Everyone’s too busy gardening to send me photos (pic above is my yard in mid-May, neighbors’ carport at top and street at top right). So here’s some clippings I’ve been saving.
From the NYTImes, “Urban Gardening on the Third Floor“:
Kerry Trueman and Matt Rosenberg began by growing tomatoes on the roof of their third-floor walk-up in the West Village more than 20 years ago…
They used a ladder to climb through the roof hatch then. They built large planters for strawberries and 20 different kinds of roses. They grew blueberries and corn and hops. They had to dismantle the roof garden in 1998 during a legal battle to keep their building rent- stabilized. But by then, they were hooked. “Tomatoes are the gateway drug,” Ms. Trueman said.
These days, their garden reincarnation resides in boxes that face south, east and north outside the windows of that same 450-square-foot apartment. At 4 ½ feet long by 1 ½ feet wide and deep, the containers are almost too big to call window boxes…
Made of rot-resistant cedar, the boxes are held snugly to the walls by heavy-duty steel brackets, the kind used to keep air-conditioners from falling to the ground. Wooden slats are spaced slightly apart at the bottom, for drainage. And unlike coffins or traditional window boxes, they have only three sides. The open side faces into their apartment, so that plants growing in malleable bags called Root Pouches can be easily moved in and out…
A less hopeful story from the Washington Post, “For some Washington-area gardeners, paradise lost“:
Last fall, Bo Barefoot said a quiet goodbye to his beloved Mexican fan palm and waited for the winter gods to take it.
The palm tree had grown so large in his front yard in Glen Echo Heights, Md., that he could no longer afford to protect it against the impending freeze. The gods came, and they were greedy…
The first frigid winter in years left gardeners demoralized, horticulturists say, and the second one has reinforced their view that the beach party that began in the late 1990s is over. The Agriculture Department’s plant-hardiness map puts the District in the colder half of Zone 7, with winter extreme low temperatures averaging 0 to 5 degrees. But the warm years convinced many they were in a Carolinian Zone 8 (with lows bottoming out between 10 and 20), a perception borne out by their ability to grow gardenias, hardier palms, perennials from Mexico and eucalyptus trees…
One person rejoicing at the harsh winters is Tony Avent, whose Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, N.C., features a 28-acre botanical garden, where he tests plants for their performance. He plants as many as 2,000 new varieties annually, and is happy that the past two winters killed as many as a third of them.
“I’m thrilled, and all my plant people look at me as if I’ve got snakes coming out of my head,” he said. “Having these mild winters, yes, I got to enjoy the plants, but I learned nothing.”…
Avent is known for his unusual and choice varieties of hardy perennials, oddball tropical plants and those in between. The milder winters played to the garden geek’s deep desires to push the horticultural envelope. “Everybody wants the plant they can’t grow; we want what we can’t have,” he said. “That’s human nature.”…
***********
I’ll admit I expected a lot more damage from the fierce winter here in Boston; we did lose some rose bushes & perennials, but thankfully the Don Juan climbing roses in the most protected, sunniest spot next to our front door have finally rebounded. My lazy gardening habits probably ensured a higher survival rate, since anything tough enough to survive my negligence is very hard to kill. Of course, during the harsh grey days of spring, I over-ordered new roses, which I’ll be hard-pressed to find proper protection for come Fall…
What’s going on in your gardens this week?
Gene108
What is up with Lawyers, Guns and Money? The website goes to ashleymadison.com, which seems to be some sort of porn / escort site.
raven
Last week saw another lull in construction while the slab hardened and the bobcat operator got over whatever he had. Supposedly he will backfill the foundation tomorrow and the frame crew will start soon after. It has been relatively cool, yesterday was the first day in the 90’s since September but we are probably fixin to pay for that soon! Despite the mess the flowers are doing well but the maters don’t seem to be happening.
JPL
Anne, I love your hodgepodge of flowers.
@Gene108: Someone got upset with them. Do you think it infected your computer?
Tommy
I’ve had some epic fails with my garden. You know learn by doing. But this year the garden seems to be working on all levels. Put in squash and cucumbers for the first time and everything seem to be growing by leaps and bounds. My basil is growing so out of control I had to Google “what to do with a lot of Basil” and later today going to make some Basil butter. Good times!
chopper
I grew roof tomatoes in NYC 10 years ago. unless you have a decent roof it’s not worth it at all.
raven
@chopper: Our builder is also building his own house right now. It’s a 900 sq ft three story with a garden on top!
OzarkHillbilly
@Gene108: So far so good for me. LGM has been up for a minute and a half w/ no redirect yet.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Here in Detroit our prickly pear cactus survived an awful winter and bounced back with its usual horrifying vigor. It has about 100 buds and will soon be covered with big yellow flowers.
Yesterday we had the windows cleaned. I took the cleaner over to the cactus.
“See that? It hates you and wants you to suffer. Get a really long pole for your scrubber and go nowhere near that.”
Cleaner: “I’m from Puerto Rico, so I know. Thanks for the warning though.”
Germy Shoemangler
The outrageously dramatic and explosive way our plant kingdom friends spread their seeds
I knew the japanese beetles were turning my backyard into a p0rn film, but my plants themselves?
Tommy
@Germy Shoemangler: That is a pretty darn cool video.
chopper
@raven:
well good luck to him. up on the roof it gets windier and hotter (especially a black tar roof like mine was).
Ultraviolet Thunder
Oh, and on the subject of window cleaning, we had to have them skip one on the second floor. A mama robin was discovered on the sill with two pinkies and an egg in a nest. She flew off for a bit when they were messing around with ladders but came back to her babies. Now I have to keep the bedroom drapes closed until they fledge to avoid startling her.
Tommy
@Ultraviolet Thunder: These doves nest outside my home office window every year. Watching the little guys get to my deck and learning to fly is a joy. It has happened again the last couple of weeks. Their first attempt at flight isn’t pretty. Face plants. I always think they are never going to make it, but they always do.
OzarkHillbilly
So I had my day all planned out yesterday. Work in the garden and other projects until about noon, then head over to a buddy’s place on the Courtois Creek (part of a land trust, formed after the failed Meramec Dam project) (and that’s pronounced ‘Coat-a-way’) for some gravel bar follies and some pickin’ and grinnin’ with some of the local talent in a jam fest they hold every year. We had already talked about it and my wife has not been handling the heat and humidity very well as she hasn’t had to adapt to it at all and the sun has been working overtime on her migraines. So I figured to go by myself and come back home at 9ish.
