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I had to 'plant' my 16 yr old farm dog today... that was pretty sad. He never seen a leash or fence, and never left home or pooed in the yard. GOOD dog. He was a big help in the garden, he would pick the ripe berries by smelling them. He would never pick a non-ripe fruit!. He also kept a 'DE-militarized' zone around the garden for Moles and varmints. Never needing to dig them in the yard or garden, he never let them get that close! He laid his 'prey' all in a neat little row by the back door.
it's beyond hard to loose an old and trusted friend of any kind---especially the "four-legged" ones who often spend the most time with us and in their own way understand and LOVE us the most and best. having had many pets (and currently have many with us right now---some as old or even a tad older than your special friend) it NEVER gets easier and the tears still come with each and every parting. that said, you have the memories and hopefully you will find another to both help your gardening and heal your heart with new good memories in their own special and unique way.
Last edited by georgeinbandonoregon; 10-05-2015 at 02:07 PM..
Not a darn thing: It looks like rain, but the weather pros say "nope" so I will water the back tomorrow. Then as long as we will be out of town for 10 days, starting a week from Thursday, I think I am going to pick most of the basil and make pesto. I will bring the plant into the garden room to see if I can save it through the winter; if so, great, if not that is the end. I do still have several tomatoes and a little okra that I will worry about later.
The PNW is really a gardener's paradise (I came from the prairie and nursed our few trees for many yrs to get 20'). I now KNOW better! (Master Gardener circa 1984) Commercial grower from 1982 > 1990 (When I moved overseas and enjoyed the unique plants of Asia and Western Europe)[/quote]
the PNW can indeed be a "gardener's paradise" (though folks from the east and south might think the summers too cool and folks from California regard the winters as too cool and most everybody---MISTAKENLY---thinks we're too wet for some reason) but the opportunities are immense to grow a wide variety of plants---especially in my case and place broadleaf evergreen trees and shrubs. in my garden acreage near the south coast of Oregon I've been successful (so far) with a number of eucalyptus, bottlebrushes, grevilleas, and acacias from Australia, pines, cypresses, and evergreen oaks from Mexico, California, and southern Europe, and lots of oddball southern hemisphere stuff (nothofagus, eucryphia, embothrium, araucaria, hoheria), cordyline, from Chile, Argentina, and New Zealand---whatever (after establishment) can tolerate cool DRY summers and cool (generally) WET winters of an essentially maritime climate with essentially schizophrenic "Mediterranean" moisture patterns.
FWIW, fall is generally regarded as a good time for most planting around here---cooler temps, higher humidity, perhaps a little rain---optimum for moving plants from pot to plot as it were with minimum stress. that said, this fall has been exceptionally dry (and our early fall IS normally on the dry side) and the ground that I dig in as I plant even more weird and wacky plants similar to that already mentioned is STILL powder dry and the plants require LOTS of water to settle them in in the first place and likely regular watering thereafter (like every other day for new stuff and every couple of days for plants in containers) until the weather really "breaks" and the fall rains start in earnest---IF they do.
so gardening here in coastal "orygun" continues with one hand on the shovel (planting) and one hand on the hose (watering), one eye looking out trying to avoid running into the barbed wire masses of gorse shrubs that still infest parts of the property and one eye on the sky looking for some clouds and hoping that some filled with real rain will come and share some needed natural "Oregon sunshine" with us.
Last edited by georgeinbandonoregon; 10-05-2015 at 02:08 PM..
Reason: more info.
I had to 'plant' my 16 yr old farm dog today... that was pretty sad. He never seen a leash or fence, and never left home or pooed in the yard. GOOD dog. He was a big help in the garden, he would pick the ripe berries by smelling them. He would never pick a non-ripe fruit!. He also kept a 'DE-militarized' zone around the garden for Moles and varmints. Never needing to dig them in the yard or garden, he never let them get that close! He laid his 'prey' all in a neat little row by the back door.
Georgeinbandonoregon, I am impressed with the success you have with the plants you mentioned. I envy you. I live in the midwest but grew up in the tropical region. There are a lot of plants I'd like to grow but I can't. I have lot of potted plants that I overwinter in my basement. Plants like Hippeastrum and Crinum. I also love Agapanthus but could only grow them in pots. I grow hostas, lilies, irises and peonies in my garden. And as of this time of the year, I am busy with the clean up of my garden. I need to relocate some shade plants like Epimediums because we cut down two big trees in our yard. I finished planting 15 varieties of peonies ordered from a vendor in MN and still waiting for another big order from a vendor in MO. Took a week off from my job to work in my garden. Happy gardening!
Last edited by lovelypeony; 10-05-2015 at 04:52 PM..
Reason: Quote failed to work.
"lovelypeony" sounds like you're more of a "busy bee" right now---which is often what happens in the fall all gardeners all over the place ("tropical" and not so tropical)----as the days SHORTEN the list of garden tasks LENGTHEN, LOL. FWIW, the plants that I'm growing are all capable of handling a certain amount of frost and snow (and they certainly are exposed to at least some kind of relatively cool weather every winter---even in my nominally "zone 9" climate). the Australian eucalyptus, the Mexican pines and evergreen oaks and all the other weird and wacky stuff that I grow is all based on their (at least potential) suitability and potential to grow well under my climatic/environmental conditions (dry cool summers and cool wet winters) with a minimum of care after establishment----I'm too lazy a gardener and have way too many plants spread out over way too much space to have the time, energy, or interest to exert on stuff that may ALWAYS be on "life support" and in need of special care in any season (no matter how pretty or how rare or expensive to obtain they might be). I've had a few sad and a surprising number of pleasant surprises with plants who turn out to be much tougher and more tolerant than one might think "reading" about where they come from and how they grow "at home"----lucky me and lucky them!!!
happy and successful gardening for you and your plants and may you be spared too many sad surprises of your own and most especially too much lower back pain from all that bending us gardeners do tending to our 'babies" in so many ways.
Today I planted my fall garden. I turned over the soil and added fertilizer. I planted a few tomato and pepper plants and my seeds: broccoli, bush green beans, bib lettuce, zucchini. Now if we don't get a frost I'll have some veggies to eat. Otherwise I get to cover everything in December or later. Gardening gets harder every year as I get older.
I cut back a few nicotiana bonariensis and some lavender that were grabbing at the mailman as he walks up to my mailbox. Decorated the front porch for Halloween. Waiting to see how long it takes the squirrels to eat the Indian corn and take bites out of the pumpkins.
In my earlier post I mentioned a clumping bamboo sprout that I found and it was 8" and then two days later it was 18" with leaves sprouting from the top. Today I went to check on my sprout/culm. It's over 10 feet tall now!
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