• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Republicans don’t trust women.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Mobile Menu

  • Four Directions Montana
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2024 Elections
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Open Thread: Thursday Garden Chat

Open Thread: Thursday Garden Chat

by Anne Laurie|  July 21, 201110:56 pm| 44 Comments

This post is in: Garden Chats, Open Threads

FacebookTweetEmail


From commentor Kathi C:

Bought this little, old house three years ago with a huge yard for the dogs but absolutely no flower beds! Making progress, as you can see. Next year I plan to twist the son’s neck until he builds me a raised bed for veggies close to the house because I’m getting tired of feeding the groundhogs who live under the shed next to the existing in-ground veggie bed.

***********

Here in the Boston area, I’m just glad I persuaded the Spousal Unit to settle for pre-potted daylilies (Seawrights will also dig plants straight from the field rows if buyers will settle for bare-root). Even though the Heat Dome of Sweaty Gasping Death didn’t creep this far east until mid-week, just keeping ahead of the watering is tiring me out…
__
What’s it like in your gardens this week?

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Is this just the devil in me?
Next Post: CSI: Real World »

Reader Interactions

44Comments

  1. 1.

    Martin

    July 21, 2011 at 11:23 pm

    What’s it like in your gardens this week?

    Getting better. Regrading the lawn is coming along better than expected, the irrigation system is working again so the plants are happy. Got a bunch of other projects to plow through including planting a new tree in the back corner and then I cut down the ornamental plum in the front yard that’s been attacked by termites, rip out the entire front lawn and garden along with the roots from the plum, amend the unbelievably potent clay that we have here (you can literally grab a handful of dirt out of the yard and make a bowl out of it) plant a new tree (not sure what kind yet), little picket fence, and a brand new semi-shade garden to replace about half the lawn, and replant the other half of the lawn with something less water hungry. I’ve got to keep some lawn in the front (association) but I’m hoping to cut it to 1/3 the current amount of lawn, and have that third use half as much water.

  2. 2.

    Hal

    July 21, 2011 at 11:27 pm

    Dan Simmons writes a book sure to be on Hermain Cain’s bookshelf:

    So much for history. With “Flashback,” Simmons has, for the moment at least, put the past behind him and turned a righteous pen to a dystopian future. It is circa 2032, or more precisely, the 23rd year of Jobless Recovery. The U.S. is tottering, weighing in at only 44 ½ states, its mass eaten away by Mexico, its interior rotted out by floods of immigrants, by loss of faith in a free-market economy, by national healthcare and a myriad of other entitlement programs, by the global-warming hoax and green-energy boondoggles, and by drugs, the most pervasive being “flashback,” which allows its users to visit their pasts in a dream state. It’s a bad, bad time, and its fatal origins lie, we are instructed, with the Obama presidency, its spendthrift domestic programs and pusillanimous foreign policy.

    And my fave part:

    At the same time, a New Global Caliphate flourishes and Islam spreads. An immense and towering mosque sits at ground zero and annual celebrations commemorate the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In Los Angeles, where much of the story takes place, the bells of Christian churches add their peels to “the cries of the muezzin … to show their solidarity, understanding, and forgiveness.” The Caliphate has obliterated Israel with 11 exceedingly dirty nuclear bombs, killing 6 million Jews. The survivors of this “Second Holocaust” are now sequestered in a former Six Flags amusement park in Denver by a U.S. government “terrified of angering the Global Caliphate” that is waiting to exterminate them.

  3. 3.

    different church-lady

    July 21, 2011 at 11:33 pm

    Groundhogs: do you have a cat?

    I had a groundhog living under my tool shed, and nothing could deter her.

    Then I got my first cat. I was emptying his litter box one day and something clicked in my head.

    The dirty litter was dumped into the groundhog’s den hole.

    I never saw her again after that.

    Report: somehow I’ve got echinacea where I don’t remember planting it. My big problem right now is all the flowerbeds are overcrowded — such a change from when I started 5 years ago and everything was barren. Tomatoes are a bit behind, but very healthy, seemingly forgetting entirely about their brief bout of leaf spot.

  4. 4.

