any gardeners?

“Damned squash vine borers have shortened all of my zucchini vines. >:(

The birdhouse gourds that Laurel insisted I plant have taken over. They look spectacular. I'm thinking of building a sort of framework for a covered walkway between a few of the beds, for next year. A few gourd or other vines growing over something like that would look incredible. Nice and shady, too.”

“We have a similar trellis like you described treebait. I made it out of cedar that I cleared yrs back.

Mixed reviews on the garden so far. Part is due to late planting, the other was bugs early on. Most everything has recovered except the spinach and bok choy that bolted very early. The broccoli is hanging on but weakly, the asian radishes did well but were far to spicy. All of the peppers are going wild, as are the toms (I picked over 60 volunteer plants so far), the greens are loving their spot in the shade, pole beans are huge and the squash are full and covered with blossoms.”

“Gardening became a man's activity when Cam Neely retired from the NHL. (I saw it on an ESPN commercial years ago.)

As for me, I have a vegetable farm....a really small farm about 6'x24'. No livestock yet but I just planted some chicken eggs. A nice warm rain or two and they should sprout within a week or so.”

“How is farming different than gardening? Would you say farming is more of a survival method, whereas gardening is more enjoying and playing with flowers and such, much like painting and dancing?”

“We kill both the vegetables and the flowers so there's not much surviving going on.”

“But I do like to lop the heads off the flowers that do survive so there's a little enjoyment there.”

“If I could I'd turn the whole property into a functional farm/ garden. I like planting flowers, but I keep finding myself turning more towards useful plants than decorative ones.

You know, I take part of that back. I hate weeding and planting but the results are often worth it.

Since we have such craptacular soil (organically bare, biologically dead heavy clay) a lot of what I do is the relatively slow process of turning it into friable, biologically healthy soil. It's all about the bugs (good bacteria and fungi) at the molecular level.”

“My grandfather lived through the depression as a child...My greatgrandfather and great grandmother fed 13 kids on thier garden.”

“I have typical red clay...after working in a couple of years organic material I should actually start to see the results.”

“Gardening has passed down thru the men on my dads side. I enjoyed it as a kid.”

“Anybody know when it started as a man's activity? Was it since the depression?”

“I have same damn good fertile soil here....throw a corn seed down in vigin soil and they grow 8 feet tall, no fertilizing required.”

“do a little reasearch and you will see the majority of hybridized flowers and plants came from MEN who's hobby was plants.”

“still doesn't answer the question

WHEN? I don't doubt your claim that it's men who do most of the successful gardening. I'm just wondering WHEN it became "normal" for a man to garden.
last edited: 7/08/10 10:20:32 AM”

“Well off the top of my head the most famous gardener I can think of was Claude Monet the impressionist painter. So that's around the 1890's but gardens are well documented back the Egyptians and Persians a few thousand years ago.”

“Spirit's correct!


Guys rule, girls drool!”

“Men have almost always been the one to tend the garden. When I grew up we had an easy acre in family garden, men took care of it. The women came harvested and preserved the crop for future needs. Each had its task in the work.

Horticulturally men developed almost all of the plants. One reason is in its infancy only rich people could afford this hobby, men were 99% of the wealthy back then. There were some influential woman and they were well off $$$wise too.”

“I think that's more like farming than gardening.”

“It was a family vegetable garden and we fed ourselves and many others from it and sold none of it. Is that a garden or not?

Raising 'baccer, corn, hay, beans, cattle, hogs, and trying to make a living is farming.

And I did all the above thank you.”

“I know this sitevis being moderated right now, as her thread was deleted. Why is this above post still here?”

“and again”

“SC, of the 2 of us, you're the one throwing insults around. That's the trailtalk you want? I said nothing at all to you ... yet ... here you are.”

“SC just put him on virtual ignore...what you did in your last couple of posts is exactly what he wants. If it is a battle of euphemisms he is all over it.”

“Going to go fight the weeds again. It never ends. I have the morning to myself. HPM had to go fishing with Laurel and his parents.”

