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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2014 19:29:06 GMT
OMG Lizzy!!!! Had I the money I would fly you down here in a heartbeat, you could take in Mardi Gras native style (OFF THE BEATEN TOURIST PATH) with us and unload a slew of your cache!!!!
Many of the plants on your list won't do here, e.g. Lily of the Valley (SWOON), lavender is "iffy" here, it's often too humid for them, other seasons when it's dry, they thrive OK. My papaver somniferum I neglected to get in the ground early enough this year (we plant all those "guys" in the autumn here) but, I see a bunch of volunteers coming up along with a slew of larkspur (the candelabra variety, fabulous, if you want seeds for let me know).
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2014 19:49:29 GMT
Yes, seed exchange is a great idea! I'm a compulsive seed saver. I would LOVE some larkspur, but maybe next year; as you can see, I'm overcommitted this year. I'm receiving English cowslip, milkweed and camas lily seeds this week. The milkweed because I promised my dad to feed the monarch butterflies (though I've never seen one this far north, he's worried about them and asked me to try). We have a hillside slope that is covered in blackberry and cleavers and fringecup at the moment and it can't be mown. I want it to look pretty throughout the year, so out come the blackberries and cleavers. Then I'll plant the cowslip, camas, woodruff, lily of the valley, bluebells and violets, growing in between the hazelnut trees. None of these are supposed to be preferred deer fodder, but it's about a quarter acre, so we'll see how long my resolve (and back) last. Also, considering I'm working in Vancouver straight through April and May, we'll see how much time I have.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2014 20:16:49 GMT
Because of our weird climate zone here (USDA 9B-10A), (despite what the charts say, we are in our own peculiar micro in between climate zone, bordering on semi-tropical to goodness knows what!!). Therefore, one cannot , and believe me, after a couple of decades or more of gardening here,it's a roll of of the dice....
One thing for certain is that our "perennial" flowers, or even biannuals save for the ones that over years one learns will thrive in certain areas and "microclimates", are planted in the autumn. This is because many of these specimens need a cold period that we rarely get past February. So, unless one is prepared to spend a fortune at a nursery for a delphinium or foxglove, hollyhock etc. in bud, which is only going to be a "flash in the pan" bloom in one's garden,, one has to really research and know what you're doing here when it comes to spring time blooms. ( I think that the local Home Depot and Lowe's nursery departments has a picture of me with a red slash through it as I have advised so many people in the garden dept. against buying umpteen delphineum etc. the last week of March!) I have since learned how to "zip my lip" so to speak to a greater degree....
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2014 20:37:18 GMT
Well, for some reason I have no luck with direct sowing of anything on that property, probably because of the aggressive natives, so I start everything indoors. My fridge crisper over the winter is filled with pill bottles full of seeds. I wouldn't even begin to be able to make sense of what you're dealing with, casi!
Foxgloves: my new enemy. We mistakenly let a few grow and go to seed in the lower field last year, thinking how beautiful and meadowlike it all looked. Now we have a carpet of foxgloves everywhere: the driveway, the forest slopes, coming up through the grass. I now have to hoe them all out before they go to seed. Grrr. I burned about a pound of seed I had from the previous year in frustration. I should go into business on ebay. Apparently, I have about $500 worth of red huckleberry seeds in my fridge.
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Post by questa on Feb 24, 2014 2:32:37 GMT
I can just see the look on our customs and quarantine officers as you try to get poppy into Oz!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2014 3:35:43 GMT
How about just the seeds, baked into a seedcake, questa?
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Post by questa on Feb 24, 2014 6:28:21 GMT
Not allowed to bring any food stuffs into Oz except those in factory packaging e.g. biscuits. Home cooking...in the bin. a squadron of beagles check for everything. If you declare it and it is not allowed in, it is just confiscated, but if you don't declare it the fine is about $600. Same goes for anything organic, wooden souvenirs, shells, feathers, bamboo wind chimes etc. PS wouldn't the baking kill the seed?
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Post by tod2 on Feb 24, 2014 17:17:08 GMT
Lizzyfaire....send me the Huckleberry seeds. There is no real police to stop them coming through the post and I would only plant them in my garden under a careful guidance.'At the moment I have brilliant little trees Bixa sent me growing stonger everyday!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2014 2:12:28 GMT
I could certainly do that, tod2, but I can completely assure you that red huckleberry would never grow in your climate. First of all, they only place they reliably germinate is in the hollowed out rotten stump of a Douglas fir or a cedar tree. They need a shady forest to grow in, and lots of moisture, preferably with the mycorrhizal inoculant indigenous to this environment. I have planted a lot of seed and am pretty sure of my own failure, BUT I could send it to you on a lark. You might have a better time with a madrona tree, they like dry environments, but I won't have any of that seed until fall.
