Rocky Mountain region forum new thread

Because the old one was getting huge (something like 200 posts and 1000 views), I'm making a new one to splice the old one into.

As you were. Carry on.

LOL you forgot the link but that is okay, our forum is still small enuff to find the new one on our own. I never found what ate my two day old seedlings one year either. But I replanted [it was lettuce] and they [whatever] left the second planting alone.

I look on the entire process of growing things as a bit of magic so hadn't thought of pursuing it further. One year I grew some pumpkin vines that had covered a 20'x20 area and then died over a single day. Squash vine borers had moved into the stems at the trunk and killed every vine. No more curcurbits for me. I surrender easily. and then i hadn't planned on eating the pumpkins, they were just for fun AND they took a LOT of water.

Here's a pic of my corner of the world during one of our cloud days, it never did rain but the clouds were great. ~~Blooms

I guess I am just violent with a murderous instinct - I love to hunt plant-eating insects with a vengance. Not fond of poisons, but I get a really wonderful feeling if I can feed it to my tarantula, throw it in a garden spider's web or just stomp on it with my boot. Can wait until I can toss it to some chickens and watch them devour it... sorry, it's late, and my true personality is bursting out...

Mmmm. When I see such pretty paintings in the sky, I start to think that all of the trouble to garden here is worth it. Almost.

K-Mum, ever done the earwigs-from-the-lilies-to-the-cup-of-soapy-water number?

No, but my sister once used them in a science experiment to breed large pinchered earwigs. She was 10 at the time, I think. I haven't seen any earwigs around here... scorpions, yes, earwigs, no. Stink bugs. A few hardy aphids. Many and many different kinds of ants. Grasshoppers sporting the original design for desert camo. No slugs, either, but I am fearful of importing them. No worms. Nothing with soft bodies that require moisture, except for possibly me...

Do earwigs dance when they hit the soap water?

Like anything that has gone to heaven...

Actually, the soap breaks the surface tension so they don't float, just drown very very quickly.

White Hyd. I use a product that I think I got from a Co. in Mont. called Plantskydd, developed for deer, and it does work. Also use it to keep the cottontail rabbits from eating almost everything they can find. It is a spray, not poisonous to people.It is very dark blood brown when sprayed but the next day has disappeared. It could easily be either rabbits or chipmonks eating your new plants. And also earrwigs love newly hatched!!!! seedlings. I have I think only 1 chipmonk ( my daughter who fights them all the time in her Virginia garden, says I couldn't possibly have only one). I think my chippie is just here to tease my Lhaso Apso dog.

I got so mad at the darn rabbits that I finally shot one and then ate it!!!!!!!!!!!!! The babies are so cute and when I discovered a nest with 10 or so tiny babies, I couldn't kill them, now I probably could.

I don't know what to do to get rid of earrwigs. My chickens eat quite a few but still lots of them around. I tried using Diatomaceous (sp) Earth stuff a round the edges of my raised beds to get rid of the earrwigs and rolypolies, tumble bugs, can't remember the correct name, anyway had no effect.

Do any of you grow Lycoris (Naked Ladies). My clump is in full bloom now and so nicely fragrant.

Donna

sounds like all out war has broken out in the gardens. Check Gardeners Supply www.gardeners.com for some organic, non-lethal pest controls. I also recommend cats - they have taken care of my rat problem, I hope - but then i have to worry about them doing their own nasty things. One desperate day i mixed up a huge batch of fresh garlic, chile powder and vinegar to use as a border barrier. It sent me and the kids running coughing, watery eyes but later i saw a cat sniffy curiosly at it. I guess after you have eaten rat, no silly garlic-chili-vinegar combo will slow you down. Some other interesting deterrents i have heard of are: used baby diapers (that would keep me away), various predator urines, and people hair. Perhaps each critter in each locale is scared off by unique repellants.

