I don’t have much that comes up this early in the NW suburbs of Chicago. I have never had much luck with bulbs but will have a lot later on with our pots and other plants. But this year, possibly due to the warmth and moisture, our lilacs are specially beautiful.
I adore lilacs — one reason I love living in New England is that lilacs flourish here. I think of them as the harbingers of “real” Spring; forsythia, daffodils, even cherry blossoms may show up just to get frost-bitten, but once the lilacs bloom, it’s safe to put away the snow shovels.
***********
Earlier this week, Schrodingers Cat left a comment on an open thread:
As a newbie gardener what equipment do I need. What is okay to buy used and what has to be new?
Any help is much appreciated.
Seems like a good time (here in the Northern hemisphere) to raise that question. What would you recommend for starting a garden?
What tools / tips do you wish you’d known about sooner?
My personal hobbyhorse is a pair of good gardening gloves. I like Bionic Gloves, which are spendy, but they’re the best I’ve found. They protect my hands beautifully, yet are so sensitive I don’t have to take them off even for transplanting delicate seedlings. But any gloves will serve, as long as they give you enough protection that you don’t develop blisters or scrapes, and fit well enough that your fingers don’t slip around while you’re using tools.
And I wish I’d known about hand knives sooner. I used a Korean hand plow for years, but since I discovered A.M. Leonard’s soil knife, I’ve never looked back. The company has a subsidiary website separate from their professional-horticulturalists-&-landscapers site; it may be significant that Gardener’s Edge lists their knife & pruner combo but not the knife by itself. (Again, it’s a pricy set, but IMO well worth every penny.)
What’s going on in your garden(s) / planning, this week?
Baud
Using the weed whacker for the first time this season today. Looking forward to it.
Jeff
I bought three tomato plants yesterday. Now I have to figure out where they will go. I’ve been watching videos on YouTube about no dig gardening which I may try planting these plants.
The arugula that overwinter is flowering madly. It such a pretty plant in flower. The seeds they produce will be my seeds for this autumn.
satby
One of the lilacs I planted is a red one. I’m going to be excited when it finally blooms for the first time in about 3 years.
As useful as gloves are, I seldom wear them except for handling thorny plants. I’m a dirt under my nails gardener. My must have tools are a good trowel and a hand hoe for weeding and digging.
Vertumnus
I’m a professional gardener, and my two favorite tools are a good spading fork and my ARS V8 pruners. I prefer spading forks with squarish tines, rather than flat or rectangular, and find that you must pay for quality (what else is new?). By the way, as a friend of mine pointed out long ago, “professional” means you get paid – it doesn’t mean you’re any good.
satby
And Japa21, the most likely to succeed bulbs in Chicagoland are daffodils, because critters like squirrels don’t dig them up to eat. Or put rubber snakes into your tulip bed to scare them away, and move them around, but squirrels still might behead your tulips.
I get my bulbs here, and have never been disappointed. I used to do a group buy with neighbors if the minimum quantity of one I wanted was too large.
laura
We busted ass yesterday and planted the 50×5 raised bed. 4 tomatoes sweet 100, San marzano, Cherokee and purple cherries, basil, marigolds and peppers, a pomagranate, 9 Hubbard squash, holly hocks, cleome, celosia, dahlias,and scads of zinnias.
Behind the garage we planted a Meyer lemon various sunflowers and more zinnias.
In the milkweed pots, some cosmos and more zinnias.
Potted a hot pink bee bush on the porch.
Today I’ll be planting my keister in the hammock.
satby
@laura: I’m exhausted just reading that!
I hope frosty beverages are included in hammock time.
Suburban Mom
We’ve got beets, lettuce, spinach, kale and collards settling in. As it warms up we replace the early stuff with non-hardy herbs and annuals. The sage, thyme, tarragon and oregano came back as it usually does.
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone???
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning?
satby
@satby: my link opens in the Colorblends tulip page, but the menu shows all the other bulbs and their collections of daffodils and woodland bulbs are pretty extensive. The woodland ones work well in shady areas.
OzarkHillbilly
How high’s the water, mama?
Three feet high and risin’
How high’s the water, papa?
She said it’s three feet high and risin’
So all those towns that went underwater just 16 months ago are going underwater again. And again the call has gone out for volunteers to man the levees with sandbags and shovels. And the people whose homes and businesses went under back in Dec 2015? Their homes and businesses are going under again. They are being rescued by boat, again. Another dozen or so people who should know better because they’ve been living here all their lives, will die because they just don’t want to take the long way around and instead try to cross that low water bridge with 2 feet of water rushing over it. As sure as the sun rising in the east, as sure as the rain falling from the sky, these things are all happening, again.
I’ve been living in this region most of my life, and if there is one thing I can tell you it is this: We will not learn, we will not change, we will not move, and you will continue to pay for our stupidity,,, Ooopps I meant to say “federally subsidized flood insurance”.
