Re: Looking for the weekend!

Also wish I could have some chickens.  I have been buying organic stuff
locally and recently had a delightful carton of eggs with hues from brown
to green. 

My dog Biscuit catches squirrels and voles.  As we walk, she suddenly
burrows in a mass of leaves and comes up with a vole.  It must not be very
tasty because she plays with it like a cat, kills it, and leaves it.  The
rabbits and squirrels she eats.


> [Original Message]
> From: james singer <islandjim1@verizon.net>
> To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
> Date: 3/27/2006 2:30:22 PM
> 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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