Plant propagation part XVIII based on my own experience

Dawn, I really don't think it is a good idea to bury your dogs in your lasagna bed. Is that what you did? I know you said about the first one, but what about the one last week? I suppose if you just plant flowers etc in it it would be ok. Just somehow I couldn't do it. I guess it's your lasagna bed, your business.

I buried Koala in a regular garden under a big tree. There is not much there at this time but Vinca Major and a sapling China Berry Tree. They live in my gardens and I love to think about them there. Now my h knows which bed I am talking about. As a bonus. Mushi garden, Koala garden and I have my daughter's chihuahua in the one with the sticks in it. Cinderella Garden. In my area if you leave your dog at the vet, they give the bodies to a compost company, I was told.

YUCK! Thanks for letting us know that. I will bury my cat when it is her time. I am sorry that I took the others to the vet. I had no idea...

I think I would check with someone first before I believed that. Not sure who. I suppose your vet if you have a good relationship with him/her and would believe them. When I wanted my dog cremated the vet told me that they take all the animals at once to a company and cremate them all together. So, if they are doing that, and charging for it, why would they give them to a compost company?

Good morning:
earlier I vaugely remember someone asking about a substituute for aleave (nsaids). My doctor put me on Mobic to get me off my daily intake of 2 aleave twice a day.
I am getting a bit upset with growersupply company. I have yet to recieve my box of shade and ground cloth. I am starting to move all my veggie's into one raised bed. My dear wife is questioning my garden area. it seems that almost all the success was in the tomato bed.
I guess its good news that I only need to ship 4 plants this week. Started harvesting dl seeds, some tags hilped & and some didi not... It seems i am all thumbs today. oh well better thumbs than not at all.
everyone think Rain really hard.
oh yea someone said they wanted me to chat aboit packing plants. next post I promise.

Dave you must be a far more patient man than I am a patient woman. Those supplies are going to cost you a lot in lost revenue if they don't come soon. I really can't believe a company taking this long to send this type of merchandise. It's ridiculous. I had a really hot day yesterday and the day before too, the two days, were hotter than it's been and most all of my plants crumpled up or withered and showed signs of heat stress. Good grief. I spend my summers trying to get the plants to survive August and sometimes Sept and Oct. I can only imagine what is to come. I need more shade cloth myself and wood to make nice frames for it that will hold up to the wind.

Evelyn my friend used to be friends with my Vet. They said they picked up all the dog's bodies in a truck, took them to the crematorium and the ashes were used by this company that is no longer in business, called Wild Phil Mulch. I don't know now, but the idea of her body just piled up and burnt, seemed less appealing to me. It may just be a personal choice issue at this point, but I feel better and don't have to pay for that chance that she was in someone Else's garden instead of home with me.

Nobody ever told me about my watermellon, cantelope seeds? I have no clue about fruits and veggies? I guess I will go on another forum to see. I want to get some more of those weed cloth pins to hold some plants down that I want to layer? Do you guys use that method often to propagate? Seems simpler and I found accidental rooted vines and plants that way, but I need to mark where they are layered or I won't know later. Too much land.

We had thunderstorms last night and we hit a low of 65. It is presently 80 and quite pleasant. I took advantage of the pleasant tenperature to do some weeding in a front flower bed. The soil was fairly moist considering how dry it was on Thursday. I will post picture later.

Does anyone own/use a leaf shredder? If so I would enjoy comments and/or experiences.

i am waiting for Tires Plus to call me to tell me that my car is ready.

This message was edited Jul 26, 2010 8:56 PM

I hope you are all enjoying the 80 deg. heat today instead of the 90s and 100s. Wow, this past weekend was a killer.
I have done nothing in the garden or the greenhouse for days except water. I have new cuttings rooted in water and they need to be planted but today was chiropractor day and grocery day and the dog was better so I was off to town.
I came home from town put the groceries away and started to irritate the politicians of my area. The State is thinking of closing our racetracks and if they do the horse industry in this state will be gone. I worked in the horse industry for many years and this is a completely political move so I wrote to the Governor and send the radio station some information for their talk radio. Oh my, this will be edited it I do not stop here. Sorry Terry!
I am having a bad day, my 89 year old cousin was taken to the hospital with what they thought was her heart. I am 2 hours away from her and had not yet called her today due to shopping, etc. So, now I am waiting for my DIL to call. She went to the hospital (almost 40 min. away for her too) and will call with information when she has it. Nothing is easy.
Tomorrow the jeep goes in for service. I have an oil leak and it could be the heat just cooking it out when it cools down or I may have a stupid leak. Always something else to take my fun money away from me.
Must get back to Facebook and make some more noise about the Horse Industry. Love and Hugs. JB

JB .... may I ask why you go to a chiropractor?

