Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #46

no you're the good piggy who takes care of all of us.... next year I promise to be better piggy..and if all these seeds from this swap, the unusual seed swap, mekos's seed auction plus all the strange ones I purchased take off....I'm gonna have seeds out the wazzooo next year.....LOL

But at least this Time I'll know what they are

That's what happened to me . . . way too many seeds - then I feel profoundly guilty because I don't get them all sowed. I mean - I actually start obsessing about it . . . that's why I sent so many seeds in - and don't need any in return. Who needs to feel anxious about not being able to grow everything? some people are luck - they have several acres in which to plant they seedlings; alas, I only have a city lot and not enough time or land . . . .

my problem is I like to grow things not for my 'zone' so I have all this stuff I gotta find a place to overwinter and then I constantly have at least 6 trays of stuff I'm trying to germinate...so every flat surace in everyroom of the house is covered in plants

BUT it sure is fun.

yes it is, I got plumeria sprouting!!!! need to get them in pots

I didn't get to walk to the post office today because of the snow and ice. The walkways were bad enough when I was out with the dog that I didn't brave the hills. I am getting a ride with the neighbor tomorrow to the post office, groceries and pharmacy so I should get them out tomorrow. The black walnut and trumpet vine seeds had little wormy things on them so I am not sending those. They were still drying outside in open jars, so they didn't affect any of the other seeds. I will try to get some again next fall. I can get trumpet vine cuttings/plants in the spring if anyone wants them. Just dmail me to remind me in the spring/fall.

Sorry to be late, I hope I don't hold up the swap. I listed, labeled and bundled things to be as easy as possible to distribute.

I have started wintersowing a few things and have more bottles waiting! This is my first experiment with wintersowing but the Dave's forum has been helpful.

I hope the power stays on thru the storms. One year there was an ice storm on Christmas Eve while I was in the middle of making dinner and the power went out (I have an electric stove/oven). The bf went outside with an umbrella and finished the roast on the bbq. It turned out great! I hope that doesn't happen this year, my wintersowing containers are in the way.

Like herbspirit, I have painting and home dec projects that I want to finish this year. I haven't even started my holiday cooking, yet. I plan to bake cookies as hostess gifts for a few people. Cream cheese is on sale this week, maybe I will make cheesecakes instead.

you just be safe and stay warm up there GardenQuilts

Well, we are back from town, and it appears the oven is now working. YEAH!!! $700 to repair it, and hubby did the work. It had better last a few years!

I didn't get the seeds in the mail today, but will tomorrow. All I have to do now is inventory the extra seeds and put them in a box.

Most of my seed labels were done with Word, but my trial time expired, so I switched to Works. How do I access those original Word docs to modify them?

Lynn, do you have one of those really nice, high end ovens (that I've been dreaming about)? I'm thinking you must, if it was worth $700 to fix it rather that replace it. I do at least have use of the awesome commercial stove and oven at work, but I'd sure like a chef's set up at home.

Garden Quilts, becareful if the walks are stil bad just wait til the snow clears up and weather better up in that area in a coupel of days. Don't need no broken or twiste d bones.

Oh man. I haven't had a workign oven in more years than I care to remember. They wanta fortune to put ina little part. The saftey gas art is frozen and won't unlock.

So if somebody gets a chef kitchen and cooks , call me, I'll be ther e for dinner. : )

Lynnn. I have no idea, btu hopefully oen of our resident computer smart folks wil be alogn this mornign and can help ya.

Seandor. Don't feel quilty. Heck I have some seed from years ago, that I wante d real bad and just haven't had a chance to sow it , but am just keeping it , cuz I knwo one of thes e days I might get to it. Viablility may go down a bit, but wil l get soem plants. : )

Soem tiem s life gets in the way of what ya want to do, so what if ya have to many seeds now ya havent got too if ther e more ya want oink for them. LOl One day you'll get to them : )

Lynn.... find the file, right click, and you will get an option of OPEN WITH, then choose Works word processor
or if you have Works open, you can try Open File, find the file and it should open. You may lose some formatting, but not necessarily. Then when you "save", save as an rtf.

