Protesters spell out "RESIST!" at Trump golf course https://t.co/dvCYRvhEOJ pic.twitter.com/tVPAoN8267
— The Hill (@thehill) May 13, 2017
Since I didn’t get any other garden pics this week… Adam requested a Garden Chat post about the Sean Spicer lawn ornament meme:
… Lisa Kadonaga, who teaches at the University of Victoria, told BuzzFeed News when she heard about the curious Spicer reports, she immediately thought about all the luscious pastures and hedges around her home city. “The thing about Victoria is we’re into gardening here and there are bushes all around,” she said. “I was looking around outside and thought hmmm.”
..and so Kadonada created this original Spicer cut-out from a Getty newswire image and stuck it among some bushes at a nearby bank.
“Now you too can have the White House press secretary in — or rather, ‘among’ — the bushes in your yard,” Kadonaga wrote in a Facebook post that’s since gone viral.
“And hey, if you’re concerned that when exposed to the outdoors, the image will run….no worries, that’s exactly what Sean Spicer does, so it’s totally authentic!” she added…
#GardenSpicer spotted outside of the Watergate! pic.twitter.com/1HwByYWSXV
— Jeremy Birch (@jbirch28) May 12, 2017
***********
Garden centers and flower markets (and public gardens, for that matter) are liable to be a little overwhelmed today, due to the holiday. Not that it would make much difference, here in New England, since we’re already getting what’s supposed to be up to two inches of rain from this unseasonal nor’easter…
What’s going on in your gardens (planning) this week?
Jeff
My yard in Philadelphia got 3.875 inches of rain from the nor’easter Saturday according to the rain gauge.
Major Major Major Major
Happy Mother’s Day, everyone.
I was at the store today picking up some steak for dinner and they had happy mother’s day placards all over the place, including on wire wickets and stuck into the ground meats.
Kinda weird.
sam
anyone see louise mensch and claude taylor reporting on sealed indictment of Trump? His Russian connections may have caught up with him.
look at louse mensch twitter feed….
lowtechcyclist
We’ve got a very nice shrubbery in the front yard. I’m gonna have to make me a Spicer cutout to put there.
raven
We’re high and dry here. The boss lady is headed out of town for the week and I’ll get my watering orders today. We’ve watch two storms just miss us this week and there is nothing forecast for another.
OzarkHillbilly
Been putting more work in on reclaiming the island from my driveway. The idiot who owned this place before us used creek gravel on the drive, the worst stuff in the world. It is mostly chert, it does not compact, it likes to “walk”, just an all around mess. One of the first things I did when we bought this place was rent a skid loader and remove as much of that crap from the drive as I could and replace it with driveway gravel (crushed limestone, a mix of 1/2″ and 1″ clean)(it compacts). That still left me with all the creek gravel that had “walked” as much as a foot and a half away from the drive becoming embedded in the clay I have for soil, turning it into a concrete like matrix in which nothing but weeds can grow and eats lawn mower blades like a wood chipper eats tree limbs. One can not dig that shit up, so I have to hit it with my tiller just to break it up. Then I can set my landscape timbers on fairly level ground, well, sloped but evenly sloped. After that I add 3-4″ of topsoil and then plantings, then mulch. It is a multi year project.
The past 2 weeks I did the high tip of the island, a triangular shaped plot about 12′ across at the base and 20′ to the tip. In that area we already had 4 peonies growing, so avoiding them I tilled the whole area up, set the timbers, and added the soil. I am unsure of what I will end up planting there but for this year I put in 2 butterfly bushes, some zinnias and cosmos around the peonies, and a carpet of white alyssum with a little bit of pale purple here and there. The long term goal for the island is a butterfly garden, possibly with a small water feature. We’ll see.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
How many hummingbirds you up to now? (“Ya bastid,” as they say in pahts of New England.) We’re all the way up to … zero.
Elizabelle
And: Germany has another round of elections today, on a Sunday. Almost like they want people to turn out and vote. (Viva Germany and France.)
from FTF Vichy NYTimes:
JPL
@sam: The year of magical thinking.
