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Penny Carnathan
Penny’s a Nurture And Hold (NAH): Nah, I won’t pull that out yet, it’s still got a green shoot. She likes dragonflies, lady bugs and new stuff only after weeding, pruning and fertilizing.
Kim Franke-Folstad
Kim’s a Want It Now (WIN): Everything pretty, everything now. She will resort to full-spectrum insecticides in desperate situations, and believes it’s her duty and right to buy new plants every weekend.
Both advocate Plant Choice (SOMEthing besides crotons. Please!), lots of color and low maintenance. We don’t agree on everything, but we’re smart enough to learn from each other - and from you.
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Extreme gardening—just a few more reasons why we can’t complain in Florida
Posted Aug 24, 2010 by Loren Omoto
Updated Aug 24, 2010 at 06:11 PM
Between the Miracle-Crak I sprayed a couple weeks ago and all the rain we’ve been getting, my garden is lush, blooming and in need of a trim. And I can walk from one end of it to the other without breaking an ankle.
That makes me feel like such a whiner after visiting my friend Lori’s garden in north Georgia. Just trying to take pictures was life-threatening, her backyard is so steep. Amending clay is a whole lot more back-breaking than amending sand.
And then you’ve got the darned saddleback caterpillars.
They’re probably here, too, so take note: They pack a powerful sting! I didn’t know if they were good guys or bad the first day, so I just took pictures. When we figured out they were bad, I introduced Lori to the Soap Jar of Death.
I didn’t touch them — just used the jar rim to scrape them off the blade of the iris — but still I got stung on a finger. OUCH! And Lori, who decided to observe only, managed to get stung on the leg. (On the railing is the Soap Jar of Death and some, um, elixir. Due to the grievous wound.)
In the nice bug department, I found these two little butterflies “playing” in her backyard.
I wish I’d gotten a picture of the HUGE “writing spider” in a web by her deck. (If it writes your initials in its web, you will die. Fortunately, it had only M’s or W’s, depending on perspective, while I visited, so we were safe.) Lori’s family likes big spiders — natural mosquito control.
For those of you who were curious about Joe Pye weed, this is the one little guy she’s gotten going in the garden; she has plenty more seedlings waiting for transplant.
And since y’all loved the one good stone path I showed you, here’s another one. This cuts through the butterfly garden, and it’s made of rocks she dug up while planting. It’s the only horizontal space in that very vertical garden.
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Reader Comments
Posted by (Susan Gillespie) on August 24, 2010
Ewww, I’ll remember to stay away from that nasty caterpillar or at least to have some elixir and a Soap Jar of Death with me. And just how do you amend clay? Sand is pretty easy to beef up with soil amendments but clay sounds heavy and thick and time consuming.
Joe Pye weed looks a little like salvia.
Posted by (Susan Gillespie) on August 24, 2010
I was going to be a smarty and ask if Joe Pye was named after a guy. So I looked it up. Turns out it was. Here’s what it says on Wikipedia—- Joe Pye, an Indian healer from New England, used E. purpureum to treat a variety of ailments, which led to the name Joe-Pye weed for these plants.
Posted by (Chip) on August 24, 2010
Sounds like you had some fun while you were away. One thing you didn’t have to worry about was watering while you were gone. And oh yes we do have those saddle backs here! I highly recommend not touching any caterpillars at all, the more colorful they are the more toxic they can be. Full moon tonight! with this rain I will be a day late getting some seeds started just cant be helped. I hope everything is OK with you Pumpkin! Its a good thing you got Mr Grumpy I had my chain saw ready.
...“Chip”
Posted by (Janna) on August 25, 2010
I can almost hear Lori cursing those caterpillars as she nurses her wound! I’ve never seen a saddleback here and apparently that’s a good thing.
So THAT’S what Joe Pye looks like. It does kind of resemble a salvia. Will it bloom until the snow starts?
Pumpkin, I’m so sorry to hear about your pond mishap. I’m sure Mr. Grumpy has taken care of it by now - how nice of Chip to offer to help. Such a nice bunch of folks on this blog….
Posted by (Chip) on August 25, 2010
I checked the farmers almanac and the full moon officially starts this afternoon at 1:05pm so I didn’t miss it! I did drive myself crazy trying to find brussels sprouts seeds no one had them.I went every where. I gave up came home Diane looks in our shoe box of left over seeds and there they were! DUH! should have looked there first! But I got it done and started a bunch of seeds, I even stated celery grans of sand are bigger than those seeds. ...“Chip”
Posted by (Chip) on August 26, 2010
Penny chicken poop is hot! so prepping your beds a week before is recommended. But if you make sure you have a layer of dirt between your plant and the chicken poop you can do it same day. Try provider beans they really give you more beans for your buck, bush type beans are harder to harvest but yield more and do not worry about how many are in the pack you don’t have to use them all at once. They keep for a very long time if you keep them dry. A zip lock bag and a shoe box works very well. So if the big bag is the better buy get it. I forget about the box then when we go through it is like Christmas! ...“Chip”
Posted by (Iluvpumpkins) on August 26, 2010
Do all of the veggies need full sun?
Chip, If you had one to grow what would you pick?
Tomorrow morning is my TV minute of fame. News channel 8 at 5AM and 6AM. Pumpkin
Posted by (Susan Gillespie) on August 26, 2010
The DVR is set, Pumpkin. We will be able to say we knew you when. Congrats!
Posted by (Chip) on August 26, 2010
Way to go Pumpkin! and to answer your question for the most part full sun is needed. Squash’s like a little shade. A lot of veggies are codependent and need other some give out nitrogen others need nitrogen. so picking one over the other is hard. How about two? Tomato’s and carrots these two get along best of any plants I know of! We will be watching tomorrow morning. ..“Chip”
Posted by (Janna) on August 26, 2010
I’ll be watching tomorrow, Pumpkin!
Posted by (Iluvpumpkins) on August 26, 2010
Chip, I did not like Tomatoes, plants got too big. Carrots sound fun and look cute.What would be another veggies?
Susan, We have the DVR on as well. I am to nervous to watch it live so I am going to watch it later after work. Pumpkin
Posted by (Chip) on August 26, 2010
Provider beans are a bush type green beans, Provider is just its name and named very well. there are two types of green beans “pole beans” are climbers [as in they need a pole to climb] and are way easier to harvest since everything is up off the ground but do not have as much beans as the “bush” type with the bush type it take a sharp eye to find them all. We go over and over them double checking each other and still find more. carrots are easy I put them where ever I put tomato’s just open a seed pack and sprinkle it around and forget about it. nothing special needs to be done with them except to pick out what kind of carrot there are so many kinds! ..“Chip”