Ella - your ant story yesterday took me back in time as well. While in kindergarden, I slid down a hill that was home to fire ants......ran home faster than my little legs could go and just remember that I couldn't get them off. For those of us who have had fire ants in our pants......not such a pleasant memory. :-)

Anyone in zone 7 winter sow? I have to relearn everything as I was in zone 5. We are still in the 50-60's here and folks say it's not uncommon to have 70's over Christmas. I was just wondering on when to start. It's going to be strange to not have all the snow fall I'm used to. :-) Saw your pic's Andrea!! (mygypsyrose) Love them! I'm just chomping at the bit to get some seeds started! ^_^

My girls said that's the only bad thing about oklahoma.....no snow. But they didn't mind the heat and swimming every day during summer.

cheles... come on over to the winter sowing forum http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/coldsow/all/
I think some southerners are starting already.... but you really wait til Jan or Feb. The seeds will germinate when ready.

Cheles, I Wintersowed for the first time last year. Started most everything in late January to Late February. Too much warmth going on and off here until then. Had pretty good luck. Some things I planted both inside and wintersowed, just to compare. The stuff started inside definitely got bigger faster, but it all worked eventually!

Ella- my hubby is a ex-Chef and always makes Christmas dinner, and I just finished my kitchen today (painting and back splash) so I guess you could call it a Chef's kitchen. Come on over! :)

Patricia

Patricia do chefs ever become ex? One BIL is retired from being a chef but still thinks the kitchen is his at home. Can you imagine fighting over who gets to use the kitchen? That's my sister and BIL.

Seandor... Oh Seandor.... Your box arrived. OMGOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I gona be goign crazy. LOL

Oh and by the way if yoru lookign for yoru scizzor s with the blue handle. You accidently packe d them in the box. They was under the oinekd seed packs on top of the sheet of paper for extras. When I go to town next wil send them back to ya. : )

Whew!

Been off the thread for a while and it does take some time to catch up!

As far as coffe grounds are concerned, I have read that they are not acidic once the coffee has been made. Love the stuff and have had great luck getting loads of it from Starbucks. I used to save the grounds at work, but decided it was so much easier to just get big bags of it at Starbucks. They are a great place to snag some wintersowing containers, too!

Cheles, I wintersowed last year in Jan and Feb and it worked well for me...

Snow... we actually had a few flurries a couple of weeks ago, quite unusual for this neck o' the woods. Houston had it coming down for several hours. Heard on the radio this morning that the majority of the the country will have a white Chrismas this year. Hope those of y'all that are wanting it will be blessed with it.

Seems like there was something else I wanted to comment on as I was reading. Next time I'd better take notes!



This message was edited Dec 22, 2009 2:13 PM

Mindy-

Your right, they are never really "ex" chefs, as yes he does think he owns the kitchen. He doesn't like the new shiny backsplash (too bad) :) (l'll add a pic)

Luckily for me, I get to cook too. I'm a vegetarian, he is not, and for the life of him he cannot make a really good veggie dish like I can. He calls my food "side dishes".

WOW, That is beautiful!! makes for staying in the kitcken longer. Hope you enjoy it.

oh thanks everyone! I will just plan as usual....I started in Feb in Ohio as well. I just have a new learning curve here. I did hear that we might see snow by Christmas.

My seeds went out today! I got a ride to the post office and grocery store with my neighbor.

I love your kitchen! I went to college in Ithaca, NY -home of the Moosewood Restaurant. I have all of their cookbooks - lots of "side dish" recipes in there.

I want to know where antsinmypants was when you were telling those stories Ha! You know sometimes I'm glad everyone else isn't on here like they were when we were tradin seeds I can't keep up with you all anymore lol

Carolyn seems like you said something about WS under my bed? You are a trip girl lol The cat's outta the bag! Carolyn is tellin on me, I use to keep my seeds under my bed instead of the fridge because there wasn't any room in the fridge lol My room sits off the ground and has sides to it ouside but there is a crawl space under it it's all open so it's 50 degrees on my hardwood floor in there right now lol I have all the rooms closed off except the living room and kitchen and I still sleep in there needless to say I have two big fur covers and a quilt plus a small fleece throw to keep the cat hair off the bed lol I still have some seeds under there from when I go thru the crisper I just put them in shoe boxes to keep the cats out of them :) They will go back in the crisper if I ever get done Ha!

