From long-planning California commentor Scout211:
Pictures from my yard and garden this time, all taken on May 1.
First, one of the last wildflowers that bloom in our area for the year, White Hyacinth Brodiaea, Triteleia hyacinthina:
Next is one of the native California bushes that we planted about 10 years ago, the California Carpenteria or Bush Anemone, Carpenteria Californica:
Next is a little “garden” project I have been working on since we bought the property in 2003, an oak tree garden that I have been nurturing. We are in an oak savanna here, with several species of oak trees but mainly Blue Oaks. Most, if not all, of these babies are Blue Oaks. The oak trees drop acorns every year and the tiniest seedlings are started all over the area. But not of many those seedlings live to the next season due to the dry summers, the livestock on many of the properties and the fact that we have to mow down all of our grasses and weeds for fire season every year. One pass with a mower and they are all gone. On our property, we have many tiny ones that we have marked to save. Many of those are now up to 8 inches but most are 1-3 inches. This oak nursery has the tallest of the ones we have been growing. The tallest one is about 2 feet. They grow very slowly.
The photo at the top is a view from my front porch so you can get an idea of a Blue Oak savanna.
That is a good example of a Blue Oak. You can see the leaves are tiny and have a blue-green tint to them.
One last photo, my blueberry bushes are chock full of green berries. I think this will be a good year. Fingers crossed.
***********
Blasted Burpee (I know, I know, but I wanted to try some allysum seed tape, and got carried away) not only mailed my impulse tomato seedlings last week, but also the ‘Fragrant Fountain’ begonias I ordered back in February. When I opened the box — April was an abnormally cold & rain month this year — the tomatoes were just limp and pale, but the poor little begonia leaves were all frostbitten around the edges. I bedded them out yesterday, even though I suspect none of them will survive, because it was slightly less infuriating than trying to coddle them back to health indoors with our cats’ “help”.
I can remember when Burpee was a respected gardening firm, but that’s probably from when I started trying to garden a quarter-century ago…
What’s going on in your garden (planning), this week?
WereBear
I got two hanging baskets on Friday and that’s as far as my ambitions go this year. Too busy, too tired.
OzarkHillbilly
The Corona virus has every dawg damned thing in the gardening world FUBARed. I paid hell finding somebody who would sell me soil inoculent for my beans this year and even then I had to place a minimum order of $100 (sounds like a scam to me, how’s about you?) But I needed it so I bought some other shit I would need soon enough anyway. And even then, by the time it finally gets here it will be just short of a month from ordering to delivery.
Not saying this is why Burpee screwed up your order so badly, just that it may have been a contributing factor.
ETA: I like the long term planning Scout. I try to do much the same around here, even tho I’m not likely to be alive to see the results.
Sab
My pansies just survived a northern Ohio winter in a hanging basket outside. They are still blooming. Weird weather this year.
NotMax
I guess it is very, very loosely obligatory.
:)
JPL
It’s going to be eighty today, so i will be a nice day to weed.
Scout, How much land to you own? It’s beautiful
Geminid
I am in a new place with plenty of gardening space, and although my time has not yet opened up enough to dig and plant a vegetable garden I’ve put in flower seeds: two kinds of nasturtiums, California poppies, “Diablo” orange and yellow cosmos, and sunflowers. Virginia’s Corona restrictions are not as tight as some other states, and garden centers have been open. I have planned a trip to Millmont Nursery in Stuart’s Draft, over in the Shenandoah Valley. They typically have ~30 tomato varieties, 15-20 kinds of peppers. A wonderful place in a beautiful setting if anyone needs a road trip. Mennonite owned, so they are closed Sundays.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
SFAW
Re: Burpee: my father used their seeds exclusively, or almost so. Because of that, I used them the last N times I tried to get a vegetable garden going. Maybe I was/am a shitty gardener — for real, not being snarky/ironic — but I could rarely get germination rates more than the 50 percent range. I have/had no idea if that figure was/is normal, or if it should be closer to 70 or 80 percent, or what.
