant.


From: Hog Heaven | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
WingNut
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posted 02 June 2002 10:48 PM      Profile for WingNut   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Hey Slick Willy,

What are you paying for lillies? They are quite expensive out this way.
Also, way back I asked you what could be eating hyacinths. Well?
If your hyacinths are not blooming it could be water temperature. Mine are flurishing but the water is quite warm. Maybee a little too warm for this time of year. I will probably have to cool it down as the weather gets warmer.
In a prior life I would never have believed I would be in this conversation or that this life were even possible. What the hell happened?


From: Out There | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged
skdadl
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posted 03 June 2002 09:41 AM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
In a prior life I would never have believed I would be in this conversation or that this life were even possible. What the hell happened?

Awwwwww

Well, Wingy, it sounds to me as though you fell in love and are now living happily ever after.

This just makes me feel warm all over. I am so pleased.

(Re the hyacinths: Guys, hyacinths bloom in the spring, fairly early spring, no matter when you plant them. If you bought forced ones -- ie: already blooming -- this spring, plant them now and they'll be up late April next year. You can also just buy the bulbs (lemme check whether hyacinths are bulbs or corms ...) in the fall and plant them then. It's true that they like to be cool -- most of the bulbs do -- the flowers last longer that way.)


From: gone | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
vickyinottawa
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posted 03 June 2002 10:37 AM      Profile for vickyinottawa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
anyone have good guerilla gardening tactics?

A house nearby is begin torn down...they have a shitload of day lilies that will, in all likelihood, be churned up and paved over when they build whatever they're building there. So....do I don black clothes, take my trusty trowel and raid under cover of darkness?


From: lost in the supermarket | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Slick Willy
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posted 03 June 2002 10:43 AM      Profile for Slick Willy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
What are you paying for lillies? They are quite expensive out this way. Also, way back I asked you what could be eating hyacinths. Well?

I thought I answered but you know what happens to the old thinker when the sun gets on it.

The lillies I bought went for $19 and $29 for the jumbos. That is a little on the high end though but they were there and I was tired of walking.

The Hyacinth is cheap $2 per and are floaters.
I have seen birds, racoons, and squirrels munching away on them and suspect the local woodchuck is adding a little to his diet now and again. Could even be bugs though I think perhaps in addition to other munching monsters. I had so many last year that I never really got concerned about it. This year I just bought one.

How are you regulating the water temps? My pond is at the mercy of the elements are far as temps go as I use no heater or chiller though the pump does give off some heat.

quote:
In a prior life I would never have believed I would be in this conversation or that this life were even possible. What the hell
happened?

I hear ya bro. If you asked me what I would plant in a garden 20 years ago I would have laughed at you and said maybe some dope.

Now I am up each morning at 6 and with coffee in hand head out first thing to look at what's beginning to bloom and what is coming along.
And to think that my parents had to damn near go to war just to get me out of bed for high school. heh heh

My next "thing" is starting to move from the back burner to the front. I have an apple tree that was cut down a couple of years ago due to it kicking the bucket. We cut up most of the limbs and sent them to the wood pile but I kept the trunk and main branches intact, about 8 feet, and set it up on chocks and covered it to let it dry out.

I stood it up (actually upside down) this weekend and I am about to begin carving my own totem. I did a little practice with a carver who knows about all this stuff and he showed me some techniques. So I hope to have it done before fall, with the wife's help of course, and set it into the garden. I hope to get four figures into it that include a raven and a kitchen god, and the other two we are still talking about. It is all really symbolic to us and more of a conversation piece/friend to watch over the garden.

I am still alot closer to making fire wood than art but it should be great fun for my first try. Carving has a real satisfying quality about it. My carver friend even made loan of some of his tools for me to get started along with a good book on carving.


From: Hog Heaven | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 03 June 2002 12:39 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
So....do I don black clothes, take my trusty trowel and raid under cover of darkness?

I do stuff like this in broad daylight, and nobody seems to care. If it looks like gardening, most folks don't seem to mind.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 03 June 2002 12:46 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
So....do I don black clothes...

