From gifted gardener / photographer commentor Marvel:
The Willamette Valley has enjoyed a string of warm sunny days, so we all (and I do mean ALL) have spent the last several days working outdoors, giddy with Spring Fever.
Why is it that after only four gardening days I already feel a month behind?
Anyway, a friend suggested we start our days this week with seasonal Haiku posts.
Here’s today’s (and a photo of a monster-sized rhodie out front):
Dawning bright and cool
a fresh morning breeze unfurls
Spring’s crisp linen skiesBuds and blooms explode
playful color everywhere
Spring’s confetti bombRaindrop-beaded buds
warming in the morning sun
Peony burlesque.
***********
There was a two-story rhododendron wrapping one corner of our house when we bought it twenty-something years ago, and it was doing very nicely until an ice-storm-intensive winter a few years ago. I personally suspect it’s never bounced back because the roto-rooter guy finally managed to kill off its infiltration into the main sewer outlet that runs next to it — we haven’t had an overflow problem in the downstairs half-bath since its near-demise. But the Spousal Unit blames our eldest dog Zevon, who loves to make shallow ‘nests’ under it during the hot weather, so S.U. spent a lot of time last fall putting down plastic netting to discourage digging and mulching the area deeply. No new buds yet, but I’m hoping for his sake the bush at least leafs out a little better once the weather warms up…
Also, I finally got my tomato orders done, and come mid-May I will be inundated with TOO MANY TOMATO PLANTS. There are never too many homegrown tomatoes, but I’ve only got a bathroom-sized patch of asphalt for the planters. And it was a pretty mild winter by New England standards, too!
What’s going on in your garden (planning) this week?
raven
It’s hard to believe but the azalea’s and dogwoods are gone already. On the other hand the princess went to the growers outlet and filled the van with plants yesterday. I take her to the airport for 4 days in Balmore so she had to bust her ass getting everything in the ground!
Nice pic!
Yutsano
The state flower of Washington! Love rhodies. The leaves are poisonous so have to watch that animals and small kids don’t eat it. I wonder why they’re not used for natural tents as the large bushes get almost hollow on the inside.
qwerty42
@raven: Dogwoods are gone, yes, but fringe trees (Chionanthus virginicus) coming in. Here in Jackson, azaleas are not yet past, and rhododendron starting. I’m waiting for the first tick of the new year.
raven
@qwerty42: Oh man the skeeters are going to be awful.
OzarkHillbilly
Very nice rhododendron! The haiku ain’t bad either. ;-)
Yesterday was almost a complete wash. By the time I got done running around in town (no straw! again) and got home it was noon. I ate lunch and… fell asleep. 2 hrs later I roused myself and did manage to plant the columbine, hostas, and fern I bought. Had a few other odds and ends to do around the place and it was frisbee time. And then Baby Girl showed up. I’ll get the potatoes interred today and some more garden tilled. It would be nice if I could get some of the tomato trellises up but I also have weeds to hoe (already) and that messes my back up something fierce. We’ll see.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Skeeters are one problem I don’t have. In the Spring it’s ticks. In the Fall it’s gnats. In the Summer it’s just hot and humid. I do a lot of naked gardening then.
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly:
So you’re related to Baud?
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: Brother by another mother?
RedDirtGirl
I know it’s not an open thread, but I’ve been looking for a live thread for over an hour, so I’m just plop myself in here and rest for a minute, if that’s okay. Don’t have a garden, but belong to a food coop that provides amazing, local produce. Just cooked ramps for the first time yesterday, and tried fiddleheads, too, but they weren’t very good. I’ve been up all night, coming from an amazing bluegrass jam. And now that it’s late/early enough, that coop is open, and I may head over there for a quick, uncrowded shop before going to bed, finally.
qwerty42
@raven: They were out yesterday evening when I was working in the yard.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Huh, I wonder why that is?
raven
@qwerty42: I got a fire ant bite mowing.
qwerty42
@raven: Oh cripes, they have built some mounds. A few are kind of sneaky and you don’t see them until you are in them, but with the winter rain, I had a few show up that looked as if they had come from south Georgia. I am informed they are better than crazy ants though.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Up on the ridge top I am far away from any naturally occurring pooled water and I am almost obsessed with not allowing any standing water around the house and outbuildings to go stagnant, but it is all but impossible to get it all, so I really don’t get it. The only thing other than that is the 2 neighbors I do have are both a considerable distance from my place and possibly they are as conscientious as I am. Also too, the topography could be a natural barrier, but I think I am pulling that last out of my ass.
