Billy wrote:

I don't know WTH the Drano comment is about other than as a lead-in
for billy's political propaganda.


If you don't like my political propaganda, then you must be one of
Gov. Walker's stooges, just another capitalist shill, undermining
American values by trying to distract from the corporate coup d'Etat
taking place in America now. I'd heard that a lot of you were hired
recently.

....snip 10K of irrelevant propaganda .....

Billy you are looking worse by the day. You are taking up stupid positions
like the above where anybody who doesn't agree with you, including those who
just want to talk about gardens, must be The Enemy. This is looking very
paranoid. Why does a comment that you are OT deserves another long OT tract
in return? Clearly nobody is going to read this kind of drivel, in posting
it constantly your judgement is now faulty to a tee. If you must talk
politics and save the world there are plenty of NGs where that is on topic.

As well as posting content that is useless for this forum you are getting
more abusive. This kind of thing is entirely inappropriate:

You "Brown Shirts" are all the same, dumb. You're days are
numbered. When you're no longer useful, you're gone. Real
gone, Bozo.

Up yours "Cal Who".


The way you are going you will be killfiled by everybody here if you keep it
up. Please reconsider before you self-destruct.

David

In article ,
"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

The way you are going you will be killfiled by everybody here if you keep it
up.

When ignorance is bliss, tis folly to be wise.

Do what you got to do.*

And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of
corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only
one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential
service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.
-* Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels
--
- Billy
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953
http://wn.com/black_panther_party
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_vN0--mHug

"Billy" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

The way you are going you will be killfiled by everybody here if you keep
it
up.

When ignorance is bliss, tis folly to be wise.


No. When trying to get a message over it is folly to shout abuse in your
listener's face because that will ensure they never get the message. You
defeat yourself without the opposition doing a thing. This is religious
behaviour and not rational.

Do what you got to do.


So you don't care if you get killfiled, yet you so desperately want to be
heard. Do you see any contradiction here?

You are like fanatics who stand on street corners in the rain for hours
bearing witness to their faith. They imagine that they are giving people
the opportunity to change their lives for the better, when in fact all they
are doing is getting wet. It's self indulgent and pointless.

David

In article ,
"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

"Billy" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

David, I like you, but, sometimes, what I perceive as your blind spots
make me want to scream.

The way you are going you will be killfiled by everybody here if you keep
it
up.
What? You've taken a vote? (Yes, sarcasm)


When ignorance is bliss, tis folly to be wise.


No. When trying to get a message over it is folly to shout abuse in your
listener's face because that will ensure they never get the message. You
defeat yourself without the opposition doing a thing. This is religious
behaviour and not rational.
He wasn't a listener, he was an accuser. If he had wanted to refute me,
he could have, but he didn't. I'm not thin skinned. If he had wanted to
argue the value of neo-liberalism, we could have left it there, but he
chose to smear me as a propagandist, i.e. a hypocrite. I've done some
investigation into how the U.S. has arrived at it's present state of
crisis, and I've tried to reflect what I've learned. Which is why I
document my quotes. If my perception of reality is offensive to you, I
think you should kill file me. We have a coup d'etat going on in the
U.S., where already 90% of the media is in corporate hands.
[As the New Yorker's former press critic, A.J. Liebling, famously said,
"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." Perhaps
that quotation is framed somewhere in a boardroom at the General
Electric Corp., which owns NBC News.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thecut...s-mum-on-ges-0
-tax-bill]
To clarify this point, I should point out that G.E. is also a weapons
manufacturer, who has paid no taxes for the last 2 years in spite of
robust profits of $14.2 billion worldwide. So don't look to mass media
news to find out if the neo-liberals* are coming.

They have been very quiet on the subjects of police blocking entrances
to public buildings, and legislation being conducted in secret.

Do what you got to do.
That wasn't a command.


So you don't care if you get killfiled, yet you so desperately want to be
heard. Do you see any contradiction here?
There are others who share the vision of America being pillaged. There
are those who don't want to be bothered, and there are those who don't
want it mentioned.

