Let's visit..... (Bozeman: real estate, cost of living, estate)

[HoneyLamb]

Yum! Biscuits and gravy, and berries. Oh my! My grandma from the heartland had berries(trees and bushes-diff kinds) at her place when I was a kid. All kinds of fruits and veggies. Nothing like eating right off the vine or branch. The tree out back(a big one) was a mulberry I believe. And she had some hedges in the front(loganberry?). Citrus does great here in AZ. You can harvest your limes 3 or 4 times a year. Berries and tomatoes don't. Way too hot. I think they get burned. And they are puny. Maybe if you grow them on a shaded porch. Speaking of food. Is it safe to keep butter(covered) at room temperature, or does it need to be refridgerated? Keep in mind it's much hotter here. Take care friends in Montana and all over! Might be back to bug you later. I don't have to work until tomorrow. Plus, it's way too hot to go out

[Rickers]

Originally Posted by seven of nine

When Rickers walks by he will tell you some fishing stories

I'm barely walking yet but I do have a fishing boat story.The pic below is of a Coleman Crawdad that I bought for $100 I sold it for $200 then a few months later I bought it back from someone else for $100. A few years later and after a ton of use including running class III rapids with it I traded it for some excavation work. I gave the guy the title but told him I would sign it when the work was done. He did a half ass job so I never signed the title. I had to pay a guy to finish the excavation. The guy with the boat over loaded it (overloaded his head too !) nobody was wearing life vests he had a dog, a large beer cooler, his girlfriend and two kids in it. The wind came up and he floundered for hours in a swamped boat getting cold. He ended up losing his youngest daughter to hypothermia that day and the boat has been in impound for about 4 years now. The sheriff finally asked me to come and get it so it's in my garage right now.
The guy really shouldn't be anywhere near water. Just several weeks ago the same guy drove a sewage truck full of sewage from servicing porta potties as well as fuel right into the Clark Fork River where I think it is still sitting underwater most likely doing a dandy job of spewing pollution into the river.

[HoneyLamb]

Couldn't rep you. Sure is pretty there. Sad about the little girl though.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by HoneyLamb

Citrus does great here in AZ. You can harvest your limes 3 or 4 times a year. Berries and tomatoes don't. Way too hot. I think they get burned. And they are puny. Maybe if you grow them on a shaded porch. Speaking of food. Is it safe to keep butter(covered) at room temperature, or does it need to be refridgerated?

Butter can be out, won't hurt it any, but it will get rancid faster if you don't suck it down a stick a day like I do Here it would melt entirely so I keep it in the fridge. -- It was 89 in my house today, cuz no one can be arsed to replace the pads on the swamp cooler when it's only gotten to 103 this year. This time last year it hit 122 degrees!!

Berries don't like the heat no matter what, but the trick with tomatoes (and melons) in the heat is LOTS of water. Build a birm around each one, about 3 feet across and 6 inches deep, and fill it with water -- as often as every other day, sometimes every day if your soil is sandy and drains fast like mine. (Never let it get really dry more than a couple inches down.) Last time I grew tomatoes here in the high desert, they were straight from Little Shop of Horrors -- HUGE vines, 10-12 feet long, that I'm sure ate passing children! And they produced LOADS of excellent tomatoes, too, all the way up til the hard freeze in November.

Same technique produced a watermelon that weighed 38 pounds, plus enough cantaloupe to keep anyone happy.

Beans need a lot of water in the heat too, but will do well so long as they never really dry out. I dug 'em a ditch and filled it every other day just like with the tomatoes -- got lots of green beans, and didn't do too bad with the lima beans, either. Peas lasted til it hit 110 degrees.

Broccoli was strange. It never headed up, but it did bloom a lot. Contrary to what we're taught, the green flowers were bitter, but after they opened up and looked like a regular bunch of little white flowers, they were sweet as candy!!

But lordy, you shoulda seen my water bill...

[HoneyLamb]

Thanks for all tips Reziac. I'm trying to fix up my mom's place. Garden-wise. The tomatoes are so small here. Citrus is all good. It loves it here in Tucson. We go through the butter(real stuff-not the plastic spread) quite fast too. But, sometimes it lasts a day or so. I should probably keep it in the fridge to be safe. Could not rep you yet. I am afraid to see the next water bill. It started getting real hot this past weekend. Take care. Good night! Honey

[Mt-7]

Originally Posted by jackass

Our two acre garden in the hills west of Helena is doing fine! Heirloom too - good stuff. We'll be selling our produce and eggs on the side of highway 12, west of town. Come by and visit.

