My puter was down a couple of days. er....uh.....well....my keyboard needed batteries. Did'nt think about it till this morning. duh *%^#*&
Debra, Your one or two plants will multiply and one spring you'll wake up and find yourself in a jungle.LOL
Jim, my fig is about the same height as yours. Maybe I'll have some figs later. It has froze down twice and no figs since. Have gobs of plums and pears and so far tame white muscadines.
Everything is doing great in pots exept for a peonia. I'm going to have to put it back in the ground.
I put annuals in with my pot plants(daylillys) for color, also mums.
The cannas are not real tall but they sure are pretty.
J went home to mama in Texas.
Carrie,I have to use a pin number for my debit card. I like to use checks cause i can keep up better with the numbers to know what is what. I get confused easy. LOL Everything is well hidden now and i keep my purse right beside me. Nice to lock the barn door afterwards.
Jim and Kay have you not got any mail yet? The mountain pony express must be getting slower.
Vickie
Practical Matters For Physically Challanged Gardeners#4
Jim, this may be Greek oregano. I put it in about three years ago and the marker is gone. It does have yellow buds, but the flowers open to white and are tiny, almost inconspicuous. Nice grey-green foliage and smells good when it, the salvia next to it, and the big rosemary next to that all get wet.
Here are all three.
Oh, Vickie, peonies can't go in pots, at least not pots that we mortals own. I tried it a couple times and even asked on the peony forum. They need space for their roots and very rich soil and to be planted in the fall. How are you doing?
This message was edited Jun 17, 2010 11:20 PM
Kay’s been sick and I’ve been trying to take up the slack. It is just too much for me. I’ve closed us down for the 2010 growing season. Kay gets a few hours in just after dawn and a few more from about five until dark, even that exhaust her. She has to be on her current meds for another month and the chronic fatigue is a side-effect of the medication. I just can’t do everything that needs to be done by myself for another month. It will get easier when Nadine is back and we have some young backs. Our church has a strong program for providing food so nobody will go without. I think we are going to have enough tomatoes and cucumbers from our personal garden for the whole county. Lol.
Thanks, Debra. I was a novice when I tried golden oregano. I thought it was culinary oregano. My little garden has morning shade. Think oregano can handle that? The lilies are sun lovers and they do okay there.
Thanks for the AR info, Vickie. I really liked the cave info that shows all the caves in the U.S. I'm still reading it all. It's my new bedtime reading. lol. A dark, cool cave makes for pleasant dreams right now. It has been pushing 100 lately. (Jim)
Jim, this oregano has afternoon shade from about 1:30 on and is also shaded a little by the Rose of Sharon tree most of the day, so I think it would be fine.
Debra
Kay, I am very sorry you are feeling "puny" as they say around here. Not much else anyone can say that WILL improve the situation, but we'll try. :-) While not deeply religious, more and more I am coming to believe everything happens for a reason. So I do believe that some greater benefit will come from this downtime--even if the immediate future IS frustrating. Besides, if your area is anything like mine this summer, it is already too %$^& hot to do a lot outside anyway. LOL
Miss you. Looking forward to when you are better.
Debra
Oh, Kay, hugs from Massachusetts! I'm sorry you're feeling poorly. (This is from last year.)
I harvested 7 beefsteak tomatoes today. First tomato harvest of the year. They took longer to ripen than I thought they would. A few were not ideally ripe, but there has been so much rain lately they were in danger of cracking and splitting if they had been left on the vines. Grazed on blackberries and blueberries while I was in the garden.
The cannas have begun to bloom. ‘Friar’ plums STILL don’t look ripe. I wasn’t able to examine them as carefully as I would have liked. Momma and Daddy bird strenuously objected to my getting to close to their nest in the plum tree.
Kay stayed awake all day today, but I insisted she stay inside and do some cyber housekeeping. She did succeed in catching up on all her e-mail. Wait until she learns I have another inside day planned for her tomorrow. She needs to go thru those hundreds of bookmarked web pages and thin it down to a more manageable 30 or so. That should keep her busy all day and she will be irritated with me by the end of the day. Most of those are links to online nurseries and I will have to stay on her case to keep her on task. Those online catalogs distract her easily. Lol. There were 4 or 5 unread DG newsletters. That is what took her so long today. Lol.
Carrie, do you happen to know if the DG articles are indexed by subject any place that subscribers have access to. I mean, if I decided I wanted to read the DG articles available on coleus, or garden design or seed starting is there a place I could go to find them organized that way?. All I’ve noticed is organization by writer. Love the shade of blue those flowers are.