Because my wife and I live on a ridge top, our biggest worry is “What roads are open?” Indian Creek just below us has already jumped it’s banks and I think it just might finally swamp Hwy A, might, cutting us off from Sullivan for a day or 2 anyway. The Meramec to the north of us is going to flood the state park and everything else in it’s path again, but I doubt 185 will be affected. The Big River will also be jumping it’s banks to our east, causing the closure of too many roads to count.
I will engage in some disaster tourism today/tomorrow, driving around and taking pictures of bridges etc.underwater. It is impressive. And one should see these things every once in a while to remind oneself of how small and insignificant we all are, of how Mother Nature really doesn’t give a rat’s ass about you or me or anyone else. She will do whatever the fuck she wants and we have 2 choices: Get out of the way, or die.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Thanx for the link, again. I had it once before but that was several computer crashes ago.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly:
We waste billions in continually rebuilding in flood zones and other repeat disaster areas but can’t expand or even continue social programs because there’s no money. I’d like a two strike-and out rule for disaster relief for almost perennial things like floods, live in a flood plain, the second time you only get the money to relocate.*
Hurricanes are a “same but different” problem, since they strike random areas and storm surge can be minimal or enormous. Not sure how loss minimizing can be accomplished there, but I bet there’s research on it.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Send Alain the pictures of your travels. I just read that five are dead and dozens hurt in east Texas. Mother nature is not always kind.
FlyingToaster (Tablet)
@satby: To prevent squirrels beheading your flowers, take a bar of Irish Spring and a cheese grater and surround each plant with shavings. Squirrels can’t stand the smell. Repeat after each rainstorm.
MomSense
Gorgeous lilacs.
The garden tools question sort of depends upon the kind of garden. If you need tools for foundation plantings, then an edger is really helpful. A hand fork is helpful. If you are going to work with roses, make sure to protect your eyes. I think it’s a good idea anyway. I like to have a small, short shovel for dividing plants. Honestly I use it all the time since it is easier on my wrists than a regular sized shovel.
Good pruning shears are a must.
Oh and if you are putting in beds or fixing the existing beds around the house, leave a foot or more (more is better) of breathing room between the house and plants and shrubs (anticipating for growth). You will appreciate being able to access the beds from the house side and your siding will last longer without a lot of moisture and plant material brushing up against it. Putting in a good drip edge helps to keep rain from pooling and weeds from growing.
HeartlandLiberal
this is sound of one hand typing. right hand immobile in sling. rotator cuff surgery three days ago. major tear repaired. le jardine n’existe pas, sums up this year’s garden.
MomSense
@HeartlandLiberal:
Oh no. The garden will be there next year. Just rest and take care of yourself.
japa21
@OzarkHillbilly: I remember the problems last year that you had. You gave me directions that avoided the closed 44. Your rain is showing up in the Chicago area. If my rain gauge is accurate, we have had 2+ inches so far with another 24 hours to go. Not at your level yet.
japa21
@HeartlandLiberal: There seems to have been an epidemic of rotator cuff surgeries at BJ lately. At 3 months post-op I am finally able to feel almost normal, though range of motion is still limited.
satby
@HeartlandLiberal: take care of that shoulder and let it heal. And do all the therapy they suggest, agonizing (for me anyway) but worth it to get full range of motion back.
Elizabelle
@satby: I agree. Two strikes and you get relocated. There is a cost the flood denialists are forcing us all to share, and it’s coming due.
When we have a better government in control, perhaps we can approach that. Maybe make the lowlands into parkland/fishing areas, available to all. Or use it for agriculture, if suitable. Got to be some rich soil there somewhere.
Elizabelle
@HeartlandLiberal: Time to read some good good books. Sorry to hear of the injury, and hope you will have a speedy and complete recovery.
Maybe throw out a handful of seeds and see what kind of meadow garden develops?
satby
@FlyingToaster (Tablet): Never heard that, I will try it next year.
@MomSense: very good tips!
schrodingers_cat
Thanks AL for highlighting my question. I also have questions about lawn care. What type of mower to buy and are the electric mowers any good. We have about 1 acre and the front lawn is growing weeds. Last year was quite dry and the front needs some grass seed but I think the weeds need to be pulled out before putting in new seeds.
satby
I’m e noting my morning coffee reading this and listening to the fountain sounds my plant cloner is making, and it’s so peaceful. Too bad I have to go to work in a couple hours, it’s a rainy Sunday just made for cocooning and old movies!
Edited to fix Kindle ‘s weird word choice.
Lapassionara
@OzarkHillbilly: just read that I-44 and 141 intersection predicted to be underwater again sometime today. One person quoted as saying something like “we were told the last one was a 500 year flood.” Implying “so why again so soon?” Climate change, how do it work?
debbie
There are a lot of lilacs in my neighborhood, but when they’re fading, there are even more dwarf lilac bushes and trees. It’s like a bonus season and has just been beautiful.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby:
You can’t move a port. There is a lot of industrial infrastructure on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers because they need access to the river. There are many farms along the rivers because that’s where the fertile bottom land is.
