Fogbow

RVInit wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 1:28 am

Patagoniagirl wrote: ↑Sat May 15, 2021 11:07 am I dont remember if I shared this before the great tragedy, or after our newly launched FB. Anywhoo.

I purchased a packet of Dills Giant Atlantic Pumpkin seeds. 10 for 7$. The idea was that my brother in Nashville, my brother in Greenville, Ohio, and me in NW Ohio would all plant three seeds and see who can grow the biggest pumpkin. The average weight claimed by Dills is 200-300 pounds but it is reported they can reach 1000 pounds.

Then, evil got ahold of me and I sent seeds from ordinary pumpkins to baby bro; other bro and I are growing the real ones. Baby bro always light-heartedly tries to one up other bro and me. I absolutely expect he will go out and BUY a giant pumpkin at the end of season. I'm excited.

That is EXACTLY what my kid brother would do.

Slim Cognito wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 10:22 am Help.

After a tree was cut down, Hubs kept the wood because he wanted to build a firepit. The pit never happened and now the pile of wood is overgrown with grass and weeds. I've been trimming up the trees and bushes in that general area this morning and just have the wood pile left. Hubs warned me, before heading to work, that the wood pile may have snakes in it. So, what are my options other than setting the whole thing on fire?

Hire someone
Pull the wood pile apart with a long rake
Wait until winter
Give it another couple decades to decompose on its own
Hasten that process with some mushroom mulch

Slim Cognito wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 10:22 am Help.

After a tree was cut down, Hubs kept the wood because he wanted to build a firepit. The pit never happened and now the pile of wood is overgrown with grass and weeds. I've been trimming up the trees and bushes in that general area this morning and just have the wood pile left. Hubs warned me, before heading to work, that the wood pile may have snakes in it. So, what are my options other than setting the whole thing on fire?

Get you a mongoose.

bill_g wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 10:46 am

Slim Cognito wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 10:22 am Help.

After a tree was cut down, Hubs kept the wood because he wanted to build a firepit. The pit never happened and now the pile of wood is overgrown with grass and weeds. I've been trimming up the trees and bushes in that general area this morning and just have the wood pile left. Hubs warned me, before heading to work, that the wood pile may have snakes in it. So, what are my options other than setting the whole thing on fire?

Hire someone
Pull the wood pile apart with a long rake
Wait until winter
Give it another couple decades to decompose on its own
Hasten that process with some mushroom mulch

Sadly, we don't have winter, but I'm thinking of hiring someone.
I grabbed a couple of pieces on the top and they were already paper thin. Where do I find mushroom mulch?

Thanks!

Estiveo wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 11:14 am

Slim Cognito wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 10:22 am Help.

After a tree was cut down, Hubs kept the wood because he wanted to build a firepit. The pit never happened and now the pile of wood is overgrown with grass and weeds. I've been trimming up the trees and bushes in that general area this morning and just have the wood pile left. Hubs warned me, before heading to work, that the wood pile may have snakes in it. So, what are my options other than setting the whole thing on fire?

Get you a mongoose.

Slim Cognito wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 11:20 am
Sadly, we don't have winter, but I'm thinking of hiring someone.
I grabbed a couple of pieces on the top and they were already paper thin. Where do I find mushroom mulch?

Thanks!

Mushroom mulch is the spent growth media from an edible mushroom factory. AKA really fancy compost. They make giant piles of it for mushroom growers from farm waste (manures, etc), pack it into trays, innoculate it with mushroom spores, and within a couple weeks they have lots of edible white mushrooms for the salad dept at you local grocer.

After that single growth cycle, it's considered spent, dumped, and a new batch is started. It's no good for growing lots of mushrooms, but it's wonderful dirt for the vegetable garden if you don't mind occasionally having mushrooms (plural) in your garden. All that compost gets snapped up on the wholesale market by brokers who in turn move it out to the commercial market under various brand names.

It may not be available in bulk near you. However, if you have a favorite garden center, ask them where you can get several bags (generally 1-2 cubic feet) of mushroom mulch, mushroom compost, or spent mushroom growth media. Even a couple bags of plain old compost that brags about mycorrhizal this and that being in it should be a good start. A quick Google of mycorrhizal gave a bunch of sources including Home Depot.

Pour those bags over the wood pile, give it some water, and a couple years. As long as it gets some water every so often, the mushrooms will do the rest of the work. Fungi love to decompose wood. It's one of their favorite foods.

Slim Cognito wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 10:22 am Help.

Wait until November and have a Guy Fawkes bonfire. You could make a party of it and even burn an effigy

The gardens are all doing pretty well given a serious deficit of rain. Makes you very thankful for a healthy well. What’s killing me is all this damn pollen!

I SO miss peonies. They smell so good and so easy to care for. Just don't forget the rinse off the ants before bringing the blooms inside.

This year has been a killer allergy season for me, too. But at least this spring I knew the difference between an allergy-related sore throat and COVID. My eyes have been watering and itching like the dickens all spring and I just had cataract surgery (it went very well, BTW).

Slim Cognito wrote: ↑Thu May 20, 2021 2:13 pm I SO miss peonies. They smell so good and so easy to care for. Just don't forget the rinse off the ants before bringing the blooms inside.