Not that I’ll be trying to garden again at any time in the near future, but I’m wondering what an expected germination rate should be, and also whether I should find a different brand of seeds.
Sab
That oak tree is gorgeous.
At BJ I am always struck by what a big and diverse country we are but we are still one country. The grass around that oak tree is so brown/ golden. In Ohio our grass is so lush and green now that every morning we wake up and say “Damn. Do I have to mow it again? ”
But our oak trees will never be that glorious.We have oak trees in Ohio, but they are usually tall and thin.
Van Buren
What a great view to have from one’s house.
Do all Blue Oaks make squares with their foliage?
Gvg
I got a letter from Bluestone that said their orders were more than they had ever seen but they still had to do social distancing to protect their workers, so their orders might be late. Mine was a week later than they had listed as the earliest available when I ordered in February for mid March. Earlier would have been better for Florida but evidently Nurseries in Ohio aren’t open that early.
my seed orders came fine but I mostly ordered before the virus hit because I bought the house a year ago and had made plans. My sister who wanted to garden for the first time in her life due to concerns about the food chain and I think anxiety, found seed sellers were out of many vegetables.
People who don’t normally garden always go a little crazy in the spring and rush nurseries and descend in crowds on the trucks delivering plants to Home Depot’s. I have watched it before in amusement. I think it may be a little instinctual if in effective in suburban and city dwellers without experience. This year, many fear death and somehow I feel that would cause more gardening even without the boredom issue. Some of them will keep doing others give up. I kept at it and gained experience. I didn’t learn all at once.
i can definitely see mail order gardening being slammed by the virus crisis.
Mousebumples
We’re planning to add a hearty shrub rosebush in a few weeks (after memorial day) and probably a chestnut tree, to remember my father in law, who passed away in 2018. And then planning to add/supplement to our existing tree mulch.
Need to clean out some old stalks by the raspberry bushes, but our garlic is coming in nicely and the rhubarb we transplanted last year seems to be coming back.
Immanentize
I saw this Victorian plant guide on Facebook, which one cannot cut and paste from, but I loved it, so here it is typed:
There, isn’t that nice? I clearly have been planting some things too early on my garden….
Lapassionara
Love the photos. Thanks.
I started planting annuals yesterday. I did the front bed with red salvia, and some pots in the back with impatiens. Today I must get the geraniums and begonias in pots.
I wish I knew there was such a thing as alyssum seed tape!
WereBear
@Mousebumples: Plant some garlic at the base of the rose. Organic gardener trick to fend off disease and even — it is rumored — gives more scent to the blooms.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: Hit 84 here yesterday. TOO DAMNED HOT, managed to get a lot done anyway. I was trying to beat the predicted storms. Ergo, we aren’t going to get any (30% chance now, down from 80%). If I hadn’t done all that work we would have been pounded.
Here at the Hillbilly Haven, things are looking pretty good. Now with the extra no rain day, 69 is the predicted high, I should be able to get the rest I need done before the storms pass thru Monday/Monday night. I’ll be able to finish mulching everything already planted, start setting up my bean trellises, lay out the corn plot, and finally get my herbs in the ground. I’m running out of organic perennial fertilizer so I’ll have to go to town at some point. As long as I’m there I might as well see if I can score some more cheap plants. My late starting pepper and eggplants, those that came up anyway, look healthy but are so small for this time of year they are depressing to look at. I don’t know wtf happened with them.
On the wild side, the Rose Breasted Grosbeaks are visiting. The Indigo Buntings have returned and are nest building. The hummingbirds are starting to show up in force. Still haven’t seen a Baltimore Oriole (didn’t see any at all last year) but I am hopeful. The Whippoorwills are torturing the insomniacs again and this early AM I saw my first lightening bugs. Plenty of snakes about, tho I haven’t yet seen any copperheads or rattlers. The peepers have started to quiet down but soon the other frogs will take their place in the night chorus.
