Seed Snatchin' PartVIII - Still Divin'!

Mine bloom to. I was trying to find a picture of one it bloom but I couldn't.
:) Donna

ooh! I have a picture!

They totally surprised me when they bloomed. What an alien looking flower! I am sad to say it didn't even occur to me to try to save seeds, but in my defense let me add that I'm a new subscriber here.... I promise to mend my ways and do some serious seed snatching this year!

Edited to say I've been stowed away in the rear of the bus for several weeks now.... it's about time I found something to say!

This message was edited Mar 12, 2005 3:53 PM

It's great to hear from you, Critter. I was wondering how long you could just sit there in that lumpy seat, way in the back, next to the hot dog buns and just listen! The blooms on Hen & Chicks is just great... almost comical, as it the plant. I don't suppose many people grow them from seed, since it's so easy to root from one of the rosettes. I just like growing things from seed. I was pleased to see how viable the seed is. Like, sedum, you've just got to take the seed with the chaff and hope you've got seed!

Holy cow Critter!!! In Maryland no less? What are those, where do you live, when do they bloom and what hours are you away from home? Hmmmm??

Whoops, you're now on the bus. Ok, Hey Weez can we do a drive by up there? Please!

Those are too cool and HUGE? Seriously, what are they. Do they produce chicks as well?
They're on my list for must haves this season since fell off the "No New Plants in 2005" way back in Nov. :)

Welcome aboard and now what snacks have you got squirreled away?
blaine

Hey what you mean in Maryland no less!!! I've got them in my garden to.

Some of them make more babies faster than others...lol.

Critter what's the little white flowers blooming in front??

:p Donna

haha! They're smaller than they look in that closeup picture. That isn't a boulder! The plant in the background is french thyme, and the white flowers in front are sweet alyssum, which should give you a better idea of scale. FYI, the mother plant seems to die after blooming, but with all those chicks around that isn't a problem.

As for snacks, well, I did just make some chocolate chip cookies.... I got the recipe from a B&B in Ashville, NC, and they're awesome, especially if you double the amount of chocolate chips called for!

I live in Frederick. We moved here 3 years ago, and it's a gradual process transforming the clay the builder left us into garden & landscape beds. The process may get a shot in the arm this spring, as I'm trying wintersowing for the first time with all sorts of lovely seeds from DG traders!

Critter your camera takes great pictures. I guess it has a macro? Now that I looked again at the picture it does look like alyssum. I see you have wooly thyme in there to.
:) Donna

Yes, I do like the macro mode for taking close-up shots. Camera is a Sony DSC-V1 that we got last year, and I love it. Good ID on the wooly thyme.... there's 'Golden Translucent' creeping thyme in the bottom left of the picture, too. This is in a tiny little rock garden that my good friend & former next door neighbor helped me put in the little curbside area between our driveways. There's also 'Moonlight' coreopsis, 'Firewitch' dianthus, and some sort of dwarf shasta daisy (maybe 'Becky') between them that's being overrun & should be moved. The alyssum blooms all summer around the edges & is just amazing there. I mentioned all the varieties, because it can be hard to find things that will thrive in that kind of hot, sunny, exposed location.

Hi Critter! So you're the one who ate all the hot dogs, eh? That's OK, Iprefer choc chip cookies, YUMMMMM..

I did some diving today, into the dumpster at the recycle center, and in the metal heap at the back. Got a kitchen cart, some metal fencing, and a couple bags of 1 liter bottles for my home made walls of water around the pepper and tomato plants.

I will be busy tomorrow, putting out all kinds of greens. Right now I've got to go scrounge for some dirt for the raised beds. OK, I confess, I am BUYING the dirt. But I do take free dirt when it is available. Also stopping by to borrow someone's saw. I may scrounge around there too!

Love thos ehen and chicks, esp in the whale planter!

Lets have some more of those cookies before we head off please...