So I’m weeding like mad about 9:30 and the wife comes out and says, “Oh by the way, happy anniversary.” Me, dolt that I am, says “Anniversary of what?’ And then before I can reach full fail I say, “Is it the 13th?” (At least I know what day we got married).
Now, we don’t really celebrate these things (about 3 months into our dating, I told her “I don’t do that. If that’s important to you, your barking up the wrong tree.”) but even I could not just up and abandon her on our anniversary to go have fun with friends while she nurses a lingering migraine at home(she helped weed about 20 mins and had to go in).
Soooooo….
I stayed home all day puttering about at this and that then took her to dinner at the new Mexican joint in town. Now, when we go for breakfast, she always pays. Because usually it’s her idea to begin with. So last night I was paying. Had a nice quiet dinner, talked about this that and nothing in particular. Got our to-go boxes ’cause they gave us way more than either of us could eat in one sitting, she leaves the tip and I walk up to the cashier and reach into my pocket and…..
Yeah, you can fill in the blank. Welcome to my wife’s world.
MobiusKlein
@OzarkHillbilly: LGM is busted for me on mobile.
A series of redirects to pr0n. Sigh.
Baud
@Gene108:
I’ve never had that problem with their site, but I’ve seen others complain about it.
ETA: OK, I just tried it and now it’s redirecting for me also.
Germy Shoemangler
@Baud: Hmm… it seems whenever faux news complains about a site, the RW hacker trolls pay a visit.
Could it have something to do with the recent dustup with blonde goddess fox tv lady megyn?
JPL
@raven: How was the movie?
Baud
@Germy Shoemangler:
I don’t know. BJ was redirecting me to Vindico for a while, so I think it has something to do with aggressive or badly coded mobile ads.
raven
@chopper: This dude knows his shit. He’s using a special membrane that is made for just this purpose
Germy Shoemangler
Not just walmart anymore:
Germy Shoemangler
@Baud: I am paranoid… I always reflexively go with the paranoid explanation.
How could a badly-coded ad redirect a visitor to a p0rn site? It sounds malicious to me, not an accident. But I don’t know much about computer programming, so I hope I’m wrong.
But thanks for the heads up. I’ll stay away from LGM.
evodevo
Several people around here (north-central Ky) have sizeable mimosa trees in their yards. Not after THIS winter. It went down to -15 or -20, after many years of warm winters, and evidently killed all of them. And the local weather people are saying this could be the new norm. THX, Al Gore!!
Baud
@Germy Shoemangler:
It doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.
jharp
One of my main goals in life is to buy and move into a place I can have a rooftop garden.
I don’t see very many of them at all here in my Midwest city
Am I overrating the concept?
Tommy
@Germy Shoemangler: yeah cause you need a gun at the Waldorf Astoria because it is so not safe.
raven
@JPL: We liked it. There are some differences with the 67 version and I had to look to see if there were things in the book that were changed. It’s an hour shorter than my favorite and she’s no Julie Christie but I knew that going in. They had a deal with a coupon for a free popcorn AND it was only $5 each!
raven
@jharp: These folks don’t think so.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Tommy:
Doves will nest just anywhere. Dryer vent, electrical transformer, gas meter box, shed roof, just wherever. And they’ll just sit there when you walk up to them.
I thought that robins nested in pine trees. We have two big white pines, seven full sized spruces and a lot of yews and other evergreens. I can’t figure out why this bird is 20′ up a wall in an exposed place. But she’s doing OK so she must know something.
Baud
@Germy Shoemangler:
I don’t code, so I don’t know. I would assume that a good code would take people who clicked on an ad to the site, while a bad code takes everyone there.
Tommy
@jharp: I see none in my midwest town. Mainly because all the roofs I see are slanted roofs. I’ve been lazy. Should take pics when I am out walking. Where I live people grow epic gardens, often in their front yard. People use every inch of land they have to grow stuff. I keep expanding my garden, but I am just a newbie compared to the gardens all around me.
Germy Shoemangler
@Baud: That would mean there are ads for a p0rn site on LGM?
Germy Shoemangler
@Tommy: that’d be a good western movie, or film noir: “Weekend At The Waldorf” bang! bang! bang! bang!
Another Holocene Human
I went to Lowes to get some rocks to put around the foundation so the rain will stop splashing dirt on the siding. They did not have Neem oil. Now searching Froogle and they say Home Depot has it. I don’t know why I’ve been boycotting Home Depot but once again they’re the only local store to have an item. (I could order from Walgreens online but I need it now). I have more than enough reason to boycott Lowes at this point–I forgave them for the American Muslim thing, thinking they were an innocent party that got blindsided but it turns out they’re some sort of right wing nuts as they’re the only sponsor not to pull out of Dugger-straganza after the Josh Duggar revelations.
It’s also my local independent garden place has it. I’ll have to call.
Schlemazel
@Gene108:
LGM works fine for me, could your PC been highjacked?
Baud
@Germy Shoemangler:
Possibly. Or it could be disguised. I see ads on this site I wouldn’t click on.
Another Holocene Human
@jharp: Great for plants that love full sun and if you do it right it will lower your energy bills below. (Make sure you get the right hardscaping, though.)
Baud
@Schlemazel:
For me it was the mobile site.
Germy Shoemangler
@Another Holocene Human: It’s best to dilute neem oil with water. It won’t clog your spray bottle diluted. It coats the leaves and makes them undesirable for pests.
I found a bottle at our local garden place. I refuse to go near lowes or home depot, after being screwed by them.
Kathleen
@Gene108: I’ve been able to access the site with no problem. I’m accessing it via desktop PC, not mobile device.
Germy Shoemangler
@Another Holocene Human: The top guy at home depot was behind the investigations of elliot spitzer. Spitzer was dumb to do what he did, but they were watching him like a hawk, and helped his downfall.
Lowes? Bought some appliances from them. Poor quality, and the installer did it incorrectly. They wouldn’t correct the problem.
Schlemazel
@Germy Shoemangler:
No but the ad itself was hijacked if that is the case. I use ad block so that would explain why I am not having the issue.