What type of plants do you sell?

At 4 pm today my car was still not ready ... they are replacing all the break lines .... it has been there since Saturday afternoon.

My grandson, Sean, mowed the front lawn today.

Dawn what about your watermelon and cantaloupe seeds? You didn't say.

Mary, my mom used a leaf shredder for years. For the compost. I know she thought it was worth it as she always made every move count. LOL

JB you and yours are certainly having a rough summer. Should say year. Your winter wasn't much better was it.

How is your cousin? Certainly happy about little Barnyard. LOL, Barney.

You better give them h--l over those horse races. I know that is big business. Big gamblin' business. :o) Some people got too much money.

Mary, how does the lawn look now? It really didn't look like he had left it that long. I suppose it depends on the type of grass.

Jeanette, in the picture with the small japenese red leaf maple, the lawn had not been cut for about 2 months. I take a picture of front lawn tomorrow and post. This pictue is of my morning weeding endeavors. The area in front of the 2 small azeleas had lots of dead crab grass that I used round up on. I just got around to yanking it out and then planted some annuals recently purchased at Lowes ($1.50 + tax worth).

I am having my grandson (to his displeasure) pour concrete into a mold to form a stepping stone pathway. I will get on his case to do some more tomorrow..... he does not work tomorrow.

The 3 pots contain plants retrieved during my morning weeding. The front pot with the white label is a rose bush that produces clusters of petite white roses. I intend to give it to my next door neighbor when she returns from visiting her mother in Michigan.
The other square pot contains an offspring from my large japanrese red leaf maple ... and the round pot right behind the rose bush has 3 little Girard Purple Azalea. The only reason I can correctly ID the azalea is because the mother azalea that they were beneath still had its plant tag on it.

JB .... I am told that the heat wave is to resume on Wednesday ... so make sure to enjoy tomorrow.
I hope you have good luck with your vehicle. Mine did not get done today .... I was told the mechanic broke the special tool needed to do the repair .... but he has another one at home .... said car should be done around noon tomorrow.

Lookin' good Mary. Enjoy the cooler weather.

Nice Mary. Great that your grandson can do this stuff even if against his will. I want to make walk stones too but the concrete bags are 8000 lbs. (Like my exaggeration)?

I had asked if anyone knew what type of light Cantelope and Watermellon like and what type of soil and watering needs do they have?

LOL, Dawn, I just stick them in the ground However, they do take heat and lotsa sun. And a long season which I do not have.

Re: leaf shredder- I don't have one, but I do have a LARGE vac/shredder- the kind that looks like an oversized lawnmower, more or less. I bought it when we moved to a heavily treed lot- thought I was smart to pay the extra hundred bucks or so to get the BIG one, less trips to the ol' compost pile, you know? Problem is, the stupid bag gets so heavy by the time it's half full that I can't lift it, so I can't make use of the extra capacity anyway! Stupid is as stupid does...
Job for city gardener requires a test, which I take tomorrow. Then I'm sure there will be interviews, etc. (The city does move slowly) I'm hoping to know by end of Aug., at the latest...

Cantalope - rocky ford
watermellon - black diamond

rocky ford are grown in colorado by the state pen. its a way the system allows the man to funnell money to their retirement accounts ....lol
not much happening Dave

I learned my lesson in regards to posting on this thread …. Since I usually have a lot to say and have in the middle of the post mt post goes to never never land …. My new strategy if defense will to create my posting using a word process and the copying and pasting to the thread.

Jillann, it would be interesting to learn what the test you are to take tomorrow was like. I know that all participant of this thread are rooting for you. I hope you get the position.

My leaf blower is also a vac with bag. I also found the bag becoming very heavy. That is why I want a leaf shredder. This way I can have my grandson place the leaves in trash cans and move them to the area where I will do the shredding. I recently went to a “Cargo Freight” store for the 1st time. My daughter wanted to purchase some tools they had on special . I spotted an electric leaf shredded priced at $100. If I use a 20% off coupon then it would be $80 plus a 7% sales tax. Since my daughter has 20% 0ff coupons that are good for some time I decided to wait and check out what I could on the internet.

