Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

You cannot love your country only when you win.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

“woke” is the new caravan.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Garden Chat: In Living Color

Sunday Garden Chat: In Living Color

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From faithful garden correspondent Marvel:

Over thisaway, we’re cursing (what with the leaf-raking and all) & praising the Willamette Valley’s Fall color. Mostly praising.

We’re particularly grateful for a few trees in the lot next door.

marvel oct 15 Testimony

Last March found us submitting multiple rounds of testimony (written & in-person) to the local Planning Commission in an effort to save some sweetgum trees that were slated to be removed in conjunction with a proposed subdivision on the other side of one of our back fences. After much ado, the commisioners sided with us and demanded the sweetgums (and an adjacent oak) be preserved and incorporated in the developers plans.

marvel oct 15 Orange Fence

In July, they off-loaded a giant bulldozer next door to start clearing the land for the new houses. Thankfully, a couple of days before the big machinery arrived, a crew was out there building a screaming orange contractor’s fence to protect those lovely trees from the goings on.

This morning I went out and once again rejoiced at our good fortune — those vibrant trees are a good habitat for all manner of feathered critters, provide a lovely natural buffer between us & the new houses, and of course: they knock me out every year with their unbelievable color.

***********
Anybody got tips on overwintering roses in containers (rootpouches)? We have half a dozen bushes in 20gal bags that aren’t going to get planted out before the ground freezes. (There was going to be a new raised bed, which hasn’t yet happened. For once, that’s the Spousal Unit’s #planningfail, not mine.)

The three bagged roses snugged in next to the garage didn’t survive last winter — no real surprise, what with the record-breaking ten feet of snow and all. This year’s potential sacrifices could go into an unheated & dark shed, or some of them could go into the garage (somewhat warmer, unpredictably lit & heated), or I can snug them against the south-facing side of the house and cover them — with what? Will the commercial ‘rose covers’ work, if I cover the containers as well as the base of the shrub? Would ‘heeling them in’ by piling sacks of soil around the bags make any sense?

I also brought two mini-roses (in 3gal rootpouches) and several scented geraniums into the house, where they’re currently shedding leaves on a window ledge. The ‘true daylight’ fixtures over that window are lit pretty much 24/7, so I’m not sure those poor little plants will make it either, but at least the two current cats haven’t shown any interest in them. (Haven’t had indoor plants for at least a decade, since one of our now-deceased felines would do great damage to herself & the furnishings in her extremely successful attempts to murder any foliage brought into her domain.)

What’s going on in your garden(s) this week?

Reader Interactions

52Comments

  2. 2.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    I’m at Amsterdam Schipol airport waiting for a connection.
    They have amaryllis bulbs the size of cantaloupes here but they’re not approved for export. Bummer. I have extra suitcase space and it won’t all get filled with chocolate.

  3. 3.

    raven

    Nice pix. We are starting to put the house back together, the gutter installation yesterday was the last major work to be done. It is going to be interesting to figure out what to do with the water that comes off the roof since the conventional wisdom seems to be not to use it for vegetables. We almost had the guy put in a couple of rain barrels under the downspouts but we elected to wait and figure it out first. As it stands the runoff will go down the hill and into the main garden.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Good for you Marvel! Trees are special souls and sweetgums are particularly beautiful in the fall. There is a golf course in town that has a row of sweetgums lining the street and driveway that is always a ‘must drive-by’ for me in Oct.

  6. 6.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: We have water oaks all over our neighborhood
    that are end of their life span. They are huge and many are dangerous because of where they sit and people are having to remove them. Four came down for our sewer project and not much was said but there is a proposal to take some down on a nearby property and some folks are raising hell even though they have been examined by arborists and declared a hazard.

  7. 7.

    Zinsky

    About a month ago, the wife and I spent five days in and around Portland and the Willamette Valley. Georgeous place! Portland is very cool – progressive, fairly clean, lots of bike trails, and of course, the recreational cannabis doesn’t hurt, either.

    In Minnesota, a day or two left of Indian summer, time to uproot the annuals, trim back the perennials and rake the leaves one last time before the snow flies.

  8. 8.

    Satby

    Anne Laurie, I would bring the roses into the garage if you can’t get them into the ground. Above ground the entire root system will freeze in the pouch. Heeling them in could work if dug in and covered pretty deeply, but I suspect the better option is the garage.

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven:

    even though they have been examined by arborists and declared a hazard.

