Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #21

we came from here..... #20
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/934057/

Geez! Swap thread #21! You all really have chatted away since I went on DG hiatus back in July!

Just stopped in to see what was new and wish all of you a very happy new year!!

And see who was getting ready for Wintersowing!?!

Good growing in 2009, everyone! t.

Talking about winter sowing; I've saved 2 more jugs from work ... they are bigger and sturdier than milk jugs. So that makes 4 now. I'll take 'someones' advice from earlier and hide them in an area hubby won't see.

Way off topic here but ...
Did you all see that the Detroit Lions had a perfect Football Season?!
0-16
It's a record, never been done before and probably will never happen again.
Sigh,
sharon

Thanks RCs. Ya all be careful driving in that nasty weather. Let us know when ya back home safe if ya will.

Tabasco. Yep, we be chatters for sure. Hope ya been doign ok!

Good Morning everyone! I was such a good girl this weekend! I cleaned up all my gardening stuff in the basement. I even "mended" torn old plastic six-pack containers from annuals I have bought. (I used packing tape).

I was all set to winter-sow - there was almost 2 feet of snow, and then 50 degree temperatures and lots of rain! Snow is almost all gone . . .

Checked the weather channel and the coldest temperatures typically occur around Jan 16-18 here. Just when I plan to introduce some neighbours and friends into winter sowing! (That's where I will use some of the remaining seeds after I sow as many as I need).

Hiya tabasco! Glad you found us! Are you getting back into the groove this year with gardening fun? This should be a fun year for you with gardening on the new property. I've been saving milk jugs for most of the year, and already have tons of seed to work on even before these Piggy seeds get here. The weather is looking good today, so I'm about to get out and plant a few bulbs I've had waiting in the fridg.

Heya, Tabasco! Good to see you posting here again. :-)

When y'all get a chance, please drop by this thread on the prayer forum http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/936560/#new. LuAnne (our RatherBeDigging lost her dear mother on Christmas Eve. She's been away from her home and family since mid-November in order to be with both her mother and her father, both of whom were having serious health problems. She's exhausted, emotionally and physically, and I think we need to "circle the wagons" around her for whatever support we can provide. Thanks.

Thanks Critter. I knew she wa staking care of them, but didn't realiz e the situation had gotten that critical.

Worried about Lea too since haven't seen her posting lately either. Anybody got an update on her and her dad?

Hey gang - welcome back Tabasco! So sorry to hear about RatherBeDigging's loss - it can be really rough around the holidays. My dad passed the evening of New Year's Day a few years ago so this week is always a bit like the Twilight Zone for my sis and me. The wonderfully broad e-shoulders here have helped tremendously, and continue to.

I've been off line for the past few days due to water backing up in the basement, and trying to get the sewer folks to translate their lingo into my brand of lingo. Seems as though we're going to end up having my front yard dug up and a trap put into the line. Sigh....I'm going to have to go dig up the perennials that I started from WS'ing last year to try to save them in containers. I'm also very afraid that I'll lose the mature japanese maple that anchors the north side of our cottage garden. I know there's a distinct possibility I'll lose all the plants along the north side of the house to get their roots out of the lines, but as most of them are burning bushes and not my favorite that doesn't upset me nearly as much as the possibility of losing the JM. For some reason I keep thinking of Roseanne Roseanna Danna saying "Like my daddy said....it's always something."

OK, I'm off to YouTube to watch a short bit from Monty Python - it always makes me laugh ("and your father smelt of elderberries") - and then off to deal with more basement stuff :-) Then I'm gonna start getting my wee act together to start some Southern Magnolia and Beautyberry bushes for sis's yard.

Many hugs to everyone!

Hi Tabasco! Hope you had a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year to you too. : )

Hi t, good to see you pop in for a "hello" WS is upon us... wonder how busy the WS forum will be this winter.

Sorry to hear of RatherB"s mom.... i'll pop into that thread... Jill - thanks for posting.

back from Wisc ... was mid30's, so not too bad. DH said he took about a ton of weight off the roof. myabe 14-18" of heavy snow. I took a spill on the ice that was hidden under the snow ... our street is about on a 30degree angle ... so it was an ugly wipe out... probably end up with a bruise on my knee... but coulda been worse... glad no one saw that....

then we took the Park Manager out to lunch... Bronco Billy's for Fried Cheese Curds and a burger... OH yum. they have the best burgers.... good artery clogging lunch.... than back on the road again... left at 9am, home at 5.30pm

I'll post some images later... when i get on my PC.

