i have slugs

We don't have a lot of ice storms but if you could see a live oak after an ice storm you might change your mind. Course most live oaks are found in central to southern Louisana. I'm way up here in northeast La.

Did you know that the big salamander lizards make good pets. Friend caught one at work, carried it home to show the kids. They fell in love with it and kept it for a house pet. They could call the darn thing and it would come running.

ugh! I have to stop doing yardwork barefoot!

I've got to share this with someone and since you are my favorite people and you'll talk about anything, here goes---- I had a surprise plant to come up where I moved the compost to fill my raised beds. One single little plant. I looked at it and left it alone. I thought it was a cuke since I'd thrown some over large ones on top of the pile last year. As it began to grow and spread, I decided it was a cantalope, for the same reasons as above. On day my wife was out there and said, "Oh goody a watermelon." It had one melon on it that already was to big to be a cantelope. I'd had thrown my flop of a watermelon crop on the pile last year so I agreed with her. Tonight after church she said let's go see if the watermelon is ripe. The kind I tried to raise last year was an ice box melon so I said ok. The vine of this one single plant now covers a space about 20 ft. square. I worked my way out there trying not to step on the vines (I still remember how from my old watermelon swiping days in my wild and wooly youth). When I turned back the vines low and behold the biggest cantalope I have ever seen. That joker is as big as a basketball already and still green as a goard. The cantalopes I raise are called ambrosia and last year they got a decent size but this thing is a monster. Not only that but it is wrapped up with melons bigger than the average cantalope now. Don't know it that joker will ever get ripe but it is something to see. Guess the compost is the reason. Thanks for letting me share. I've been about to bust.

oh yum I love cantaoupe.....I guess they like your compost, huh?

hey OSH (orchard supply hardware) carry SLUGGO. I got my 4 lb sluggo for $19.+ during one of their sale promos... BUT don know if OSH is just here in cali :-) Maybe I should start "dealing" sluggo for DGers? :-) (j/k!) I could sell it in little "baggies"...hehehehe...

Jim41, post a goshdarn picture of that ginormous cantaloupe, okilydokily? and let us salivate over what we do not have growing in our compost heaps! :-) (I do have bindweed and cottonweed grrowing in mine... I wonder if that's something I should brag about?... hmmm....) :-)

BY THE WAY! People! I guess OUR thread (and I use the term loosely bec it's really janemarierose's brainchild) is soooo popular that SLUGGO has taken notice? :-) Shouldn't we get paid for our smart promotion? :) By say, sending us each a 4 pound jar of the stuff?!? Whaddya say, Sluggo? Eh?

Jim41, you just have to share a pic of that huge cantalope;-)

Rachel

Well gang, I'll take the picture but me and the net aren't best of friends. To old and dumb I guess but will try. Had miniture version of the giant in the compost. umm good. If you have never planted Ambrosia cantelope you need to try it.

Jim don't make us come down there.....

In october my sister and I smashed some pumpkins behind the shead. I wonder if they will sprout

one Halloween the kids' jack o lantern was left beside the garage when we had early snow, we got a vine growing in the spring. my husband pulled it up very quickly because it was "in his grass."

lol. The thing is were we smashed the pumpkins theres a big pile of doggie poo and a 3ft jungle of weeds. I should get the landlord to wack them but I never catch him when he's mowing

we grow pumpkins every year from last years halloween pumpkins. Super lazy style usually next to the compost pile.

O.K. all the red-neck is trying to put an image of this thing on the thread. I used my square to give you an idea of the size. It measures 9 inchs from where the stem is attached to the bottom and is equally that wide across. The thing is, it is still green and growing. It had to have come from one of the bad Ambrosia cantalopes I threw on the compost pile last year. They can get to a fair size but nothing like this thing. Maybe it reverted back to what Ambrosia was bred from. I hope it ripens so I can see what kind of flavor it has. If I am successful getting this image up I am going to post one of the vine itself. That thing covers an area of approx. 16 ft. by 16 ft. All from one single little seedling.

Ooops! Got the wrong image up first. Will try again.

Jim41, you learned how to post a pic and that cantalope vine should hold more than just one. It's been a few year's since I tried growing cantalope but your's look's like it's rippening just fine and should taste quite yummy.

I have enjoyed your writting's Jim and hope you continue;-)

Rachel

Thanks RachelLF, I have only been on Dave's for about a month and it has been a blast, especially this thread. My wife is getting jealous of the time I spend on this site. The cantalope vine has about a dozen on it that are as large as the ones in my cantalope bed and they are green and growing as well. There are a multitude of little fellows as well. It is hard for me to believe all those vines come from one little seedling. If you ever raise any more try the Ambrosia I mentioned. I love cantalope but had about quit eating them because they had no flavor. Then a guy gave me one of these and reminds me of the ones my dad raised except a little larger.