John S.
I have a very fussy gardenia that is taking up a lot of attention in our backyard.
Everything I have read on the way it is behaving (droopy, dark spots on leaves, buds that don’t open) suggests using Epsom salts to adjust soil Ph.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: My germination rates run 80-100%. Which is why I am so puzzled as to what happened with my eggplant/pepper tray.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Using Burpee? Or just in general, irrespective of seed “manufacturer”?
OzarkHillbilly
@WereBear: Nice tip. Thanx.
Immanentize
I love big oaks. Back in San Antonio, there were magnificent live oaks south of town where I lived. I planted two oaks — one was a shumard oak which started at about 8 feet when I bought it from a guy selling them on the side of the road. The cost included him and his son coming to plant it. They did such a great job — it only took two years to fully establish and four years later when I moved it was over 20 feet tall.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: A good friend got married and moved to LA about six years ago. He is a way into Kabbalah, a masseuse and big time organic farmer. A month ago he packed up his wife and two boys and moved back to his farm in rural Athens. He is busting his ass getting his crops in and he needed boots. We’re both 12’s so I rooted out a few pair including Red Wings that I barely use anymore.
Why am I telling you this? I asked the boss lady if she knew about soil inoculants and she said “yea, I used them once when I tried to grow butter beans”. Then she proceeded top tell me that out pal said she should get me to build a frame for a BB patch for her!
Immanentize
Here in my suburban garden, the soil is twice tilled and ready to receive some of the seedlings I have. I need to find Rutgers tomatoes. My new favorites!
Local gardening Center is back slightly open in the outside area (which are pretty vast) only. Yesterday was beautiful and today is supposed to be, likewise, so I expect it to be over run…. Maybe tomorrow when it rains. When everything has been sold out.
Immanentize
@raven: Ask a question receive a job. Retirement!
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: I don’t use Burpee. My main seed supplier is Baker Creek but I also get some from Renee’s Garden and this year I bought a bunch of beans from Heirloom Solutions because BC dropped Snowcap Beans from their catalog :-( , and also some maters from TomatoBob, because again, BC dropped Amana Orange tomaters :-(. Good germination was gotten from all (except for that one tray)
One thing that makes a BIG difference in germination rates is a heating mat underneath the seedling trays.
ETA: can’t say about the beans as they are not yet in the ground but I do not anticipate any problems there.
Quinerly
@Immanentize: I love this. Do you have a clue about the name of the book and whether it’s available?
Gvg
@SFAW: Probabaly you should diversify. Burpee runs expensive and sells small seed packets. They are a national brand and what they sell needs to grow almost everywhere in a huge geographic country. Geography relates to climate and our big country has a lot of soil types too which are big factors in what will actually grow. Locally adapted strains are likely to do better than national strains. Local knowledge is also better than generalisms printed on packets for the entire country. I don’t think Burpees germination results are terrible. However when I started growing 25 years or so ago, I found that using quality professional potting soil made a huge difference in if the seeds I started disn’t Immediately die. Professional mixes can be purchased from actual local nurseries or farm feed stores. Feed stores are the cheapest for quality and also sell professional fertilizer that is better priced. The pro stuff doesn’t have as fancy a wrapper and has a lot of specific ingredient information.
seed starting is a science in it self. Google info on each specific species or find a pro manual like Armitage’s guide to growing and propagating. Seeds have tricks like some need light and have to be on the surface and other need to be buried or need 6 weeks of cold first, etc. some seed needs to be fresh, others will keep for years.
more companies mean more diversity. I rarely buy Much from Burpee because of their prices but usually get some from them. They are pretty reliable but I have been gardening so long I have progressed to many many specific wants and save a lot of the long time grown every year types seeds for the next year. So Burpee isn’t very useful to me. This year my biggest order was to a new to me Geo seeds and I was very impressed. I also order from Park, Bluestone plants, Johnny’s, Territorial, tomato growers supply, Select seeds, Southern Exposure Seeds….I think that is all this year. I have used Swallowtail seeds, Pinetree seeds, Wayside, Totally tomato’s, Gurney’s, Seed Savers Exchange and others. I usually can get local vegetable strains from the feed store but I didn’t this year because they didn’t seem to be trying on social distancing so I left.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Ha! That’ll teach you. Open mouth, insert shovel!
