Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

You cannot shame the shameless.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Hot air and ill-informed banter

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Not all heroes wear capes.

Bark louder, little dog.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Gardening Open Thread

Gardening Open Thread

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The garden is coming along well:

I need to do some weeding and pruning. My favorite thing I did this year is I just basically acted like Johnny Appleseed with sunflower seeds- anywhere there was open space around my house, I threw some sunflower seeds in, so my house should be ringed with a variety of sunflowers soon.

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131Comments

  2. 2.

    BGinCHI

    Is that treated lumber?

    A nice cherry stain would really bring the backyard together.

  6. 6.

    jl

    Looks good. Thanks.

    Note to self: bug Cole for pics of sunflowers, or lack thereof, throughout summer.

    Edit: that the sprinkler (Edit: that the vile ) Cole used to betray poor Tunch? A pictorial habeas corpus on Tunch needed soon, to see if he has recovered from the trauma.

  7. 7.

    Comrade Mary

    Looks nice enough, but needs moar big wet cat.

    Gardening gurus, I have a tiny backyard, partially shaded, that needs to have real live grass on it again. I just tore up the weeds and clover in the 8 x 10 “lawn” last week. Advice?

    1) I was thinking of laying some sod down. I don’t have a lawn roller, but if I loosen and prep the soil well, roll out the sod, and just push down the seams with a rake, would that probably be OK?

    2) Does anyone sell shade-friendly sod? I doubt I can find it in my local store, but if I can get it to root, I was thinking of overseeding with some shade-friendly variant. Good idea? Bad idea? Who knows?

  8. 8.

    Yutsano

    @Comrade Mary:

    moar big wet cat

    I still need video of that whole affair. We should consider ourselves blessed he didn’t do this naked. Though that would have heightened the entertainment value.

  9. 9.

    Kristine

    All my tomatoes are budding except for the Black Cherry, which got hammered by caterpillars. It’s recovering, but it’s going to be delayed. A shame, because the cherry tomatoes are usually the first to ripen.

    I forget who provided the tip about the Italian tomato seeds, but thanks are due. Fingers crossed they seem to be doing well. The deck pot St Pierre got hit by caterpillars, but it’s recovering and the one in the raised bed looks fantastic. The Franz look good, and the San Marzano, which started out the runt, has caught up.

    Basil’s growing. I have volunteer dill all over the lower half of the 4×8 raised bed. Watering the flowers now in prep for the hot weekend to come. King’s lazing on the lawn, but Gaby’s got the zooms. So glad it’s Friday.

  10. 10.

    Elizabelle

    @srv:

    That made me laugh.

    Settled out on the deck with a vodka and tonic, catching up on earlier BJ posts.

    Really liked your thread this morning on journalists not doing their jobs, and someone’s good idea to crowd-fund a blogger who would. (Like Kay.)

    More of this.

  11. 11.

    cathyx

    You will live to regret sowing sunflower seeds around the yard. I promise next year you will curse yourself.

  12. 12.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @jharp: For some reason Canton, Ohio comes to mind

    For an open thread, something kind of funny I saw on TV today, on the lovely Alex Wagner’s show a group of VSPs were discussing the perils of Romney’s bus tour, how he’s prone to step on his own tongue, and our old friend Ed Rendell piped up, “Of course, no one’s committed a bigger gaffe than the President!” and he went on for a good minute and a half about “The private sector’s fine”. Even Luke Russert was making fun of him for being a PUMA.

    in the next segment, they were talking about Obama saying “Mr Romney” instead of governor Romney, and Rendell got agitated: The appropriate form of address is the highest office held, for example, secretary is higher than governor, so my friend Tom Ridge should be addressed as “Secretary Ridge”, but he likes “Governor Ridge”. So that’s what Obama stole from poor Eddie, an honorific he thinks is better than “Governor”. I disagree, but I’ll never be either. I thought it was an interesting little window into the man who may be the most irritating Dem troll over the next six months.

  13. 13.

    WaterGirl

    @Comrade Mary: Does anybody have links to the posts Cole referred to earlier today? Sounds like there were pet posts and photos, but I seem to have missed all of them.

  14. 14.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Ooooh looking good. To me it is silly not to use good earth to grow your own veggies. It is simple. Why would anyone not do that?