I am here-packing up seeds to send ASAP...

here's our place. they have gotten 40" of snow already this year... and before this past weekend, when it was warmer and a lot of rain... there was probably twice as much snow....

last year, in the park, there were many additions that were completely destroyed due to the weight of the snow... we were lucky, we shoveled in Dec. last year, there was a total of 140" of snow....

OH... this is Lake Delton, Wisc. [basically Wisconsin Dells]

Nice to see you back, Tabasco - a new garden to play with? wonderful :)

DH is going to be so thrilled when I finally start wintersowing and use up those milk jugs lining a path to the back door, so he won't have to pirouette like Baryshnikov just to move around in the back of the house.

Neal, thanks for reminding me - it might be too warm right now to wintersow some things, but I do have some bulbs needing a pot-up and into the frig.

Critter, thanks for alerting us to LuAnne's situation.

Robin, once upon a time, I pounced on 2 Acer palmatum v dissectum 'Crimson Queen' at a fall sale ($34 for 2 trees) and thought how wonderful to have them flanking an entrance to the back, upper garden. Well, NOT! A monster silver maple just wasn't going to let me have symmetry in that spot. Soooo, I gave the one languishing nearer the silver maple to Jim, our next door neighbor, and it just took off like gangbusters over there. We moved it in late fall after the leaves had fallen and it was in dormancy.

Well, Jim moved, and the buyer who had bought the property to fix up and then re-sell, decided to move that tree around July. She had her gardener trench around the tree, bit by bit, over a period of 6 weeks, until most of its root ball was sitting about 3' above grade. This allowed Crimson Queen to get used to doing without those side roots and to not have to be traumatized by losing all the area around its roots simultaneously. The big day came, the gardener dug another hole and plopped the tree into it and watered. The tree looked pitiful for quite a while, but it hung on, and the following spring had recovered very well. (One thing that made moving CQ easier was that, since the ground slopes here, some holes only have to have 3 sides).

Is there any way the sewer folks can work around or under your Japanese maple so that whatever they dig away, a part of the JM's roots are still attached to their home base?

Teresa - Ack! to the fall. You need those cleats for the soles of your shoes. So do we, but we can't find any to last one season. My goodness - just saw your picture - and winter's hardly begun!!

Ella - sent you some more seeds for the piggies today

I hope Lea is okay - worried about her

Karen

Karen
>>Teresa - Ack! to the fall. You need those cleats for the soles of your shoes.

yanno -- after i fell, i thought to myself... i shoulda brought those shoe things.... last year Zenpotter told me about them and I actually bought them.... if we got back later in the winter... i will definetely bring them up.

OH -- it's good to have you back again.

Glad to see more of my Piggy friends checking in.
Not happy that Teresa took a spill and hurt her knee. Be careful folks, it's slippery out there.
I have already posted on LuAnn's Prayer thread. I hope that she gets some comfort from the posts and her friends here.
Welcome back tabasco, I'm a newbie, but you sound like one Spicy number! : )
Meredith, dryad, you've been missed. Dryad, why is your basement flooding? Did I miss that part?
Fever is back, so if I don't check in the next day or so, it's nothing serious. Just drooping like a plant needing water. I guess I need sleep. I can hardly stay awake.
WIB,
SW

SW - feel better - cocooning in these long, dark nights seems natural

Ella and anyone else interested in wildflowers - just found this website and thought y'all might to take a gander at it -

http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/agastachescro.html

Nah SW, you didn't miss it, I was just complainin'.....the basement is flooding, essentially, because Indianapolis has a bad sewer system - they don't spend very much money on infrastructure here. This past summer they had guys swarming all over the place - but not on our block - cleaning out sewers. So....I think what's happened is the city sewers can't cope with the rain and melt water, so it backs up into basements that aren't protected. We're having a one-way trap installed so that the water goes out of the house but won't come back in.

Blue - unfortunately, the guys who came and walked the front yard (one is a dowser, it was great fun to watch him work) think the line runs right under the tree. I'm hoping when they come later this week they'll be able to trench to the south of the tree to put the trap in, or maybe even between the tree and the house, but I'm not holding out much hope (I don't want to end up disappointed). And if it does have to come out I'm pretty resigned that I won't be able to put something woody right back there as that would eventually cause another problem with roots in the line. (Here's a pic from this summer.)