Tommy
@Another Holocene Human: My little town has a True Value. The place has been there for more than 100 years. You can also buy seed and feed there. You know farmers. They are in the process of tripling the size of the store. Soon I will not need Home Depot or Lowes anymore. Very happy about that.
Another Holocene Human
@Germy Shoemangler: That is hands down the awesomest video I’ve seen all week.
The exploding cucumber was especially interesting because I worked in a lab where we had a watermelon explode–projectile vomit would be more accurate–and the PI thought it was a bacterial infection. Now I know it’s in their genes.
jharp
@Tommy:
Wifey won’t let me garden in the front yard and she has a point.
Tommy
@Germy Shoemangler:
Just my two cents and it might not be worth more than that, but I got a Sears appliance store near me and bought everything (water heater, washer/dryer, fridge, freezer, dishwasher) there and always been happy.
Germy Shoemangler
@Another Holocene Human: I especially love watching time-lapse movies of plants.
We’re growing peas in our backyard garden and also indoors. They seem to have a sense of where to grow and attach themselves; they also engage in competition for the best places to latch onto.
I remember seeing time-lapse footage of pea plants twirling around “looking” for something to attach to. And when we had morning glories in front of our shed, the little shoots would “find” the latticework to wrap around.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Germy Shoemangler:
Menards is another bad one. The founder/CEO was caught personally disposing of wood ash contaminated with arsenic with residential trash. A lot of it. They paid big fines.
Assholes.
I patronize my local ACE hardware/lumber yard whenever possible, and find there’s little I need to go elsewhere for.
ETA: Menard also donated heavily to Scott Walker in WI, so screw that guy.
Another Holocene Human
@raven: Funny how what he wants for himself does not resemble the shlock sold to the buying public (more sq footage, odd fixtures and fittings, everything to make it easy for a realtor). Although I’ve known quite a few builders that actually want one of those pseudo-Tuscan dream McMansions … ugh.
I lucked out on this place (always buy used) – somebody hired an architect. Although there are still some imponderables, like the Realtor™ special master bath. Two sinks, full vanity, nowhere to hang a fucking wet towel. It’s Florida!!!
(Wife says no demo’ing the vanity until next year, so I’m going to install that Grundtal towel hanger on an awkward bit of wall. Wish me luck because my last project in here went pear shaped due to a combination of mismatched screws and drill bits and solid wood. Friend coming by to help, he is a nerd, he has tools, also excuse for a get-together. (I was raised better than this, Midwestern parents, but after over a decade of renting I’m rusty and short on tools.))
Another Holocene Human
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Wreck the environment at Menard’s.
Baud
I wss able to access LGM’s desktop site on my phone, so the hijacking appears to be only on their mobile site.
Another Holocene Human
@Tommy: My parents always bought their appliances at Sears although they used to check out Best Buy when they were new. I would never buy ANYTHING at Best Buy even IF they have a good price because of their labor practices and let’s not forget how they treat customers.
Fun fact: Sears pays commissions to its sales reps. Best Buy forces employees to shill useless warranties and if they don’t move enough, their managers could lose their jobs so the managers harangue the floor staff daily at the morning meeting. There is no commission.
Tommy
@jharp: Yeah I don’t have a spousal unit but growing stuff in my front yard seems like something I would not do. I am just a walker, try to do 20,000 steps a day. I walk all around my little town and I am always stunned at the gardens. These folks are not messing around.
ThresherK
@Gene108: “Some sort of…”, yeah, I’ve never heard of that place either!
There has been a hijacking issue over there.
ETA: We have no gardening bits to add. There are some planters with stuff in them on the deck of our rental, and they are still alive. We haven’t touched them. Mid-June and they are still alive. That is an accomplishment for us.
Another Holocene Human
@Tommy: Nice. We have a Feed & Seed and I’ve gotten quite a few things there. They’re more geared to small farmers than homeowners. They had the cheapest price on a tree but it was a seedling. Maybe I should have gone to the independent garden center? *shrug* It won’t fruit for a while.
Germy Shoemangler
@ThresherK: Some RWNJ with hacking skills and a crush on foxy Megyn K. decided to be a flying monkey to her wicked witch?
Another Holocene Human
@Germy Shoemangler: Okay, good to know. I have bad luck with spray bottles it seems like.
Tommy
@Another Holocene Human: I am no expert on gardening but I do keep a journal. I used to get all my plants from Lowes. But the local store also carries stuff. I started to get few plants from them and I don’t know, didn’t do anything different, but they always produce a lot more. This year all from them.
The store was geared towards small farmers but that has changed since they enlarged it. They trippled the size of it and it is like a local Lowes now. I told the manager wow this is neat, I can shop local now. She said we’d appreciate that!
OzarkHillbilly
@Germy Shoemangler:
Also: The Home Depot Man Who Wants to Demolish Obama
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yeah, I hate shopping there, but they are closer and I don’t know of any much better alternatives.
Schlemazel
@Another Holocene Human:
We used to get appliances from Sears but had a series of problems with their sales staff. Heavy-handed tactics, bait and switch and outright lies. Those things coupled with the constant push (well pat obnoxious in the last case) to insist we buy extended warranties made us walk away from a purchase 20 years ago and I have never had a desire to go back.
Kenmore stuff is made by the same people who make the brand name stuff and is just as good but then so should be the stuff from other stores. What I have noticed is that places will have their own model numbers for the same stuff so you can’t do decent price comparisons.
Germy Shoemangler
just saw this in the nytimes about the Jeb campaign:
Baud
@Schlemazel:
Everyone pushes extended warranties these days.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Our closest town has a wal-mart, a Lowes, a good lumber yard, an Orschelns, an MFA, a locally owned grocer and dozens of specialty stores (not to mention every fast food chain in America- it’s on I-44). I go to Lowes and Wally World only after I have gotten all that I can at the other places, but I still spend far more than I care to at the ‘2 Blues’.
debbie
@Germy Shoemangler:
If anyone hasn’t learned to expect nothing from that family, then shame on them.
OzarkHillbilly
For the love of Jesus:
Curious gun-owning Colorado man shoots himself in the foot because he ‘wanted to know what it felt like’
Next time, aim a little higher, will you?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Who held his beer?
