I confess..... (the sequel)

Okay, I confess that 231 posts is long enough. Further, I confess that, although the original confessing thread had some rocky moments getting started it does seem to have legs enough to justify a sequel.

Therefore, I confess, I have opened one.

Going back to fetch old linky now.

And here it is. We came from here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/960067/#new

This message was edited Mar 28, 2009 4:22 PM

And I confess I thought Robin's post about the 400 tomatoes was about the funniest thing I've seen today, although I do sympathize!

I thought I was going to get lots of seeds sown today but, I confess, instead I have mostly wandered around thinking about maybe doing it tomorrow. Or Wednesday which is a better moonsign for it anyway.

But I did get my first-ever batch of cocoa coir hydrated, that was an adventure in garden messiness! And, now I have it and that will be interesting.

I confess that I like using Cocoa coir.

I confess I am totally new to it, but now have a big garbage can full of the stuff, just waiting for me to do more sowing. Probably Wednesday.

But, I confess, there is no substitute for compost and I still have not got mine set up. Need fencing, to create a cylinder. Have not located the source of this yet.

I confess that I am sooooo in need of spring and warm and green and growth...

Yeah.

We are supposed to have drop in temps, tomorrow night down again to 25.

I confess I am glad I am not in a colder zone. Brrrrr.

I confess that I quite like the climate here.

I confess that I am envious that Robin has a tomato field cuz where else does one grow 400 tomatos. Also I confess that I said a REALLY bad word yesterday cuz it snowed a whole lot more. ARGH!!!

I confess that I didn't realize it was going to snow again last night and didn't bring in and cover all my plants. Dratz! my hands are freezing this morning from dusting snow off. I am happy for the moisture, just ready for it to rather be rain.

I confess I was rather tickled with Susan's article about seed starting in the Rockies this morning, how very timely! ;-)

I confess I am a bit disgusted with all the start-and-stop factor going on about this..... Dahlia, we had snow yesterday too! though it did not stick, but last night another h ard freeze -- I covered things but still, geeze.

kTalia, hope your babies survived.....

I confess that I am having murderous thoughts about gophers right now. I went out to weed and such yesterday and discovered the gophers had eaten the tops off several of my prime irises and made some entire iris plants disappear down their holes, I presume. Time to get out the traps!
In the front yard where there is very little soil before hitting bed rock, I haven't had any gophers. Moving iris to the front yard is a new priority.

Oh, Pajarito... I confess that I am having evil thoughts regarding those gophers...

I'm jealous that you guys all had snow. We just had an evil cold wind all day. The weather forecast was off by 9°, it was 21° in my yard this morning. I hope my rosemary survives this latest assault. Dang it, it's not supposed to be 21° at the end of March. gggrrrrrr!

Sorry about your iris paj. Perhaps lining your planting holes with chicken wire might help, of course they would still eat the tops. My MIL has to plant her tomatoes in wire cages buried in the ground that completely enclose the plants because the darned ground squirrels go under, over, and through anything else.

This message was edited Mar 30, 2009 9:35 AM

Yes. I may end up having to do that. It is a lot of work though. I was hoping to avoid that. In the past when they sole some lettuce and a few onions, I always had more, but these are my new iris being fostered in the rich soil of the raised veggie beds. Grrrr.

Paj, that is very frustrating. Grrrr... Darn little animals. If they would play nice we wouldn't mind them so much, but they insist on being so greedy and evil!

Ooh, in your raised beds? I think is definitely grounds for fighting back.

At our old house there was a ground squirrel whose presence was tolerated until he started stockpiling strawberries and green tomatoes. Then he got a long ride to a new home.

Evil, Evil, Dastardly Spawn of Satan Varmit Gophers GRRRR!!!!!!!!

These gophers -- they come in numbers, not onesies and twosies, will be trapped and executed. I know this sounds heartless, but it is the only thing that I believe really works. I am told that gophers are extremely territorial and putting one in with foreign gophers will guarantee its death anyhow.
I once bought a gopher have-a-heart tree and could not get it to work, nor could the owner of the store that sold it to me. Perhaps those have-a-heart traps work for larger animals but apparently not for gophers.

Ooh, I confess, Paj, that might be a solution to the pet food problem, LOL!

I truly hate working with chickenwire....... I have used it to cover plants but putting it in the ground around roots has always seemed more work than it's worth. Probably cause I just have not yet run into the situation that is worth it!

