Cottage Gardening forum: #8 Piggy Swap and Friends Chat The seeds germinate
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| I took advantage of a small break in the weather, got outside, and sowed more peas, lettuces, and roots. I'm hoping we have some cool weather and steady light rain over the next few days. I have such trouble with carrots because I rarely get these conditions. I'm also downstairs potting up all those herbs and flowers I started weeks ago. I'll be maxxed out for space after this! Grazie a tutti, Julianna |
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| Tcs... and Arlene... Another Agastache lover here too. I was actually shocked that 3 of my Acapulco Sunset made it through the winter. Now if I can just keep the frogs out of the pots. Poor babies aren't that big and they having fits with all this rain and everytime I turn around one of the big toads has dug part of the roots up making a bed. grumble...grumble... Sorellina... You still got snow or did it finally all melt? Andi... How ya coming with the move. All set in your new place yet? I know ya not unpacked or organized just hope you have your new home. Arlene.... Glad ya checked in cuz when I was watching the news they had said one of the rotations was heading your way. I'll be off line for the weekend. Anybody need anything important holler at Patti or Tcs. I was over at one of the tornado disaster sites a while ago and had to sit there and cry before I could even get out of my vechile to do anything. It looks bad on tv when ya see destruction. The reality is unreal. If you didn't know one whole addition was there you would think all them miles is a garbage dump instead. There was one old man that my heart went out too. He was sitting on his porch steps. That was all that was left of his home. He was so dazed he didn't even know where to begin. Everything out there is flattened so flat to the ground. |
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| Wow, Ella, I can't even imagine. I've lived through 1 tornado in my life and it was here in Toronto a few years ago. It was so freaky how loud it was and how green the sky was afterwards. I can't remember if it was F1 or F2, but all it did here was kill a couple sunflowers. The cats were little and we just hunkered down in the basement in a sleeping bag that was still down there airing out from a recent camping trip. We lost electricity for a while, but when it came back on, the radio was already on so we listened for the all-clear. I grew up in California, so earthquakes below 6.0 don't bother me at all and more often than not, if they happen at night, I sleep through them. Tornados, hurricanes, and ice storms are weird events for me and I will probably never get used to them. No snow here now, thankfully. We're still having occasional low single digits overnight, but the cold-protection plastic covers that Duane made for me are unrolled next to the beds that need them and ready at a moment's notice. He's got a new frame design that he's working on using PVC. I'll post photos when he's finished. I got all of the herbs and flowers potted up today. Some things are a bit crispy because they were rootbound or a little dried out, but it's a 72-cell flat with huge variation in needs. I'll feed them tomorrow and they should perk up. This weekend, we're finally switching away from the garden here at home and doing preliminary work at the church rectory and also at the community garden. Duane's got full weekends off hopefully for the duration of the gardening season. Grazie a tutti, Julianna |
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| This is a story about my only experience with a tornado: A few years ago my husband and I were walking on the beach. The weather was overcast, very cloudy, so there were few people on the sand. As we walked the wind kicked up and became a bit strong. I laughed because the sand seemed to be blowing all in one direction - it looked like the beach was blowing away. Then the wind became even stronger. We continued walking towards the car which was very far away. We were laughing and having fun. Soon the rain started. But the rain was not falling straight down - it was falling sideways, horizontal to the ground. We noticed that our clothes were wet only on one side and dry on the other side. We thought the wind was very weird. Then the wind became so strong that it was difficult to walk; I pretended to lie down against the force of the wind; the wind held me up and did not let me fall - that is some strong wind! As the wind blew the sand, we started to feel pain on our legs from getting 'sandblasted' and we laughed a bit less. Each of us was trying not to complain, but were only pretending that this was still fun. We were still far from the car. We took shelter for a while in a wooden life guard stand, but soon realized we would be waiting a long time. So we started running to our car to get away from the sandblasting. Whew. Finally, we got to the parking lot. Our clothes were soaking wet and uncomfortable with sand in all kinds of places. In the trunk of my car were two bags of clothes I intended to take to the thrift store. Right there in the parking lot, standing on either side of the car in mock-privacy, each of us removed our wet clothes and put on whatever clothes would fit us from the Goodwill bags. We looked very funny in our mismatched, ill-fitting clothes, but we were dry so we did not care. Once inside the car we laughed again at what a fun time we had in the bad weather with the weird wind. As we started to drive towards home I noticed several cars had pulled to the side of the road. The people were all looking in the same direction. When I looked at the sky I could see what they were looking at. It was a funnel cloud - a tornado - heading AWAY from us. Then we laughed and laughed. We had just walked through a tornado and did not even know it. Since we did not know it was a tornado and so we had not been afraid. (Edit: I've been hunting online for some old news of this event and the date was September 2004.) |
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| That's a great story and a wonderful memory to have. |
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| Wow! Better that you didn't know about the tornado. I remember them happening in MI. And all the destruction they can do. You were lucky!!! |
