RE: Looking for the weekend!

I don't get too many tomato worms but the chickens just love the June bug
larvae. 
I saw our chickens catch, kill, and eat a sparrow once. That was startling.

Cyndi 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On Behalf
Of james singer
Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 11:30 AM
To: gardenchat@hort.net
Subject: Re: [CHAT] Looking for the weekend!

You made me wish once more that I could keep a few chickens here. They 
are such great animals. And, you're right, nothing makes them happier 
than a barrel of weeds--unless it's a coffee can full of tomato 
hornworms.

Gophers can really be a nuisance in a garden, orchard, and pasture. One 
July 4th my father dropped cherry bombs down all the gopher holes in 
our back yard--causing plumes of smoke to rise throughout the 
neighborhood.


On Mar 27, 2006, at 11:28 AM, Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT wrote:

> I'm only cutting back the vegetable garden, so I can concentrate on 
> getting
> the ornamental gardens back into shape. So far so good, I planted 
> lettuce
> seed yesterday and used up all last year's packets. I think lettuce 
> seed is
> one of those things better planted with fresh seed but it should be 
> okay.
> I wasn't planning on buying much for either garden, but when I looked 
> at all
> the bare spots in the ornamental areas I rationalized that planting new
> things would inspire me to even more maintenance. Yes, that's the 
> ticket.
> Anyway I didn't get the plants for the back fence in the ground. I 
> forgot
> that the irrigation controller for that part broke earlier in the 
> winter and
> husband has not fixed it yet. Since he was busy too it will have to 
> wait for
> next weekend. I did put in all the salvias and erigonum (buckwheat) in 
> my
> dry garden. And I weeded for a couple hours in there and dumped 4 
> barrels of
> grass for the chickens - they were happy. I got about half of it done 
> so
> that was good.
> We trapped six gophers just this weekend and there are mounds 
> absolutely
> everywhere. Husband set more traps amongst the fruit trees, in the dry
> garden, well just about everywhere we have plants we want to keep. You 
> would
> not believe my back yard. Between the lawn and the veggie garden fence 
> there
> is a lot of empty space we don't do anything with. My dogs have been 
> digging
> for gophers back there and it looks like the trenches of WWI. I guess I
> won't need to clip their nails for awhile.
> At least the weather was reasonable. Saturday was windy and cold but 
> we were
> working a garage sale so I didn't care much. Sunday was mostly 
> overcast but
> at least it was not windy, and it was relatively warm. We're expecting 
> rain
> again tomorrow - let it rain during the week, that's what I ask.
>
> Cyndi
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On 
> Behalf
> Of Donna
> Sent: Sunday, March 26, 2006 6:09 AM
> To: gardenchat@hort.net
> Subject: Re: [CHAT] Looking for the weekend!
>
> So how much did you get done.... and I thought you
> were cutting back this year? LOL! We all seem to have
> the same problem, lotsa willpower till the season
> actually gets here.
>
> Donna
>
> --- Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT
> <cyndi.johnson@edwards.af.mil> wrote:
>
>> We finally are having some nice days, I hope it
>> lasts through the weekend.
>> I'm helping at a garage sale tomorrow but Sunday I
>> have much planting to do.
>> I bought a whole bunch o' stuff at Theodore Payne's
>> (my poor credit card!),
>> and my order from Forestfarm showed up too so there
>> is no shortage of
>> plants.
>> I'm going to get serious about trying to hide the
>> neighbor in back of us but
>> the plants I put in have to be tough. Thus all the
>> natives from Payne's. I
>> bought 3 different kinds of saltbush - atriplex
>> polycarpa, atriplex
>> canescens, and atriplex lentiformis. None of them
>> are terribly attractive
>> but they will take just about anything. We have
>> atriplex canescens already
>> back there and it is about 7' tall now, the quail
>> just love to hide in it.
>> Since another of my wants is to provide cover and
>> food for birds I'm hoping
>> they all do well. Considering how much less habitat
>> the critters have these
>> days they might need my place.
>> What is it about developers anyway. There are
>> millions of acres of flat
>> desert out here with nothing on it but rabbitbush
>> tumbleweeds and alkali. Do
>> they build there, NO, they buy up the juniper
>> woodland in the foothills, the
>> places with the biggest biodiversity we have here -
>> hundreds and hundreds of
>> species - and then they bulldoze it, pave it and put
>> up houses. Makes me so
>> mad I could spit. Not to mention that part of what
>> is currently being
>> bulldozed used to be city nature park, the city just
>> rolled over and showed
>> the developers their throat. Sure, take whatever you
>> want, just promise us
>> taxes. Citizen complaints are met with smiles and
>> nods and no action. Of
>> course now the housing bubble is popping, who knows
>> maybe they'll just stop
>> after bulldozing everything.
>> Oops didn't mean to go on a rant.
>> Anyway. I also bought 3 sambucus mexicana, an
>> elderberry, as an experiment.
>> There is one growing in a canyon where we go hiking
>> on the weekends. Not too
>> far from my house but a little higher in elevation
>> and probably more
>> sheltered. Who knows it may have found a little
>> pocket to tap into for
>> water. But it is there so I will see if I can grow
>> one too.
>> Second experiment, I bought two different mesquites:
>> screwbean mesquite,
>> prosopis pubescens, and honey mesquite, prosopis
>> glandulosa. I see them
>> growing here where I work but there are none near
>> where I live, so we'll
>> see. Beautiful once they get a little size to them
>> but you don't want to get
>> too close - major thorns on those plants.
>> Third experiment, this one I'm not all that hopeful,
>> arctostaphylos glauca
>> aka big berry manzanita. Never seen one growing so
>> far as I know. But the
>> description sounded like it might live and I love
>> manzanitas, it might make
>> it. If none of my experiments work then next year
>> it's more saltbush! And
>> they might not...I have already tried
>> fremontodendron and matilija poppy
>> back there, neither lived. Course you know what they
>> say, try it three
>> times.
>> I bought the hakonecheloa (sp?) grass from
>> Forestfarm, and a few nandinas -
>> the dwarf "Firepower" ones - and a dwarf oakleaf
>> hydrangea...ummmm...can't
>> remember the name now. The japanese garden needs
>> more work than I thought
>> due to the gophers eating a lot of my liriope around
>> the teahouse edge. That
>> may have to wait for a while though.
>> Can't wait for the weekend.
>>
>> Cyndi
>>
>>
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Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]

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