Ahhhh, up before anyone this morning, sitting with a cup of coffee and a nice pumpkin pie candle lit on the kitchen table. Dog and cat let outside and fed ... doing one of this piggies favorite things, reading the Piggie posts.
Naw, it didn't even phaze me Ella about my box, (kelly knows how slow my P.O. can be lol). When I saw that picture I knew it was there and no way was I going to bug you with all that you have going on. :o)
I've always dumped my ashes in the back woods, it really is ok to put it in the garden, doesn't it make the soil alkaline?
This is my 4th day off work, 2 vacation days attached to a weekend. I've got a lot done ... presents wrapped, house decorated with the help of the family this year (a miracle?), morning excercize walks with hubby, some visiting done and even got a movie (2012) in there.
But the last job is staring me in the face this morning ... short explanation first, I'm sure many of you will sympathize with me ... When Hubby and I put the tile down in our kitchen, I Stressed the fact I wanted darker grout, I really DETEST cleaning grout, I'd really rather have vinyl than clean grout! Not that I don't clean my kitchen floor, but I don't want to scrub grout. He assured me and the grout looked like a charcoal grey when we put it down ... it dryed a DIRTY white. Now no matter how much I scrub it always looks dirty. lol
I've lived with this for about 5 years without too much complaining (patting myself on the back here). Well, when he told me they (HomeDepot) had a grout stain that would match our tile, well we were off the store in a jiffy. That is my job this morning, staining the grout, but first I have to clean the grout with an acid cleaner .... Yikes!
I'll let you know how it looks when I'm done, hope it's not a mistake!
Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #46
Twofew... up having coffee with ya and wondering how many piggies are burie d under the snow this morning and if they even gonan be able to find their ws jugs in the mess that has hit the east coast.
Have no ide a abotu the alkaline part, but know that pot ash ha s lot s of good properties. Don't think I would pile it on, but mor elike spread thin layer of it out and about.
I waitign for the sun to come up to see what els e got froze last night. darn weathe rman lied and it wa s suppose d to be in the mid 30's and am 22 F this morning, with cold and frost galore and didn't cover a bunch of plants.
I knwo whatya mean abotu that dirty look. I got like agrey and cream and no matte r how much ya scrub it always looks dingy. I don't know if I would want to be messing with soem acid cleaner and i would be lookign for something that strong enough to hold the acid and just put out a small stream of the stuff at a time so it don't eat yoru regula r floor. becareful wih your hands for sure , ya need them to garden with, Harder than heck to plant with muffin bandage s on yoru hands.
You're right Ella, about not putting the ashes out thick. I always wait for a breeze and then cast the ashes. Some of you might not know, but they used wood ash to make lye soap so too much can be harmful. Not a science expert but I do know when I have an area I don't want things to grow I pile it heavy and it takes care of the nasties that grow there, but I cast it in my gardens for a fine layer and they do great. I also use ash for ice on the driveway so it's easier to get the cars out. Cheaper than salt.
Snow, I want about an inch or two once a month. That puts the nitrogen back in the soil to help with the winter sown seeds. I sow mine directly into the ground.
I'm heading back over to the coops, I'm thinking of adding a few more mums to my want list. Hubby thought he wanted to add to the list too. He said go for 100 plants, I told him nope just a few of the ones we like, cause all the pinches in the spring will be new plants too. It will be great to have this kind of variety, we can't get them around here.
:) Morning All! Quiet here too, even at 8:15. Frost over everything looks so pretty.
Time for some Chai and computer time before the day starts. Had my daughter up way too late last night, so she'll be sleeping in for a while yet.
We did Christmas with my husband's family yesterday, and my favorite gift... The Gardener's A-Z Guide for Growing Flowers from Seed, by Eileen Powell. Wow! Browsed it all day yesterday, and will probably do the same today! No, no one was THAT good, I had it on a wishlist... but still excited that I actually got it! I thought I was getting to be familiar with a fair number of flowers... but I can see I still have a long way to go looking at this book!
Does anyone know if there's an equivalent book that deals with shrubs? This book says how to propagate some annuals and perennials from cuttings, but where that really interests me is with my shrubs (3 cutting containers sitting behind me on a shelf bit the dust this week... time to toss them out...)
Toofew, sounds like you're making great use of those vacation days! Geez, you really do have the slowest post office in the country, I'm sure of it! Might as well be living in Siberia for as fast as you get mail! Have fun with that grout! Big job, but big rewards when it's done I'm sure.