Those are nice, Debra. There is just something about black-eyed susans. We don't have any black-eyed susans blooming right now. The ladies intentionally dragged their heels to try to get their blooming to coincide with our very large wild ones and the Jerusalem artichoke flowers. Next year I want to plant at least a few early, even if their plan does work. (Jim)
Photo: Purple-leaf cannas have started blooming.
Kay, Am so sorry you are down right now. So be good and take care of yourself so you can get into mischief with us later. Don't listen to Jim. Really, really take your time and look thru all those flower sites. That has got to be good for the soul.
My canna is'nt blooming yet but the leaves are beautiful alone.They are next to some red yellow and white zinnias.
Carrie, i'll move my peonia this fall. Don't know were yet tho. It's probably not getting enough sun either.
There is a NAT. Forest camp ground close by an they've got an iris bed. I've been thinking about taking some of my flowers and planting them over there. If i can get a ranger to help me. They've got a picnik pavillion and some tent sites and that is it. Mostly hunters camp there in the fall, but if it was landscaped with periennials maybe it would draw family reunions. The blackeyed susans will probably self sow.
I try to hang on to the thought that everything happens for a reason Debra.It's hard sometimes.
Vickie
Wonderful to hear from you, Susan! Do you want to be on our real names/screen names thread?
Hi, Susan!
Hi Susan, HAY GIRL, You are'nt making any tomato mayo sandwiches are you?
I'm really getting a craving for those goodies.
Vickie
Yes he does! Eat one sandwich for me? Eat at least 3 in one sitting. I'm working on finding a local gardener to buy some from. Iffen they wont sell, I may resort to midnight picking. LOL
Vickie
I agree about the Earth Boxes, Susan, except I only have 1. Do you buy new growing stuff each season.
No, I do dip it out and clean them and try to add in some fresh potting mix. I'll have to be more conscious about testing my soil using a PH meter since I'm experimeting more during the fall now. When I first started, I only did tomatoes. I've branched out a lot doing beans, cucumbers, bell peppers, and had a fall garden last year. I want to try lots more veggies now. LOL Back to your question, though, I just keep amending the soil each year. :-)
Thanks!
Hi, Susan! Long time, no hear. LOL. That sounds like some SERIOUS tomato growing! Do you have a favorite heirloom tomato for the Deep South?
I don’t know about looking nice around here. I’ve been focused on hard-scaping so I’m behind on weeding and pruning. My DD#2, Melinda, is a Special Ed teacher and she gave us a failing grade on some safety issues. The wall beside a ditch was too low. The ramp up into the Children’s Garden was too steep. And, so on. I pointed out it was the V.I.’s here who built the wall and hauled the dirt to create the earthen ramp and covered it with concrete. But, she pointed out we were “old blind rednecks and roughneck women “so the fact that we can navigate things around here doesn’t count. Since I’ve invested a lot of money in my darling daughter over the years I decided to let her live despite her grievous verbal faux pas. We came to an agreement. I would make the changes she recommended and she would phrase it as “experienced visually impaired ladies accustom to physical labor” in future. I have no issues with being called “blind” or even a “roughneck” but I am not OLD! LOL.
Vickie, I've decided to take your advice. I'm cutting down a bookmark or two a day. There are some unsung talented writers creating those catalog descriptions. A good nursery catalog read to me while I drink my coffee with Belgium chocolate flavored creamer. Can't beat that. I actually WANT to get out of bed in the morning. LOL.
Bonnie, do you have enough of those scented daylilies you mentioned to Jim to sell a few? I've got most of the low-fragrance plants out of my Scent Garden. And, I've threatened the others with dire consequences if they use my space as a nursery bed so I'm ready to start putting plants back in.
Does anyone have any adice for "reeter" who posted on the old "Practical Matters" thread? BTW: Vickie, Jim just noticed what you did. LOL. He's a little slow these days, but he gets there eventually. We've been "Phallenged" and "Challanged". What next? Kay*
Photo: Rose of Sharon
Kay, there are only one or two that are scented, and they do have enough to scent a good area. Some are advertised as being highly scented, but very few live up to that description, more like lightly scented. I will check for you tomorrow. If I have them, how many would you be interested in? I know I have them, but don't know how many fans I have of each.
Sorry to hear that you have been under the weather, and hope that you are feeling better now.