If I am in a cinema and see a fire and shout,"FIRE", I'm not going to be
too concerned with some guy who says,"Pipe down, I'm trying to watch the
movie".

You are like fanatics who stand on street corners in the rain for hours
bearing witness to their faith.
Now, there you go again, characterizing me. Normally this would be
called an ad hominem attack. Why would you do that? Too lazy to use
logic or facts? In any event, all analogies fall apart at some point,
because they aren't the reality.

They imagine that they are giving people
the opportunity to change their lives for the better, when in fact all they
are doing is getting wet. It's self indulgent and pointless.
The second shoe drops. You do see what you are doing, don't you?

To sum up, I give my point of view, and I give supporting citations.
You could argue that this isn't the proper place to express my views,
but in this case, it was where my credibility was called into question.

David


*What is neoliberalism? In his Brief History of Neoliberalism, the
eminent social geographer David Harvey outlined "a theory of political
economic practices that proposes that human well-being can best be
advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills
within an institutional framework characterised by strong private
property rights, free markets, and free trade." Neoliberal states
guarantee, by force if necessary, the "proper functioning" of markets;
where markets do not exist (for example, in the use of land, water,
education, health care, social security, or environmental pollution),
then the state should create them.

Guaranteeing the sanctity of markets is supposed to be the limit of
legitimate state functions, and state interventions should always be
subordinate to markets. All human behavior, and not just the production
of goods and services, can be reduced to market transactions.
---

The main points of neo-liberalism include:
1. THE RULE OF THE MARKET. Liberating "free" enterprise or private
enterprise from any bonds imposed by the government (the state) no
matter how much social damage this causes. Greater openness to
international trade and investment, as in NAFTA. Reduce wages by
de-unionizing workers and eliminating workers' rights that had been won
over many years of struggle. No more price controls. All in all, total
freedom of movement for capital, goods and services. To convince us this
is good for us, they say "an unregulated market is the best way to
increase economic growth, which will ultimately benefit everyone." It's
like Reagan's "supply-side" and "trickle-down" economics -- but somehow
the wealth didn't trickle down very much.

2. CUTTING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE FOR SOCIAL SERVICES like education and
health care. REDUCING THE SAFETY-NET FOR THE POOR, and even maintenance
of roads, bridges, water supply -- again in the name of reducing
government's role. Of course, they don't oppose government subsidies and
tax benefits for business.

3. DEREGULATION. Reduce government regulation of everything that
could diminsh profits, including protecting the environmentand safety on
the job.

4. PRIVATIZATION. Sell state-owned enterprises, goods and services to
private investors. This includes banks, key industries, railroads, toll
highways, electricity, schools, hospitals and even fresh water. Although
usually done in the name of greater efficiency, which is often needed,
privatization has mainly had the effect of concentrating wealth even
more in a few hands and making the public pay even more for its needs.

5. ELIMINATING THE CONCEPT OF "THE PUBLIC GOOD" or "COMMUNITY" and
replacing it with "individual responsibility." Pressuring the poorest
people in a society to find solutions to their lack of health care,
education and social security all by themselves -- then blaming them, if
they fail, as "lazy."
---

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/business/28wages.html
August 28, 2006
Real Wages Fail to Match a Rise in Productivity

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/op...r=1&ref=bobher
bert
the Economic Policy Institute has reported, the richest 10 percent of
Americans received an unconscionable 100 percent of the average income
growth in the years 2000 to 2007
---

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein
http://www.amazon.com/Shock-Doctrine...ism/dp/0312427
999/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300208360&sr=1-1
(Available at better libraries near you.)

Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of
Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang
http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Samaritans...lism/dp/B001P3
OMQY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301174163&sr=1-1
(Available at better libraries near you.)
--
- Billy
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953
http://wn.com/black_panther_party
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_vN0--mHug

In article
,
Billy wrote:

2. CUTTING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE FOR SOCIAL SERVICES like education and
health care. REDUCING THE SAFETY-NET FOR THE POOR, and even maintenance
of roads, bridges, water supply -- again in the name of reducing
government's role. Of course, they don't oppose government subsidies and
tax benefits for business.