I think a cat is just what the doctor ordered in this case. My dogs scare gophers off from the yard, but they aren't allowed out in the iris/veggie garden except on leash because it isn't fenced. So far they haven't shown much interest in gophers even when on leash. I thought of fencing the vacant lot, but it might be cheaper, but more of a pain if I used the hardware cloth under ground. Groan!

Well, be advised that it is very hard for a cat to catch a gopher. They have to be willing to wait at their holes for ages and they also have to be unusually good hunters in other ways. They have to not be distracted at any time by all the easier prey around! Some cats are just not interested.

That is really a shame, Paj, that you are having this issue!

Years ago when I had cats, they cleaned all the gophers out of my yard. The ones that survived moved next door -- I literally saw them move. But DH is allergic to cats and I am told keeping a cat outdoors is considered inhumane, so I am hoping my neighbor's cat will come over for a hunt every now and then. But most likely it will be up to me.
My cats were crazy about gopher for dinner.

Well, maybe I just had lazy cats, except the one that caught gophers. ;-)

Hey Paj, maybe you could convince a nice gopher snake to live in your vacant lot. That would take care of the problem really quick.

I confess that I believe in fostering the natural selection of Gophers that do not have a taste for Iris or Tomatoes.

I have often wished for a gopher snake. They are also very pretty as I recall. But the local snake expert tells me they don't stay put -- they travel from place to place. But if I see one at the pet store -- I would buy it anyhow for a quick cleanout. My veggie beds should keep a snake well fed for several months.

Yes, I like the idea dparsons, but have no clue how to do that. Maybe aversion therapy -- wire the plants with electricity so when they bite them, they get a shock. That's a lot of wiring though.
I have a neighbor who poisons them, but it doesn't really help all that much in my yard. I worry about the neighborhood pets, including my own getting poisoned, too.

No, I would guess if anything it just pushes more in your direction.

You kill the ones that like the taste of Irises. The next generation doesn't have a taste for Irises.

I confess that I'm sick to death of this weather.
I confess that my job is making me crazier than I already was. I confess that I don't want to work on any more grants or partenerships.

And I confess that I'm a little bit scared of opening my compost. I confess that I spent way too much money on a black compost bin and it's now being held together with string and tape. And that I'm afraid when I open the every so convinante door at the bottom that it will all explode out the sides. I confess that the idea of explosive compost terifies me.

Calculating the trajectory of exploding compost, I surmise that if you juryrig a loooooong string and trip the door from afar, it just might explode into your beds thus saving the spreading-the-compost-step, which I confess will make me very jealous because that can be a wearisome step.

Hmmm. I confess that makes the idea much less frightening. Tho of course, I didn't put it anywhere it would be easy to get on the beds=)

I know people that have made a study of blowing things up.

Lol. I made accidental apple wine explode before.

Shame on you Duchess. You shall blow up no wine before its time (hic). I blew up a bottle of wine in the truck this winter (rolled under the seat and froze). DH was NOT amused.

I hang my head in shame. Tho in my defense the makeing of the wine was the accident part and I was maybe 7. I put the fresh, in a glass bottel apple juice in the laundry room and forgot it. When it exploded months later, in the middel of the night my folks thought it was me falling off the bunk bed again. The laundry room smelled wonderful tho.

Oh my! Gophers should never eat irises! It should guarantee severe tummy aches for them. I used to have a cat that hovered around the gopher holes until he got them all. Before that, long before, I lived in Arizona and had no gopher problems until I killed the rattlesnake that lived in my tomato plants. Then I had plenty of gophers.

Problem was, I likely would have ignored the snake except my daughter was kindergarten age and played in the yard. I simply had to get rid of the poor snake so it did not get rid of my daughter.

Blowing up birthday cakes is fun. Fuse a firecracker in the bottom layer to a candle on top. Fuse another firecracker in the top layer to another candle. The wick will be shorter for the top firecracker which means when it goes, it gets everyone close. Then when everyone else rushes up to see the wreckage, the second firecracker gets them.

I have never done that but had a friend who specialized in it. I could try it, anyone want a birthday party? Evil smirk.

Somehow there must be a way to put blowing up birthday cakes expertise, blowing up wine expertise, potentially explosive compost, and unruly gophers together for beneficial outcome.

I feel sure we will come up with the method shortly.

Kyla, it takes a special person to put explosives and gophers together. Poor gophers (heh, heh).

If we do it right we can end up with enough left for catfood. Maybe even dogfood!