Glad your here. Just tell your wife to sit down and join in on the fun on Dave's Garden;-)

Rachel

Edit: I will have to try the Ambrosia next year;-)

This message was edited Jul 13, 2009 11:26 PM

One of my most favorite people in the world is named Rachel. She was a master gardener and knew more about plants than anyone I have ever known. She is nearly blind now and had to sell her home and moved into a trailer by her daughter. If she could use a computer and get on this site, we would all learn a lot.

If your are going to try the Ambrosia, better start now looking for seed. They were hard to get this year.

While you've been chatting off topic your slugs have eaten all your plants,lol.

that cantaloupe does look good! Jim you're lucky you don't have to buy the tasteless cantaloupe at the grocery store....blech. In the summer I get it from the farm stands & it's pretty good, but winters it's awful. Thanks for posting the pic, although I was already looking forward to cat head bisquits with mater gravy & some Community coffee to go with that big cantaloupe.
Pajonica if you send us some lizards we can chat all day while they take care of the slugs.

They don't have green cards.

If slugo sends anyone free samples maby we should start talking about merical grow. I go through that stuff like crazy

Miracle Gro?

yea, I knew I didnt spell it right

It's not horribly expensive at Wal Mart or Home Depot and using less of it is far better than using too much.

I get it for about $2 at my local discount stoor. it also depends on how many plants your using it for to.

Jim41, that's one purdy/yummy lookin cantaloupe! Where can we find ambrosia seeds so we may TRY to emulate your success (by that I mean dumping them in a compost heap and pray!:-)? Seriously, I'd like to try to grow one them thangs...

As for Miracle Gro, I'm not a fan of their fertilizers/amenders, but I sure love their potting/garden soil! That stuff is gold! BUT I just discovered that HDs SUPER SOIL is almost as good as the Miracle Gro soil 'cept it's like 50% cheaper!

I use Spray-n-Grow and their fish emulsion. Sometimes I add the free CocoWet sample they included. Also figured out that if you use a couple of drops of SuperThrive in a vase of cut flowers, they perk up and last wayyy longer! No need for that florist's powder...

We have a doggy poo "disposal area" in our backyard (a sunken perforated 5 gal plastic pail with rocks at the bottom and sprinkled with septic tank powder every month to aid in decomposition). What amazes us is that the plants near that area are growing twice as fast and a lot healthier looking than the rest. (I bought 3 identical butterfly bushes in april and the one near the "area" is now almost 5 feet tall while the other two are still around 2 feet tall...)

you should see the weeds in out doggy poo pile. they grow like crazy!! somtimes I take alittle if the topsoil from that area and use it like a fertlizer in my flowers. Theres also hampster shavings, charcole from the grill, and lawn litter. I guess my plants like it

Well gang, I picked 16 cantalopes Sunday just before dark and 23 today. Spent the rest of the morning driving over the country giving them away. Surprising how folks are glad to see me when the cantalopes are ripe. Still about a dozen on the vine. Two years ago I order my seed from Burpee and they got back ordered until it was almost to late to plant. This year I bought seedlings from a young man who put in a green house right down the road from me. Don't know where he orders his seed from but he told me had trouble finding them. The cantalope that covered Northeast Louisiana continues to thrive. I think it is feeding off the slugs so pajonica doesn't have to worry about my garden. New runners are showing up every where as the local supply dwindles. Miracle Grow potting soil is all my wife uses on her plants. It is so good because it is laced with the fertilizer. If she gets any more pot plants (89 and counting) I am going to have to buy a semi and haul direct from the factory. I watched her the other day try to throw a limb off of one of the pot plants into the compost pile, she made two or three attempts and then went and got a pot and planted it. It WILL LIVE, so I guess that makes 90. By the way, today I celebrate my 68th birthday. I shall live for two more years, at least, I am determined to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. I promised Jo that I would hire a real preacher to marry us this time and I always keep my promises to her. Sometimes it takes two or three years, but I am a man of my word. By the way, there is another thread about mint that is trying to out post us. So far we are way a head of them. I also through in that mention of my slug eating plant so no one could accuse me of getting off the subject. Love all you guys and wish I could meet you personally.

:-) But man oh man does it stink! Can't stand the smell esp right when my hubby does the poop-patrol and walks around with a half-full pooperscooper looking for more- er- crap! Me no care what I'm in the middle of doing in the garden- I RUN to the house and start spraying air freshener (on one hand and bug spray on another) after him! The flies are horrendous- it's like they know it's DINNER TIME! :-) AKKKKKK! Duck and cover! Ya don know where those flies landed before they decide to park their poop-stinky little feet and hairy butts on you!!! (Jeez! I'm getting goosebumps just thinkin about it...) Eeeek!