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Hey everyone so glad everyone made it thru that crazy weather! Ella was so worried about you when I heard how bad Al. was hit glad you are ok  Misti so sorry about them spraying hope something can be done about it and nothing dies not to mention the poor insects a big mistake and incompetance! Mindy so sorry about your loss  Computer STILL down so on phone hate using it on here with a touch pad lol they make these keyboards so darn small! I think I lost my mints in pots this year too doesn't look too promising so far...had hazelnut, candy pop (I think) and another one can't think of right now I have a hard time growing them in pots anyway but did have these for a few years the ones in the ground are coming up (apple): but haven't seen any sign of chocolate yet. |
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| Greene... What an interesting story. Glad it missed ya and ya had a fun day through it all. Lebug.... Glad to see ya. I think about ya all the time and wonder how ya doing. Maybe one day you'll get a puter or one of them small tablet type things and be online all the time with us. In between know your loved , thought of and missed.  Finally!!!!!!!!!!! I hope, crossing toes and fingers and throwing in a few prayers for good measure gonna get some beans planted. Hopefully the rain done for a bit. Wouldn't be on it, but just let me get a few things planted and up for a change. |
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Thanks Lebug, lost my Comfrey but a sweet soul here is sending me another here soon. Everything else seems to be ok but we definitely see a lot more brown in the front lawn as opposed to the back.  |
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Wandered around my yard to see what planted itself. I found several Cypress vine seedlings , some Epazote, Tina James' Magic Oenthera (yellow evening primrose) is growing good and should bloom soon. In the small raised bed I built for my daughter there are blooms on her Japanese eggplant (on right in photo).  My Comfrey survived as did about 2/3 of the Chrysanthemums that I pulled out of a dumpster, here are some of them in March, mid-April and today some are blooming.    (I need to grab some mulch to cover that landscape fabric!) |
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Yesterday I accepted the nomination to run to be on the governing board of the Grassroots Seed Network. ------ The profile I submitted with the acceptance paperwork. ------ Joseph Lofthouse grew up on the farm and in the community that was settled by his ggg-grandmother and her son. He learned traditional agricultural and seed saving techniques from his grandfather and father. Joseph left the farm to spend two decades working as a research chemist and computer programmer. His studies focused on the synthesis and analytical chemistry of -cides and how they interact with and degrade in the environment. Joseph returned home and is now a sustenance market farmer and grows almost all of the seed required to plant a 2 to 4 acre vegetable garden. Joseph is enamored with landrace growing and is working to convert every species that he grows into locally-adapted survival-of-the-fittest landraces. He writes the “Landrace Gardening Blog†for Mother Earth News. ------ Press Release by the Steering Committee ------ Our website: grassrootsseednetwork.org is up and running and I hope you will take a look at it and consider joining. Here's our more formal announcement notice, feel free to get in touch with me personally at [email protected] with any questions We are very excited to announce the formation of a new seed saving and sharing non-profit organization called the Grassroots Seed Network, and we invite you to join. GSN will provide a network through which those who preserve and maintain our treasured heritage of open-pollinated vegetable seeds can share those seeds with others who are engaged in this work, and also communicate directly with each other to exchange knowledge and information. We have great visions for how the network could expand in the future to include educational materials, regional groups, and innovative ways of securing the preservation of invaluable seeds, but its success will depend on your active participation. We hope you share this vision and look forward to welcoming you in the Grassroots Seed Network! For the last year, our Steering Committee of five has been working on the initial, fundamental structure of our new non-profit. The central concept is a democratically governed, participatory organization, with a Board of Directors of nine, elected by the membership for staggered terms of three years. We have drafted preliminary by-laws which will be reviewed by the Board and then submitted to the membership for approval. Many of the provisions described here were put in place after a great deal of thought, but we recognize that they will not fill the needs or meet the expectations of all, so we encourage you to join in, not only with your seed listings, but with your creativity and ideas to make this a vibrant organization shaped by those whom it serves. You can read the draft by-laws on our website. Our first task is to build a body of members from which we’ll draw a slate of candidates to run for the Board of Directors. Please think about whether you would be interested in running for the Board. Let us know and we will make sure your name is submitted to the Nominating Committee. We intend to hold the Board election as soon as possible. Board candidates will need to offer seed immediately in order to qualify. Other members will need to submit their listings either on the website, by mail, or by email by two weeks before the election in order to vote. We will invite candidates to write a brief profile which will be posted on the website for all voting members to read. We will initially have two categories of membership. “Listing Members†will offer seed through the online Source List, have voting rights and be eligible to serve on the Board of Directors. The annual dues for this level are $15. “Sustainers†will not offer seed and will not have voting rights, but will have access to the online Source List and be able to request seed. The annual dues for this level