    Gracie

    July 21, 2011 at 11:37 pm

    MANY tomatoes: Abraham Lincoln, Ozark Pink, Tropic varieties. Cherry toms: Dr. Carolyn, best flavor of any cherry tomato variety I’ve tried.

    Jalapeno peppers, potatoes, and pole beans are also abundant right now for us.

    For ornamentals, our native grasses (mostly Panicums, some taller than myself this time of year) are showing their panicles and have such lovely movement in the breeze right now, foliage plants like Amsonia, and flowering shrubs that look good all year like Fothergillas, all doing well in this blistering heat. The alliums and lillies we planted this spring are also doing well.

    Kathi C’s garden is so pretty! Orange flowers always make me happy.

  5. 5.

    PeakVT

    July 21, 2011 at 11:42 pm

    The front garden is looking okay, so I’ve been concentrating on growing things in the basement for the past couple of weeks.

  6. 6.

    Martin

    July 21, 2011 at 11:47 pm

    I’ve been concentrating on growing things in the basement for the past couple of weeks.

    Uh, that’s illegal in 53 states, give or take about 3 states.

  7. 7.

    Martin

    July 21, 2011 at 11:52 pm

    Dan Simmons writes a book sure to be on Hermain Cain’s bookshelf:

    Holy hell. Talk about wingnut porn. Someone knows their audience.

  8. 8.

    Gretchen

    July 22, 2011 at 12:00 am

    Kathi – gorgeious lilies. Every time I try to grow lilies the rabbits eat the down to nubs. Any ideas on how to prevent that?
    And @3 – I may have to get my daughter to bring over some old cat litter. I’ve had groundhogs actually liviing inside the fence in the vegetable garden.

  9. 9.

    Paula

    July 22, 2011 at 12:00 am

    We just re-landscaped our front yard! Yellow day lilies, knock out rose bushes, some kind of purple flowers, maiden grass, Russian sage, dwarf dogwood, lilac, and two river birch! Sooooo happy!

    Back yard though, needs some attention. I planted two red-whip dogwood bushes and they are monsters! They have to go! Hello chainsaw and pick and shovel!

    I want a tree that won’t get fat, but it can get tall. Any ideas? Full sun. I live in zone 4/5. We have a long hard freeze.

  10. 10.

    Linda Featheringill

    July 22, 2011 at 12:01 am

    Heat is hurting my garden. I think it killed my peas and maybe a cucumber or two. Other stuff is doing okay, though. Good thing because I just can’t get out there and try to do anything for the garden. I have been watering between sundown and dark.

    Heat also turned my neighbors’ lawn brown. Actually, they look sort of dead. This grass just isn’t used to that kind of heat. My lawn on the other hand, is about 2 to 3 inches tall because I just couldn’t get the energy to mow for a couple of weeks. And it looks fine.

    I did notice that the weeds are wilting, though.

    Insects really like my plate of water by the garden. I saw some wild bees there today! These are the first I’ve seen all years.

    I was planning on starting my fall/winter garden this week but no way that’s going to happen. Maybe next week.

    Lovely flowers up at the top.

    ETA: The heat has been hard on all the animals in my life, too, including the humans. Oy.

  11. 11.

    Arclite

    July 22, 2011 at 12:11 am

    That garden needs more fruits and veggies since that’s how you’ll be feeding yourself after Aug 2.

  12. 12.

    fleeting expletive

    July 22, 2011 at 12:11 am

    “Mansquitos” on SyFy, y’all. I gardenned earnestly for a couple of years, but this year, with all this heat, I don’t go out unless I have to. And I Don’t Have To, very often.

  13. 13.

    Cliff in NH

    July 22, 2011 at 12:15 am

    I’m getting tomatoes and lots of blooms, the plants are starting to take off!

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/64725711@N07/5961011089/in/photostream

  14. 14.

    Yutsano

    July 22, 2011 at 12:19 am

    Still waiting for this thing called “summer” And still wondering if I’ll get paid in two weeks.

  15. 15.

    Martin

    July 22, 2011 at 12:26 am

    That garden needs more fruits and veggies since that’s how you’ll be feeding yourself after Aug 2.