Jim: you asked me a while ago and I never answered! If you go to the GUIDES AND INFO pull-down menu, one of your (last) choices (after plantfiles and bugfiles and so forth) is ARTICLES. If you select that, you should get an empty search spot to the left of which it says SEARCH ARTICLES. Alternatively, open any article and at the top right (before the thumbnail photo) it says SEARCH ARTICLES. Hope that helps.
Kay, I'm so glad you are feeling better!
Kay, I like Box Car Willie for a medium sized all round tomato and Lady Lucy for a larger sized. If you want a hybrid, my new favorite is Bela Rosa. If you want early, I like Illini Star or Early Wonder and Eva Purple Ball. These did good for me. I did 26 varieties. Hope that helps. What types of jasmines do you grow?
Jim, you'll be proud of me. I didn't know you were *actually* suppose to delete book marks, deleted Emails and browsing history? evil grin
I hope everyone is feeling better today. It's not quite as hot here, at least the humidity wasn't quite as bad when I went out a bit ago.
My tomato plants are still runts.
Hi all!
I have the most intoxicating fragrance greeting me each morning when I open the front door to get the paper (which I hardly ever read).
My Gardenia bush next to the front door is in full bloom. There are about 20 flowers on it each day now for a little over a week. I sure do understand why women would wear them in their hair. Wish I could send each of you a flower to enjoy.
It is so hot and humid here (90's) that I cannot tolerate more than about 15-20 minutes at a time outside.
But, heck, I cannot complain...I have been given the blessing of freedom from pain (for the most part) and really cannot think of any problems or maladies at this time worth mentioning!!
I praise my Lord for these wonderful changes.
Hugs to all,
Sheri ^_^
edited for spelling
This message was edited Jun 22, 2010 2:44 PM
Sheri,
I have 3 gardenias in the back yard and 4 dwarf across the front of my house. They're all gone now, but I know exactly how you feel. They're right up there with the jasmine. LOL I told my DH I wanted a yard full! Enjoy them. They smell wonderful, but sure look pathetic when they turn brown. I hate that part. I'm glad you're feeling better.
Oh, I used to try to grow gardenias INSIDE when I grew houseplants and lived in apartments or my mother's house. I think you really need a green house. They always died and never bloomed! My DSM (for a few years I had one) loved them.
Jim, In our family, We females take up for each other around the men folk. It is so much fun and sometimes rediculus(SP) So it's habit to have a comeback. LOL
I grew Boxcar Willie before.and a bunch of others that i don't remember. I accidently found that Mediterrain tomatoes did well here. The only one i remember is Drusba. I also had Arkansas Travelers. Do you get the catalog Totally Tomatoes? I ordered from them some. The tomatoes on my one little plant is still small like Carries.
I am going thru all my things and sorting,trashing things i don't need rearrainging,
Am going outside some at night. There is still something hanging around. I suspect it's a dog. But am not going far from my door. My 2 brave dogs go in the house when whatever comes around. The cat at least stays beside me.When i stay outside it don't come close but when i skip a night it breaks in the fence.
BTW Kay, My DD says she'll be glad to save you a kitten. They are mostly black, Half of them are bobtails. Glad you're feeling better.
I don't delete many bookmarks. I use the webcams too much. I have to delete history,cookies and mail regularly tho.
When i'm not depressed i'm a very young hoodlem er-r-r-r LIL OLE lady from Pasadena.
Id love to smell everyones exotic Gardenias.
It is still hot here with heat advisorys. The Sal. Army is giving out fans for anyone who needs them.
Am thinking about going to Ozark(town) for the fourth of July. They have fireworks over the Arkansas river. They also have a beautiful lighted bridge over the river.
Have any of you made any plans?
Bonnie, my exclusively fragrant garden is a bit of a sampler so just something to get me started. 1-3 fans should be fine. Your enthusiasm for daylilies, Debra’s photos and Vickie’s determination to keep her collection safe from the weeds in containers has convinced Jim he is missing out on something. We only have the native orange and an unknown pink that was mixed in with the wild ones I “rescued” from an abandoned farmstead. He is talking about collecting the scented ones. We all know how this will end up, don’t we? LOL.
Susan, I have Confederate jasmine, night-blooming jasmine and one given to me as a gift that I haven’t positively identified yet. Also, there is what locals call Carolina jasmine or just wild jasmine (Gelsemium sempervirens) it has to be my absolute favorite fragrant flower, but it blooms very early in Spring. Lavenders, basils and the sages are the major players in the scent-scape here at the moment. One of my jas has just finished and the other hasn’t started blooming yet. Do you have jasmine blooming now? BTW, what do you do with all those tomatoes after you’ve burnt out on eating them fresh? Or, do you burn out?