I still haven't finished the darn crisper yet, had to take my son shopping for my grandson then the next day had to take his wife shopping for her son and today I'm baking cookies but they are the cheater cookies lol The ones in the roll at least I'm not buying them this year lol

I wanted to do WS on the solice too but it just didn't happen it's going to rain Thrusday night so I'm sticking my jugs out to be watered then Christmas evening I'll start sowing :) Sat. at the latest I hope the way time has been going here lately one never knows lol

Ella, glad you got my box let me know if I forgot anything else I have a few extra seeds to come when I mail the Monk's Hood to ya :) I'll get those ready.

with 5 teenagers my seeds won't fit in our small fridge, but I was wondering I have a wine fridge with room can I store them in there?

What temp is it, should be cool enough I'd put them in there and what do they call those little packets that keep the moisture out of pills and things like that silicone packets? If you have any of those put those in your bags so they will help keep the seeds dry or you could use some rice, I have cat litter in the toe of a stocking in some of my bigger bags to keep the moisture in the fridge from getting in the bags. Ask everyone you know on drugs (lol) to save those packets for you and if you get new shoes they are usually in the boxes of those too there are lot of things they come in.

Very nice kitchen herbspirit! I like the backsplash.

Your thinking of desiccant Lea. Since I work in a lab, I have no trouble finding it.

Trina, you don't want to keep your seeds in a fridge that has fruit in it anyway. Something about the gas the fruit gives off. We have an extra fridge in the basement and keep it there.

I'll start WS'ing when all the hulabaloo associated with the holidays is over ... January.

The staining of the grout is going to take longer than I thought. I worked on it for several hours Monday, then we had to go to another funeral, a friend, she had a brain aneurysm. It was an hour's drive each way, but just had to go ... ended up eating Thai on the way back. Yummmy!
Anyway, the acid wash for the grout is very dilute, cleaned the grout well, but takes a while, then I ended up using a paint brush to put the stain on. They suggested a toothbrush, but that did not work out ... made more work for me. I'll take a picture of it when I'm done ... whenever that may be. I guess I'll have a 1/4th stained grout floor for the Christmas Eve Dinner Party. LOL
At first I wasn't too impressed with it, but now I'm liking the color more each day.

Lea, Burrrrrr for your bedroom, but the kitchen and living room sound comfy!

Hi there,
Susan here. Haven't been here is a long while.. and I have no seeds. Here is my thread explaining whats up http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1064693/. I know there is a seed trading thread, but cottage gardeners are my peeps :) If you have extra seeds you are not going to use and can share, I promise they will bloom in my garden. I hope to be back in my home by Feb/March which will give me time to sow.

Thanks so much :)

thanks for the advice...the wine fridge is set dead in the middle setting to store both reds and whites....I also hide my Godiva chocolate liquer in there, goes great with Hot Cocoa! My little sister buys me and my mom a bottle of it every year for christmas...good thing too cause I'm almost out!LOL I think it keeps the temp right at 50 in there..not cool enough for milk unless I turn it too the white wine setting or is it the red? I can't remember anymore

Hi all. mail not her e yet, but wa s wondering thos e of you that germinate Gaillarida. Have any of you evevr germinate d them in darknes s or covere d container s with newspaper. Just readign soem folsk different ways of germinatign them and this a ne w one on me. ( scratche s head)

Can't help ya there Ella, this will be my first year growing them...I'm just a little grumpy today...so forgive me if I seem snappish

Better be good now Santa's checking his list and seeing who's good and who's naughty.
Merry Christmas from our house to yours.