A buddy of mine’s family has a 3 room summer “shack” on Isle of Palms in SC. The “shack” is made of re-enforced concrete block with a metal roof and sits just a block or 2 from the “back creek” (the waterway between the Isle and the mainland). For centuries the beach was separated from the houses on the Isle by the dunes that used to be there before some developers got the bright idea of knocking them down so that the people building multi-million $ homes could have an unobstructed view of the ocean.
That shack had been thru more hurricanes than I could count (including one in the ’30s that damned near killed his father) and all they ever needed to do was hose down the lower walls and floor and take the furniture back down out of the rafters. After the dunes were gone, the flooding in the last 2(?) hurricanes was much worse and they had to replace the furniture (with more 2nd hand stuff) but the shack still stood, unlike the multi-million $ homes on the beach with the unobstructed ocean view.
Of course with climate change, the Isle of Palms probably won’t exist in another couple decades or so.
satby
@schrodingers_cat: you don’t need to pull them, you can use a hose end weed and feed product that will kill the broadleaf weeds and leave the grass alone. Next year you can put down pre-emergent crabgrass killer before the grass starts growing if you have crabgrass and it bothers you. I’m not that big on lawn maintenance, so the weed and feed and a shorn lawn is as much as I do.
And an acre of land is pretty big for an electric mower or even a gas walk behind mower, you may want to get a riding one. I had a friend who charged me a minimal amount to mow my acre at my old house after the riding mower I got used died.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Is this all from that storm yesterday?
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: and the part of New Orleans that didn’t flood much after Katrina was the old French Quarter, because it was built in higher ground and before the man-made alterations to the delta that allowed the storm surge to go farther inland. We never learn.
debbie
@FlyingToaster (Tablet):
That’s also supposed to work for deer. You attach the bar to a stick and hide it within the planting are. My New England home-owning friends swear by Irish Spring.
schrodingers_cat
@satby: Brand new riding mowers are out of my budget right now. I am looking for CL listing close by. I don’t have a truck so I have to find someone who can deliver. The yard is pretty flat. There is one raised bed which is right now full of weeds. I am thinking of going to a Lawn and Garden Center that was recommended by many and ask for their advice some time this week.
glaukopis
@HeartlandLiberal: I’m having it done this next week. Any tips on coping?
Spanky
@japa21: My shoulder has not stopped hurting for about a week, and I can’t find a posture that gives a whole lot of relief. Looks like I should be shopping for an orthopod.
Didn’t know this stuff was contagious through blogs.
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m currently fighting a losing battle in my neighborhood about lawns. Lawns require a ton of resources and constant work. I encourage you to look into transitioning your lawn, or part of it, into a meadow using native plantings. Especially if you have a large yard, can you turn a large part of it into a meadow? Maybe just keep the part in the front yard and immediately around the house grass?
Lawns need a ton of water, all the energy of mowing, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, etc. you can use native plantings and have flowers that attract bees and other pollinators. Much less maintenance work.
OzarkHillbilly
@japa21: My rain gauge broke this past winter and I have yet to replace it. :-( All I can say to the question of “How much rain have you got?” is “A lot.”
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: Eventually, I do want to change, I am trying to just maintain what was already there, this year. I am also allergic to pollen, so I am not sure if I want a yard full of allergens.
satby
@schrodingers_cat: year, you can get yard service for a summer (depending) on the cost of a new riding mower. I bought a used one for about $500 and it lasted a couple of years. Longer than the bf who used to maintain it anyway. When it needed some minor repair, I put it out front and sold it for $350, and paid the other guy who mowed for me from that. You can find used ones around in good shape if you look. Craigslist might have some.
As for your raised bed of weeds, I would use a total weed killer on the whole thing IF they don’t pull out easily so that you can eradicate the roots (obviously I am not a completely organic gardener). Or turn the whole bed over with a spade pulling out the weeds as you go and shaking the dirt back into the bed. Then, if you haven’t used a total vegetation killer (because that lasts for about a year in the soil) you can plant what you want, but you’ll have to be vigilant about weeding even if you mulch.
Spanky
@satby:
I mow about an acre with a zero-turn 44″ deck. Takes about an hour. The tractor was about $6 grand many years ago. I spend a couple hundred every year to keep it in good shape. It helps that I have a trailer I can use to run it down to our local shop.
Get some estimates from local lawn companies for a yearly lawn maintenance subscription to cost out the differences between mow-your-own and contracting out. And don’t forget to factor in the hour or more per week of your time it would take.
Then look into turning it into a wildflower field.
tobie
I have several raised beds for vegetables and one got so overrun with weeds that I followed the advice of an organic farmer and put seed potatoes on the surface followed by a foot of hay. Voila, after doing this last year the bed is now free of weeds. And I got some very good potatoes to boot at the end of the season. The method really works. I’m going to try to reclaim some land in a meadow for future veggie growing.
