This is a frustrating time of year in my garden, cleaning up all the dank detritus I didn’t get around to last fall, watching the temperatures bounce between the 40s and the high 70s, and judging exactly when the tree pollen level goes from ‘moderately high’ to ‘off the charts’ by the state of my sinuses. But the handful of leftover 2-year-old ‘Tete a Tete’ mini-daffodil bulbs I hastily stuffed in the raised bed last Thanksgiving weekend are blooming bravely, as is the vinca, and all the other mostly cream-colored daffodils I’ve been ‘naturalizing’ since we bought this place 17 years ago.
This weekend, with any luck, I’ll be able to pick up a few six-paks of pansies at my favorite garden center, and some asparagus crowns for the raised bed that finally got tucked in one corner last fall. From what I’ve read, that spot is probably not quite sunny enough for best results, mostly because one hideously misshapen oak tree leans over it. I’m hoping that the new crowns can leaf up in advance of the tree… or that the latest winter-split branch dangling over the power lines will finally convince the city to prune it, if they won’t remove it from the public way altogether.
What’s it like in your garden right now?
Warren Terra
I don’t have a garden (I’m in an apartment complex – though I’m on the ground floor, and there’s a whole south-facing patio directly behind my bedroom that no-one ever, ever visits, so I’ve been tempted to put a potted tomato out there).
Still, in garden-related news, more or less, I left a long-ish comment in the previous thread about drought, and laughable non-response, in Midland, Texas.
Ahasuerus
Silver bells, and cockle shells, and pretty maids all in a row.
Except the damn deer ate them all this winter. And a couple of shrubs. And, I swear to god, a (small) tree.
jharp
A good portion of leaves on some of my tomatoes have turned pretty pale. Like dying pale. But there are still good green healthy looking leaves on them as well.
Keep in mind they are not in the ground. I have been acclimating them to the outdoors (I’m in central Indiana) since it is too early to plant outside.
Does anyone know if this is a symptom of too much outdoors at once? The stalks look good. Thankfully it’s only on a few plants.
jl
Since the great spring cleaning/clean up/rip up of a few weeks ago, wet dirt.
Not sure what to do.
Don’t have time to much of anything.
I guess scatter some local wildflower seeds and see what happens?
Right now the wet dirt looks pretty OK. It’s low maintenance so far, but that will change very quickly unless I do something.
MagicPanda
I’d sworn off gardening on the theory that (a) I don’t have the discipline, (b) the weather in San Francisco is too foggy and unpredictable, and ( c) it’s a lot easier to go to the farmer’s market to buy a better version of pretty much anything I could grow myself.
But now that my kids are getting to be old enough to be curious, we decided to plant a tiny garden. (chard, lettuces, herbs, cherry tomatoes, peppers).
So far the kids are loving it.
currants
Rhubarb is up, as is asparagus (well, this is the 2nd go-round….it’s been a long haul: 4 yrs since I planted the first round, which came up the first year and not the second, now it’s year 2 of the second go-round, and about 18 plants are up–we can harvest for 2 weeks this year, 4 weeks next year, and open season beginning the year after, and I just hope it lives that long). Also parsley, thyme, and peas. The garlic planted last fall looks fabulous, and kale’s up too. Up in the attic/greenhouse, pepper plants, celery root, leeks, are in good shape, and I hope the tomatoes sprout soon. But I hope none of them need any serious attention before the middle of May when exams are over!
MizB
Iris’s are up-too soon to bloom, early tulip’s are blooming, clematis are showing lots of new green, & the day lilly’s are getting very big. And don’t forget the dandilion’s-they are as hardy as ever.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
Since it says Open Thread, I think someone needs to take away my American citizenship. Not only am I rooting for the Canadiens to beat Boston, but my current earworm is “O, Canada.” My mental response to that was, “At least it’s better than the day earlier this week when I couldn’t get ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ out of my head That was a nightmare.”
Clearly, I am a fake American. Can I move north and get my subsidized health care now?
