DISMANTLE WHARF

[mention]m o l l y[/mention] , please talk about this: Belgian language, the Rrrrr sound.

Can you speak with this phoneme?
From what location(s) in the skull/mouth/throat does it emit?

I'm asking because I'm listening to my boyfriend Jacques Brel and he rolls his Rs. thank you!!

Yes, let's talk. How you say your Rrrrs in Dutch says a lot about where in Flanders you come from. Brel's family had Flemish roots but homie is a Brussels boy all the way (whoop whoop). He ostensibly spoke and understood Dutch but was Francophone (Brussels has(d) a Flemish dialect all its own that only the very oldest inhabitants still speak fluently which is a truly wild melange of Dutch and French that is Adorable). A French speaker will roll his Rrrrs the way Brel does, with the tongue near the font of the mouth. Someone from Ghent has strong accent where the Rrrrr makes a sandy sound at the back of their tongue/top of their throat. A Dutch person from Amsterdam has an almost American sounding Hard Rrrr sound. It has happened to me more than once that I have been speaking incredibly broken Dutch to some Flemish person and they will ask me if I am Dutch. Says something about how the Flemish view the Dutch?? Who even knows. I have lived here for 12 years and I still find Europeans' stereotypes about one another incomprehensible.

Seconding that Brel's Rrrr is a very French pronunciation.

My parents both lived in Belgium for years early in their lives and I grew up with my Mom's Belgian best friends—I loved their warm accents and their sensible deviations from some of France's more uptight linguistic conventions (like for example instead of saying "soixante-dix, or "sixty-ten" to mean "70," they just say "septante," which always struck me as way easier).

All the great French people are actually Belgian.
It's kind of like how all the best American comedians are actually Canadian.

Can we talk about Brel? My mom just recently reminded me how incredible his last album, "Les Marquises," is. He found out he had lung cancer in the early '70s and renounced music to sail around the world with his children and girlfriend. Eventually he went to live on the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia (where Gaugin had lived and painted), learned to pilot small aircraft and spent his time transporting food and essentials to people living on the islands. After a time changed his mind and decided to make one final record. As you can imagine the pathos is cranked. It sold a million copies in a month without any advertising and he moved back to the Marquesas the day it was released. He died a year later. Every song on the record is performed, literally, in one take and with one lung.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEwmj4Mq9kc

As one commenter on the YouTube of this song says, Brel was Belgian in his gaze, French with his verbs, and a cathedral all to himself!

Gardening thread has officially gone off the RAILS

Thank you for this New Brel Knowledge (NBK)! Belgium is understandably very proud of their Brel. It is a just a tiny country after all.

I love these stories.

JE M'APPELE ZANNNGNGNGGRRRRRA...
Mais elles rêvent d'amour et moi de mes chevaux...


Before I knew what he was singing about, his passion, intelligence, and humor sucked me right in.

his life story sounds like his song "Un Île," was it written later in his life? It makes me cry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvBXF9BhrP0

"Madeleine" is the song incels WISH they had written!

Garden talk:

So I just figured out that these little "native bees/wasps" I have been handling are yellowjackets, which are supposed to be aggressive. I have always had a thing for bees and wasps and in particular rescuing them from being trapped indoors, stepped on on a sidewalk, drowning in water, etc.

I was thinking "well maybe people are wrong about yellowjackets," but then realized that sounds exactly what someone says before being stung. It struck me that this was a good analogy for the reason I apply myself to therapy. I need to learn not to play with wasps!

I’m getting excited to prune fruit trees and I stocked up on lots of different flower seeds that I’ll start sowing in January.

I watched some Gardener’s World last night and got pretty excited about ornamental grasses.

Can you share fruit tree pruning tips? I have a runty meyer lemon I’d love to encourage to become prolific with time.

[mention]yourfriendclaire[/mention] I haven't read about lemon specifically, but the general rules probably apply. You want to thin out the branches so you get light all throughout the tree. Remove spindly and crossing branches - where they rub one another they get wounds that allow infection to enter. Also remove any weird shoots that grow straight up (watersprouts) and ones that grow down or toward the center instead of out. Use very clean shears and don't cut the branches right up to the trunk - leave an inch or so so the branch can scar over nicely. You can also prune off 1/3 of the recent growth off branches you keep. If you want to keep it small you could prune down the central leader branch, but a meyer lemon probably stays pretty small and might not need that.