The price cannot be beat … but on the company’s web site I found what I really want … the prices on line are less than in the store prices but you have to pay shipping and the 20% off coupons are only good for in store purchases and not any on line purchases.

Here is the one that I plan to purchase

http://www.harborfreight.com/lawn-garden/power-tools/2-1-2-half-hp-chipper-shredder-66910.html

Mary

looks great. anyone have a suggestion for a good compost maker I can handle. I would prefer one that turns by a handle or crank of some kind. I found one from am leonard but its 250 bucks. Its renovation time arround the ponderosa. we are getting windows, siding, gutters, a new shed out back for my supplies.
ok some of you asked me to go over shipping and how I do it. what ever you do never ever put wet paper on the leaves. I failed to heed the warning I got from sheryl and it finally bit me in the big ole behind.... which I have gone over. I was sent a site that covers it all
http://www.roundrobin2001.0catch.com/ship.html

I think it is the best presentation. please excuse me if I am repeating myself...we all know dave is medicated at times. ok sometimes more than others.
Dave

Mary, first of all, please do not wrote "Cargo Freight" on your check. It is Harbor Freight. That Chipper Shredder looks pretty good. What are you going to use it for?

Dave, the explanation of shipping plants is pretty good, but I think pretty excessive too. Oh well, better to be that than less.

I tried to send her an email about shipping plants to Canada an the UK, but my computer got an error message.

Thanks Jeanette .... old age setting in here. I plan to shred leaves for mulch on flower beds ... now am also considering very small branches (under 1/2 inch diameter).

I think some of you may enjoy the following site that contains a video on how to make a compost tumbler for about $8.00.

http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Tumbling-Composter

I have my car ..... $540 bill ...YUCK.

I am learning so much perusing this website.

JB .... I am interested in getting some of those Easter Egg seeds. Do you possibly have any seeds for Punpkin on a Stick or Fried Egg?

Dave, what do you sell?
Mary

Well, I never thought I would buy a composter ... but while perusing the soil and composting forum a composter ad popped up and inquisitive me just had to check it out.

http://www.compostbins.com/compost-bins/compost-tumblers/goodideassoilmachinepro6cubicfootcomposttumbler.cfm#ReviewHeader


I want this one!

Hi Mary:
I do a lot of both seed plugs and liners (rooted cuttings). I am trying to keep under the 18" tall sized plants. I loosely refer to it as the undergrowth department, its what I specialize in. my favorite is New orleans crepe myrtle a true dwarf about 12" tall. I truely love it. I grow everything in 2" plugs and 18 to a flat 3.5" pots.
Just about any perrienial I find unusual and can either get a good stock plant for or a good source for seed. I also buy in liners of Hosta's and resell them. I will have some second year hosta's next spring just looking at what I have at the moment in stock. some of the list I have coming in as seed as we speak (waiting on delivery to sow).
I do everything myself with the occasional help from my youngest niece mostly summer time. she like the extra money. I am trying to transition into selling flats of everything mostly 50 as I am looking for the insert and box the bigger liner people use.
I don't see why I can't carve out a little sideline with little to no hand tending except for fertilizing and weeding. it would be nice to be able to pay for a cruise (alaska) for our 10th anniversary in 2012. I know I suprised my wife when she looked at our bank accounts online and I had quite a bit of money in there from all the sales earlier this month. I still need to buy some supplies to fine tune everything but its getting close to automantic with the timer's I use. All I have to do to fertilize is unscrew the hose from the outlet (bibb) and screw on the fertilizer injector. I try to do this once a week but its been a couple of weeks due to the heat. Its real easy to burn up plants with liquid feed in the hot dry summer.
I am hopeing to have a wonderfull fall. I just pulled off sno hill salvia, silver mound, spirea 'Shirobana', Dianthus 'pinks', red corriopsis which allowed me to sow alaska shasta daisies, ox-eye daisies, corriopsis lance leaf, a few others that slip my mind. I hope to have space to do 40 flats every 8 weeks during the growing season and a couple thousand trees in the winter, ok a few hundred but I can dream can't I????
I have the mist heads from a drip system set up to go off every 4 hours for 5 min. and it seems to have been the exact timing.
I am hopeing to sow more Japanese maples, red bud's, golden rain tree's and one other tree from seed. ok enough for my plan of attack we will see where it all ends up. I have been slowly building all this a little bit at a time (shoe string). My wife started it all off with a greenhouse for my birthday about 3 years ago. The beauty of it all is its very portable and could be liquidated real easy if my health goes the way the dr's fear it will.
Dave

Dave, I am looking for creeping phlox (perrenial). Do you have any?