Germy Shoemangler
@debbie: I expect a lot from any member of that family; none of it good.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah a few years ago we had a Wal-mart and Lowes open a few miles away. I hate to admit I shop there. But my little town is trying to fight back. We actually have an ongoing ad campaign asking people to shop local.
Germy Shoemangler
interesting blog post:
“How to tell if you’re a declasse academic”
http://notesironbound.blogspot.com/2013/09/how-to-tell-if-youre-declasse-academic.html
You or any of your family members has ever had a job where you “washed up” after coming home from work.
You actually worked jobs during the summer in grad school to support yourself.
(I can’t believe the number of profs who expect their students to magically conjure money to support themselves while researching in the summer.)
Before you went to grad school the only categories you knew for wine were “red” or “white.”
Schlemazel
@Baud:
Have not had a problem at Loews of Home depot. Even the kids at Best buy were never that bad. The guy at Sears was pretty much saying he was not going to let us buy the washer unless we took the warranty. It worked, we didn’t buy the washer there.
TerryC
@evodevo: We’ve had a tough two winters here in southern Michigan for redbud trees. Most of mine did not flower again this year. Some have died.
Schlemazel
Having coffee in the day room of the hotel we are staying at for the weekend. Had the place to myself until an older couple chose to sit right next to me. Just reading the comics and drinking my coffee but I have to listen to their moralizing about “evil homos” and their orgys. I finally leaned over and said, “for a supposedly straight man you sure seem to know a lot about homos and what they do for fun.”
I don’t think they got the joke but they did leave so that was a win.
Baud
@Schlemazel: That’s pretty extreme.
ETA: The sales agent, not your response, which was appropriate.
Baud
@Schlemazel:
Nice.
Rugosa
@Ultraviolet Thunder: I tried growing an opuntia once. I swear it fired thorns at me from 3 feet away! It was soon wrapped in newspaper and thrown in the trash. I think it took a couple of weeks for all those nasty little spines to work their way out of my skin.
Tommy
@Germy Shoemangler: That is an interesting read. I only have a MA and I am the “uneducated” person in my family. We never got our hands dirty. Not even sure we ever worked an honest day. I was supposed to get a PhD like everybody else, but I got so sick of the politics of grad school I couldn’t take it anymore. Plus I was kind of tired of being “poor” and wanted to go make some money.
jharp
@TerryC:
How are the ash trees doing in southern Michigan?
Isn’t that where the emerald ash borer got it’s start.
Drove from Fort Wayne, Indiana to Toledo, Ohio not long ago and all of the ash trees were killed.
And its is now killing the ash trees in my neighborhood in central Indiana.
Kind of depressing as ash trees are very nice trees and there are/were a ton of them.
ThresherK
@Schlemazel: The last thing Sears can hang its hat on may be the online expert help.
No, seriously.
I’ve acquired, through various means, an electric chainsaw almost as old as I am, a refrigerator, and a lawnmower. All Sears-branded, all from different decades, all with different manufacturers*. I’ve been able to fix them all. (*Tecumseh and whoever makes Amana, among them.)
And the graphical information and cross-referencing? It’s like those old microfiches or piles of expensive repair manuals, which only the service staff could view in the 1980s, were put online.
With some useful sleuthing you can find the parts anywhere.
(Note that I haven’t bought a new appliance from Sears since the ’90s. My last experience, from the scratch ‘n’ dent store, was very worthwhile. None of what I’ve written about is going to keep them in business. But it’s recommended while it exists.)
Ultraviolet Thunder
@TerryC:
My big redbud over here by the Detroit Zoo lost some branches, but it’s been doing that for years due to age. It bloomed fine and seems none the worse for the weather.
Winter 13/14 all of the Baltic ivy that was growing on it died right down to the ground. A decade of growth wiped out by the low temps.
That tree will have to be cut down in a few years because it’s just old and falling apart. That’ll be sad. It’s the biggest redbud in town and we’re fond of it.
Germy Shoemangler
@Schlemazel: You had the place to yourself, so the place was empty. They could have sat anywhere, but they went right next to you.
I often notice when I hear the RWNJ opinionating out in public, they purposely want others to hear their rants. It’s not a private conversation between them. It’s a form of exhibitionism? Or they’re hoping to form allies, as if you’ll lean over to agree with them, shake hands and make life-long friends?
I think it’s exhibitionism. And there’s something frankly unwholesome about it.
Tommy
@Schlemazel: I didn’t even know folks at Sears work on commission. I have totally equipped my entire house at Sears and not once had them push a warranty on me. Kind of amazing how much stores, owned by the same brand, can differ.
Schlemazel
@ThresherK:
I do buy parts from the local Sears depot for my appliance repairs. They cary just about everything I have ever needed.
If I ever need an appliance maybe I’ll give them a look. It was just that series of things that soured me on them.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@jharp:
Around Detroit the ash trees are toast. Our city cut every one on public property and replaced them with a variety of hardy species. The borer is appearing in northern MI where people have hauled firewood to campsites. If they don’t find a way to kill this bug the upper midwest won’t have an untreated ash in a generation.
OTOH, the woodpeckers have been thriving due to the dead wood and beetles.
Kay
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
We have a Menrads distribution facility. They’re the local leader in classifying people as managers so they don’t have to pay overtime. They hit them twice, too, because they then give salaried workers bonuses rather than salary increases. A salary increase is a better deal for a middle income employee over time because it’s reliable- all they’re doing is shiftiing the risk of a downturn in sales from the company to the employees and these people aren;t even salespeople- they work in distribution.
I think the trend toward “bonus rather than wage increase or salary increase” probably gets more attention going forward as one of the reasons people aren;t gaining ground over time.
It’s amazing how many reasons we’re finding now that we actually started looking at how this happened instead of just breezily declaring it was all due to “market forces”. We’re finding the “lost” wages! :)
Schlemazel
@Germy Shoemangler:
I think it is exactly that. LOOK AT ME I AM SOOOOO PIOUS.
Not a new problem either, Matt 6:5 is one I pull out for the street preachers:
thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Having been raise with weekly bible instruction in addition to Sunday School is a blessing and a curse.
Tommy
@Schlemazel: I think I was the person that brought up Sears to start. I flat out love the place. I bought a house built in 1972. Outside of my Magic Chef stove, which I will never get rid of, I replaced everything from Sears. They are not always the cheapest but nothing I’ve gotten hasn’t been stellar. And their delivery service is amazing.
