[john1]

Hi everyone, hope you're all well.

from Bush Lady, a few posts back, No: #2645

Put the water
into a spray bottle and spray it on the the same plants you
took the bugs from. This prompts a "danger, Will Robinson"
response from that type of bug and keeps them away.

Many years ago, i was sharing a home with two people who tried to make
me think i was losing my mind. Over the months i did start to wonder,
as things were arranged on my behalf and other people also queried
with me, why this, and why that.

It sounds very trite now, but at the time i was very concerned, and started
to make notes here and there of the way things were, and noted carefully
times and minor events in a little notebook which i kept on me.

Once i had started to check things carefully it soon became clear to me
that someone was manipulating occasional events, sometimes in a minor
way and sometimes quite drastically. But not frequently, so it was not
easy to spot.

Just by chance i was nearby, and heard the two people concerned talking.
Thats when i realised they were both involved, I had thought it might be one
person, but could not figure out who, as i could not figure anyone responsible
for all of the notes i had made.

Once i realised that there were two people involved, that was why things
were not attributable to one person.

I have moved on since then, but i still recall the concern of worrying about
my state of mind. I no longer take any notice of people telling me how mad i am,
and i am now quite happy that my mind is sound.
That was a difficult time in my life.

**********************************

Now i no longer get irate, i just try to point out what i think is what.

Many years ago that phrase used to be used kind of like a joke, and i think
with waving wildly too, it soon passed and was forgotten.
Maybe it persisted longer in "Bush Lady's" area.
I'm in England, it didn't last long here, maybe a couple of years.

Gonna guess its from the early sixties ... just a guess.

**********************************

And my peonies have now finished, they smelled very nice.
My roses are still flowering, pink ones on quite a big old bush.
I managed to trim the outside of the privet hedge, its quite a big hedge.
Needed a stepladder, and its in a public walkway alongside my place, so it
has to be kept under control or the local authority get shirty about it and send
nasty letters.

The cuttings from my Saseveria have had what looks like a couple of successes
out of about fifteen or so.
I can only tell from the surviving Sanseveria cuttings that they are still green, have
not 'shrunken' or withered at all, but i cant tell if they've actually rooted cos i wont
disturb them until they have grown such that they need to be moved. Theres no
sign of shoots or anything, they just look like they're still alive and Ok, but no
change that i can see.

I have to make a start on the Hawthorn runnng along the rear on my property, its
quite a big hedge and i'm not looking forward to it.
I may make a start on that now, i'll see how i feel.

Al the best to you all, i dont post much but i try to keep up,
regards, John

[Tuppence2]

Hello, everyone.

I was a great fan of "Lost in Space".

I planted spring onions today as Bob said it wasn't too late - a variety named "Deep Purple". Looking forward to eating those in sandwiches.

I picked spinach, pulled onions and garlic and had them for lunch with mushrooms and tomatoes (not home-grown), along with cous cous for lunch. Yummy! It's excellent being able to pick my own lunch. I'll soon be eating broad beans and peas. Must take a look at the beetroot too, to see how that's doing.

Penny

p.s. The beetroot are still small. I noticed some golden mangetout while in the garden and have just eaten some raw, while they're young and tender.

[franca]

Hello my Penny Rose !...... don't forget, keep getting those hands dirty....

Check out the butterfly I captured the other day on the lilies !

[Tuppence2]

Hello, Frank.

I will.

Love the photos. The flowers are so pretty and the butterfly, looks like a swallowtail, is beautiful. I photographed a beautiful eyed-hawk moth today on my neighbours' apple cordon It had just emerged from its cyrsalis and hadn't opened its lower wings, so we didn't see the eye markings.

Carole said you have dahlias in the garden to make up for the ones you lost in pots. Mine seems to be growing slowly.

Hope Jaki's paw is all right today and that you are all able to get out in the garden.