Well that off topic out of print book I posted "We're number one" which
is out of print is so simple and so easy to understand I wonder if
anyone will read it.

A token dealing with education circa 1989.

US is Number one in compulsory education.
US is number one in funding to private education.
US is 17 in monies to public education.

This from a pool of 19 industrialized countries.

Want more find the book.

--
Bill S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden

"The best fertilizer is the gardener's shadow." - Anon

David,

What can you say?

Neither of these two lil Walter Mitty Bolsheviks have a clue. Not
likely they will anytime in the future either.

"Billy" wrote in message
"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

When trying to get a message over it is folly to shout abuse in your
listener's face because that will ensure they never get the message. You
defeat yourself without the opposition doing a thing. This is religious
behaviour and not rational.

He wasn't a listener, he was an accuser. (snip)
If my perception of reality is offensive to you, I
think you should kill file me.

Why don't you think about using your own killfile rather than arguing with
people who you find offensive or irritating?

This is after all a gardening group and unfortuantely there is less and less
gardening disussion every week. It's getting to the point where it's almost
not worth reading these days.

"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote in message
...
"Billy" wrote in message
"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

When trying to get a message over it is folly to shout abuse in your
listener's face because that will ensure they never get the message.
You
defeat yourself without the opposition doing a thing. This is religious
behaviour and not rational.

He wasn't a listener, he was an accuser. (snip)
If my perception of reality is offensive to you, I
think you should kill file me.

Why don't you think about using your own killfile rather than arguing with
people who you find offensive or irritating?

This is after all a gardening group and unfortuantely there is less and
less gardening disussion every week. It's getting to the point where it's
almost not worth reading these days.

I couldn't agree more. The current population of "political evangelists" and
arrogant academics is quite disconcerting. We used to ask and answer
gardening questions in an attempt to help ourselves and others produce food.
Today almost everyone wants to get up on their soapbox and preach their new
religion or answer questions from a book (rather than actual experience).
This group is slowly dying, it's a real shame.
Steve

In article ,
"Steve Peek" wrote:

"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote in message
...
"Billy" wrote in message
"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

When trying to get a message over it is folly to shout abuse in your
listener's face because that will ensure they never get the message.
You
defeat yourself without the opposition doing a thing. This is religious
behaviour and not rational.

He wasn't a listener, he was an accuser. (snip)
If my perception of reality is offensive to you, I
think you should kill file me.

Why don't you think about using your own killfile rather than arguing with
people who you find offensive or irritating?

This is after all a gardening group and unfortuantely there is less and
less gardening disussion every week. It's getting to the point where it's
almost not worth reading these days.

I couldn't agree more. The current population of "political evangelists" and
arrogant academics is quite disconcerting. We used to ask and answer
gardening questions in an attempt to help ourselves and others produce food.
Today almost everyone wants to get up on their soapbox and preach their new
religion or answer questions from a book (rather than actual experience).
This group is slowly dying, it's a real shame.
Steve

I agree, without this continuous piling-on we could have moved on to
gardening matters instead of turning mole hills into mountains, just so
someone else could voice THEIR opinion. It's a real pity.

Steve, what are you doing different this year in your garden? What
problems are you trying to fix. Fran, how did your garden do this year?
What did you learn? What will you do different next year?

It almost made me ill yesterday to be pulling potato plants out of the
bed in which they grew last year. I had no idea that potatoes could be
so invasive. They have been moved to another bed that is less ideal, but
that is where they will remain. Growing so many varieties of Solanaceae
(potatoes, tomatoes, peppers) that it's difficult to get any kind of
crop rotation going.