I've been wondering about the ashes thing myself. Have a fireplace full that needs cleaning out. Only thing is, we use firelogs (tiny fireplace, only room for one log at a time) . I'm wondering if there's anything in them that would make the ashes bad for the garden?
Have we discussed the coffee grounds here? Can't remember. I'd been thinking about them, but we don't brew coffee regularly here. So finally I got up the nerve to go ask at Starbucks. I'd heard they had a program where they saved them for gardeners...but still thought they'd look at me like I had 2 heads... Went in, and they just pointed over to a big tub they had, where they bag up all their grounds in big bags and save them. I asked if they have many takers (not a lot of gardening going on here in suburbia really) and they said they have a guy that comes and gets them every day after work. So, all I have to do is go mid-day if I want to scoop some! Walked out of there with probably 30lbs of coffee grounds for the garden, and that was at about 1:30. They sure go through a lot of coffee!
I bought oodles of them mums when Mamma did the last coop and they have been growing in two gallon pots. This year they did lot s betetr for flowering and color, but I have yet todecid e if I want to mes s with them this year or just pitch them all.
Down her e they get the mum aphid s and nothign hardy works ot kil them, none of the normal sprays or treatments. They mro of ahassle for me than beauty.
Kelly don't worry about the ashes from those logs, anything that was in them is burned up and all you have left is the good stuff.
Congrats on the coffee grounds. I wish Starbucks wasn't so far from me. There are 3 of them within a block of each other, but they are all over 25 miles from me and I don't go that way unless I absolutely have to. So I'll just keep throwing my own in a can to put in the gardens.
That's too bad Ella, I would take them off your hands of you were closer. There should be some home remedy somebody has that would deal with them.
Coffef ground s good, but like everything all this stuff should be use d in moderation. I think I would be doing a soil test before I start dropping to much stuf f in and then do one afterwards.
To akaline or acidic eithe r way and yoru damage your plants and create nutrient deficincies.
I know next door brough tin some cow manur e from the barn and it looke d weir d and he planted all his plants in it and they did so ba d and most died. Wa s too strong I guess and he hadn't let it sit befor he use d it and all the swadust that wa s in it was still liek fresh.
If ya was closer would giv e em too ya for sure. I have trie d everything. dish soap. alcohol, hard chems , seven, sprays and even flea spray. Works in a pinch is dilute d on some pests. But nothign fasze s them and don't have the natural predator s that would kill them. They some tough bugs for sure.
I use horse manure that has cured for about a year, sometimes I help it along by piling it up and putting black plastic over it to cook it. It needs quite a while to get rid of all the bad stuff in it and to mellow out.
DO NOT use saw dust, unless you know it is from trees not wood from a lumber yard. All the lumber has been treated with chemicals and it kills plants and good bugs. Saw dust from cutting down trees is good, because it is composting material. Just don't go heavy on anything.
Worm love to eat and slither through coffee grounds, again don't go heavy unless your soil needs what it provides. I take a 3 lb. coffee can full of dried grounds and spread it between 3 gardens. It gets the worms moving through the dirt to aerate it.
toofew... i hear ya on the grout color... the one we chose was not dark enough... i am constantly on my hands and knees scrubbing - but those "Magic Erasers" work great... you just go thru a lot of them. I've been meaning to look into that grout stain, do report back on how the 'job' went.
Ella -- bummer about the Weather Liars, hope you didnt lose too many plants.
Kelly -- I get big bags form Starbucks every now and then too. Complements of my kid. Sometimes i toss it in my tumbler - if its NOT one of those 30# bags, but more of the 5# bean bags refilled with grounds... or i just sprinkle handfuls and work it in the ground. Worms love grounds.
And isn't it great when wet get a gift we really want. Nice score on the book.
OK... i can usually find just about anything... but i'm having a heck of a time finding that link to seed viability...
i thought for sure it was in the CG Piggy Chat threads...
anyone... ?
im new to manure but have been using rabbit poo. i am adding it straight as people say it wont burn. hoping its true. also composting some as worms seem to find it. adding straw from there old beeding to it. wonder if adding coffee grounds would help it also?
I think this is it Terese:
http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/
coffee grounds are good to attract worms imzadi depending how big your pile is I wouldn't use to much it can add to much acidity to your soil but to tell you the truth I don't worry about how much to add to mine :)
Ella lol, I have been going thru the threads too for oinks for certain seeds now that I am going thru the crisper lol This swap isn’t done for me lol I have a few more seeds to send in when I send the Monk’s Hood now :)
toofew, sorry to hear about your cousin it’s been a rough year for you too this year, how is your mother doing since she is back on her own again.
