The dreaded weight plateau
lucillle
2 years ago
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Dreaded squash bugs have arrived
Comments (44)I haven't had much trouble with squash bugs on either melons or cucumbers, but some people have a lot of trouble with them. However, I do try to kill squash bugs when I see them, so maybe I kill off most of them before they can find the cukes or melons. Usually I grow the winter squash, melons and cukes in the back garden, which we never planted this year because of the incredibly heavy rainfall, so the squash bugs in the front garden are separated from the cukes and melons by over 100 yards. I don't know if that is why I don't have squash bug issues on the melons or cukes. This year, the melons are in the front garden and I haven't seen a squash bug on them, but I do think I wiped out all the squash bugs in June because I haven't seen any of them since then. I have Sugar Baby watermelons and Hale's Jumbo muskmelons in the front garden and haven't found any sort of pest on them yet, except for spider mites which are everywhere here in the summer and get worse as the heat worsens. The spider mite population ought to be peaking now and should start to fall soon, so I think my garden has outlasted it this year. Stockergal, I am sure the farmer who once farmed our land planted the bermuda, and I hate it. When we bought the place we had beautiful native grasses mixed with wildflowers and it was so beautiful and everything peacefully coexisted together. When it came time to mow all that down short in the area selected for our home site, so that the builder could start construction of our home, we instantly had bermuda grass pop up everywhere. Without the taller prairie grasses to shade it, it took over the area and outgrew everything else. I've been fighting to keep the bermuda grass out of beds of ornamental planting ever since. The thing that works best for me is to shade it out, but once trees are big enough to shade it out, you do have to plant a shade-loving ground-cover for erosion control. and we'll never be rid of all the bermuda because our yard never will be fully shady. Hailey, Have the row cover ready. The minute one squash pops up out of the ground, the squash bugs and SVBs will materialize out of thin air. Dawn...See MoreThe dreaded thread - Cicadas
Comments (7)I bought some tulle for making protective nets for my little trees. At Hobby Lobby I found some with a larger mesh -- not as fine as bridal veil tulle -- so it should let in sun, rain and breezes and not weight the branches down too much. It's made of nylon so I hope the cicadas can't chew through it. It's not very heavy duty so once I've got it on the trees I'll let you know how it holds up to branches in the wind, and let you in on anything I learn by trial & error. The tulle comes in different widths so I got 72" which is the widest they had, plus a roll/spool of finer mesh tulle (6"x25yds) for wrapping around trunks. The spool cost $2.99 and the tulle was something like $1.29 yd. (btw, it also comes in many pretty colors so I got tan for the trunks and a variety of fun colors for the tops.) The biggest trees I'm wrapping are two Japanese maples that are almost ten years old (one coral bark, one butterfly) and I've kept them trimmed to about 10' tall and 4-6' wide. For netting I'm trimming them down to about 7'-8' tall and as narrow as I can without ruining the shape, bearing in mind that the cicadas would do much worse given half a chance. The spool tulle will wrap the trunk from the ground to the lowest branches which start at about 16". The wider-mesh tulle will be tucked into the wrap so there's no access for any hungry bugs crawling up. The only way I've come up with for making a tube shape to encase the branches is to hand sew a seam up the side. If anybody has a better idea, let me know! The top can be gathered in a bunch and secured with a tie-wrap, sturdy rubber band, twist-tie, etc. Just be sure it's weather proof and that you keep an eye on it. Besides the two fairly mature Japanese maples, I've got several others that are only 2-3 years old. For my littler trees I'm putting shepherd's crook hangers beside them to hang/support the tulle from above and not put the weight on their little branches. My most important tree is a 4' baby ginkgo that my mother raised from a miserable little rootling I got as a freebie and gave her as a green thumb challenge about eight years ago. She had it in a pot, then in her garden, and when she and my Dad moved to an apartment (after 63 years in their house) she gave me back the ginkgo to keep it growing. This will be its third summer with me and OMG you better believe I'm going to protect it from cicadas! Is there anything short of poison that discourages cicadas? My gardens are as bee/butterfly/bird friendly as I can make them, but plagues of locusts make me feel very unfriendly. Happy gardening. L....See MoreNot sure... w/ a little dread!