Our tomatoes have germinated, as have the squash (zukes and crooks), and
brocolli. Peas are in the ground and we're about to plant more to fill
in one trellis and start another. Some of the peas have died. Not sure
if it's lack of water, or insects, but most are fine. Had our first
serving of Swiss chard. I think I over did it with my attempts to gussy
it up with bacon and onion.

Need to do some weeding today. It's mostly henbit. I'm hoping to make a
salad from some of the kill, along with dandelion and stinging nettle.
My other weeds are also mint (spear & pepper). They make my tisanes
(hawthorn, yarrow) taste more drinkable as I don't use honey.

OK, who's next? Don't be bashful. We got a gardening group to run here,
right? ;O)




If you like weekends (8 hr./day & 40 hr./week), then thank a labor union.
They paid for it in blood. Real working class heros.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair

http://www.timeagan.com/MT/Deep%20Cover/
=
--
- Billy
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8559254-11yearold-takes-on-genetically-modified-food-producers-video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_vN0--mHug

"Billy" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Steve Peek" wrote:

"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote in message
...
"Billy" wrote in message
"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

When trying to get a message over it is folly to shout abuse in your
listener's face because that will ensure they never get the message.
You
defeat yourself without the opposition doing a thing. This is
religious
behaviour and not rational.

He wasn't a listener, he was an accuser. (snip)
If my perception of reality is offensive to you, I
think you should kill file me.

Why don't you think about using your own killfile rather than arguing
with
people who you find offensive or irritating?

This is after all a gardening group and unfortuantely there is less and
less gardening disussion every week. It's getting to the point where
it's
almost not worth reading these days.

I couldn't agree more. The current population of "political evangelists"
and
arrogant academics is quite disconcerting. We used to ask and answer
gardening questions in an attempt to help ourselves and others produce
food.
Today almost everyone wants to get up on their soapbox and preach their
new
religion or answer questions from a book (rather than actual experience).
This group is slowly dying, it's a real shame.
Steve

I agree, without this continuous piling-on we could have moved on to
gardening matters instead of turning mole hills into mountains, just so
someone else could voice THEIR opinion. It's a real pity.

Steve, what are you doing different this year in your garden? What
problems are you trying to fix. Fran, how did your garden do this year?
What did you learn? What will you do different next year?

It almost made me ill yesterday to be pulling potato plants out of the
bed in which they grew last year. I had no idea that potatoes could be
so invasive. They have been moved to another bed that is less ideal, but
that is where they will remain. Growing so many varieties of Solanaceae
(potatoes, tomatoes, peppers) that it's difficult to get any kind of
crop rotation going.

Our tomatoes have germinated, as have the squash (zukes and crooks), and
brocolli. Peas are in the ground and we're about to plant more to fill
in one trellis and start another. Some of the peas have died. Not sure
if it's lack of water, or insects, but most are fine. Had our first
serving of Swiss chard. I think I over did it with my attempts to gussy
it up with bacon and onion.

Need to do some weeding today. It's mostly henbit. I'm hoping to make a
salad from some of the kill, along with dandelion and stinging nettle.
My other weeds are also mint (spear & pepper). They make my tisanes
(hawthorn, yarrow) taste more drinkable as I don't use honey.

OK, who's next? Don't be bashful. We got a gardening group to run here,
right? ;O)




If you like weekends (8 hr./day & 40 hr./week), then thank a labor union.
They paid for it in blood. Real working class heros.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair

http://www.timeagan.com/MT/Deep%20Cover/
=
--
- Billy
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired
signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not
fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not
spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius
of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at
all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on
a cross of iron.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8559254-11yearold-takes-on-genetically-modified-food-producers-video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_vN0--mHug

Well, let's see. The fall planted garlic is about 18 inches tall. I've never
grown hardneck garlic and am greatly looking forward to the scapes. The
Candy onions from Dixondale Farms are growing well. I planted 2 bunches.
There were supposed to be 60 plants per bunch & I ended up with 234 plants.
(if you grow sweet onions & don't deal with these folks you're messing up)
I've got a 40 foot row of spinach that's starting to get true leaves. I've
always had germination with spinach, but not this year! The beets are just
starting to show, no sign of the parsnips yet, Cabbage is growing well & I'm
still waiting on the mache to sprout. This is my first time ever for mache,
so I don't know quite what to expect.