I got Hen & Chicks seed on my trade list, 8ft. Here's the spot in the PF, if you want to see more pictures: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/637/index.html

Who, me? Eat all the hot dogs?? *urp* Weelll... How about another cookie? There. Now you've forgotten you ever wanted a hot dog, right?

I love the idea of a DIY "wall 'o water" with 1 liter bottles! Do you lash them together somehow or just nestle them into the ground & hope they stay put? Now I'm thinking I might have just enough time to scrounge up enough 1 or 2 liter plastic bottles to make a little rectangle around my planned row of 6 early tomato plants ('Colorado Spring' & 'Stupice'). Imagine a double row of bottles, with about 14" between the rows, maybe some extra bottles between the plants, all topped off with a layer of row cover..... what do you think? I'm putting them along a south-facing foundation wall, thinking of planting them out the first week in April & crossing my fingers.

Wow, I started some Stupice too, (bought the seed :-() and some Oregon Star and Oregon Spring.

Well, they really need to be enclosed around each plant to be effective. So if you do rectangels instead of circles, just be sure it is tight enough to not let cold night air in or heat out. 'The stupice may not need it, but it can't hurt!

You may know, but this is how it works:The water heats up from the sun, and realeases at night. I tried 1 gallon jugs last year, and gatorade sized, the smaller worked better. Two liters should work for Tomatoes, I figure 1 liter for peppers (smaller palnts). I am going to do as I did last year and burn some dirt around the outside to keep it in place. You could wrap duct tape around them, but since they are filled with water, I figure they may not blow away LOL hope not. Row cover osunds nice, what kind do you use, I am looking to buy some, but haven't decided. Make sure and get a companion plant like carrots leeks or both, and marigolds or nasturtiums! to palnt in between, that relaly works.

My last frost date is April 14, so I will be putting mine out this next week, I am so excited I am besdie myslef, can't even type right! You can eat my hot dog anytime, just keep those cookies comin'!

Find a recycling center near you to get enough jugs fast! You may have to dig through a dumpster full to get the right size, but they have been rinsed, so no need to wear a bibbbie...

This will be my first year to try setting out tomatoes this early (ADLF here is late April, so they'll be going out 3 weeks before that). I was debating between using wall-o-waters or just making a little "hoop house" for my row of tomatoes out of row cover & PVC, but you may have given me an idea about combining those methods. Even a few bottles of water inside my hoop house should help, if I decide to go that route.

I can see I'm going to have to hop off the bus for an hour or so and bake another batch (or three!) of cookies.....

Tamara, is there dirt worth stealing around there? I didn't see any until I got a good 40miles from Fritch.

Not anymore - while up in CO I was telling them the mountains were just petrified dirt and sand blown up from NM/TX.

Weez, won't it be 4 or 5 months before you could find your h&c's ?

But - I did notice a couple of hollows in drift wood I unloaded from the truck yesterday (mountain range snatchin') and could use 2 or 3 chicks.

pass me a couple of them cookies (thanks critter) and I got some fresh coffee over here.

My critters are also buried deep in the white flowers.
:) Donna

I want hot cocoa :-( Waaaah!

Critter, let me know your ideas. I could use some more.

I feel like a big girl I got enough 2x10s cut for four (count em 4 F-O-U-R) rasied beds 4 foot square, and three three foot square raised beds. And this was snatched wood. Some I snatched from behind the barn, and some the nieghbor gave me becuase he cut out his stairs wrong!

Even though we could get 6 -12 inches of snow, I will be out finishing up those beds. The broccoli can't stay in the house much longer, and I don't feel like repotting all the collards and greens and lettuce. So out it goes, snow or not LOL Poor Donna, Weez and 8 ft, still under the white stuff. A friend of mine said it would snow here on April 8. I am going to call her that day and remind her!

Sugar~ Sure, I have some dirt you can steal, bring all the plants you want. Bring some wood (minimum 2 x 6s), and we will build some raised beds for stealing, how do ya like that notion?

