• Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.

Gardening

artistinsuburbia

Angel Diva
There's gotta be advice out there somewhere on how to protect fruit in a bird-safe way, doesn't there? I remember reading one of those back-to-the-land books (New Yorkers buy a farm) and they netted some fruit trees and then had like a hundred dead birds. :(

Tomatoes way to close together, check.
plant more. enough to share. that's the corn philosophy around here with the farmers. The outer three rows will be lost to deer.
 

Christy

Angel Diva
This reminds me, I did just read something in Sunset about how to keep birds out of nets--tie at the bottom. Don't just drape it over. Don't know if that works for all crops--if there is something you can't keep birds out of I'd probably just not plant it again rather than have dead birds.
 

artistinsuburbia

Angel Diva
@Jenny they are vanilla strawberry hydrangeas (Hydrangea paniculata 'Renhy') I have one that is turning raspberry though and the other (in the background) is just pink and white like yours. The darker one started white, turned pink and white then all pink. First year it's ever done it. But it's older. I cut it way back this spring and it grew even bigger than ever.
hydrangea.JPG
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
There's gotta be advice out there somewhere on how to protect fruit in a bird-safe way, doesn't there? I remember reading one of those back-to-the-land books (New Yorkers buy a farm) and they netted some fruit trees and then had like a hundred dead birds. :(

Tomatoes way to close together, check.

plant more. enough to share. that's the corn philosophy around here with the farmers. The outer three rows will be lost to deer.

Interestingly, sadly, we never had any bird interest before the netting, and only that one bird with the netting. Since I took it down, no depredation. Maybe they got the message; I don't know. Maybe it was all unnecessary. We don't seem to have much in the way of unwanted chomping by any creatures (fingers crossed) - some bite marks on leafy greens, but that's about it. I think it helps that our plants are in containers / elevated - it takes dedication to get there. Bees are happy to help, and worms made it up into our veggie boxes, so that's great.
 

Jenny

Angel Diva
@Jenny they are vanilla strawberry hydrangeas (Hydrangea paniculata 'Renhy') I have one that is turning raspberry though and the other (in the background) is just pink and white like yours. The darker one started white, turned pink and white then all pink. First year it's ever done it. But it's older. I cut it way back this spring and it grew even bigger than ever.
View attachment 7429
Your yard is pretty! My hydrangea is the dwarf of yours - called Strawberry Sundae. Next year when I have the bed out back expanded I'm thinking about getting one of the bigger ones, like yours. Just need to make sure it will get enough sun.
 

artistinsuburbia

Angel Diva
thank you @Jenny I spent an inordinate amount of time working on it this year. Mulching trimming, planting. and it's all overgrown already again. I think I might move this one to behind the fence and let it be its natural size and buy the dwarf variety for this smaller space. Everything is just getting so large I have to start moving them or constantly fight them about the size they want to be.

@bounceswoosh i'm not sure which is worse. the groundhog eating my flowers or my dog trampling them to chase the groundhog... and the birds...
 

Powgirl

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@Jenny they are vanilla strawberry hydrangeas (Hydrangea paniculata 'Renhy') I have one that is turning raspberry though and the other (in the background) is just pink and white like yours. The darker one started white, turned pink and white then all pink. First year it's ever done it. But it's older. I cut it way back this spring and it grew even bigger than ever.
View attachment 7429

Your gardens are gorgeous!!
 

Jenny

Angel Diva
Here's another couple hydrangea pictures showing the change and the raspberry color.

IMG_0359.JPG

IMG_0360.JPG

Also, a question. What happens to the big grasses if they don't get enough sun? Do they grow sparse and shaggy, or just not get as big as they could? I like this one, but I don't want to get it if it will just look yucky.

IMG_0337.JPG
 

Kimmyt

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
thank you. LOTS of time, money, and mushroom compost.

Do you ever get...mushrooms? from mushroom compost? Because I used it for the first time this year in a bed I put surrounding my shed and I got a TON of mushrooms. They almost looked like morels (but I didn't trust them and they could have been false morels) but they were huge. I pulled almost a full bucket out of there, and have never had mushrooms like that before so I'm wondering if this is a typical thing when using mushroom compost?
 

artistinsuburbia

Angel Diva
Do you ever get...mushrooms? from mushroom compost? Because I used it for the first time this year in a bed I put surrounding my shed and I got a TON of mushrooms. They almost looked like morels (but I didn't trust them and they could have been false morels) but they were huge. I pulled almost a full bucket out of there, and have never had mushrooms like that before so I'm wondering if this is a typical thing when using mushroom compost?
I've never had mushrooms grow, and I've been using it for years.
 

snowski/swimmouse

Angel Diva
Updates: I'm down to 1 large green pepper, 2 standard size tomatoes and a bunch of cherry tomatoes.
But, surprisingly, there are still a couple of the yummy asparagus beans.

That perennial burgundy hibiscus that I brought back from Illinois early August? They said not to fertilize it this season and not to expect it to bloom until next year. The plant had other ideas and I've gotten these gorgeous plate size burgundy blooms for a couple weeks now, maybe the last one today.
They are exactly what I was looking for! :dance: Maybe I need to leave room in the car when I go to our reunion next year to bring two more of them back!
 

Jenny

Angel Diva
Updates: I'm down to 1 large green pepper, 2 standard size tomatoes and a bunch of cherry tomatoes.
But, surprisingly, there are still a couple of the yummy asparagus beans.

That perennial burgundy hibiscus that I brought back from Illinois early August? They said not to fertilize it this season and not to expect it to bloom until next year. The plant had other ideas and I've gotten these gorgeous plate size burgundy blooms for a couple weeks now, maybe the last one today.
They are exactly what I was looking for! :dance: Maybe I need to leave room in the car when I go to our reunion next year to bring two more of them back!
So satisfying, isn't it?
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
It's cold enough here that I don't think I'm getting anything more. There are a few sad-looking tomatoes and one cucumber still growing. I got two mellows before the rabbits (or whatever) finished eating the rinds, but I'm not sure any of the rest will grow big enough to harvest before the first frost.
 

Kimmyt

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Yeah, I heard its supposed to potentially snow here this weekend so pull any green tomatos you have and ripen them on a windowsill. If they get hit with frost they might not ripen, though you could make some green tomato salsa or something with them.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Yeah, I heard its supposed to potentially snow here this weekend so pull any green tomatos you have and ripen them on a windowsill. If they get hit with frost they might not ripen, though you could make some green tomato salsa or something with them.

I'm in Breck ... should be home tomorrow some time. I'm more sad about the melons that never had a chance.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I bought some tulip bulbs a week or so ago and haven't planted them yet. The "paper" looking bronze outer wrapper of each bulb has split, showing white underneath. Does this mean I waited too long or kept them too warm or something, or are they usable?
 

Forum statistics

Threads
26,237
Messages
497,649
Members
8,503
Latest member
MermaidKelly
Top