I just Have to Show you all the Sweetest People!

Hey All! I wanted everyone to know that I had the greatest Saturday! I visited with Digger and her Family. Sally is the sweetest thing and so very talented! You should see her plants and garden. I could have stayed forever looking over and drooling on her Gorgeous Japanese Maples( too Many varieties to remember) and Shrub varieties! Not to mention The beauty of the surrounding Mountain Countryside!
The Thing that really got my attention though was her first attempt at Straw bale gardening! I have always wanted to try it but was afraid to attempt without someone's input , locally . I needed to see it first hand. WELL...... Miss Sally just gave me the first Jaw Dropping results of her Newbie experiment and she said I could share with you all!
Heres Sally By her Tomatoes in Straw!

A Closer view of these beautiful Tomatoes!

She had the biggest Healthiest Squash plants I've seen in a long time growing out the side of the bales!

Three Sweet people! John , Sally and Georgia Ann!

Wow, thats amazing all those goodies growing in straw bales!! It is also nice to have a face to put with names.

Eufaula, isn't DGers wonderful! Sounds like you had a memorable trip and will make many more to North GA. Sally, great veggie garden you got there! Sounds like straw bale gardening is the trick!

Deborah

Well, Sally is a Southern Gal toting around her supersized sweet tea (I presume!!).
What an awesome garden - those are really amazing tomatoes. YUM.

What a lovely visit you had...

GGG

Thanks for the photos Eufaula. Sally gets camera shy when she comes my way. I had a chance to meet Sally kin as well. I'll testify to the sweetness.

Cedar dropped by Maypop as well. What a delightful and knowledgeable garden.

GGG, Sally's hard core. I'm betting it's her bottomless coffee.

Laurel

don't often get to this forum , suprise ,suprise . i want you ones i haven't met to know i would love to meet you all . let's try to go to the next roundup in this area so we can all expand our friendship circle . eufala was such a delight to meet and not a selfish bone in her body, she's welcome to my home anytime .laurel is a trip to visit ,so knowledgeable ,it seems she can talk about any subject with authority , and a great hostess. love just being around her and her good looking dh. didn't get to be around cedar but a minute ,she was leaving as we got to maypop. yes it's coffee , cold ,but it goes with me everywhere .i don't look at my pictures and see ME. i see a 70 yr old woman and i still feel 35 . my old body is betraying my true youth.lol seriously , i've always been camera shy since my first mug shot .since those pictures were taken sat.my tomatoes have shown a blight , so am going to try to save them with aggressive everything .your transplanted texan , sally

Awwww, You are Welcome May Pop. Maybe next time I go a-Mountain rovin, I'll come up to meet you! I have a niece and her Family that lives in Cleveland.
My visit with Sally was so great , I definitely will be visiting again. Here she is again!
This is my favorite photo!

It was a lovely visit with Sally & Laurel at Maypop (aka heaven). This was my second time meeting local people encountered on DG and I've been so impressed with their knowledge and generosity. Thanks!

And Sally, what were the names of the tomatoes attacked by blight? Have you grown them before? Our Yellow Pear tomatoes have been struck down with what I guess is blight and we are sad because we love them so.

everything . 3whoppers ,6 better boy, 1 yellow pear , 1 other one name escapes me .fertilized again with tea . sprayed with m-45 today and watered well. after the sun went behind the trees. sally

sorry digger9083, tea? I'm as courious as a cat.What kind of tea? Thanks,Mike

Sorry, ment to tell you how beautiful those maters are.Mike

This message was edited Jul 27, 2008 4:44 PM

Yeah, Mike I'd like to know what kind of tea Sally's talking about too. Especially since she said I can talk about any subject "with authority".

