Gardening Thread

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Mon Sep 14, 2020 10:56 am

Because I don't have any other place to put plant memes:

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meadows · Post by **meadows** » Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:00 am

Hahahahahah!

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Wed Sep 23, 2020 12:03 pm

Anyone starting a fall garden?

Gardening internet tells me that it's time to turn over the beds, but my tomatoes, eggplant, and melons are still going strong--just starting to pop off, actually. Gonna let those ride a while longer while I start some new beds for the fall. I started some fava beans and black-eyed peas from seed (or from bean, rather) and I'm excited because those guys are supposed to be really good for the soil! I grew favas years ago at our old house; you can eat the whole plant, and the greens are real yummy.

marijke · Post by **marijke** » Thu Sep 24, 2020 2:18 pm

I need to get inspired for fall/winter gardening. The momentum died down with the smoky week indoors and the very sudden change to fall.

So far just loads of leaf pick-up and tomato composting going on here.

Next weekend has been ear-marked for removing, moving and planting out. Coming out: ugly hydrangea (sorry hydrangeas!), fungus prone fuschia peony, disease ridden ancient rose in prime location, weird small bush in prime location, honeysuckle bought as native that is definitely not a native. Moving: wild rose volunteer, russian sage, maybe a ceanothus that's getting crowded out. Planting out some currently potted plants: matilija poppy, bachelor buttons, bee bush, climbing eden rose, climbing colette rose. I have a lot of roses in pots, some will stay and some need bigger pots.

The vegetable beds need moving and the soil needs some help. And that pesky old driveway needs removing : )

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu Sep 24, 2020 6:56 pm

Ooh, you're smashing out a driveway? My whole vegetable garden is wooden planter boxes on concrete and I have profound driveway-smashing fantasies. Break outta the box!

Your flower game is admirable. I just recently decided I want to try and grow some flowers. I initially dismissed them as non-utilitarian, but I forgot about beauty. We have some calendula in the veg beds to attract pollinators, but I'd love to put in some purely decorative flowers I can cut and make arrangements with. Roses are obviously for the advanced gardener...what's a good starter?

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Fri Sep 25, 2020 6:54 am

I just found out my aunt who lives in Briar, outside Seattle, and has a truly stunning (mostly) flower garden, has a youtube channel where she had her wife follow her as she wandered through her garden daily and filmed and discussed her borderline obsessive hobby. It's a trip!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUh9sG ... ziQ/videos

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Fri Sep 25, 2020 9:04 am

This youtube channel is so incredibly my thing, thank you for sharing!

[mention]yourfriendclaire[/mention] flowers are important!!!!! you forgot about beauty!!!!

They're good for pollinators, and for the soul. Things like salvias will mix nicely with vegetables, as would coneflower, aster, cosmos, and marigold. All chill and wild looking, nice texture.

Maybe zinnias or mums for cutting? Sunflowers? I do fragrant sweet peas in the spring/summer and just smelling them is one of the highlights of the season.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri Sep 25, 2020 9:35 am

[mention]m o l l y[/mention] I think because you brought up your aunt you’re legally obligated to tell everyone on the board her Scientology story? Sorry but I don’t make the rules here

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri Sep 25, 2020 9:36 am

[mention]meadows[/mention] Mums! I love a Mum. I was also thinking pansies? They’re edible, right? A twofer! I’m gonna go to the nursery today and see what moves me.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Fri Sep 25, 2020 10:01 am

Oh you know what else is pretty and soooo easy AND edible? Nasturtium!

marijke · Post by **marijke** » Fri Sep 25, 2020 10:22 am

Second all that meadows says.

I’d add nigella and coreopsis. I have coreopsis “moonbeam” and it is a beautiful light yellow and blooms forever.

I love my salvias because the hummingbirds can’t get enough. Same goes for my hyssop... I like the “sunset” varietal.

A bouquet of poppy, nigella, and coreopsis sounds so wild and Californian to me.

The old driveway is cracked and spalling. I take out chunks from time to time with a sledgehammer, ha. But I’m suffering the same indignity as YFC - veg beds on ‘crete. For shame.

marijke · Post by **marijke** » Fri Sep 25, 2020 11:02 am

Maybe I don't think roses are a lot of work because I love them so much, but I'm here to say everyone should grow a rose!

Enjoying these last roses of the season:

marijke · Post by **marijke** » Fri Sep 25, 2020 11:08 am

Also... mother of pearl poppy?