SLC got a huge wet storm yesterday afternoon; thunder, hail, and at least one inch of rain. It came out of nowhere. i understand it sparked lots of fires on its way in but i guess by the time it hit the mountains here it let loose. It was very localized just hitting a narrow strip of northern utah. Sorry it missed you all!

Gosh Kmom246
You & I would get along real good together & I would even let introduce you to Cinibite my Rose Hair tarantula she is about 15 years old (fe), I had a Mexican Red leg also but it did not live long (male) Did not put them together, as you know females live longer then the males do. I use Cinibite when I don't feel like having company when they show up at my door, I get her out, & answer the door & put her at my feet, company is afraid of her, I just tell them it is Cinibite's play time & she is crawling all over the house other wise she gets cranky just staying in her tank. But your welcome to come in. They don't.

Flowers,
I don't grow Naked Ladies, but from you picture, it looks as if I should. What kind of conditions do they like? Will they take cold winters?
But I do grow asiatic lilies. They need a mixture of sun and shade, at least here in Los Alamos, and lots of compost. Here is my lily bed in June. This is the same bed that is now full of oriental garlic chives and parsley and chervil and Japanese red mustard. Everything reseeds itself. I just supply water and compost. The herbs are wonderful in our food.

The other bulb I grow is irises. They grow so easily, I feel almost like it is cheating. They like bad soil, they require little water, and multiply like crazy. I will attach a few flower pictures. I do love flowers, not just veggies. I just don't have Soferdig's skill at landscaping. I just plant where there is soil.

Can't tell you the cultivar of this one. It came with the house. But I really like it and it multiplies enough to supply all my friends.

This one is Study in Black. It multiplies like crazy and nothing seems to stop it.

White-hydrangea do you still have skunks down your way? I had my potted plants dug up all the time & I was blaming it on my cats, untill early one morning I seen a skunk digging away.

I was looking up soil sanitation & came across this site

http://mtwow.org/weed-prevention1.htm

We all seem to have bindweed problems, what about thistle

One more iris. It also came with the house and I don't know the cultivar, but I really like it.

If you enlarge the pictures you will see columbines behind it. They grow very well if you give the a little shade, great soil, and water. I let them cross polinate and produce new wierd ones right in the garden. They tend to flower in the spring, die back, then flower again in the fall. I have 6 pots of new ones waiting to go in the soil.

This message was edited Aug 13, 2006 11:32 AM

Mainecoon,
Skunks are a real possiblity. They can be kept out with chicken wire along the inside of the fence.

Here is a clump of blue columbines from the spring, but they come in lots of colors.

pajaritomt
You like iris, I just love them, I have over 500 different varities. they are the only thing that I can really grow here that toterates this hard clay soil, & the lack of water beside hen & ckicks, I have a patch of mixed color Hollyhocks but they are dying out as are my roses. Yes my iris are a home business, I have alot of pictures of iris on DG's

Could you send us some pictures of your irises -- I mean the iris patch? I will look up the ones in the Plant Files. I bet your garden is beautiful when they bloom.

Ha, ha, Main Coon - I love the way you keep company out! My tarantula is also a (Chilean) Rose and is also a female. She and I have been killing garden bugs together for 5 years now. She was full grown when we acquired her, so I don't really know how old she is. She's been through 7 moults with me. She grew up on wimpy petstore crickets so didn't know what to do the first time my son put a fat moth in with her - I mean, the food's not supposed to fight back, right? Once she figured out it was edible, though, her whole tune changed. It really helped bring out her arachnic personality to have food that fights back - she attacks with gusto now. I don't give her anything too big and powerful, though - don't want her to get hurt - but she does enjoy the treats from the garden.