Would you like me to collect Japanese Red Leaf Maple to send you from this tree?

Mary

Mary:
yes please Its still a little bit early but I will try to let you know when its time. I try to shoot for when the first few seeds fall I know its close to time for harvest. It works well for me. I don't have any creeping phlox but i am sure I can find the seed to grow some. Is there a specific variety you are kind of looking for. seeds don't come true to the parent but we can hope....
Dave

Shoot! Here I thought "Cargo Freight" was going to be a new shopping place for me! :-)
I had a compost tmbler once, but it held so little 'stuff' that I got rid of it (remember, if you actually want it to mix when you turn it, you can't stuff it full...) I just go with a big pile now (actually, 2, so one is always useable) and let them just sit until they are done. Well, if I'm feeling very friski, sometimes I stick a pitchfork into the middle and lean on it to fluff it up a bit!
Test today- 2.5 hrs. I'll let you know what they ask!

Did you study? what subject is it in...math???
Thae mixing part is why I am asking.
Dave

Dave ~ Do you have a website where you offer the varieties of your plants? I would like some of the things that you have listed there, but only a few, not a whole flats of Crape Myrtle and Silver Mound. If you had a couple thousand going, wouldn't it really be too much? LOL!

Jill ~ I have a ComposTumbler and really like it. Still, you have quite a few valid points. First of all, it really is not mine, I don't think, but maybe it will be. I have a neighbor who will be moving up here soon who let me borrow it. What I do is empty it out every 14 days and put it on the compost pile in my fenced garden area and then let it finish, as it is not finished in 14 days, though they claim that. (My fenced garden is visible from the road, and now it does not look like I just put my garbage out there.) I usually add a half bag of chicken manure if there are not enough things to put in there to help it along. Many times my husband will have wood shavings for me and other assorted goodies from his building efforts to add in there. I have two piles there as well, the new one and the old one. When I empty the bin, I put in on the new pile...and the new pile gets moved on top of the old pile. It is much better than our old method, as before it looked like we tossed garbage out the window. The animals always got into it, and made a big mess. Now they do not, as it is in the fenced area. Good luck on your test and job application, and please let us know how it went, OK?.

Mary ~ What Creeping Phlox are you looking for? I might have some small pieces that I can share. I have white, a lavender-blue and a pink. The only thing is I won't ship until fall as the weather is too hot right now and I have quite a bit going here as well to do any digging and shipping.

JB ~ How is your cousin doing? Is it still extremely hot there? It is cool this morning, but it may be an anomaly.

Gotta' go now...work to be done.

CHEERS!

Evelyn

Yipes! 2 1/2 hour test! A test that long is very taxing on the brain. Jillann, if you need to give your brain time to re-coup, just tell us the approximate number taking the test for now ... and inform us about the type of questions involved later.

Dave, any creeping (very low) phlox ... a variety of colors would be nice. my next door neighbor is also interested. i sure would like to throw some business your way.

I realize it will be some time before my Japanese Red Leaf maple will be sending seeds a sailing. Each spring i notice a considerable number of seedlings from it .... but this year there were not so many ... instead there was ab infestation of oak tree seedlings .... must have yanked at least 300 to 400 and they are still popping up every now and then.

You will do good on your test today avianut. Good luck. I just hate tests. But, when they are done they are done. But, then you have an interview too. Cripe. My grandson filled out an application for a job at the college. Then he went in for an interview and they hired him right then. 'course it helped I am sure that one of his friends recommended him. He is taking their courses on line and then goes to the college to work!!

My daughter gets pretty disgusted. Whatever he is doing she says anybody could do it and he is making more money than she is after working in the retail business all her life.

I told her look at what a few years of school will do for you. Plus, retail is notorious for the low wages they pay.

