The 2019 Garden, Landscape, and Other Stuff Thread...

[22-rimfire]

Things are looking good.

I picked up my Three-Way Meter today (soil moisture, pH, and light). Will be playing around with it but it seems to work. It confirmed that my house is "dark".

 

[taldesta]

<......>Somebody asked about these flowers, they're Crocosmia and hummingbirds love them. My patch was three plants 4 years ago.

eisman, the 'before and after' comparison is truly impressive - shows all the work and thought you've put into the property. Just beautiful.

Spring 2018 I planted crocosmia bulbs and they flowered first year ... a beautiful, elegant perennial with attractive foliage. They do seem to enjoy your climate a lot.

My guess is that a squirrel has been gardening with sunflower seeds intended for the birds - that happens here a lot

 

[taldesta]

Just for fun: we have the same potato. The USA potato is quite long at 8 1/8", however the Canadian potato is humungous at 206 mm!

All the more for poutine ... yum!

 

[22-rimfire]

Give me a middle sized potato any day. I seldom eat an entire large potato. Sometimes you get these big giant potatoes in restaurants... looks nice, but not real practical for me. I'll waste half of it. There is a barbecue place down the road from me that I really like; they make what they call "killer baked potatoes"..... yum yum. They have a sweet barbecue sauce versus the vinegar based type which I generally don't care for. They do have a really large version of the potato but I never order one of those as I'll waste a lot of it. Always pork since I have a red meat allergy.....pork seems okay and causes me no problems so far (6 years and running).

I am going to give Crocosmia a try. I read that they like sunny and well drained soil. Not sure where I'll plant, but I want to give them a try. I agree, they do seem to like Eisman's climate, soil and exposure.

 

[annr]

That potato (on steroids) will last the 2 of us 3–4 days. I agree it is too large for a single serving!

I learned recently that refrigerating cooked potatoes changes the starch—making it healthier somehow. Reheating them does not negate that effect. So that’s what we do: eat them cold or reheated (not because of that info, but if that’s true, it’s another benefit AFIC.) When I’m on the go, I grab a slice and take it with me for a snack—very filling.

 

[LEGION 12]

Things are looking good.

I picked up my Three-Way Meter today (soil moisture, pH, and light). Will be playing around with it but it seems to work. It confirmed that my house is "dark".

Mine helped me realize that my raised bed needs less water than I thought .

 

[eisman]

Thanks for the nice comments everyone.

I don't have anything new to post in the way of pictures, and I'm headed back out on the road this weekend for the rest of the month so posts will be fewer and the gardening will be nill. I did have a great experience this morning, as I got to watch one of my Anna's hummingbirds take her bath. I had just turned off the water and was standing in the yard when I noticed a hummer in the Pieris. Since it's not blooming, and she was obviously not interested in the roses just below, I got to watch her rub and shake her "shower" for a couple minutes. It reminded me of Buz and the ivy.

 

[SW-EDC]

SW-EDC I like cactus also. What do you do with them when they get about 4 feet tall and want to fall over?

Have not had any get that tall yet but you just re-pot them in bigger pots. Our house is built at the base of a mountain so we have a small hill in our backyard I'm going to "desertscape" soon with some of the larger ones.

 

[SW-EDC]

Peppers from left to right.
Carmen italian sweet, unknown long green and not hot, chocolate bell, black cobra.

Carrots, chili de arbol pepper, yellow jalapeno, bishops cap, cherry tomato, heirloom tomato, and Butch-T scorpion pepper.

 

[22-rimfire]

Some of my bell peppers didn't do so well this year. Trying to figure out "why"? Shade? Too much sun? Soil? Only a few of mine have actually done well and the others are really puny. Been tempted to buy a couple new plants, but it is probably a bit late to do that.

 

[LEGION 12]

Some of my bell peppers didn't do so well this year. Trying to figure out "why"? Shade? Too much sun? Soil? Only a few of mine have actually done well and the others are really puny. Been tempted to buy a couple new plants, but it is probably a bit late to do that.

I only got one so far .

 

[22-rimfire]

I've gotten a few more than one bell pepper this year so far. Had a nice red Pimento cut up on a sandwich yesterday. I like them.