But clearly others here have not had the same experience. I totally believe them and it makes me realize how important having good people working at a store is. You can have a good product and shitty people selling it!
debbie
@Kay:
“Bonus” has always been a management weapon. Back when I was a publishing sales rep, my commission was called a bonus in order to give management discretionary power to cut or withhold it. In the 16 years I worked at that company, this never happened to me or other reps, but the possibility of it was always there.
OzarkHillbilly
So, this is a garden thread?
The rains have everything looking jungle like around here, including my garden which I never weed like I should. T-storms last night with more due today, tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day and… I am fighting fungal diseases left and right.
My lettuce still hasn’t bolted so we are eating salad every day (the wife loves this year’s mix). My tomatoes have reached 6′ and I need to top them. My eggplants look horrible but the flea beetles seem reduced finally and I actually have one fruit growing. The peppers are starting to produce even tho the plants still seem stunted to me. The squash have all exploded in growth the past week and I am going to have to start training their growth or soon I won’t dare walk out there to pick any. Don’t know how many potatoes I am going to get, but I have stopped the rust for now. Sweet potatoes all look good and healthy but the melons…. I just can’t grow melons and when I do succeed there is always a coon just a little more anxious than I for that first sweet bite. I think I won’t even bother next year. I already harvested some broccoli heads from my store bought plants, and my from seed plants are getting ready to go. Still haven’t started my Brussels sprouts and I need to get that done TODAY.
On Tuesday morn I went out and picked 19 lbs of blueberries. Made 9 1/2 pints of preserves (make another 9 today) and froze the rest- 28 cups. After doing the math, I have to go back out and pick at least another 15 before we are set for the year. I’ll shoot for 20 again, just to make sure.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel: Well done.
Schlemazel
@Tommy:
I don’t think companies really understand how important it is to have the right people doing the right thing on the sales floor. Our one son worked for GNC for years while going to school and was a very good salesman because he knew how to figure out what people wanted and needed & never oversold someone just to make commission. He was often one of the top sales in his region. When he switched stores because he went away to college he go a new manager who had different ideas. She would insist staff sell stuff based only on her bonus targets. It didn’t help that his commission structure was better than the new people (he was under the old system & treated better) that cut into her numbers. He quit but he could also have just become a dick and pushed crap on people they didn’t want or need.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: Wonderful. Wish I was at your house! I planted squash for the first time this year. I am not sure what it looks like when it grows to the point I got stuff to eat, but the plants are growing at a rapid rate. Feel I am going to have success.
Kay
@debbie:
I just don’t think it was intended to be applied to every employee at every level. It shifts some of the cost of doing business to employees if you’re applying it to everyone who works in a warehouse. That’s a risk the employer was bearing and now it’s just magically shifted to someone who makes 32k a year. They’re not positioned to bear it. Someone who makes a 3 million dollar bonus is not in the same position as far as capacity to hold on when there is no bonus as someone who makes a 3k bonus. They can’t pretend those two people are the same. One cuts back on summer camp with no bonus and the other falls off a cliff and loses their house. Not the same. Middle income need reliability and predictability over time, not a shot at winning the lottery.
Baud
@Kay:
Problem has been that a lot of them have been convinced that they will win the lottery, and they don’t want some stupid liberal to take that opportunity away.
Tommy
@Schlemazel: I was in that Sears store for like the first time. A guy, 80 or so. He said to the sales associate he wanted some tools, they needed to be made in America. She said we don’t really sell any of those and I won’t waste your time. She still works there and I kind of took note of the honesty.
mai naem mobile
Ken Langone of Home Depot is huge in GOP politics. Hes the one who was trying to get Christie to run last time. He’s also one of the ones who called Obama communist. The fool apparently doesn’t realize the Republicans aren’t any good for his business. They’re good for his personal tax situation but what good is that if your business is producing a lot less income? I thought Lowes was a marginally blue corp. Oh,well. Costco has a very limited selection of well priced appliances. I know Frys electronics is in very few places.but they have a large selection of appliances.
debbie
@Kay:
I heard something a few days ago about increasing the overtime-eligible threshold for managers to $50,000/year. Would this help?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: In the beginning I never thought about it much (other than it is a tax on people who are bad at math, ha ha, funny right?) but I have really come to despise lotteries. When was the last time you saw a rich man standing in line to buy his weekly 20 tickets?
Baud
@mai naem mobile:
Costco is my first choice for anything. I probably do upward of 90% of my shopping there.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I will sometimes by a ticket if it’s a huge jackpot. But if they are ever made illegal again, I won’t shed a tear. Gambling too.
JPL
Friday I laid a pallet of sod after days of prep. Towards the end of the project, I pulled a muscle in my back. One of my sons came over around 6 pm and finished the job. He also gave me the mom and age talk. It sorta went along the lines of, “you have two sons who are more than willing to help you”, yadda, yadda, yadda.
lol
The good news is that I have sons who enjoy helping me out.
The bad news is that he thinks I’m getting old.
Ultraviolet Thunder
I worked on commission at Saks Fifth Avenue and at Marshall Field’s for about 5 years. I did OK, but I worked hard. Some colleagues worked a lot less but made more money. People who were really honest and scrupulous eventually left for other work. Nothing to do with those companies, which are both fine employers. But commission sales is competitive and rewards ruthlessness. To some extent it’s a zero sum game and the ones willing to cheat and play dirty thrive. This is why you meet so many salespeople who are dicks. They’ve driven out a half dozen nice guys to rise to the top. The same qualities that define a successful salesperson to the corporation define a terrible human being.
Tommy
@JPL: My mom and dad are in their late 60s. Tell them they can’t do their yard work and they will bitch slap you.
jharp
@OzarkHillbilly:
“I have really come to despise lotteries”
Mega dittos.
It is my contention that you are far far better never winning any lottery. Losing is better for you though even that can be costly.
Had a good friend who won over $5 million (after taxes, lump sum payout) about 15 years ago.
He did much better than most and he just ran out of money.
Lives in a trailer with no job and drank way too much the past 15 years.
JPL
@Tommy: I was tempted and I’m only in my mid sixties. It was hot and muggy. I tried to move the sod fast so I could get it down and watered. Truth be known, the strain could have happened in my thirties.