I grew one last year and it was the queen of the front yard.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Fri Sep 25, 2020 3:34 pm

Is anyone else interested in the history of flower symbolism? The Victorians really got into it, leaving each other private messages in flower!

https://www.almanac.com/content/flower- ... ge-flowers#

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Sat Sep 26, 2020 4:41 pm

Tag yourself, I’m wild rose “pleasure and pain”

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Sat Sep 26, 2020 5:58 pm

today I'm a real cornflower

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Sat Sep 26, 2020 6:14 pm

Yellow Marquerite

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Sat Sep 26, 2020 7:22 pm

marijke · Post by **marijke** » Sat Sep 26, 2020 7:45 pm

White rose

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Sat Sep 26, 2020 8:21 pm

White Lily

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Sun Sep 27, 2020 1:08 am

Pink.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 9:11 am

[mention]yourfriendclaire[/mention] did you get some flowers?

I have a volunteer sprout that I think is a sunflower- my cucumber is just under a very busy bird feeder. I'm curious, but also it can't get very big this late in the year.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:38 am

I got some pansies and nasturtium for now—we're getting another heatwave this week so I'm gonna hold off on planting anything too delicate until after it passes!

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 2:18 pm

cute!

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Fri Oct 02, 2020 7:26 pm

Some kind of bee or wasp are living in my house walls.
They happen to live beyond a little corner of knicked window frame, from outside.

Today I saw a surprise bee inside my side of the window!
So I carried her to her hive of course. First I put a few drops of water in my hand, in case she was dehydrated. When she walked on my fingers and was chilling, I carefully walked outside of the house and around to the darn little hive, and set my hand open for a moment so the bee could recover and get her bearings.

There will probably be more, so I better get some caulk out or something so they don't come inside.

I love bees!

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Fri Oct 02, 2020 7:33 pm

Also these bees made me happy because I have a couple of associations with death and big green bugs.

My cousin just shared with me that after his mom died, a bright green, baby praying mantis jumped down from a tree onto his shoulder. He took it as "a sign."

This summer, in early August... I gave my lord David a pagan funeral in a pyre of fire.
I was digging in a hard clay soil under a big old tree.
As I surveyed the ground for my design, I noticed a beautiful green cicada was molting out from its shell. Its molt took about 3 hours and it kept me company while I managed my beloved tegu's death rites.

Bugs rule!

infopetal · Post by **infopetal** » Sat Oct 03, 2020 7:17 pm

a full-sized brown praying mantis recently fell out of the sky beside me while having park-based book club gathering. for about 30 minutes she was very still so we were peacefully coexisting, but then she became very hyper before suddenly flying away, and I let out a shriek!

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Sun Oct 04, 2020 6:03 pm

Bugs, indeed, rule. We’ll never be truly bored in this world so long as there’s a bug somewhere to look at.

But where are they going in such a damn hurry all the time?

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Mon Oct 05, 2020 12:22 am

Life is serious, for a bug.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Mon Oct 05, 2020 8:21 am

...which reminds me of my favorite attraction at Disneyland (California Adventure), the Bug’s Life-themed show “It’s Tough To Be A Bug!” One of those kinda-shitty 3D glasses theater experiences with tons of pop-out animatronics and atmospheric events, hosted by the ant Flik (Dave Foley, bless his heart). It’s closed now, replaced with some kinda Spider-Man nonsense. Truly, nothing is sacred.

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There was also a whole Bug’s Life area that was delightfully perspective-slamming, with jumbo oversized takeout boxes and apple cores! Now it’s Avengers land. I would enjoy an entire theme park that made me feel as small as a bug!!

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Mon Oct 05, 2020 9:18 am

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Adventure!

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Mon Oct 05, 2020 9:30 am

Yes!!

Would you rather be small in a big world (Bug’s Life, HISTK) or big in a small world (Legoland, Gulliver’s Travels)?

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Mon Oct 05, 2020 10:22 am

Small! Small!

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Mon Oct 05, 2020 10:43 am

I guess small, it would be easier to find things to eat/places to hide/sleep. If you were big in a small world, there probably wouldn't be enough food for you, and it would be hard to hide or find a comfortable place to sleep.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Mon Oct 05, 2020 10:53 am

small! sleep in a matchbox and eat one cheeto for dinner!

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Mon Oct 05, 2020 12:53 pm

Oh yeah def. One cherry tomato to feed the family. Live like the borrowers. A hair for a rope, a fish hook for a grappling hook, staples in the wall being all like ladders.

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Mon Oct 05, 2020 3:06 pm

Small Small Small Small

I read this book about 3 times a summer when I was a small.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Mon Oct 05, 2020 3:30 pm

I read all of these over and over when I was small

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Mon Oct 05, 2020 3:55 pm

I would also choose small...

