One Lonely Anaheim

[Snag]

Pepper , that is , out in my garden . If there were 3 more , I'd make
stuffed peppers , but so far there's only one . So far it's been looking
good out there , the 'maters are starting to bloom , the peppers too .
The blue lake green beans are running now , some are up to 4 feet up the
wire trellis and the corn , okra , and black beans are all starting to
come up . Now i just have to stay on top of the weeds ... why is it that
people go to great lengths to make the soil fertile so the veggies (or
flowers) will grow well and are then surprised the weeds do too ?
Oh , and the bees are doing well too , all 8 hives are still alive
and all are sending out foragers . I need to check the 2 swarm hives ,
I'm not sure if both of them have laying queens . About that , I've been
watching and there is a pair of Summer Tanagers that have been wearin'
them out snatching bees out of the air - and queens are bigger and
slower than workers , it's entirely possible for them to get eaten by
birds during their mating flights .
--
Snag
Yes , I'm old
and crotchety - and armed .
Get outta my woods !

[Sheldon Martin]

On Mon, 8 Jun 2020 Snag wrote:
>
>why is it that people go to great lengths to make the soil fertile so the veggies (or
>flowers) will grow well and are then surprised the weeds do too ?

We lay down weed-barrier cloth, cut holes for the veggie plants, no
weeds. We leave the weed barrier cloth stapled down all winter too.
The holes for veggie plants are just cut Xs... tuck under for
planting.
Lee Valley.com has the best heavy duty weed barrier cloth.
Cover with bark nugget mulch to protect cloth from UV and wind.
https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/garden/planting/tarps-and-covers/10350-weed-barrier-fabric

[Gary]

Sheldon Martin wrote:
>
> On Mon, 8 Jun 2020 Snag wrote:
> >
> >why is it that people go to great lengths to make the soil fertile so the veggies (or
> >flowers) will grow well and are then surprised the weeds do too ?
>
> We lay down weed-barrier cloth, cut holes for the veggie plants, no
> weeds. We leave the weed barrier cloth stapled down all winter too.

Why do you leave them down in winter? Don't you till your
garden each spring?

In a small garden like you have, so easy to go out and
"weed" your garden each morning or two. I did that when
I had a real garden. I enjoyed doing that and it was
something enjoyable to do at dawn each day.

[Snag]

The fabric barrier is a sterile mulch and contributes NOTHING to the
soil . I prefer to mulch with straw , cardboard , and other organic
stuff that will decompose and enrich my soil . An added advantage of
using cardboard around the tomatoes is that it prevents soil splash onto
the lower leaves , a major cause of early blight . I'll bet you use
chemical fertilizers too ... I use rabbit droppings and the (composted)
hay/chicken shit from the chicken house . I WILL NOT USE CHEMICALS
UNLESS IT'S ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY . And the ones I will use are the
environmentally friendliest ones I can find . We're not "organic" , but
about as close as it gets . Oh , and I grow only heirloom varieties ,
open pollinate , and save seeds . I got an overwhelming germination rate
from the okra I planted with saved seed , did some major thinning this
morning because they were just way too crowded to do well .

[itsjoan...@webtv.net]

On Monday, June 8, 2020 at 7:06:32 AM UTC-5, Snag wrote:
>
> Pepper , that is , out in my garden . If there were 3 more , I'd make
> stuffed peppers , but so far there's only one .
>

> Snag
>
Will this lonely pepper have a brother or sister appearing soon?

[Sheldon Martin]

On Mon, 08 Jun 2020 09:47:17 -0400, Gary <g.ma...@att.net> wrote:

>Sheldon Martin wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, 8 Jun 2020 Snag wrote:
>> >
>> >why is it that people go to great lengths to make the soil fertile so the veggies (or
>> >flowers) will grow well and are then surprised the weeds do too ?
>>
>> We lay down weed-barrier cloth, cut holes for the veggie plants, no
>> weeds. We leave the weed barrier cloth stapled down all winter too.
>
>Why do you leave them down in winter? Don't you till your
>garden each spring?

Birds poop seeds. We roll up the cloth in spring, till, ammend, and
put the cloth back... that cloth comes in 50' x 3' rolls, perfect for
a 50' foot garden, a quick job rolling and unrolling. Added
nutrients go right through that porus cloth. We have some two yards
of cow manure from a neighbor's herd that's composting right now at
the side of our gardening shed. We get all the manure we want for
free, delivered from less than 1/4 mile away by tractor with a front
loader bucket. Cow manure doesn't stink, cows are vegetarian... we
compost it to kill the weed seeds.