I started late this year with beans and peas but the latter seem to be coming in spite of the heat. Greens are on their way but they are taking their time. I didn’t have time to start tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants but seed this year. What a pity!
satby
@Spanky: It may just be an inflammation of one of the tendons, and a cortisone shot could fix that right up. Never had the surgery, I had ruptured tendons in both shoulders one right after the other, leading to frozen shoulders in each for three years (18 months each side). Both are nearly normal now, therapy really does help, but time does too.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: It has been raining, heavily, since Wednesday night, with a 12-18 hour break on Friday, and is going to continue to rain, heavily, till sometime tonight. Most of the records set back in 2015 are safe but we are in major flooding territory again.
@Lapassionara: My wife works at 44 and 270. I am wondering if they are going to close down again.
japa21
@Spanky: Interestingly enough, prior to surgery, my shoulder felt fine most of the time. However, specific motions caused excruciating pain, like reaching behind my back or over extending upward. Now it aches all the time, which is better than a couple weeks ago which was when it hurt most of the time.
satby
@Spanky: yep. When I first moved to the country I had my big bucks IT job, and hiring a yard service was a no brainer because I wasn’t going to burn to a crisp mowing it myself for hours. Later, I had that guy around for a bit, still later the friend, and by the time I couldn’t have kept that up I was leaving anyway.
If I had stayed, I would have gotten a goat.
Raven
@japa21: I opted out of labrum surgery a few years back. I stopped swimming for 6 weeks and then went back to every other day. It is doing well but I’m not happy with some weight game so, when we get back from the beach tomorrow, it’s South Beach again!
Baud
@MomSense:
That’s what I’m doing.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: It seems that most of the rain has moved east of us, although they forecast scattered showers for today. They’re comparing this storm to the ones we had in 2011 and 2008; this one may be worse. We had evacuations all over the place; the flooding is epic in some places. Pretty soon scientists are going to have to change their definitions of 100 year and 500 year storm events or else their models won’t work anymore.
I heard a presentation about natural ways of preventing river bank erosion at the MWEA conference in March. It sounds like they will be tested this weekend.
I agree about the stupidity of rebuilding in flood-prone areas. The last time I remember there being significant buyouts was in the epic flood year 1993. When you hear people talk about rebuilding after the past 5 floods!!….. I suppose if they own that land they are stuck unless the government buys them out, because who wants to buy that property?
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sorry to hear this. My local news reported tornados, but nothing about flooding. Hope you’re right about it ending today.
JMG
My yard is in too wooded and uneven a lot for a riding mower. They’re not built for tree roots. However, the amount of grass in said yard declines annually, because there’s a kind of moss that grows out from the woods in back of and to the sides of the yard. When it rains, the moss is green, so no worries. I’m not looking to have Augusta National, just a yard that doesn’t look like it should have a rusted out pickup on blocks as a decoration.
Lapassionara
@OzarkHillbilly: I am not out that way a lot, but I think if the rain comes down in torrents again today, as it did yesterday, the chances are good that it will.
PST
I’ve never had a yard or much of a way with plants, but this year I’m putting window boxes on the railing of my balcony and trying to decide what to plant. Any advice would be appreciated. This is a south facing balcony in Chicago that gets direct sunlight all day long in the summer. I just want something colorful that will bloom more or less continuously throughout the summer without a lot of down time and without requiring much attention. I’m happy to water daily and pinch off old blooms from time to time, but I’m pretty lazy. What should I plant? I’m inclined to just say petunias, petunias, and more petunias, but my wife (who has ceded control) thinks that’s a pretty dull plan.
japa21
@Raven: The doctor gave me a choice of PT or surgery but felt the only thing PT was likely to do was make a bad situation worse. If it had just been one thing, I might of gone for PT but with three tears I felt I might as well go for the surgery. A few weeks ago I was regretting that decision, but the improvement now that the therapy has moved up a notch has been remarkable.
Raven
@japa21: I agreed,I also have had a great number of friends have knee replacement in the last year and they all regretted it at first.
OzarkHillbilly
On the gardening front, everything I’ve planted loves the rain. So does everything I didn’t plant. I am planning on doing the farmers market this year and with that in mind I’ve planted 54 tomatoes, and 30 something sweet peppers, all heirlooms of varying types I started from seed. Everything transplanted just fine but some of my tomatoes are looking a little sickly. Maybe it’s blight getting an early start. All the rain isn’t helping.
I have about 15 hot peppers for personal consumption, as well as potatoes and onions in the ground. Same with some read and green cabbages and broccoli. I did not get any greens in for various reasons, and at this point I wonder if I should even bother, might just wait till fall. Hopefully, in a week or 2 I will be able to plant my beans and squashes.
Everything I plant is heirlooms, I get the seeds from Baker Creek. I figure if I’m going to go to all the trouble of doing this, I might as well grow something I can’t get at the store. I am trying several new tomatoes but the one I am most looking forward to is the Costoluto Genovese.. It is a stunningly beautiful slicing tomato that is also good for paste.