Ah, the existentialist gardener.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Alix
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posted 03 June 2002 12:55 PM      Profile for Alix     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
For Michelle

There is a nice community garden in Kingston. I haven't been by yet this year, but cleaning day was a week or so ago, and planting day is coming up soon. It's down on good ol' Block D. Might help get out some of those guerilla gardening urges


From: Kingston | Registered: Feb 2002  |  IP: Logged
Slick Willy
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posted 03 June 2002 12:57 PM      Profile for Slick Willy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
anyone have good guerilla gardening tactics?

Ahhh... time for the "ask the wife show"
My wife has been getting stuff from gardens for some time now. She says that usually if you just go up and ask most people will be happy to let you take what you like if you don't make a mess. Usually after they reno the house the landscaping is next so it isn't a biggy. But for those who are a little tight wadded, you can usually make a deal to give back some propagated clones when they are ready to redo the garden.

I think only one or two have refused outright and she still got the stuff when they ended up digging it up and tossing it out. The fools know not whom they deal with. heh heh


From: Hog Heaven | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 03 June 2002 01:09 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Actually, that was my first thought too, Slick. Why not just go knock on the door and ask whether you can have a few if they're just going to knock the building down anyhow? Then I thought, maybe the house isn't inhabited and there's no one there to ask.
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 03 June 2002 01:50 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
If they're tearing the place down and it's uninhabited, I say just go in and get 'em. Consider it a rescue mission. If anybody gives you grief, play dumb. I would.
From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
vickyinottawa
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posted 03 June 2002 02:32 PM      Profile for vickyinottawa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
yep, it's in mid tear-down. I think some of the neighbours have already liberated a few. I may go in tonight....
From: lost in the supermarket | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 03 June 2002 09:54 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
My granny's been a guerilla gardener for years. Sometimes if she sees a plant she likes in a store she'll snip a bit off and propagate it at home.

Her best gardening advice:

"On every green thumb you'll find a callous"


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
vickyinottawa
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posted 04 June 2002 10:44 AM      Profile for vickyinottawa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
actually, right now it's a blister on my pinky from pulling weeds on Saturday
From: lost in the supermarket | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Slick Willy
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posted 04 June 2002 11:25 AM      Profile for Slick Willy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Hey I got a sunburn from being stupid in the garden on Staurday. How high with this body count go?
From: Hog Heaven | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
vickyinottawa
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posted 04 June 2002 11:37 AM      Profile for vickyinottawa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I'll see your sunburn and raise you some strained hamstrings. Damn weeding.
From: lost in the supermarket | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 04 June 2002 12:12 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Weeds?

Luxury!

I only wish we had weeds to contend with. It's so dry the weeds don't grow.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 04 June 2002 02:23 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
And after two days of light, steady, much-needed rain, we have weeds! But we also have grass and other green things finally waking up and coming to life, so that's a good thing.

I got a wee bit of burn on Saturday, too.... But I'm next best thing to a red-head, and it doesn't take much. Freckles are back in force!


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
vickyinottawa
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posted 04 June 2002 02:30 PM      Profile for vickyinottawa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Arch, I'd be happy to courier out some of my weeds if you're lonesome...
From: lost in the supermarket | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
R. J. Dunnill
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posted 04 June 2002 02:43 PM      Profile for R. J. Dunnill   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Speaking of gardening, the windmill palm I bought for $500 in '95 has survived its fifth winter outdoors, and now looks more impressive than either of the two palms in the yard of the White Rock beach house I used to ogle.

One of the 5 smaller palms I bought prior to the biggie managed to survive and flourish, although it has many years to go before it would be noticeable from the road.

RD


From: Surrey, B.C. | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 05 June 2002 12:40 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Here we are talking about weeds and drought, and then some guy tells us he spent $500 on a plant.

Conspicuous consumption among gardeners?


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
vickyinottawa
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posted 05 June 2002 03:55 PM      Profile for vickyinottawa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I have an eight buck limit on plants, myself. Most of them I get for free from friends' gardens.

