Anyone Still Here?

I was sidetracked and have been away for a couple of years. I loved this little corner of Dave's and hope you guys are still around!

I'm still on the forum but Texas is a ghost town. I moved to the Propagation forum and the Back Porch, we have folks there from California and Florida and New Jersey and Indiana and a couple of Texans. Haven't had a RoundUp since about 2015. I miss those. I joined NPSOT as a couple of members of DG have gone there.

Where did everyone go? Frostweed? I moved about 30 miles outside Houston and the NPSOT meetings are a bit far for me.

Frostweed and the others went to NGA (different site) or dropped out of forums.
I moved to the Propagation forum and the Back Porch. I don't like NGA.

Retired and decided to take a computer break at the same time several years ago. Kind of lost track of all the forums and favorite sites I was a member of at the time but of all things, received a newsletter from Dave's Garden several days ago so decided to check back in to see what was happening... apparently not so much.
Still recognize a few names here and there but somewhat dismayed at the last known posting dates on many of the forums... years ago in some cases.

This message was edited Jun 6, 2018 7:07 PM

years indeed. I post to Texas now and then just to see who will answer, mostly no one does. However the propagation forum and the Back porch are alive and well

New to the forum. Located in S. Central, TX

I'm in Fort Worth but everyone else retired from dave's garden I think

Hi all :)
Was wondering the same thing.. been off DG a few years and kind of shocked at the inactivity here while away. Just purchased a 2 month subscription and hope to catch up with all my TX garden buddies! Holding a "Round Up" type swap in October for anyone interested.

I'm about 1 hour west of Fort Worth btw.

For info on the swap, join my gardening group on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1235300116547399/

I joined. I'm in Fort Worth. Most everybody on the Texas page got tired and dropped out. I hang out down in the propragation group and on the back porch, I paid for a year back in March. Trying to get some photos taken that will win the photo contest this year

Nice to see you again Gypsi! And I see you joined the group.. I'm just getting it off the ground, but have the swap set for October 5th (pending pavillion availability). I'll come down to the porch and say hello 😊

Fireside chat is the thread I'm on, I don't know if the others are active anymore Also propagation, have some smart people on there.

I recently won a subscription, but it does look like a ghost town here. Maybe others will return or new members check in. This used to be a lively forum, and we had Round Ups (plant swaps with food and visiting) a couple of times each year. Those were a lot of fun.

This message was edited Sep 20, 2019 3:28 PM

The roundups were great. I really enjoyed them. I'm still here, I check in when I have time. Anyone else?

Check in when something new pops up, but those are few and far between

well you know I can't carry a conversation in a bucket.

so work project is photo 1, fixing waterfalls.
Guineas in my garden photo 2
Spider web on beehive, she ate well for quite a while but has disappeared, along with 7 others, I'm down to 2 Aurantia Argiope
My one hummingbird pic inside yellow circle. I don't use feeders, I use flowers, and they see me coming.
Puppy says box is better than toys.

I'm missing being outside, but I just can not take the heat for long. Since we have had no rain in a long time, I don't have to mow. I had a good young helper until football and then school started.

I enjoyed your photos, Gypsi. I remember that you work on ponds, waterfalls, etc. Our hummers had only flowers too this year. I never got the feeder out, but they had lots of red salvias and now the anisacanthus, aptly called hummingbird bush, is keeping them fed.

The barn swallows were back this year, but have just recently started their migration to South America. I do have to powerwash under their nests from time to time, but we have no mosquitoes to deal with until this time of year after the swallows have left.

We have a Sheltie, a bunch of cats, one horse, and a small ranch with a small herd of beef cattle. We enjoy the animals, though we don't do much of the ranch work. I'm grateful to have found a reliable part time helper who puts out hay after he gets off from his day job and works cattle on week-ends.

Teacup, I remember meeting you at a Round Up in College Station. That has been quite a few years ago! My husband and I drove many miles to those get-togethers: College Station a few times, Arlington area many times, and even to Jacksonville a couple of times. We always met interesting people and had a good time.