[telecom69]

Hi all, Myrna I understand now about the greenhouse,its just that it seemed strange why you were growing in the garden,when you had a greenhouse ....over here everyone grows them in greenhouses probably because of our climate,it can be very unpredictable at times,even in Summer,there is a saying that this is the only country in the world where you can have all 4 seasons in one day and its true you can....Ive heard lots of talks on forums here about growing outside but often wonder just how good really their Tomatos are, I have tried numerous times to grow them outdoors,with plants I have had spare etc,but never yet have I done any good with them ...they will grow ok but have never had any ripen succesfully except for very tiny ones,maybe down in the South of the country its possible,they get a bit better weather than us .....

John, if those cuttings are still green they must still be alive,and I would have thought that they should be rooted by now,you should have noticed some increase in growth though I would have thought,the only way you would know they had roots would be a gentle pull on them to see if there was any resistance,but understand you don't want to try that ....

Nice to see you back posting Frank,thanks for sharing the photos,seems from what Penny posted that you lost some Dahlias,pity that I always liked to see your Dahlia pics, I lost quite a few too,I had 16 last year, this year I have just three ...I could have bought more I suppose but have gone with Roses for a change this time round....

Well done Penny,your certainly enjoying the fruits of your labours this year home grown always seems to taste better than shop bought stuff, can guarantee you that home grown Tomatos,that is grown by oneself, cannot be beaten,while on the subject keep them watered regularly,because irregular watering will cause split fruit .....

Nothing to do with gardening I know,but I so nearly just trod on this vistor,so I evicted him/her back to the garden ....



Shot with DSC-W35 at 2009-06-21

[oil painter]

Hi All:

It was a real scorcher today. It reached a high of 28C. I managed to get the rest of the fill ins in this morning and cleared out the plots in front of the greenhouse and put a few more in there.It's a good thing I started early because by 11 it was getting too hot to remain outside. Now it only remains to put the few that are left in the garden which I will do tomorrow morning after I help Bill put up the chicken wire for the peas. He has room and a few seed potatoes left so he's going to plant them so we can have them as new potatoes.

We didn't get much rain yesterday, just sprinkles that did nothing for the plants. The ground in the big bed was bone dry and the earwigs had been doing a good job of chewing on my Correopsis. It got a good watering after supper and some earwig bait set out.

Bob--We do get some tomatoes ripening in the garden, but mostly we pick them green at the end of the season and ripen them in the basement. It works for us and the tomatoes don't lose their taste at all.

When I'm buying seed I usually note the growing days. Subarctic plenty is one I always grow. It tolerates cool soil temperatures and only has a maturity rate of 42 days. It will be giving us mid sized ripe tomatoes in August.

Penny --As bob says it's nice to be enjoying the fruits of your labors. I have yet to taste any veggie I buy that compares to home grown. Those who don't have gardens don't know how good things taste when they are fresh picked from the garden

Well I'm off to bed. Talk to you tomorrow

[ymfoster]

Hi Everyone,

Originally Posted by telecom69

Thanks Yvonne for the plant identification,spot on again, thats exactly what it is,after you naming it I looked it up for a pic and Bingo One of the perils of having a new car is that it be kept on a pedestal,and nothing or no-one must mark its paintwork

She opened the window to back down the drive this morning & had to look up the manual to see how to close it


It's lovely to eat your own produce, we used to grow most of ours but now the watering restrictions & drought make it too much of a hassle.


Love the butterflies Frank & Bob,

[Tuppence2]

Hello, everyone.

Beautiful butterfly. Going to look it up in my identification book.

I'll take note of what you say about the tomatoes, Bob. I try to water them regularly. We can grow tomatoes outside here but they are often quite tough and, last year, none ripened. Masses of green tomatos around.

I agree, Bob and Myrna, that there is nothing like home-grown vegetables. My friend in a village about 6 miles away has much more advanced vegetables than me. Her broad beans, runners and tomatoes are much bigger.

Overcast and humid today. A good downpour of rain is what's needed.

It's a shame, Yvonne, that you don't have the climate for growing your own produce. You do have your lovely tropical flowers, though.