Merry Christmas to you too. No I got in a very heated argument with 3 of our 5 teenagers mother this morning AFTER she decided to SCREAM at her 12 yo daughter that she wasn't mommy anymore and never to call her again...I was fighting mad!

Ella... Gaillardia germinates easily... dont think i've ever had troubles just WS'ing them. They sow freely, so they should be an easy one.

tcs1366,
Have you did inside under light for earlier bloom?? And did you cover or no?? Can't believe there so many different ways. Talking the Gaillardia.
Thanks,
Carolyn

Herbspirit, beautiful kitchen.
No, we don't have a chef's kitchen, the appliances are all 10 yrs old, Kitchenaid, nice, but not fancy. To replace the oven, it was over $2000 for the same oven. We didn't dream it was going to cost so much to fix it, or we wouldn't have gone that route. The parts place wouldn't take the parts back once they were plugged in, so we were stuck with them. That oven had better last another 10 years!

Tcs, thanks for the tip. I will try to open them in Works and see if that works.

I have my box ready to mail! It is a medium Priority, so it will go to the post office today. Ella, I put $20 in the box, use the balance to buy yourself a cup of coffee and some Pringles.
Merry Christmas everyone.

Oink..Oink...

Mail call for today!!!!!!! : )

DM Gardener
Mittsy

and nothign in boxes to shock or scare me today. : ) heheheheheheh

Ya all remmebr that game one potato.. two potato. thre e potato more.? Well I stand ther e singing one piggy.. two piggy. thre e piggy and a whole bunch more. ; )

There is a program called open office
www.openoffice.com
I haven't tried it, but have friends that have, both in Linux and Windows. It's free and available in lots of languages.

for Gaillardia, i just lightly cover the seeds with soil. nothing special.
and no, i do not do indoor lights... i dont have room for any.

Lynn -- did Works work for you... opening the Word Doc? [duh... just read your comment... it should open and like i mentioned before, and GardenQuilts.. you can try OpenOffice.. i know i posted the link way back.... ]

Ella -- what is it with the Pringles? did i miss something? Lea has said the same thing.... buy Pringles with the extra cash.

I finally finished bathroom #1 ... i'm exhausted... started Sunday. After the holidays I'll start on the Master... DH told me today he likes the color in there... a lavender-ish gray... so I wont have to repaint the whole thing like i had intended to do.. only touch up around the shower where the drywall needs to be fixed.

Here's the bath i just painted.

tcs,
Thanks for answering Ella and I where trying to figure if we could do a had start for the market. Your doing beautiful with your house it is very nice.hope your holidays are wonderful.
Oh chocolate candy and pringles are awesome Ella always snaking on them and drinking her coffee lol.
Carolyn

Tcs.... beside s beign a seed aholic I a pringes freak. I eat pringle s like ther e no tommorrow. I dont come ou of the store that I dont have a cna of pringle s with me. Got starte d on them when the lays chip company got rid of the 99 cent medium siz e bag ad went to the 2.59 price and less chips for what was 99 cent.

pringle s were cheaper and les s greasy. Well I poppe d th etopon my first cna and havent stoppe dpopping LOL. Had pringle s and coffe for breakfast, and with sandwhich at lunch time and wil have soem afetr dinenr snack. Heck I cna be a sleep and reach durign night for pringle s cna and mucnh between snores.

I love the taste of them. Not greasy and just the right amoutn of salt. Yummmmmmmmmmmmm : )

I ha d been good this week. Hadn't been to store to get any until yesterdya and picke dup a coupel of cans and tryign to ration them out, but it so darn hard. i cna eat a whoel can in one sitting .

Have no ide a why I crave them so ba d othe r than the taste and the salt. I must have some sort of defincicy or something. It been wors e sin e I been tryignto cut back to juts using one teaspoon of sugar in a cup of coffee instea d of and a half a cup, and I drink 30 plus cups of coffee a day. I wa s goign through a 5 pound bag of sugar every few days in my coffee. when i cut the sugar the salt craving kicked in .

Good thign in pringles favor. They have no trans fat . : ) LOL