Anne Laurie
@jl: Don’t know your location, but right now what looks best in my garden are the alpine strawberry plants that overwintered in 14″ pots. Including the pot at the end of the front walkway that’s only 2 feet from a busy road, and which spent the past 5 months getting snowplowed over. They don’t spread like ‘normal’ strawberries, but they make very pretty green mounds that are as evergreen as any non-shrub gets around here. And when we remember to look for them, there are tiny delicious strawberries any time between June and October — never very many at once, but it’s a lovely bonus!
The other mounding almost-perennial not-exactly-groundcover plant that’s done well for us along the sidewalk are geraniums (pelargoniums), which don’t fruit, but sometimes the pretty leaves are scented, too.
burnspbesq
Lots of flowers on the tomato plants, lots of immature berries on the blueberry bushes. It’s all good.
OT: the new Emmylou Harris album is on NPR first listen. Listening to it as I write this. Liking what I hear so far.
Omnes Omnibus
It snowed here earlier this week. I have a philodendron that isn’t dying, but it isn’t flourishing either. The jade plant developed bugs, became limp, and died. This the sum of my gardening situation.
South of I-10
Zucchini and squash are looking good and I have tiny tomatoes on my tomato plants. We need some rain, it’s too dry. The lime tree I planted is looking good too.
kdaug
My “garden”? Reduced to pulverized dust by a 100lb Golden Retriever and a 50lb German Shepherd pup who love nothing more than chasing each other, full tilt, around in circles and figure eights between our two trees.
The only place there’s any semblance of green is their self-designated “poo zone”. The rest most resembles a moonscape.
OTOH, the Shepard did catch/find a rat yesterday, and she had a mighty bit of fun running away from us and shaking the corpse into a pulverized mess. Peanut butter-filled pretzel was the only way to salvage the poor thing and give it a proper disposal.
OTO,OH, the Golden had killed the first 3 of his 7 birds by her age.
Should I be worried?
BeccaM
Here in New Mexico, in our new (rental) house, we built our first planting bed, constructed a wind-blocking structure over it, and put in a bunch of plantings we’d grown from seeds.
A week later, massive windstorms and 3 nights of freezing temperatures put an end to that particular experiment. What the wind didn’t kill (despite the structure, which itself was torn apart), the cold did.
So we bought some more plants, started some more seedlings, and will try again. Today, I went to get some paving stones so we can assemble (and firmly bolt down) a small 6×8 greenhouse.
Over the coming weeks, we’re hopeful we can get something decent going here.
Alex
My garden is full of rabbits, woodchucks, and precious little else. Bleh.
Maybe I should just call it a zoological garden and be done with it.
Yutsano
I’m debating a small herb garden since I have a large open bar that I could set all the pots on. My only real concern: my Galtian overlord. I am askeered she’ll decide they all look tasty and I’ll come home from work to find them all ground down to nubs.
burnspbesq
@Yutsano:
Plant some catnip as a distraction.
rea
Still a bit of snow on the ground; strange debris from last year’s natural gas explosion next door seems to have collected in the garden–it wasn’t there last fall. A hardy sprout or two begins to surface in the flowerbeds. No sign of the woodchuck.
jo6pac
Bell peppers are going well as are the tomatoes, one plant has a flower, the Dan Q plants have come out of the ground and so have the onions. The fava are going to be harvested starting this next week. Still need to run water to the rosemary and other plants and trees. Orange tree is blooming as is the Royal Sunset Rose, you can smell them 20ft away and it’s looks like it will be in the mid to high 70s next week in the Central Valley in Calif. Grow Garden Grow.
Gina
Raised veggie beds full of debris not removed this fall, with liberal additions of cat feces from neighbor’s outdoor kitty. So, I’m considering dismantling it all and just going with pots on the upstairs deck for any edible plants, and maybe some indoor hydroponics if I can get my act together to work out the details.
The dog run was trampled free of all grass last year during a drought, leaving pure clay. I was going to plant grass and block it off, but decided to bag it and put down wood chips. The dogs love it, and it’s cut down on muddy paw prints by about 95%. It makes finding poo to scoop a bit more challenging as it’s well camouflaged, but it’s not so bad. Better than the former state.
