| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| celticlady |
Posted - Jan 31 2005 : 11:42:16 AM
Are you ladies ready to start that wonderful gardening season?
I am already making my garden plans and trying to figure out where I'm going to start my seeds. Half the fun (I think) is in planning and designing the garden space.
Spring is on it's way here. every now and then I catch a whisper of it in the air. I know it's just a teaser right now, but it makes me want to get out there!
Cabin fever has really set in for me (as if you couldn't tell).
Anyone else feeling this way? -Dar
"live each day as if it were your last". |
| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Clare |
Posted - Jun 06 2005 : 10:12:18 AM
DANDELION UPDATE: If you really can't tolerate them, here's master gardener Ciscoe Morris' recommendation: (I think I'd heard this before, but I'd forgotten)...
Try an alternative for a weed-free lawn
Looking for a non-chemical way to rid your lawn of dandelions? Spray them with white vinegar from the grocery store or use one of the vinegar-based herbicides available at garden centers. Vinegar works best if applied on a hot sunny day. Wear gloves and eye protection; then use a sprayer to apply undiluted vinegar, and liberally soak the weed. Be warned: vinegar will kill any plant it hits. If you use it to rid your lawn of dandelions it will kill the grass immediately around the weed and you'll end up with dead spots in your lawn.
****Gardener, Stitcher, Spiritual Explorer and Appreciator of all Things Natural****
"Begin to weave and God will give the thread." - German Proverb |
| Idahospud |
Posted - May 03 2005 : 09:16:39 AM
Prairiemaid, yes! Thanks for asking . . . the tulips are just beautiful this year--purples and pinks mostly. Some of the bulbs from previous years sent up leaves but no flowers, so I guess they are spent. The salvia is on and next will be ROSES! I just can't wait! |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Apr 30 2005 : 06:38:37 AM
Sounds wonderful! I have plenty of dandelions to use, a whole field full! Have you ever made daisy wine? I do have a recipe for that. Care to share that recipe Margret?
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
| prairiemaid |
Posted - Apr 30 2005 : 06:04:02 AM
I've made dandelion wine, it has lemons and oranges in it. It was good, lots of work though because you use only the yellow flower, I had to snip off the green bulb on every one.
Call me old fashioned. |
| bramble |
Posted - Apr 29 2005 : 9:10:06 PM
Dandelion wine was my Grandmother's spring tonic for us! I don't remember how she made it but I do remember being paid in nickels for so many dandelion heads. I also remember some of the really old family members saying it wasn't Easter without dandelion wine. This was a basically teetotaling clan so I think this was considered medicinal. It was bitter and not very palatable, but I did like the elderberry wine she made also for "medicinal purposes". Sounds like the Baldwin sisters with "the recipe" , huh?!!!
with a happy heart |
| Eileen |
Posted - Apr 23 2005 : 09:37:22 AM
The greens for salad, yes. The roots in the fall for medicine but I have no idea how to make dandelin wine.
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
| Clare |
Posted - Apr 23 2005 : 08:16:58 AM
Eileen, how about making dandelion wine and use the greens for salads? I know... mine are fast appearing too. Today is supposed to be 80 degrees here too, and it was freezing at night earlier in the week. I suppose I can plant my coleous outside now. Had some freeze a couple weeks ago, even in a protected area outside. Provided my allergies stay in check today, I have high hopes for getting alot accomplished outside! Happy Spring turning Summer fast! |
| Eileen |
Posted - Apr 22 2005 : 8:14:12 PM
My bleeding heart is in full show now, what a surprise! Clematis are in bud and about to explode open, dogwood is just opening up today, tulips are all showy and the dandelions are giving me a run for my money. the fields are bright yellow with them right now. Apples are just opening up and it was 80 today. What a switch from the freezing mornings of last week!
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Apr 22 2005 : 09:30:08 AM
Margret, I so understand that "need" to work the soil and plant...almost like we need air and food and love! I am there with you doing that happy dance! Cold air from up north is coming down on me now and there is a frost warning the next few nights!!! WE had enjoyed warm balmy days and all the flowers are out, but winter is still lurking! April can be the cruelest month!
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
| prairiemaid |
Posted - Apr 22 2005 : 07:45:34 AM
Spring is finally here! Well, it arrived about 3 weeks ago. As soon as the snow starts to melt, that is considered spring for us. We need no other signs.  The snow is all gone and the leaves are budding, the robins are back! I'm doing the happy dance!!!
Now I am anxiously awaiting gardening season! I've got my cabbages, broccoli, tomatoes and peppers started on my window sill. Two days ago it was dry enough for me to rototill 1/2 the garden, I couldn't do the low end it was too wet. (All that snow makes for a lot of water). It's been very windy so it might be dry enough today or tomorrow to finish it. There is also the big garden to till. The seeds will go in the second or third week of May. Working the dirt felt so good! Very therapeutic. Gardening has become a "need" for me. I can't thrive without my garden.