I should read about lemon... I have one in a pot that has come inside for the winter.

Generally you only prune in winter; I'm not sure how that applies to your steady climate though. Probably just don't prune when actively fruiting?

"heading" is cutting length off of a branch

"thinning" is cutting out entire branches

You'll probably do a little of each.

[mention]marijke[/mention] this is so helpful, thank you! I did not know the thing about not cutting branches up to the trunk—I'm afraid I've committed that sin many times in previous, more intuitive pruning experiments on non-fruiting trees.

My poor Meyer lemon has been a runt for years, but I just built a little retaining wall around it to even out its footing (planted it foolishly on a slope) and filled it with some nutritious compost and it's already feeling better and blossoming like crazy.

What do you clean your shears with? I've read equal parts bleach and water?

[mention]yourfriendclaire[/mention] For pruning roses I’ve just used an alcohol spray and spray between plants.

A botanist friend who worked at Portland Nursery did say that citrus was one of the few things he recommended specific fertilizer for. He said he uses Down to Earth citrus fertilizer.

[mention]marijke[/mention] word, thank you!

I stress-bought so many plants online last night. My local nursery had an election day sale, which was smart of them. Gonna spend the afternoon turning over the last of my summer beds and putting in mustard greens, radicchio, boy choy, and other winter greens.

Don't forget that garden "perfume" [mention]yourfriendclaire[/mention]! But really I need to get on that vegetable train, my garden is all perfume.

I'm getting a cheap grow light for my lemon to try to keep it happy through the Portland winter.

I wanted to stress buy some corduroy pants last night, but stopped myself. Really though... where can I see fun corduroy pants, in case the stress tops out again??

I'm such a dumb sucker for kewl plants. Trying to get two varieties of eucalyptus to make it in our yard, and ordered a Bismarck palm, which are these amazing prehistoric palms that you see everywhere in Mexico City and SE Asia. They are not great in my zone but I'm gonna give it a shot since we have insane sun on our SW facing lot. I also planted an olive tree, a variety that does well in Oregon.

We have these funny and VERY whimsical strawberry trees in front of our house and people come by and gram the shit out of em every day. And that's my story.

What olive variety [mention]01001010 01010101 01000100 01000001 01001000[/mention]? I was thinking of getting a few in large pots for a sunny spot.

I woke up this morning to complete squirrel carnage in my garden. All my beds were full of deep holes, every seedling was dead and entire mature plants had been ravaged and tossed to the ground. I'm so mad. All this to bury some nuts!!!

god, what can you even do about that?

Ooh maybe you can get boxes that hawks and owls like!

This is an idea! Definitely good for a longer-term fix. In the interim, I embrace chaos.

A friend lives in LA and has raised beds that squirrels have been attacking and advocates for building barriers out of PVC pipe which she likens to "adult legos", and netting

I've been throwing vegetable scraps onto the yard, why not? It's going to be covered in snow for 5 months.

Hell yeah, build up that soil!

You can totally just bury organic trash in a trench too. Makes any plants you put in there happy.

I caught the squirrel in the act this morning, acorn IN HAND. He’s now gone beyond my beds to every single one of my potted plants, just to fuck with me.

[mention]alex[/mention] I have a PVC pipe and netting situation on one bed, but squirrels are, well, squirrely. He got past it no problem.

Where are those cats of yours?!

Indoors!!

Ooh I like burying it. The sick thing is, there is almost no soil here because the land is a pile of industrial waste that was buried over with many meters of fill dirt! I’m gonna make my soil one eggshell at a time.

Real quick (wasn't sure where to ask this), is your google banner about Brel too today or is it just in Belgium? https://www.google.com/doodles/celebrating-jacques-brel

I don't see it on google.com from USA. I think these are the countries that see it? (source)

I think we can all agree the world would be a better place if the Jacques Brel Doodle was reaching American shores

I did notice that map after I made my post. I wonder how they choose. Israel, Russia and Thailand!

Sorry everyone! Now back to your regular gardening programming.