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly:
We have hot water radiators (not steam) in my house and a stretch of cardboard over the radiator to dissipate the heat a bit makes a great seed heater. Of course, the rooms where we set out seed trays makes it look like crazy people live here.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?
@Geminid: Germination rate of fresh seed should be high (90%+), but conditions usually have to be nearly perfect. I had ok results until I got this system (similar ones now available other places) and now get close to 100% germination. Got some seeds that were 6 years old to germinate this year too.
Immanentize
@Quinerly: I am trying to find out — it came off the McCue’s Facebook page from a garden lady. It makes so much more sense than the other “when to plant” guides that go by zone and temps, etc.
It is nature follows nature…
Immanentize
@satby: I am trying to germinate some of the Immp’s Texas grandmother’s loofa seeds from about 10 years back. Loofa seeds are super finnicky in the best of times, but I am trying!
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: I miss radiant heat. My reading chair was always right next to the radiator which was inevitably under a window that always caught the breezes.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I cleaned our balcony yesterday so I can sit out there, social distancing and looking at the raised garden beds below that residents are just beginning to plant in.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
@Gvg:
Thanks to both of you.
Now I gotta come up with new excuses why I don’t try growing vegetables. Damn.
satby
I was having trouble with my Kindle and so missed saying nice pictures to Scout211. I have little sugar maple trees sprouting everywhere in my lawn and garden and either pull it them or mow early, but I have thought about trying to grow some to plant elsewhere. Not sure I could do it in pots though because of the taproot.
Immanentize
@satby: I use something similar from Jiffy. I love Park catalogues! And their seeds have worked for me.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: Well I thank you for it. Copying and pasting so I can put it up on my bulletin board, right next to your limerick.
satby
@satby: ok, my reply to @Geminid: should have been to @SFAW: about germinating seeds. Now I have to reboot this Kindle, it’s really messing up commenting. BRB
Immanentize
@satby: I don’t think sugar maples (or really any maple) has a true tap root. You should be able to grow them in pots without a problem. They are a tree that has shallow roots that spread out fairly wide, so they will form a root ball in a pot. They steal surface water like evergreens do.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: I may have to get you a dedicated Immanentized board one day….
Quinerly
@Lapassionara: I probably put my stuff in a little to early here in Soulard. Have a grow room in the basement apartment where I winter over geraniums, dragon winged begonias, cactus/succulents, and sun coleus. Had to get them out and deep watered a few weeks ago. Everything survived. I did curbside pick up for an on line order with Weithop’s Nursery. Great girls there… Really careful and all wearing masks/gloves 3 weeks ago. Nabbed flats of salmon, orange, and white impatiens at a dart in and out at the Kirkwood Lowe’s. I’m loving these black, sturdy vertical garden porches from Amazon (now out of stock) I mounted on some lattice that is at the end of a second floor deck. Filled with herbs and nasturtium seeds that are finally up. I think my zinnia and marigold seeds are a bust. Just started them too late. Fingers crossed on moon flower vine seeds which are new this year. Neighbors just gave me 20 small elephant ears bulbs yesterday. Started in pots to be able “to keep up with them” between squirrels and JoJo las Orejas nosing around. You’re in Webster/Kirkwood area arent you? My city courtyard is so shady that I had to build up with a deck and porch so to have some sun. Thus, lots of container areas.
satby
@Immanentize: wow, that’s probably a better guide than anything I’ve used. I plant too early or too late ?