Yesterday, I broke down and watered my front yard. We haven't had a 1 inch+ rain (that's 2.54+ cm Taldesta) in a month. We have gotten a few showers that measured in the 0.01 to 0.3 inch category, but the ones over 0.1" have been uncommon. Amazing how the grass grew over night. I honestly hate to water the lawn. But, I'm good for another week now.

Noticed a significant buildup (pooling) of water saturated mulch at the HVAC condensate discharge point against my foundation yesterday. I have noticed that in some cases, mold can develop inside a crawl space if the water migrates there from the outside. Measured the pipe diameter (plastic) and bought a sump pump hose (which are pretty cheap and flexible) to slip onto the pipe and move the water away from my foundation. I wanted something that I could slip back off during the winter months rather than a permanent extension on the pvc pipe.

 

[taldesta]

<....> Yesterday, I broke down and watered my front yard. We haven't had a 1 inch+ rain (that's 2.54+ cm Taldesta) in a month. We have gotten a few showers that measured in the 0.01 to 0.3 inch category, but the ones over 0.1" have been uncommon. Amazing how the grass grew over night. I honestly hate to water the lawn. But, I'm good for another week now.

Very dry here as well. Normally I don't gauge the rainfall, but it looks like that might need to change. Perfect vacation weather for the tourists, though, and that makes a successful season for the resorts, marinas - all service industries and retailers etc. Now, I honestly find the heightened traffic on the highway and in town something to avoid. In fact I was driven off the road by an oncoming vehicle passing on a solid line last Saturday. One would have expected the driver to nose out, take a look, see the pass was not doable, and for him to nip back into his lane. But not. He kept coming, I was forced off the road as close as I dared to the guard rail, and then BAM - both rear view mirrors - smashed. That was close. Glass shards all over the dash. Glad I was wearing sunglasses. Then yesterday, on my return from the vets, at the exact same stretch in the road, another vehicle passed me on that solid line. Mostly it's vacationers coming off the four lane highway, still in overdrive. Well he was then slowed by the vehicles ahead of me anyway - no figuring sense into it.

 

[taldesta]

Once Busby went into the wild, my daughter asked me if I would know her if she returned. I told her that she won't land on my hand, she was not a pet and was not handled ... but that she would likely hover and stare into the camera lens. Easy guess Now I have some video that tells me Busby is here among the 6 to 8 or so regulars who hang in the bee balm. I believe she has two little girls that she is teaching. Short tails on the small ones, but capable of zipping wildly around. They frequently perch right on the top of the purple liatris spikes right outside Busby's winter window.

The happy noises they make when they find food or a lovely bath - Busby taught to me over winter. Now I recognize that the yard is full of hummingbirds even when I don't spot them.

I don't know who this is, but bold and unafraid ...I'm regularly swarmed and buzzed near the bee balm. I'll post a video of my Busby suspect next time at the library wifi

 

[taldesta]

A drone flying overhead would notice my brightly coloured postage stamp here I think ... and so I hope the birds do too. I've added a third bath in the shade of the maple - good traction and shallow. Often I think that Busby's mum brought her here when she was in trouble last September for the nasturtiums and the petunias that bloom until killing frost.

Credit goes to my squirrel gardener for the single sunflower. The black currants have sweetened up enough that all critters are feasting.



The new dig is putting up gladiolas and cosmos in abundance - pinks and reds. This is my first time trying glads and I'm liking them a lot. Black currant is to left of pic.



The planters are arranged in an irregular arc around the maple tree on the East so that they are shaded from the afternoon heat and uv. In fact, in one of the planters, tiger eye pansies are thriving in spite of the heat. Between the 'lawn' and the wild hill, the new dig shows better results on the lower end - water retention difference in the soil I suspect. I am mulching it today to retain water.

 

[annr]

taldesta Sounds like you have some certifiable “Boston” drivers on the loose. Glad to hear you are ok, but the reckless are not “wreck less,” and we see that kind of thing on a regular basis—dangling side mirrors, half-attached bumpers, left turns from the right lane with the right clicker on, driving on wrong side of street...into oncoming traffic, U-turns on exit ramps...

Looking good up there! Love those colours! And hummers!

22-rimfire We haven't watered all year and the "free" stuff comes with a price: last storm blew all the blooms off the petunias and we found a stray tomato about 10' away in the back yard. Some of the other tomatoes looked pummeled. But still fun.

 

[LEGION 12]

 

[LEGION 12]

 

[LEGION 12]

 

[taldesta]

You are definitely farming