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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 9, 2022 17:03:59 GMT
You are the oxygen lung of South Africa.
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Post by tod2 on Jan 10, 2022 12:00:26 GMT
You are too kind Sir! I have to admit that had it not been for the outbreak of Covid-19, I don't think I would have done half the adventurous gardening I have in the last two years. And now....The garden tool discovery. For a start it was found in a box full of all kinds of kitchen gadgets in the local Hospice shop. Most had seen their day and only useful for spares. Rummaging down to the bottom a glint of something shiny caught Mr.Tods eye. Aah! This is just the job for a digging tool for my seedling planting, he said. I thought it looked too frail. Anyway he got home and polished it up as he had noticed some engraving on the handle. This is what he saw: So we Googled it. Just so happens the signature is that of a famous watchmaker. Sir John Bennett FRAS was a clockmaker and watchmaker. He was described by one biographer as a "flamboyant personality who seems to have aroused in his contemporaries varying degrees of ridicule, hostility, and admiration". Wikipedia Born: 15 October 1814, Greenwich, United Kingdom Died: 3 July 1897 Siblings: William Cox Bennett www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/185980#slide=gs-298703This is the item - a sort of Fish slice or cake lifter - maybe neither. Is it in the garden shed? No it is in my desk drawer pending further investigation.
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Post by bjd on Jan 10, 2022 12:20:06 GMT
How nice -- a treasure!
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Post by onlyMark on Jan 10, 2022 13:25:12 GMT
Tod, it might be a silver plated butter knife.
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Post by tod2 on Jan 10, 2022 16:13:33 GMT
No Mark. I have several butter knives which are as small as stretching between thumb and little finger. This object is large. - photo'd it upon a dining room Carver chair. But thanks for the input!
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Post by onlyMark on Jan 10, 2022 17:29:29 GMT
I can see the size of it now. Ok. Could be a palette knife before we had plastic ones.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 10, 2022 17:35:39 GMT
Fish knife.
Or clock disguised as a fish knife.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 10, 2022 19:36:11 GMT
Looks like a fish knife to me.
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Post by casimira on Jan 23, 2022 17:54:14 GMT
After Friday night's freezing temperatures, I was pleasantly surprised to find that several potted plants at the other house looked fine. A couple of fancy leafed begonias that I was fairly certain "bit the dust" looked healthy as could be.
The other thing that I saw were some bulbs that I had not dug up. Some irises and narcissus had sprouted in the front despite having been covered with a thick layer of sand that had been dumped after the demolition. "Love in the ruins", Mother Nature prevailed. Of course, there were familiar weeds emerging as well.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 27, 2022 12:19:50 GMT
Weeds are the best!
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Post by casimira on Jan 27, 2022 17:47:45 GMT
You would be amazed at how many of these "weeds" have medicinal qualities. I have a neighborhood friend who had a dog with kidney problems. The veterinary had given her 3 months to live. Her life was extended by munching on some "weeds" in our neighborhood by more than 6 months. Our house was one of her favorite stops. I didn't rip them out for the very reason that they were serving a purpose. Our very own infirmary/pharmaceutical dispensary to assist in the neighborhood animal's livelihood.
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Post by tod2 on Jan 28, 2022 16:48:30 GMT
My sons partner has been giving her French bulldog oil extracted from cannabis. It is almost a miracle how well the dog reacted to it. Better than anything the vet has prescribed. The dog has some incurable disease.
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Post by bjd on Feb 7, 2022 14:55:28 GMT
I dug out a new flower bed about 2 months ago and although it does give me something to look at, it was rather empty. But on Saturday I went to the nursery and bought a few perennials: 3 pentstemons, a purple sage, as well as some bulbs: white freesias, some nerines for autumn and 2 dahlias. I also moved a couple of irises that had been buried under some sage bushes. I tried to spread the flowering over a longer period, I will give one of the agapanthuses of the three I had put to my neighbour, and realized that it will essentially be red, white and blue flowers.
I had originally gone to the nursery to buy a couple of butterfly lavender plants but they didn't have any yet. When they do, I'll rip out the ordinary ones I put in December and replace them.
So at the moment, the flower bed mostly consists of labels -- otherwise I forget what I put where.
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Post by tod2 on Feb 14, 2022 12:13:45 GMT
Here is my broccoli coming along nicely in semi-shade:
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Post by mickthecactus on Feb 14, 2022 12:54:00 GMT
They look very good.
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Post by casimira on Feb 14, 2022 19:03:10 GMT
I would think it too hot there to grow broccoli. Here it's a cool season vegetable.
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Post by bjd on Feb 14, 2022 19:05:55 GMT
I thought all the cabbagey vegetables were cool season plants? Here they are definitely part of winter markets.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 14, 2022 19:14:02 GMT
Tod says the broccoli are in semi-shade. I'd think that and the fact that she has lots of mulch & also drip irrigation would allow her to grow it even in the hot season.
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Post by casimira on Feb 14, 2022 19:55:59 GMT
I could be in the shade with a drip water system in hot, hot weather that Tod describes and never thrive like that.
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Post by mickthecactus on Feb 14, 2022 20:07:59 GMT
Whilst I know what you're saying and the fact that the weather in the UK is not as hot as SA, broccoli plants here go in in mid summer and flower in autumn and winter. It might not immediately look it but tod's weather is moving towards her autumn and cooler weather when broccoli produce. Reducing daylight hours is probably another factor.