I couldn't get a hummingbird bush to live around here. Either I watered too much or not enough, but the turks cap and flame acanthus are doing a good job of feeding them, plus 4 oclocks, and honeysuckle and lantana, plus many salvias, help out. Unfortunately I rarely get a chance to photograph the hummers. I think they are also visiting my phlox. Certainly the butterflies and a hummingbird moth did.

The black swallowtail and tiger swallowtail were July, the giant swallowtail was in August. I planted fennel this year so I got the black and tiger for the first time.

I only went to Roundups in Arlington. I got to go to about 3 before everyone faded away

Patron,
Yes I remember meeting you at a Roundup in CollegeStation. That was a long time ago. I am retiring in December and we plan on moving to the Dallas area in 2020. Lots of great nurseries and a new garden to plan

Teacup, (I wish I could remember your name!), congratulations on your upcoming retirement. The Dallas area is hotter and more humid than where we are in the center of Texas, but the nurseries and growing conditions are good. I hope it will be fun for you to start over in the garden.

Gypsi, the hummingbird bush/ flame acanthus is invincible here. growing in areas with and without water other than rainfall. Frostweed, Josephine, has it in her yard. I've noticed that the seedlings often do not overwinter, so perhaps older plants have a better chance of survival. The hummers sure like it.

Gypsi, I see you mentioned flame acanthus, what I was calling butterfly bush. Common names cause confusion!

I have lots of gold lantana that the butterflies like as well. I have an overabundance of Turk's Cap because my landscaper loaded up on sale plants in late spring a few years ago. I need to move them to a semi-shady area.this winter.

Tomorrow I will be potting daylilies that I received in the mail this week. I'll hold them in crowded pots until I have their bed prepared. Just been too hot to do much outside.

Most of the folks got upset with DG, didn't like the way the formats changed. Frostweed posts on National Gardening Association occasionally garden.org. I retired from driving and have been working at holding onto retiring, chuckl. Fireside Chat is on a forum that doesn't upload to posting on the internet as these dedicated forums do- why some of us went there. The roundups fell apart when everyone had everyone else's plants, chuckl, many of the older members have died. Imelda has given me 2" of rain- the first in many months down here in Zone 9. It rained again today and dead branches are being shed out of the trees. Txflwrchild is on NGA, Roouxcrew has been devoting her time to her border collies and winning events. DG also is on FB and many of them share that site. Just waving HI at all my old friends here!

Patrob, I bought a Hummingbird Bush or Hummingbird Plant at Lowes (I think I tossed the tag when it died).

I have Butterfly bush and several flame acanthus, the area under my big pine is littered with small turks cap, since I took my giant one out. I try to not have them where I water a lot, the one I took out was 10 ft long by 6 ft wide by 6 ft tall, I put a pond in where we took the roots out.

NGA is so big I'm not comfortable there, I visit every 2 or 3 months when I'm off for a day. It is for people who have more time, I'm not retired and I can't possibly keep up. Kinda like Beesource, I love Beesource, but I have time to visit like once a month and the discussion moves fast and leaves me behind after a day.

The one time I went to a Round Up was Oct 2009 in Arlington, soon after we moved to the DFW area.

It was a really fun day and I've always remembered the DG Texas community with fondness.

I really enjoyed roundups but the Texas group has fallen apart.

Kinda makes me sad - it used to be such fun and I learned so much about trying to garden under the Texas sun.

This has been such a weird year, with all the rain and cloudy days - not to mention the hard freeze in March! I had just gotten used to "hot and dry" from April to October. ;)

Weather has been bizarre this year. I followed part of the Dave's Texas group over to NPSOT and actually joined that group for a while, they do have meetings, but it was more time and work than I could spare time for so I dropped out. Frostweed is over there, and some of the others. You can find NPSOT on Facebook (Native Plant Society of Texas - North texas is the region name I THINK

Yes, it's been very strange.

As for NPSOT, I might like that, but I don't do facebook. I do remember Frostweed.