Zinsky
I live in Minnesota and my lovely wife and I spent all afternoon yesterday trimming down the old perennial stubble, raking the garden beds and just generally cleaning things up and getting the flower gardens ready for spring. Incredible for only April 16th! As I posted yesterday, the Caring for Creation team at my church is sponsoring a Green Fair today. We are having a master gardener from the U of M attend, as well as an artist who creates beautiful artwork from trash, green energy exhibitors, recycling and composting exhibits and much, much more! It should be fun but I expect to be exhausted by mid-afternoon. Peace and love to all!
NotMax
Bathroom-sized?
That could mean – well, anything from 20 sq. ft. to 200.
Joel
We have a rhododendron that is curled up and wilting in the middle. I’m assuming there’s some sort of disease that’s killing it. Our soil is pretty clay heavy.
J R in WV
Our wild paw-paw tree(s?) which hang over the front steps up to the house are still blooming. The trees are spindly, with giant long oval leaves up high. The blooms dangle from the trunks and branches, like tiny bells. They’re very dark red, nearly black, with four petals, so they’re almost square.
The aroma of an evening while they bloom, for maybe not quite a week is hard to describe, it’s unique to my experience. Rich and dark, and strong. When I first noticed this year, it was like “What’s that smell?” as I carried groceries up to the front door. Then I looked up overhead, and saw all the little 3/4 inch blossoms dangling.
I think our paw-paw is a single colonial tree, which is why it rarely produces a fruit, you need two trees of opposite sex, like holly trees if you want berries.
Central Planning
I think my back yard is sick. For years we’ve tried over-seeding, fertilizer, de-thatching. We’ve tried heavy shade grass, light shade, all sorts of mixes – Kentucky bluegrass, fescue, ryegrass, etc. They only last a year and never come back.
Are there national chains that do this sort of stuff, or products that work really well? I’m ready to outsource it to a company and let them have some skin in the game. Any thoughts? Thanks!
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@raven:
I didn’t know those evil bustids had made it that far north!. I got stung by them a bunch of times & was forever battling to keep them out of the yard in Florida. Eventually I became allergic, I’d blow up like a balloon when they hit me
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@Zinsky:
It was a gorgeous day, we were raking and cleaning up too. Hard to imagine MN on April 16.
OzarkHillbilly
@Central Planning: The only thing I can think of is a few truck loads of topsoil, because if nothing works than the problem is probably you don’t have any.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel (parmesan rancor): Being from the “north” (snicker snicker) I did not think about it twice when I laid down on a dry patch of Louisiana to get a close up of a snake in a bayou. It took me about 30 secs to become aware of the spreading burning sensation across my abdomen. Had to strip naked to get rid of them all.
satby
I have a rhododendron that has never bloomed that I bought a couple of years ago, but the azalea near it is covered in buds. The early daffodils are spent, but the mid and late ones are glorious, and the tulips are budding. We had a couple of freezes last week, so some tulips were damaged, but I hope they bounce back.
MomSense
@Central Planning: @OzarkHillbilly:
Topsoil. This is what I had to do for my backyard. Some of my neighbors opt for the poisonous trugreen chemicals but topsoil works much better.
satby
And I have 6 lilac bushes that will bloom soon, one for the first time! I love lilacs, makes me a bit sad to think I have to move this summer.
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@OzarkHillbilly:
HA! reminds me of Justin Wilson:
“The boy was from way up north, by Baton Rouge”
It took me a couple of summers in MN before I stopped instinctively scanned every inch of a park or playground looking for the tattle-tale mounds before walking on them.
debbie
I haven’t seen any azaleas or rhododendrons blooming since we had a few frosty nights. Since the lilacs are now blooming, maybe there won’t be any. My favorite part of spring too!
JPL
@satby: Have you recovered from your road trip?
rikyrah
Good Morning ?, Everyone ?
rikyrah
The pictures are always beautiful in this thread ?
WaterGirl
@NotMax: I wondered, too, and decided maybe she meant to type “bathtub”.