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Post by bjd on Feb 15, 2022 6:43:57 GMT
I woke up really early this morning (5 am!) and since I couldn't go back to sleep, I was redesigning my garden. When we first bought this house, there were a couple of boxwood bushes planted directly facing south and near the house. Obviously, they were in bad shape and were being eaten by some caterpillars that infested much of the boxwood in France about 8 years ago. There were also a couple of rosebushes there.
I removed the boxwood and thought that since there were rosebushes, I just bought new roses. They have not done very well but one old one that I removed and put elsewhere in the garden started to thrive. This morning I suddenly realized that I could remove all 4 rosebushes that I planted over the past couple of years, and which have not been doing well, and move them to where I was digging this past weekend. They will have less afternoon sun, as well as much better soil. Close to the house, despite my adding soil, wood ashes, etc, it's still not very good, compared to the black soil full of worms at the side of the garden.
I realize that having a house or garden that is already set up in a certain way means that it's harder to imagine something else, unlike when you have a completely blank slate and you can "see" things differently. Not that there won't be mistakes, but they will be our own mistakes and not those of someone else.
It rained much of yesterday and is supposed to be cool and rainy at least until Thursday, so I have time to think about other things I have done wrong. As well as imagine which other plants I will move around.
Another thing that comes to mind is realizing that in those videos by the young woman in Oregon who I mentioned above, she plants much bigger plants than I get here. She puts in big flowering bushes -- all I can buy are small containers of perennials. She does mention that gardening takes time, but it would be nice to see quicker results. But I do really enjoy her videos, despite differences in scale.
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Post by tod2 on Feb 15, 2022 8:36:40 GMT
Thanks for the interest in my broccoli! I'm thrilled. And yes bjd and Casi you are spot on - they are winter veg here but if managed carefully can produce a nice little head of florets but leaving them 10 seconds to long in the garden and they bolt! LOL....We have found that cabbages, cauliflower and broccoli all progress to making flowers and seed heads very very quickly in our hot summer season. The quality is also not at its best as snails and other bugs attack the plants furiously from the inside and underneath the plant. So when you harvest it looks good above until you turn the plant over. I also feel guided by the plant nurseries who have young seedling for sale. If the heat affected the plants why are they selling us seedlings...?
Mick you are right of course. We are moving into autumn and by Easter will be very cool. This encourages the cabbage families to grown bigger before they are ready to bolt. It's really a long shot with summer cabbages etc., We loose a lot more than we can harvest to eat but seedlings are not expensive - a tray of 6-8 little plants runs at about R15 a tray - about 74pence?
Casimira - I was wondering why yours would not survive - Is it the humidity?
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 15, 2022 15:13:52 GMT
I realize that having a house or garden that is already set up in a certain way means that it's harder to imagine something else, unlike when you have a completely blank slate and you can "see" things differently. Truer words were never spoken! And sometimes, even if we ourselves set up the house or garden, it's hard to break out of seeing that configuration as the only possible one. Your comments prove what a true gardener you are, Bjd -- you not only see your garden as a whole, but you live in it in your head even when not actively planting, weeding, etc.
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Post by casimira on Feb 15, 2022 17:44:05 GMT
Yes Tod, definitely much too humid and hot here for growing brassicas until autumn.
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Post by bjd on Feb 17, 2022 19:55:06 GMT
I went to browse at the nursery this morning -- at 2 different ones in fact. Looking for something that can stand a lot of sun, keeps its leaves, doesn't get too big. Anyway, I found a chaste tree (vitex agnus castus). I hope it doesn't get this big!! I like blue plants and there just aren't that many of them. I also bought another tea tree (leptospermum). Will put them against the hot sunny wall.
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Post by tod2 on Feb 18, 2022 8:00:17 GMT
My what a stunning tree bjd! Those flowers are such a wonderful blue.
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Post by mickthecactus on Feb 18, 2022 8:11:32 GMT
I don't know Vitex. Must check it out next time I'm at Kew.
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Post by fumobici on Feb 18, 2022 15:37:37 GMT
I had a Vitex. Great, interesting plant. Mine got about 8 feet tall after maybe ten years, then died one winter.
Edit: they don't however keep their leaves in the winter.
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Post by casimira on Feb 18, 2022 16:47:12 GMT
Vitex is grown here all over the place. They are quite easy to manage the shape and height by judicious pruning. People mistakenly refer to them as lilacs which makes me crazy because although there is a resemblance to lilacs, they have no fragrance. They do provide a nice filler and accent when planted in the proper place. And they are very heat tolerant and fast growing.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 18, 2022 17:45:27 GMT
My sister had one at her front entrance in deepest south Texas. It got a little sprawly, but I think that was because it didn't get quite enough sun. It was a very reliable bloomer & of course has that gorgeous blue color. It should do wonderfully in your yard. I always want more blue in a garden. I have planted Duranta erecta in the bed fronting the porch. No flowers yet, but it doesn't seem to mind the vicious afternoon sun. I also grew butterfly pea from seed & planted it where it will twine up the bars on the porch. It is a very slow grower so far, though.
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