I must have been really needing my garden when I ordered my seeds. They arrived in the mail and I notice I ordered a very large assortment and some new varieties! Just like the saying "don't grocery shop when you are hungry" maybe we shouldn't seed shop when when are blue? 
Idahospud, are your tulips blooming? |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Mar 12 2005 : 3:30:45 PM
JP, You DO have the heart and soul of a pioneer woman...
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Mar 12 2005 : 3:04:39 PM
Sounds like a great start to a beautiful garden Margret! Guess what! Today started out warm and quiet and no wind, now the north winds are howling like crazy kicking up tons of dust! I can taste it in my mouth when I went outside to take sheets off the line. Snow and cold is predictated for the coming week My metal is being tested, but I KNOW spring will win in April!
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
| prairiemaid |
Posted - Mar 12 2005 : 07:36:45 AM
Thank you both.
Jenny, my seeds that are coming are mostly vegetables and a few flowers for cutting. I will start the tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, cantaloupe, watermelon and peppers indoors. I wish I had a greenhouse! Maybe someday...
The weather has been clear and cold. The sun shining is some consolation. It should start to warm up by April, so thank you, I will hang in there. |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Mar 11 2005 : 7:35:34 PM
Hi Margret! I also love your screen name! I live on the prairie too! Kansas in March is just one word...BROWN. And Dusty with those infirmable March winds that blow that dust everywhere! I think this month tests our metal...and living on these high plains! Life is still there beneath those snows and mud and dirt Margret... Keep a hopeful heart and one beautiful warm and clear morning the birds will be singing and there will be GREEN outside our windows! What did you you order this year to plant? Jenny
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Mar 11 2005 : 2:35:52 PM
Dear prairiemaid - I love your web name (and your real name, too!) My heart contains the essence of the prairie, and I sometimes really think I am re-incarnated from a pioneer woman from the 1800's.
Your spring will come soon, and you will not have the heat and bugs that my area here in Florida bring. Always think positive! Think light and sun! I remember growing up in the prairies of the mid-western U.S., and I know that March is the most depressing month. So much winter behind and gray skies a lot. But keep dreaming of those garden rows and take comfort in the seed catalogues. And spring is not far away....
jpbluesky |
| prairiemaid |
Posted - Mar 11 2005 : 1:50:54 PM
I am so sick of winter. I really hate March! We still have so much snow, I have forgotten what dirt looks like! I'm anxiously waiting for my seed order to arrive so I can start my seedlings. That always cheers me up. I'm sorry, I only skimmed your replies. I couldn't bring myself to read about your warm springtime weather and activities. |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Feb 09 2005 : 1:58:59 PM
Here is a very old quote from a gardening book that sums it up in a different way for the anxiousness of spring planting. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did...
Planning the garden takes place, as all the handbooks advise, long before the frost is out of the ground, preferably on a night...with hail lashing the windows. The dependents reverently produce the latest see catalogue and succumb to mass hypnosis. "Look at these radishes-two feet long!" everyone marvels...A list of staples is speedily drawn up: Brussel Sprouts the size of a football...lets have plenty of beets, we can make our own lump sugar. Then someone discovers the hybrids-the onion crossed with a pepper or a new vanilla-flavored turnip that plays the "St. James Infirmary Blues." When the envelope is finally sealed, the savings account is a white sepulchre and all we need is a forty-mule team to haul the order from the depot.
S.J. Perelman, Acres and Pains
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
| free bird |
Posted - Feb 09 2005 : 05:09:43 AM
jpbluesky--It took my pepper seeds forever to come up. They finally came up yesterday. I think I read somewhere--it may have been the "Seed Starter's Handbook" by Jane Bubel--a great book by the way--that peppers do sometimes take a longer time to come up than, say, tomatoes. Let's see, I planted mine around January 24th, and they just came up yesterday. That's about 14 days. I didn't have them on a heat pad or anything, that could be why. Anyway they seem to be fine now.
About the over-wintered pepper plants--they might do really well. I think a lot of peppers are perennials down in Mexico and Central America. Here in South Texas we have native chile petin, or chile pequin, little bitty hot peppers about the size of BB's that folks down here have always been putting in hot sauce. We also call them "bird peppers". They're perennial bushes, they die down in winter and leaf out again in early spring. I don't see why the bigger domestic peppers couldn't do the same thing if they're kept warm enough over the winter, though I'm no pepper expert.
jpbluesky I'm pretty envious of you with your winter garden. Maybe next winter I'll have one like yours. The weather here is perfect for snap peas this time of year.