    Comrade Mary – grass is a waste of good earth. It has absolutely no redeeming qualities. It does not feed, nurture, help anything. Rip it out and plant something else.

  15. 15.

    jl

    @Yutsano:

    Well, if there were pics, important details like whether Cole looked for Tunch while naked (and drunk) would be known, wouldn’t they?

    The developing cover up of the escapade means we should probably assume naked dipsomania, just to be on the safe side.

  16. 16.

    Walker

    New apple trees (along with the two pairs and a cherry) are coming along nicely. From straight sticks to feathered with many branches in less than a month. I will definitely need to prune at the beginning of next season.

  17. 17.

    PsiFighter37

    $500 to the President today, not just for the good news today but because he’s going to need all the help he can get to battle Adelson, Koch & Co. in the upcoming months.

  18. 18.

    Patricia Kayden

    Your garden is looking good. With my two dogs, I decided not to do a garden this year. My boxer seems to chew everything in the yard.

  20. 20.

    dubyabee

    @jharp:

    Fort Wayne, and yes I have been there. It’s in a park along the Maumee River.

    BTW: Might want to be careful using pressure treated timbers in the garden. They tend to leach arsenic.

  21. 21.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Can someone help me out here. In America a “garden” means veggies, whereas in the UK a garden means everything else, flowers etc. I have noticed that people immediately think when I say I “was out in my garden” or whatever they automatically think “veggies” why is the only garden in the US a veggie one?

  24. 24.

    Raven

    @dubyabee:

    “In recent years preservative treated wood received negative publicity mainly focused on the use of arsenic in CCA. The increasing pressure to eliminate the use of CCA resulted in the treated wood products industry voluntarily transitioning from CCA to alternative preservative systems.

    CCA is no longer being produced for residential or general consumer use.”

  25. 25.

    Raven

    @dubyabee:

    “In recent years preservative treated wood received negative publicity mainly focused on the use of arsenic in CCA. The increasing pressure to eliminate the use of CCA resulted in the treated wood products industry voluntarily transitioning from CCA to alternative preservative systems.

    CCA is no longer being produced for residential or general consumer use.”

    http://www.strongtie.com/productuse/ptwoodfaqs.html

  26. 26.

    RossInDetroit

    I threw some sunflower seeds in, so my house should be ringed with a variety of sunflowers squirrels soon.

    FTFY. No charge.

  28. 28.

    paradox

    I seriously need to weed all my rose gardens. How the fuck this happened, I dunno, but the whole family is coming to my house on Sunday. Besides all the cleaning, it’s ten pounds of potatoes to turn into a salad tomorrow and then pork roast rotisserie on the Weber with hickory chips on Sunday. Plus I vomited all day yesterday.

    [shrugs] I’ll be okay. Whatever that is.

  29. 29.

    TooManyJens

    @Litlebritdifrnt: What you call the “garden,” sort of that whole area of green space in front of and/or behind the house, we call the “yard.” A “garden” here refers specifically to plots of flowers or vegetables.

  31. 31.

    Raven

    @paradox: My bride pruned and cleaned up her roses and, despite the heavy gloves and long sleeves, she looked like she was in a cuisinart!

  32. 32.

    jl

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I dunno. I think sometimes in US, at least in the western parts, people just say ‘yard’ instead of garden. Sometimes I get the impression ‘garden’ is reserved for a special seasonal work up out in the yard, either vegetable or flower, or both.

    But this is English we are talking here, which is made up as we go along, right?

  35. 35.

    BGinCHI

    @John Cole: I remember now. Think you mentioned that when you put them in. It’s worth spending extra on cedar against the rot and to avoid the chemicals.

  36. 36.

    WaterGirl

    @BGinCHI: LInk to that thread or that comment? Seems like I missed everything in the past day or two.

    I’m broke, but my wallet is still open for anything having to do with Kay blogging or reporting.

    Edited so that a single word doesn’t show up on the third line. For some reason, that little indentation feature of the new blog format makes me crazy.

  37. 37.

    jl

    @Elizabelle:

    ” crowd-fund a blogger who would. (Like Kay.) ”

    Valdivia volunteered to do real reporting.