On the other hand - it will give me an EXCELLENT reason to redo the two corners of the front yard! I'm thinking if I can't have a JM in that corner I'll put one in the opposite corner, which right now is just an eye-sore of random plantings from the previous owner. I hadn't decided what to do with it, and I have a sneaking suspicion the sewer line is why. Some of my friends don't understand why I "procrastinate" over some things - and the simple reason is that I don't feel that the time is right. Now I know why I've not messed with that eye-sore corner - LOL! I'm also happy that I didn't charge ahead and plant a lot of perennials in the front yard after we got all the grass out this summer. It's mostly mulch, so I can just rake that aside for all the trench work that will need to be done.

The one thing that does upset me is that I thought I'd found the perfect spot for two perennials that I WS'd last year. The seeds came from Carol Eads' garden via Weezingreens, and the plants mean a great deal to me so I'll be out there tomorrow digging them up and putting them in containers to coddle them through the rest of the winter.

OK, enough rambling about my front yard.

SW - I hope you get to feeling better very soon! Don't forget your apple cider vinegar!

And Terese, I do hope the only thing you've got from that fall is bruises. I've taken a couple of doozies this year and was more embarrassed than hurt :-) although the bruises did provide for some technicolor entertainment.

Good to see you Fairy!! Hope you're doing well.

Robin, the yard looks great- I hadn't seen that shot/angle. Love the path! I feel your pain, loosing stuff to sewage and backhoe work, but from what I can tell from the pic, I think if the tree goes it may ultimately give you more design options that will look better. Do you have a pic from the street looking straight on at the house? And plants can be amazingly tough sometimes. I thought I had a lost a couple of special helebores after our septic work; actually was able to run and dig them (as the backhoe was running and waiting), but they got too dry before I got them back in the ground and I thought I'd lost them. Yesterday I was fingering around the mulch and found a pip! Of course I broke it off, LOL. I felt like Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein as I exclaimed, "It's alive!".

Oh, and since you (Robin) mentioned Monty Python earlier, lines keep popping in my head from the French taunting, particularly "I fart in your general direction" and "I shake my private parts at your aunties" (I find myself often squelching the urge to say those things, like while at Walmart) LOL. My friend who's a health environmentalist receives tons of questions daily. Often when she's approached with a question she replies "ask me your question bridge keeper, I am not afraid". I asked her how many people "got it", and she said "about 2 out of 5", LOL.

Karen, glad I reminded you :-) Did ya get 'em in the ground? I walked out into what I thought was lovely weather with my bulbs and shovel in hand, only to have the cold wind feel like it was taking my face off! I high tailed it right back in and the bulbs are back in the fridg. The bulbs may be destined for potting.

Terese, I'm glad you weren't hurt any worse than you were! I'm a mess trying to walk on ice! It looks like a lovely winter woodland scene at the Wisconsin place. How much time do you spend there?

>>Wisconsin place. How much time do you spend there?

thank Neal... we love it up there. We;ve only owned it two years now... then first year, DH was still working, so it was more long weekends.... or when he had vacation time, 5-6 days... but last summer, i was up there almost all summer from Mid-May til Mid Oct when they turn the water off. [its a camp ground, so we are seasonal where water is concerned] Last year i was home about 4 days a month ... the only part i hate about that, is, i miss my cottage garden, OH and my tomatoes.

But it really is fantastic up there, and we are only 2.5 hrs from home... so if we need to dash home for some catastrophe .... it's do-able.

oh, and no aches this morning.. only a slight bruise.

our park is very hilly ... and our hill isnt even the steepest in the park... but with all the shade, the snow will get a bit of sun shine... enough to start melting, then it refreezes into black ice, and you cant see it.... but live and learn. I wont do that again.

LOL Neal - those are some of my favorite Monty bits - I also like the killer bunny....

I do have a pic from the street, it's pre-garden (actually, before we even moved in - it doesn't show the deck we put at the front door) but it will show you how much the tree affects the yard. The pic above is two pics combined using the Windows Vista Live option. I decided to investigate based on those "Mohave" ads they are running, and there's a really neat panorama option where you pick the shots and the computer uses similar features in the photos to stitch them together. Lotsa fun with that as we always take multiple shots of things thinking we can print them out later and tape them together - this does it for you.

Terese, I didn't realize you were gone nearly the whole summer last year! So you've got two gardens then, eh? Glad to hear that you're fall didn't cause serious damage.

Edited to add - this pic also shows you the messy corner by the drive - they've got all sorts of stuff crammed in there. That's what I'm planning on redoing this year. If the JM goes, then I may pull all that nasty stuff out and put in a Harry Lauder Walking Stick instead.

