Radogast's Non-420 Garden Creation Thread

Crocus, first flowers, came up yesterday

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I did another swing through the yard and cleared the dead leaves skewered by tulip leaves.

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Tulip leaves revealed. Note the 'waists' where dead leaves were choking the green growing leaves.

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I ran across an interesting regrowth of a tulip flowering stalk.

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Hey there Rad - good to see you getting outside and enjoying some brief springtime weather in the late winter time! We are in Philly and full on spring now... this week 4 days in the mid 80s. Thats completely crazy. Don't give up on zone 5b in may well be a zone 6 sooner than you think.

I'm digging your front door and the new door knocker. That is very nice.

Don't give up on your out door gardens. With all those woods and tree roots its best to build a few raised beds. The trees suck up all the nutrients they put down, its the way is it supposed to be. This is why you only see flowers in the early spring before the trees get leaves. We have a very similar situation. We pretty much only grow in raised beds .. you can build them with stones, that's how we do it mostly. Just remember if your planting in the drip zone of a tree, thats the trees territory so you have to put down enough organic matter (compost) that will satisfy the tree and then add more for your garden.

I always plant cover crops in early spring and fall too for the trees (and birds). We have a 165 gal compost bin right beside our garden. The trees and our bamboo grove use some of that compost for nutrients. It's pretty amazing how we can control bamboo spread with a centralized food source (and a flat spade)!

We have Appalachian bamboo that is natural to where we are and it will also grow in zone 5. It gets burned when the temps go below say 10F. We cut the dead parts back and use them for stakes - as you have seen in my indoor gardens.

We use those bamboo stalks for building pea trellises too which you should be able to grow there where you are. You have to start them now (indoors seedling trays) before the trees get leaves.

Cabbage family is another one - all of them you can grow where you are. Cabbage plants are very healthy for you too, you'll get used to the side effects .....hahaha ... I did anyway!

I guess my point is to take advantage of what YOU have. That can take some time to figure out. Advantages of a lot of trees are leaves for composting (worm castings) and early to mid spring you have a lot more light - you should be able see the plants that flourish on the floor of the woods in early spring - they have flowers and are good cover crop for the trees. Lesser celandine is a great example. Stinging nettles are another which you can harvest for it's healing properties for you AND your plants. All of these and more is what helps the trees get bigger and greener as the temps warm up. Once there's full on leaves, its plants that live in shade to partly shade.

We are always experimenting with flowers that tolerate a lot of shade.

Try some orange cosmos - we've had great luck with that over the years and it will self seed and you have even more next year. Its a winner. That will grow like a weed and be a fairly tall flower, attracting all sorts of fauna, and of course the birds will follow and clean up the bugs while they are there! FTW

Another good way to figure out what grows in your area is to hike around and collect seeds from your neighbors! Go stealth or go home as they say, eh? You see something that is working for your neighbor, get in on it. Copying is the best form of flattery or whatever they say about that stuff. It worked for us. You can always give back by walking around spreading seeds in the fall... Go Johnny Appleseed on em is what I say.

Mother nature = beautiful thing. Work with her she works with you on the round ball. You already know this.

Anyways I'm hoping for your wife to have a healthy recovery and you all are in my prayers. Much love :Namaste:
 
Thanks Bobrown - I rehung the screen door over the front door this morning. I'll get screens back on the windows this weekend if temps get into the 60s.


I grew up beside San Francisco Bay - the whole concept of winter is still a bit 'un-natural.' :rofl:

One nice thing about leafless trees, you can see a long ways.

Yesterday, in a tree outside the back door, there were 2 crows crowding a goshawk Crowding is my word for when crows sit on the same branch on both sides of the hawk and inch closer until the hawk gets nervous and flies away. The hawk ignored 2 crows but flew away for 4 crows, landing 1/2 block away. 4 crows yelled loudly until 7 more crows cowded it away.. Eventually 22 crows chased the goshawk out of town.

Today, 2 crows were cawing loudly in the same tree outside the back door when my wife and I stepped outside for a walk. She sprinkled a few peanuts but they they joined up with their murder of 7 and flew away. Within seconds there was a pair of hawks circling 150 ft about our roof and another pair circling about 1000 ft above them.

It appears our backyard is late winter disputed territory.


A facebook friend of my wife's from Connecticut said the East Coast is getting a bumper crop of hawks this year.

Having just seen 4 hawks hunting together - I can believe it.
 
Radogast said:
The blessings of a shamrock on St. Patrick's morn

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Happy St. Patrick's Day Rad. I almost forgot. :laughtwo: Lovely shamrock. Congrats on the tulip naturalization. I'll look forward to pictures.

Have a wonderful day. :circle-of-love:
 
SweetSue said:
Happy St. Patrick's Day Rad. I almost forgot. :laughtwo: Lovely shamrock. Congrats on the tulip naturalization. I'll look forward to pictures.

Have a wonderful day. :circle-of-love:
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Shamrock in the afternoon

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Shamrock from outside

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I was sitting at my desk working when the family ran by and out the front door.

A pair of eagles just flew over the house from back yard to front yard.

Today's large birds also include blue heron in the sky and duck in the brook.
 