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Post by fumobici on Feb 25, 2014 2:38:46 GMT
I've got a red huckleberry I got from a local native plant nursery in a container. They are in one sense incredibly finicky, yet in another nearly indestructible. I've seen them growing merrily away 50 feet up in the air on top of topped trees left tall in a clearcut to run choker lines (logging lingo) from with no soil or source of water where nothing else could possibly grow. So they obviously will tolerate full sun in a sufficiently impossible location.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2014 3:39:27 GMT
Yes, apparently they co-opt the tree stump's old hydro-whateveryacallit, and can live quite merrily in odd places. I find that sufficient watering makes the berries bigger, though, and when you're dealing with .5cm berries, a little volume can mean a lot. We have a lot growing in almost full sun along a road and they're great. They're the best local berries, I find.
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Post by htmb on Feb 26, 2014 3:51:34 GMT
I hate wearing gloves, and try not to when I garden, but I have had what I think is a tiny thorn work it's way down into my finger causing a fairly hard little cyst. At least, I think that's the cause of the bump. I've just finished soaking my hand in hot salted water in an effort to help it to work its way out. I can't see a thorn, but remember getting stuck when I cut down the golden dew drop bushes. Any tricks for dealing with tiny garden thorns? Please send them my way.
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Post by questa on Feb 26, 2014 7:11:44 GMT
2 son's who played in the bush...I'm very experienced in thorns!
Firstly...do you know that silver grey sticky tape called here "duct tape"? Or the coloured cotton backed tape called "Gaffer tape"? When you get a thorn, v-e-r-y carefully slide a finger over it to see which way it is lying, ie which direction is the exit. Put a strip of the tape over the thorn and rip it out with a sharp pull in that direction. (think waxing) This can be done days after the thorn goes in or multiple thorns.(" Mum,I fell in the cactus")
If the thorn is right under the surface, do the warm (no need for hot)soaking. Eventually the thorn will set up a tiny pouch of infection around it which lets the thorn work its own way out. Normal healthy people can handle the little infection, don't know about those with impaired immunity
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2014 8:01:32 GMT
Do you know what my father's old country remedy was? (Well, he was from Northern Ontario but his mother was from Edinburgh, and I think he got it from her.) You know that slimy stuff at the bottom of a slightly wet bar of soap? He would scrape it off and make a poultice of it, laying it thickly on the skin with the foreign body, then put a plaster or somesuch over it, and leave it overnight. He swears it "pulls whatever's in there out". My Dad, for what it's worth.
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Post by questa on Feb 26, 2014 10:58:16 GMT
I have used 'sugar and soap' poultices while in Indonesia. After scraping off the soap you mix sugar with it (as much as will go into the soap mix) and apply to anything that needs 'drawing out'...boils, infections, foreign bodies and such. Cover and wrap firmly. The magic is in the sugar which exerts hygroscopic force (i.e.it sucks)at the wound and the soap cleans the area as well as holding the sugar together. Lizzy...Are you sure Dad didn't add sugar?
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Post by htmb on Feb 26, 2014 11:21:59 GMT
Thank you both.....that's what it needs. A good drawing out. There's nothing obvious on the surface except for a large, hard bump. So nothing duct tape would help at the moment.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2014 15:27:37 GMT
He probably did and I wasn't listening! Thanks, questa! Filed.
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Post by breeze on Feb 27, 2014 5:01:56 GMT
A few days ago I found an old note I'd written back when I had legible handwriting. "To remove splinter from a finger, fill a bottle almost to the top with boiling water, put the injured spot over the hole, and press down. Steam and pressure should pull the splinter out."
I haven't tried this but I'd like to think it would work. My handwriting looks so authoritative!
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Post by htmb on Feb 27, 2014 5:22:30 GMT
I'm not sure I could pull off that trick, breeze, but thanks for the idea. Will need to find a bottle.
The splinter seems to be very tiny, and buried down in my finger. A little cyst has formed around it, but the finger is not very sore at all. I have continued to soak it in hot salt water when I think about it, and I think that's helped a bit. At last there's no infection.
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Post by tod2 on Feb 27, 2014 7:21:18 GMT
My husband regularly gets splinters of steel in his fingers or hands from grinding metal on his workbench. Luckily they are black so can be seen easily and with a sharp needle eased out. If it has gone in too far we have a off-the-shelf remedy called TRAXA....has anyone ever heard of it? It is applied in a blob (like a poultice) and held in place with a Band Aid.
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Post by questa on Feb 27, 2014 8:37:54 GMT
Tod2, is TRAXA a form of magnesium sulphate...a white shiny paste? We have it here under the name of magnaplasm
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2014 17:20:35 GMT
Keep us posted htmb - I'm interested from a scientific point of view what ends up working. I'm glad you're not in any pain.