ThresherK
Same rain as AL, five or six counties away.
Fixing to fix a lasagna for a friend visiting, who had to cancel their trip for Cape Cod owing to change in plans. Bonus lasagna for us!
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: 2-3 dozen I think. I have 4 large feeders out, but as of now they only need refilling once a day.
rikyrah
Morning Everyone ???
JPL
@rikyrah: Good morning!
rikyrah
Happy Mother’s Day ????
raven
Last night my wife said “I’m trying to think of something we could do to honor our mothers tomorrow” I said “Working your ass off in the garden all day seems to me to be a perfect tribute to your mom”. She smiled.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
So my “brain” (so to speak) is scrolling through being happy for you, being envious, and sometimes hitting on the same thing you said to Qunierly daily when she and Poco were in the Southwest.
Well, OK, I don’t think that last part. But I AM envious.
satby
The dwarf azaleas I bought on clearance arrived yesterday, so after work tonight I’m planting them. One of the cheapo rose bushes doesn’t look like it’s going to make it, but the others are all thriving, and so are my tiny trees and lilacs. The early irises are all about bloom, the potatoes have started to sprout, and I got 8 more heirloom tomato plants I didn’t need at the farmers market already planted. Still waiting for the ones I ordered online.
And of the 13 cuttings in my cloner I have five with roots and two more that look like roots will pop. The other five were a mixed bag, some I trimmed and stuck back in, others had clearly died. Turns out cuttings from shrubs should be taken from new growth close to the base, not just tender growth from anywhere. Still, success in the majority of them!
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: That will be beautiful when it’s done Ozark, but wow, what a lot of work!
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning and Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms!
My adult spawn will probably just be waking up when I head off to work and have to turn my phone off. If they also aren’t working, and both of them work all the time too.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: That’s why it will take years. As far as beautiful, I suspect it will be more like a mishmash of whatever fancies I may have at the moment of doing.
CarolDuhart2
Second mother’s day without Mom. Feels strange in a way. Not sad, but just another day-another Sunday.
People tend to forget that investigations go by human time-and humans are unpredictable, take weekends off-look at things and then decide=”Nah, let’s do it Monday” or “take a second look at this”. So Louise Mench may be right inevitably, but don’t count on anything until things are actually underway.
I have a hunch that Orange Cheeto will burn himself out. Everything is too much for him right now, and when you are President, breaks are something you have to take. He’s a toddler, so he can’t just walk away, delegate responsibility, or anything an adult does to take pressure off.
NotMax
Treacly music is allowable on Mother’s Day.
Mama
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: I think mishmashy cottage type gardens ARE beautiful (hat tip to raven’s bride too!) Which is lucky because that’s what I inevitably end up with as my gardens.
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly: Butterfly garden. What a beautiful idea.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms among us.
And only the best to greennotGreen, her family, and everyone else in struggles.
satby
And I have been keeping greennotGreen in my thoughts and heart, her family too. The last update I saw was that she had taken a turn for the worse and nothing since. Wishing peace for her and her wonderful family.
Just One More Canuck
… Lisa Kadonaga, who teaches at the University of Victoria (in Anne’s post)
My alma mater!! (we don’t get a lot of publicity – take it where we can get it) – and we have a mutual friend
Jeffro
Those protestors are better people than me; I would have spelled it out with a couple barrels full of Round-Up.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@sam: Skepticism is called for. I don’t know either name but Louise Mensch has a reputation for some wild and untrue “scoops”, though I gather some genuine ones as well.
Plus it didn’t make sense even to my non-legal mind. It said the FISA court handed up indictments, which they don’t do. In preparation for putting out Articles of Impeachment, which they really don’t do.
I hope there’s a nugget of truth there, that somebody is about to issue indictments, but at this point I doubt it.
Jeffro
On a side note, still cannot believe that Bayern Munich and the Nats managed such amazing come-from-behind wins yesterday!
