Will the real bird of paradise !
Please stand up!
How many remember to tell the truth?
Play hookey,and tropical gardening in the greenhouse!2
ME ME ME!
How funny! How many years did it take for it to bloom? I have one that is at least four years old that has never bloomed!
TM That is beautifull!
I bought a 1 gallon plant about 5 yrs ago,it has bloomed the last 4 years,I planted it in the ground and grew like weeds,then repot it in the fall.
Yours in the ground?
I use 20-20-20 peters all sumer long,and dappled sunshine all day long!
Good Monday Morning, all. Finally have a little bit of winter. Very foggy and dreary here, 36 degrees for a while but not expected to last. We have been setting records for every kind of weather this year of 2007. Nothing is *normal* and it is putting a strain on the garden. Planted for exriscape last spring and most all of it died because of the 40 inches of rain in 2 months, then dry and had to water the tropicals. Tropicals still producing in mid-December. Thinking of doing a veggie garden where the big tree was. Presently have a lasagna thingy going on that plot. Chrissy I sure wish I could grow the kinds of vegs that you do.
What happened to global warming???
Expecting ice storm at noon time and to last as long as 3 days.
Oh no! Your turn to hunker down. Be safe everyone.
Off to weed this morning, the rain has done wonders in that dept!
Christy, ant bites better?
TM the top bird is one I would like to grow, he's cute!
Should be weeds there!!!!!LOL
There y'all are!!!!! Was waiting in the first room :(
Those BOP blooms last for weeks! Love their looks. Anyone with butterflies out there? I was shocked to see a couple Sulphurs flying, and no flowers to feed on! What can I give them out there, except for a few water puddles on the ground.
The weather has nature truly confused here. I hope to see more bees next year.
G'day (at least I hope it is) everyone,is an ice storm the same as a hail storm? gosh I hope not, the hail here took out a great many greenhouses ...caved in roofs and shop awnings.
crazy ants are usually a warning of a bad turn in the weather ...I hope that it is too cold for them now.
only two weeks before Christmas ...the years fly by in a blink don't they?
LouC I think the lasagne gardens are fantastic we call them 'No dig gardens here,they break down over time into rich crumbly earth.
They insulate the roots of your plants as well.What do you plan to grow? in my garden many things are very confused too ...lots of plants think it is Autumn because there has been little sun.What will happen this year after all of this, it will be a truly amazing Autumn when it does arrive.
I hope you are all coming to grips with the tidying up ...our areas where the hail was at it's worst have been declared disaster areas.
Usually it is fires.
The sun might come out today ...I have almost forgotten what it is like ...sometimes after prolonged grey sky ...the little new leaves can burn off because it is like bringing them from shade into hot sun,
we need a bit of gentle sunshine.
I hope the sun shines gently on all of you today
chrissy
Well chrissy seem that you all had quite the firework display the other nite in Wallawanga
or some town named something like that,the whole manufacture went up in fireworks!
Saw pics on the news,and of course happen at nite!
Is that Persian Sheild,and you can grow that outside?
Intent was to have a bigger flower garden. Now leaning towards veggies. Did that a long time ago and I loved it. May convert lasagna into a raised bed. Just the time to start it now to be ready for spring planting.
This is where the tree stood. Really broke my heart to cut it down. Changed my sun/shade for sure. It is now covered with the lasagna topping. Only way I can hope to get rid of the monkey grass. It is worse than bermuda...well, almost.
Good for you Christi. We had started two, but instead of newspapers, we use carboard boxes laid out flat. Gonna use them for a row of daylilies and veges too. The soil is so bad here, I have been growing eggplants in pots!!!
Anyone tried strawbale raised beds? Curious here.
Chrissy, I hope there are kind volunteers congregating around your area to help with cleaning and salvaging. We won't mind rolling up our sleeves if we're there.
Here's wishing sunshine for you soon Chrissy!
Wow with that tree gone,I;ll bet plenty sunshine now!!!
This is the front yard. In the first picture you can see what is left of the third tree above the roof top. Three 40 yr trees in 3 weeks gone. All fruitless mulberrys and were more dead than alive. Has changed our entire ambience. There are other younger trees that will flourish now that there is no competition but sure hated to do this.