[oil painter]

Hi Everyone:

Well it was another scorcher and no rain in sight. It hit 31 C today and they are calling for more of the same for the next few days. Bill and I put up the chicken wire this morning for the peas to climb on. They are getting big enough to need support. Then he washed out the pots that were empty, while I arranged the ones we had done before. We let them dry a little and then I picked them all up and put them in the shed to continue drying. By this time it was 11 and too hot to stay outside, so we spent the rest of the day in the house.

I'm going to have to go out in a little while and do some watering.

[telecom69]

Hi everyone , In a weeks time Penny your veg will have caught up with your friends I would think,its all down to the time they were planted out,yours have yet to come,thats all it is ...

Myrna thats a bit too hot for me Im thinking its forecast to start a mini heatwave here starting today and reach 25 Deg by Friday even that is too hot,were just not used to those temps here,not many off the plants like it that hot either,looks like a lot of watering will have to be done at appropriate times,starting today for me,the front garden is bone dry almost so at about 6.30 I shall be out there giving it a good soak with the hosepipe

Yesterday was ok,it was cloudy,so was able to do some work outside,but every now and again you could feel the heat of the sun on your back and neck when the clouds moved,thank heavens they were there (the clouds) I just dont like the hot sunshine these days ....old age I think

I did a bit of path realigning at the bottom of the garden,its a semi circle around the pond and it wasnt symetrical,it was bugging me every time I looked at it,so I made that a bit better than it was,if I had unlimited funds I could have done better no doubt, but for me it has to be done as cheaply as possible nowadays, if only we could grow money thinks would be easier ...

I also removed the Mock Orange shrub now its finished flowering,well, all above ground that is,the roots may be a bit of a job,in a bit of a restricted area, I shall be having a go at that today,I shall know in about 10 minutes of trying whether Im going to succeed or not, I really could do with the roots out though,need the room for a climbing rose

Bought some Sweet William seeds yesterday,Indian Carpet mixed,Ive always liked them as long as I can remember,not grown any for years though, so today they will be sown,and early next year I shall have some back again ..

Yesterday this Lady put in an appearance,isnt she just beautiful ? it is of course ....well you don't really want telling do you I think everyone who knows Roses knows this one....so good she deserves two angles I think ....This Lady struggled to get going for the first three weeks from planting.even though it was container grown,so bad was it, I almost bought another,but she made it



Shot with DSC-W35 at 2009-06-22



Shot with DSC-W35 at 2009-06-22

[oil painter]

Bob
You mentioned difficulty tying up your tomatoes. Have you ever tried the velcro plant ties. It comes on a roll you cut yourself to the size you want. It's about 1/2 inch wide(1.5 CM) and has a fuzzy side and loop side. You put the fuzzy side around the plant and press together against the pole.

My son bought us some 3 years ago and now it's the only thing I use to tie up anything because it's so easy to use and is reusable. I'm still using ones I first cut then and I expect I will get a few more years out of it. When I take things down in the fall it goes into my pocket and then into a plastic dish I keep for it.

Lovely rose, by the way--an unusual color. I don't think I've ever seen one with that color combination, but then I don't grow roses. Not that I haven't tried. I know they say there are some for our climate, but I've never gotten more than 2 years out of any of them, even with covering them and protecting them. My son in Ottawa grows beautiful ones though, so I enjoy his when I visit.

[Farmgirl22]

Uck! It's hot and humid here! We've had two 100+ (Fahrenheit) days, which isn't normal for this time of year, but then, it's been pretty freaky all around so I can't say that I'm surprised.

I need to figure out something for my poor strawberries, they aren't handling the heat very well at all. I gave them a drink this afternoon, and they seemed grateful, but it's really not a good idea to water midday when it's this hot since it's not nearly as effective. All of my flowers looked a bit worse for wear today though, not just the strawberries.