Yutsano
HOLEE CWAP!!
Chunk is all growed up and saving China! And he turned into kind of a hawtie too.
jl
@Anne Laurie:
Why, yes, we can grow alpine strawberries in this part of Northern California, at least the Sunset mag garden guide says we can.
Mmmmmm…. Strawberries.
Except you have to buy the plants, you can’t seed (probably not, they are strawberries and the seeds are dinky and hard to start)? That won’t do for the whole back yard (cheapskate alert!).
Thanks. I will try some where there is enough sun in the back.
Svensker
@jl:
Buy 10 plants. In a few years, you’ll have 100s.
Last year, we had a plague of woodchucks that ate every dang thing in the garden. Every. Dang. Thing. Until I, um, made them, er, go away. Managed to plant a few things and got at least a couple of tomatoes and some beans after the disappearance of the chucks. Then we sold the house and the buyers really pissed me off during the negotiations. When I was back a few weeks ago to clean the house out for the closing, there was a big fat hungry woodchuck grazing on the new grass in the back yard. Heh.
Nellcote
Daffodils & tulips are peaking, bonsai apple tree in bloom. china rose w/tons of buds and a few blooms, jasmine starting to bud, leftover from last year snapdragons are blooming, fairy wands are blooming, fuscias are threatening to overgrow the porch, roses are starting to leaf out. Finding lots of black leafed plants at the nursery besides the black mondo grass, I may finally get to plant my “goth garden” this year.
TaMara (BHF)
I’m helping a friend salvage her rose garden tomorrow. They never went dormant this winter and are really going to need some pruning, etc, to make sure they don’t get diseased. It is a beautiful summer garden though and I’m sure I’ll get my fair share of bouquets from it, so it will be worth the work.
CatHairEverywhere
Tomatoes growing and starting to blossom, boysenberry vines covered in blossoms, some small blueberries, apricots and peaches on their respective plants. Lots of iris and tons of poppies- a few varieties of California poppies, big red poppies, Shirley poppies and some Queen Anne’s lace. The honeysuckle is beginning to bloom and all of the citrus trees in the neighborhood are in full bloom, so my yard smells great, when my sinuses are clear enough for me to smell anything. Achoo!
kdaug
@Gina:
Sounding better and better.
NineJean
Moss. everywhere.
In the grass, covering the patio, in all the beds, on the steps, on the driveway. Probably in my hair as well.
Trying to figure out how to kill the stuff, on the patio, at least, without poisoning everything else. Probably have to wait until it stops raining, though…
gnomedad
Michele Bachmann: Obama’s Birth Certificate is Legal
Peak Wingnut at last? Perhaps teh crazy has become such a commodity that the only was to get attention is to make some sense.
Gina
@kdaug: Best part is getting the chips for free from the pile at the municipal office.
Steeplejack
Night shift checking in.
Randinho needs to get up in here with a soccer post. Hilarity earlier today, when Real Madrid, the new champions of the Spanish league, dropped the trophy off the top of a double-decker bus, which proceeded to run over it.
Video.
Silver lining: at least it wasn’t the goalie who dropped it.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
You and Aunt Dahlia can find Bertie and I at the Drones Club.
.
.
suzanne
@Yutsano:
My little domme Scout ate three entire basil plants. So I hearz ya.
So I got a call at work from the assistant principal of my daughter’s school. She told a friend a secret, then the friend told someone else, so my daughter hit her friend, not hard, on the arm. My daughter, who is super-sensitive to adult disapproval, got sent to the office, and had to miss recess, and came home and cried. Awwwww.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: He is SO your type. Hey. How you be?
@Steeplejack: Yo. S’up?
We had snow yesterday and fifties today. Bleeeeah. I think winter is over.
::Pours one on the curb for winter::
Left Coast Tom
@asiangrrlMN:
What a horrible thing to say! I have skiing plans for Memorial Day weekend.
