Re: Marching towards spring

Cyndi - I prune all the salvias back this time of year (except the Wild
Things) and they do just splendidly!
Like you, I only cut off the dead stuff.


On 3/20/07, Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT <cyndi.johnson@edwards.af.mil>
wrote:
>
> I do let my chickens out in the veggie garden during the winter in hopes
> that they will clean up weed seeds and bugs. I always seem to have
> plenty of weeds later and who knows if they do any good on the bugs, but
> we never have a huge problem. I am still wondering why they didn't find
> all those june bug larvae, my current theory is that we must have piled
> a lot of spoiled hay/manure on that area and the chickens couldn't get
> through it. I don't remember raking a lot off before tilling and neither
> does husband, but we both have memories the size of a, ummm, flea.
> But if you want to clear up a grassy area, confine chickens on
> it...they'll take it down to bare ground. Slower than rototilling but
> you won't have anything growing back.
>
> Cyndi
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On
> Behalf Of Bonnie Holmes
> Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 1:13 PM
> To: gardenchat@hort.net
> Subject: RE: [CHAT] Marching towards spring
>
> I thought that I had recently read that when you have ducks and
> chickens, you have far less pests, such as slugs, fleas, ticks.  I wish
> we could have some...we do have a small flock of mixed domestic and wild
> ducks on the lake.  They swim by, demanding that my husband attend to
> their supper...Biscuit, our lab/husky mix, also insists that she get
> some of the cracked corn.
>
> Bonnie Zone 7/7 ETN
> Remember:  The River Raisin, The Alamo, The Maine, Pearl Harbor, 9/11
>
>
> > [Original Message]
> > From: Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT <cyndi.johnson@edwards.af.mil>
> > To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
> > Date: 3/20/2007 3:58:09 PM
> > Subject: RE: [CHAT] Marching towards spring
> >
> > We have been riding in national forest/park areas, no chickens to be
> > seen. Plenty of ticks apparently. There aren't any at my house; I
> > think (but I'm not sure) that even if we didn't kill them off they
> > would not be able to reproduce. I don't know why that is but no one I
> > know has ever seen them here on the valley floor and yet there are
> > lots in the hills around us. Same for fleas, we have never had them
> > and no one I know has ever had them on their pets.
> >
> > Cyndi
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On
> > Behalf Of Bonnie Holmes
> > Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 12:37 PM
> > To: gardenchat@hort.net
> > Subject: RE: [CHAT] Marching towards spring
> >
> > Hmmm...and, I thought chickens would eat ticks.
> >
> > Bonnie Zone 7/7 ETN
> > Remember:  The River Raisin, The Alamo, The Maine, Pearl Harbor, 9/11
> >
> >
> > > [Original Message]
> > > From: Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT <cyndi.johnson@edwards.af.mil>
> > > To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
> > > Date: 3/20/2007 12:04:44 PM
> > > Subject: [CHAT] Marching towards spring
> > >
> > > We are back to "normal" spring weather - if there is normal any more
>
> > > -
> >
> > > it's cool, windy, and cloudy. I doubt we'll get rain but my fingers
> > > are crossed, anything would help.
> > > I did more pruning back the dead stuff in the dry garden on
> Saturday.
> > > Sheesh there's a lot of that. I have seen a very few living parts on
>
> > > the bigger salvias, I think those are all salvia clevelandii, mostly
>
> > > near the bottom of the plant and in one case on the end of a branch
> > > that had been buried by a gopher mound. I am not sure if they will
> > > come back from the roots or not, so I left them about a foot tall
> > > and I'll call Theodore Payne nursery today for advice. I didn't have
>
> > > time to do all of them so just in case the nursery screams at me
> > > "Don't touch them!" I'll still have half left alone. However what I
> > > cut off was really dead, crunchy brittle dead, and I don't think
> > > there are plant zombies; so I'm pretty sure pruning was okay.
> > > Husband rototilled the entire veggie garden. In one bed where I had
> > > left the leaky hose attached it must have been getting water, nice
> > > moist dirt. We pulled at least a hundred june bug larvae out of
> there.
> >
> > > EEUUWW although the chickens were happy about it. No kidding there
> > > were quarts of them, I don't remember seeing that many June bugs
> > around last year.
> > > Makes me wonder what's in all the other beds, maybe they are lurking
>
> > > farther down in the soil. And I let the chickens out all winter,
> > > they are supposed to take care of that sort of thing, what's wrong
> > > with
> > them?
> > > Anyway I sowed the green beans; I meant to get more stuff in but I
> > > ran
> >
> > > out of time. We did fill up the dumpster with debris though. This is
>
> > > becoming our standard for a successful weekend - if we fill up the
> > > dumpster we know we've worked enough. :-) No gardening on Sunday, we
>
> > > took the horses out. Nice ride, too bad about the dry winter, the
> > > hills would have been covered by wildflowers in a wetter year. Oh
> > > well. And despite my sister telling us "Oh I never see ticks around
> > > this area" there were plenty of them. I must say this whole horse
> > > thing has me learning about some stuff that I never really wanted to
>
> > > know, like ticks. But we do have fun. It was great weather and I
> > > only wish I'd thought to put sunscreen on my arms and not just my
> face.
> > > Next weekend more garden maintenance. I know we have at least two
> > > broken sprinklers, and then there's more pruning.
> > >
> > > Cyndi
> > >
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-- 
Pam Evans
Kemp TX
zone 8A

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