>In a small garden like you have, so easy to go out and
>"weed" your garden each morning or two. I did that when
>I had a real garden. I enjoyed doing that and it was
>something enjoyable to do at dawn each day.

If you think a 50' X 50' garden is small then you've never weeded a
garden. When removing most weeds if a small bit of root remains the
weed grows right back and stronger than ever. The best organic method
to weed is by smothering... landscaping cloth covered with a layer of
pine bark mulch works best. Covering with newspaper/brown paper is
the worst method, it doesn't allow water to penetrate and makes a
perfect habitat for moles/voles... voles gorge on plant roots, nothing
will grow. Rodents are the reason we encourage the feral cats, they
hunt all night and decimate the rodent population.

[Snag]

On 6/8/2020 1:46 PM, Sheldon Martin wrote:
> On Mon, 08 Jun 2020 09:47:17 -0400, Gary <g.ma...@att.net> wrote:
>
>> Sheldon Martin wrote:
>>>
>>> On Mon, 8 Jun 2020 Snag wrote:
>>>>
>>>> why is it that people go to great lengths to make the soil fertile so the veggies (or
>>>> flowers) will grow well and are then surprised the weeds do too ?
>>>
>>> We lay down weed-barrier cloth, cut holes for the veggie plants, no
>>> weeds. We leave the weed barrier cloth stapled down all winter too.
>>
>> Why do you leave them down in winter? Don't you till your
>> garden each spring?
>
> Birds poop seeds. We roll up the cloth in spring, till, ammend, and
> put the cloth back... that cloth comes in 50' x 3' rolls, perfect for
> a 50' foot garden, a quick job rolling and unrolling. Added
> nutrients go right through that porus cloth. We have some two yards
> of cow manure from a neighbor's herd that's composting right now at
> the side of our gardening shed. We get all the manure we want for
> free, delivered from less than 1/4 mile away by tractor with a front
> loader bucket. Cow manure doesn't stink, cows are vegetarian... we
> compost it to kill the weed seeds.

That's gotta be some kind of superweed seed if it can survive a
bovine digestive tract . Now horse shit (which you seem to be full of)
is another matter , seeds will often survive .

>
>> In a small garden like you have, so easy to go out and
>> "weed" your garden each morning or two. I did that when
>> I had a real garden. I enjoyed doing that and it was
>> something enjoyable to do at dawn each day.
>
> If you think a 50' X 50' garden is small then you've never weeded a
> garden. When removing most weeds if a small bit of root remains the
> weed grows right back and stronger than ever. The best organic method
> to weed is by smothering... landscaping cloth covered with a layer of
> pine bark mulch works best.

Not a bit better than cardboard and straw .

> Covering with newspaper/brown paper is
> the worst method, it doesn't allow water to penetrate

It does if you cover it with straw to absorb the water and release it
slowly .

> and makes a
> perfect habitat for moles/voles... voles gorge on plant roots, nothing
> will grow. Rodents are the reason we encourage the feral cats, they
> hunt all night and decimate the rodent population.
>

Ms. Kitty Fatcat does a fine job of keeping rodent populations down
- though I have game camera pictures of another cat that's been hanging
around , a true feral that I believe helps her with that task .

[cshenk]

I like that.

[jmcquown]

Hopefully! From what I read it's still early in the garden season on
his mountain. :)

Jill

[Snag]

Yes , it is still early . But the tomatoes are starting to flower ,
the corn and okra are coming up , and the pole beans have some runners
all the way to the top of the 5 foot tall trellis . It'll be probably
another 3 weeks or so before we see anything but strawberries and a
handful of blue and black berries - new bushes this year . The pepper
plants all have blossoms and/or fruit already , and the squashes and
cukes are growing well , some have male flowers forming but I don't
expect females for a couple more weeks . As long as I keep up with my
end of caring for these plants , they'll provide a significant portion
of our fruits and veggies for the next year . And that's what it's all
about .

[Hank Rogers]

Sqwertz wrote:
> On Mon, 08 Jun 2020 14:46:50 -0400, Sheldon Martin wrote:
>
>> Cow manure doesn't stink...
>
> Is that what you tell yourself when you sneak over there at night
> and suck on their teats and call them "Mama!"? (clue: if there's
> only one, it's not a teat, Shelly)

>
>> Rodents are the reason we encourage the feral cats, they
>> hunt all night and decimate the rodent population.
>

> They only eat 1 out of every 10 rodents? Who eats the other 9?
>
> -sw
>

Popeye puts them in his home ground burgers.