Now that I see it in print, I realize that my theory is absurd. Great way to start the day.
WaterGirl
@satby: I thought all plans were up in the air now, but it sounds like you are planning to move from your house, no matter what?
Wag
Snow today. More fucking snow. I love winter and snows, but the liliacs were just starting to bloom and now they’ve been frozen for the second year in a row. Thank FSM that I haven’t planted my tomatoes yet. I hope we don’t get another tornado in June The one last year destroyed the tomato crop. I only got 4 tomatoes last year.
hamletta
If you have any moms to shop for this Mothers’ Day, may I recommend Thistle Farms? It’s a community of women who’ve been affected by addiction and homelessness, and they make all-natural beauty and bath stuff and candles, etc. that all smell divine.
ETA: They also make men’s stuff, for all you early-bird shoppers!
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@rikyrah:
Good morning to you too sunshine?
?
J R in WV
I posted this in response to several comments about pancakes on a big thread from late last night, but I think more people will see it here:
I make corn-meal pancakes; I have found that counterintuitively, they are lighter and crunchier than flour pancakes usually are.
1.5 cups cornmeal
0.5 cup flour
.25 cup melted butter or other cooking oil (but butter is best tasting)
1-2 teaspoons baking powder
1 or 2 eggs depending on how big they are
milk sufficient to make a batter, not too thick, thinner is crunchier
Heat a skillet over medium high flame, add a pat of butter, use a gravy ladle to dip batter from the bottom of the bowl, as the cornmeal will settle out – keep it stirred up while dippping. Flip when well browned.
I like to use maple syrup, but blackberry jam is good too, and yogurt goes with well too. I don’t put butter on the pancakes as they’re already loaded.
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@Wag:
YIKES! Are you up in the mountains? Out here on the frozen tundra we are used to getting the occasional spring snow storm but the plants we have survive them OK.
Elizabelle
Good morning all.
Garrison Keillor/Prairie Home Companion got in a few funny digs at the Donald last night. Quoth the raven “Trump”. And Guy Noir was funny too; caught the end and Mr. Trump made an appearance there too (and in a both funny and somewhat true way — Keillor is more honest than our media betters are).
Elizabelle
@J R in WV: Thank you. Saved the recipe. Sounds yum.
I’d think you could make them savory too. Hot pepper jelly or whatever.
Wag
@Schlemazel (parmesan rancor):
East part of Denver. If I was in the foothills of Denver I’d be looking at 36 inches of heavy wet spring snow. As it stands we only have 8-12 inches here
Poopyman
@Central Planning: Before dumping a load of topsoil (and money), get the soil tested. Check with your local garden center to see if there’s someplace that will do a thorough soil test, because it could be anything from just crappy soil to disease to herbicides.
Splitting Image
I’m planting some pinks and columbines. I tried to get a few going last year but they didn’t take. Giving it another go.
I’m also throwing out some grass seed. I have a few bare patches on the lawn.
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@Wag:
Daughter lives near Vale and they got 2 feet over the last couple days. Being ski country they are not as unhappy as you are or I would be. The nice part for you is it will be gone soon.
Poopyman
@Schlemazel (parmesan rancor): One of my coworkers spent last week skiing in CO. He was leaving Friday, so he missed all the new natural stuff. I assume it wasn’t such a wet snow up in the mountains.
Wag
@Schlemazel (parmesan rancor):
I wanted to get to Vail to ski today but I70 is a total mess. Today was supposed to be closing day. Maybe they’ll extend the season…
Glidwrith
My sprouted, wrinkled seed potatoes that I left in a plastic bag on the windowsill last year are apparently surviving after I stuck them in my repurposed sandbox-now-planter. The Roma tomato plant that over wintered has several fruits set and the yearling grape vine has fully leafed out.
I think with the exception of potatoes, I’m giving up on veggies. Almost nothing to show after two years trying so switching to peach, plum and Asian pear trees.
Wag
@Poopyman:
It was really warm (highs in the 50s) in Vail last week, so any snow that fell was wet and heavy.
J R in WV
@Elizabelle:
Yes, savory could work. I don’t use sugar in them and if you added a bit of salt and used bacon fat instead of butter, or used olive oil in the batter and fried them in bacon fat, that kind of adjustment would work. And then gravy on top?