In other news, I'm in Vancouver away from my babies for a week and Mr. Faire is in charge of the nursery. Apparently the Camas lily seeds have started to sprout - I'm so longing to see them. We're also battling fungus gnats which seem to have flown in from somewhere. I'm worried because seedlings are especially vulnerable.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2014 17:40:39 GMT
I am struggling with whether or not this is an aspiration, as opposed to necessity turned aspiration... In other words, something I'd rather not have to deal with but, has to be done.
The ancient old American Elm situated directly outside our bedroom French doors, home to many a nest and flock of wildlife, the first thing I see in the morning and the last that I glance out at night (featured prominently in some of my pics on here in the stars and moon thread), is going to have to be taken down. It's half dead, and after years of judicious pruning is more than half dead. After umpteen consults and re-examination of our budget, it's a no brain-er...it is a huge liability.
And so, I'm trying to look at it as another open vista.
Oh, the joys of being a homeowner of a huge property.
I'm very sad about this.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2014 19:39:59 GMT
I'm sorry, casi. It will be a loss for sure, but trees don't live forever, and it is an opportunity for something new. Is there a replacement tree you've always wanted? We have a huge madrona/arbutus tree that was saved from the loggers almost 30 years ago, but it is showing its age and may have to come down in the next decade. I have a volunteer seedling that I'm planting beside it and hopefully it'll ease the transition. Here's our tree, standing proud after the foresters cleared the Douglas firs from it this past summer. Do you have a picture of your tree to share with us?
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2014 16:45:00 GMT
I am struggling with whether or not this is an aspiration, as opposed to necessity turned aspiration... In other words, something I'd rather not have to deal with but, has to be done. The ancient old American Elm situated directly outside our bedroom French doors, home to many a nest and flock of wildlife, the first thing I see in the morning and the last that I glance out at night (featured prominently in some of my pics on here in the stars and moon thread), is going to have to be taken down. It's half dead, and after years of judicious pruning is more than half dead. After umpteen consults and re-examination of our budget, it's a no brain-er...it is a huge liability. And so, I'm trying to look at it as another open vista. Oh, the joys of being a homeowner of a huge property. I'm very sad about this. Ok, here's the back garden last year around early to mid June. Picture the large elm tree on the right gone, the greenhouse gone. Indeed an open vista....and a clean, fresh palette. Lots of aspirations and inspiration.
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Post by mich64 on May 17, 2014 17:37:46 GMT
I am always sad as well when we have to call our tree man to take another tree that is either ill, broken from a storm or a danger to our home and visitors. You will come up with an idea that will enhance the yard once more Casi. I have a beautiful maple really close to the back of the house on the hillside that looms over the deck that is starting to creak.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2014 18:37:46 GMT
:)Well, after bemoaning all the altercations and tribulations of the last year,in particular with regard to light changes from downed trees, I am in what would normally be "spring mode", in that "down here", we start planting our spring blooming perennials now. Larkspur, sweet peas, poppies (yes, papavar somniferum), hollyhocks, delphiniums, nicotiana and a bevvy of other springtime blooming beauties. This is our planting time due to our climate. These plants, which act as annuals here save the volunteers from reseeding, (larkspur, dill, parsley, some nasturtiums, some poppies...). They require a cold spell which unless planted now, will not get, if planted from seed as in most Northern climates. We do not have the luxury of true perennial spring beauties as in the aforementioned. Our perennials are more very different lines. I just spent the morning before and after the rainstorm prepping my sweet pea bed, 'sweetening' it with a little bit of limestone, My special secret.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 6, 2014 19:09:33 GMT
Well, I got the sweet pea bed all prepped and ready to seed. I double dug the soil, added some gorgeous compost and limestone and got my husband to help me put an iron rail border in front of it.
I also managed, and for the life of me, I don't know how, got my husband to help me machete, saw, haul, rake, dig some of the outback jungle. He seemed to really get into it, and lasted 4 hours.
Afterwards, we enjoyed a lovely lunch out by the pond in the shade.
I think he has his sights on spending the evening watching the football game with his buddies but, to be honest, I don't mind at all.)
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2014 15:55:43 GMT
In seven years or so, a rosemary hedge, I hope.
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Post by fumobici on Oct 1, 2014 19:46:17 GMT
Before you plant those hopefully, I'd if possible check to see if they are a variety that is cold hardy. Better local nurseries will stock the hardiest types here. I've experienced a lot of variation in how hardy various types of rosemary are and will handle a good cold snap--and I don't think I've had any rosemary outdoors survive longer than 7 years here. You can protect them when they are small during gelid cold, but not so much when they've grow five feet tall.
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