Don K
Eh, it’s Michigan during a really cold spring. Hell, we had snow a couple of days ago. Crocuses finished a week or so ago, and nothing blooming to take their place. Lots of brave green shoots (daffodils, irises, lilies, assorted perennials I can’t remember at the moment, oh yeah, the daisies are looking good). The local deer are taking care of the tulips quite effectively. The amelanchiers have been threatening to bloom for a while now, but nothing yet. This really is the ugliest time of year around here; I can deal with snow on the ground, it’s kinda pretty, but this barrenness really gets to me.
We had a problem with groundhogs several years back (there was one who would nibble on the hanging branches of our weeping mulberries as far up as he could stand, then would lounge in the tops of the trees munching on the leaves – he looked like an otter lying around cracking open mollusks – until the trees looked like they got a really bad haircut), but the cats took care of that. Understand, a groundhog can defend himself against a cat; all he has to do is charge really fast and the cat will run like hell. All I can figure is that the cats were kind of annoying, so the groundhogs left for someplace with fewer annoyances.
Omnes Omnibus
@Left Coast Tom: I am jealous. Where are you going?
MikeJ
@asiangrrlMN: They said snow down to 500′ here tonight, but I’m not expecting much from it.
Steaming Pile
In upstate NY? Wet. Very fucking wet. We’ve made up our minds, though, that the seed potatoes go in the ground (actually, a kind of dirt soup) on Saturday morning, rain or shine. I also have to find time between rainstorms to cut the grass, which isn’t about to wait around for the sun to come out to turn a brilliant green and start growing. And then, no doubt, I’ll be raking up wet clumps of clippings and putting them into the compost heap.
The rest of my garden is still indoors in pots.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Home from work, don’t have to go back until 4:30 tomorrow, so I’m feeling like I’ve got a little extra night-owl time to burn. Yee-haw.
You? How’s the sleep-rearranging thing going?
Shelton Lankford
Eastern Shore, MD – year three for two raised beds, expanded to three (10×10) which were highly productive last year – still eating Roma tomatoes and jalapenos from last year via freezer. Tomatoes and peppers went in last week. Squash and cukes went in this week. Decided to cultivate the surround of that plot for vine plants. I credit our 10×20 composting corrall with the quality of the produce- no chem. fertilizer, just well-rotted leaf and kitchen scrap compost. Looks like warm wx is here to stay – hooray!
Left Coast Tom
@Omnes Omnibus: Mammoth Lakes. They’re always open at least that late, this year I’ve seen online rumors that they may be trying for July 4.
asiangrrlMN
@Left Coast Tom: You. Suck.
@suzanne: Aw, your poor girl. I feel bad for her.
@Steeplejack: Woot-hoot for you! It’s brutal. I’m trying for 1 a.m., but I can never quite make it.
You know what’s even more difficult? Not swearing. Gumdrop it.
MikeJ, what good does that do MEEEEEEEE?
Yevgraf (fka Michael)
OT, but I’m really desperate to shatter this myth about Ron Paul.
Libertarian, my ass.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52941.html
He’s a fucking thug of an anti-semite and racist, who uses the moniker “libertarian” to mask his goal of setting up a bunch of small cell theonomist baronies across the country, which ultimately get to link up into one single white supremacist christofascist organism to rule us all with a pharisaic, oppressive fist. All done in the name of “freedom” of course.
He’s damaged goods, but he’s got his slackjawed spawn set up to carry the asshole klukker banner further.
Left Coast Tom
@asiangrrlMN:
I’ll probably be skiing double-diamond slopes in shorts and t-shirt, if that helps.
Yutsano
@suzanne: Poor puplet. At least you had milk and cookies waiting for her at home, amirite?
@asiangrrlMN: I was kinda shocked, I’d never had made the connection unless I had seen him. And yes I noticed the lack of ringage on his left hand. Though in LA that prolly means boo.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
You’ve been doing pretty well on the swearing, dagnab it. And creative, too.
Omnes Omnibus
@Left Coast Tom: Bastard.
Calouste
@Yevgraf (fka Michael):
Nah, he’s right there. It’s just that that “belief structure” is IGMFY. And you can make any “philosophy” stem from that, without contradictions.
asiangrrlMN
Left Coast Tom: It does. I don’t ski. It’s just the snow I covet. You must be talking the fake stuff.