Of course you could use buckwheat flour instead of wheat flour and it would be gluten free. Buckwheat is gluten free, it isn’t related to wheat and isn’t a grain at all, technically.
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
YUP!, the snow was wet and heavy but naturally the resorts are going to take whatever they can get.. Mud season is soon upon them
raven
Back from a trip to the ATL airport!
ruemara
Going to get out of bed and figures out if I need to walk to the gym or if I can partially bus it. Car is in the shop for unknown maladies. I don’t have the reserves for this fabulous thing people kept talking about, noo kar, so there’s a lot of walking in my immediate future. But first, making breakfast.
Emma
@Central Planning: My advice would be first have your soil tested. Here in Florida there’s a service (or used to be, I haven’t tested anything for a while), I think it’s the county, where you can give them a sample and they test it for you, but there are also private companies. It can get pricey, but not as much as you will spend through trial and error.
geg6
Only plants we have in the ground right now are strawberries and, of course because they always are, the asparagus. Everything else is still in the greenhouse, getting big enough to finally put in the ground in a couple of weeks. Our flowers and flowering bushes are going gangbusters. The tulips, my favorite, are just glorious this year. This beautiful spring has been a real boon for them. Supposed to be near 80 today in the Pittsburgh area and we’ve had five or six days of clear skies and sun, really amazing here this time of year.
Joel
@Wag: there’s always a basin
Gin & Tonic
My magnolia was just opening up the week before last, then we got snow and that night the temp went down in the 20’s. At this point I have disgusting slimy brown blobs on the tips of all the branches. Daffodils have been nice, tulips I gave up on a few years back when I realized they were just an all-you-can-eat salad bar for the deer. Everything else is waiting, even though it’s a perfect day today. Yesterday, as I noted last night, we went to the outer Cape and it was goddamn Siberia there – temp in the low 40’s with a steady 40-50 mph wind.
Shell
@Elizabelle: Developed such an allergy to the sound of Trumps voice, that even when someone is do ing a parody, I have to hit “mute.”
But will still tune in the PHC re-airing at 11:00 AM today.
Shell
Aren’t they also called Johnny-cakes? Ive added oatmeal bran to a basic pancake batter, and same thing, came out light and with a nice crunch.
MattF
Somewhat on-topic, a tree who should know better, Pterocarya Fraxinifolia.
ETA: via Krugman.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Emma: (@Central Planning) County extension services in many places are the way to go. Good information and no agenda other than making the soil better just because. Not to suggest that any private company might have a product line sales interest…
@raven: On the topic of road trips, the Machine will be in Athens April 28. I haz a giant jealous.
It was a kick ass show (if you like that sort of thing). Slightly over two hours, short intermission, no opening act. They were a giant hit with the audience at the Brown – which was very interactive. Mr. Q said he was really, really surprised and impressed at how the audience kept in time when they clapped – “usually when the audience does (tries to do) that they drift farther and farther off the beat.” I laughed and said “you ain’t been to many bluegrass shows, have you son?” Which of course was why he was so surprised.
The only thing I can say is I wish the band had enjoyed playing a little bit more. <– That's completely facetious; I'm trying to remember the last time I saw 5 people who clearly had that. much. fun playing music. I'm not sure I've actually ever seen it indoors.
Tl:DR – go see them.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: We are having a gorgeous year for magnolias here in east central Illinois. With magnolias, it’s either a glorious display or a sad mess when frost comes at the wrong time. In the good years, it’s completely worth it; in the bad years it can get discouraging.
I keep wanting to get a tulip magnolia, but then we get a “bad” year and I end up not getting one.
WaterGirl
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Hey, it’s the Sunday morning garden chat with no other thread in sight. There is no such thing as too long. :-)
martian
@J R in WV: That sounds yummy! Are you using regular old cornmeal? That, I normally have around, and this sounds like a terrific, last minute whatever’s-in-the-pantry recipe.
ETA: Are they very crumbly? I sometimes just hand my kids a pancake when they want a snack, wondering if these would work.
Germy
We’ve got all sorts of little flowers and plants popping up and blossoming. Sometimes we plant things and then forget we did, and then a few springs later we’re all “Hey! Look at that!”
Yesterday while doing some yard cleanup I saw the first mosquito of spring. I admit I was a bit uneasy because of all this talk of the zika virus. We put our bird bath in the shed. Sorry birds, but we don’t want any standing water in our yard.