I have some pictures from like two weeks ago that I've been meaning to post, but now they are pretty outdated as my flowers have changed so much and I'm unsure as to whether I should even upload them or not. My blueberry bush has blueberries that are getting bigger, slowly but surely. My blackberry bush has this one shoot that is probably 3.5 feet tall when the rest of the bush is only about 2 ft. tall--it looks funny, but hopefully it's not something detrimental to the plant. My basil is finally starting to show itself, I've got four basil plants now--two I bought, and two that magically appeared in the planter well after I had given up on them ever coming up. I've got one that is purple, and the rest are green ones. My columbine is blooming like crazy, so my fears from when it got froze in that late freeze we had were obviously unfounded. I got a really good picture of it the other day when it had 3 or 4 blooms, but it's about to have about 6 or 7 more here pretty soon. My gaillardia is still blooming, and while the blooms are getting smaller, they are becoming prettier because they are more "perfect" now than before. My coral bells still aren't doing anything though....

Well, my battery (laptop) is about to die, so I suppose that's my sign to get off of here for the night. Goodnight everyone, hopefully you will all have beautiful gardening weather tomorrow!

[oil painter]

Hi Becca:

We are getting that heat wave too but not as hot as you,but too hot for me The plants are suffering from it. I've had some of my newly planted annuals simply burn up. Thank goodness it is only a few, but I'm watering every day

Strawberries especially don't really like the heat that much. Can you rig up something that would shade them during the day. Make some hoops out of wire coathangers and clothes pin an old sheet torn in strips to it leave the north or east side open so they do get light. That should help.Give them a drink and cool off in early evening, so the plants have a chance to dry brfore nightfall. Never water in the heat of the day because plants will sunburn.

Don't worry about the coral bells. As long as they are green they will come. They don't like excessive heat either. You won't get much bloom from them this year anyway. It takes about 3 years before they really hit their stride. They are so lovely when they do come into full bloom. I have them in the center of my boxes in front and their tall stems with all those little flowers reall set the rest of the flowers off. I sit and watch the humming birds come to them again and again.

[ymfoster]

Hi Everyone,

I hope the heat over there doesn't cause too much damage to your plants,

Bob that Peace rose is beautiful, the blooms last so well too.

Penny our problems are mainly the water restrictions, we are only allowed to water two mornings a week from 6 - 8 am ! ..... our government hasn't managed our water storage well enough during the drought & increased immigration & our main dam for Melbourne is less than a quarter full, ..... my brother in law has drilled a bore & has bore water, but we're not so lucky.

[Farmgirl22]

Yvonne, I feel your pain about government doing a poor job of planning. We (well, now just my parents) had trouble with the local government quite frequently regarding water permits for our irrigation system in our fields. They plan poorly, take too much time to reach a decision, and are generally ineffective. I really wish they had a bit less control over everything. They still wanted a good chunk of money for that permit though, regardless of whether they help up their end of the deal in a timely enough manner!

I do hope things get better for you soon. I'd be asking your brother to do a "bore" on your property too. Here we call them "wells"--funny how different countries and peoples have different ways of saying the same things.

Myrna: Thanks for the tip on the strawberries, I have a huge apple tree, should I put the strawberries under it for shade? If I put them close to the edge they could have some sun in the morning before it gets hot and then have shade during the rest of the day. Would that be too much shade, or would that work? I don't have to rig anything up that way, because my strawberries are in hanging baskets and I can just move the hooks they are on (the hooks stake into the ground) over under my apple tree and they'd maybe be more happy.....I wonder if that is what is wrong with my strawberries of late. They've looked kind of burnt up instead of juicy. We thinned out the blooms on the plants to see if that helped, but maybe they were just too hot.

Sorry that some of your flowers burnt up. It's crazy, because I could have sworn that less than a month ago you were having snow....now it's hot enough to burn up your flowers.

I have a strange mildew looking stuff on my grass, and I've looked it up in my book and couldn't find it, does anyone have any ideas? I'll try to get a picture of it, but it looks like fuzzy blue (or maybe gray?) mold/mildew. My hubby thought it was aphids at first, because it looks kind of speckled/spotty, but then he actually started looking and changed his mind. He said it turns black when you touch it. It's not particular about what kind of grass (or weed) it's on, our fescue is affected in small patches, but so is some clover and crabgrass that is nearby. I thought maybe it was powdery mildew, but hubby is an expert on that stuff and he says no.