@Yutsano: You got that right on the last part. He’s a cutie, for sure.
@Steeplejack: Two Fu Schnickens day, and then I can swear to my heart’s content again. My first post on Easter is going to be solely filled with swears. Damascus figs, but I miss them.
In anticipation, I have been posting a swear song (or three) a day over at ABL’s place. Plus, I make up conversations with my readers in which the readers swear. They are very obliging like that.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: FWIW I don’t wear or even have a wedding ring. My dad is the same. So was his dad.
Left Coast Tom
@asiangrrlMN:
Nope, spring corn. Last year I went snow camping in the wilderness the second weekend of June, so far spring’s been a bit warmer than last year but the Sierra snowfall was much heavier.
asiangrrlMN
@Omnes Omnibus: Really? Interesting. If I ever got married (yeah, right), I wouldn’t necessarily wear one, either. I bet there are fewer married women who don’t wear a ring than there are married men.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
Good grief, woman! I think she’s been taking this Let’s Move stuff a little too much to heart. Someone get this lady a sandwich.
AAA Bonds
I don’t wear a wedding ring . . . after 5 pm on Fridays.
asiangrrlMN
@Left Coast Tom: That’s just bizarre. You ski in shorts and a t-shirt? But, I haz a jelus of the snow.
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): Ha! Funny. How you be? Glad to see the Jewish back in your ‘nym.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
I don’t wear a wedding ring, either.
You might think the divorce has something to do with that, but it doesn’t. Anything like a ring or a wristwatch drives me crazy. I’ve never owned a wristwatch where the band survived more than two weeks because of my tugging on it in discomfort. I have a pocket watch.
Peggy
Tomato flowers? Where do you guys live? I’m in Boston.
I have transplanted tomato seedlings to 4″ pots in South facing windows. Daffodils, magnolias and squill are flowering. Though the weeds have barely begun, I am digging them out by their roots.
I run a nursery business from my front porch, with fresh seeds being started each time there are graduates from the heating pad/grow lamp intensive care unit.
Yutsano
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
I actually find that kinda cool. Antique?
@Omnes Omnibus: Traditionally Jewish men don’t either, mostly because the wedding covenant is one-sided. I think it’s a personal preference thing. When my dad was in the Navy he never wore his but now that he’s out he does.
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): The student-made poster to his right is kinda awesome.
Shadow's Mom
Tulips and daffodils are done. Roses about to start first bloom, irises blossoming, and gladiolas and love in the mist are budding. Hmmm, where are the dahlias I planted last fall, I see no evidence they survived?
Not as many irises as usual because I dug everything our last fall and added steer/chicken manure. Will be trying vegetables again this year. Some lettuce, tomatoes, maybe squash. They have not done too well in the past, but we’ll see.
Left Coast Tom
@asiangrrlMN:
Daytime temps are pretty warm in late May, and I’m confident I won’t fall and turn my skin into hamburger (spring snow can cut skin). Freezing nights keep the snow around, and with 60+feet having fallen in the Sierra this winter there’s plenty to keep around.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@asiangrrlMN: Doin great. Glad I’m home early enough to catch the asiangrrlMN shift.
@Yutsano: That is pretty badass. “I call this pose BULLY PULPIT!”
Yutsano
@Left Coast Tom:
The thing you just did right there we call taunting the Flying Spaghetti Monster. She may indeed extract a wee bit of humor on your hide for this.
Platonicspoof
Hundreds of viola seedlings coming up in my neighbor’s driveway’s seams, so I transplanted a few dozen to a flat.
Finished pruning my neighbor’s mounding Japanese maples into tiers last month.
Cool and wet March, so finally starting flower seeds (not enough south or west exposure for vegetables) saved from last year – sweetpeas, alpine sea holly, descendents by several generations of Rudbeckia ‘Rustic Dwarf’ (doubled petals now, variable colors),
cheeses (Malva sylvestris mauritiana), Convolvulus ‘Star of Yelta’,
orange Eccremocarpus scaber, etc.