Oh and my lilac? I was wrong, not all of the flower buds got frost bit. I had 2 wonderfully smelling clusters bloom. :-)
japa21
@OzarkHillbilly: Seriously, let me know if you go the farmers’ market route. My wife and I would come down and buy from you.
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: I’m still regretting my rotator/bicep surgery, but I don’t think I regret it as much now as I did a couple months ago. Regardless, it’s never going to 21 again.
schrodingers_cat
@JMG: Same here and compared to the neighbors, right now its kinda looking sorry. On the plus side, I have to lilac bushes that are just beginning to bloom.
schrodingers_cat
Okay also too what type of mulch should I use. The previous peeps had red mulch. Does the color make any difference?
O. Felix Culpa
@FlyingToaster (Tablet):
Any idea if that trick works for rabbits too? We have no squirrels here, but ravening hordes of rabbits.
satby
@PST: These look like some nice choices.
gene108
@satby:
Hurricanes are similar to tornadoes. You can’t predict year in or year out where they will hit. Coastal areas, which usually get hit with hurricanes, in the Southeast, seem to do O.K. with building for them.
The problem is hurricanes get hit inland or veer northwards to places not accusomted to them or just be so powerful you can’t build buildings and infrastructure strong enough to handle them, like Katrina or Andrew.
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: My biggest piece of advice for gardening is Buy Quality Soil. Spend your money on quality soil and you’ll reap the rewards with healthier plants. If you’re growing flowers or shrubs they look and do better. If you’re growing vegetables and fruit you get better growth and more production.. If you’re putting plants into beds that are already there, then spend your money on quality compost and mulch.
Don’t skimp in this area! Go to a local garden center, never a big box store, and ask about their soil, compost and mulch offerings. If you need a lot, find out where the soil yard is and have it delivered. Or rent a truck and trailer and do it yourself. Years later I’m still noticing the difference in beds where I used quality soil and those where I didn’t. I have amended the ones with poorer soil with compost and mulch but they’re still behind.
OzarkHillbilly
@Soprano2:
There is a Wash U prof who has been fighting the good fight for about 10 years now. He got a lot of press after 2015. I suppose they will be hitting him up for comment again pretty soon. There is something about being able to say “I told you so” that makes for good press.
The best known buyout was the town of Valmeyer, IL, moved everybody up to the top of the bluff. And yeah, it has to be a govt buyout, but even more important is to stop building in these areas. In ’93 some of the most dramatic footage of flooding came from Chesterfield Bottoms when the Monarch levee broke. Millions of dollars were lost, maybe as much as a hundred million. I remember a year later driving into the bottoms and seeing a billboard: “Chesterfield of Dreams- Rebuild it and they will come” and I thought “Like lambs to the slaughter.” And they did. If/when that levee goes again, it is going to cost a billion $, and yes that’s billion with a “B”.
Right now, Hazelwood is trying to develop the last large tract of Mississippi bottom land in STL county because…. We don’t have enough shopping malls yet?
satby
@schrodingers_cat: I go for uncolored cedar.
I forgot, an easy and organic way to kill the weeds in your bed is to cover the whole thing with many layers of newspaper and then mulch, well watered until the papers are good and wet. That smothers the weeds and the papers will slowly compost.
Though I also liked tobie’s idea of seed potatoes under hay. Only drawback for me is when I tried something similar, mice ate the seed potatoes.
Kristine
@satby:
QFT
My folks planted 200+ bulbs all over the property over 20 years ago–tulips, irises, crocuses, daffs. The only things to survive the next few years of deer and squirrel predation were the daffs, which bloomed like mad and multiplied. The miniatures died out over time, but the other varieties–all full-size yellow and white with orange or yellow trumpets–continue to thrive. A few are just sprouting greenery this spring, which means the bulbs need to be dug up and the bulblets removed and planted. It takes a few years for the bulblets to mature and bloom.
I used to watch from the front window as squirrels would shimmy down a tree, then reach out and behead tulips. They don’t do that to the daffs.
On second thought, the purple crocuses have also proven to be sturdy. They used to be in one small cluster in my eastside yard, but they’ve spread over the years. Scattered by squirrels, I imagine.
My hands-down favorite gardening tool is a hand weeder–I don’t think price is a factor with these, although it’s possible the cheaper ones may rust. Mine has a plastic handle that was chewed on by King, so I’m not giving it up anytime soon. Second favorite is my set of pruning shears. As far as spades etc go, I go with whatever’s handy, which I know is wrong.
OzarkHillbilly
@schrodingers_cat: No, the color makes no difference. My pig farmer buddy gets mulch for free from tree trimming companies and I steal it from him. A lot of smaller branches in it that didn’t get chewed up by the shredder but hey, it’s free. I used to buy mine from one of the local lumber mills which was also dirt cheap. You don’t have a truck, but you can get it delivered at a much cheaper price than by the bag.