My first poppy bloomed today. Beautiful! And I cut a lovely bouquet of Irises to bring to work.... makes that blister worthwhile, I'll tell ya


From: lost in the supermarket | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 05 June 2002 08:38 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
How about this quandry?

Do you spend the $1.99 on a packet of tomato seeds, and start them yourself, knowing you will have an extra dozen or so tomatoes, or do you break down and buy six plants with your $1.99?


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 05 June 2002 09:48 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I buy the plants. I haven't the patience to start them from seed... Although every November I claim that I will in February, and then in April decide I've missed the boat...

I usually buy them in packets of 4. That's enough for the space I have.


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 05 June 2002 09:56 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Tomato plants cost $1.99 for half a dozen in your neck of the woods!?

I'm pretty sure they sell for about $10 per plant out here!


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 06 June 2002 12:10 AM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
For a patio tomato in a bigger pot (usually a more mature plant), I can see that, but for the little wee plants in the 4 or 6 pak, $1.99 is in the ballpark.
From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
clersal
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posted 06 June 2002 12:20 AM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I bought 12 Tiny Tim tomato plants, $3.50. I have planted them from home grown and I have never had much success. Probably has to do with the light and humidity.

This is my first year buying from a nursery. All my other vegetables are from seed. Lettuce, Swiss Chard, grean beans, yellow beans, cucumber and zuccini.

I don't do carrots or onions as they are always cheap to buy. I also do potatoes, not for the price but for the new potatoes. Shit they are good.

I have done the chinese peas, that I like a lot but they produce like mad fiends. Radishes I usually do but this year I am on a Swiss Chard kick. I have a small garden as I am not into pickling and freezing.

I have hops growing up the side of the house. It makes a really nice vine. The hops has had some kind of a disease the last few years. It comes up okay and grows healthily for about a month and then boom! In come the tiny green caterpillars that eat the shit out of it and it looks like my grandmother's crocheted table cloth at the end of the summer. I have tried dish soap sprays but I probably don't do it enough. Anyhow the bloody plant has to figure out how to deal with it.

I would buy a chicken to eat the caterpillars but I think Jerome would kill the chicken.


From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 06 June 2002 01:22 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Have you tried rhubarb leaf tea on your vine? That might work. You boil rhubarb leaves in water, then spray it on the plants. Fairly toxic, I'm told. I haven't tried it on anything because the kids still put stuff in their mouths, so nothing toxic in the yard.... Now if I could only convince my mother to stop using weed killer in hers....
From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 06 June 2002 02:13 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
How long before the rhubarb poison wears off? What if one wanted to use the hops in...I dunno...brewing ale?

Question for clersal - were you referring snap peas when you mentioned Chinese peas? I've never tried to grow them.

I tried growing michili cabbage a couple of times...

*pauses to reflect that comparing peas and cabbage is like...apples and oranges -Chinese notwithstanding*

...but found that they bolted in the heat, so I never did harvest any.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 06 June 2002 02:35 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Dunno about how long the rhubarb stuff lasts. I'd think a good washing would take care of it, but don't take that as gospel. You'd be much better off checking with somebody more knowledgeable. I have just enough information to be dangerous!
From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
clersal
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posted 06 June 2002 08:27 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I don't know about snap peas. The other name I know is edible podded peas.
From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 11 June 2002 12:40 AM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Same thing.

It's drizzling today!!


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
clersal
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posted 11 June 2002 12:46 AM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Drizzle just started here.
From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
vickyinottawa
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posted 11 June 2002 10:40 AM      Profile for vickyinottawa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
pouring off and on here - woo hoo! just what my new chili pepper plants need.....


(no sign of the pumpkin yet, btw)


From: lost in the supermarket | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
clersal
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posted 11 June 2002 02:07 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Still have my tomato plants in the house. Grr. Raining here too and cold.