Your name!
welcome to the porch, glad to hear there is some local stuff out there, hope business is good!

[Mt-7]

Originally Posted by HoneyLamb

Thanks for all tips Reziac. I'm trying to fix up my mom's place. Garden-wise. The tomatoes are so small here. Citrus is all good. It loves it here in Tucson. We go through the butter(real stuff-not the plastic spread) quite fast too. But, sometimes it lasts a day or so. I should probably keep it in the fridge to be safe. Could not rep you yet. I am afraid to see the next water bill. It started getting real hot this past weekend. Take care. Good night! Honey

HL,
I got your friend request, now about that profile pic Looks familiar?

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by HoneyLamb

Thanks for all tips Reziac. I'm trying to fix up my mom's place. Garden-wise. The tomatoes are so small here. Citrus is all good. It loves it here in Tucson.

Your tomatoes might also need nitrogen. Our soil here (which probably isn't much different from yours) is absolutely nitrogen-deprived (like, NONE) unless it's added by humans, and is so alkali it's off the scale. (The tester thought her equipment was broken, that's how bad it is. The local soils guy says "We don't have soil, we have dirt.") Anyway... add some ammonium sulphate and aged manure and mix it in well down into the ground, a good foot down if you can. If it's too late to get it under the plants, mix it with the soil you use to make the birm -- don't apply more than a little bit directly, cuz it'll burn the plants. It will ooze brown goo and look terrible but the "manure tea" is full of nutrients. Don't use too much manure -- a little goes a long way. Half a bucket per tomato will suffice, and a good sprinkling of sulphate.

I've tried stuff they sell to get the dirt to retain water better, but that just made it soggy which the plants didn't like either, and the top still dried out too fast. Worked better to just use lots of water. Since it drains fast it helps pull the roots down deep too.

Sawdust (NOT from pressboard) also helps but it takes a year or so to break down, and will need some extra nitrogen -- ammonium sulphate again! If you can get elm or ash leaves in the fall, those break down into wonderful soil -- if you don't want to compost 'em, just crush the dried leaves to coarse powder, sift out the stemmy stuff (quarter-inch or even half-inch wire mesh works well), and mix the powder into the dirt. Don't try to use leaves from other trees -- way too many of the ornamentals contain chemicals that inhibit growth by other plants. Oaks are terrible for that.

[HoneyLamb]

Reziac-I really do appreciate all the tips. Not pulling anyone's chain. My mom has dust, not dirt, in Tucson where she lives. I was going to get the soil analyzed. Have to research that. How much? Where to take it? The citrus looks good. Some(not many) yellowish-looking leaves. All the fruit looks great. Worry about termites here apparently. Maybe, I'll have to find a substitute for sawdust or mulch? Take care, I'll talk to all of you soon. I finally got around to posting my picture and profile. Seven's seen it Honey

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by HoneyLamb

My mom has dust, not dirt, in Tucson where she lives. I was going to get the soil analyzed. Have to research that. How much? Where to take it? The citrus looks good. Some(not many) yellowish-looking leaves. All the fruit looks great. Worry about termites here apparently. Maybe, I'll have to find a substitute for sawdust or mulch?

Sounds like your so-called soil is worse than ours, if that's possible! Yeah, if you have termites you can't use sawdust -- we have the same problem here (you can't lay a board on the ground overnight, it'll get infested that fast!) Leaf mulch is okay once it starts to break down, but anything made from wood, and even straw or dead vines or anything like that, will draw termites. You wouldn't think there'd be termites in the desert, but they're everywhere!

You can get soil testing kits at your local garden shop, but I don't bother. My previous tenant did some tests because she was surprised at how poor her garden did... its real problem was not enough water. She was from up north and didn't quite grok how quick heat dries out sand.

Citrus can be touchy, depends on the exact variety used for the rootstock -- you'd have to look it up for whatever you've got. But it usually likes heat and sun. Haven't had much luck with it here, it gets too cold for most rootstock. Grown from seed would do better here (own-root is generally more freeze-resistant) but would have to be protected from the Starving Attack Rabbits until it was a good-sized tree.

There used to be a lemon tree in Bozeman MT, and we had lemons grown from seed in Great Falls too, which goes to show that citrus CAN survive harsh winters!