HeartlandLiberal
@glaukopis: as with all major surgery, be grateful for opiods. stay ahead of the pain with pills, when the local nerve block wears off you will hurt. but mine was a large tear, surgeon said a gapimg hole, caused by bracing against steering wheel in auto head on collision early february. severe acute pain.
satby
Time to get ready for work.
Debating giving notice: after seven months of Thursday off, and a couple of mentions about me starting selling at our local (indoor) farmers market on Thursdays; the office manager scheduled me for the Thursday that is my birthday coming up next month. After I had mentioned how great it was that my b’day fell in my regular day off so I wouldn’t have to request it. And she “contacted” me to ask if she could by using FB messenger, which I don’t use, then when I didn’t answer, she put me on instead of trying to get me via my phone, which she has used every other time with almost immediate results. I’m really done with that kind of nonsense.
Elizabelle
@satby: Your manager is a jerk. Please tell me you will ask for the day off, and make it happen. She’s tone deaf and incompetent, and lucky to have you.
Further, FB messenger does not substitute for the telephone, or email, if that’s the usual method of communication. She’s being loopy, lazy or passive aggressive there. Maybe all three.
Anyhoo, I think highly of you, and am dismayed you have to work for someone who can’t even figure out to move an office file cabinet, bookshelves, whatever it was ….
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Just tell her she fucked up and you can’t work that day, no how, no way. Make her fire you.
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat:
Oh, boy. Dyed mulch. The regulations for dyes in mulches are not as stringent as they are for just about anything else and in fact can contain dangerous poisons. Can vary state by state and your state might have better regulations. At the very least, dyed mulch is putting that dye right into the soil. At worst, you, your kids and pets are interacting with that mulch and being exposed to the toxins.
I’ll repeat my recommendation to find a good, local soil, compost and mulch place that can explain their process to you. Spend your money on quality. It’s better for you, the environment and certainly your plants.
BTW, mulch doesn’t just protect from heat and moisture loss, it’s the primary vector for putting fungi back into soil. Compost does bacteria. Most of our soils are deficient in fungi and adding in humates/humic acid is one of the best things you can do to improve soils. Mulch serves that purpose. Get quality so you get that benefit too.
ThresherK
@HeartlandLiberal: Hope you recover in time to be called up to the Show when they expand the rosters in September.
Seriously, get better. To quote Daffy Duck, I can stand anything except pain. Especially other peoples’.
jnfr
>> once the lilacs bloom, it’s safe to put away the snow shovels.
It’s funny you say this because here in Colorado the lilacs have been in full bloom for several days and we had a big snowstorm yesterday.
Yarrow
@satby: That’s unacceptable. Tell her you aren’t available on that day and let the chips fall where they may. Period. Also review the agreed-upon methods for contacting you and if she tries carrier pigeon or something outside of those methods, it’s her problem. Facebook messenger is ridiculous for a professional work contact regarding scheduling.
joel hanes
For my money, most garden spades and forks with D handles are too short for sustained work, and I’m not a tall man.
Turning an entire bed with a short spade is backbreaking; much easier with a long-handled round-nose shovel.
My favorite garden implements are a contractor-grade round-nose shovel, and a heavy-duty drain spade. Once a year, scrub and wire-brush the blades really clean, sharpen with a wheel or with a bastard file, wipe with solvent, and then spray with rustoleum enamel so that clay soils don’t stick and the blade doesn’t rust The drain spade will cut woody roots, and is a superb thistle weeder you can use standing.
After that, probably the long-handled pruners.
satby
@Elizabelle: @OzarkHillbilly: @Yarrow: when I finally saw the message last night on the only, rarely used device that has messenger, I did just that. Told her I wasn’t available, and that she should have contacted me by phone as she has innumerable times in the past. Then I deleted messenger off that device.
Passive aggressive barely covers it, and if she had asked properly I would have offered to sub in an alternative day so she could have someone else moved to Thursday. Now it’s her problem. And if she’s enough of a witch about it, more days at the market completely covers the wage loss there, for way less aggravation. Sad though, I hate to put the Dr.in that position.
satby
@joel hanes: waking out the doir, but long handled pruners, absolutely!
laura
@satby: it’s gonna be a squirtarita.
I left out the giant red amaranth.
Can’t pass up a garden tools sale. Pots, hoes, hand tools and the like.
glaukopis
@HeartlandLiberal: mine probably not as large as yours-slipped on ice, tried exercises on my own, then with PT with no real progress, before an MRI that showed the size of the tear. Plan is to rest the first week then back to PT. I’m pretty motivated to work hard at it to get my regular life back.
debbie
@satby:
Good luck and hope you can stay calm. I’m not sure I could.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby:
You aren’t.
Elizabelle
@satby: Good to hear! I think you should go job-shopping, with all your free time. (Yeah, I know…) Then take the new offer to the Doctor, not the insane manager, and see if he/she will make some changes in your worklife. It might be better to just find new pastures, frankly.
