New from MA

Hi,
I am new here after spending a few months at GW and I am thrilled to have discovered this site. My winter project this year is to finally dig through junk drawers, jacket pockets, old clay pots in the shed, for plant tags and nursery receipts in hopes of putting together a record of plants in the yard. I hope to have a paper record (from Excel) as well as keep this info on line and the Journal/Diary options at Dave’s appear to be wonderful. If any of you more organized gardeners have any suggestions to offer I would appreciate your advice. I am looking forward to getting to know everyone and through our shared experiences continue to grow as a gardener. Katy

Hi yes its s o much better here such wonderful friendly helpful friends here..


Twyla

Gee whiz! What a lucky day this is. You joined today and so did someone from Eastham, Cape Cod. We go up in June every year and it would be great to meet you!

Enjoy DG and all it has to offer. The people are terrific and so generous.

Hi Katy, nice to see another Mass. newbie on (I signed up a while back but without joining all the way couldn't really participate - I'm glad I finally jumped in! )

I'm the last person in the world to have any suggestions on organization LOL - I need to do the same thing! Although - I have seen recommendations to draw yourself a garden map once things ID'd - and that is a great idea since people/pets keep displacing my tags.
Juli (Wareham MA)

hello from upstate new york

Hi again,
It seems as though there are quite a few of us from the Northeast is there a forum for us to chat about topics specific to our area?
Pirl ....I would love to meet up with you in June and share my garden with you.
Juli...A map sounds like a very good idea I have a terrible memory and I think a map will be really important.
Twyla & Herbie43 Thank you for the nice welcome.

runktrun: maps are critical to me. The digital camera is a great help with layout, too. I have both handwritten and computer maps of all the gardens and use winter to catch up on all the notes I make all summer long.

As far as I know there isn't a forum for northeast gardening. Last year there was a round up in NH, not far off 95, but we were busy redoing a few gardens and didn't get to it.

Dave has a map of where the members are located but I think I've only seen it once or twice. If I find it again I'll send you the link.

Hi, Here's another newbie from MA. I'm the one from Eastham, pirl mentioned me joining but I'm still finding my way around and just found the welcome mat.

pirl thanks for such a wonderful welcome.
hi runktrun, I spent way too long at GW although as a lurker. I'm hoping to overcome my lurking and participate more here. I need to organize and id my plantings too, just to see what survived the vole attack of 2004-2005.

Voles don't like spicy peppers. One had one chasing his tale when he bit into a jalapeno so maybe you could sprinkle on some cayenne pepper. The Atlantic Spice Company (Truro or North Truro) sells it in huge bags. Love that place!

The cayenne pepper will/should also keep rabbits and squirrels at bay but it won't hurt birds - only critters who put their little paws to their mouth.

loge40
Hi there neighbor how did you make out in the early December freak storm? Wasn't that the oddest weather occurance? One minute it was a sunny winter day the next minute the wind kicked up and started bending the trees in half. I was in the middle of getting my hair dyed and the power went out which ment no water to rinse my hair and no light to cut it. I tried to drive home in a hurry in hopes I had enough water in the storage tank to rinse but there were trees down all across the road. We went without power well into the night burr.

Pirl great idea about the voles I will have to give it a try. I battle the critters all winter long and the only thing I have done to date that has dramatically cut back the damage has been to pull away all mulch and leaf matter far back from the truck of the tree/shrub as they do not like being exposed to possible prey.

Moving the mulch back will also protect your rhododendrons and azaleas from the mice who like to nest there and eat into the bark.

Katy - that wild little storm had a couple of feet of seaweed in my folk's basement, and waves lapped at my front door. It was awesome to watch from my window at work, I love storms! It'd be cool to have a northeast forum - but it would be great to have a coastal forum too or as part of it - I'd love to hear what grows well for those of us who have to deal with salty acidic sand - with seemingly no nutrients.

loge40 - I'm glad you're posting and hope you have fun here too :)
Juli

Mayflwrhem,
Sounds as though you had a wild time during the storm. I know so little about Wareham (other than the old cranberry hwy?) what's the one thing you would like to share with me about your community that you are the most proud of and that nonresidents would likely be aware of? Yes I think a Northeast/New England forum would be great. I have learned quite a bit from the New England forum at another site and have made some wonderful friends. Katy