This message was edited Dec 30, 2008 10:27 AM

LOL Robin "Your mother was a hamster and..."

My most often used Monty Python quote revolves around the thin mint. After I've dined with some one and we're stuffed beyond capacity I sometimes offer them a "wafer thin mint" (with appropriate accent of course.) Very few people "get it" but it amuses me anyway. Warped sense of humor I know, but I console myself with the fact that I was young the first time I saw it.
:-P

Robin.... it's almost the best of both worlds.. .up there i have shade, at home i have sun.

though - last year i was sort of put in charge [so to speak] the front flower box. Last year i looked much better than the year before... and i'm already thinking about what i can do for it next season.

plus, there are hostas that need dividing, and other beds i have ideas for... that no one has done with in years, i'd imagine.... it needs A LOT of color.

so -- yea it is fun.... keeps me busy at times.

Oh yes... Lala... i use the Better get a bucket.... often.

i will always remember that Monty Python... as it was shortly after my parents divorce and that Christmas Day... mom took us kids to hte movies... which i thought was odd.. who goes to the movies on christmas day? til i saw how many people were there.

I love Python... ya cant beat that British humor....

Morning evrybody. Somebody took my heat and left frost and cold. Not fair.

Thought ya migh tliek to se a coupel mroe bad pics. Even with flash this little camera don't take good indoor pics.

Started yesterday on sepratign all the extras. Had to figre out where I had enough room top stretch them out. Figured it out.

Pigy buckets got move dto ifnron tof shrunk for now and stake d three and four high til I get ready to start pitching extras.

Here the start of extras all beign laid out in alphabetical order. Workign on the flowers and then will do all the veggies seperate. About halfway through with them. Will seprate the other hal;f out today and thes etables will be piled up high by tonight.

Had somethigns had no idea what the scientific name was and lookign them up to find common one.

Have found just a coupel of thinsg that are eally posious or vey invasive, so when I get all done wil post them to see if anybody wants them, don't want anybody with kiddies or fur baies gettign sick.

Oh Ella, you're making my mouth water! I can't wait!

Tonya

One pile of my extras. Sevral hundred in there. Takign a few out a few seeds of each of what I need and the rest to add to eveybodys trough. I need a better system. Everythign store din fridge in big gallon baggies. then it pul out one at a time and see what I got.

I had made bgi lists at one time of what I had, but them dumym me, didnt put the lists in the baggies and so when I want to fidn somethign have to either gues s which bag it or dump them all and then hunt.

I can organize the heck out of evrybody else, but myself, no discipline.

Got me this huge tray that has like 24 compartments in it and have put alphabets on it, so that oen of my New Years resalutions to keep my seed fridge lookign better organized. Wonder how long I wil be able to keep that promise. Anybody wanna take bets??? hehehehhe

Ok, back to some seed sorting. : )

AHHHHHHHHH HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

I caught the culprit. Was hearing little poping noises yesterday from bedroom. Not as bad or as loud liek what been goign on in kitchen behind me, but stil been hearign them some none the less.

Well grabbed up a pack of the extras to get sorted dn lol and behoild what did my eyes discover. Seed pods with the seeds all out.

Wanna know who it was and what sounded liek firecrackers?

Glad they did it when they did and not on New Years Eve when folks are shootign them off liek crazy or I woudl have gone bezerk.

Well... The guilty piggy is

um....

ya sure ya wanna know???????

Would tease ya a bit more, but somebody would probably reach through wallpaper and bean me with a seed or two.

It is.....

well. Maybe I shoudl make ya guess a bit......

Ya I can be a stinker sometimes. : )

Ummmmmmmm Dryad..... Ya remmebr them yellow Rattle Box seeds ya sent. Well, dont' knwo how they grow outside but know they cna rattle a person in the house when they explode. heheheheheheh

Sure glad ya had them in big baggies or I woudl have been dodging for days. : ) LOL

Robin.... speaking of Rattle Box... i got some seeds in the Suzy swap, and really have no idea what to do with them.
i tried to give them away, but no takers... so i was just gonna put them in some soil and see what happens.
i think i still have the seeds... unless i slipped them in with my extras....

Wow! I had no idea those things would pop like that! I got them from Suzy in the piggy swap (I took a bunch of extras that no one wanted) but decided against starting them as they would grow too big for my place. They may also be either invasive or poisonous, can't remember. And they never made a noise in my place - whatcha doin' to them that they're acting up like that? LOL!