    Good point. Nobody’s cracked open their Survival Seeds yet?

    Oh, right. They aren’t for this:

    You’ll have confidence knowing that you and your family will be able to eat if the Insiders trigger some huge meltdown,

    It’s for insider armageddon, not teatard armageddon.

  16. 16.

    PeakVT

    July 22, 2011 at 12:37 am

    @Martin: I can assure that you can’t catch a buzz off of sawdust, no matter how much you inhale. Coughing it up can make you woozy, though.

  17. 17.

    SBJules

    July 22, 2011 at 12:46 am

    beautiful flower gardens. In So. Cal. we were quite warm last week, but now it is tempered with morning fog again. The dahlias are stunning right now. Easy for me to say with no picture :)

  18. 18.

    Joel

    July 22, 2011 at 12:50 am

    With the *very* extended spring, peas are doing excellently in Seattle.

  19. 19.

    GregB

    July 22, 2011 at 12:57 am

    I noticed the lilacs I had transplanted earlier and that had been looking hearty were beginning to wilt under the heavy sun, so I gave them a good soaking and they seem to have rallied.

    Gave up on watering the lawn and he crabgrass has begun to march in.

    The fenced in garden is growing quickly. I will have some cucumbers by this weekend. The tomatoes are growing fast and furious and the plants are getting close to 6 feet tall and the flowers are telling me there is going to be a bumper crop.

    Already made some pesto with some of the basil that is growing quite heartily and it was good. Starting to see some lil bush beans too.

    Yippee.

  20. 20.

    FlipYrWhig

    July 22, 2011 at 1:02 am

    In Los Angeles, where much of the story takes place, the bells of Christian churches add their peels to “the cries of the muezzin”

    I guess one of the signs of society’s imminent decline was when they started making church bells out of banana skins.

  21. 21.

    PeakVT

    July 22, 2011 at 1:12 am

    NASA is announcing the landing site for the Curiosity rover tomorrow at 10 AM.

  22. 22.

    Yutsano

    July 22, 2011 at 1:20 am

    @PeakVT: They forgot to pick one up already. The Martians are starting to complain about litter.

  23. 23.

    Martin

    July 22, 2011 at 1:36 am

    I can assure that you can’t catch a buzz off of sawdust, no matter how much you inhale. Coughing it up can make you woozy, though.

    Gonna have to disagree with you on that. I’ve got a Powermatic table saw in the garage and it’s very heavily used, along with all of its powertool friends. It really all depends on what you run through it.

    Spend a day cutting/drilling melamine. Not as rapidly potent as sanding PVC, but it’ll get you there. I spent a day working with lyptus and that forced me to sit down for a few hours – though I may have just been sick that day. And we’ve got the whole realm of solvents and finishes to add into the mix.

  24. 24.

    opie jeanne

    July 22, 2011 at 2:36 am

    Today in my garden, just outside of Seattle, the clematis started to open:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/snowwhite/5963469368/in/photostream

    Other than that, we’ve been eating the sugar snap peas and the Ball zucchini and lettuce and beets, all of it delicious. Just have to be careful to remove all of the livestock when cleaning the lettuce. The tomatillos are setting fruit, but we only have 6 tomatoes on two of the dozen plants.

    We have at least one rabbit who is not eating our lettuce at all, or anything I truly care about as far as I can tell. It gnawed on a couple of tulips when they were first emerging so I used some Deer Off! and it decided the liatris tasted better. He hasn’t eaten anything but the leaves so it looks like they’ll all bloom when it gets warm enough. I am amused, so long as we are not overrun by his friends and family. There are also a couple of moles but the property is large enough that I think we can be friends. If they were gophers it would be another matter altogether.

  25. 25.

    opie jeanne

    July 22, 2011 at 2:37 am

    Kathi C’s garden is quite nice. I love the day lilies

  26. 26.

    burnspbesq

    July 22, 2011 at 3:26 am

    Not garden related, but can someone help me understand the logic of the following statement made by McConnell on the floor of the Senate on Thursday?

    “”So if you’re concerned about the size of our debt, then raising taxes is a sure way to ensure that nothing gets done about it.”