I've got the prettiest row ever of sugar snap peas. They're only a couple of
inches tall, but I see a trellis in the near future. The tomatoes under the
grow light are just starting to show the first true leaf. Only a few peppers
have sprouted, I'll start more peppers and eggplant next week. I've got a
whole flat of bibb and romaine lettuce ready to go in, but it rained last
night and the ground is too wet.

I don't know if I've ever posted here, but I'm an advocate of eating your
weeds. Like Billy, I have henbit in the garden now along with chickweed,
upland cress and violets. I occasionally teach an edible plants class and am
always amazed at the number of people who would starve while sitting in a
patch of food.

I got a great buy on some thornless blackberry plant early this spring &
they are starting to grow. The apples are blooming, The bees are working
like mad, the blueberries are about a week out. I picked about 2 pounds of
morels yesterday and will go for some ramps (wild leeks) this week. Life is
good (if way too busy) this time of year!

Steve

"Billy" wrote in message

Fran, how did your garden do this year?

It was a so so year (but then isn't every year like that for some crop or
other?).

The plants that like the heat didn't do as well as they should have as we've
had a coolish summer. The tomatoes are only now turning ripe and coming off
the bushes in any decent number and we're now well into autumn. The
zucchinis didn't try to strangle us in our beds and I didn't have a huge
glut to split and give to the chooks. We did have a glut of Lebanese
cucumbers but I suspect that the reason why this happened is because they've
now self seeded themselves for a few years and so are used to our climate.
The fruit (prunes/plums, nectarines, peaches, apples, quinces and pears)
have all done brilliantly and we have had a bumper year to the poitn where
I'm sick of dealign with the harvest.

What did you learn? What will you do different next year?

Look after the trees better, get planting more veg earlier. Try to be more
organised and focus more at the right time of year.

It almost made me ill yesterday to be pulling potato plants out of the
bed in which they grew last year. I had no idea that potatoes could be
so invasive.

:-)) Yup. I've still got Purple Congo spuds coming up in a place where I
planted them at least 10 years ago.

They have been moved to another bed that is less ideal, but
that is where they will remain. Growing so many varieties of Solanaceae
(potatoes, tomatoes, peppers) that it's difficult to get any kind of
crop rotation going.

Our tomatoes have germinated, as have the squash (zukes and crooks), and
brocolli. Peas are in the ground and we're about to plant more to fill
in one trellis and start another. Some of the peas have died. Not sure
if it's lack of water, or insects, but most are fine. Had our first
serving of Swiss chard. I think I over did it with my attempts to gussy
it up with bacon and onion.

Need to do some weeding today. It's mostly henbit. I'm hoping to make a
salad from some of the kill, along with dandelion and stinging nettle.
My other weeds are also mint (spear & pepper). They make my tisanes
(hawthorn, yarrow) taste more drinkable as I don't use honey.

I just like the mint on it's own in 'tea' form.

OK, who's next? Don't be bashful. We got a gardening group to run here,
right? ;O)

Well David and I can sit back and put our feet up and read our gardening
catalogues or chew the fat. You northern hemisphereans will be very busy.

I guess if Billy wants to talk about gardening I'll take him out of
the bozo-bin.

Hope this isn't a fluke-- it is the start of a good trend,

On Sun, 10 Apr 2011 13:57:30 -0400, "Steve Peek"
wrote:


"Billy" wrote in message
-snip-
Steve, what are you doing different this year in your garden? What
problems are you trying to fix. Fran, how did your garden do this year?
What did you learn? What will you do different next year?

It almost made me ill yesterday to be pulling potato plants out of the
bed in which they grew last year. I had no idea that potatoes could be
so invasive. They have been moved to another bed that is less ideal, but
that is where they will remain. Growing so many varieties of Solanaceae
(potatoes, tomatoes, peppers) that it's difficult to get any kind of
crop rotation going.