Immanentize
@Quinerly: OT, but I loved your description of your legal aid clinic work. That is what my teaching specialty is — clinical legal ed. But you left out a very critical detail regarding your 1980s lawyer uniform — padded shoulders.
Immanentize
@satby: me too. I am trying to see if there is one for all year. Here, I need to get my bush beans planted. But I have time for the rest.
satby
@John S.: Epsom salt adds magnesium and sulpher which plants need, but it may not be what your gardenia needs. On the other hand, it’s a fairly low risk add to make to the soil.
Quinerly
@OzarkHillbilly: love all of this!
BTW, This morning, I started sealing “our” Red’s mosaic pebble floor in my basement apartment. Looks great. Remember Hood’s stores? The product came from the one on St. Charles Rock Road deeply discounted. She has struggled with these sections of premounted pebbles. Long story. But she did complain to her connection there. He is doing right by us with some freebies…grout, sealer. Up next, the copper pennies that I have been mesh mounting for months to make “penny fabric” will be cut into a swirl design with 3 shades of pennies (shiny, not so shiny, and deeply tarnished, heads up, heads down, and mixed) and will go down, grouted, and sealed in the bathroom in this walkout basement apt. I weighed them out to get an estimate of what we needed in # of pennies based on square feet. $275 in pennies!
Have a great garden day!
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: I do too! In the places where I grew up lots of houses had those square metal radiator boxes to cover the radiators, and they made a cozy seat to curl up on with a book in winter.
Quinerly
@Immanentize: it’s beautiful. I’m very fascinated about the possibility of the entire book. I love old gardening, botanical books… And old recipe books.. Small collection of the latter.
Quinerly
@Immanentize: ?
Immanentize
@Quinerly: I have a few great older recipe books, including one from the Grange. Simple stuff, of course, but in some recipes the amounts are HUGE. Perhaps cooking for the entire farm?
Mousebumples
@WereBear: we’re currently planning to put the rosebush right next to where the garlic is currently growing but we’ll have to keep that in mind for when we do our garlic planting next fall! Thanks!
NotMax
@Quinerly
You can call it the Dillinger John.
“Lie flat on the floor, copper.”
:)
Quinerly
@Immanentize: I have some of the 1890’s-1900’s ones. Although, some of my favorites are the Southern church ones from the 1940’s-1960’s. Good for some chuckles.
debbie
I’ve never seen baby oaks before. I hope they all survive.
satby
So, today will be almost perfect weather to try to tackle the weeds in one raised garden bed and I’m thinking about putting a couple of tomato plants out way early under a mini-greenhouse hood in the other as an experiment, since I have a few more seedlings than I need. My hugelkultur bed is doing well, awash in spring blooms, though I intend to rework those this fall since the colors sent in my “orange” bulb garden weren’t orange. I’ll mark and swap out daffodils from there (yellow ?!) for orange ones planted elsewhere in the fall. And I will never order bulbs from anywhere but colorblends again. My hydrangeas and peonies are all coming up nicely. And I have the first of the lilacs planted four years ago about to bloom! Loads of blossoms on the crab apple trees, and the regular apple trees should start blooming this week too.
I love spring ?
MomSense
I’ve had a tough time getting seeds this year. Yesterday I drove to one of my favorite nurseries to get some seedlings. There were so many people, few masks, and no physical distancing. I never left my car and just drove home. The weather was beautiful and there were people out everywhere – no physical distancing. I was starting to think Mainers were smart and took this virus seriously. Nope it was just the cold weather.
MattF
My favorite New England-to-California story (it’s about gardening, so it’s on-topic):
A man moved from New England to California, and decided to start a garden. He went to a nearby shop and bought some bulbs and seeds. At checkout, the conversation was:
Guy from New England: When do I plant these?
Guy behind counter: When you get home.
Quinerly
@NotMax: ?
Need plaque….