  27. 27.

    Yutsano

    July 22, 2011 at 3:29 am

    @burnspbesq:

    So if you’re concerned about the size of our debt, then raising taxes is a sure way to ensure that nothing gets done about it.

    Simple:

    “Our promise to Grover Norquist, a man with no elected position and no accountability whatsoever, is more important than our oaths to our office and to uphold the Constitution. So suck it hippies.”

  28. 28.

    Cliff in NH

    July 22, 2011 at 3:37 am

    Thread needs some Pizza:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/64725711@N07/5963564080/in/photostream

  29. 29.

    stuckinred

    July 22, 2011 at 5:13 am

    Ours is doing ok but, as noted, the chief gardener sprained her ankle last week. She had done pretty well at staying off of it all week. I was washing dishes after dinner and, poof, she was gone. An hour and half later she came back in after watering away (and doing who knows what else)!

  30. 30.

    currants

    July 22, 2011 at 5:58 am

    Raised bed gardens, overflowing, too hot/no time to do anything about it. I planted too many tomatoes/peppers/eggplants in too small a space–last year I thought the problem was the arrangement, so some of them just weren’t getting enough sun. Oh, and that I was growing heirlooms, which got to be almost 8 ft tall, so I thought I’d put too much compost in. But no, same problem this year–and lots of tomatoes but so heavy they’re bending the vines. Next year I’m not going to start my tomatoes in the attic, I’m going to try ordering the heirlooms that are grafted onto hybrid root stock.

    Otherwise, we harvested garlic last week, and the kale, scallions, celery root, parsnips, beets, carrots, arugula, radishes, beans, cucumbers, zucchini, and leeks are taking over the joint (what’s left when the nightshades are done with it). In the herb garden, I’m trying to grow melon (hoping for my first success), and there’s winter squash (acorn and butternut) in the wildflower bed.

    It’s daunting. Next year I’ll try to be more circumspect. But all that space looks so EMPTY in May!

  31. 31.

    stuckinred

    July 22, 2011 at 6:14 am

    currants

    Our tomato cages are made of concrete wire mesh. They sell sheet and rolls at the big boxes.

  32. 32.

    JPL

    July 22, 2011 at 6:15 am

    stuckinred, Can’t keep a good woman down..

  33. 33.

    stuckinred

    July 22, 2011 at 6:17 am

    JPL

    She’s a pack mule fo sho!

  34. 34.

    BruceFromOhio

    July 22, 2011 at 6:31 am

    “So if you’re concerned about the size of our debt, then raising taxes is a sure way to ensure that nothing gets done about it.”

    That whole “Up is down, slavery is freedom” thing perfected back in 2004 is still running on its own momentum. The poor bastards are stuck in a loop from which there is, evidently, no escape.

    The chief landscaper (MrsFromOhio) got tired of waiting for her lazy, distracted assistant landscaper (c’est moi, true) to dig out the borders of the flower beds, and took it upon herself to get some hired help. The kid put me to shame in one afternoon of digging, and now everything looks pretty sweet. Our stretch of Ohio has been getting just enough rain to keep everything green, though the only thing still active in the lawn is the clover. Tomatoes are rioting, there’s enough basil to run an Italian restaurant, and the heat hasn’t yet killed off the pretty stuff that has names, but I’ll be damned if I know them.

    And we’ve had more bees, monarch butterflies and hummingbirds this year than usual, a welcome sign. Probably due to all the pretty stuff.

    Somewhat garden-related: the farms west of us have bumper crops of corn and soybeans, and the storms off the lake come at just the right times to keep the land from going dry. With the drought/floods elsewhere pushing crop yields down and commodities up, there’s some agri-folk sitting pretty for a change. The local corn and peaches this year have been outstanding.

  35. 35.

    Kirbster

    July 22, 2011 at 6:32 am

    Daylilies are just about the perfect perennial in my book. They come in a practically infinite variety of colors and sizes, and once established, they’re very low maintenance. Rabbits and deer leave them alone, another big plus.

    I’m overwhelmed with zucchini in the vegetable garden.