Comments (14)mattie: That's the thing. I think he felt guilty that he was going and maybe regretted not taking her because we had discussed him taking her on Saturday but he decided not to. He did forewarn her about pestering to buy things because I told him privately before we left, that if she incessantly asked for things that I was going to pack up & come home.. I am not going to spend the entire evening listening to their usual "daddy can I... " and "NO, stop asking!" I don't know what he told her but she didn't let me hear her asking for much, except when he ran out of money. (and money isn't THAT tight... DH is tight with spending his money.) It would have been a good idea for him to give SD a set amount of money. I was buying things like a picture & mousepad with DGS's picture that says "Love You Daddy" to give my son when he returns. I got a few things that were personalized like that & took lots of pictures for my son. My daughter took SD on rides. I have come to accept that SD is who she is. None of my influence seems to rub off on her, nor DH's mother who also tries. SD wants to wear make up, talk to boys, wear skin tight clothes, listen to songs with nasty lyrics, watch movies she is too young to see, and she eats WAY too much. (personally, I think the eating is a problem because it is probably how she deals with her feelings & she is full of frustration/anger/resentment regarding her situation with her mom & us.) She is there for summer, her mom is not working & is staying home with the new baby, and SD has been spending lots of time with grandma's & babysitters. & her mom lets her do all those things she wants.. eat whenever and whatever and however much she wants, stay up as late as she wants, showers/brushes teeth when she wants, and apparently wear make up like her older sister & the tight clothes. I do agree with finedreams that trashy isn't always the clothes. A lot of it is the attitude BM & SD & SD's sister all have that they are hott & sexxy chicks. The worse part is that none are all that attractive. BM smokes/drinks/partes & looks years older than she is... even when she was younger not pretty. All of DH's other ex girlfriends are pretty & with BM, I don't get it except that he was fresh out of his divorce. SD's sister is kinda plain/homely and looks exactly like BM did at her age. and SD has changed her looks a lot in the last year. She started combing her hair into her face to cover her eyes, she started wearing glasses & chose black frames that make her look like Waldo and with the way she combs her hair, she looks dorky/goofy. & the added weight does not help. I am not saying that to be mean, but I think there is a psychological reason she is changing her appearance so drastically... she doesn't even look like her school picture anymore. (kinda like these kids that dye hair black or colors & dress weird...) she is heading that way & BM lets her do what she wants which sends a message to SD that mom doesn't care about her enough to guide her. I see the trainwreck in the distance & so does DH but he feels helpless because SD is adamant in being this way. She lies, sneaks & defies us. We take her to counseling, she lies & manipulates the counselors. It IS very frustrating. It goes much deeper than DH being a clod about planning things & being tight with his money. I have thrown my hands up because now I have my DGS to worry about and take care of. I can't fix SD's life, neither can DH... she has her mind set to get her mom's attention and until she wakes up or realizes how much she is hurting herself and is not going to get what she wants from her mom... she is not going to be receptive to our influence. She just rebels at it now. (and if it were up to me, I think I might send her back to live with her mom full time & she would see that her mom does not really want her there... but sadly, she already sees that mom does not want her during the summer. It is probably a strain on her relationship with boyfriend so she sends her to grandma's house or with babysitters. But, it's not my decision, I am just a stepmom)...See MoreHow Many Will Serve The Dreaded Casserole for Thanksgiving?
Comments (65)Linnea, here you go. Scalloped Chipotle Sweet Potatoes 1 or 2 canned chipotle peppers pureed with some of the adobo sauce 2 cups heavy cream 3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced thin Preheat the oven to 350 F. Puree the chipotles in a food processor until smooth. Stir in cream. In a large casserole dish arrange a fourth of the sweet potatoes and pour a fourth of the cream over all. Repeat with the remaining potatoes and cream, forming 4 layers. May be prepared up to this point one half hour ahead, covered, and refrigerated. Bake covered for 30 minutes, remove cover and continue baking for 30-45 minutes or until the cream has been absorbed and the potatoes are browned. ~variation of a Bobby Flay recipe...See MoreZalco/bring back Sophie!
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agolucillle thanked Zalco/bring back Sophie!lucillle
2 years agoUser
2 years agolucillle
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agolucillle
2 years agolucillle
2 years agolucillle
2 years agolucillle
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agoZalco/bring back Sophie!
2 years ago
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lucillleOriginal Author