    And I think Dougletake SpoofJ volunteered to do some competent trolling of DC press conferences.

  38. 38.

    maven

    John -you better cage those tomatoes. Actually the boxes those tomatoes are in. Get them off the ground this weekend; otherwise you won’t be able to. They need major support; in August there will be hundreds of pounds of tomatoes in the bottom couple boxes.

    Yum yum-pigs (Tunch’s) bum.

  41. 41.

    maven

    BYW-John-Sully Loves sunflowers. Reminds him of the man wedding in P-town. Just so you know……..

  43. 43.

    Raven

    @maven: I use Concrete Reinforcing Mesh. Get bolt cutters and cut about 4 ft sections, clip the verticle wire on the ends, make into a cylinder and run the horizontals through the opposing wire and bend to secure. Clip the horizontals on the bottom of the material and you have great spikes to drive into the ground.

  44. 44.

    Sandra

    Johnny Appleseed’s little secret was that all those apples were grown to become booze.

  45. 45.

    SiubhanDuinne

    anywhere there was open space around my house, I threw some sunflower seeds in, so my house should be ringed with a variety of sunflowers ravenous hamsters soon.

    Mo’ bettah accuracy.

  46. 46.

    Jennifer

    Just FYI, Cole, but on my last 5 attempts to visit the site, I’ve gotten a warning page from Norton that this is “a known fraudulent website.” I wasn’t getting this message an hour or so ago. Is Norton wrong, or has someone fiddled with something (authorized or not)?

  47. 47.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Maude:

    OT Jenny McCarthy send nude photos of herself to her dentist instead of her boyfriend.

    I thought they had a vaccine for that now.

  48. 48.

    freelancer

    @Southern Beale:

    What a fucking classy fella. Wasn’t even HIS neighbor, he was visiting someone, and their neighbor was mowing their lawn. The chutzpah, it is amazing.

  55. 55.

    muddy

    @Raven: My 2′ high raised bed is made from the remains of a small deck, pressure treated but 15b years old. I lined it with plastic anyway, and the bottom is open to the sand beneath. It’s stapled up over the top board, and then there is a deck board all around to sit on. I had a mix of 1/3 top soil and 1/3 moodoo dumped into it.

    It is currently growing vertically, but some will be hanging over onto the sand (squash etc). I use 4″x4″ welded wire field fence cut and shaped into various large cage configurations. For support and also to shield from dogrunningincircles time. Also 6′ hardwood stakes with holes drilled for fishing line. That’s covered with peas now, will be beans later. The peas are shading the lettuce and spinach now, I’ve been eating greens out of it for a while, but the sugar snap peas are juist starting to be pickable. Strawberries were moved fall before last to a 4’x4′ plot, they really liked it and are now 15’x15′. My neighbor’s 3 yr old grandson came to help pick, he was red. It was not a big year for asparagus, but the rhubarb has been plentiful and I’ve frozen a lot of that, and made rhubarb-ade sweetened with stevia. So pretty. I planted potatoes in large pots so I can just dump them out when they are ready instead of digging. Setting it up so that you can work it even when feeling feeble has been a godsend. So worth it.

  56. 56.

    the Conster

    I have become a sunflower seed fanatic if such a thing exists. I had delicious sunflower seed risotto (no rice, just seeds), and I drink sunflower milk, and bought sunflower oil to cook with. This is why.

  58. 58.

    muddy

    @Raven: They’re good for medium sized clumps of flowers, you can’t even see them in there but they help a lot for storms.

  59. 59.

    Raven

    @muddy: Sounds great, we’re making another stab a butter beans with a similar set up. The rose trellis is made from welded wire fencing hung on 6ft metal stakes. The “double loop ornamental wire fencing” around the “formal” garden has been keeping the whistle pigs at bay.

  61. 61.

    Valdivia

    @jl:

    yes me, me! :D

    I have such trolling plans, a little different than what DougJ would do, but still worthy of the BJ tradition.

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    you win the night with that comment right there.

  62. 62.

    urlhix

    First slicers for market harvested. Got one early Cherokee Purple the other day, but that one was just for us. Knee-bucklingly delicious.