My biggest small-fantasy media when I was a kid was an episode of Tom & Jerry ("Mouse in Manhattan") where Jerry runs away to the big city and spends his evening on a glamorous rooftop ballroom-dancing on a silver platter with a champagne cork.

Unfortunately the cartoon also includes some racist caricature that I must have totally blanked out because it truly shocked me upon rewatching, not long ago!

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Mon Oct 05, 2020 3:57 pm

Related, sorta, [mention]m o l l y[/mention]: do you remember that VHS of, like, budget public-domain cartoons we bought from a basket outside of the Eagle Rock Vons in college?? There was one about all the madcap stuff that happens in the refrigerator when human beings aren't looking? This remains my number one favorite genre of cartoon.

willowowow · Post by **willowowow** » Tue Oct 06, 2020 8:58 am

Big is lonely and small is cozy.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Tue Oct 06, 2020 12:42 pm

RCH wrote: ↑Mon Oct 05, 2020 3:06 pm Small Small Small Small

I read this book about 3 times a summer when I was a small.

This book is originally in Dutch. I had looked for a translation and couldn't find one! I was even thinking of doing one myself!!

[mention]yourfriendclaire[/mention] I DO remember that cartoon. Did Jacob Smigel use it somehow? There was another similarly themed cartoon I used to watch as a kid that was taped from the tv. It was about two hats that fall in love and get separated in the big city. They finally end up (spoiler alert) on side-by-side horses pulling fancy cabs through central park. It is very dear.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Tue Oct 06, 2020 4:54 pm

NO SPOILERS MOLLY

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Wed Oct 07, 2020 9:55 am

[mention]RCH[/mention] you might enjoy knowing about a popular Belgian syndicated cartoon called Kabouter Wesley (Wesley the Gnome). Wesley's whole thing is that he is ornery. Belgium's whole thing is absurdity.
Here he says, "I hate beautiful walks."

Here Wesley looks sad while a bug says, "I am a malaria mosquito."

Here is he saying, "I hate being wet."

My favourite, which I am not able to find, is a classical Flemish style painting of a serene romantic lake scene. In almost Where's Waldo style, you see a tiny sketched Kabouter Wesley sitting on the edge on the lake looking into his open sandwich and shouting, "I hate jam!"

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu Oct 08, 2020 1:14 pm

I LOVE HIM. Is he really that lo-fi MS Paint looking?! I thought Belgium was all about the high art of the comic book?

Two things, one tangentially related to the tangent about big vs. small, and one item of actual garden-thread content:

- There is a new show on Netflix called Tiny World. It's a nature show about the smallest creatures on Earth voiced by Paul Rudd. We watched episode one last night, which is about elephant shrews, termites, and mongooses (mongeese?) on the African savannah. Highly recommend for my fellow small-heads.

- I strained out my homemade seaweed fertilizer this morning, a bucketful of harvested seaweed that has been slowly decomposing in some rainwater for a month. Smells like a nightmare, as you might imagine. Composted the solids and decanted the broth into a hand sprayer and gave my whole veg garden a stinky misty bath. Fingers crossed.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Thu Oct 08, 2020 1:19 pm

Tiny World! I tried to find it but it's Apple Tv, not Netflix. I'll do a small p1rate perhaps

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu Oct 08, 2020 1:21 pm

Oh oops yeah I get all of the platforms confused

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Thu Oct 08, 2020 1:29 pm

oh god, I watched a youtube preview and i'm VERY excited!!!

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Fri Oct 09, 2020 5:53 am

That Paul Rudd can do no wrong. Tiny World sounds delightful.

Your nightmare garden ferment sounds so horrible it might just work. I was in garden club at Doolen Middle School. Mainly because we had to get to school early once a week so a friend's mom would drive us and we didn't have to take the bus that day. It consisted of spilling "manure tea" all over your shoes by accident and throwing tomato hornworms at a wall.

This one's for you, [mention]yourfriendclaire[/mention]

FRAME 1: when suddenly... "GREETINGS STRAWBERRIES"
FRAME 2: you mean earthlings
what did I say?
"strawberries"
FRAME 3: but enough laughter I WANT TO EAT EARTHLINGS!!!
FRAME 4: you mean strawberries
no earthlings
we have strawberries on Vognor as well

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri Oct 09, 2020 8:24 am

I found my first tomato hornworm on my tomatoes this week! I screamed out loud. I peeled him off a baby green tomato he was actively mawing and so much green tomato juice goo oozed out of him. Horrifying. And another massive question mark added to my first and most serious garden question: where do bugs come from?!??