  36. 36.

    currants

    July 22, 2011 at 6:48 am

    stuckinred – July 22, 2011 | 6:14 am · Link
    Thanks! I have decent cages, I think I tried to get too much into one bed. 4’x 8′ bed, 16 tomato plants (9 varieties), 8 eggplants (3 varieties), 8 peppers (4 varieties). Too much, yes?

  37. 37.

    Kathi

    July 22, 2011 at 7:12 am

    No pix of the veggie bed but I’ve been picking tomatoes for a week or so and had my first cuke for dinner last night.

  38. 38.

    R-Jud

    July 22, 2011 at 7:14 am

    Lavender is finally starting to flower, so I’m enjoying that scent as it wafts through my office along with the fragrance from the wall ‘o’ sweetpeas. Harvested my second crop of chantenay carrots yesterday and have just enjoyed some juice made from them and what is probably my last bunch of raspberries for the year.

    I am finally seeing fruit on my tomatoes. We’ll see if it ripens; it’s rare for the temps to crest above 70 at the moment, and that may not do it. They had phone booth-sized greenhouses on sale at my local B&Q. I’m tempted.

    There is borage all over the goddamn place, but the bees are happy, so I’ll hold off on ripping most of it out… for now.

  39. 39.

    harlana

    July 22, 2011 at 7:33 am

    I dunno, but this guy doesn’t look terribly repentant or particularly humbled.

    Feast your eyes, ladies.

  40. 40.

    stuckinred

    July 22, 2011 at 7:47 am

    currants

    Sounds like it. . .successive approximation!

  41. 41.

    jibeaux

    July 22, 2011 at 8:53 am

    What’s it like in your gardens this week?

    Zeus’ butthole. Sweet jebus, it’s hot.
    And I’ve had green tomatoes for what feels like 412 consecutive days. Fucking. Ripen.

  42. 42.

    Mark D

    July 22, 2011 at 10:32 am

    Absolutely gorgeous gardens, Kathi!! Just wonderful. Love how you’ve layered the plants so well.

    Over here in KC, it’s so hot I’ve wrapped white towels around our maters and herbs so the radiant heat from the deck stops cooking them.

    What I find odd is that a few hostas have some sort of rot around the base that’s turning them mushy, even though we’ve been careful about watering (and only do so in the a.m. as to prevent such rot). Meanwhile, the rest are turning yellow, yet still flowered, so not sure what to think about that.

    It’s given us a very large sad, and we’d LOVE to know what the hell is going on.

  43. 43.

    Gravie

    July 22, 2011 at 2:12 pm

    Kathi, I love the colors you’ve put together in your garden. So vibrant and intense!

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. Balloon Juice » Open Thread: Thursday Garden Chat | Winter Garden says:
    July 22, 2011 at 5:59 am

    […] the original post: Balloon Juice » Open Thread: Thursday Garden Chat This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged fall, first, plate, really-like, saw-some, […]

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • bookworm1398 on War for Ukraine Day 782: If the Opposite of Pro Is Con, Then the Opposite of Progress is a GOP Majority in Congress (Apr 15, 2024 @ 11:42pm)
  • YY_Sima Qian on Take the Fucking Win (Apr 15, 2024 @ 11:39pm)
  • NotMax on Monday Evening Open Thread: Another ‘Rich’ Narcissist, Having A Bad Start to His Week (Apr 15, 2024 @ 11:34pm)
  • Quinerly on Monday Evening Open Thread: Another ‘Rich’ Narcissist, Having A Bad Start to His Week (Apr 15, 2024 @ 11:34pm)
  • NotMax on Monday Evening Open Thread: Another ‘Rich’ Narcissist, Having A Bad Start to His Week (Apr 15, 2024 @ 11:32pm)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning
Proposed BJ meetups list from frosty

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8
Virginia House Races
Four Directions – Montana
Worker Power AZ
Four Directions – Arizona
Four Directions – Nevada

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
Positive Climate News
War in Ukraine
Cole’s “Stories from the Road”
Classified Documents Primer

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Political Action 2024

Postcard Writing Information

Balloon Juice for Four Directions AZ

Donate

Balloon Juice for Four Directions NV

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2024 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!