Sally...are you implying I'm a know-it-all? lol

Laurel

oh , laurel , you know me ,you are one of the sharpest people i'v ever met. now, deflate girlfriend lol and you can say anything you want to about me ,except you can' t tell my secret ,aren't i sweet ? all kidding aside , i bought a coupla sacks of manure and put about half in panty hose ,tied it up and steeped it in water in a five gal . bucket . that's tea . would pour about two cups on plants root area twice a week . i added to the bucket more water another three times . when i dumped the panty hose out and started a new batch , i put the leftover goop on top of my bales, and watered it in good .forgot to say , i put the tea on in the evening so that it didn't wash out and the plants could absorb it . then watered in the morning . hey laurel , how is that little tree coming along? do i need to replace it, let me know cause like i said , there are more and larger if you want.

Ahh, so now we know your secret...manure in your pantyhose. Who would have imagined?

L

BTW, all is well with my foster plants.

who wears pantyhose , not i . he .he.

I need to find some queen size, super support for an escaped pumpkin that decided to grow hanging on some light weight garden fence. It's threarening to take the fence down.

Laurel

gads, laurel , can you get a table under it? or 2x4 posts against the fence to support it , will the pumpkin be large enough to pull off ? never grew pumpkins b4 . sally

Sally, it's on of those weird Long Pie Pumpkins that looks like a zucchini on steroids. I'm guessing it weighs about four or five pounds now and have no clue how big it will get. Maybe it will keep getting long enough to touch the ground?
L

good grief , i'd sure stack some 2x's under it with hay or straw to soften the bed . can remove 2x's as it grows . save me some seed , ok ? sally

Laurel, don't you have a hammock? There's a likely home for that pumpkin! So comfy. And do you or Sally know the latin name of the honeysuckle bush from Sally? I do love to know what I've got....

I am watering my Texas Star religiously and have sprayed it with Liquid Fence to deter Bambi.

Pam, it looks like Lonicera morowii (Morrow's honeysuckle) and I'm not moving over to make room for a pumpkin. The deer do love the hibiscus family. They've done in the okra when my back is turned in the past.
L

haven't had any trouble out of deer and my honeysuckle is right on the road . so is my texas star ,i also planted my new t.s.next to the old one . i have other mallow all around and no problem ,so far . the deer have nipped the bloom buds off my azelias right next to mallows and honeysuckles and jumped the chain link fence to get to my figs , but last year , they left everything alone . remember i said i had lost my big dog to injuries ? have decided it WAS a bear. this hugh bear hung around for a coupla weeks ,and was seen finally ,next door .poor Red , he protected this place til the end . sally

We know how much you loved Red, Sally and are so sorry about his death. We have a friend yonder your way and she said the bear (plural) were coming on the porch to eat cat food. One was looking at her through the glass porthole in her front door! You be careful now.

I'm sending you a cyber-country take out dinner.
Laurel

I think I can taste that through my cyber, Laurel. Mike

Yeah, Mike. And just for the record, I clabber my own buttermilk for cornbread, puppies and fish. I'm more of a Southern graft than a transplant. :) Couldn't fit in the fresh collards with the home canned tobascos and vinegar from last year. Ya'll come on down (or up, or sidways). Just don't be too disappointed if I have a bit of a Brooklyn accent, okay? Once the okra comes in I'm gumbo all the way!

L

You must not realise that we are only about 60 miles away, and go up to Hellen every chance we get, and there is the place in Dalongca(SP) Mike

You're on. DMail stat as I'm always cooking but the place may be half torn down with the chimney repair. Got to have priorities, right? We're around the corner from Cleveland, Helen, and Clarkesville. You just be in touch.

Laurel

just wrote a nice letter and erased the darn thing , don't it make you mad when you do that ? later . thanks for the cyber dinner laurel i'll enjoy thinking about it . sally

Sally, just keep pressing the green arrow on the left.

Your compu-idiot pal,
Laurel

Sally, I wonder if your deer protection IS the road? I've noticed that some folks have roses right at the road that don't seem to be bothered by the deer. Uh, that's a paved road I mean - which I don't have.