“sticks - How do you figure that's exactly what I want? I have been more outspoken than anybody for it to stop, and for the ugnore feature to be used. What an ignorant statement.”

“and another one ..”

“Chili I would change that to spank the monkey. LOL! Hope we get to hook up on the Ocala trip, it has been a while.”

“Yes, it has. I look forward to the trip.”

“$100 says they talk about me out on their trip like ghey do here. $100 bucks! Takers?”

“You'd lose/ we talk about backpackers and backpacking and other interesting topics.”

“no, I am right. They'll do it. They can't help themselves.”

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!got to stop my stomach hurts!!!!”

“Remember that when it happens. Guaranteed you won't be able to mention me. The obsession has dominated your trailtalk existence and will carry over to the trail.”

“Looks like my beefsteak tomatoes will be ripe when I'm out of town climbing mountains. What the hell - it's been fun watering them.

I have a new blueberry bush that's producing. Turns out they do well here in the cool coastal fog. Who knew?”

“One of the reasons that the NE is blueberry country. Should be a bumper crop this year.”

““no, I am right. They'll do it. They can't help themselves.”
HiGHPLAiNSDRiFTER

how would you know what anyone talks about on a backpacking group trip since you've never gone on one?

Not an attack, it's a valid question.”

“they will know the truth when it happens”

“I am a member of a local CSA and get 1/2 bushel of produce every other week. I still grow some tomatoes, peppers (green and red), jalapenos and herbs in large containers.

I just recently planted some Thai Hot Ornamental Peppers which are good to eat. The pepper is tiny compared to most. When matured it is only 3/4" to 1" long but has a scoville rating of 50,000 to 80,000.

Just curious if anyone else has grown these peppers”

“OKay...look I have three "fruit trees" in my back yard...one grows pears one grew three apples a year and one we were told grew "dates".

Last year I fertilized it with some miracle grow stuff....the Date tree is a Peach tree...

When do I know they are ripe enough to pick? ANd how do I keep the black spots from occurring?”

“I've grown the Thai hot ornamental peppers before. They got about 18" tall, and looked very pretty with all of the fruit on them. Yes, they're quite hot, but turtles and some birds love them. Avians and reptiles do not have heat receptors.”

“Sounds sort of like a piquin, ewker.”

“Wear nitrile or latex gloves when you harvest the fruit, too.”

“I am looking forward to trying them. Seems my gf and I are having a hard time finding foods that are hot. We must have burnt out our hot sensors..lol


last edited: 7/14/10 7:28:19 AM”

“Do I have weeds in the yard? I just completely filled the 96 gallon yard waste can, and barely made a dent. Sheesh. That's what I get for slacking during the heat wave we had here. Buggers are putting up a fight now, too. I also ended up harvesting a bunch of garlic that hadn't died down yet. They weren't looking too happy, so I went ahead and pulled them up. They're drying out a bit now.”

“I've got big blue and black cicadas coming out in the garden this morning. I haven't seen this variety before. They aren't that loud, and are more difficult to catch. I'd like to give one to the indoor cats. :)

They're about 1.5 inches long.”

“I got a handle on my weeds early, at least in the garden. The rest, I run a mower over them a few times during the season. That's living in the country. Should be eating peas next week or so, just before my annual bp trip. Should be able to put some in the freezer before my trip. Five out of six maters have set fruit, earliest I have had any here in N CA at 4000'. Trying to catch a gopher now, it has taken a few strawberry plants I think and one potato plant so far. It did not come back to where I set two traps last weekend.”

“Things are slowing a bit with the heat. But I still was able to pick one roma, 5 green zebra toms, and about 1lbs of green beans. Yummilicous”

“Something came through and ate every last fruit or veggie in the garden. I'm ticked off about it.”

“something came through this morn and tried the same, but that thing ( a baby rabbit) is now on its way to a landfill”

“tree bait, a deer? I'll have to look at my garden in the morning, just got back from a bp trip to the Wind River Range. Picked peas two weeks ago and no ripe maters yet.”