I have tried 2 different styles of the compost tumblers and I think they are too hard to turn. Even that one that has the little wheel and the thing that is suppose to make it easier to turn. I can hear you saying that I have too much in them then. Well, if you don't put enough in there to do any good then why bother? In fact that just reminded me that the last one I tried is still sitting out there and I need to take it back to my sister.

Evelyn, are those bees? You can please ship me some of those. I have not seen a bee all summer. Maybe that is why I am not getting any tomatoes.

Forgot to add that my daughter took some college classes and everyone in the class was cheating. She was so disgusted. She worked so hard to get good grades and got them. The rest of the people tried to get her to join their group of passing the questions etc around and she wouldn't do it.

She said most of them were not paying for the schooling themselves. They were being retrained etc. She was very discouraged to think that those people were going to get the same credit she was when she was working so hard. And she wouldn't be any farther ahead. So she quit.

Dave, those little Maple seedlings you sent me are really growing. They need to be re-potted already.

Jnette ~ Yes, loads of bumblebees on the white lavender. I would not know how to ship them, as I know nothing about that sort of thing. My mom use to keep honeybees. I have not see a lot of those here, but many bumblebees. They are hard to photograph as they move around quickly.

I do not fill the ComposTumbler all the way full, but just half way. If it starts to get too full, I will empty it, or take some out if the 14 days are not up. I have to turn it everyday so I want to keep it doable.

I really must go now...lots to do.

WOW! You have access to chicken manure for your compost pile, Evelyn?? You are soo lucky. Plus, I hear roaming chickens will eat slugs... Do you rent them out?
Well, here's the scoup on the test... it was me (57 yr old lady) and about 30 males all in the age range of upper 20's to mid-30's. Soo... I think I did well on the test- it covered mostly general gardening/propagation questions, with some pruning and turf questions thrown in. Also several pesticide safety/etc questions, but one of the requrements for the job is a Comercial Pesticide Applicators License, which I happen to have, so have studed that material as well. Also, I did wade through a Turf Class ( :-( , several tree classes, and a pathology class, to get my Assoc. Hort degree this spring, so I actually did know some of the answers that I might otherwise not have. Still, their eyes are brighter than mine, so there ya go. It felt good to try, though, and I don't regret going to the trouble. If nothing else, I made them all do a double-take when I walked in to the test! (ie, what the He** is that gray-haired lady doing here?!?)
We take our smiles where we can! :-)

Oh, meant to say... Jnette- you raised an honorable daughter. You (and she) should be proud.
Jillann

Jillann, I think you have a great shot in landing the position. It is widely known that in general those up in age are more conscienious workers. If you are in good health ... which I am assuming you are .... health insurance coverage is considerably less because you do not have any dependents. Are you presently employed?

Evelyn, I would love to have a few pieces of your creeping phlox .... fall is fine for me , I just would like to have them in the ground long enough to get somewhat established before the cold weather sets in.

I took this pic today .... that is a bee on one of my mini dalias.

Thanks Jillann. Sure do think you have a good chance at getting the job. I don't know why you wouldn't. Who is it with? Is it a government or school agency or affiliation? That would be even better. I'll bet your credentials looked pretty good. Bet the guys were quaking in their boots. LOL

Janette you should be so proud of her. I wish mine would have gone to college and not married the guy with not a thing going for him, but my daughter.

Dawn, she didn't go to college until she was in her late 40s. She did the same thing you are saying about your daughter. Then after he took care of himself, she married a real calm quiet guy and had a wonderful son.

Don't count her out yet. One of these days she may wake up and wonder what she is doing, and do something about it. It is never too late.

Oh that makes me think I should go to college. I just don't want the student loans at this age is one main issue and I am far from the jr college and it is in the town where I work, so I would drive 30 miles to work, home, then 30 miles one way to college and back another 30. Excuses though. If I really made my mind up to do it, I would figure some way out.

Thanks that makes me have hope for dd.

helln-
(oops... can I use your nom de plume, or will the word-police get me??)
Can't you just go to work, stay for a nice dinner somewhere, and then go to class? (No extra driving?)

Jnette- job is w/ the city of omaha, maintaining the parks and public areas

Thanks all for the encouragement- test results are supposed to take 2-4 weeks, then we'll see if I get an interview. Whatever, I feel good that I got up the nerve to apply, anyway.