I hear that the wild tarantulas from the south are slowly moving up towards northern NV. Haven't seen any yet, but I try to keep my eyes open. Besides, between scorpions and rattlers, it is always a good idea to wear boots and gloves and be aware of your surroundings around our place. There is a DMZ of concrete and occational chemicals around the perimeter of the house, and that seems to keep most of the wild things outside. Since we religeously sweep and keep 18" clear from house to anything sand or vegitative, that has really helped reduce the number of invaders. We're hoping to go to 0 chemicals this winter and next summer. We really DO want to go 100% organic, but I just can't have scorpions indoors... although from time to time I think I might like to make a pet of one...

I'm so thrilled to see your irises, pajaritomt. I love irises. Do you have to stake yours? Do you think with 50 MPH gusty winds that I should stake mine when I get to that point? The people down the road stake theirs, but they only have a few... I don't like to do things in little bits - they'd get swallowed by the sand! - If I have Irises, I'd like to have at least 100... I'm really not wanting to stake 100 of them... I wonder if there's some alternatives...

kmom, I stumbled across an organic CSA called Custom Gardens in Silver Springs.
Have you been to visit their operation? Thought you might see some sand and wind survival tips at their setup.

http://customgardens.home.mindspring.com/index.htm

Kmom, I confess to putting cut worms and tomato worms in glass jars and letting them cook in the sun. ohhh is that too gross? I used to put them out for the birds, but birds won't eat cutworm cause they know they're full of belladonna. (?)

Kenton, where do you come up with these interesting bits of info: so the soap breaks the surface tension and the buggies can't skate on it. Wow! thanks for that tidbit. /;-)

Donna, I ran out once again to check on my naked ladies, but no sign of them yet. Yours are so pretty.
And I think Iris are easy too, sometimes I just plunk them down on top of the soil, dump a shovel of dirt over the stringy roots and they setle right in.
Waving hi, from a mostly sunny day ~~~Blooms

hey great site. Looks like a large and professional setup.
and you have 2 state parks nearby? admit to being interested in camping places whenever I note them.

Thanks for the CSA link. Silver Springs isn't all that big in population - 4,000 or so - but it is a bit spread out. I thought I'd driven all the nooks and crannies, but looks like not. I will have to give them a holler one day and see where they are.

Donna I have been looking for naked ladies since puberty. Where are they? LOL
This has nothing to do with this forum but I am from the Rocky Mts so here goes: I am currently up on Kodiak Island Alaska and the house I stay at here is on the beach. Well I saw 3 days ago a construction of a floating trap that was being chummed with a bunch of blood and fish guts. The paper had talked about 2 partially eaten sea lions on the rocks this week. Well as it turns out there is a great white shark up here in the harbor and they want to catch it to confirm the global warming thing. Wow clear up ;here in Kodiak. I can't wait until the trap is thrashing with the big guy they catch. Pictures to follow. My neighbor was out there when they were replacing the bait and the 18ft Great white was charging the cage when the men were on it. I wish I'd been here. I need to get someone to take my picture swimming around the trap. LOL

Skunks? I hope not! But this is Colorado. We have everything here.

I'm going to try to grow irises, and hope my "black thumb" doesn't get them.

My grandmother had a green thumb. She could make anything grow. She doesn't seem to have passed it down to anyone, though. Of course, by the time I came along she'd probably been gardening for half a century.

Keep us informed, Steve. I had read about sightings up there once.
There won't be any sharks where we are going next spring, right? (if you are serious).

My mother could kill a plant by looking at it and my father has the singular capacity to kill even artificial plants. I think I have green fingers, but am at a loss to figure out which one is black, so new plants are like russian rulet, you see.

No sharks in the N. Saskatchwan. But another blood letter is the mighty Misquito. I think though that at that time few are around shortly after break up.

Kmom245
You would make a good story for the National Enquire.
Woman & Tarantula go out killing spree for 5 years, thousands of bugs massacred.

My tarantula has always been passive with her food, she has always waiting untill it got comfortable, then she would spring up in the air & pounch on it. It seems even tarantula's have different personalities.
We have problems with rattlers here, & signs are posted, the VA medical center even had a rattler in the building.

I do not stake my iris & we get wind in the 50 mph range or higher, mine do fine.

