First time WS II

For those of you with coffee shops around - they go through a LOT of milk. I saw that recycling program on the news a few days ago - looked awsome. We have to pay for recycling as well.

chele -- that is one place i get jugs from too. when my kid remembers to bring them home... and he never rinses them ... but jugs are jugs. I should contact my local coffee house and just get them myself... though my kid is hoping to transfer there ... .MUCH shorter drive. 1 mile compared to 8-9, especially for the winter months.

I have been thinking that I probably want smaller amounts of some of the flowers I will be sowing than would fill a standard milk jug. Have any of y'all ever used a divider of some kind in a jug so you can put more than one kind of seed in it? I was thinking about maybe a length of window blind long enough on it's side to go from one side of the jug to the other, pushed into the dirt a bit, dividing the jug in half. Has anyone tried anything like that before?

Tonya

Tonya,
That's exactly what I am planning to do with some of my big containers. Don't have pieces of window blind, so I'm going to use plastic picnic knives. They work really well as "stick-in-the-soil" labels, too!

divider of some kind in a jug so you can put more than one kind of seed in it?

Yes -- i have seen this done in photos that others have posted.

I did it once, though it wasn't in a jug, more of those sterilite shoe boxes.

Thanks Jim and Terese,

That gives me confidence to go ahead and try the divider thing. Cool idea about plastic knives, too. Hadn't thought of that!

T

Jim, I used plastic picnic knives in my veggies garden last year as a marker and to prop up the tomatoes when they were still small and before I got my tomato trellis up - they worked great! And I picked up all of them from take-out places for free. I love when things like that work out.

Thanks for the ideas! I have worked for coffee houses in the past (one local, one ubiquitous) so I feel silly for not having thought of that one. And DD is in a Mother's Day Out program once a week, so that could be a good resource, too!

Now I have developed a new question: Is there a preferred soil to use in the containers? Just a regular potting mix? Has anyone had any experiences or pro/cons? It's been a little while since I went through the sticky thread and I just can't remember...

Edited to add: I like your idea, too klstuart! I wonder what kind of looks from neighbors I'd get if I asked to trade a wine bottle for a milk-jug on recycling day... :D

This message was edited Dec 16, 2008 12:01 PM

If any of you are interested in getting your community involved in the recycle program, here is a link http://www.recyclebank.com/how-it-works/faq#how_community_involvement

I'm not involved with them in any way, but I have to admit, it's pretty cool

-GB

GB -- here is the link to the thread on soil http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/813723/

perfect and helpful as always, tcs. thank you!

-GB

Thanks for the link on soil Terese. Good info for us WS newbies!

T

no problem.... this post here of Grams has a lot of goodies...
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=4632050

I just received an envelope from The Netherlands with about 30 packets of seeds that are perfect for WS (most of which I have never heard of before!) and about another 20 that include some veggies and some flowers that will probably best be sown in Spring.

This is getting entirely out of hand!!! What am I going to DO with all these?

Jim

Thank you for the kind thoughts. I am fine, it was expected. Just not so soon.

The post has been edited although it looks like we should need a third re-start soon!

I am still collecting containers and am planning to start planting the week between Christmas and New Years Eve. It is very cold here right now and spitting sleet. Maybe I should have planned to start today! My greenhouse is full of baby roses so the WS seeds will just have to go outside. I think I'll start the veggies in mid-Feb. Good to know that sunflowers WS well as I have quite a few packets of them.

My biggest concern right now is regarding the field rats. No, really, not chipmunks or bunnies but field rats. My corgi has killed several near the house in the last few days. I hope those rats leave my containers alone!

You have a Corgi???
This is Conan!

What a cutie!!!!

Jim - LOVE him!! My girls are begging for a dog............but another responsibility for me. Some day I'll give in.

Oh, hehehe! He is adorable! And he looks as if he really loves the hat!?!

I am at work right now. Will have to go home and find a photo of Tinker, sans rat. Although he would love it if I would post a photo of him with his latest victim. He considers himself to be very manly and heroic when he eliminates another rat from the local population. He clearly feels he is contributing to the upkeep of the garden! The rat terrier is practically worthless at hunting rats. She has Attention Deficite Disorder!

Thanks ccgardener, I guess great minds think alike! Glad to hear others have been a guinea pig form me though.

Tonya

I have used strawberry containers to start plants early inside. They have holes in the bottom for drainage and you can open the tops as the plants grow. Egg shell halves also work. Where is Weed CA.?

Those plastic fruit containers are about the best. No work involved in prep. I hoard everyone I can find but milk or water jugs are much more plentiful. I will not have to ws many perennials but am really anxious for annuals. I'm trying to figure where I can put all I want to plant. One thing I am doing this year is not sow so many if I don't think I have room for them. The seed will keep for a few years and then I won't have to buy or beg more. I have to use a lot of distilled water so I have plenty of clean jugs....Yay

Hi there 1lisac ~~~~ Weed CA is in Siskiyou County, just north of Mt Shasta, maybe an hours drive south of Oregon border.