Happy snatching of all things useful, live or not!
Tamara

Tamara, I'll keep my sand, I dont recall much of anything but calechie (sp?)in those long drives I took in Oct. Maybe it's better close to Fritch.
I did get my shoe buried in wet suckrete over close to Alanreed. Just glad It wasn't quicksand. Me and Henry were alone and I'd been a gonner.

Our soil is pretty good, 'cept in patches here and there. Only our road is calechie, and that was hauled in LOL. Some places are even sandy. This high up and close to the lake, the soil really varies.
Suckrete? never heard of it, but glad you made it out...
See my thread in weather forum 'bout our snow...

okey,dokey.

It was so warm here last weekend! I am plantin' lettuce and such next weekend. Never tried it so early but that's what the paper is telling me to do. Last year I had great lettuce but it would be nice to have it a bit earlier.

Saw lots of cool tropicals in hotel in Raleigh this weekend too. Didn't snatch any though b/c I didn't feel like carting them around!

Bye all! Talk to you later!

Nicole

Today is an EXCELLENT moon sign/phase for planting lettuce, don't wait til l next week if you don't have to!

Oh Tamara if only I didn't have to work!!! I have the itch and want to get outside!!!

I'm still waiting for my Snatchin' bike too! They aren't finished with it yet! Grr...!!!! I want my toy, I want my toy! (stomping feet)

:) Nicole

I have to confess, I didn't do any dumpster diving on those tomato seedlings' behalf. I actually ordered 6 wall-o-waters from Parks. At least it was $15 rather than the usual 3 for $10, and of course I signed up for their e-newsletter and got a $5 e-coupon. I think I'm still going to see about using row cover &/or water bottles on some of the tomatoes that will go out into the main bed, see if the extra warmth gets them off to a better start. Hey, that means I get to plant some tomato seeds this week!

I think I'll get out a window box & sow some lettuce, too.... thanks for the reminder! I'm still working on turning the clay the builder left us into something resembling real garden soil, so lettuce in the garden isn't so good yet, but cut & come again lettuce in a window box on the deck works just fine!

Ahhh, the ides of March, what a lovely day. Can't get to the dumpster with all this snow, but at least I can still see it...

Yes, aren't raised beds great! There is a thread on that in the Organic Gardening Forum, called Square Foot Gardening.

Nicole, take a deep breath and count to 10. Now sit on the naughty stool until you can say you are sorry :-) Couldn't help myself, my kids love wathcing super nanny, even reruns!

Don't worry, the moon calendar says this weekend is great, the very best for starting annuals in flats, and palnting and transpanting hardy annuals. But please don't plant on SUNDAY afternoon 3 PM eastern time. According to the signs and phases, this could result in stunted palnt growth and every possible disease. Also, transplanting on Sunday may cuase 100% failure rate. IF you don't believe in thsi, try it out on some extra seeds and plants that you don't want anyway LOL

I didn't get my plants set out, just as well, since we are getting six inches of snow now. Phooeey! stomp stomp, OK I am off to the naughty stool, do we have room for another in the van? Well, then NIcole, you will have to share :-P

MY planting plans during our snowstorm are to start some melons indoors. I have really deep peat pots, and lots of soiless mix. Need to wash more ewatering tray, ooops, those might be buried in the snow outside. Thank goodness it is not drifting YET.

Well, TamaraFaye, here I am in Seward, Alaska where it has been raining and melting. It looks like spring out there, and the tulips are starting to come up through the mulch. There you are in Texas with snow coming down... it's a crazy world, isn't it!

Maybe we need 2 naughty stools!! :) Great about the annuals to start! I have some I need to start for a roundup, OH and for meself! :)

Weez I never would have believed you have tulips coming up already! Mine aren't even up yet - just barely poking their heads so far. WOW! Learn somethin' new ever day! :)
Nicole

definitely contradictory
Finally, this week, we are sneaking up a degree or 2 aday and finally spending days in the low-mid forties. Maybe some showers later but supposed to be in 40's through weekend so it'll be tree-pruning-city this weekend.

Then I saw that big system down south this morning and snow in Albuquerque and across the panhandle and was wondering about TamaraFaye.