A new kitten? How sweet. :circle-of-love: Lovely photos Rad. When the flurries came through here yesterday I wondered what would be hitting your way. Now, let it warm quickly, melt this off and bring Springtime sunny days back. :battingeyelashes: :Love:
 
SweetSue said:
A new kitten? How sweet. :circle-of-love: Lovely photos Rad. When the flurries came through here yesterday I wondered what would be hitting your way. Now, let it warm quickly, melt this off and bring Springtime sunny days back. :battingeyelashes: :Love:
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River still acts kitten-ish. Yesterday, he chased and bit his tail a few times, scampered after crumpled paper, pounced on the blanket covering my feet a few times, and then stole the blanket. He is a rescue cat they estmated at 2 years old. I think it's closer to 1 year. He hasnt yet grown into his front paws.


River is a lap cat who likes to keep track of his people-7 days as part of the family and totally at home since day 3.

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Hey Rado,
Thx for the advice a while ago. Things have been rocky on my end, I'm grateful for the Vision. Hard to maintain perspective when minutiae eat all one's focus. My chin's up and fingers are crossed.

Re Post#628: It was nice to see you use the Catnip trick. I know it's not to everyone's aesthetic, but it really does work. The cats get some, but can't eat it to death. Yay!

Bobbrown's post reminded of an idea that might work for your shady backyard. Grapes planted at the base of a tree (roots in shade) can be trained up the tree to grow as they do under Gaia's tutelage. They take up little room, seek Sol on their own, and don't seem to need any spraying.

Hoping all is well with you and yours
 
Radogast said:
Thanks Ranger

And thanks to all who have tuned in.

I won't be posting much more of Massachusetts. My plan is to retire early, sell the house, and move the family to Mexico this summer.

We will see :)
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Wow that's a big change in the making Rad. I have a cousin who retired in Mex. She & husband love it. Better for outdoor growing too. Good luck with your plans! :Namaste:
 
It was 65? and warm this afternoon. The hyacinth's were smelling lovely. No leaves on the trees. Rain today (while I was outside burning scrap lumber in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt). Rain predicted tomorrow. Snow predicted Monday and Tuesday.

At least there were hyacinth.

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A couple of days ago there was a murder of about 20 crows and at least 5 hawks disputing territory

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About a dozen crows and 3 hawks in a conflict resolution meeting.

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Straw and Rosebuds

Preparig the house to sell includes creating some semblance of order out of the half finished projects in the front yard.

One project, building a woven stick fence, involved creating a temporary fire ring and burning an 8ft by 4ft by 3ft pile of straight sticks trimmed from fallen branches. - I burnt the evidence of thatproject over the weekend.

An abandoned project was to create a level 40x24' rectangle in the gently sloped front yard. The original idea was to create a double fenced chicken run around the perimeter and a vegetable garden in the center. This was abandoned when I realized it takes more sun than I have and a lot of weather luck to grow a decent vegetable garden in New England. No wonder the pilgrims almost starved!

The evidence of the abandoned project were:
A) a 2' deep, 8x6' rectangular pit across the walkway outside the front door,
B) a 1' wide trench crossing diagonally from the pit to the low corner of the yard with a level bottom, and
C) a plateau of dirt in the low corner of the yard roughly level with pit A).

Given that I had extra perlite, soil mixes, manure, etc to get rid of, I combined the plateau of dirt with various soil elements to create a garden patch.

I was looking at the patch this morning and noticing the perlite heavy mix and wondering what 'story' a prospective owner would imagine to explain the unplanted patch. I was considered buying escrow flowers when I remembered I had about 2 cubic feet of hay and straw mulch left over from my potato patch experiment. A layer of straw mulch would really dress things up.

About this time, my wife and I were walking down the long driveway shared with our one close neighbor when a car drove up behind us. It was not a car that normally went with the neighbor's house, which is currently empty and sale pending. A thin woman in skinny jeans got out and appeared to be accessing a lockbox at the front door. In true nosy neighbor fashion, I decided now would be a good time to spread the straw mulch on the garden patch.

As I come out of the front door with a large bag of straw mulch, a second car comes up the drive and all the way up to our house. I'm assuming this is someone meeting a realtor next door to do an inspection or something so I walk out to meet him and try to point him towards the neighbors house. Well yes, he might be headed towards the neighbors house but he wants to talk to this house too. He is a special XFINITY area manager, wearing an XFINITY shirt with XFinity embroidered on it and a salesman's smile and wondering why I cancelled my Comcast, did I know about Xfinity? He can make deals other people can't make..... stuff to make my eyes glaze over. I reply with short, bored sentences on the borderline of politeness, as I hand toss the straw mulch at the garden patch and walk around to the other side to put the patch between us. I look up from watching what I am doing to watch the realtor lady drive away and leave me stranded alone with the cable and internet saleman.

Nature smiled on me, the wind picked up and changed direction. My tossed handfuls of strawsuddenly went 10' horizontally, all over his clean black pants, his white XFINITY shirt with XFINITY embroidered on it and inside the open door of his nicely detailed car.

I instantly apologized "I'm sorry. I had no idea the straw was going all over you."

He instantly replied "I understand, but I'm sure it had the desired affect."

I smiled as he drove away :)


After he left, I decided to take cuttings of a rose bush on the edge of the garden patch as it is the happiest plant in that part of the front yard.


Rose cuttings in the uncharacteristically empty clone bucket

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The garden patch at midnight (with bat sounds and a full moon.)

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The bat sounds reminded me of one of my wife's stories about greeting Jehovah's Witnesses - but that is another story.
 
Tead said:
Just a side note about using perlite in your garden.... I've found that it can cut down the snail population really effectively. I had a huge problem and diatomaceous earth kept washing away. Now I dump my used perlite into my veggie garden.
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I saw you mention that in the "Build a better soil thread" very intriguing thought. +reps for an obscure garden hack
 
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