1890’s stone basement project has turned into an art project, of sorts. The bathroom is pretty cool. Closeout slate broken and mosaic with copper color grout. Exposed copper water lines. One exposed stone wall. Double shower with the slate mosaic (sealed, sealed, and sealed) and a “copper” shower panel with sprays found on closeout 3 years ago. “Copper” pipe light fixtures with Edison bulbs. The artwork is drawings for patents on lavatory faucets, toilets, toilet paper holders, etc… I get a bit obsessed with keeping true to a theme… And the copper penny floor… It’s pretty wild down there. Nothing like the rest of the house which is 1890’s Victorian.
OzarkHillbilly
Come to my garden. By the end of May I’ll have pulled up at least a hundred. The dawg damned squirrels bury the acorns all over it because the soil is so much nicer to dig in than the clay/dolomite/chert matrix everywhere else.
satby
@MomSense: I reopened my booth at the Farmer’s market and it was similar for about 1/2 the people, no real concept of distancing and no masks. The other 1/2 were pretty good about both. So I was ok as long as I stayed behind my counter. As one other vendor said, you could almost break perfectly down who the MAGAts were. I bought another very well designed mask from one of the vendors and am bringing her fabric to make me another, since we’re going to be wearing them for at least a year.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby:
I wondered how things went yesterday. I’ll bet customers were glad to get out again, but it must be hard to deal with everyone touching merchandise and money.
Quinerly
@MattF: ?
JPL
@satby: Do be careful.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Squirrels dig in the claypit that is behind my apartment all the time, but nothing’s every come up.
You ought to bonsai them.
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: it was ok. I had sanitizer so I would spritz my hands every so often. At least three people told me to keep the one or two $ change as a tip because they said they were happy I was back which was very sweet ☺. But as people were talking loudly to project over the noise, and many weren’t wearing masks I was glad not to be a shopper. A lot of people call in orders for curbside pickup, which is only for produce, and if I wanted something like that I would too. A spike is coming.
Immanentize
@debbie: bonsai squirrels?! What a cruel thought.
satby
@JPL: thanks, I try to be.
@Dorothy A. Winsor: what’s the word on how things are at your community? Have they been testing to limit the spread from the memory unit?
Immanentize
@MomSense: I am having the same conundrum about the local garden center. I think you will wait for a rainy cool day later this week to go. The Covid amateurs won’t be there.
raven
@Immanentize:
Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices
From the introduction:
“In the lumber camp days and pioneer days the cooks learned from each other and the old world cooks. Each taught the other his country’s cooking secrets. Out of the mixing came fine food, prepared as nowhere else in the world. I am putting down some of these recipes that you will not find in cookbooks plus many other historical recipes. Each recipe here is a real cooking secret. I am also publishing for the first time authentic historical recipes of great importance. For your convenience I will start with meats, fish, eggs, soups and sauces, sandwiches, vegetables, the art of French frying, desserts, how to dress game, how to properly sharpen a knife, how to make wines and beer, how to make French soap and also what to do in case of hydrogen or cobalt bomb attacks, keeping as much in alphabetical order as possible.”
It also has the Norwegian method of getting rid of rats!
Immanentize
@raven: Surprise ending! Funny.
raven
@Immanentize: I’ve had it for 45 years and, it’s not only hilarious. it has some good stuff!
satby
@Immanentize: Me, too! I would love to pick up some annuals just for the front bed and some pots, but I will also wait for a cruddy day to do it. My favorite greenhouse is in Michigan though, so under tighter restrictions than here because the governor there is smart. I guess they’re limiting customers to maintain social distancing, so I will go there tomorrow morning, hoping it’s less crowded.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: I prefer to banzai them.
Baud
My allergies are bad today. I blame the reduction in pollution.