    Sometimes it is necessary, sad but necessary, just as it is with a cherished pet. But I hate developers who buy a piece of property and scrape every tree, bush, and leaf of grass off the land just to make it easier to cram one or 2 more houses into the development. It is their land and they get to do what they want with it, and I get to despise them for it.

    Back when I still lived in STL, I had a place I went mushroom hunting in Weldon Springs. It always produced well for me for multiple weeks every spring. There was one old grandfather** of an elm that I always visited. Over a hundred ft tall he grew up from a shelf of rock that made for a perfect seat and I could lean back against his 3 ft of trunk and enjoy his shade while espying all the morels growing amongst his leaf litter. I did that every year for 20 years until one year, as I worked my way down the valley I noticed a warm sunny clearing where before there had always been cool shade and I realized he had succumbed to some strong wind that had knocked him down from his precarious perch. I damn near cried. Felt like I had lost an old friend.

    I have a hickory at the back of my garden, a good 50-60 feet into the woods and well down the slope but at 60-80 feet tall it has begun to shade the garden too much. I am going to have to take it down this winter and I will not enjoy it.

    ** I am kinda funny about sexing trees. Elms, oaks and hickories are always male, sycamores, beeches, and sweetgums female. Don’t know why but I just think of them that way. Pretty damn silly.

  10. 10.

    Satby

    We had a great fall for color this year and though it’s at least a week past peak we still have a lot of lovely foliage. It’s my favorite time of the year because of all the color, and the girls were amazed by seeing it live.

    The next week promises to get back into the seventies at least two days, which is buying me time to get my furnace fixed. It started blowing cold air when I turned it on, but I think it just needs the sensor cleaned.

    Rosanne Rosannadanna had it right, if it’s not one thing it’s another ;)

  11. 11.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: We had a real bummer when we had to cut down a wonderful red had that was right outside our screen porch to make room for the addition and then the project went on hold for 2 years! Don’t matter now but it sucked.

  12. 12.

    mtiffany

    @Satby: Anne Laurie, I would bring the roses into the garage if you can’t get them into the ground. Above ground the entire root system will freeze in the pouch.

    Going to concur with Satby and add that if you do overwinter them in the garage, better that they don’t sit directly on the garage floor — that can freeze the root system as surely as if they were left outside.

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: I have a plethora of dogwoods on the property but not near enuf red buds to balance them out. One of the previous owners dearly loved the dogwoods and refused to cut any down when clearing it. I have a feeling he was unable to recognize a red bud except when flowering.

  15. 15.

    JPL

    The local ABC station is covering a possible zoning change for the area near me. It was interesting. A developer wants an area that is currently zoned 2/3 acre per house, rezoned to allow more than five houses per acre.
    The developer said one thing on TV and another at the planning meeting. The statement was concerning traffic.
    Last night I asked the parents that came to the door if they are planning to vote Tuesday.

  18. 18.

    JPL

    Specimen trees are protected here but with the current city council, there’s an easy fix for developers. Find an arborist, who declares the tree deceased. The other option is accidentally hit the tree with a backhoe. Although there is a fine for destroying a tree, the city seldom bothers to collect.

  29. 29.

    Gimlet

    Via Eschaton

    If you just give children candy when they ask, they’ll grow up in a culture of dependency and a cycle of intergenerational poverty. – Matthew Yglesias@mattyglesias

    Better to hand over your whole bag to the neighborhood’s wealthiest kids and let it trickle down to the others. – David Roberts@drvox

  30. 30.

    Elizabelle

    @Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA: That’s beautiful. The course helped, but you seem to have a gift for photography.

    Also: did we ever find out what Mumphrey named the new family pup? Did they go with Mingobat? (I think it’s a great, and memorable, name.)

  32. 32.

    Germy Shoemangler

    KKK is leaving flyers in mailboxes in Vermont. In Vermont!

    What bugs me more than the story are the stupid reader comments that follow. I was hoping I’d see comments like “I hope they catch whoever did it, these idiots don’t represent us, we’re proud of our state” etc.

    Instead, I see one comment after another accusing the black family of creating the flyer, complaining about increasing diversity in Vermont, complaining that the white race is under attack. Also, the victims are BLM members, so they are called a hate group worse than the KKK.

    http://www.wptz.com/news/kkk-poster-put-on-the-home-door-of-black-lives-matter-activist/36177786

    I keep telling myself not to read comments. I think balloon-juice has spoiled me. I always expect the same level of commenter intelligence when I visit news sites. And then I’m reminded that filthy racists infest every state in the union. And they’ve got high-speed internet and fast fingers.