I love my chickens |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Feb 08 2005 : 12:30:00 PM
Dear free bird -
I have tomato seedlings going too. I keep them on my art table for now, because I have a good light there that I can leave on all the time. I know what you mean about getting them in the ground before June. The heat here and the bugs do the tomatoes in quickly. I do not spray for bugs, and so I really have to baby my plants. None of my pepper seedlings have sprouted yet, and I think the seeds were bad. :(
I still have pepper stalks in the ground, though, from before the frost. Some of them are sprouting tiny leaves. I am hoping they will come back. Do you ever do that with peppers?
jpbluesky
Love those big blue skies and wide open spaces. |
| free bird |
Posted - Feb 08 2005 : 04:52:56 AM
Here in south central Texas February is early Spring. The thing is, January and February here is when you'd better get busy and start your tomato seedlings, etc., if you want to set out tomato and pepper plants and have a garden going strong before June when it gets in the 90's. The problem is, January and February down here, a lot of people (like me) are still in a winter frame of mind because it's so rainy and soggy and it gets dark so early. You really have to remind yourself that it's actually early Spring and you'd better get a move on and plant the tomato seeds indoors in January.
I noticed yesterday that the stores are already selling tomato plants to gardeners here. But planting tomatoes outside is still taking a big gamble right now. Winter/early Spring weather here in coastal south Texas is famously unpredictable. It's usually always wet--right now it's so soggy here I can't imagine anything needing watering at all later this year. But one week it's balmy, next week it could be in the low 30's. Then suddenly you find yourself in April and it's hot, suddenly everything dry as a bone and needing lots of watering.
Did you all hear that south Texas got a freak Christmas snowfall this year? That's right. We got 12 inches of snow here at Christmas. One of the only three areas of the US that had the privilege of a white Christmas. It was a once-in-100-year event. A few days before the big snow it was in the upper 70's.
That was wacky. Anyway, right now I have a about 17 different kinds of seedlings started--tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and a lot of herbs and flowers. They are outside most of the time getting sun now.
I love my chickens |
| Idahospud |
Posted - Feb 06 2005 : 11:27:07 PM
Despite being the shortest month of the year, February always seems so LONG as I wait for spring!
We're turning five acres of former orchard into a mini-farm, and I'm working on my cottage garden. It is slow going but I put in a new bed every year--this year I'm going to start a cutting garden with perennials and lots of space for annuals. I try a few new plants every year, along with my tried-and-trues. I'd also like to start a friendship garden, where I can put plants that people give me--I'm hoping to get an exchange going with some friends.
I planted 240 tulip bulbs this past fall and can't WAIT to see them sprout up and bloom! |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Feb 06 2005 : 1:41:25 PM
Floridian here. I still have broccoli, snap peas and lettuce producing. Also cauliflower. Today, I turned soil and planted three more rows of sugar snap peas. Here in Florida winter gardens are more fun than summer ones to me. No bugs, no sweat, and I just put tarps over my plots when the temps dip below 35. I have purchased gigantic sheets of black plastic, and I drape them over the gardens when it gets cold. So far, so good. I have two hanging baskets of strawberries producing, too. I keep wanting to expand more and more. Do you do that, too? Do you plant and then wish you had planted bigger?
jpbluesky
Love those big blue skies and wide open spaces. |
| celticlady |
Posted - Feb 06 2005 : 10:31:59 AM
I believe nature has a prankish sense of humour. For a couple weeks now I've been smelling Spring and the snow was almost melted, the grass is actually starting to grow and then we had a couple days of thick fog in our little valley. I decided to go to the grocery store on one particularly foggy morning and what do ya know.....as soon as I got out of the canyon and up on the flats... nothing but gorgeous beautiful sunshine and warmth! I couldn't believe it!
Driving back home was depressing, going back into the pea soup that was blocking every tiny ray of golden light.....ugh!
Now today there is no fog but it's dark and gloomy and what do you think is falling from the sky? You guessed it, big, thick, white flakes threatening to cover up all my beautiful new grass!
I'm still waiting for Spring and we all have serious cabin fever!
So it's back to the garden books and dreaming of the "outdoor days" to come. -Dar
"live each day as if it were your last". |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Feb 01 2005 : 08:15:05 AM
I am burning up with spring fever! We have been socked in with heavy fog and ice and just yuk! I keep a large "wishbook" of torn out pages of flowers, gardens, arrangements, old seed packets that I have collected over the last 20 years and seem to add to this time of year. It just keeps me sane and inspired at the same time. There is always some new plant out that I want to try in my garden. I just cannot resist ordering a new breed of tomato or pepper or exotic flower. I can also detect a hint of spring in the air!
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
| cmandle |
Posted - Jan 31 2005 : 6:34:14 PM
I wholeheartedly agree! This will be my first year in this new garden and I can't wait to get out there and see what's what. We moved in in November, so I didn't get a chance to dig around before winter. I daydream while looking out my kitchen window into the garden often - it's currently covered in a foot of snow! I can't decide if I should spread the veggies out all around in the gardens with the flowers or if we should have an established vegetable patch. One thing's for sure: we currently have way too much grass. Some of it's got to go! Seed catalogs and garden plans help at this time of the year...I just can't wait to have dirt under my nails again!
Catherine
* knitter * gardener * proud wife of dan * owned by lucy the cat * |