OzarkHillbilly
Just what every good cook needs to know!
satby
I just turned off all the settings other than English as the default language on my keyboard settings on my Kindle. The artificial intelligence “helping” me is making my comments into gibberish.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby: I haven’t heard anything since Friday evening when they told us someone from there had been hospitalized. An ambulance came onto campus yesterday, but I don’t know which building it went to. They’re here sometimes even on normal days because old people do have heart attacks or whatever. I think management will update us when they can. They were transparent about the first case. I have to think that if there will be more in that memory unit.
Immanentize
@raven: I just put that on my birthday present list.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: IF YOU TAKE TRANQUILIZERS OR SEDATIVES BE CAREFUL OF THE KINDS OF CHEESE THAT YOU EAT. THE WRONG KIND OF CHEESE CAN KILL YOU. Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices, volume two, page 733
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Talked to my Mom after hearing about your place’s case. She reports no cases — in her building. But has no idea about the full nursing care unit across the street…. Her area of Upstate NY has not been hard hit. Still, this may be a time when no news is not good news.
Immanentize
@raven: If the ‘ludes don’t get you, the Camembert will! So good.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: And for you spelunkers
debbie
@Immanentize:
Or early in the day when it first opens.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Immanentize: Chicago has been hard hit, of course, so I assume it’s spreading outward. My sister lives in upstate NY, north of Utica.
I feel like we all are developing PTSD, except we’re not yet to the “post” part.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: I gotta get this book.
oldgold
@raven:
Did he return on the midnight train?
Immanentize
@debbie: I think both — rainy day, early. I wonder when they get new shipments?
Kristine
I’m with @satby–I think I will be wearing my mask (and minimizing in-person shopping) until they find treatments/a vaccine.
Wildlife is cheering me up. Saw the first rose breasted grosbeak at the backyard feeder. I have been hosting three pair for a couple of years now. I hope they return this year.
Brief warm spell here in far NE Illinois. Close to 80F yesterday. Close to 70F expected today. Then another round of below normal, with highs in the 40s/50s and lows in the 30s. I won’t be setting the kalanchoe out on the deck for a while yet. For the foreseeable future, I’ll be weeding, re-edging the beds, and keeping track of the volunteer wildflowers in the shady sideyard. White trout lilies are currently popping up, and I have a tiny cluster of spring beauties hard by the driveway. The wood anemones are putting out leaves, but no flowers yet. In the sunny beds, the native columbine and bee balm are spreading like whoa. I love spring.
Be well, everyone.
satby
@Kristine: I think some people are just resigned to the idea they’ll probably get covid-19 and figure the odds are in their favor. Every week it looks like they have improved treatment options a bit too. I would like to dodge this until a vaccine, but I live alone with no real support system nearby, so I just do what I can to limit exposure and try not to obsess. Fortunately, my inclinations run to “loner” anyway.
I decided to go for masks as fashion statements, so my next one from the fabric I’m having my friend make is going to be tie dye ?.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: The odds will never be in my favor.
Spanky
@satby: Ask her if she can make a mask that looks like Daffy Duck’s bill. I might as well make a fashion statement if I’m going to be masked.
debbie
@satby:
A friend or two have named me as the pioneer in social isolation.
I’ve purchased enough masks to get me through the week until laundry day. I’ve got both ties and elastic, some with those nose wire things, and my favorite one is of pink flamingos. Might as well pretend this all is fun.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
One of the farms that goes to the local farmers’ market has a stand on the road at the entrance to their farm. I’ll buy a box of produce and pick up some seedlings.
It wasn’t just the nursery that was crowded. There were restaurants with open signs, people standing in lines at ice cream stands, and people out walking and not keeping physical distance. I’m in Knox County at my dad’s place and I think the low numbers of covid + have lulled people into thinking it isn’t going to hit them here. My youngest and I took a walk along the shore to the harbor. We wore our masks and had to keep crossing the streets, going out into the grass and down on the rocks to get away from people. We cut our walk short and decided to just go home and sit on the porch.
We’ve been doing well with low numbers, but if this ticks up here we do not have the medical facilities to handle it.