This year has been a killer allergy season for me, too. But at least this spring I knew the difference between an allergy-related sore throat and COVID. My eyes have been watering and itching like the dickens all spring and I just had cataract surgery (it went very well, BTW).

We have peonies literally everywhere, some light pink some white, they all like it here. I learned a long time ago that it doesn't matter what you want to grow in any particular place. If something want's to grow somewhere it will otherwise you're just wasting your time. The other thing that likes it here are sunflowers and the birds love them! They grow all over the place here too.
Glad the surgery went well! Eye surgery terrifies me! Eyeballs were the one thing I just couldn't do on the rescue squad, especially if they weren't exactly where they were supposed to be. My partner was gay and couldn't do what he called "cooter calls" so I took the cooters and he did the eyeballs.

My sister is a flower farmer (like, for realz). I can’t grow anything. She gave me a big bag of zinnia seeds. She just picked the heads from last year and dried them out. She told me to get a big bag of soil, mix the seeds in, then spread the soil out where I want the zinnias to grow. We’ll see.

I LOVE peonies. My mother had a long border of them. I think the people who moved in after I sold her house took them out. I can't bring myself to go look.

AndyinPA wrote: ↑Thu May 20, 2021 5:49 pm I LOVE peonies. My mother had a long border of them. I think the people who moved in after I sold her house took them out. I can't bring myself to go look.

There is zero reason to ever take out a peony other than to share it to somewhere else.

MsDaisy wrote: ↑Thu May 20, 2021 7:49 pm

AndyinPA wrote: ↑Thu May 20, 2021 5:49 pm I LOVE peonies. My mother had a long border of them. I think the people who moved in after I sold her house took them out. I can't bring myself to go look.

There is zero reason to ever take out a peony other than to share it to somewhere else.

I agree completely.

Zinnias are easy to grow, at least here in zone 6. Four to six hours of sunshine daily and they can tolerate dry soil for a day or three. If you let the heads dry and open while still planted, voila you have zinnias next year already in place!

I know people with brown thumbs. I can drop a seed, and it becomes an invasive species. They drop a seed, and everything around it dies. Even silk flowers are in danger around them. I have no explanation for it.

bill_g wrote: ↑Fri May 21, 2021 7:32 am I know people with brown thumbs. I can drop a seed, and it becomes an invasive species. They drop a seed, and everything around it dies. Even silk flowers are in danger around them. I have no explanation for it.

That’s me.

Maybenaut wrote: ↑Fri May 21, 2021 7:58 am

bill_g wrote: ↑Fri May 21, 2021 7:32 am I know people with brown thumbs. I can drop a seed, and it becomes an invasive species. They drop a seed, and everything around it dies. Even silk flowers are in danger around them. I have no explanation for it.

That’s me.

Not a problem. In my experience, in a large enough group, the performance peaks and dips of individuals compliment each other. There will be enough good gardeners in the world to satisfy the demand, and whatever it is you do will also be fulfilled.

Well, I’ve decided to change my attitude. New home, new routine, and I’m not going to succumb to the “I can’t grow anything!” excuse. I started with Boston Ferns hanging outside in the shade. They didn’t die. I’ve moved on to petunias and geraniums in the full sun (also not dead even though they have different requirements for watering). those are all in containers.

Now I’m going to plant my zinnias in the ground (my sister gave me a mesh bag with about 1.5 gallons of seeds). She gave me a couple of options, and said the easiest might be to just break the ground up a little bit with a garden rake, mix the seeds in a bag of soil then spread it around. We can’t use a tiller or cultivator because we have a lot of rocks, but she said the rocks likely won’t be a problem for the flowers. We shall see.

I have had rotten luck with growing succulents lately. At the same time, I have three orchids in bloom. Go figure.

We have an invasive species here called Mexican Petunias*. Not sure if that's the real name, but that's what everyone calls them. It's a tall, attractive weed with pretty purple flowers. You can break one off, stick it in the sandy ground and it grows.

I put them everywhere something else I planted died.

*All the garden centers sell them. The state of Florida would rather they didn't, at least the native species groups.

Slim Cognito wrote: ↑Fri May 21, 2021 10:44 am We have an invasive species here called Mexican Petunias*. Not sure if that's the real name, but that's what everyone calls them. It's a tall, attractive weed with pretty purple flowers. You can break one off, stick it in the sandy ground and it grows.

I put them everywhere something else I planted died.

*All the garden centers sell them. The state of Florida would rather they didn't, at least the native species groups.

We have the purple, pink and white here. They are so prolific they grow in the cracks of driveways.

I got a reedy, nearly dead Mexican Petunia in a pot at a yard sale for nothing ( here, take this too!). I had no idea what it was but I’m glad I looked it up and didn’t just plop it in the ground. Mine has purple flowers, I discovered yesterday.

I have no idea where my greenish thumb comes from. My mom had two thumbs… and a gardener; an enduring memory of my dad is him sitting on our deck behind some branches, slingshot at the ready, just waiting for that pesky scrub jay to take some more of his hanging basket material. He bought the basket fully planted at Home Depot.

I love to putter in the garden and I don’t kill everything. Just some things. It’s so dang hot and dry here that even a few days’ inattention can kill plants.