Well Happy Birthday Jim41! and Congratulations! I'm pretty sure you'll get to see the big 50th and many more after that! My parents made it to almost 60 years until my mom passed away about five years ago... But here's hopin you and your BETTER half get to the big 75th! Hear, hear!




This message was edited Jul 14, 2009 1:10 PM

I gotta get me some slug eating cantaloupes...those are some good cantaloupes!
I don't have a dog poo pile, but i do have a poo story...a few years ago there was a den of foxes a few yards over. they're a protected species here in MA, don't know about other states. Anyway they were babies & liked to come to my kids' playscape and lay around the warm peastone...and they weren't afraid of anything, either (I think they got the notice of protection) Anyway our golden retriever was real old by then, 13, half blind, incontinent, he had pee'd on the kitchen floor and my husband half-carried him out (he was big, 100 lb golden) and put him in the backyard & came in to clean up....so my husband hears this strange crying sound, goes back outside to find these foxes had surrounded the dog & were calling each other. The dog just lay there, didn't even bark, he knew he was a goner, too old to move...my husband got a mag light and tried to get the dog up, and the foxes started flanking him...it was almost midnight, and my husband was shining the flashlight & could see the pairs of eyes moving around....he banged the light on the picnic table and the foxes retreated & he was able to half carry & half drag the poor old dog in the house....so we had had it with these fox, we had already called animal patrol (nothing we can do sorry) so we got some cougar poop and threw it around the perimeter of the yard. I know you're wondering WHERE we scored cougar poop....we had connections with the local zoo ;)

oh I think the dog ate slugs...he was always drooling & looking pathetic.

This message was edited Jul 14, 2009 4:07 PM

Happy Birthday Jim! Are you having ripe tomato & splenda pie? ;)

Speaking of dogs eating STUFF... Found a mangled Orajel (toothache meds) tube THEN found our DROOLING (and I mean DRIPPING!) semi-dog puppy under one of the chairs... I'd have felt sorry for him but it was just too funny! I couldn't catch my breath laughing! :-D And our poor stupid semi-dog puppy was just lookin at me and was like, "wha-? whaf ya loowin a-? ".... Hilarious!



Jim41, we wish you a wonderful day! May all your wishes come true! I'm bakin you a virtual birthday cake in the shape of catshead biskits :) don forget to blow the virtual candles!

Jim41, I jsut re-read your post... Wha?!? A "mint" thread TRYING to outpost ours?!? Are they insane?!? I guess we're gonna have to slugbug their thread! (btw, I heard it through the GRAPEVINE that iluvcatz's been pulling a double-agent stint over there... rrriiiiight!? :-) hehehe... What a SLUG! :-) (w00t! double pun!!!:-)

We still rule tho... We don't EVEN HAVE a PICTURE to lure people YET we do!.... Score!



*eleventh commandment: "honor thy original post subject (even if it don make a licka sense!)"

This message was edited Jul 14, 2009 2:28 PM

Ooops. double-posted. (don know how to delete this...) sowee.

This message was edited Jul 14, 2009 2:29 PM

lol. Dogs can be stupidly funny. This is my dorkie dog. sorry about the poor quality

Whats wrong with my idea of the never ending mint thread?

fitting

Hi Jim and Happy Birthday! Wishing you so many, many more as well;-)

Thank you one and all for the birthday greetings. The virtual cake was virtually delicious and it didn't even raise my blood sugar level. The only thing was long virtual nose got burned blowing out the virtual candles.

No, Lynn, I think I have eaten my last ripe tomatoe and splenda pie. Still gag thinking about that thing. Hmm, wonder if the cantalope that rules would eat it. Naah! Only I, the dutiful husband, was crazy enough to keep trying to eat it. Inside joke everyone else.

Yes, iluvcat's was double dipping but so was I. They wondered how anyone could talk about slugs so much. My answer was we all have slugs but we all don't have mint. Sharp, huh. They are pretty dainty on that thread. Talked a lot about sniffing mint, not a good poop story in the bunch. Speaking of poop, Bought my daughter a 4-H pig years ago. The guy was supposed to call me when to pick up the pig. Waited and waited no call. Finally, to get the kid off my back, I called him. Oh yeah, been meaning to call. kept forgetting. In to my brand new car, the first I ever bought. Little pig, tow sack, yep that will work. The pig weighed 125 pounds. Idea, tie its feet together and put it in the trunk. All the way home the pig squeeled. When I got home I found out the squeeler was attached to its rectum. Squeel - poop- squeel-poop all the way home. Every time the weather would warm up the car smelled just like pig poop. Waited for the weather to turn cold then traded the car. Someone sure got a surprize the next summer.

Remember gang, "SLUGS RULE"