  34. 34.

    Baud

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    I keep telling myself not to read comments. I think balloon-juice has spoiled me. I always expect the same level of commenter intelligence when I visit news sites.

    FWIW, I’ve tried my best to dumb down my comments as much as possible.

  36. 36.

    JPL

    If there is a fox in my backyard, how likely is it that it will attack my dog? Will my bb gun scare it away?

    There’s twelve acres behind the fence, you’d think it would be happier on the other side.

  38. 38.

    Steeplejack

    @JPL:

    I would say not likely, and you don’t need to plink at it with the BB gun. It’s probably just passing through or making the rounds, and usually they’re much less interested in a confrontation than we are.

  39. 39.

    Steeplejack

    Enjoyed the foliage picture up top.

    I was up early this morning, as per usual, seemingly without reference to the time change. I don’t have a super strict daily schedule, so maybe that’s why. I do prefer now having more light in the morning than at night. Sunrise around 7:30 was way too late; today it was back to 6:35. Sunset will be at 5:09, which is early, but that matters much less to me. I expect my fall and winter evenings to be dark.

    It’s cool (54°) and drizzly in my little corner of NoVA this morning. I’ve already taken a load of bottles to the recycling bins and had breakfast, and now I’m getting ready to do my crosswords. And BBC America is running a couple of old Tom Baker Doctor Who episodes, “The Robots of Death” and “Terror of the Zygons.” The production values are as awful as I remembered, but I had forgotten the cheesy synthesizer-based music. But then there’s Leela in her skimpy leather outfit. Why, oh, why do women have so much trouble dressing appropriately for adventure?

    The housecat continues rock steady and reliable, at her workstation with the heating pad set to 2. I hope everyone has a good day!

  40. 40.

    JPL

    @Steeplejack: Thanks. I wouldn’t hit it, but I was thinking about the noise factor. I have a feeling it’s been under my shed, so I’m going to put chicken wire to seal it off.

  43. 43.

    Poopyman

    @JPL: Not likely. They don’t go looking to pick a fight. Much rather jump something much smaller and defenseless.

  44. 44.

    Poopyman

    @Steeplejack:

    I do prefer now having more light in the morning than at night. Sunrise around 7:30 was way too late; today it was back to 6:35.

    Ditto for me, and as a matter of fact, the day before DST change is the latest (by the clock) sunrise of the year, topping the January 7 actual latest (here in the DC area) by about 7 minutes.

  45. 45.

    MomSense

    I’m losing my yearly raking battle with the pine needles. Son is at a sleep over and apparently about to stuff himself with donuts. Planning a long walk in the woods and then will go retrieve the sugared up kid.

  47. 47.

    Schlemazel

    @Poopyman:
    That reminded me of a quote from “Bored of the Rings” describing the Buggers:

    They don’t like machines more complicated than a garrote, a blackjack, or a luger, and they have always been shy of the “Big Folk” or “Biggers,” as they call us. As a rule they now avoid us, except on rare occasions when a hundred or so will get together to dry-gulch a lone farmer or hunter.

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JPL: BB guns don’t make near enuf noise to scare a fox. All you need do is open your door and step out. As to your dog, how big is it? A Chihuahua isn’t much more than a snack even for a fox.

  49. 49.

    BobS

    @JPL: Not likely a fox will mess with either dogs or cats — respect among predators. Keep in mind however that foxes are nocturnal — seeing them in the daytime should be construed as aberrant behavior and a possible indication of an animal with rabies.
    Bb guns can be lethal with small animals, something I discovered when trying to dissuade raccoons from dining at my bird feeders. Now I live trap them.

  50. 50.

    WaterGirl

    Marvel, it’s so wonderful that you were able to save those trees! Score one for the good guys!

    @raven: Raven, curious about why they think it’s not good to use the roof water for a vegetable garden. My ferns thrive in the runoff on the side where I don’t have gutters, but I don’t actually eat the ferns, so maybe that’s the difference.

  52. 52.

    satby

    @WaterGirl: Hey girlfriend! How are you?

    If roof runoff could possibly carry asphalt or tar particles those are petrochemical traces you don’t want to have taken up by a food crop. But runoff is great for flower beds and other non-edible plants. I use mine all the time for that.

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