(sending good thoughts to Tottenham today in their last game at White Hart Lane – COME ON YOU SPURS!)
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: What I hope for is a garden that looks wild with a bunch of different things thriving, a contrast of foliage and flowers with always something blooming. It rarely works out that way because my soil sucks, too much shade here, too much sun there, always too much of something. I plant this that and the other, but this and that die leaving me with only the other. I’ll never be done with it, that’s why I’m going to live forever.
“St Peter don’t you call me cause I can’t go,
I owe my soul to the gardening store.”
Lapassionara
Good morning, everyone. I planted 3 oak leaf hydrangeas and 3 regular blue hydrangeas this week, and have 3 Virginia sweet spire to plant today. Still wrangling honeysuckle and wild grapevine, plus some other weeds that I don’t know what to call. not as ambitious as Ozark, but still a challenge for me.
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle: And other pollinators too. Hoping to start a bee hive next year.
satby
@Lapassionara: Nice! Share some pictures when they bloom.
The hydrangea from my old place was a failure in my cloner since the cutting was from the tip, not near the root. But I had bought a similar one last year and if I decide I want another (vanilla strawberry) it’s not ridiculously expensive to replace.
Lapassionara
@satby: l had oak leafs when I lived in SC that sent baby oak leafs up from their roots. I started with 3, ended up with 5, then started giving baby plants away. I could not imagine having to buy these 3, but found no one willing to share. As for the other types, I have never successfully cloned. But I love the big blue blooms.
Immanentize
Happy Mother’s Day to all who are mothers — either actually or figuratively.
What a project Ozark! I am sure your others look better than most people’s this and that.
I have assembled my tomatoes, and pepper plants to put in the garden but the aforementioned noreaster will keep me baking instead of gardening. I am making an angel food cake from scratch (Ms Imm’s request) Man, that is work! To think this was a staple requirement of 50’s and 60’s mother’s. And so much other time consuming labor….. But it is going to be excellent with fresh strawberries!
satby
@Lapassionara: Well, as I was wandering around looking at the hydrangea I linked to, I found that one site selling it has gift certificates on sale for 20% off over $50.
So I just bought myself one (Happy Mother’s Day to meee!)
And now I’m going to go buy my vanilla strawberry one. And probably something else.???
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Isn’t that part of the Gardener’s Contract?
debbie
@satby:
There is no such thing as too many hydrangeas!
satby
@Immanentize:
You brought back a memory of my grandmother telling me the story of my mother’s rough, tough biker twin brother. He loved Angel food cake as a kid, so my grandmother taught him how to make it and he would, from scratch. He would put it in the oven, go play stickball with his friends, and come in precisely when it was time to take it out. She said he got better at making them than she was.
satby
@debbie: or lilacs ??
debbie
Does anyone know much about this program? It’s on my local station tonight.
Quinerly
@SFAW:
@16….?
debbie
@satby:
Toss azaleas and rhododendrons in there too!
I’ve noticed more and more people in my neighborhood have been planting dwarf lilacs. They must be easier or something, but damn, they smell good!
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Not sure about that but it’s part of my marriage contract.
Anya
@sam: I don’t buy any of that. Maybe some small Trump associate will be indicted but I don’t believe any of the big ones will be touched. Besides, that gang’s credibility suffers when they claim a FISA court issued indictments, when everyone knows that not what the FISA court can’t issue indictments, and or that the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause has nothing to do with the president.
satby
@debbie: PBS has been hyping it, it’s a dramatization of Prince Charles finally becoming King.
satby
@debbie: those dwarf ones are Josie Korean lilacs, probably. I had one that the previous owners had planted at my old place. It was ok, but I prefer the multiple versions of full sized ones. Probably because I like all the colors too.
Suburban Mom
@OzarkHillbilly: You and me both. In a relatively dense neighborhood like mine, just when you get a shade bed thriving someone takes down a tree in the next yard and fries your ferns. One of the great joys of gardening is the way it teaches us to persevere despite what we can’t control.