Tommy
@JPL: Oh I hear you. The other day I was working and I got dizzy. Told myself to stop, sit down, relax.
Baud
@jharp:
I wouldn’t refuse the money. I don’t even want to buy anything specific. I just want to retire, travel, and make sure my mom is well taken care of. Depending on the size of the winnings, I could easily live off the interest.
JPL
@mai naem mobile: The original founders of home depot have little to do with the current operations. The store went downhill under Nardelli but is returning back to what made them popular with improved customer service.
I agree that the guy is a jerk, though.
cmorenc
The beautiful Oleanders along the southern-most North Carolina beaches in Brunswick, County N.C. really took it in the shorts this past winter – out on the barrier island of Sunset Beach, where we have a second home, quite a few were killed outright by harsh nights, and most of the others suffered death of most of their limbs, but their base was hardy enough to put out new shoots. Oleanders grow with prolific rapidity and lushness in the subtropical conditions that prevail there in all but about the 20 or so coldest nights of December-February, but OTOH the beaches in Brunswick County face south rather than east, and cold northerly winds from Arctic fronts can temporarily cut off the warming influence of the Ocean.
Oleanders put down deep, sturdy roots – I had to dig out a large, mature one that had completely died in order to replace it with a new young one – it’s a lot easier to do it with a backhoe (infeasible in this case due to location and expense) and so even in the easily hand-dug sandy soil, it took me most of an afternoon to dig the old one out and detach its many arm-diameter roots enough to pull the stump out of the ground. But the new one, which I bought in a 7-gallon container, is going to be a beaut – it already produces prolific red flowers and has already grown several inches taller, even though I only planted it three weeks ago.
Poopyman
@JPL:
You ARE getting old. (The alternative, yada yada.) You just need to point out that you’re a long way from TOO old.
(ETA – Approx same age, and more limber than most folks in their 40s. that I know.)
jharp
@Baud:
I sincerely believe that you are underestimating the trouble the money would bring.
Your first choice would be to alienate your friends and or family or give them some of your money. And then some more once they piss away your original gift.
Trust me. That is what happens most if not every time.
Baud
@jharp:
Already done that.
Valdivia
Not garden related but I am seeing reports of the Mitt confab (thankfully nothing on that Pilates session with Anne and Halperin) and the buzz is on Mitt doing a ‘brutal’ powerpoint presentation of Obama’s failures in FP. There was some discussion the other day about Mitt either wanting to run or being the elder statesman, just based on this I think he really wants to run. Also, too. He will never get over the fact that Obama cleaned the floor with him in the last election.
ETA: not linking but anyone interested it’s Rucker at WaPo who has the info.
Kay
@debbie:
It would because the threashold is presumptive- everyone under the threshold is presumed “not management” which puts the burden on the employer to show why they are managers (there are factors).
It would help enormously. I think the Obama Admin are saying 52k. Liberals wanted 60K but of course they start high so 50k might have been their realistic goal when demanding 60k.
It won’t stay at 52k. It wil go down. There will be a huge lobbying push from business interests so look for lots of dire warnings in op ed pieces and on television :)
PurpleGirl
Appliance store stories: I needed a new refridgerator. I went to Sears; all the models of the size I was looking for had weird configurations of shelves. The saleswoman kept trying to come up with ways to use the door form — lots of small holders for soda cans (you can use it for yogurt — I don’t eat yogurt), etc. I went to Best Buy and found a model I liked and the salesman was helpful.
The new TV set I bought 3 years ago came from P.C. Richard — a local chain the NY area. Didn’t get the fridge there because they didn’t have the size I needed when I needed it. I’ve bought at Home Depot when they had what I needed in terms of fancy stuff, e.i. protective window film that the independent hardware store doesn’t carry.
I had a Costco membership for only one year — their container sizes are too big for me as a single person without storage space. (Pet peeve — my sister used to tell all the time how great Costco was but she never offered to take me there when she and her husband went with the car. It was hard to get things home from Costco by bus. Calling a car service wiped out the savings.)
Baud
@Valdivia: I take it they didn’t talk about the stock market then.
Valdivia
@Baud: From what I gathered the focus of the ‘ferocious’ analysis was only FP and how terrible everything is, but I am sure they fit in that too, somehow made it look bad. I am sure the fact it is doing well is all due to the job creators, in spite of the evils of the Obama administration.
Kay
@debbie:
The devil will be in the details, too, so we’ll have to look hard at the result. Public school teachers were exempted from the original rule because they don’t fit neatly into the factors- it’s one of the reasons they have more restrictive work rules and tighter union contracts, which everyone has conveniently forgotten when attacking them. It makes sense to exempt them because there might be ridiculous results if they were included but then we can’t ignore that they are exempt because their contracts reflect that carve-out. They get more contractual protections because they have fewer state protections. One thing led to the other. A trade. Now that they made the trade we can’t just tell them “you don’t get the compensatory portion of the trade we made”
Baud
@Valdivia:
We were this close to utopia before the Kenyan took over.
@Kay:
Sounds like you need to take a continuing education class on labor agreements, because the new rule is that they aren’t worth the paper they may or may not be printed on.
satby
@Ultraviolet Thunder: The last two years a robin has nested in an upright just under my deck roof next to the stairs. The fledglings just flew away yesterday, so as soon as I verified that the nest was empty I took it down before she started a second sitting. I like them, but I used those stairs multiple times a day to take the four dogs out and in and she tried to lure me away from her nest every time. It’s annoying for both of us.
Not to mention keeping the fledglings safe from the cats in their cage until they can fly away. Because one always flounder into the catio. Yesterday I got it out and was able to pen the cats inside until the last two of 4 babies flew the coop. Last week I fished a fledgling out of the pond, in time to save him thank god. Fledgling season is always a bit hairy around here.
satby
@TerryC: I lost one 7 year old tree as well as 5 different rose bushes, and some of them had gone through last year’s polar vortex winter just fine. Sad.
Kay
@Baud:
Right, but it was the state that exempted them. Wisely, because overtime wouldn’t work for them. Their contracts reflected the fact they don’t get paid for overtime. If those go they’ll have the worst of both sides – no overtime and no contract rules that limit work hours.
satby
@Baud: me too!