[ June 11, 2002: Message edited by: clersal ]


From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
angela N
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posted 12 June 2002 02:06 PM      Profile for angela N   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I was wondering if any of you have run into these critters.
I have a beautiful Rose bush - the roses look a bit more like double impatients than traditional roses, and it blooms all summer.

The base of each rose is covered with a thin webby material and the roses don't last very long at all because of the critters that are making the webby stuff. I've never actually seen the critters so I can't tell you about them.

Any thoughts?


From: The city of Townsville | Registered: May 2002  |  IP: Logged
Slick Willy
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posted 12 June 2002 03:37 PM      Profile for Slick Willy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Hard to say what they are. Spiders?

Maybe try a few things and see what if any effect they have. I would start with a light soap solution and do half the plants leaving the others without. This should tell you right off if it helps or not as the untreated plants should get the webby stuff while the others should be free of it. If it works I mean.

Caution, I am like Zoot on this as I only have enough knowledge to be dangerous.


From: Hog Heaven | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
clersal
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posted 12 June 2002 03:45 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I had webby stuff on my hops. Probably will have it again this year. I tried spraying with a dishsoap mixture. Hops grows right up to and on the roof of the house so I gave it up and I hope the Hops will finally find somekind of defense. It was a little green worm which I think come from somekind of moth. Probably not the same thing.

Anyhow I am worse than Slick. I am a benevolent but not very organized grower. The plants better be tough. Just thought, you can probably find something on the Internet.

[ June 12, 2002: Message edited by: clersal ]


From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
clersal
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posted 14 June 2002 03:04 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Nonesuch have you got blackflies, the biting kind in your neck of the woods? They are very bad this year. I am lumpy after finally putting in my tomato plants.
From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 19 June 2002 12:24 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
My granny had tent caterpillars in her crabapple trees last weekend. She has a failsafe method of dealing with individual bugs; she squishes them between her fingers.

So there I was, teetering on a stepladder, pruning shears in hand, clipping the tips of branches that had become covered with clusters of newly-hatched caterpillars. I'd cut off the tops and throw them to the ground, where someone else would step on the bugs.

You don't want to know how I dealt with gophers last year...

[ June 19, 2002: Message edited by: Arch Stanton ]


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
skdadl
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posted 19 June 2002 12:38 PM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Inch by inch
Row by row
Watchin' all
The evil weeds grow
All I need
Is a slave
And some dough
And the clock turned back to May.

I did get the tomatoes in yesterday; maybe today I'll plant the beans around the tomato supports, and a row of basil in front -- that's as much as the veggie plot is gonna do this year.

I am very late.


From: gone | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 19 June 2002 01:18 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Two words:

"Cabbages"

"Beets"

[ June 19, 2002: Message edited by: Arch Stanton ]


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Victor Von Mediaboy
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posted 19 June 2002 01:19 PM      Profile for Victor Von Mediaboy   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post
That's three words.
From: A thread has merit only if I post to it. So sayeth VVMB! | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Debra
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posted 19 June 2002 01:40 PM      Profile for Debra   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
About four years ago I dug up all my plants and in the process unfortunately killed a beautiful rose which I had rescued from a vacant lot. The next spring I noticed a small plant that had grown from one of it's hips.

The rose is now about two by three feet and blooming beautifully.

I also have some species ramblers that I have started from one mother plant that are ready to burst with bloom.

Ever notice how the gifts are the ones that do best?

This is what the first rose looks like


From: The only difference between graffiti & philosophy is the word fuck... | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 19 June 2002 01:57 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
That's a rose? That's not the image that comes to my mind when I think of roses, but I guess there are a huge number of varieties these days.
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Debra
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posted 19 June 2002 02:32 PM      Profile for Debra   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
It's actually a very old rose. The new large roses, the teas and whatnot, are the result of breeding.
From: The only difference between graffiti & philosophy is the word fuck... | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Slick Willy
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posted 19 June 2002 02:36 PM      Profile for Slick Willy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I think it is called a "single" Michelle, as opposed to doubles that have layers of petals on each blossom.