BruceFromOhio
Second dry day in a row and it’s going to be fabulous to be outside. Had to locate the stash of sunblock, haven’t needed it since last year. All the early bloomers are fading, and the dandelions are showing their numbers, so it’s a day of weeding, tilling, mowing. The little lilac in the front corner has a fistful of blooms in waiting, perhaps it’s finally recovering after being traumatized by the deer two years ago.
My goal this year is to plant as much basil as I’m permitted. MrsFromOhio will direct the rest.
I’m ecstatic to be outside without parka or raingear.
@raven: fantastic, it will make a great Mothers Day gift for the Mrs.
debbie
@MomSense:
Maine made the news here, with a video of a crowded bar filled with older gentlemen, all in baseball caps, taking swigs from their glasses of beer. It was surprising to see.
eclare
All of these people without masks is just weird. I went to Kroger this morning in Memphis, and I estimate at least 80% had on masks.
Required TP report, none on the shelves an hour and a half after opening.
MomSense
@debbie:
That was the asshole Rick Savage in Newry who opened his pub in violation of state orders. He lost his licenses and had the cops shut him down. Then he went on a tirade and gave out the governor’s phone number on tv. For context, he owns a popular place near the Sunday River ski resort.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Quinerly:
Apparently it’s from The Old Farmer’s Almanac.
KSinMA
@raven: Oh, it’s Herter you’re talking about! My dad used to get the Herter’s store catalog and give us dramatic readings from it. Nutty indeed. (We did order a few things from the catalog that were just fine, though!)
raven
@KSinMA: YUP!
debbie
@MomSense:
Found a photo on Google and yep, that’s the place. Glad he got shut down, though that was a dumb move on giving out that phone number.
Marigold
@Spanky: My crafty friends were sharing a pattern for a quilted plague doctor beak. It looks a little above my skill level, but it’s just weird enough that I’m tempted anyway.
Sab
My bedroom window is open, and my favorite cat fell asleep on a quilt in a sunbeam, thinking he is in heaven.
Steeplejack
@Quinerly:
It appears to be from The Old Farmer’s Almanac. It’s on the website; dunno if it’s in the paper copy.
FYWP has thrown away three attempts to post this. Maybe it doesn’t like the link? It’s in a post called “Phenology in the Garden: Planting by Nature’s Signs.”
Get on the Google and search for:
Should be the first hit.
Immanentize
@Steeplejack: Thank you — That is it, exactly. Has some earlier things I was wondering about like when to plant my potatoes.
I have a good stay on this year’s farmer tan already!
Steeplejack
@Immanentize:
I’m just glad someone was still around to see it!
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: That’s a keeper. I saved it.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly:
Hit 84 here yesterday. (here, too!)
TOO DAMNED HOT, (totally agree!)
managed to get a lot done anyway (umm, not so much)
early AM I saw my first lightening bugs. (really? here they come out for my birthday in mid-June)
WaterGirl
@raven: “No good deed goes unpunished.”
WaterGirl
@Quinerly: Someone may have answered this already, and I don’t know the original source, but there’s more at this link
https://www.almanac.com/news/gardening/gardening-advice/phenology-garden-planting-natures-signs
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
That’s the link I tried to post three times, and FYWP shitcanned every comment. Grr.
Michael Cain
California is blessed with all sorts of different scenic beauty, but I’ve always liked the oak savannas best. Something about a hillside with the combination of brown grass and isolated deep green trees.
Possibly humorous aside: I’ve spent most of my life far enough west in the US to think that the natural color of grass in the wild is brown, with only occasional times when it’s green :^)
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: I just checked, and you have 4 comments in spam.
Shall I release just one of them?edit: I approved the first one and deleted the rest.
No One You Know
@Gvg: I’ve found it helpful to consult with the Master Gardeners from the local universities and 4-H groups. And them I go nuts because my eyes are bigger than my yard.