Adria McDowell (formerly Lurker Extraordinaire
Sarah L Smith on Twitter had some interesting info on Trump financials (shell corps, etc.).
Graham Stern on Twitter has the story on Trump’s connection to Felix Sater.
I put more stock in those two than I do Louise Mensch or Claude Taylor, though I do read their Twitter streams. I take their info with a grain of salt.
Quinerly
I’m digging on the Elvin Bishop station on Pandora and sitting in the sun all day. Just got back from an early AM beach walk with Poco, the luckiest ex inner city street dog ever. Great dinner (perfectly cooked soft shell crabs…love their little crunchy legs!) last night with commentator “juju.” Poco sends his thanks for the fantastic dog biscuits, juju! Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers and Earth Mothers out there. Have a wonderful day!
debbie
@satby:
People here use them as hedges along their yards. I don’t know if this is typical, but they seemed to last longer this year than the full-sized ones. As a disinterested appreciator, I like them all!
The peonies have opened up and rain isn’t forecast until the end of the week. For the first time in years, I’ll have time to appreciate them.
HRA
Today besides being my yearly Mothers Day brunch is also the day of take whatever you want from my 9+ beds of plants. Since at one time, I bought perennials only for the beds decades ago and annuals for color in some of the many pots scattered in this largest yard on the street, there are plants I struggle to name when I am asked and am thankful for the daughters who are avid gardeners.
I know I shall get teased for the bare deck containers where I have my yearly vegetable garden. This constant rain and low temperatures have made me hesitate.
Happy Mothers Day .
debbie
No one would ever make the mistake of doing this for Trump.
Elizabelle
@debbie: What a sweet (tooth) story. Well done, Miss Abby Grace.
FlyingToaster (Tablet)
After music school yesterday HerrDoktor and I went to two plant sales and I put together the new upright cold frame and loaded it half up. I’m at the south end of AL’s county and WU predicts we’ll see 1.5 inches. I also have last year’s cold frame (sans cover) which I’ll put up and move most of the hardier plants into. After it stops raining.
Denali
Speaking of outdoor accessorizing, does anyone have suggestions for dealing with a large oak stump – about 4 feet off the ground? We had the tree taken down last week, and I did want the stump to use to set trailing ivy or something on- but the stump turned out to be too high and too large. Now it just looks strange. What to do,
Denali
Speaking of outdoor accessorizing, does anyone have suggestions for dealing with a large oak stump – about 4 feet off the ground? We had the tree taken down last week, and I did want the stump to use to set trailing ivy or something on- but the stump turned out to be too high and too large. Now it just looks strange. What to do.
Quinerly
Disgusting morning read. Think I’m stepping away from all things Trump today: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/at-mar-a-lago-the-star-power-of-the-presidency-helps-charities–and-trump–make-more-money/2017/05/13/e6bf6782-34ca-11e7-b412-62beef8121f7_story.html?utm_term=.aa4945d57456
kindness
You know when Trump sees the Spicer lawn ornament he’s going to be pissed 1) at Spicer 2) at the people posting the meme & 3) I bet he can’t keep his stubby little thumbs from jamming some tweet about it he’s such an insecure dickhead.
OzarkHillbilly
@Denali: Put your wife on top of it and call it a pedestal?
Spanky
@Denali: Cut it down to about 18″ if you still want to use it for ivy and/or pots, or take it to the ground.
If you don’t know anyone with a chainsaw (it’d be a fairly easy job w/o the tree attached), call up a tree company and tell them you have a rainy day side job for them if they want it. Offer them $50, or whatever sounds appropriate in you area for a half hour job.
Stump grinding is another option if you want it totally gone. That would probably be a different company (specialists!) and, if it’s like in our area, a surprisingly costly job for just grinding on wood.
@OzarkHillbilly: Assumes the wife is not afraid of heights. :^)
hovercraft
Happy Mothers Day to all the BJ Moms.