Right now it's about 10 degrees outside and there is maybe two inches of snow on things...... brrrr. Those little containers out there are frozen solid, you betcha.

;-)

No, Conan's not too fond of the hat OR the Santa Teddy Bear ears! But he's practicing, because he has to go meet his uncle at the airport on Christmas Eve!

Our old dog, who we think was part Corgi, would bound through the adjacent fields like a short, fat kangaroo so she could spot the field rats. Although the cats killed hundreds of them, I think she only caught 2 in 7 years!

Jim, my girls were discussing what they wanted to be when they grow up and where they wanted to live. My youngest (4) announced that she was going to live in Paris while my middle one (7) is going to live in France. When I explained that Paris is in France...........like Columbus is in Ohio, they did understand a little better. They asked if flowers grow there, so I told them I have a garden friend that lives in France. They were very excited that flowers grow there...........it's all set, they are coming your way. ^_^ Need any grandchildren? I am the same age as your son. They would love a papa in France. Hee hee.

I'm astounded that a 4-year-old has even heard of Paris. I don't think my own grandkids have a clue about where it is that Ms Marta and I live except that "it's a long way away"!

Here's some French flowers.

Jim

Jim -- what's the one under the BES? in the middle with the burgundy-ish foliage??

I want to know that too, Jim.

Jim, we are very blessed to live in a culturally diversified suburb. We literally live 15 miles away from a huge Honda manufacturing site, along with having OSU in town. My children attend public school with many children who speak multiple languages. Last year my oldest (8) came home crying because her best friend was moving back to Japan. For my middle dd best friend, I have to communicate with the teenage daughter because her parents only speak Spanish. I love showing them about different countries because as I child I was taught nothing and was naive in thinking that the world was like my back yard. Ha! It was a culture shock the first time I traveled. Unfortunately, I do not have the gift to learn foreign languages easy - but my 4 yo dd loves the fact that she can say hi in 4 different languages. She just doesn't know when to use them yet. ^_^ In fact, my next door neighbor is from Italy and I have a hard time understanding him, but we do ok - he gardens as well. I am not capable to taking my girls around the world but I will make sure they understand how wonderful our world is because we're all different. Amazing how planting a seed can bring people together from oceans apart.

Good for you, cheles_garden. It is wonderful for your children that the world is coming to them since they cannot -- at least right now-- visit outside the US. The day may come. I have seen Americans living abroad because of their jobs, who are utterly miserable because they don't trust any culture but their own. Our country is so large and geographically positioned such that most people don't even know Canada and Mexico. This is now and will become more of a problem as international trade increases, as it is bound to do. Besides, there are more kinds of fun than American. Why not enjoy all the ones you can! And I am with your daughters on living in France or Paris or both.

That is a "Sunshine" Dahlia. The vendor from whom I purchased it sent me 3 rhizomes: 2 with no 'eyes'; and gave me only a partial refund. I am not yet habing any lick gerninating seeds from it.
It's a gorgeous plant that blooms profusely!!!

I've known too many of the "Americans abroad" who, as pajaritomt says trusted nothing that was not "American". On the other hand, I have to regularly converse with others who have completely "gone native". I don't find either group very pleasant.

In my "West Coast America" neighbourhood where I grew up in the 50s, we had 2 Japanese families whose homes had been "purchased" and kept for them by neighbours while they were sent to the concentration camps. That was my most serious lesson in unfairness. We were a working class neighbourhood, so I have always thought that those "white folk" who did that deserved medals. But, anyway, those families always had vegetables that they shared around as if all our families had protected them. We also had "the Italian lady", wife of a veteran who settled on the corner. She had the best tomatoes!

These were "scary" folks. This was just after the war and all the propaganda, you understand.
But, as I grew up, they were just part of the fabric of my life.

I remember a day somewhere out on the edges of the "Golden Triangle" ... that eerie confluence of the borders of Thailand, Burma and Laos ... a place that perhaps has little resonance for those who do not remember Vietnam, previous "wars on anti-Americanism", or the 1960s generation in general.
There we were ... my 16-yr-old son and me, in the middle of EFnowhere ... and the little cart we were on was stopped by teenagers with Kalashnikovs. Fitzgerald never wrote better fiction. We became the "cousins of sisters-in-law" of people we only met on the cart. That was the day that i was suddenly struck by the realization of how much we all owe our continued existence to the "tolerations" of "civilization".

It's "good" to stay at home in Ohio or New Mexico.
It's "scary" to go off to Paris, Moscow, Dubai or even Columbus or Albequerque.
But, that can be "good", also.