Mayflwrhem: Long ago I'm sure we passed through Wareham and neighboring towns on the way onto and exiting the Cape. Now I don't see those great basket shops anymore. How do I find them?

pirl, I love Atlantic Spice too, I did try Cayenne pepper both straight and mixed with water and the bleeping critters just laughed. Strips of Red Hot gum placed in the entry holes has been suggested by a friend, so I'm going to try that next.

runktrun, We were spared damage from that storm although our view of the marsh was improved when a huge pine broke in half, unfortunately the price to remove the tree was hefty. I had just brought my DH home from an overnight at the hospital and was on the way to fill prescriptions when it hit. I turned around to head home because trees were falling everywere. Had to park down the street as we had five trees down across our road.It felt like I was in the Wizard of Oz running home with my dog ( who thought it was just great fun) and a package under my arm, the sound of tree limbs cracking is eerie. Five minutes couldn't have passed since I left the house, so strange, and then we were without power for almost four full days. It was amazing that no one was seriously hurt.

Atlantic Spice Company is a mandatory and delightful stop for us on the Cape, after leaving P'town. Such an array of such different items. I can do a lot of Christmas shopping in an hour!

That storm sounds awful! Glad to read you made it home safely even if you did have to walk further than you or the DH expected.

Didn't you Cape Cod/Islands folks have a bit of a wild day today too? Wicked windy and we had a tree fall down at work, narrowly missing cars and causing a live wire. Some power outages.

When I used to come here to the family summer cottage I was a tourist and knew where things were - now that I work here and live here I'm clueless! Touristy things on rt. 6/28 near Buzzards Bay are closed for the winter. Onset village (in Wareham) is quite charming with Victorian cottages, a nice beach and lovely views and canal cruises (fireworks over Onset beach in July; December fireworks in Wareham center). I love to eat in restaurants in Onset and Wareham center where you can sit and watch the water - in one of my houses you can see boats going by from many of the windows (mortgaged to the hilt of course LOL)! There are 52 miles of shoreline, windsurfing at Little Harbor beach, 2 golf courses and some gorgeous neighborhoods hidden away. The "Gateway to the Cape" has some of the Cape lifestyle without dealing with bridge traffic, but some of the neighborhoods still need more improvement. Good heavens, I sound like a tour guide :( but I LOVE being near the water.

loge40 I'm glad you made it thru the storm, sounds harrowing!

I welcome all Cape Cod news: can't get enough of that beautiful piece of land!

Great pic pirl, where is it? The bay was beautiful today. I'll be curious if Eastham looks different to you this summer. So many trees went down, Nickerson park in Brewster is still closed. The Park service is estimating at least 3 million to clean it up, I've been through hurricanes before but never with tornadoes at the same time.

mayflwrhem, The cape escaped serious damage this time, a few leaning trees went down. Sadly an elderly woman died when a massive tree landed on her car in Harwich. This has been the strangest winter.

I can't be sure if it's Nauset Beach or further north. I feel bad about all the damage. Old trees are just not replaceable.

Mayflwrhem,
I always seem to have an extra 45-60 minutes to kill before a boat so a cup of tea in Onset or Wareham sounds like a wonderful stop on the way home. I had no idea that Wareham had 52 miles of shoreline that really surprised me. Have you ever taken a canal cruise? Where do they start from? It sounds as though you live a very charmed life in Warham.
Pirl,
I love the photo it actually made me feel as though it was summer for a moment.
loge40,
I hate to see the old regal tree's toppled over but I guess the up shot is that there will now be more light and availability of water and nutrients for the next generation.
In keeping with this crazy weather today is expected to be 55 degrees and sunny .....yahoo
Katy

I'm so glad that Wareham, Edgartwon and my favorite, Eastham, people have gathered here. I feel like a lurker but lurking at my favorite spot in the world.

I guess we've all experienced speaking to people who've spent three days on the Cape and either say "it's nice" or just don't come back to really get to know it. I've been going there for longer than any of you have been on earth, I'm sure, and haven't missed a town.