Herbsprit, I wanted to do some WS for the Winter Solstice but don’t think I’m going to make it this year, I usually do a lot of WS on Christmas Day but this year I will be in at my son’s house since dad is gone this year so guess I’ll get started about New Year’s Day this year :)
Mygypsyrose, haven’t seen that much snow since I was a kid, we used to get some really nice snows around here then not so much anymore I sure don’t miss them a bit since I’ve gotten older I used to have to walk to school in blizzards you sure don’t see the kids going to school anymore even if we have a dusting of snow!
Just heard on the weather that we are having rains next week so I’ll be able to get my jugs with dirt in them outside and the rain will water them then get them in here to drain and start sowing on NY’s Day Yippee just in time!
Well I was on my way to getting caught up but now I need to get ready to go into town to take my son Christmas shopping :)
I'll get caught up sometime this week lol
ok I got caught up
TooFew...about the dirty look...we have 5 teenagers and hubby is a mechanic, but he decided white carpet in the dinning room and white porcelain tile in the kitchen (the carpet is also white in our bedroom, the office and 4 of the kids rooms...the rest are all hand laid woodfloors....and they can't understand why I get mad when the come in the house with thier shoes on!
believe it or not old motor oil works if you do it in the fall and let it sit all winter, especially if your soil is clay like mine.
motor oil works for what?
Teresa, in addition to the Hudson link that Lea shared, another good one is the Hillgardens link, which is in the 4th paragraph of the 1st post of the following thread I started for Ella when a previous thread was getting too long for slow-dial-uppers - http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1052728/ . That first post was a summary of various piggy suggestions about methods and sources and references for packing seeds.
I'll try to catch up with y'all later -
enhancing your garden soil, gemini-sage
Karen... yes, i'm assuming that is the link i'm looking for... I honestly dont think i've ever clicked on it before... so i'd better bookmark it. [the hillgardens one]
Trina... you honestly put motor oil in your flower beds?? when ever Dh spills a little, the grass dies...
I recall when i was a teen... my sister was changing her oil i believe... it splashed in our neighbors side flower bed... never again did anything grow there... he made her tear out all the rest of the grass and did the "Italian White Stone" bed.... it's still there today.
Trina, in all the ways I can think to word a search, I can only find used motor oil referred to as a soil contaminate. You may want to check into it, from what I'm reading, it sounds like it could be ecologically harmful, and while some plants can tolerate it, others can be harmed or killed.
not exactly 'put'. my tiny little garden is where cars use to be parked to be fixed, leaking motor oil, antifreeze...basically any fluid in your car has been dumped on this tiny little spot for the last 40 years, when I tilled it up we found bolts, valve covers, even part of a model T, I didn't think anything was gonna grow there...I thought the end by the front door, which looked like good decent soil (every flower pot has gotten dumped there for years) would do great....nope the part by the front door just stayed small and never seamed to spread...but the other end where all those vehicle fluids have been dumped for decades.....everything turned out huge! I didn't get it, goes against everything I've ever learned about gardening.
But then Hubby pointed out that motor oil, transmission fluid all that stuff originally comes from the ground and is carbon based, after a year of being left to the elements all the detergents and crap they add to it dissipates, and it returns to it's more natural chemical makeup.....basically high carbon fertilizer...semps, coleus, spider plants, zinnias, marigolds, petunias, hollyhocks, bears breetches, foxglove, dianthus, sweet potato vine, roses, asters, verbascum, moss rose, impatiens, huechera...all stuff I planted and gre fabulously
Piggy Box call for today!!!
We have:
Cheles_garden
LeBug
Ansonfan
Becky5711
Antsinmypants
I have flash backs everytime I see your name Ants. When I first came south I had never heard of fire ants. Nevr seen one either, but the lady who ran the trailer court wher e we live d said ther e wa pecan trees in this one section and we could go pick some. I said great. Now I had nevr seen a pecan in the shell at the time mind you.
Well me and son who was small at time got our bags and headed over to the area. We seen all thes e nuts on the ground and starte d pickign them all up. We was happily picking way when all of a sudden he starts lettign out screams. I look and he is covere d in ants all up his pants . I start strippign him down to get them all off of him and if any of you have evr dealt with fire ants before they bite and bite and hold on for dear life.