Only seeds I’ve purchased are edamame ‘Envy’ (green soybean) to grow for seed for 2012 and ‘Coral Reef’ poppy.
To South of I-10, others:
Around here it’s “We need some dry, it’s too rain.”
Dave Trowbridge
Be sure to get the purple asparagus if you possibly can. It’s much more vigorous than the ordinary green stuff: once established it will give you foot-long stalks as thick as your thumb that are tender all the way down. Much superior!
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Don’t know why, but I feel compelled to share this scene– from Preston Sturges’ underrated The Sin of Harold Diddlebock– across the intertrons tonight.
Steeplejack
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
I love Preston Sturges. Haven’t seen this one, though.
BeccaM
@Dave Trowbridge: Dave! Great to see/read you! Miss seeing you and Deborah. We’re hoping for a CA trip sometime later this spring.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Steeplejack:
You can see the whole thing here.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, that’s Harold Lloyd- and he’s reprising his role as Diddlebock from his silent 1925 feature The Freshman.
Man, could Sturges write or what?
CatHairEverywhere
@Peggy: I’m in CA. It has actually been a cool spring, but the warm weather the past week has made the tomato plants happy.
Little Boots
it’s so weird. I think we’re going to kill our country rather than do anything about global warming. it’s weird to see us doing that. it really is. isn’t it?
Steeplejack
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
Yeah, I know about the movie, just haven’t seen it. My favorite is Hail the Conquering Hero.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Steeplejack:
Mine, too! That scene at the rally, where William Demarest is shown- but not heard- describing Eddie Bracken’s fictional heroic exploits just kills me.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
Late to the thread, but here goes. My 2 4×4 squares are still out there, with lots of compost I pitchforked in last fall. There’s plenty of worms in there, which is good. I plan to dig a third one Real Soon Now.
I have volunteer onions coming up! I have no idea how there was anything left from last year, but I’m going to let them ride and plant around them.
Bought a couple of broccoli and lettuce seedlings a week ago to get something started. So far they’re uneaten by rabbits and birds, so we’ll see how it goes.
As far as major planting, I’m at least a week away.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
Late to the thread, but here goes. My 2 4×4 squares are still out there, with lots of compost I pitchforked in last fall. There’s plenty of worms in there, which is good. I plan to dig a third one Real Soon Now.
I have volunteer onions coming up! I have no idea how there was anything left from last year, but I’m going to let them ride and plant around them.
Bought a couple of broccoli and lettuce seedlings a week ago to get something started. So far they’re uneaten by rabbits and birds, so we’ll see how it goes.
As far as major planting, I’m at least a week away.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@kdaug: Good times. The backyard of our last house, when we had a German Shepherd (Great dogs!! We had two from New Skete!!!) was a barren moonscape of dirt that was as solid as concrete. I miss having a dog, but I like having a garden.
Steeplejack
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
I like the subtle way that Sturges sort of non-glamorizes war but still honors the vets that have got Bracken’s back. There are some really good scenes where the big war-hero lugs are surprisingly sensitive, but in a big-war-hero-lug way. Nicely done.
ruemara
@Little Boots: Most likely.
I’m moving my 2×8 Corn box to a new location, adding some more corn and some bean plants and probably harvesting some of this lovely compost that’s been cooking in the yard.
The tomato plants are putting out flowers, the squash have settled after a pitched battle between the earwigs, slugs and myself, I’m still fighting said battle for the eggplant and hope to put one of those in soon. There’s basil, sage, parsley and thyme every where, along with copious amounts of lavender, lemon balm and verbena overtaking the front walk. Plus, roses. lovely, lovely roses all over the yard. I dress like a country englishman on the weekends, prattle to them, spray soap and generally act like a rose loon, but I do adore them.
BDeevDad
Go Seinfeld:
Yutsano
@BDeevDad: Heh. Win. I bet Teh Donald couldn’t even win New York.
BDeevDad
@Yutsano: How soon until the Jerry hates kids screamers start up.