I notice a number of you are "farmers". Our back yard looked like a landfill and even though it now looks very nice I would never eat anything that was grown there. We have Rasberries along the boarder with the neighbour we replaced the dirt that was there with clean earth.

Also my wife dug out a small bullrush last year when we were down at the lake. We put it in the pond in a container and though it grew well it never reproduced the cat tails. Over winter we just left it in the pond and let it freeze. This year I was thinking to myself that this would be the last year for the rush as it has massive roots and doesn't do much other than add some contrast of height. Yesterday I found a cat tail starting and it is about as thick as a pencil.

I pointed it out to my wife last night and I tell ya, if she had a tail she would have cleared off the table with it she was so happy.

So I guess the Rush will stay and my waterlillies will have to just get along with them in the pond.


From: Hog Heaven | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 19 June 2002 04:01 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Finally got out to the garden plot today -- a week and a half since we left for Banff....

My beans and peas are up! They're huge already! One cabbage has survived, and the self-seeded sunflowers are going insane. Even a mist of wee carrot tops! 'Taters are up, tomatoes and peppers look happy...

Too muddy to weed, but I'm so thrilled!!!!


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Jo Jo
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posted 20 June 2002 12:02 AM      Profile for Jo Jo     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
earthmother, I believe that is called Rosa glauca. I have one in my garden that just started blooming for the year. It is a species rose, truly stunning. We love roses, have a lot of them and this is the time of year when they bloom and the garden is paradise.

I have been reading the posts to this thread over the past weeks and have been so glad to see the cross country enthusiasm for gardening.

I love to garden. And am fortunate to have enough space and a friendly climate in which to dabble. (not as friendly as the west coast however).

It is my saviour. It soothes my soul. It is the one place I have experienced pure joy. Very early one summer morning, birds singing, mist rising, oh my heavens....

When the world according to Gordo gets too much to bear, I retire into my garden and the rest of the world can just piss off as far as I am concerned.

Ah, yes and then there's Lee Valley.......

So from April to October I don't pay much attention to the rest of the world. And for my own survival, it's probably just as well.

Happy gardening everyone... see you in the fall


From: BC | Registered: Feb 2002  |  IP: Logged
WingNut
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posted 20 June 2002 12:51 AM      Profile for WingNut   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Any thoughts?


Go here: http://www.gardenweb.com

They can answer anything.


From: Out There | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 20 June 2002 02:34 AM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I went out to the allotment today. Too dang muddy to hoe.

Spuds are coming up erratically, as are bush beans and one variety of spinach. The broad beans and corn are looking promising...

This looks like a good year for cabbage and onions.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
skdadl
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posted 20 June 2002 09:49 AM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
earthmum, that is so beautiful. I love the single roses and the native rugosas best of all -- the singles remind me of the Alberta wild rose, which has flatter and broader petals and is paler than yours, but gives the same effect ...

We have a climbing rose we planted six or seven years ago that has almost-single flowers -- we call her Ariadne, although I think you find her in catalogues under the name Shropshire Lass. She has grown like mad, way out of my control on the fence side of our place, although I made myself prune back hard last year from the centre. What we have right now is a dense central bush flowering all over the place on our side of the fence, with drifts of blooms way up high and hanging over on our neighbours' where I couldn't prune -- this will last for about two weeks, overwhelmingly beautiful, the best thing my garden ever does, and she won't rebloom -- but gosh! it is worth it!!!

I would post a photo if I had that capacity ... The blooms are pink as buds and as they open, but then white as they suddenly become flat, with intense yellow centres. My neighbour also comes from Medicine Hat (we grew up a few blocks from each other, which we only found out when her husband asked Fang one night where Redcliff's name came from), and she feels the same way I do about those wild flat blooms suddenly poking in her windows each June. We are so unlike in so many other ways; but over the roses, we have bonded.


From: gone | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
vickyinottawa
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posted 20 June 2002 10:58 AM      Profile for vickyinottawa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
my concern 'o the day....


that my peonies will bloom while I'm in London this weekend


From: lost in the supermarket | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
skdadl
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posted 20 June 2002 11:32 AM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Don't worry, vickyinottawa -- your peonies will last for you ... as long as there's no sudden downpour ...