are a minimum of $25. Many seed savers do not have access to the internet, and therefore we will also publish an annual printed edition of the complete seed offerings. Please help by spreading the word about the Grassroots Seed Network to any friends and fellow seed savers who may not have at-home internet. We’re offering a hardship exemption to those for whom these dues represent a real financial challenge. We will waive dues, but you are free to pay what you can afford in that year. We aim to keep any fees as closely linked to actual operating expenses as possible. Since we cannot predict now what those will be, the elected Board will have the flexibility to make appropriate adjustments to dues levels in future years. We want seed savers to be able to communicate readily with each other, so our website includes, beyond the list of offered seeds, a Forum for discussion and sharing information. The website itself will be accessible by the general public. As with any organization we will have start-up expenses—including initiating the website, compiling the database of members and seeds, shepherding the first Board election—and will be very grateful for any donations beyond the basic membership fees. Please visit our website for more details: grassrootsseednetwork.org To join, please send a check for your chosen level of membership, made out to “Grassroots Seed Network†to: Yaicha Cowell-Sarofeen 2470 Industry Road Starks, ME 04911 Yaicha is our current database manager. She can be reached at 207-491-4259 or through [email protected] if you have questions. Thank you so much for your interest and your support! The Steering Committee: Jim Tjepkema George Stevens CR Lawn Author of Mother Earth News Blog about Landrace Gardening: http://www.motherearthnews.com/search.aspx?tags= Lofthouse |
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| I am finally here! Pot ghetto and all! I arrived Friday afternoon, walked Winston and went to sleep. I was exhausted. Torrential rains delayed the last load moved. My bed got moved a couple of days before I did, so Winston and I were "camping out". My coffee pot moved early also, but I saved a handful of tea bags at least. What an ordeal, but it is done! The house is on 1/2 acre of land that only an overoptimistic gardener could love. Plenty of sun for my roses, but also plenty of rocks, tree stumps and assorted debris. I'll take pictures. I have also been warned about the deer. I better run some soap thru the food processor and make up some pepper spray! There are two lakes in the community - a stocked fishing lake and a swimming lake. Winston and I walked around them. He was fascinated by the running streams. One lake is surrounded by gorgeous groves of rhododendron, easily 12' tall. I bet they are beautiful when they bloom. I'll share pictures soon. People seem really friendly here. |
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| Andi, Congratulations! You did not mention the stealth cat. Please try to keep the cat inside the house (yea, like that's even possible) until it learns that this new place is 'home' or it may try to go back the the old house. |
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| The stealth cat is here but still in stealth mode. She sneaks out of hiding and explores the rooms at night when Winston is snoring. He is glad that we brought the bed. He approves of my winter white sale purchases - a new high loft comforter and a memory foam mattress topper. It is no problem keeping Bella the stealth cat inside, She is afraid to go out. She was just starting to venture out on the deck in the old place when we moved. She is going to miss the spiral staircase. Since Winston wouldn't go down the stairs, she had a "safe" exit route. My new place is one floor. There are plenty boxes to hide behind, she will manage. I put the pot ghetto behind the garage to enhance my "curb appeal" while I get things planted. The sun has finally come out this afternoon. It was a balmy 60'F with temps in the 60's for the next couple of days. Night temperatures will be slightly above freezing. I think winter is finally done, but it feels more like early April than May. |
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| Is anyone else having Iris (germanica) issues this spring? Mine are a little late opening, no surprise because of the late spring, but the earliest ones to bloom did not get as tall as they should. Their blooms were barely above the soil line. The ones blooming now are better, but I am wondering what caused those shorties and if it is anything I have control over. |
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| I had that problem last year. Too cold I was told and sure enough, when it warmed up they were fine. |
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| My hehhebores drove me nuts this year didn't bloom until last of March/first of April some just now starting to seed I always look forward to those blooms in Jan. Have 3 Barberry shrubs and three E. (Have no idea how to spell lol) Shrubs variegated shrubs out front and the E. Shrubs all the leaves dropped off talked to a nursery they said to cut them back n spray, not only did they have to deal with the wet winter freezing and thawing they got scales real bad I've been two days trying to get all the leaves picked up. Now need to find some neem oil spray. The winter was really hard on a lot of my plants this year, lost my silver speedwel, octupus campanala, couple of coral bells, white veronica not to mention a few others. Andi congrads on a successful move! |
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| Thanks! I am glad that the move drama is done. I have a backhoe outside fixing the water supply. I have had low water pressure. I am looking forward to taking a hot shower, doing dishes and doing wash! It is always something. It looks like the pipe broke in several places. They turned something on and got sprayed with cold water. (It is just 50'F now). |
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| LeBug, are the E. shrubs called Euonymus? Pronounced 'you-wanna-muss'? |
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| That's right greene I love those shrubs esp with the dark Barberry really didn't want anything to happen to them. |
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