Garden thread.

[Sassy]

I checked out my cat, Sheba (I didn't name her) this am again - she has 2 teeth marks on her rib cage... still growling when you pick her up - I can't see that they are punctured very deeply, but evidently she must be hurting a lot.  She won't hardly let me check her out - hisses at me, even growled & hissed at Glenn & he's her favorite  

Can't remember if I mentioned it before... I used to have a pet possum I rescued after the mother was hit by a car.  All the babies were killed except this one...  His name was "Algernon" (I had a grandfather & uncle named Lafayette Algernon & my dad is named Thurber Lewellyn - what names!  :-/ ) Anyway, the possum was real tiny, fit in my hand - first day when I held it, it would hiss - what rows of teeth it had!  But by the next day it would go to sleep in my hand when I petted it.  I had it for several months.  It was the cutest thing, real sweet - you'd give it a strawberry & it would hold it in its hand like a human & eat it.  It took off one day when it was out in the back yard.

[Sassy]

Thought I'd post a few more rooftop garden pics...  Glenn took the 1st 3 pics





I took this one looking down from the bridge that goes from one section of roof to another, this part of the garden is outside the bedroom window

That's along the side of a steep bank (our $1000 motorhome!)

[jraabe]

Lovely Sassy! My roof looks rather drab in comparison!  

[Amanda_931]

Nice, nice, nice.

[glenn-k]

Nonsense, John.  I've always enjoyed the look of asphalt (or other) roofing shingles. :-/

[Amanda_931]

Only reason I can think of for wanting something other than a living roof is wanting rainwater more.

Money and time considerations might make someone do differently.

[glenn-k]

You sound thirsty, Amanda.  How about a nice fresh cold glass of rainwater.

[Amanda_931]

Nah, I'll just go down to the spring and get some water from there.

[Amanda_931]

Tomorrow is a big plant swap--last year three part-time greenhouse people came with all their dregs--at least one is not coming this year--she went home with too many new plants.  She's right local, but there were people from 85 or 100 miles away as well.

I forgot to dig up some iris up the hill for it, might not get it done by tomorrow at ten.

But there are lots of black raspberries in my way, so they're going.

[Amanda_931]

The plant swap really is a BIG DEAL.  Big write-up in a popular Tennesseean column brought half again as many people as last year--sometimes from quite a long ways away.

Over a hundred of us had tables this year--maybe a few too many, but....people's tables tended to be empty by lunch--which they weren't last year, and I came home without anything I'd taken.

They have a speaker after lunch each year--this year it was a gal who works for a native plants nursery talking about dry shade.  What reasonably spectacular plants grow happily there, and so on.  I wish I'd taken better notes.   The nursery's big clients seem to be commercial and industrial companies and landlords who would rather have native plants in the woods than spend big bucks on a lawn service.

I don't know if other states do this or not.  

It seems to have grown out of gardenweb, which a friend of mine is addicted to.

[glenn-k]

Going with native plants is a great idea to save energy and water -most gro without irrigation so less pumping water.   I used to have a nice cactus garden in the valley - started one here -- also edible- nopales and cactus apples eventually.  I also raise poison oak.  Not intentionally but I did eat a leaf or two.  Oaks grow all over here and you can eat acorn.

[peg_688]

 Oaks grow all over here and you can eat acorn.

 Such discipline to eat just one   They're so small yet so , ah , bland  

[glenn-k]

PEG - giving me a bad time I see.

Actually the local Native Americans refer to it that way.  When they speak of eating acorn they are speaking usually of a kind of mush made of the stone pounded (or chopped in a blender if you are modern) water leached acorns.  Skin is first removed from them.  I have a recipe but have not been industrious enough to make it my self.  I have eaten it a couple of times at the Indian Villige in the park.  It was a main staple of the Native Americans around here.  They actually farmed the trees naturally and burned off the brush and grass to insure good crops.  Years with few or no acorns caused famine for the people and it happened every so often - at least once in the 4 years I've been here.

Anybody for some good fresh cooked cattails? Great fresh from the water garden.  I haven't eaten them either but hope to some day.

[Amanda_931]

The woman who gave the talk on native plants in dry shade, said that one often needed to baby--e.g., water--even drought-resistant native plants for the first year or so.

Well, we eat tomatoes, ears of corn if we want for some reason to say how many or to indicate that it hadn't been cut off the cob, but corn and spinach.

So I guess it works both ways.

[glenn-k]

Well --- I went up on the roof of my shop tonight because I saw some nice ripe strawberries -- so I picked them.  Strawberries taste great

I dropped one --picked it up and ate it- a little dirt won't hurt me.



I dropped another one -- 30 second rule--- no problem -- a little more dirt won't hurt me.