Yutsano
@BDeevDad: I’m sure a couple of the big birfer sites are already jumping on that. And of course there will be a few “He’s a ebil Joo!!” comments in there as well. Even though Seinfeld already wrote the damn check.
MikeJ
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): Wow, I just watched the Freshman yesterday, along with Safety Last.
BDeevDad
@Yutsano: well we liberal Jews are self-hating!
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@MikeJ:
I haven’t seen either in years. One of our local tv stations had some Lloyd stuff in their catalogs in the late ’70s/early ’80s, and would run ’em on slow (no football or NCAA hoops) Sunday afternoons. He might have been a cut below Chaplin, but Lloyd’s stuff was every bit as good as Keaton’s.
I’ve gotta find some Lloyd and Keaton both for my 11-year old nephew. Was showing him some Chaplin (from The Kid and City Lights, which never fails to make me weep tears of joy at the end) clips and The Gods Must Be Crazy a few weeks ago to demonstrate how comedy can be great with little or no dialogue, and he was busting up.
opie jeanne
@asiangrrlMN: We had snow too… oh, right. You’re in the Seattle area too?
We have an impressive crop of dandelions, so perfect it almost feels wrong to dig them up. Almost.
We planted lots of bulbs last fall and they have put on a show. I’ve never had daffodils last so long before, probably because I lived in a hotter climate. The tulips are just starting to color up, the crocus are almost all finished. Other things I planted haven’t come up yet, like the liatris and anemones, but it’s early still.
The last garden thread I mentioned that we have no idea what is on this property, and my daughter reminded us again this evening not to pull up weeds unless we know they really are weeds. Good advice, because this afternoon we noticed that some anonymous plants that we left alone because they kind of looked like they might be flowers, they turned out to be big clumps of forget-me-nots. There are masses of icelandic poppies by the driveway, and the only reason they didn’t get yanked is that mr opie jeanne remembered what they were. Now the plants are big and impressive, but back in January they looked like weeds. They haven’t sent up flower heads yet, but they’re in a shady place so that’s not surprising. There is a fairy garden of blue hyacinths under the mulberry at the back corner of the yard, surrounded by mossy bricks. I know I’m supposed to hate moss but this looks very pretty.
We have a long line of birch trees between the front lawn and the street. At the end of the line, before the pine trees start up, there is this one large oddball tree. We didn’t pay much attention to it last fall, and I just assumed it was something related to a birch but with darker bark. It’s starting to bloom now so it’s some sort of fruit tree. Looking at the bark it’s not a pear and it’s not an apple, definitely not a plum or peach. We found cherry pits on the ground under it, so we think we have a cherry tree. I’m going to take a cutting into the nursery tomorrow to find out. The flowers are white and in clusters, but it’s very late compared to the other cherries in the area, but most of them are flowering cherries.
We have planted two pear trees and one of two apple trees. We have two raised beds ready for seeds and I think it’s time to plant the first one. Probably things like carrots, beets, radishes and mixed greens in one, and peas if I can squeeze them in. Otherwise they’ll go in the other bed. I have to rig a trellis for them. Last year we used bird netting between some three-foot laths for the beans and got an amazing crop in a tiny space. Too cold still for tomatoes and peppers.
It’s supposed to hit 60 tomorrow, 65 on Saturday. We are ecstatic.
mcd410x
It’s been ridiculously hot in Florida already. The crocuses and tulips I forced in the fridge bloomed nicely but couldn’t handle any time outside (I started late). Planted 3 dahlias and 5 calla lilies the first week of March. Have had 3 dahlia blooms and 1 calla already. Beautiful.
But too hot!!
IndyLib
OT I just got done de-skunking my 14lb. cat. Just wanted to thank everyone who ever posted the magic skunk deodorizer recipe of dish soap, baking soda and hydrogen peroxide on BJ. I had seen it so many times in the pet threads that I remembered it and it worked like a charm.
MikeJ
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): TCM showed 4 or 5 back to back for his bday.
And Dog Day Afternoon is starting now in their Lumet salute.
