RE: Looking for the weekend!

I didn't know they could be predatory in that way!  You learn something new
every day...hopefully.

Blessings,
Bonnie (SW OH - zone 5) 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On Behalf
Of Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT
Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 2:35 PM
To: 'gardenchat@hort.net'
Subject: RE: [CHAT] 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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