    Sunflowers good. Just finished fencing the flower garden to keep the deer out, finally. I think our main culprit was taken out by a random vehicle yesterday. Nothing like seeing our Mayor dragging a dead deer by the hoof on his JD Gator. Ah, country life.

  65. 65.

    joes527

    @Jennifer:

    I’ve gotten a warning page from Norton that this is “a known fraudulent website.”

    I could have told you that. Some of the people around here aren’t even using their real names!

  66. 66.

    muddy

    There’s this other kind of wood I read about, I think the idea is that they soak it in some kind of silicate (or wev) solution and then bake it, so it’s like glass/pottery, but of course does not break like that because it’s wood. I saw it on This Old House.
    http://www.perennialwood.com/Pages/Home.aspx

  67. 67.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @jl: Look, he wasn’t behaving the way and sober and clothed person would. For example, I have never herded a cat with a Subaru while sober and clothed. Have you? I thought not.

  68. 68.

    Jennifer

    @John Cole: From a quick cursory glance at teh Google, it appears they had a similar problem with Facebook last fall. The fix was on Norton’s end in that case.

    It doesn’t really make any sense to get that warning for your site – it’s a phishing warning, and I suppose the only thing to phish here would be email addresses from comments log-in. You’d expect the warning to show up for banking and similar sites, not for a blog.

  69. 69.

    freelancer

    @Jennifer:

    I would try several things because I have Norton and the site is fine for me. I’m assuming others aren’t having issues because no one else has piped up.

    Clear cache and cookies on all browsers. Restart. Try all the browswers you have. Attempt access from another system if that doesn’t work. Forgive the nuisance if you’ve tried these things already.

  70. 70.

    dexwood

    Love it – you can sit in that chair, water your garden, shower at the same time. Think of the water you’ll save. Living in High Desert country I think of saving water all the time, ‘cuz I will not give up my vegetable bed.

  73. 73.

    BGinCHI

    @Raven: Is that a Pirate software?

    “Avast there mateys!”

    Hey, when are we going to have a thread where we all speak pirate?

  76. 76.

    Raven

    @BGinCHI: Arrrrgggggh, them’s that dies will be the lucky one’s Jim. . .
    =AVAST Software leads the security software industry – protecting 150,827,053 active users around the globe – by offering FREE antivirus software that makes no compromises in terms of protection. Available for Windows, Mac, and Android, our free security software solutions are dependable, fast, use few resources, and often outperform our competitors’ paid-for products.”

  78. 78.

    Jennifer

    Cleared cache and cookies – still getting the warning. FWIW, this didn’t work for people who had the same issue with facebook. Norton had to fix the problem. Only causing problems on IE8; I do not get the warning from Chrome.

    JC, at the first link Raven @63 lists, there’s a link under the green “OK” box on the left side of the page for site owners if you want to report the issue to them.

  80. 80.

    BGinCHI

    @Raven: Wonder if we could get product placement contracts for mentioning products in our posts.

    I thought of this while enjoying a delicious glass of Left Hand Milk Stout. The only bottled stout with nitro right in the bottle!

    Come for the savage humor, stay for the alcohol.

  82. 82.

    Elizabelle

    @BGinCHI:

    Here’s arguingwithsignpost’s comment (no. 60) from the journalists complaining in 140 characters thread.

    I have one suggestion. Crowd-fund a trustworthy blogger or writer to follow the campaign and report accurately, and pimp the shit out of his/her work. This person may not get invited to all the kool kid parties at Megan McArdle’s house, but that’s really a feature, not a bug.
    __
    Obama, or the campaign can’t do it, because that would be seen as being “non-objective.” It would have to be an outside force dedicated to cutting through the horse-race stuff. You, Kay, are an example of the type of blogger who would be perfect for that sort of thing. (not suggesting you would do it, but your style of blogging.)

    Love hearing that Valdivia will be writing (or trolling?), along with DougJ whatever he calls himself in a week or two.

    Journalism is too important to be left to these hacks, freak show purveyors, and profit-center careerists.

  91. 91.

    jl

    @Valdivia:

    You said you lived in DC?

    Would be cheap for BJ to give it a shot.

    All the WH can do is say ‘no’ (or OTOH maybe we will all end up on their LIST!?)

    Can try Congress too.

    If you can’t troll a presser, you can schmooze with the DC press corps and dish it at BJ.