We did this (left America) so long ago in pursuit of dreams that we never considered we would ever have to explain (least of all DEFEND) to any American that here we are.

Shared your flowers with the girls - they just got home from school. Between the 3 of them, they want to grow all your flowers Jim. ^_^

Jim,
If you are talking about the Vietnam war, I don't know of many people who would hold it against you if you went. I suppose they exist, but, in my world, veterans are heroes. Which doesn't mean we all love that war or any war since then.
I think there are a lot more gripes with politicians who brought us into war on false pretenses, but from my point of view and for that of my friends, our soldiers are heroes.
And the world now interacts a lot more than it used to. I think that is a good thing, though not all the interactions are good ones. My father ended up working in Italy and Scotland and I know people who have worked in Italy, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Iran, and I know others headed for Vienna and Paris over the next year. That is where their work has taken them whether they wanted to go or not.
That is a very good reason kids need to learn more about the world and its people -- plenty of us will end up working in foreign countries as you are doing. And it is always better if one can learn to enjoy the places where life sends you. My father and I loved Italy. My mother hated it. It was very hard on her, but a very enriching experience for me and for my father. I so wish she could have enjoyed it.

I'm certainly old enough to remember the Vietnam war, had friends and family who fought there. But I really didn't understand what Jim was saying in his post either. Not a clue.

I hope to visit Europe some day when I can spend more than a week or two there. Probably won't happen until after we retire, if we can still afford it. For now our vacations are usually limited to a week or two. Mostly we're drawn to U.S. beaches in summer (Gulf Coast) and Caribbean beaches in winter. We're in heaven if we can just grab a mask and snorkel and spend the day on a hot sunny beach, cooler full of cold beer at hand. But travel anywhere involving flying is far less appealing since air travel has become such a hastle. Driving is so much easier.

But when it comes to actually living someplace, I'm happy to hang my hat right here in America. I have no desire or intention of leaving permanently.

Karen

I cannot spell.
Please see the next post.




This message was edited Dec 18, 2008 2:24 AM

This has all gotten a bit "off subject". I apologize if it is my fault for following the trail of the interests of children.
But, I guess that, "chatting over the garden fence", if we just let it go, we go sometimes go "off subject".

You are a good group of people and, as we sow our winter seeds, I hope we can keep talking about "off subject" things as they lead us. I think this is a younger group than I usually find here.


This message was edited Dec 18, 2008 2:26 AM

This message was edited Dec 18, 2008 9:37 AM

Gee..I lived in Japan as a child with my parents then much later in Asia with my husband. I really loved the exposure to people, cultures and diversities especially in food and in the gardens and still enjoy friendships from both today. I'm grateful my parents taught us well ( I'm teaching my children this fact as well) that people are people no matter what nationality, religion or socio-economic background, as it is true in the gardens. Some gardeners love to share their wealth of knowledge and seeds, some gardeners are tight lipped about their successes and seeds, some could care less about invasive thugs that spew weed seeds all over the neighborhood, some are learning and growing in their skill and some don't need to be near anybody's yard let alone a garden....and etc. Some gardeners we long to hang out with as long as possible over the "garden gate" irregardless of age or travel experiences. others... I certainly learned alot about different gardening techniques while in Asia.

I can see where those experiences would have been wonderful when I was a child. Unfortunately, the world's ways have changed, not all people are kind, friendly gardener types. But we do digress.

As for trading seeds internationally, I do worry about spreading invasive species, both here in the U.S. and in the country where I might be sending them. I'm not exactly a horticulture genius, and wouldn't want to spread something invasive. I have traded with folks in other countries, but it always does make me a little uneasy. Even trading with folks in other parts of this country could have the same problems. When you get right down to it, even commercial seeds have that potential.

Karen

Exactly garden6! I would love to visit Japan some day. When the girls were discussing their grown up careers and locations - my oldest dd said Japan to be an artist/chef. She wants to learn how to make sushi (which I love) and she loves their art.......I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that her best friend just moved back to Japan. :-)

Well, I love "over the garden fence" chats on gardening and everything else. Last winter Dave's Garden seemed to kind of die out in the winter and I felt lonely for all my DG friends. When there is this much snow, it is hard to remember all our garden issues -- at least for those of us where it is cold and snowy -- so we are easily side tracked. To be honest I would rather talk about almost anything than not talk at all.
I don't think we have more than about 1 1/2 months of this here in New Mexico. I usually see my first flower of spring sometime in February -- usually a crocus on someone's South side. And as this warming moves North we can go back to garden talk non-stop.
By the way, I think Dave is right to block religion and politics from these forums -- because they are so related to belief and not to science and fact. And of course they are very emotional. But I don't think our feelings about our warriors are political. That is what I was trying to say in my post -- though I guess that wasn't the case for everyone after the Viet Nam war. I guess some of the veterans were mistreated. I certainly disapprove of that.