I'm with you Willi.
I have loved my simple craft life and doing for myself whatever I couldnt afford to buy.
It made me clever and creative, my whole family was great at the home arts.
Growing up duering WW2 made us that way.
Happiest when in the garden.
Are you spending less on gardening?
Gentle people . . . I suspect that many of us have extra seeds (god knows I have oodles) . . . to save money why don't we share?
I don't need any more seeds - but I hate for them to go to waste. I would like the extras to go to people who will really use them - so send me a shopping list and I will see what I have and what I can spare.
I have been the beneficiary of soooo many good folks here at the NE forum, so don't worry about postage. ^_^
Also - many of my seeds have come to me from trades - so I don't guarantee anything!
But like they used to say in the Depression: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!"
I happened to catch the pilot episode of The Beverly Hillbillies just yesterday, and was thinking ..... Ah ... the simpler life!
May have been a lot more hard work, and perhaps a lot more dangerous, but ..... I bet it was also far more rewarding.
I can't help but think THEY are those who built America....Not Rockefeller, not Ford, Vanderbuilt, Hilton or Edison....but Jed Clampett!
I think some people got an awakeing when the lights went out a few weeks ago. I know I did. We are spoiled.
edit - Lugged water and heated it up to clean up. What would happen if the clean clothes ran out. Lug water, heat it up and a Wash Board!
This message was edited Jan 25, 2009 11:51 AM
Jed ended up with the life style of the Rockefellers as I recall.
And look at all the troubles that followed their big move!! Hee Hee Hee .... Fighting every step of the way.
Spoilt?? I know I have a color tv hooked up to a cable, and no callouses on my hands!
AYankeeCat, I was curious about your stinging nettles. Have you grown them before?
It is a weed in the midwest and as a kid I got stung many times running around the neighborhood.
They are very painful if you brush up against them. So put them in a place you don't walk by. You will know very quickly if it's not a good place. LOL
Don't know how they taste. We had not idea they could be eaten.
Sherrie - I'm so sorry to hear that you and DH have been hit so hard up there. It is impressive how you have kept your sense of humor! You are a good role model for us all! I hope things turn around soon and that life sends you some unexpected surprises to get you through.
This winter I've done mostly seeds too. I'm amazed at how far 2 packs of bush and pole green beans have gone. Today I planted my third round of fresh seeds of both. We haven't bought green beans, broccoli or salad greens all winter and now the tomatoes are coming in. It is a good feeling to know you are being frugal even in the good times. Waste not, want not and all those other depression era lessons my parents taught us. Retirement also teaches you to simplify and be happy with less. But when I think about my friends like Sherrie and others in our DG family who are being hit so hard, I feel frustration about the excesses of the gluttons who have caused this crisis.
I am not sure this is a crisis; I think this might be normal. If I understand things correctly, there has been unprecidented growth in the last few years - but most of the benefit appears to be limited to the top 10 percent of the population.
Meanwhile, working people were made to feel like losers if they didn't maintain a lifestyle they couldn't possibly afford (mortgages, cell phones, flat screen tvs, etc.)
At the same time business were pressured to maximize profits, and as a nation, we incurred huge expenses but voted to cut taxes.
Now everyone will have to live within their budgets. Wise people will not use credit cards to buy the things their wages can't pay for. That probably means lower profits for many business. Housing prices will continue to fall - but then maybe young people will have a chance at affordable housing. At the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if unemployment rises to 10%. But that might be the price of shipping manufactoring jobs overseas, leaving primarily upper-end white collar jobs and low-skill service jobs.
I think the party is over and we are living with the hangover.
edited to add: economist on CNN is arguing we are in a Depression! This is getting serious. Battan down the hatches, folks. This is going to be a bumpy ride.
I reitterate my offer - if you want seeds, send me a list!
This message was edited Jan 25, 2009 4:32 PM
My farther always said: Ifyou dont have the cash you dont need it. Go with out for a bit and then pay CASH - then you aint got all the intrest rates those plastic cards do. Now.
Louise like Elvis would say Thank You, Thank You and Thank You Very Much.
I am just Sherrie with some but little knowledge, only been here 2 years.
When someone gets down and deep into a problem and asks for help and just about all of, or no one has no clue - who comes to the rescue? When we are in the Abyss - (a bottomless gulf or pit; any unfathomable or apparently unfathomable cavity or chasm or void extending below) You have help - Victor, Pirl, Polly. Seandon, Al - if I miss a name duh.
The other day - If I could of did anything, again anything to stop, what happend I would of.
I would travel miles and still would.
I am alive and have a heart. I am not too sentimental but when certian people get hurt
I would like to take a hand and put it threw the monitor and grow PawPaws.
i was looking at those paw paws the other day. i'm leaving those to victor:)
This message was edited Jan 25, 2009 6:44 PM
cindyehook - The stinging is why I want to grow them in my neighbors yard. Heehee! I keep reading about the nutritional benefits of nettles including the recent article on DG http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2072/. (I remember getting stung by nettles at girl scout camp and not liking the feeling at all! ) I'm always looking for the strange thing to grow and things that already are growing that I can eat for free - like purslane, lamb's quarters and sheep sorrel. During the summer months I have free salads with my lunch from the "weeds" in my yard.