Dave's charges a membership fee. A guy that wins the photo contest has been donating his free membership $ to some long time members, including myself. If it came down to paying $20 again for a year, I'm not sure I will. Even the remaining groups I'm a member of on DG are getting sparse - 3 or 4 people post now and then.

I paid for a subscription before I really looked around to see how little interaction is happening on DG.

But, I'm happy to see some familiar "faces" too - one of my favorites is the sewing board, which was so helpful and fun back when I was still a beginning quilter and it looks like some of the people from 10-12 years ago are hanging on.

I'm so happy that the sun has returned - my poor container plants were drowning for a bit. I lost a begonia to root rot and one impatiens, I just whacked back to stubs yesterday and drenched it with peroxide, hoping to stave off whatever was killing it.

I don't think I'll try full-sized zinnias in containers, again unless they're self-wicking tubs. They seem to need water twice a day, even the one in partial shade - and they're in BIG pots. I'll bet they'd have done fine in this clay-filled yard with some mulch and watering every few days. I'm going to start some more seeds and try putting them out in the dirt.

On the bright side, I've only had to water one section of my lawn one time this whole spring and my lawn is prettier than it's ever been.

Those tall zinnias do like their water. I like the little short ones for containers. I almost managed to save a cheap Lowes Vinca with the peroxide trick, but one more watering and it was a goner so I just tossed it.

I own several machines and used to sew and quilt, but I need the last couple of years of my business to provide retirement cash, so the machines are under dust covers.

My st augustine is getting by with almost no water, but I've left it tall to help shade the roots. My bermuda out back suffers from dogs and chickens and I never water the yard, so it is what it is. I water and it's evaporated in a few hours

Love your yard and flowers!

I cut my St Augustine pretty tall, too - about four inches.

Vinca is one of my favorites here in Texas, along with crape myrtles - I never saw them much until we moved here, but I sure love them. Vinca was late getting to the stores, this year. I might do some cuttings this fall and winter them in the house to have them ready earlier in the spring.

I hope you'll be able to sew whenever you want to after you retire! :)

Thank you.

On sewing, I have a novel to write first and at least one more non-fiction. Now I need to go watch a scary movie with my granddaughter. except for myself, no one really to sew for, grandkids grow too fast, and daughters shop

A writer! How cool! 👍

I feel like I sew and quilt for a hundred people with all these projects piling up. I'm too busy to sew much in the summertime, but it's great once I get the yard cleaned up and tucked away for the winter - that's when I really get stuff done at the machines. :)

Hi you all,

I used to live in Texas a LONG time ago. Southside of Fort Worth. Wedgwood area. I never really got accustomed to those long periods of 100-plus days. Here in Kansas, we haven't had a hundred yet this year, but there is a possibility of that in a few days. I am retired and breeding zinnias as a hobby.

One year in Fort Worth (I was growing zinnias even back then), at Christmas, I realized we hadn't had a killing frost yet, although my zinnias had a Powdery Mildew problem. Here in Kansas, we have usually had a killing frost by Halloween, and I am including a picture of one of my "frosty" zinnias. It looked kind of pretty, until it thawed.

ZM

This message was edited Jul 22, 2021 4:35 PM

Nice Zen_man. I live a bit south of the Wedgwood area, toward the Crowley line. I have some flowers that keep growing and blooming after the killing frost. Smooth blue asters and one variety of mum.

I went to the closeout sale when Hancocks shut down and bought quite a bit of fabric, that would have been maybe 2016, and I still haven't used most of it. I did use some of my quilting prints for masks in March 2020 and again in summer 2020, but I made enough to last me, and now all the cheap disposables are readily available so there is no demand, even by my kids or grandkids. I got the vaccine so I don't have to mask now, although I may start again.

This message was edited Jul 23, 2021 6:49 PM

Hi everyone, I just joined Daves for a year. If you are still on here, let me know. I am aware that everyone scattered.

I'm here, mostly visit the Back Porch January thru March thread