Sheri, I love the scent of gardenias. I know people who think the scent of magnolias and gardenias are too heavy. Personally, I think those scents are around for such a brief time so what if they are a bit over the top. It is like a fragrance party! Parties are suppose to be a bit over the top.
Carrie, Jim says “Thanks”. He’s using DG’s tools and resources more. We are talking about dropping Amargia’s Google blog, and just using DG. The Google Ads don’t create enough extra funds to bother with and it is hard for me to use their set-upwith the assistive tech I have.
Vickie, has it started cooling off in your area by September? We are thinking about delaying our trip until then. Bowie, Texas is on our agenda and I just realized exactly where in TX that is. I thought it was a little farther north than it is. It is considered part of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. As I recall, August is a killer there Jim doesn’t handle any kind of heat well. And, dry heat gets to me. I know that is the opposite of what most people say. I suppose it depends on what your accustom to. I ALWAYS feel parched in the arid heat. Those young men who operate the juice stands you find on almost every corner in places like Old Laredo make a small fortune off me when I am there. It is like I can never get enough to drink. Sept. would probably make for a more comfortable trip. That would still be in a lull here. It doesn’t start cooling off here until mid-Oct. Kay*
Photo: Passionflower a.k.a. Maypop flower (Passiflora incarnata)
Reeter, hope you’re with us here. (Thanks for directing traffic, Carrie.). I put a sharp edge on a long-handled hoe and use that for some weeding jobs. It is a specific task tool after you take a whet stone to it. Not to be used any longer for normal hoeing which would spoil the edge. You can get the whacked weed out of the way by using a long handled dust pan. It’s a good idea if you buy a dust pan especially for the garden. Wives tend to object if you appropriate the one from the kitchen pantry. That is my experience anyway. Lol.
Have a good night, Everyone. (Jim)
Kay, sorry ... I got side tracked after reading and forgot to answer. LOL
I never never get burned out on tomatoes! :-) We've been eating BLT's all week for supper. Thank goodness the DH loves them as much as I do. :-) We'll only have these huge ones for a few weeks. They're 80 days, and don't hang around long. The others we use in salads, stir frys ... I love marinara and that oven roasted spaghetti sauce that was posted over on the recipe forum. If I have enough tomatoes, I'll make a batch and freeze it. We eat a sliced tomato almost every meal. :-)
As for my jasmines, I'm not sure which one I have blooming right now. Maybe you can help me with that? It's the one that looks more like a shrub than a vine? Does that make since? The others I have are Jasminum polyanthum variegated, Cestrum nocturnum, Mandevilla laxa and Jasminum sambac ‘Maid of Orleans’. I guess you can tell I love jasmines. LOL
Sept. is cooler. Another plus is kids are back in school and not as many people drivng the roads. LOL Jim, To east Texans Dallas IS north. I have a poor old Texas nephew that swears anyone north of Dallas is a yankee.
I've decided after the first, I'm going knocking on doors of people who have gardens in their yards. Surely someone will feel sorry for me and sell me some tomatoes.
I've got some plums starting to ripen. I think i may make some plum Jelly. I used to make it every year. Something beat me to the blackberrys.Thats the problem of living in the woods.
Jim, You know how to sharpen a hoe? Thats becoming a lost art.
talk at you tomorrow.
Vickie
Vickie, my plants haven't even blossomed yet. I don't mean the tomatoes are puny, I mean the PLANTS are puny! It's been hot recently (which does wonderful things to my MS) so maybe they've grown - I should check them.
Kay, fragrant plants I think of which you haven't included are: tomatoes (that distinctive tomato foliage smell!), THYMES - there are a million and one, lemon thyme, lime thyme, cinnamon thyme, etc., as well as common thyme, incredibly fragrant, and have you got the fennels/anise types? Also I bet you are warm enough that you can grow a bay tree - that is supposed to be an incredible experience.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2468/
And anyone with too many tomatoes should try making ketchup - I loved the stuff I made last year.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2657/
I think, Susan, I was trying to imitate results you could have gotten with your own tomatoes, although the store ones were probably paste tomatoes. But peel them (boiling water bath?) however you like, or just cook 'em down and then dispense with the peels and seeds at the end by putting them through a ricer or whatever. The recipe was meant to be adjustable and a little tongue -in-cheek. I carefully age my grocery store spices to perfection (in a spice rack mounted over the stove so they are kept nice and toasty) for years! Ahem!