Sending good thoughts to gnG, and all of those going through a difficult time this Mothers Day.
Oldgold
Inexplicably, my garden (f/k/a Rabbit Feeding Zone) continues to grow unmolested. I was particularly disappointed by the great strides made by the kale over the past week. I fear that soon my significant other will be scanning the internet for ways to make use of this foul tasting weed. Kale chips? Where are the rabbits?
chopper
@Oldgold:
kale chips are fantastic. really works best with flat (dinosaur) kale.
OzarkHillbilly
@Oldgold: I actually like kale chips.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
I planted a pollinator garden 5 years ago and it is so much fun especially when the hummingbirds show up. It’s a wild garden where I abandoned taste and proportion in favor of crazy color. I have a bird feeder in that garden, too and last summer ended up with some random sunflowers which added to the fun.
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: That is what I am aiming for.
laura
GreennotGreen and her family are in my thoughts in the easing on over to next. Grace and peace to them.
It’s the first mothers day without my mom and I’m feeling tender. It will be a good day to work a few more cosmos into the raised bed and pot an upright fuchsia and begonias. The garden took off last week due to the warm weather but a couple hollyhocks got ate by the snails. Grrr. The milk weed is huge and fuzzy, just about to bloom.
If there’s lilacs or sweet peas at the farmer’s market I’m buying a bunch.
We got a post-easter ham on sale and it’s getting the Nigela Lawson treatment followed by beans, quiche, Cobb salad and a righteous potato scallop with cheese and Vidalia onions. There won’t be a scrap left by the week’s end.
We’ll head downtown this afternoon to watch the racers come in at the end of the first stage of the Amgen Tour of California. Then home to get ready for the workweek after the best week off in the longest time. Hooefully, Alain will find some serviceable photos from our trip to NYC for on the road posting.
Peter
@Denali: Buy some mushroom plugs and inoculate it. Quickly! Before it’s colonized by billions of random spores. You can get it to grow a variety of choice edibles.
Peter
All my hardy stuff is up and thriving with all the rain—salads are just killing these days—and this week I’m getting all the tender stuff in. Beans, corn, nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, tomatillos and husk cherries), various basils and a third planting of lettuces for mesclun. I’ll try to send pictures for next week. It’s looking good out there.
Vheidi
@CarolDuhart2: first one for us,tough. We’ll all be together for the anniversary of her death on Tuesday, so that’s good. Still hard to …
rikyrah
@satby:
me too, satby.
Cheryl Rofer
Holding greennotGreen in my thoughts.
The time has come for my Russian sage. It looks lovely and attracts hummingbirds and bees, even the smaller finches. But it propagates by sucker. Ugh. Guess I’ll kill it all and put something in its place, maybe roses, maybe tree peonies.
Steeplejack
The Intruders, “I’ll Always Love My Mama.”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@sam:
Lot of rumors and BS around Trump. Believe it when it when we see it.
Also, I am being the wonder if this might end up with Trump simply committing suicide – he is seems to be in almost a blind panic already, which figures since he just gets his information from CNN and Fox with their Fear Everything formats.
Another Scott
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Mememorandum has an Axios teaser up that Donnie is considering a “huge reboot” – firing (nearly) everyone in his staff and cabinet and starting over.
Yeah, that’ll work real good, Donnie. Maybe do it like your hero Saddam did! Great ratings!!1
:-/
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
StringOnAStick
@laura: Laura, I saw your post too late on Friday, but thanks for your offer of support regarding my husband’s CLL. We’re awaiting further test results but the doctor did say “mild” at this point, so I’m trying to hope for the best. Thanks for your kind offer. Rest assured I read almost everything here and only comment occasionally.
laura
@StringOnAStick: you were on my mind this morning and so I’m glad. I got some really helpful advice the first time cancer barged in and in every instance since. Some was so frank and seemingly raw, harsh truth, but over the years so deeply impactful.
If I can offer some help to your Mighty Team, im here for you.