On one, guilty, mischievous hand... I hope that snow system heads due east to the coast. Slow down all them southerners that I've been jealous of with their fine weather.

BUT I wish all of our bus and other DG'ers are spared mother nature's indecisions of spring. I know by 1 June when I'm not supposed to get any more frosts, the folks down south have already had to sharpen their mower blades a couple of times and are looking forward to cool weather again. :)

I like the change of seasons. Makes you appreciate each. A couple of years ago I decided Mother Nature in spring reminded me verrrrry much of a very pregnant woman. (Got experience with 5 of my own). It can be birds singing and bright warm beautiful smiles of sunshine one minute and the full fury of a mid-winter blizzard the next. Some days I've had snow, hail, lighting and rain all in the same afternoon! Well, I've had several sessions like that with my DW. I figure mother nature is also pregnant with the smells, new growth and glorious flowers on the way, is very uncomfortable and gets so uncomfortable she's gotta pitch a fit. Seems like there's always a soft warm smile after the storm.
I like preggos and I like spring. Scares the bejesus out of me sometimes but I do love the ride and the destination.

Perhaps our unpredictable seasons here are more like change of life ladies than pregnant ones here. Changing moods, hot and cold flashes, and stunted seed production! LOL!

bawaaaahahahaha! I think I'm starting to see early signs of that with DW as well.
Can't I just grab a cooler and go play in the dirt for the next 10 years...

Just climb on the bus, 8ft. There's probably only three or four of us 'changing'!

I'm not far behind I bet! I can't wait to have an EXCUSE for being wicked. LOL

Yes, we are cold and wet here. Amarillo is expected to have accumulated 20 inches (twenty) of snow before it stops at about 6 AM tomorrow (Wed). But we get so little of it, I am not complaining. WE need the moisture...

Yes, Spring is definitely Mother Nature's birthing time, and she is gonna do it whether we are prepared or not LOL

I looked over the Hyacynths very carefully looking for a special blossom,not fully open to keep by my chair. It really perfumes the room.
Is it really a no-no to have an yellow orange and red splash in a pink-purple garden?
Ahh,spring.

You can have absolutely anything you want! If anyone says differently, send 'em to me.

If nothing else, tell 'em it's a specimen or trial garden or something. Shoot, make the casual gardener really envious and just say they're volunteers!! I've actually used that explanation for a few combos although I like them all if they're growing well.

ROTF, I like volunteers.

OH, I do have one thing that coming up just fine already! Oxe - Eye Daisy!! GRRR>>> !!!! Thought I pulled all that out last fall!!!! Gotta get rid of it all before this house is sold, I'm sure the new owners would think - ohh pretty flower and so easy to grow! ! LOL!!

Is that the one that looks good in closeup pictures in the catalogs but is a long leggy straggly thing with little flowers?

My first taste of that type of advertising was with the toad lilies. Looked great in the cat. Then I'm waiting and waiting and where's those beautiful blooms? I oughta send them a bill and let them contribute to my bifocal costs!!

Hey, now, I grew up picking field daisies, and I love them! Those oxeye daisies are my mom's favorite flower. She was bummed that the closest the florist could come to them for her wedding boquet was to use big shasta daisies. I'm trying to get some established in the orchard area.... had a couple of volunteers last spring, but I want more! :-)

No, Blaine until last year when some of us nearly got banned over an invasive plant thread that just wouldn't die, I thought Ox-eyes were an evasive wildflower that refused to grow for me.
I personally love them. They are a very sturdy pretty white daisy, that is naturalized in North Carolina to the point that they are included in NC's wildflowers planting programs along the interstate hiways. So is Nandina, or Heavenly Bamboo. That is really invasive!
My favorite spring bouquet is ox-eyes, coreopsis, and chickory in an old blue and white speckeled coffeepot. Im trying to duplicate this cutting garden for myself.
DG is my playground, and if it gets too serious, its not fun anymore. So I won't look those up for you. LOL
It's okay for you to leave the Ox-eyes Nicky.
Sidney