So whiel i tryign to get them all knocke d off him didnt notic e they had crawled up my shoe s and inside my pants and was bitign the snarff out of me.
I grabbe d my son and and ran back to the trailer and threw both of us in the shower. While tryign to stop him from havign a reaction . I in shower tryign to strip my pants off which is twic e as hard to get jeans off when they wet and darn nasty little bugger s was bitign the snarf out of me. My pants was full of ants and had them stuck to legs. Later that day we both was covere d in ant blisters.
We did go back to see abotu gettign our bags of nuts andi figure d they woudl be gone, but nope ther e they sat. I couldn't believe it. Walke d carefulyl checkign groudn for more ants . Got back to traielr lady and told her thanks for lettign us get the nuts.
I opene dth ebag up and offere d her half of them and sh looke d at me liek what in the world she givign me them for. I told her I was gonan go home and bake a pecan pie. She starte d laughing. I know I looke d puzzled and aske d was somethign wrong.
She told me nope just that I wasn't gonan be makign any pecan pie with them nuts, becaus e after gettoing all the " Ants In My Pants" we had gathere d hickory nuts not pecans. ; (
Buckets are filling up
Happy Winter Solstice All!
Sitting in front of a nice warm fire celebrating the solstice with the kids. Will have lots of wood ash to spread on my garden form the fireplace tomorrow.
I didn't get the winter sowing going today as the kids were at school. So it's on my list now for New Years Day.
Toofew- I'm doing the same thing you are. I'm on vacation for 2 weeks, and this weekend I painted my kitchen. Was up painting until midnight on Sat night. Tomorrow I put up the new backsplash. The kitchen was two-tone (half painted) for 6 months. Vacation time is great for finishing projects.
Piggy food.. Piggy food....
I see seeds and mroe seed s and more seeds. LOL
and still mor e piggy food.
Spare bed now full with the piles of extra s and one to one s to toss when everybody seed s get here. Set up anothe r table to hold the rest that wil be coming in. : )
Ya all gonna be so fat ya aint gonna be able to waddle to the garden top plant all thes e seeds hehehehe : )
wow Ella that's alot of seeds!
Star, I put extra seed packets in some of the bags. Should I count them, too, or just count the ones that were asked for? I am TRYING to get these mailed. Our oven quit working, $600 later for parts (10 yr old Kitchenaid wall oven) and it still NOT WORKING!!! That is taking up the whole day so far, and now we have to go get another part. ERRRR!!!! Of course, Christmas dinner is to be here. BBQ is good. or P&B sandwiches!
That's just a little over half of them. LOL
Ella,
Just think all those seeds we talked about wanting they may be hidden in the extra's .Then you have some to plant with your busy self, now wiggle your tail and grunt.
Hugs
Carolyn
Lynn.. I knwo ya got a mess goign on there. no don't worry abotu coutnign them. I'll do that when i get them. : )
I think I wrote the name and number on the bags...god I hope so I don't want to make it any harder for you than it already is!
Shoot t Carolyn.. I haven't even pulle d my extras out to add to the piel yet. Got them scattere d all over cofee table s and coutners and any available space stil making up. LOL
No, I don't want you to have more work. Hubby is trying to fix it, and this minute I am at the kitchen table getting things buttoned up so when we go to town for the part, I can drop this in the mail. He just keeps interupting me to help him! And when he says, let's go, I have to drop everything and go. Man thing, I guess.
Star, is your new keyboard and everything working now? If not, let me know what you need and I will search to see if we have the parts.
LOL Lynn!
Hey Ella what kind of special seeds are ya looking for?
No problem Lynn. I always recount anyways. yep have had the keyboard working. Have to plug it in the front of the puter down wher e i put the camera in. At least I haven't blown up pute r yet so I doing good. )
And no coffee spills yet eithe. LOL Keepign it fa r away just incase. LOL ; )
Ella,
Well LeBug still in the crisper lol so you got time to play with the seeds on the table right.Just where you gonna eat, guess sandwitch's easy to hold.
Carolyn
waiting patiently for answer
trina.. I have no idea what it was I wanted. Everythign looks good to me, but I tryign to clean stuf f otu, so I can have ore room to order more of the new items for next year. I think I oinked for everything. I think I oinked for mroe than what I remember cuz I thought i had abotu 15 oinks , but have more packages than that. I was a bad piggy. hehehehehhe (blushes)