Our tomatoes have germinated, as have the squash (zukes and crooks), and
brocolli. Peas are in the ground and we're about to plant more to fill
in one trellis and start another. Some of the peas have died. Not sure
if it's lack of water, or insects, but most are fine. Had our first
serving of Swiss chard. I think I over did it with my attempts to gussy
it up with bacon and onion.

Need to do some weeding today. It's mostly henbit. I'm hoping to make a
salad from some of the kill, along with dandelion and stinging nettle.
My other weeds are also mint (spear & pepper). They make my tisanes
(hawthorn, yarrow) taste more drinkable as I don't use honey.

OK, who's next? Don't be bashful. We got a gardening group to run here,
right? ;O)

-snip-

Well, let's see. The fall planted garlic is about 18 inches tall. I've never
grown hardneck garlic and am greatly looking forward to the scapes. The
Candy onions from Dixondale Farms are growing well. I planted 2 bunches.
There were supposed to be 60 plants per bunch & I ended up with 234 plants.
(if you grow sweet onions & don't deal with these folks you're messing up)
I've got a 40 foot row of spinach that's starting to get true leaves. I've
always had germination with spinach, but not this year! The beets are just
starting to show, no sign of the parsnips yet, Cabbage is growing well & I'm
still waiting on the mache to sprout. This is my first time ever for mache,
so I don't know quite what to expect.

I've got the prettiest row ever of sugar snap peas. They're only a couple of
inches tall, but I see a trellis in the near future. The tomatoes under the
grow light are just starting to show the first true leaf. Only a few peppers
have sprouted, I'll start more peppers and eggplant next week. I've got a
whole flat of bibb and romaine lettuce ready to go in, but it rained last
night and the ground is too wet.

I don't know if I've ever posted here, but I'm an advocate of eating your
weeds. Like Billy, I have henbit in the garden now along with chickweed,
upland cress and violets. I occasionally teach an edible plants class and am
always amazed at the number of people who would starve while sitting in a
patch of food.

I got a great buy on some thornless blackberry plant early this spring &
they are starting to grow. The apples are blooming, The bees are working
like mad, the blueberries are about a week out. I picked about 2 pounds of
morels yesterday and will go for some ramps (wild leeks) this week. Life is
good (if way too busy) this time of year!



Meanwhile, up in zone 5. . . I put some onion sets in yesterday. I
plant some chard when I get to it.

My second set of peppers are starting to sprout in the basement. A
mouse got the first sprouts. [and I got 2 mice so far] I'm trying
to come up with a plan to warm those seedlings up a bit.

I tried one of those eaves de-icer cables on a thermostat. Epic
fail-- it got hot enough to melt the styrofoam it was sitting on--
and blew a couple holes in the insulation where it was near some
metal. I have an old heating pad-- but it shuts off after 2
hours. I'd like something that will cycle with the lights-- and
don't want to pay the $50 that I see for seed starting heaters.

The war on rabbits has begun. The live trap has removed one and
another is taking the apple from in the trap-- but not past the
trigger.

I have some onions and scallions sprouting in the basement.

Need to plant tomatoes in the basement-- I got lots of colored cherry
tomatoes to play with.

The watercress in the tiny-pond is starting to look edible-- but not
enough of it to keep the algae down. I need to put the UV light in
again.

No weeds in my garden yet-- I miss the purslane that used to be
prolific there.

Jim

The fruit (prunes/plums, nectarines, peaches, apples, quinces and pears)
have all done brilliantly and we have had a bumper year to the poitn where
I'm sick of dealign with the harvest.


If you are not a "teatotaler" learn to make wine. All those fruits make
lovely wine.


Well David and I can sit back and put our feet up and read our gardening
catalogues or chew the fat. You northern hemisphereans will be very busy.