Seeds sorted alphabetically??? You're definitely ahead of where Suzy and I were!

Well got the extra all laid out alphabetically except abotu ten yet I gotta fidn the common names an dwhat they do. Sicne the pics this mornign the table is overmoundign and flowing.

I must say this all our surviors gonan have some nice thinsg again and I pray that nothign else bad happens to them and that they get to have beautiful gardens once again.

Ya all need to give your selfs pat on back for al the smile s ya gonan be giving thes efolks.

Gotta find out where our last piggy lives to see what kidn of stuff cna grow there and what was lost adn maybe we have here to replace.

Think Rattle box grows in Texas and in areas where it liek desert and rocky places if I remember right. All the jossling around probably started the skins to tearin gan dfrom ther eit wa sonly a mater of time til they coudl dry out enough to uncurl themselves.

Now comes the really scary part. The part where I muss it up. Got my index cards all ready with everybody s wants and don't wants on them , biggest fear. Wil throw somethignback into somebodys trough that they sent. Soem seeds had names on them and some didn't. Hope the brain in good memory form today and tommorrow and tommorrow. Just hope I get evrybody some goodies they want and the right ones.

Oh somebody wanna fil me in on what is the big difference between cat nip and cat mint. Thought they was both the same and don't wanan giv esomebody the wrongstuff.

Takign deep breath. gettign nerves to calm down and gettign ready to start fillign troughs again. LOL

I was under the impression that cat mint and cat nip are the same thing? I remember that from my Master Gardener volunteer time at the Chicago Botanic Garden...or at least I *think* I remember that... LOL!

Star, I'm still laughing about the the "trick" dryad inadvertently pulled on you with the rattle box seed. LOL! : )
I am really confused, what is a shrunk?
I don't think anyone would be upset to get something they sent back by accident. just be the focus of some good natured teasing.
Me hat's off to ya! I know I couldn't keep track.
Monty Python, do you remember the character from one of their movies, called Mr. Creosote? He was pretty well known for eating that thin chocolate mint wafer.
I'm going to have to find those old episodes and watch them again! : )
WIB,
SW

Howdy,
I do have a bit of information on the catnip, catmint relationship. I started some kind of catnip "Nepeta catlikeummyus" purchased from a display at a 'Pets Luv Us' kind of box pet store, transplanted into 8" clay pots and given to a bunch of my cat-owned knitting friends.

One of the catnip receiving friends explained that 'cat mint' is a close relative like "Nepeta kindaminty-us", and that some of the Nepeta family are more attractive to cat noses and others have been bred to grow low like a ground cover and others bred for tall flower spikes; some annual, some perennial. Nepetas labeled 'catmint' can be used in the home herb garden for a tea that cures what ails you.

This girlfriend has to know the truth, she used to edit science text books (5th -7th grade) for the Great State of Texas. But then again, she knows a whole lot about the killer White Rabbit and that when you count to three to throw the bomb you must not stop at two but go directly to three. And she knows all the words to the Brave Sir Robin song and how the Black Knight only got a flesh wound....I don't think she would mislead me....much,

Any of the Nepeta family I have been foolhearty enough to direct sow in the garden have been loved to death by the neighbor cats. Tops eaten, beds rolled all upon, I had to start them in a locked room on a high shelf. When I transplanted to the clay pots, I had to put all the pots into an empty bunny hutch in a sunny location until the plants filled the pots a bit. Even then a big ginger cat from 2 doors down would take his afternood nap on the bunny hutch like he was the big boss of all it contained. Cats.

Hey SW - check out this link for one Monty Python reference :-) I think it's right up our alley.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTQfGd3G6dg

Star, if I get something back that I sent in, then I was meant to have it! (she says, bowing to the Mighty Star)

I don't recall ever having seen that Monty Python reference before. Giggles and grins, too funny! : ))
WIB,
SW

Ok..who has the shubbery? ;-)

I'm still trying to figure out what kind of shrubbery. : )
And why Ni?
It's a beautiful day on the farm. I just had to go take a photo or 40. Ya know how it is when you go digital. : )
The Sun is shining, it is about 70 degrees. DH was sweating while out working on the tractor. He said he'd till the area I want to plant my kitchen garden in. : )
I also spent some time fixing up some milk containers to ready them for seed. The awl works well for poking in those holes. Tip: Poke the holes before you cut it half. Much easier that way. I have to use scissors to cut them in half, but it's safer that way. Te He. : )
WIB,
SW