The cat got an application of something that is supposed to guard against fleas, ticks and mosquitos. So she’s ready for summer. Will there be a zika vaccine for humans?
J R in WV
Yeh, it’s supposed to be over 80 here today. We’re going to cut brush, invasive nasties along the driveway, good exercise and farm housekeeping. We don’t need to get into that kind of thing in the woods so much, without full sunshine these things grow pretty slowly.
We also have Tree-of-Heaven aka Ailanthus – a nasty invasive tree that spreads fast from the roots and is a violent allergen for some people. A Forest Service worker spent all day cutting them with a chain saw and reacted fatally to it from being covered in sawdust and sap.
We girdle the trees and spray Roundup on the chopped parts. You need the roundup because if you cut one down dozens more sprout from the roots without it. But just putting a little on the girdled bark isn’t like spraying the whole scene with weed-killer.
Germy
We’ve got garlic growing in our garden and blueberries. Last year we did sugar snap peas, collard greens and tomatoes. My wife bought rose bushes last year (climbing joseph coat) but it remains to be seen how it does this year.
Wag
@Joel: I’ll be there in May
J R in WV
@martian:
Plain old cornmeal works. If you get Bob’s Redmill or some local gristmill product that might be a trifle better. I got the idea from Joy of Cooking, but they treat it like traditional cornbread recipes, with more flour than cornmeal. What’s the point of that?
Make it with cornmeal, just enough flour to help it stick together without crumbling as you serve them up.
Germy
@J R in WV: We had trumpet vines try to take over every last inch of our property. It became a war between my wife and the trumpet vines. I don’t think she will win. She cuts and pulls at them wherever she finds them, but the vines will never be gone. I believe their root system is deep all around our house.
WaterGirl
@J R in WV:
Holy shit, that’s terrible.
WaterGirl
@Germy: I have what I think is a volunteer garlic. It’s growing right next to my hibiscus, but I don’t think it will hurt anything. What do I do with it? How do I knew when it’s time to harvest? Do I just pull it up out of the ground?
moonbat
Since we’ve had our last arctic blast of the spring (or so they say), I’ve begun building a new box bed in my community garden plot and ordering heirloom tomatoes to put into it next week. Until then I have been scratching the gardening itch my putting flowers in my planters and sprouting moon flowers for the trellis.
martian
@J R in WV: Thanks! I can see all sorts of ways to dress them up to be almost dessert like or for Sunday brunch, or down just for snacks. Awesome. My little boy will thank you for this. He’s a fiend for cornbread.
ETA – Oh, wow, that poor forestry worker. Surprise allergens are a nightmare.
Germy
@WaterGirl: My wife usually harvests late summer/early fall. The plants get really tall. When the top leaves start to change color, she loosens the soil (don’t yank out the plant) and gently removes the bulbs. They have a nice sweet flavor, not painfully “hot” like the supermarket variety.
We went to a local garlic festival and bought some interesting samples of heirloom bulbs. Our kitchen can get really… aromatic… when the cooking begins.
StellaB
I had a total tomato failure last year due to nematodes. This year I got a little over enthusiastic about testing nematode resistant varieties, so I have many, many tomatoes in the ground and no room for much of anything else. If they’re successful, then I’ll can a lot of tomatoes, but if they fail, I’ll cry. I grew a crop of nematode suppressing mustard over the winter after keeping the beds dry last summer and fall.
Weeds grow, warm and green
in the spring sun
and my hands are stained
Germy
I was reading an article about efforts to restore chestnut trees to North America. It’s a challenge, but if it works it will still take many decades.
In the 19th century, beautiful tall spreading chestnut trees adorned most roads. So sad they were wiped out.
Germy
@StellaB:
Trumpet vines are strong
They laugh at us
Will climb our headstones
ThresherK
@Germy: Hey, don’t forget the elms!
(Yeah, a local interest: Dad’s from New Haven, mom was from Bridgeport, we kids grew up close by.)
tybee
@Germy:
seems that some american chestnuts lived through the blight. was big news a decade ago in west georgia:
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/19/AR2006051901548.html
georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/geography-environment/american-chestnut
martian
@Germy: Years ago, when I lived in North Carolina, someone told me that it used to be that a squirrel could travel from the mountains to New England and never have to leave the branches of a chestnut to touch the ground. Saplings still sprout up and survive long enough to throw off a few burrs before the blight gets them. I saw a lot of old chestnut panelling in buildings around where I was living in the mountains. Beautiful stuff.