Here, sadly, but as usual, the peonies started opening earlier this week -- just in time for some of them, anyway, to be dashed to pieces by a cloudburst. Luckily, more kept their heads and waited for the dry spell we now seem to have.

And they are, as all proper peonies must be, apparently, covered in ants! Doesn't seem to hurt 'em -- but does anyone know why that happens? Why do peonies always have ants on 'em?


From: gone | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 20 June 2002 11:47 AM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Hmmm, roses.

We found a climbing rose (genus "Blaze") plant in a bargain bin at a major international Babylon department store yesterday. I'm presently soaking the root-ball before transplanting.

I don't recall ever having seen a climbing rose in action before, so we'll see how this turns out. Any advice on pruning? The package says to prune the branches back 6-8 inches upon transplanting. I know nothing about pruning.

Earthmother's rose does look like a wild rose. We have them all over Saskatchewan, so Alberta can't make claim to them being an "Albertan" plant. (Never mind me, I once blew a job interview with the Foreign Service because I wrote "Anywhere but Alberta" on my application when asked "Places where you would be willing to work").

About 4 or 5 years ago I dug some wild roses out from a gravel road and transplanted them to a flower bed in my front yard. They have grown, but never bloomed.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 20 June 2002 01:27 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Yes, the wild roses are the best. I don't have any, but I have a "Hope for Humanity" rose bush I put in last year. Have to choose hardy varieties out here, many don't make it through the winter. Also hard to find a sunny enough spot for them in my yard. Are your wild roses getting enough direct sun, Arch?

Peonies need ants to bloom. The buds have sticky stuff all over them, and the ants clear it off. Very cool symbiotic relationship. Am using mine to explain symbiosis to the larger of the wee girls this year, as she' already into "bugs".


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 20 June 2002 01:46 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Are your wild roses getting enough direct sun, Arch?

AHA!

No. They're on the west side of the house, so see the sun only in the late afternoon and evening.

Thanks, Zoot.

(Zoot, as in suit? As in Cab Calloway hi-de-hoeing on the Isle of Capri?)

didn't think so.


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
clersal
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posted 20 June 2002 02:08 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I have wild roses too. They only bloom for a couple of weeks and are very tiny. Very prolific and a nice smell. Cutting them is a problem and it always looks like Jerome has decided to take me for an overgrown mouse.
From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 20 June 2002 02:51 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
(Zoot, as in suit? As in Cab Calloway hi-de-hoeing on the Isle of Capri?)

No, zoot capri as in the best, top of the line, most excellent. Moto-speak. Married a former pro motocrosser, heard the expression and liked it.

Also, Zoot as in "Zoot, Zoot, naughty Zoot!" from Monty Python's "Holy Grail".


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
'lance
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posted 21 June 2002 12:22 AM      Profile for 'lance     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
the singles remind me of the Alberta wild rose, which has flatter and broader petals and is paler than yours, but gives the same effect ...

That is a great photo, earthmother.

A few years ago I found tiny wildflowers up in some high alpine country that looked very much like that. Not much bigger than your thumbnail. When I looked them up in a book I'd brought along, they turned out to be... yes, a member of the rose family. Of course now I can't remember what member, but there you are.


From: that enchanted place on the top of the Forest | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
Debra
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posted 21 June 2002 08:34 AM      Profile for Debra   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Ah about the photo... I kinda sorta cheated and found the exact same rose on the net.

Wish I could take the credit but alas that isn't my own personal picture.


From: The only difference between graffiti & philosophy is the word fuck... | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
vickyinottawa
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posted 24 June 2002 02:32 PM      Profile for vickyinottawa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
hooray - the peonies haven't bloomed yet! But the evening primroses have....

re: the ants. Apparently they are attracted to a sweet, sticky substance on the buds. One school of thought believes the ants actually help the buds open into blossoms...I'm not sure how much credibility that has, but it's kind of a nice thought. Anyway, they don't hurt 'em and should be left alone (except maybe shaking them out when you bring the cut flowers into the house!)