Glad to hear you’re selling your products at the farmer’s market. Maybe you can find some way cool job by networking there, among customers and anyone who crosses your path. You have a lot of skills that are going unused.
AND you must alert us so we can do a daylong birthday celebration with you, online.
That is all.
Yarrow
@satby:
You aren’t doing that. The doctor is putting him/herself in that position. If enough of your fellow coworkers are as frustrated as you are with the office manager, perhaps scheduling a meeting with the doctor to explain what’s going on would help. It is the doctor’s responsibility to take care of his or her office and that’s clearly not happening.
J R in WV
@JMG:
Hey!!
Some of us like those old antique pickup trucks! I’ve got one I’m gonna put in CL to see if I can stop putting money into it. Not even going to try to make any money back on it, just want to stop spending on it.
laura
@PST: geraniums do great in window boxes.
scav
Random comments. Bulbs that would do well in Chicago environs gardens and go well with daffs are squill, the stunning blue ones that show up in mant places (one of my ‘l stops in Evanston was a thrill to watch) but there are white ones and some pales ones with a blue vein too. Mcclure and Zimmerman have all three if I remember correctly — Colorblends might have all three and Scheepers should do as well. For balconys, in addition to blooms, plants with colorful leaves (coleus and Persian Shields) are sometimes even easier, and a few years I actually did nothing but grasses which filled up a lot of visual space with green and made things feel cooler with all their waving aroound in breezes.
Tools? For hand weeding, I really like the Japanese ones: the Kana hoe/scraper, , the wooden-handle version of this one, a little sickly saw one. The Italian hori-hori meantioned is indeed grand, and all the advice to get a good spading fork and shovel and the tools to take care of them is excellent. If you do pruning, some felcos for sure, a larger lopper (probably bypass, not anvil) and or a good pruning saw, again, I like the Japanese Silky saws (Pocketboy, Gomboy, etc).
J R in WV
@Raven:
Mrs J had both knees replaced in 2016, and I had both shoulders replaced in 2015, same Dr same PT therapist. Both of us are delighted with the improvement.
I still have quite a bit of pain when I work overhead, from tendonitis, which joint replacement surgery does nothing for… it might aggravate it a little, really, from my experience. They do a lot of pulling around of muscles and tendons to avoid cutting more than necessary.
For my shoulders there was only one muscle that got cut, related to moving my arm from side to side in the upper chest somewhere. So there were motions forbidden until that sucker healed up. I also had bone spurs, but I assume those went away with the joint parts that were sawed off.
I’m not sure anything is worse than a joint intended to have lots of cartilage running bone-on-bone, if I was motionless, it didn’t hurt too bad, if I moved, on the other hand, owww. Maybe why in those old photos of elderly people they were able to be motionless, and looked so down, joint pain with nothing but whiskey and sometimes laudanum.
MomSense
@satby:
Take care of you first. Even if it is awkward, the dr should know what is happening in his office.
J R in WV
@Elizabelle:
Go to the real boss, the Dr, and tell him you are being attacked by the office manager, by having days you mention as important to you to have off being assigned to you, over and over. Tell him the office manager deliberately uses “communication tools” that they know you don’t ever use, when picking up the FQN telephone would always work. Then tell him about the shelving fiasco. Then offer to quit unless he sets the office manager straight.
In other words, give him information about his practice that he needs before you just bail. Perhaps the office manager will be allowed to depart? Perhaps you could be offered that position? even if only to turn it down.
But just quitting doesn’t offer the Dr a chance to fix things, and we’re talking about his livelihood here!
stinger
@MomSense: All true. Where lawns are indicated, however, try using a dwarf fine fescue blend that only needs to be mowed about once a month. High Country Gardens offers some. I’ve seeded bare patches in my lawn, and just love this grass. Soft and springy to walk on barefoot. I’m watching where it meets the existing bluegrass mix, in hopes that the dwarf fine fescue will win out!
Marvel
My, bar none, favorite garden tool.
http://imgur.com/a/euqBA
It’s old, made with nice old metal. Found it in the pump house when we moved in. It’s not a pitchfork and it’s w-a-y sturdier than the 3-tine goodies I’ve seen in stores and catalogs. Whatever the heck it is, I take good care of it (it’ll get a new handle next winter) and use it all the time. I’m also partial to my hori-hori and appreciate a well-sharpened shovel.
stinger
@satby: I do this, although I usually replace the newpaper with corrugated cardboard (like the boxes mail-order plants come in). Worms love cardboard! If using newsprint, I avoid colored inks.
Pete Mack
If you re making a garden adjacent to lawn, make sure to edge it properly. Grass is aggressive about invading cultivated soil. Use either plastic edging or 1×6 boards pegged in place. It’s much easier to do the effort once than fighting a continuous battle.
stinger
Tools: Being on the short side, I use short-handled (“border”), stainless steel spade and fork. I don’t need the weight of the tool added to the weight of whatever I’m digging and moving, and dirt slides right off the stainless steel. Lee Valley used to carry what I liked, but they no longer carry wood-handled tools, so the last time I needed one I googled and can’t recall the brand I got. (Pinned in by dogs, so I can’t get up and look.)