IndyLib
@Yutsano:
My husband wears his wedding ring, especially at work, there’s wimminz all over the Navy now. He says it makes him feel safer. lolz.
Amir_Khalid
@Steeplejack:
I understood that it was the Copa del Rey (King’s Cup), which is for winning the knockout tournament. The round-robin Primera Liga is a separate championship and is not yet over.
ErinSiobhan
I seriously have to move – we’re still getting occasional snow and temperatures have been below freezing most nights for the last week. (Zone 5a, with an average last frost of May 6, is not a great place for gardeners).
Basil (red, thai and Genovese), tarragon, coriander, and dill are started inside but can’t be moved outside until late May. Irises, hostas, tulips are a few inches high. Mostly the garden still looks desolate with small patches of life beginning to appear. Some of the grass is starting to green up, but it’s still mostly brown.
Zone 5A
stuckinred
Sorry I missed this thread. Our garden is busting out. The azalea’s, cherry and dogwoods have gone but the roses are just starting to bloom and the Iris’s and lilly’s are jumpin. Here is our first rose.
PurpleGirl
Just in case anyone reads the thread now on Friday: Go see the Google logo for Earth Day. Run your cursor over it — it’s animated.
Phyllis
@PurpleGirl: I don’t know which I like better, the leaping penguin or the pretty red bird flying off.
Re: garden. Flowers are in-vincas, creeping phlox, in range of pinks and purples. Putting in tomatoes and bell peppers in a couple of weeks. The fiance and I are making it official Thursday evening and headed to Charleston SC for the weekend afterwords. Decided to wait until all the folderol was over with before putting in the veggies.
Omnes Omnibus
@IndyLib:When I was in the Army, married guys were discouraged from wearing a ring in the field. Stories were told of people catch the ring on something and skinning their finger. It is the same logic by which a lot of people working in factories do not wear a ring at work. Like JMN above, wearing a ring simply drives me crazy; I can and do wear a watch (my dad doesn’t). I hated my dogtags in the Army too. Male jewelry just isn’t my thing.
stuckinred
@Omnes Omnibus: I always had that ring phobia but I forgot where I got it. I hated my dog tags too but I keep one on my key ring now.
Gus
Daffodils are up, crocuses are done, way too early to plant any edibles in Minneapolis (though the chives are also up).
R-Jud
Pretty much every herb is taking off at present. My earliest-sown carrots and peas are doing well, signs of the squash, beans, onions, and potatoes, and we’ve been eating lettuce and spinach since February, thanks to cloches.
Tomatoes are growing, but I’ve yet to have them ripen, so I’ll withhold judgement until later in the year. There will be a bumper crop of raspberries and strawberries, judging by the flowers, and our faithful old Bramley apple tree is loaded.
On the inedible side, I think I will have peony flowers and possibly iris in another week if this weather stays warm and bright.
Omnes Omnibus
@stuckinred: Mine are in a drawer someplace with my medals and jump wings.
stuckinred
@Omnes Omnibus: No P-38 on your key ring???
Omnes Omnibus
@stuckinred: Nope. In town, I usually carry a pen knife, but, if I am venturing out of an urban area, I carry one of my two swiss army knives.
Just Some Fuckhead
My garden is underneath a ton of scruffy looking overgrowth. It’s almost time to go look for it.
artem1s
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
If Perry hadn’t won the battle of Lake Erie I wouldn’t even have to move north probably, damn him.
it’s still trying to snow in Cleveland, only its 40 degrees instead of 20, so everything is sodden. a few brave daffodils have bloomed. i have tomato seeds started inside. its a good thing they take 4-6 weeks before they can go in the ground. maybe it will dry out by then.
asiangrrlMN
@opie jeanne: Nope. I’m in Minnesota.
@BDeevDad: I actually heard some of that from the left on my Twit stream. “The kids! Oh, the kids!” I pointed out that Seinfeld wrote a check to both the Eric Trump Foundation and St. Jude’s Hospital, and they got someone (Bret Michaels!) to replace him. Just doing my part to stop the mindless finger-wagging.