From: lost in the supermarket | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Debra
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posted 24 June 2002 02:47 PM      Profile for Debra   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
ants on peonies
From: The only difference between graffiti & philosophy is the word fuck... | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
skdadl
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posted 25 June 2002 02:03 PM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I just mowed a butterfly. I am feeling really bad.
From: gone | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 25 June 2002 02:57 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Awww! That's so sad. But here's some perspective - you probably mow a ton of insects every time you mow the grass - you just notice the butterfly more because they're more visible and cute.

Um...that's probably not helping. I'll shut up now.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
skdadl
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posted 25 June 2002 03:44 PM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Oh, but it did, Michelle. Thank you.

(I have a caterpillar phobia, actually, so I'm trying to comfort myself with that ... Except that I've been trying to overcome it ... Species correctness is so exhausting, I find ...)


From: gone | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 25 June 2002 04:00 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Do you want to know my potato bug theory?

Well regardless, I believe that potato bugs, creepy as they might be, are beneficial. They prune potato leaves, which encourages root growth.
Because the roots are the parts you want...


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
clersal
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posted 25 June 2002 04:00 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Today it is impossible to work in the garden. The blackflies are out in hordes. all the critturs are in the house. They brought in a lot of the blackflies in their fur. Especially Alfred as he is black. All I do is scratch.
From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 25 June 2002 05:19 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Do you want to know my potato bug theory?

Then how come I get fewer potatoes when my plants get infested?

I hate potato bugs. I'm sending Ms B into the patch with a jar this year. Also grew onions in between the rows to discourage them... We'll see if it works.


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
skdadl
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posted 25 June 2002 05:44 PM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Maybe a certain amount of leaf-pruning is ok, but the leaves are how the plants feed -- mow 'em down completely, and plant stops growing.

That is what happens when I plant carrots. Earwigs. For days, hopeful li'l ferns shoot up, and then one morning: buzzcut. End of carrots.


From: gone | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 25 June 2002 05:55 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Luckily, we don't get earwigs... Have you tried herbs like oregano in with your carrots? The strong smell of some herbs can put off some pests, and you don't need chemicals that way.

Every time I get ready to go out to the veggie garden, it begins to rain. My herb bed and flowers are coming along famously, tho'.


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 25 June 2002 08:01 PM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Dang! Anaother perfectly good theory squashed like a bug by reality.

How about the one wherein if you plant marigolds and nasturtiums with your cabbages, the flowers will deter cabbage moths?

I once tried that one, dutifully surrounding each cabbage with flowers, and then one August day I saw a moth alit upon a marigold blossom.

Some deterrence!


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Debra
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posted 25 June 2002 08:16 PM      Profile for Debra   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
But it worked perfectly. The theory is they will be attracted to the pawns ( dispensible flowers ) and leave your money crop alone.

That's the theory anyway.

I do know that I always planted dill in among my tomatoes and the tomato horn worm when it did show up was always on the dill but never on the tomatoes and never did the dill any harm.


From: The only difference between graffiti & philosophy is the word fuck... | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 25 June 2002 08:30 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
I hate potato bugs. I'm sending Ms B into the patch with a jar this year.

Ha! Get the little one to do your dirty work! Actually, it's a good idea since little ones don't tend to mind handling the creepy-crawlies. It takes every ounce of self-control not to show revulsion at bugs when I'm around Amir. I don't want a) for him to pick up my hard-shelled bug phobia or b) for him to think being afraid of bugs is a girl-thing.

Then again, my father gets pretty freaked out at june bugs, moths, and to a lesser extent, most other creepy-crawlies.

Strangely enough, though, caterpillars, worms, and reptiles don't bother me at all. Go figger.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
clersal
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posted 26 June 2002 01:42 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I hate those big daddy moths. Fortunately so does Jerome. I am not wild about hearing them flapping their wings when Jerome is mauling them. Then I don't like the squeaks that come from the others.