Felonius Monk
I always enjoy the Sunday Morning Garden Chat, but my feelings about actually doing the gardening are best summed up by paraphrasing a long ago statement by Beardsley Ruml (the inventor of the Withholding Tax): Whenever I have the urge to garden, I lie down quietly in a dark room until it subsides.
I did mow the lawn yesterday. Something we usually don’t have to do around here until the middle of May or later.
Happy Gardening to All.
MomSense
@Baud:
Now you’ve definitely got my vote!
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
I think I’m a contrarian but I don’t use mulch. I dress the beds with compost. Maybe check with your local nursery and test the ph to see what your soil needs.
Gelfling 545
My favorite/ most used tools are a perrenial spade and an old butcher knife. The knife is for edging/dividing/weeding (with an old steak knife for smaller areas) and the perrenial spade is for digging just right plant sized holes. I use them just about every day in the growing season.
ETA I just discovered that one can make one’s reciprocating saw into a light pruning saw with the addition of a not expensive pruning blade. I hope to try this if the rain ever stops.
Pete Mack
@Marvel: That tool is called a refuse hook. They’re good, but a forged long-handled spading fork* is better for turning soil prior to planting, especially if you are adding manure or compost.
* Forged only. The cheap ones break and bend much too easily.
SWMBO
@satby: Cedar is also what is used for hamster bedding. You may get more squirrels and mice with that. Also we found with regular mulch (years ago) that we had a sudden influx of ticks. The vet told us that the mulch was bringing them in. Ask the vet about plants and ground cover before trying something in your area. You may be bringing in a problem you don’t want.
Mai.naem.mobile
@schrodingers_cat: this is not mulch but I’ve used coffee grounds from Starbucks. They’ll let you have big trashbagfuls. I live in the desert so the soil basically sucks but I am sure yours is in much better shape to begin with. Also look into whether there’s a local County Extension office. They have master gardener classes etc. Or if you have a botanical garden . They have really helpful botanists who know their stuff. One last thing, grow stuff that grows well in your area. Don’t plant stuff that is going to be challenging until you’ve had success with the easier stuff first.
Chet
I don’t usually have anything to say for garden chat, but today I moved a 12′ arborvitae tree from the front yard to the back. So as to prevent the missus from seeing the neighbors in their yard. She said it was an early Mother’s Day present. So I got that going for me, which is nice.
Marvel
@Pete Mack: THANKS for the info/name and suggestion! I actually love this (forged) tool, since, when turning over & working the soil in our raised beds, I can swing it in an arch over my shoulder, and let the weight of it drop & dig into the soil and/or compost (which I then pull towards me & mix with the stuff that’s been similarly brought near) — easier for me & my less-than-a-guy’s upper body strength. Thanks again for naming the dang thing for me!
Dextrous
Advice to a new gardener: do not buy tools just to kit yourself out. Just like home maintenance, when you find you need something, research it and get it. That way you’ll build up a personal set of tools you actually need. But assuming you want to plant something, consider the Spear Spade. I’ve had mine for years and it does nearly everything – planting, severing roots, dividing perennials, edging, etc. I also have a long fiberglass handled shovel, good for moving huge bushes and digging big holes. Instead of buying top notch gloves, get a big package of knit gloves with dipped fingertips; HD sells them in orange. They have multiple uses, and keep your hands clean. If you discover you love gardening, you can always treat yourself to goatskin gloves in the future. Do not buy cheap tools if they are meant for long term use however. Every time your trowel or hori hori wobbles in the handle, you’ll curse it.
I recommend you don’t ask the big stores for advice. They are in the business of moving their product, so all their advice will be geared to that end. Do not use weed & feed, please! It is banned in Canada. A nice lawn is long-term project; chemical short cuts are non-sustainable and extremely harmful to the environment. Ask your state Ag station or State U Ag dept. about sustainable lawns and landscaping for your area. They’ll point you to the right people. Read “Fine Gardening” magazine. They give solid, current and ecologically sound advice, and it’s all beautiful; no weedy meadows here. Do not broadcast “wildflower” seeds and think you’ll create a meadow. The only plants that will survive are those that will thrive with no care, and then your entire neighborhood will sprout these weeds.
If you can bear to be a bit patient, learn about plants and trees, create a general master plan, then go shopping. Contact your local garden club and ask them to recommend good nursery stores where those in the know shop. Real nurserymen and women know their stuff and love to educate. I’m lucky to live near Broken Arrow Nursery. But everywhere I’ve lived, I have found the good places to pick up flats of perennials to populate my garden.
When you think you’re all done with your garden, plant bulbs as your last touch. If you interplant crocus grape hyacinth, and miniature daffodils, they are almost as care free as you could wish and will spread over time. They’ll also feed pollinators at a time when little else is in bloom. Also look up everything you can on Doug Tallamy. He will change how you approach gardening.