I don’t need to buy a bunch of crap from winning anything, (well I do need a new car someday soon) but if I won a pot of money I would just enjoy the thought that I could pay the bills. Extra bennie would be enough $$ to visit my mom in Florida before she’s gone, and my son in California.
Germy Shoemangler
Just saw Dickerson interview Bernie Sanders.
Sanders is a smart enough not to take the bait. Dickerson asks “So are democrats who take this pac money corrupt?”
Sanders replies the system is the problem; the candidates are following a bad law.
Dickerson looks disappointed, asks again “but are they corrupt for taking the money?”
Sanders won’t bite.
If he had, the headlines would have screamed “Sanders Calls Clinton Corrupt!”
Baud
@Germy Shoemangler:
Sanders is excellent about that. So is Warren. They understand the long game and aren’t all about their own ego.
Germy Shoemangler
@Baud: Immediately following the Sanders interview, Lindsey Graham is on, and he’s chuckling. He finds Sanders amusing.
Baud
@Germy Shoemangler:
I wonder if he finds Sen. Kirk as amusing.
bemused
@Schlemazel:
Good one. They do seem to excessively obsessively think and talk about gays and most people would have to wonder why and speculate.
Botsplainer
@Baud:
My idea of fun with a lottery would involve my purchase of the mortgages of people I hate, just so I can screw with them by being the most obnoxious creditor in history.
Baud
@Botsplainer:
How would you screw with them?
Renie
@Schlemazel: You win for the day! Great story.
Ultraviolet Thunder
It’s noon. I’ve been up for 7 hours. I’d like to go to brunch. Would it be a dick move to wake up my wife?
Davis X. Machina
@Baud: I see you don’t have a mortgage with Wells Fargo….
Cckids
This is my first full summer of container/patio only gardening. I’ve had an infestation of gnats/tiny flies (whatever they are) that I’m finally getting ahead of, and now the true hot weather has descended. We’ve had 4 days of 105 + temps, with a projected 10 or so more. Overnight it gets down to maybe 95-ish.
I doubt my tomatoes will survive this. Even some of my cacti & succulents are looking stressed.
Deserts. Bah.
Joel
Generally speaking, most retailers are run by major assholes. Costco may be the only considerable exception. Lowes, Home Depot are two sides of the same coin. Can’t say a lot of the “little guys” are much better, either.
Germy Shoemangler
@Cckids: we had a continuing problem with tiny flies/gnats with our indoor veg garden. I didn’t want to spray pesticide, and found some old-fashiond fly strips. After one day, the strips were full of the little buggers.
OzarkHillbilly
@Cckids:
Erect a shade cloth so that they are sheltered from the afternoon sun. Don’t live in the desert but it works for me when we get a stretch +100 degree days.
Baud
@Davis X. Machina:
I pay my mortgage. They don’t bug me. I thought most of the issues involved homeowners in default. I don’t know what a lender can legally do to mess with someone who’s paying their mortgage on time.
realbtl
@satby: I’ve got a robin nest in the breezeway to my garage which I don’t use much. About a week ago the fledglings must have been ready to head off because when I stepped out there was an explosion of birds. Looked like a bomb going off. One newbie didn’t make the first attempt at flight but succeeded on the 2nd.
OzarkHillbilly
House zeroes out core funding for justice research; no one notices
At today’s meeting of the National Research Council’s Committee on Law and Justice, I learned that the House of Representatives has voted to “zero out” core funding for the National Institute of Justice and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. That wouldn’t abolish those agencies; instead, the Office of Justice Programs would be invited to take money out of program funds (mostly grants to states and localities) to fund the research mission. (See p. 43 of the committee report.)
Nothing to see here. Move along, move along.
Davis X. Machina
@Baud: Ineptitude, not harrassment, has been my experience. Escrow especially.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Too much justice only makes it less valuable.
ThresherK
Slovenia / England Euro2016 Qualifying.
Yeah, fck Slovenia.
OzarkHillbilly
@realbtl: My wife and I were sitting in a bench in our yard. We both looked up in time to see a kamikaze baby robin heading straight for us desperately trying to figure out how these things called wings work. Managed to land on the bench’s back rail with great relief.
Then it noticed us.
Baud
@Davis X. Machina: Thankfully, I haven’t had that problem, AFAIK.
trollhattan
It’s pretty telling, the shifting of the landscape climate zones, I believe the Sunset guide has done that with us.
As to the impending demise of any Mexican fan palm, good riddance. An awful, awful giant weed and vermin factory. Although to be fair, once you’ve had one long enough to produce seed you’ll continue to have them, evidently until the End Times as best as I can tell.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: And knowledge of justice just makes it more likely the plebes will notice they aren’t getting it.
J R in WV
@Tommy:
Sears is owned (enough to manage without interference owned) by a guy who once read Ayn Rand, and who is managing the corp using Ms Rand’s political philosophy. Each unit competes with the other units, rather than cooperating to improve things.
The last time I was in their local big store, the women’s wear floor was comparatively empty, with way too much room for people and very few clothes on display. So I guess the women’s wear manager lost a board-room war for funding, or something.
I think they’re doomed as a retailer. The owner seems more interested in becoming a real estate magnate, if he can manage to go bankrupt without losing the real estate. They’ve done lots of things I disrespect, like ending most Craftsman tool guaranteed for life policies. And he’s also destroying K-Mart. I think they’re doomed by peculiar management beliefs.
We have bought appliances from Sears for years, and the newest one, a big fridge, is beginning to make different noises when the compressor is running. And there’s often frost on things in the big freezer drawer, which seems to show that the seals to keep out warm humid air aren’t working right.
So sad, to loose things that once were dependable to foreign political philosophy.
Elizabelle
This almost belong on Betty C’s Mad Max thread. Apocalyptic. AP via the LA Times.
Mr. Chitadze is not what you call a lucky guy.
And they’ve got a religious leader given to Pat Robertsonesque comments:
Germy Shoemangler
Bill D.
Here in California, land of (in most parts of the state) mild but not tropical winters, some do push the envelope in the tropical direction during especially mild periods, then get pushed back when freezes are colder and more widespread than in previous years.