I missed that article. Thanks for the link.
All I can say is you must have a great neighbor. LOL
if you grow it, let me know how it tastes. Must be like cooked greens.
I have eaten the sheep sorrel. It was fun to eat it with its jaw-hurting sourness. It would make a nice addition to a salad.
There were stinging nettles growing in a vacant lot next to my mom's house in Massachusetts - bumped into them many times! Ouch! They were definitely unwanted and painful. AYC, they were either perennial or reseeded because they were ALWAYS there. Be careful; you may have them longer than you want them.
Carrie, we have them in Vt too. Not nice, but are good for herbal medicines. Supposedly if you pick them young they can be delicious when cooked, but I am not going to see if I picked them young enough! They seem to thrive along a winter run off area that gets quite hot and dry in the summer, but for 100 years it was the site of a blacksmith shop so lots of rich soil. Patti
Hard to imagine planting them on purpose - sorry, AYC! Also, I think I have less land than you do. I mean if somebody GAVE me 7000 bulbs (do I have the number right, Patti?) I would have nowhere to put them!
Yes, sheepishly said, for the past two years we have planted that many bulbs in the fall. I actually have, sort of have, well kind of have, some snowdrops. I can see the whites of their eyes!!!! They have been planted in this spot for years. Not the new kids. I play by horseshoe rules. Spring is here. Patti
Oh wow isn't that a wonderful sight! Maybe if we can get a little stretch of several warmer days here on the mainland we will get some action too. There is hope, thanks for that pic, it does make me feel optimistic that spring is surely coming soon. :)
Woohoo!!!!
Praise the skies! Something's been keeping an eye on the calendar!
Well,cutting back was indeed my plan but the closer spring gets The Compulsion takes over and I will probably over spend as usual,but it is my only luxury if you want to call it that.
As the economic situtation looked dimmer I more bought bulbs at the end of the season clearances than I intended, a couple thousand of them, to brighten things up this spring. We're on a main road near the town center. Had a few foreclosures in town--one just two houses down from me. In November, great bulbs were only a few cents apiece and I figured this was a cheap way to show passer-bys the current problems will pass and life returns. Can't restore the porch columns and paint this old house in the near future but for less than the cost of paint, the grounds will show someone cares.
What a great idea.
Bulbs are really cheerie in th spring.
I'm sure there will be any number of people who thank you.
ge...one way to get back to normality is to appear normal...lol...
I think bulbs are so symbolic. They don't look like much when you plant them but ta da! hope is worth it!
My church gives babies roses. (Already dead, vase life of max another week.) How about giving them bulbs instead? They're just tiny and wrinkled and adorable now, but who knows what they will become? Bulbs are all about becoming. Isn't that what life is about? Becoming? Surely we, as gardeners, know that better than anyone. A garden is never finished, it is always becoming!
carrielmont....good idea. Crocus are great for church yards. One in our town has thousands of them on the hill in front. Everyone looks for the first blooms. Don't know why more do not do it. Only take a few dozen people with a hundred bulbs each to make a eye catching display.
Now that you mention it, I should go talk to the church here that has them. They need some other cultivars (they only have the common species crocus). And some fertilizer. I suspect gardeners involved in the original planting are gone. People just expect them to come up now (and they do but they could be better).
ME?????
NORMAL???
I dont think so.
ge1836.....lol...me neither. But I keep up appearances.
Usually. Enough so no one becomes alarmed.
What a wonderful idea DP!
yes, great idea David Paul.
Bought I.reticulata, daffs & Do Tell peony last fall. Fewer iris will be ordered this spring, mainly stuff needed for hybridizing rather than what I should see. Fewer spaces in the garden.
i have found myself going over my gift certificate total and have pulled back and reduced the orders after understanding the real cost including the shipping. i dropped two acers off an order and saved $160 and replaced it with another tree for $70. then turned around and ordered the two dropped trees from another source for $90 a total net savings of ......nothing - and i have one more jm coming.
does this count as being frugal?
Well Bill if you use gardeners creative accounting, you are getting a tree for free. Sounds frugal to me. :)
all i needed was one person to second it - thx! now i can sleep at night and hopefully dream where the heck i will be planting the small forest i have coming.
David - that's a great idea and I'll bet it looks beautiful in the spring. If you can remember to do it, please post a shot of the Church yard when it is in bloom.
Bill - How's your stone wall holding up with all this winter weather you're having?? I'm excited for you about your new mail order forest! Will any of the trees go behind the wall?
hi Louise - the wall is doing very well in fact it has been hit twice once by a car and another time by a delivery truck trying to back out. wall stands with no damage or loose stone - no idea if it dished out any damage - SIL will not come clean.
here it is from an earlier snow storm.
I am pretty excited as well about the trees - yes some will go on the banking although not behind the wall - that space already has roses and forgethia. i think i have about 11 new jm's to be planted.
Wha, I love your gardening math. You got more bark for the buck :)
Good one, Weeze. 'more bark for your buck' I'm still chuckling.
Well, I third the idea of your frugal gardening, Bill.
Stone is pretty unforgiving. I imagine the drivers were praising your craftsmanship when they hit the wall. :)
David-Paul- that is a great idea.
Bill, I love that pic, what jm's do you have coming? or did you list that already somewhere?