  93. 93.

    Elizabelle

    Watching a Bee Gees special on Maryland Public Television.

    Mind you, would not have been caught dead watching it 6 months ago.

    But since they’re dropping like flies …

    kind of poignant, really.

    And now it’s fundraising. But you knew that was coming …

  95. 95.

    Valdivia

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    ah. I see.

    /this portion of the comment brought to you by Juan Gil Jumilla

    @jl: I actually don’t need payment at all since I am here and on my free time I would kill to go around trolling the DC Press

    /still brought to you by foreign sounding red wine

  96. 96.

    BGinCHI

    @Valdivia: If you don’t already know about it, you (and other wine drinkers here) need to put wtso.com in your toolbar. There’s a great La Mancha up there right now. Legit folks: free shipping and it arrives fast.

  99. 99.

    Elizabelle

    At this hour, the top emailed articles on the NYTimes site are:

    1) Paul Krugman: We Don’t Need No Education (re Romney’s proposed cuts to teachers and first responders)

    2) David Brooks: What Republicans Think

    Bookends.

  100. 100.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @BGinCHI: A Saab, but, gee, those Audi S5s sure look like fine, fine automobiles.

    /This comment brought to you by the Triumph Bonneville T100. A classic, updated.

  107. 107.

    Yutsano

    @Valdivia: Pain has been better today than at any point so far. Plus the walking is recovering nicely too. I think I’m getting back to normal slowly. Then it’s PT time!

  110. 110.

    DanR2

    Good luck with the sunflowers, Cole. I live in Kansas, planted a bunch of seeds last year, waited for the happy bursts of sunshine, and got zilch.

  113. 113.

    Anne Laurie

    @Raven:

    My bride pruned and cleaned up her roses and, despite the heavy gloves and long sleeves, she looked like she was in a cuisinart!

    I always tell the Spousal Unit “Roses demand an annual blood sacrifice!”

    But seriously, this is where I recommend the Bionic Rose Gloves, which reduce my blood sacrifice by at least 80%, not just while rose-pruning but for cat nail trimming & grooming nippy little rescue dogs.

    I also treat myself to a pair of their regular gardening gloves every 18 months or so. Pricey, but they’re first brand I’ve tried over more than 20 years of gardening that protect my hands (even my cuticles) from the stony construction fill of our so-called yard, but still give me sufficient sensitivity to pot out transplants & tie up tomatoes. They even let me run the electric mower blister-free. Only (slight) quibble is that they run small — well, they’re supposed to fit more precisely than standard cheapo ‘work gloves’ — so you may want to go up a size, or at least discuss sizing with the customer service rep.

  118. 118.

    muddy

    @Omnes Omnibus: It really is! I was feeling a bit elder today because my son turned 30, but it’s like he’s in another generation. He’s a boomer behind his time.

  119. 119.

    BGinCHI

    @Valdivia: I got some as well. It will be solid. Don’t forget that it’s fed ex and you have to be home to sign (or someone does).

  120. 120.

    BGinCHI

    @Elizabelle: No. I only want to be sponsored by Caymus. They would give me wine and I would blog more smarter but with a lot of awesome Caymus cab.

    We love you Chuck Wagner!

  122. 122.

    Ajay

    My rasied beds: Link

    All untreated wood. I put these together in spring 2009 (except the nearest bed, which was installed last year).

  124. 124.

    Jennifer

    FWIW, the Norton issue seems to be resolved, whether it was through your efforts, JC, or just a glitch that self-corrected.

  125. 125.

    Ajay

    @muddy:

    Weed Fabric that I got from Costco(4 ft wide). As John is going to find out, weeds will overtake the entire bed as summer progresses. I put the fabric when I plant for the season in spring and put rocks to ensure weeds are suppressed. However they still come from the edges.

    I also have watering system attached to the beds and it works well with timer.

  127. 127.

    Jennifer

    @jharp: My friend Lyta insists that Johnny Appleseed was a shaman.

    I don’t know about that, but he was certainly an unconventional character.

    Fun fact: Johnny Appleseed didn’t bring the gift of delicious fruit to the frontier. He brought the gift of hard cider. Apples don’t come true from seeds – but even the sourest apples are fine for making cider.

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