Hi ...I usually miss you folk, we are ok here, not much damage but not too far from where the 30 ladies were taken to hospital ...because they were outside having a tea party and got caught in the hail. TM" ice storm" what is it? will you be ok?
This waxy in that last picture is grown outside in a hanging basket and in other shady areas, I can't remember the name sorry ...it is very pretty though the pic does not do it justice.
Yes hay bale gardens are fantastic ...I used them when I first came here because there were no gardens only grass and no kind of shelter from the terrible winds. The heavy clay scared me at first ...but over the years I have found that with a bit of work it is the best of all. Lasagne gardens really do help to rebuild that soil ...wether it is too sandy or solid clay ...in my opinion it is the best ...even in my built up garden beds I used the same principle.
Once you have started that way everything takes care of itself because the worms do the rest and turn the soil to gold.
That looks like a wonderful place for veggies LouC and I think veggies are just as beautiful as flowers, some herbs too?
Think rainbow chard,so pretty ...cherry tomatoes ...so many things you can grow that don't require poisons.Stagger some nice companion flowers in there too.I am excited for you.
You can see how there is a big hole in the side of the red oak canopy. That's where the mulberry used to be. Hoping it will fill out soon.
Hi Everyone!
Chrissy did you get my Dmail?
Thanks, Chrissy. I can still remember the difference in the flavor of grown at home and produce that is purchased. I would dig the carrots and potatoes just before cooking. We have hard clay over white caliche. Takes all the help it can get. Wish I had the natural fertilizer that you have. No place for sheep here in the city. And Chickens have been outlawed because they make too much noise.
Many years ago (23) in an older part of town the neighbor's behind us had chickens and a Rooster. I disliked them very much until one day my alarm did not go off, but the Rooster woke me up, so I wasn't late for work. No more complaining about them. Little by little they disappeared. I think they became dinner for the neighbors. Had to buy a new alarm clock! LOL
Edited to correct a typo....
This message was edited Dec 10, 2007 7:14 PM
Chrissy,Ice storm,is cold rain,as soon as it hits an object,house,tree,car,whatever it turns to ice,and it build up,and is quite heavy after a little while,and will break a tree in half from all the ice weight,even bring down roofs on houses!
usually snaps electric lines in Half,causing power outages!
Getting more sun now those trees will take off!
Tgal77,you say little by little you ate off your alarm clock!!!!LOL
Oh so that is what we see in pictures with the long frozen icicle things dripping off branches and things wow! it must be a struggle to keep the plants warm in that greenhouse.It sounds worse than snow in that regard.
I have to take my grand daughter into town ...have a lovely day everyone back a bit later, I hope that ice storm veers off course and misses your town Tm stay warm,
77 yes I got the dmail and will join you a bit later :)
Have fun everyone and LouC part of the fun is in the planning, dreaming and the seed catalogues :) you too h :)
Heavenscape - I saw some stuff about strawbale planting on another thread. If you do a search you should be able to find it. From what I saw it did not seem very promising. (I found it while researching EM if that helps.)
katiebear
I have just popped in for a minute and there is Shari over there in the welcome thread.:)
Tm would those icicle thingys stab you you if you walked under them as they fell off?
K I found the straw bale garden wonderful for growing root crops ...potatoes and sweet potato.eventually they do break down but that aids the soil anyway ...maybe climate makes a difference I don't know, you must remember too that hay bales use up the nitrogen
so you must use blood and bone if you use normal hay, I used lucerne which feeds the soil (I think you call it alphalfa).
77 I am such a dope when I go to your home page I can't find anything that says blog ...sorry don't forget I am not very used to computers yet ...could you run that by me again ...there is blog on my own page (scared to go there until I see yours) but I can't find yours.
h yes when there is trouble anywhere any time the volunteers come from everywhere, makes me very proud.:)
Yes Chrissy they can hurt you if they fall far enough and have some size to them.