That's for sure, there's not enough hours in the day this time of year.

try www.winepress.us
"Steve Peek" wrote in message
...
The fruit (prunes/plums, nectarines, peaches, apples, quinces and pears)
have all done brilliantly and we have had a bumper year to the poitn
where I'm sick of dealign with the harvest.


If you are not a "teatotaler" learn to make wine. All those fruits make
lovely wine.


Well David and I can sit back and put our feet up and read our gardening
catalogues or chew the fat. You northern hemisphereans will be very
busy.

That's for sure, there's not enough hours in the day this time of year.

In article ,
"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote:

"Billy" wrote in message

Fran, how did your garden do this year?

It was a so so year (but then isn't every year like that for some crop or
other?).

The plants that like the heat didn't do as well as they should have as we've
had a coolish summer. The tomatoes are only now turning ripe and coming off
the bushes in any decent number and we're now well into autumn. The
zucchinis didn't try to strangle us in our beds and I didn't have a huge
glut to split and give to the chooks.
We had the same lack of heat last year, with the same results.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article...729523/1033/ne
ws?Title=Grape-harvest-lagging

We did have a glut of Lebanese
cucumbers but I suspect that the reason why this happened is because they've
now self seeded themselves for a few years and so are used to our climate.
The fruit (prunes/plums, nectarines, peaches, apples, quinces and pears)
have all done brilliantly and we have had a bumper year to the poitn where
I'm sick of dealign with the harvest.
Sounds like winter is coming just in time ;O)

What did you learn? What will you do different next year?

Look after the trees better, get planting more veg earlier. Try to be more
organised and focus more at the right time of year.
I think we could all do well to write that in our gardening helmets
(hats).


It almost made me ill yesterday to be pulling potato plants out of the
bed in which they grew last year. I had no idea that potatoes could be
so invasive.

:-)) Yup. I've still got Purple Congo spuds coming up in a place where I
planted them at least 10 years ago.
The arugula and mustard are also tenacious hanger-oners. I finally was
able to stamp out the arugula, but I can accommodate a certain amount of
mustard to flavor the salads.


They have been moved to another bed that is less ideal, but
that is where they will remain. Growing so many varieties of Solanaceae
(potatoes, tomatoes, peppers) that it's difficult to get any kind of
crop rotation going.

Our tomatoes have germinated, as have the squash (zukes and crooks), and
brocolli. Peas are in the ground and we're about to plant more to fill
in one trellis and start another. Some of the peas have died. Not sure
if it's lack of water, or insects, but most are fine. Had our first
serving of Swiss chard. I think I over did it with my attempts to gussy
it up with bacon and onion.

Need to do some weeding today. It's mostly henbit. I'm hoping to make a
salad from some of the kill, along with dandelion and stinging nettle.
My other weeds are also mint (spear & pepper). They make my tisanes
(hawthorn, yarrow) taste more drinkable as I don't use honey.

I just like the mint on it's own in 'tea' form.
I do too. First I had mint tea "straight" was in a mosque's tea garden,
sitting in the shade on a warm day, but I need to drink my hawthorn and
milk thistle teas (still part of the European Pharmacopoeia), and the
dried stuff is not very alluring. The mint makes the experience more
inviting. I could drink it straight, but I'm supposed to keep my fluid
consumption down.

OK, who's next? Don't be bashful. We got a gardening group to run here,
right? ;O)

Well David and I can sit back and put our feet up and read our gardening
catalogues or chew the fat. You northern hemisphereans will be very busy.

Here's hoping you antipodaleans have a good rest, stay warm, and can
start planning your 2011 gardens.



OK, who's next? Tell us of your gardening hopes and dreams, your
failures and successes, and how you plan on dealing with them this year.
Don't be timid. What may seem to be a small thing to you, can be a big
thing to someone else.

We got a gardening group to run here, so step on up and keep it going.

"All gardeners know better than other gardeners."
- Chinese
right? ;O)
--
- Billy
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8559254-11yearold-takes-on-genetically-modified-food-producers-video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_vN0--mHug