White_Hydrangea iris are easy to grow & basicaly are maintainence free accept for weeding, Historics are the easiest, arils are the hardest, & I think Standard dwarf are the prettiest, & for a small garden or rock garden they are the best. I am a member of the American Iris Society, that is my flower I like, the flower of the rainbow.

I am and have been a member of AIS for many yers. Used to play with hybridising iris, but now only work with daylilies. At one time had more than 100 iris, but now probably only about 50, plus a few Siberian iris, a few spurias and I think only one Ensata, a few clumps of Dutch iris, some dwarfs.

I don't remember who asked about the hardiness of Lycoris, but they are for sure hardy in my zone 5 garden.

I am hybridising my iris & I had a good seed pod year. I have been a member for years. I have some walking iris seeds planted, trying to grow them for a house plant in winter & put on my deck in summer. You can grow the spurias up there, I love them but they will not grow here.
I grow all the classes of iris, historic to modern & looking forward to some of my seedlings to bloom next year.

garden_mermaid,
Your place is wonderful! No wonder you know so much about radishes! I am going to order the ones you recommend today.
I didn't ask the question but am pleased to hear lycoris will grow in zone 5a, which is my zone also. They grow wild in Louisiana where I grew up.

Pajar, if you like the Gourmet Seed International selection, try the grow italian site as well. My husband's uncle farms in the hills of Apuglia in southern Italy. It tends to be hot and dry in that region, so maybe some of their cultivars will work well in NM. Assuming of course that you like Italian veggies.

http://growitalian.com/Qstore/Qstore.cgi

So many wonderful seeds and plants, so little garden space! I really miss the farm. Hopefully one day we'll have one again, or at least a sizeable community allotment.

Thanks for the great Italian link. I lived for a while in Italy and I am sure that is what guaranteed my interest in growing my own vegetables. The Italians insist on first class veggies purchased fresh daily. The stuff in most of our grocery stores is so tired and boring coompared to theirs. They have veggies we have never heard of. I will definitely be ordering from them. Ummm. Maybe some broccoli rapini!
That CSA looks wonderful.
Betty

Most of Europe is used to locally grown fresh vegetables, but the Italians are definitely the leaders when it comes to fresh produce. What part of Italy did you live in?

I've been trying to find a CSA that I like here in the south bay. The one I subscribed to when I lived in the east bay doesn't deliver/drop off down here.
We did a four week trial with a local one that looked good " on paper" (ie, the website). The selection of produce seemed good and they had lots of recipes, but the quality in the share box was very dissappointing. Almost everything looked at least a week to ten days old. I got the impression that particular farm was filling its CSA share boxes with leftovers that didn't sell at the prior week's farmer's markets. The quantities were also odd. The family share box was supposed to be packed for a family of four. One week we got new potatoes (six small ones to share among four people; not eight, but six), seven huge bunches of mustard greens, three zucchini that were overgrown and well over a foot long, three beets and a rotten cucumber (photo attached). I suppose for some people this farm's week old produce is fresher that the local supermarket as they've sold out of their shares for the year. A lesson in relativity.
Good CSAs go straight to heaven!....at least that where their produce sends us. *grin*

Here's one of favorite iris, Lavender Lemon (Arilbred)

Pajaritomt
I posted this on your bluest iris "Intuition"

All of my pictures of the iris are close up, so I can list them . I have a old picture of the garden area I was starting in 2001.
I just don't take a picture of the whole garden, but I will next year when it is bloom. & I will post it.

Another blue you for you Pajaritomt "Special Feature"

Those are great irises, I especially like the "Intuition."

Coon: Do you grow 'Oyez' (arilbred), 'Starship Enterprise,' or 'Son of Star?' I would loke to hear your authoritative impressions of them where you grow. On blues- what do you think of 'Babbling Brook?' Old news?
Kenton (Who still wants 'Hotdogs and Mustard')