Couple 3 or 4 yrs back,I grew some banana seedlings in straw bales,dug out a hole filled it with compost from mushrooms and horse manure,as the bales decomposed the bananas grew like weeds,they took all the water I could give them!
By then end of summer,you wouldn't have know they were even bales of straw,looked like a pile of dirt!
How do you keep the seeds in the hay from germinating?
We are currently getting the beginnings of the ice storm that Tman talked about. We already have about an inch of snow/ice on the ground from the last storm and now we are getting another inch of pure ice. When it gets that thick it tears apart everything.
Last time it was this bad in this area was in 02. It was so bad we were without power for 9 days and it was several hours before we could get out of the driveway because of all the tree limbs littering the driveway and yard. There were so many that we made a huge brush pile that ended up taller than our house. It is still there though not as tall. :~)
I will post pics of the 02 storm tomorrow if we have power.
Thanks Katiebear for that info. I am thinking of other alternatives too. Shall consider the nitrogen depletion, Chrissy. I am right now using garden gypsum. Place some in the dug holes, and they had helped. But quite pricey!
Experienced an ice storm, and had one of our oak trees toppled by it!! A 30 year old oak tree!! When it fell, it sounded like a canon blast!!
Aww Pepper...do you have a generator? That's what keeps this house going during bad weather.
Hurricane Andrew totally disrupted my life in Louisiana. Was without power for a week...but had this Craftsman generator that kept the essentials going.
Chrissy...years ago in Seattle a man was killed when he was in rush hour traffic in the Mercer Island tunnel and a huge icicle fell from the ceiling, pierced the roof of his car and - well, can't bring myself to describe the rest.
TG we don't have them in Hawaii!!!
No generator. lol. We were talking about that the other day. But by then it was too late. All of them are gone by now. The storm is overhead and starting her damage.
We mostly just dressed in layers and if we needed showers we went to the local schools and used them there. My dad and I happened to work there so we snuck in. lol. It was kinda hard to cook too. My mom would use tealight candles to try to heat water. lol. Our only heat source was a propane bottle with a 2 burner heater on top. Wasn't too bad til close to the end cause we were beginning to wonder if we would get power back at all and the house was really starting to lose the little heat it had. It was an experience we hope to never repeat. :~)
Golly folks you have me freaking out all that makes our hail storm sound like a Teddy bears Picnic,
Pepper stay safe ...I hope it will miss you or not be too fierce ...what sort of plan do you have for such an emergency?
The poor man in the car! the mind boggles! we lost a man under an awning in the hail storm,the weight gets so heavy things cave in. I would imagine you have lots of motor vehicle accidents in that dreadful icy ... snowy sort of weather, it must be awful having to go to work.
77 I loved your blog! ...after looking at the leaves of your strelizia I think it may be the giant one ...it may have to get really big before you get a flower, thanks for letting me poke around :) loved it!
Take care and be safe ...more grey sky no rain today so far but they say it will
12 dead in Oklahoma last I heard due to the storm. There are lots and lots of accidents when the roads are icy. People get cocky and drive too fast and pass you. A few miles up the road you see them in the ditch. We always just shake our head and call them fools. You can't go a mile without seeing ditches just covered in cars. Most accidents are just minor but of course you get some bad ones.
Our plan is to just go to work if we don't have the day off and can get around, stay home, and keep warm. If we have to we can go to town to eat and I can take hot showers at friend's houses near where I work if they have power.
We have a charcoal BBQ so if needed we could cook on that. Just have to get the charcoal at the store if there is any left. Today I had to get bread and milk for my grandma and there was almost no bread on the shelves. People are stocking up.
Those are just as bad too. Hail also damages cars and roofs and floods damages land and takes cars and houses for a ride.
Yes my hubby's business is up the mountain and he does not drive,
during bad weather there are always accidents because there are hairpin bends on a very steep grade, a lot of fatalities. I hate having to go up and down in bad conditions because even if you drive as safe as possible someone else may skid into you ...no where to go but over the edge or into the mountainside. Man if there was snow ... I would not do it.bad enough when the fog is so bad you have to drive with your head out the window ...even then you can hardly see. Guess you have much scarier stuff to deal with. Now where has that sun gone?