Home & Garden home and garden *chat thread*
- Thread starter ecmf
- Start date
See you tomorrow!
We have to build our reserves for gardening season, it is almost here. I actually worked outside 2 days this past week it was so mild in the East. Supposed to be in the 50's all week. Yeah! It's nice to get off to an early start. Usually we still have snow at the end of February.
First question! I want a round pedestal dining table to seat 6 (about 54'.) I would like something with a wood top, on the modern side. I have been looking at vintage and can't find what I want in good condition . I've looked at the obvious choices from Design With Reach/Knoll but was hoping for some other possibilities. Any ideas?
im back
BTW how do you get a smilie under your Nat, where mine says member?? is it only available for mods?
I always wondered that too, hah!
So, its been raining here all day and I have gotten so behind in the garden. The weeds keep growing and all I can do is wait for it to dry out.
I use Preen to cut down on my weeding. First I lay a really heavy layer of newspaper down, then a heavy layer of much. Then Preen about once every 3 months. I have to mulc here, ground dries out so quickly, especially if we have a heatwave. The newspaper & mulch are pretty organic, I don't use any sprays or pesticides on anything I grow. My herbs, tomatoes & peppers I place in windowboxes along side of house in the chows hosegow. I have groundhogs and deer who eat whatever is outside of fenced in yard. Forget getting fruit from plum, pear & peach trees, deer eat it all. They are so smart. I've put netting around trees and they eat through that. I figure they have to eat too. I had 40 rosebushes at one time. It was like a deer buffet here. They seem to think I planted the roses just for them, so no more roses.
Aw....sorry about the roses. I have never heard of Preen. Thanks for the tip...I have not seen it here though
For mulch I use either a living mulch of white clover, which I cut and throw to the horses and then till when I want to plant that area. The other thing I use is shredded trees that I got from SO. he got me a whole tractor trailerload. Its really acidic, so I use that when I have a real need to kill weeds off. but once I have pulled everything then I use the clover.
The bees like it and when it gets high, I can feed it to the horses.
Its good for the soil, which is mostly clay and very acidic.
I bet you could throw it over the fence for the deer, too. I got the seeds at Home Depot.
Here is more on clover mulch:
http://www.seattlehomestead.com/136-6-reasons-i-chose-white-clover-as-a-living-mulch/
I think 85% of my lawn is white clover! I never heard about using it as a mulch. Very interesting. Did you get beehives?
I love it as mulch, it helps break up my soil, and its easy to pull out when I want to get the beds back. I am going to plant more as soon as it stops raining.
No beehives yet. I am starting the other bee class on Tuesday, I am pretty excited!
There are two basic kinds of hives and I want to make the right decision. One kind is more expensive, the other you can build easily but is a bit more tricky to work with. Its a big decision.
I read that lots of beginning beekeepers fail because they start with only one hive and cannot move bees if needed....i could start with two or three hives if I go with the less expensive top-bar hives. They seem to be a good choice for warmer climates.
My friend is going with me, turns out she wanted to go to the class because she was going to ask if she could keep a hive up here at my place
so she could buy one hive and I could by the other, then I could have two of the more expensive kind, which are easier for beginners. Or with two of us, we can manage the other kind a bit easier perhaps. Its a big responsibility
Neither of us are going into it for the hive products, just to help the bees, but it looks like we can get some honey and wax out of it, a bit easier if we go with the less expensive hives. I am glad to have a friend going into it with me!
I guess that's why I see at least 3 hives everywhere! Better for the bees. I used to hiusesit for people, about 20 yrs ago and they had hives. They also had raspberry bushes and told me to take all I wanted. We made so much raspberry jam it was wonderful. I don't remember what they did with the hives, meaning I didn't have to take special care of them. I guess they had honey but don't remember any of it. I so wish the deer wouldn't eat my peaches. I wound up making easy peach jam 2 yrs ago, just the sure-jell kind you could put in freezer. We did the whole Ball jar canning process when I was a kid.And my Mom used to make Concord grape jelly, was sooo good. I'm really grateful I learned how to do that. We made strawberry jam, bread & butter pickles, and all our own jars of tomatoes for spaghetti sauce. My Mom was ahead of her time!
im back
BTW how do you get a smilie under your Nat, where mine says member?? is it only available for mods?
Hi again! Yes, it's only available for mods, I'm afraid. Vlad put it there for me