Alfred hates houseflies so the house is houseflyless. Is that a real word???

Back to the subject at hand. I won't go near my garden today as it is hot and muggy and the blackflies are waiting. Again, all the critturs are inside. Must get some more lettuce seed.


From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Debra
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posted 26 June 2002 01:47 PM      Profile for Debra   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
to the tune of let it snow

Well the weather is hot and muggy,

and the garden is awfully buggy,

still I must dig and weed,

and plant lettuce seed, lettuce seed, lettuce seed.


From: The only difference between graffiti & philosophy is the word fuck... | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 26 June 2002 02:06 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Ha! Get the little one to do your dirty work!

Absolutely!! She's on a major bug kick right now, too. Collecting ladybugs and caterpillers like there's no tomorrow. The kid has no fear when it comes to bugs. She even squashes flies with her bare hands.... Needless to say, there's been a major increase in hand-washing at our house.

PS -- Loved the song, earthmum!


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 26 June 2002 07:49 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Yeah, Amir has been watching ants, and the other day he told me with great satisfaction, "I stepped on the ant, Mommy!" Then we sat down and had a talk about how it's not nice to step on ants because it hurts them very, very much, and sometimes it makes them dead.

He didn't get "dead", but he did get the "hurt" part, and now he just watches them. Not that I'm all that concerned about the ants, but why encourage him in gratuitous killing if it's just as easy to watch the ants instead of step on them? I have this horror of Amir growing up to be the kid at school who picks legs off spiders or wings off flies. Brr.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
clersal
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posted 26 June 2002 11:22 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Michelle, Amir will grow up to be a very nice person.
You are making me feel guilty as I just bought some ant traps as I seem to be invaded by the little buggers. I am trying to figure out where to put them as it says that there is peanut butter around the poison. I had visions of my critturs trying to get into the ant traps and finding them all belly up in the morning. Oh shit what a dilemma. The instructions also mentioned that I would completely wipe out their whole nest . I really am unsure about whether to put the things out or not. Some things I really don't want to know. I really do not want to mass kill. Just keep out of my house and I will keep out of theirs.

From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 26 June 2002 11:31 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Oh no! No guilt trip intended! I was just discouraging Amir from killing ants for no reason at all. It's one thing if they're pests in your house, it's another thing if you're out walking on the playground and you go out of your way to step on ants just to kill them. I just thought a 3 year old could have a little lesson on kindness that way, that's all. It was more out of concern for his moral development than out of concern for the ant.

[ June 26, 2002: Message edited by: Michelle ]


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
clersal
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posted 26 June 2002 11:50 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Gotcha. I read your post on your son. And it reminded me of my son when he was 4. He loved frogs. He loved frogs so much he wanted to take them home and sleep with them. Anyhow I found the perfect way. I would stop, listen, listen again and then ask my son if he heard it. He hadn't. I said it was the frog's mother calling him home for supper. Worked everytime. I really am a bit bothered about massacring a billion ants. I might try another method by stomping them when I see them. Do not and I repeat, do not tell Amir.
From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Arch Stanton
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posted 27 June 2002 01:01 AM      Profile for Arch Stanton     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
If I may do a little moralizing here...I sometimes catch bugs live (flies and wasps too) that are in my house and throw them outside.

If I have ants on the doorstep, which I always have every summer, I try not to step on them.

Some of my neighbours call the exterminator right away if they see any bug in their yard. That or they're setting sugar-borax piles around to kill all and sundry little critters.

Then again, these are the same people who put the weeds from their garden into garbage bags and throw them out with the trash.

What's up with that?


From: Borrioboola-Gha | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
audra trower williams
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posted 27 June 2002 01:23 AM      Profile for audra trower williams   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Holy crap, the gardening thread is 3 pages. Why didn't someone tell me?!

(oh, wait, because it's my job. Sorry, all! Feel free to start another just like it!)


From: And I'm a look you in the eye for every bar of the chorus | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged

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