Then I remembered that my dirt is about 2/3 horse manure compost.  ----- Oh well --- it still tastes good. :-/

[peg_688]

As it sits , lettuce doing good first crop going to seed , radishs look good not much fruit , bad seed ? anyway they don't/  haven't made many radishs  

 Spinish also was a bust , rabbits clear cut the first crop 2nd planting is coming but the weather is getting to warm it will go to seed quickly .

Peas the snails got most of, where the slugs ?( I think the snails have wiped them out , anyone know if that is possible ??)   , green beans will be ready soon , wlla walla onions doing great .

 We've had and used a lot of lettuce , given away a bunch to neighbors ,  Folks at church etc. So all in all a great harvest season / summer.  

   

 Stawberrys are also winding down , the ever bearings will go most of the summer but it's a small berry , ok for on cereal .

PEG

[peg_688]

I dropped one --picked it up and ate it- a little dirt won't hurt me.



I dropped another one -- 30 second rule--- no problem -- a little more dirt won't hurt me.

Then I remembered that my dirt is about 2/3 horse manure compost.  ----- Oh well --- it still tastes good. :-/

 Jeesh they grow in the dirt , and at work I eat more dirt in a week of remo,ing than a bit on a strawberry

 You'll be fine   Just don't "spoon in " the dirt  

[glenn-k]

You might check into what kind of nutrients each plant needs, PEG.  High nitrogen will lots of times make lots of green - little fruit-- maybe a vegetable fertilizer.  I used to use chicken manure for really great results years ago - careful - it can burn things--- also high nitrogen.

I wonder what it tastes like with strawberries? :-/

[peg_688]

This fall I'll be visting my local dairy for some poop Should have went last fall  , I do till in lots of leaves every year and some composed grass clipping.

 I've heard to be careful with chicken poop ,   so cow poop it will be  

[jonseyhay]

My grandfather used cow manure on his garden as a liquid. He used to hang the dry pats in an old sack, in a 44gal drum of water and use that to water the plants. This to avoid the undigested weed seeds in the mix. Fowl manure needs to be mellowed a bit before use, as it will burn the plants if it's too fresh.

Beer in a small container is good for getting rid of snails, They go for the yeast, fall in the bowl and drown trying to get a taste, works well if you don't have millions of them. The plus is it's not dangerous for pets and small children.

My garden page has been updated
http://users.tpg.com.au/jonsey/wintergarden.htm

[glenn-k]

Your gardens are looking good guys.  I have been neglecting mine a bit as I have been working away a lot- Sassy does quite a bit in it.  Our plants volunteer as we let them go to seed and being on the roof we go for non tillage.  It still always looks full.  

[Amanda_931]

Y'all have native persimmons?

I know we do (very astringent, very small, good for things like persimmon bread and my dad used to make "locust and persimmon beer."  "Locust" in this case is a bean family tree with sticky sweet stuff inside its pods, kind of like tamarind) and the Japanese do, both kinds for them--we share a lot of native plants with Japan--maples and pines and trilliums for instance.

[bil2054]

The gardens do look good, guys.  I can't wait to have one again.
The yard here at the temporary rent is full of potted native plants, awaiting installation in a couple of gardens/ restoration projects.  It's my housemate's bag, and she's been doing it for a bunch of years.  In addition to being energy efficient, etc., they provide the proper habitat for native species of wildlife.  They are also quite attractive, I think.  I recall reading a letter by an eighteenth century  European botanist to his confreres in America in whch he complained bitterly that all they seemed interested in were European plants, when they had an incredible variety of beautiful and interesting "new" plants right here in their backyard.  This is how a number of our invasive species got a foothold.
Glenn, you are spot on about many of the nitrogen heavy commercial fertilizers.  Not only do they encourage foliar growth at the expense of the rest of plants, they are also harmful to the biotic environment of the soil.  There are a number of microbial elements, particularly some mycelium, that are important to the nitrogen uptake process in plant roots.  Plants will absorb nitrogen without them, but at a far reduced rate.  These microbial populations thrive on nitrogen, but if you give them too much they have a population explosion and use up all that's available and  die off.  Then the plants need ever increasing amounts of nitrogen, becoming sort of fertilizer junkies.  There are some products out there that will re-inoculate the soil with the correct microbes if you suspect you have that scenario.  Denise also uses various fish and kelp emulsion products from a company called Organica that work very well.
My great uncle was a terrific vegetable gardener, and did as jonesy describes.  He would mix a batch of well aged horse manure,( aged so the weed seeds had composted in), in a drum of water, and would apply it with a watering can.  He also espoused companion planting, and mechanical methods of pest control, like little collars around the stems of plants below surface level to keep cutworms away.
The strawberries look real good..... too good to not apply the "seven second rule". [smiley=wink.gif]

[glenn-k]

Oh oh -- only seven seconds --- I was giving my self 30 --- I may eat over my quota of dirt, bugs and manure.

[bil2054]

Shoot, Glenn, it's only seven seconds if anybody else is watching.... if you're by yourself, the seven seconds begins when you want it to. [smiley=rolleyes.gif]