Germy
This is from a rather long (aren’t they all?) New Yorker magazine article. It begins with a long description of coral reef preservation, but if you scroll down, it ends with an account of the efforts being made to bring back the North American chestnut.
newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/18/a-radical-attempt-to-save-the-reefs-and-forests
Germy
@ThresherK: Every place I’ve ever lived, there was an “Elm Street” and “Chestnut Street”
Germy
@tybee: I didn’t know about the survivors.
Glidwrith
@J R in WV: You might not still be around, but I just made these for the family. Delicious!
jnfr
This is my garden today. Oopsie.
scav
too busy in yard to participate realtime, but the planted and volunteer squill are grand, a tulip bloomed just as were laying the second half of the stone edging project, the bleeding hearts are readying themselves, there was a great bluebell migration and they’re also about to jump in. Things moving fast cosidering those snows we had so recently. Redwing blackbirds perfectly loopy on hormones.
Jeff
@Central Planning: I’ve given up and let the weeds do what they will. They get mowed once a week until the drough kills everything off.
debbie
What is that bush behind the rhododendron? I think that’s what is outside my apartment door.
A Ghost To Most
@Wag:
I got out at first light,and knocked as much snow off the lilacs as I could. Hoping for the best.
A Ghost To Most
@Wag:
Near Golden,here. Got about 14 here just overnight.
WaterGirl
@Germy: Thank you! Note to self: loosen soil when the top leaves start to change color. No yanking!
edit: garlic festival? who know? sounds fun.
J R in WV
@Germy:
We visited a remote farm in the county west of us, along the KY border and camped out at the upper homestead, still present, squared log home. The next morning there was an amazing aroma in the spring air – chestnut trees were blooming profusely above the lawn where we camped. They were the real thing, still coming up from huge root systems in the ground.
But the bark of the small trees was split vertically in many places, with sap bleeding down the trunks. This was the fungus blight working on the offshoots yet again, decades after the blight spread through the eastern mountains. Still trying to reproduce again after all those years.
I doubt those shoots, which were 6 inches or so thick and 20 or so feet high are still there, but another set of shoots may rise from the roots of the old chestnut there by the log cabin. The cabin was almost certainly built of chestnut logs from the fields that were cleared for the garden and crops in the narrow hollows.
J R in WV
@Glidwrith:
I’m always hanging around between chores. Glad you all enjoyed them. It’s a pretty flexible recipe. I have done it with yeast when out of baking powder, for example. It just takes patience while the yeast works, and a little sugar for the yeast to get started on.
We went out for an hour or so cutting trash bushes by the driveway, didn’t get them all, and they will regrow from the roots, but many of them had a bad morning, and it’s hot and dry for the next several days, which will not help them out.
Bonnie
I just bought a house recently with two rhododendron bushes. One just started blooming last week; and, it is a red. My sister told me they are rare. However, I am the Sgt. Schultz of gardening–I know nothing. Still, it is a lovely bush. The other one looks very ill. Don’t have a clue of what to do. I am hoping for the best. I also have an absolutely gorgeous cedar tree in my back yard.
Anne Laurie
@NotMax:
My bathroom metrics are NYC apartment & mid-50s New England ones. The asphalt patch is about 8×10, but I’m gradually extending the growing area lengthwise towards the edge of our property (another 10-12 feet). Biggest problem at the moment is a semi-dead oak tree hanging over it from the boundary line; it’s too big for unskilled amateurs to take down & we haven’t found a professional tree service that’s willing to bother.
Given that I overshopped on the plants, I’m relying on the Spousal Unit’s frugality to overcome his foot-dragging about the tree-removal expense balanced against the happy thought of MORE HOMEGROWN TOMATOES!
fuckwit
I have a question for the gardeners here: what’s the best way to repot a house plant?
Just bought two indoor plants. Not much light here. Bay Area California. I want to transfer them from the plastic thing they came in to a proper pot which I’ve bought. I don’t know jack about plants.
Links? Advice?