Garden programming:

I put the nubby end of a yam in some water a few weeks ago and it sprouted! Unlike potatoes, yams grow these little vines called "slips" that have their own roots, which you yank off and plant in soil. I got two good slips from my dead yam, and I planted one in a big fabric grow bag in the garden. Yams are vines, turns out! You just let 'em go (ideally in the summer but whatever, this is California) and after a season passes dig up the yams. You can also eat the greens--in fact sweet potato leaves are one of my favorite veggie dishes at our local Taiwanese spot.

I pulled out a bunch of old plants from my beds and sowed buckwheat, which apparently grows quick, flowers pretty, and if you cut it down in the springtime and mulch the beds with it, serves as "green fertilizer." Big in the organic gardening/permaculture world.

Buckwheat pretty!

I have been offering food to the woodchucks (there are two), right next to their little holes. It's mostly apples and old veg but they also ate dried salmon and half a McBunk cheeseburger each! Hopefully I don't turn them to gremlins...

Here is a funny video showing their round, grumpy ways: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hUZ3BA-R5Y

Look at nature all hanging out together!

OK, I'll post one more since you asked!!

I'm so delighted by the screaming AND stamping display of this skunk. And by the wind blowing his big fluffball tail.

Other amazing behaviors featured on this channel
1) Raccoon breaks up screaming fight between opossums
2) Raccoon sits on a skunk
3) Raccoons look at each other like "did you see that???" after one gets bitten by a woodchuck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om1CtC08zo0

So many raccoon paw prints in our backyard every morning. God knows what they're getting up to.

partying hard, dude

This one's for you, @rch! https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ-Bn2Fg74B ... semfm9qvd1

Time 2 garden again!!!!
This year I bought plants online, which I have never done before. Seemed like a good choice for quarantine and perhaps fun to choose exactly what I want rather than just what's at the nursery that day... but now I have to wait for them to arrive and I'm antsy.

This year I'm doing some planting in front of our house (we are in a 4-plex HOA condo situation). The current scene is just a few roses and one shrub, plus blank dirt. I'll be putting in some cranesbill/geraniums, salvia, coneflower, baptisia, mostly in blues/purples/white.

Fun!!!!!

I’ve been low-key starting seeds over the last month to varying degrees of success. Almost made it all the way with a Japanese cucumber from seed, but the day after I planted out the seedling some asshole squirrel housed it. Now I’ve got some backups going, but I worry I burned my time. I amended my beds with organic fertilizer and composted STEER MANURE, which costs nothing and is the real deal. My favas are doing okay, an overwintered eggplant is starting to fruit again, and some spring peas I sowed a month or so ago are starting to climb and fruit. Put in two new kinds of tomatoes and kinda did some Willy-nilly seed spreading, so I’ve got some random radishes, carrots and chard starting their journeys now...I need to go to the nursery this week and get some babies in case my seeds suck.

Oh! And I’m experimenting with propagating some fig trees from cuttings! Has anyone done this, woody propagation? Seems like a fun world to explore, to clone trees you like!

Oh man, fuckin' California.

You're so far ahead of us!!!

@meadows tell us about buying plants online!

Ok!
I bought a bunch of stuff from Bluestone Perennials, which I landed on almost at random because there are a LOT of great nurseries/companies like this.
https://www.bluestoneperennials.com/

Lots of options, but also doesn't feel like a mega corporation factory farm.

I also bought some things from Plant Gem, which is definitely a cute/chic new wave Instagram type of deal. They had some good weird things, though, and I couldn't help myself!

https://plantgem.com/

I got some cool sweet peas (every year I try a different fragrant variety) and some other weirdos. Mostly brown and burgundy colors for my patio. Pics coming in May, June, someday.

As far as price, Bluestone is fine, about what things would cost IRL if I went to Portland Nursery. Plant Gem is slightly overpriced.

I didn't know if I would have access to a car this spring or how safe things would feel so I just went for it. It's my first time buying plants online and it feels both weird and exciting.

Cool! And they just come in the mail? As seedlings? Or are you buying bulbs/seeds?

They are full plants or seedlings, no seeds or bulbs. My cat is a destroyer of plant matter and I don't have enough space that he can't get to/is in sunlight to do many seeds myself. Sad :/