Laurel, cruel to send us those cyber meals! We may all show up with bibs and forks in hand!

yeah , cedar , i told you laurel knew everything , just like she knew i would put on THREE lb's just looking at that delicious meal .clabbers her own buttermilk . love her to pieces tho , just have to put up with her . i would love to get hold of some fresh jersey cow milk , or even holstein . several gallons to make my own butter , gosh , i haven't had hot , homemade bread and fresh churned butter in 30 years . there goes another coupla pounds . blame laurel ,lol . i do live on a narrow dead end road , but the deer come in , in the winter and nip the bloom buds off my azelias ,and have sat ten foot from the road with them passing on my side . they have stopped and looked at me and slowly walked off .my porch is only about thirty foot from the road ,(don't like that worth a flip).i've stood there and had them come in the yard . yippee , it's fri nite , no cooking tonight , sandwiches . i'm about fed up with all these squash , i've put up so many , i even dream about them .got a new (for me ) recipe for them3 cups grated squash ,two eggs , one chopped onion , a little salt to taste , about a cup of yellow corn meal mix . whup it all up together and put in a hot greased skillet . top with favorite cheese ,bake at 400 until set and browned . gonna try that sun . nite . got gold miners annual elections tomorrow, don't have to cook then either , they always have food , cheap . hugs sally ps i'm sure glad laurel likes, and puts up with me, wouldn't trade her .

You guys are nutz! Thanks for not trading me...I'm up for renewal here at DG. :)

Sally, that recipe sounds killer. I make flat breads on the stove during the summer and bake loaf breads when it cools off. Trying to stay more green and not using the oven much in the heat.

Pam, I agree with the road theory. Our fig tree at the roadside has hundreds. The one bordering the woods gets picked clean of even green figs. BB may find the upshot of his road development will be increased yields!
L

that bread is supposed to be something like a veggie cornbread . don't know , but will try it sun .i need a coupla puffy recipes for flat bread . don't want tortilla . i buy those at HEB grocery in tex and freeze them. like homemade . will plant more tomatoes and okra next year. my blight has been stopped on tomatoes . if it stays off , will get toms until frost . happy dance . sally

Laurel , i'm still waiting on that flatbread recipe . i see you'r going to try to make it to Dacula in Nov , if you don't have time to post it , please bring it with you . How's the building comming along ? iI finally get my concrete and blocks , morter delivered TODAY . tickle me pink , sally

Sally, remind me to bring you a pita recipe at the RU. I have until Sunday to get my act together and then I'll be away for the next week. Glad your tomatoes are perking up. What exactly is the "happy dance" at our age? Please don't do the Twist girl, you might end up in traction. Stick to something like the Electric Slide. It's safer.

The firebox was installed today. We are putting in an "extreme" material from a company called Isokern...http://www.isokern.net/. It's an Icelandic, volcanic pumice that is the fireplace equivalent of wood stoves with soapstone liners. That, and the Rumford design I requested should make it very efficient. I have designed the specs on the chimney shape, the stone work and selected the stone. I've met with the mason and explained the Ashlar stone "lay" I want and the details of the stone trim at the top (done this before). I have specified copper flashing. We shall see. We are already four weeks behind schedule (of course), I learned today that there will be exposed stainless pipes at the top after specifying that I wanted none of that. Now I am re-designing to try and avoid that. So glad your block and mortar arrived. Now get to work. Don't forget your level.
Laurel

boy , i'll have to see that ! when we get together , i'll have to find out where you learn all this stuff , i'm clueless . hugs , sally

Hey Y'all, Im still Here! Work is taking just about all My time here lately! Talked to "Digger" Sally, on the phone, Got caught up on a few things! Had to peek in and read all the posts, Now here it is , 6 AM, and Im having a Cyber-HushPuppy and Fish attack, with Squash Bread, and Mountains on My Mind! I Want to get back up to North Georgia soooooo bad! Hmmmm, Fall is here and the leaves are Changing! Gotta go Gotta go!
Sally This is for you! Heres is a photo of my new Baby! He's only 19 weeks old today!
Very Curious, and into everything like all babies are! Its just that he thinks he should be treated like a 2 pound infant! NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! Hes a good Boy though! Since he just cant be Still and is as strong as a Truck, His name is "Deisel"!