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Post by mskrieger on May 7, 2015 8:57:55 GMT -5
I've never been to that part of California, but your description reminds me of driving from Syria to Lebanon--there's a point at which you crest a mountain range and suddenly the air feels moist and the landscape greens. And yes, there's fog. It's dramatic.
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Post by mskrieger on May 7, 2015 8:54:12 GMT -5
(I am just rolling on the floor laughing now. I'm an East Coast girl, long lived in Washington DC and now I flack for the University of Connecticut. Around here, people keep it real buttoned down and conservative, appearance-wise. And nobody--but nobody--goes around with an unconcealed piece, unless they're a cop. You guys just crack me up.)
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Post by mskrieger on May 6, 2015 11:27:04 GMT -5
Wow. I am so excited about garbanzos! They don't need heat, but they are tolerant of it...that could work here. Thanks for the growing details Joseph and Steve! (The denim is quite fetching, by the way.)
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Post by mskrieger on May 6, 2015 9:01:42 GMT -5
Steev--I had no idea you were into evening gowns. How often do you have occasion to wear them?
Joseph--thanks for the planting timing. As I understand it, you climate can get quite hot during the day time and yet still have freezes at night late into spring, right? So how hot can it get during the day before the garbanzos start to noticeably suffer?
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Post by mskrieger on May 6, 2015 8:56:32 GMT -5
Of course I was just joking, flowerweaver--drought like the one closing over the SW is not an easy thing to live through or even contemplate. Climate change is coming down much harder and faster in your part of the world than in mine, and my heart goes out to everyone who has a life and a community in a place that will probably be unlivable 50 years hence.
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Post by mskrieger on May 6, 2015 8:49:13 GMT -5
Ah yes, Steev--you are a master of the principle of least effort necessary. I admire that. Do take some time to go down to the beaches after a storm, though. Good for the soul as well as the soil.
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Post by mskrieger on May 5, 2015 13:46:02 GMT -5
I don't go out of my way to get ramial woodchips...instead I just let the prunings from the fruit trees themselves lie where they fall (after I clip them into 6" lengths) and if there's a windstorm or whatnot and a lot of downed small branches I chop those up too. I also let the autumn leaves lie, and add in some extra leaves from parts of the yard where I don't want leaves (the lawn, for example.) Occasionally bring in seaweed 'cause I live by the beach. Have built up a very nice fungal duff layer over the past three years doing just this. Herbs and clumps of grass grow through it here and there; very pleasing.
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Post by mskrieger on May 5, 2015 11:23:09 GMT -5
ottawagardener, when do you plant your Hannans and how long do they take to maturity in your climate? Have you observed how they grow in temperatures above 27C (80F)? (Do they suffer and get diseased, or do they look OK?)
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Post by mskrieger on May 5, 2015 11:13:01 GMT -5
I managed to kill mint this winter. I am astonished. I keep it in pots to contain it. Well what do you know, but the 5 month frozen wasteland of winter we had this year killed it. The tarragon potted right next to it is fine, oddly enough. Tarragon, hardier than mint? Who knew.
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Post by mskrieger on May 5, 2015 11:09:12 GMT -5
We've had a warm, dry and breezy week and another one coming up. No rain! I'm ecstatic. No rain means the stone fruit can bloom in peace. No rain means the blasted brown rot fungi won't get an early foothold before the trees set fruit. No rain means we might actually get sour cherries this year! Stay dry dry dry for another week or two, please! Of course I say this, living in a place where more than two weeks in a row without precipitation of some sort is unthinkable. Those of you complaining about no rain are just growing the wrong things. As am I, of course.
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Post by mskrieger on Apr 1, 2015 9:20:56 GMT -5
My low temperature this year was -15F. Excellent drainage on sandy loam. Ground froze hard sometime in December, didn't get snow cover until January (but then boy did we ever!) Snow is finally melted now, ground thawing out.
The only things that survived this winter were scallions, winter-hardy leeks (dark blue ones, 'Bandit' purchased from Johnny Seeds), mache and garlic. The leeks look horrendous but I'm sure they'll live to set seed. The scallions looked totally dead but are resprouting from the roots. The mache looks fine. I swear that stuff would grow on an iceberg.
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Post by mskrieger on Apr 1, 2015 9:13:01 GMT -5
"in the middle of the country" haha, sorry! --- I meant in the middle of the US (somewhere like Oklahoma? Or maybe the heat and tornadoes you mentioned have me confused ) I suspect if they are wild blackberries and you mowed all the canes down, you'd miss a season of production, either that summer if you did it in spring or the next year if you did it in autumn. Only a few cultivars that fruit on first-year growth.
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Post by mskrieger on Apr 1, 2015 9:09:28 GMT -5
I, too, make my own seedling starter mix the way Joseph and Reed describe. I never have problems with disease either, and I don't purchase fungal inoculants for my garden and don't think much about it there.
However, the orchard is another matter. Because trees are large and permanent and have well-documented relationships with fungi, I try to encourage a "fungal duff". Trees are also harder to supplement with minerals--still trying to figure out whether the Bordeaux mixture (lime-sulfur) I used to use helped my stone fruits because it was killing off pathogenic fungi in the canopy, or because the trees desperately need calcium and sulfur. I don't have a big enough orchard to do controlled trials. And over the longterm, will the added minerals help/hurt the beneficial fungi?
MikeH, have you done any controlled trials in orchards? Would love to hear about it if you have!
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Post by mskrieger on Mar 31, 2015 9:33:42 GMT -5
OK. So sounds like you are in the middle of the country, greenfinger. Don't think it gets quite as hot here, but sounds like you don't water your hedgerow and it does just fine? And is fruitful? Good to know. Post pictures sometime, it sounds beautiful. As for those wild blackberries, bramble fruits are called brambles for a reason -- they all need serious pruning if you want them to stay in line! Though sounds like you don't care so much about that so it's all good.
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Post by mskrieger on Mar 30, 2015 19:16:36 GMT -5
I like this concept, was thinking of doing it on the bed between my driveway and my neighbor's property. What's your climate like? I was thinking of doing a Prunus species hedge (plums and hardy Ukrainian almonds) underplanted with something thorny and edible (black raspberries?) and bulbs for spring flowers (daffodils and such). There's already a Japanese maple and some lilacs established that I'd keep.
How often does it rain where you are (and/or how often do you water?) How dense is the planting?
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