I have the opposite problem. My garden started out like a miniature botanical garden, with native plants from various parts of the state arranged in natural ecological and climatic groupings. However, in trying to grow cold-loving plants from the high mountains of California (my favorite plants), I’m faced with inadequate winter chill. My location, unlike in childhood, sometimes get no winter frost in recent years. My mountain wild roses only bloomed the first year, after we got down to 26 degrees, and in no year since then. My serviceberry often fails to leaf out in spring, then only survives because the basal buds take over and grow new branches for the shrub.
Worse, the entire state has now had the two warmest winters in its history, with temperatures averaging around six degrees above normal in winter. My mountain ash, thriving until two years ago, partially failed to leaf out last spring and has entirely failed to leaf out this spring. It appears to be headed to the firewood pile.
I actually have been able to grow a lot of mountain plant species, but many of those have been challenged by excessive shade from the neighbor’s tree shading my postage-stamp yard, a tree which grew far larger than I expected. That same tree has been great, though, for dealing with hot weather as it also shades my house.
karen marie
@Gene108: Diversion has been a recurring problem. Sometimes it’s to Bing (!), sometimes to a garden store, sometimes to NSFW sites. Feels like a hijack to me but they are aware of whatever it is.
trollhattan
@Bill D.:
In my corner of the Golden state folks persist planting birches, alders and coastal redwoods, all of which struggle against the summer heat and (lack of) humidity. The redwoods generally survive but the birches and alders all eventually succumb to borers. Last week I saw a home having a ginormous, dead pine of some kind being cut down in their backyard. Hauling out the chunks was the largest crane I have ever seen on a residential street, with the boom extended over the house itself. Nervous moments for all, I’m sure.
The Thin Black Duke
@Germy Shoemangler: Thank you. That’s a great quote. I’ll try to remember it the next time I’m being lectured by a “both sides are the same” asshole.
J R in WV
@Elizabelle:
So melting the bells destroys the institution of the church?
So glad it’s that easy!
Brachiator
@Elizabelle: Until I saw the name of the city, I was thinking that this disaster happened in the US state of Georgia, especially because of the Pat Robertson quote.
Elsewhere, Jurassic World has grossed over $204,000,000 its first weekend. Godless Hollywood rules.
Tripod
@J R in WV:
Edward Lampert. The business press calls him Crazy Eddie.
Patricia Kayden
@Germy Shoemangler: Wedding guest? People now feel the need to carry their guns to a wedding? Sigh.
Elizabelle
@Patricia Kayden: And they’re not even getting droned at this wedding.
It was at the super scary Waldorf Astoria.
And some woman was winged in the head by a bullet. Not life threatening, but scary close.
Patricia Kayden
@Brachiator: Watched it with the Hubby on Friday. Was okay but didn’t understand the forced romance between the lead characters. Other than that it was a fun ride (but not as fun as Jurassic Park). Kind of shocked at how much it’s made in its first weekend. I guess we’ll be seeing a sequel next year.
Brachiator
@Germy Shoemangler:
That quote is a fair modern paraphrase of Plato, but what he actually said was a little different:
Germy Shoemangler
@Patricia Kayden: I suppose to fire them into the air when they hear “I now pronounce you man and wife.”
Bill D.
@trollhattan: Pines are taking it in the shorts these days in California. Lots of them are dying from bank beetles due to being weakened by drought, even in naturally forested areas.
Origuy
I prefer to go to Orchard Supply (aka OSH), which is a chain based in San Jose. They used to be independent, then Sears acquired them and then sold them. I just found out that they’re owned by Lowes, but operated as a separate business unit. I would go to Ace if there were still any around me, but the one nearby closed. They were only open until 6pm; I could never make it there.
gelfling545
Our miserable winter has absolutely delighted most of my plants. Consistent temperatures (no freeze thaw cycle) & unbroken snow cover makes the plants I generally plant quite safe & cozy. Everything is a bit larger than usual & with more bloom. A peony scheduled to be removed this spring, as it had never bloomed in 5 years finally produced some gorgeous flowers. Of course I had a ridiculous amount of spring cleanup to do but it was worth it.
I went to an old established plant nursery in my area (Rupert Galley & Sons) last week & discovered that a century plant that had been planted by nursery staff in 1922 is starting to bloom. They’ve moved it out of the cactus house & into a protected area in the main nursery for all to see. The plant is enormous & impressive but, of course, will die after blooming.
WaterGirl
@gelfling545:
I’m not quite sure why, but I find that terribly sad.
Bill D.
@WaterGirl: The plant has fulfilled its mission. It spends its entire life building up enough energy to create a humongous flowering stalk that’ll produce a huge number of seeds to perpetuate the species. It also produces offsets at the base that survive even though the mother plant dies. The whole process produces food and living spaces for a large number of creatures from tiny bugs to birds and mammals, and for people too.
satby
@realbtl: The explosion of birds was probably the parents trying to lure you away from where the babies were. That’s how I realized about the fledgling in the pond and the other in the catio. The adults were trying to draw the cats away, it got my attention and I chased and confined the cats. The catio is a 10x10x4 foot enclosed pen made of heavy duty wire fencing and lumber with a shade cloth, and after all that when the cats catch something I feel a bit bad, but also like I’m seeing evolution play out in real time.
Aleta
@Tommy: Hey, wanted to mention a basil idea. One can make and freeze pesto (so nice to have in the winter). And to make a lot, it’s faster to just half-way make it now and freeze, and finish later.
The fastest way would be simply basil + olive oil chopped in a food processor, then freeze in ice cube trays. ( (Otherwise, it’s hard to hack a piece off a giant mass of frozen pesto.) You can line the trays with wax paper if needed, but with metal trays and enough oil, the cubes slide right out without that.) Store the cubes back in the freezer, airtight (for ex, a ziplock bag) to keep the color from oxidizing out. You can use the cubes just like that in cooking or salad dressing or on potatoes or rice.
Or, mix in the other ingredients (pine nuts or almonds or walnuts + salt + garlic + Parm. cheese) and presto. Pesto.
You can also grind up any or all of the other ingredients from the start. For ex, if you grind the almonds + oil + basil + a little salt in the food processor to start, then come winter you can just add garlic and cheese.
My mom used to freeze her butter. Basil butter sounds like fun to freeze, too.
Older
@Tommy: When I was in my sixties, I was totally not too old to “do that” — no matter what that was. But now I’m in my 70s and y’know, I am too old.