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Elder Sister

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Posts posted by Elder Sister

  1. On 2/23/2022 at 8:41 PM, Spockydog said:

    I need something that will serve as a horizontal trellis. Something that is light, and will absolutely not stretch, even when supporting kilos of fruit. I'm currently testing a PVC-coated wire mesh panel, but it's relatively heavy, and for all kinds of reasons, I need to find a lighter material.

    From a purely functional perspective, chicken wire would perhaps suffice. But the aesthetics are far from pleasing, and I'm ideally looking for a trellis with three or four-inch squares.

    Will it be visible, always?  Or will the planting cover it?  If it's going to visible always, there are some expensive options if you don't want to build it yourself.  I love some of what Gardener's Supply offers...they're not eyesores, and they're sturdy.  I use their tomato cages that are made of steel rod, and I've used them for nearly 15 years.  I still have all 12 cages and they work great.  

    But if you're planting something like melons that is going to grow quickly and have lots of greenery, I'd do something cheaper.  

    I ordered a bunch of seeds Tuesday and it made me so happy.  I just love Sow True Seed out of North Carolina.  Their stuff never fails to grow well.

  2. 14 hours ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

    No.  No it will not.  I end up having a lot of things that I direct sow (e.g., peas, Okra, beans, cucumbers, carrots, squash, melons, zinnias, cosmos (who am I kidding, the latter are just volunteers from the year before)) and I just buy the rest as seedlings from nurseries.  I sometimes think I should do my own seedlings, but the times I have tried it, I've either killed them with love (over watering, or kitten), or neglect.

    Pre-Bebe, I was great with seedlings.  I'll still do some on the front porch, because it's a Bebe-free zone, but it will have to be early summer stuff because the early spring seedlings will not make it on the back porch.  She will destroy them.  Right now, she's racing back and forth through the house and I have an interview with a prospective employee for our dept. in 10 min.  And I'm supposed to pretend to be professional.  If I shut the door, she will sit outside and wail like a banshee.:bawl:

     

  3. 18 hours ago, Mr. X said:

    Have you listened to The War on Drugs at all? They have some of the same vibe as Kurt Vile (he was a member at one point, so not too surprising). I Don't Live Here Anymore is their latest and it has some great driving around with the windows down vibes.

    I love The War on Drugs, along with Lord Huron.  Both bands are constantly in rotation - great music!

    I adore Kurt Vile because a lot of his songs sound like he's making them up on the spot...like he's just free-thinking aloud or something.  

  4. On 1/27/2022 at 10:01 AM, Astromech said:

    I listened to the episodes in s1. They were all very entertaining. The host, Tyler Mahan Coe is fantastic. I need to catch up on s2.

    I've been listening to a ton of Lucero, with some Drive-By Truckers sprinkled in.

    So, season 3 finished up on C&R - I learned way more than I ever needed to know about Jones, Tammy Wynette, all her husbands...it was a lot.  But so, so good.

    This week I have been listening to Waxahatchee nonstop, along with Kurt Vile.  And for some odd reason, a lot of Louvin Brothers and Buck Owens.  I've got the "Dwight sings Buck" album, but haven't listened yet.  I know it's going to be wonderful.

  5. I just haven't been bit by the gardening bug yet.  I'm going to go Saturday and look at plants and seeds...I'm sure that will start it up.  I'm trying to figure out how to plant seeds since I now have a kitten living in my sun room, which is where I normally have seedlings coming up.  

    She's an absolute terror; I don't see that setup working out this year.

  6. On 2/7/2022 at 7:47 PM, Spockydog said:

    Can anyone recommend a light, non-stretch, environmentally-friendly material for trellis netting?

    What are you looking to do with it?  I've used different things through the years, including chicken wire, but we usually use that for peas/green beans, etc.  

    Gardener's Supply sells some environmentally friendly versions, but they're pricey.  I usually just reuse the chicken wire every year.  I'm cheap and it's not the prettiest in the world, but once the beans and peas take over, you can't see it.

  7. On 2/4/2022 at 12:30 PM, Mlle. Zabzie said:

    I have successfully repotted one orchid.  I have four others that desperately need to be repotted (like real bad), but all four decided to send out bloom stalks before I could get my act in gear.  So, I guess I will do them serially as soon as each stops blooming?  It is a little annoying because I was hoping to do them all at once because I sanitize the pots and everything and only wanted to handle the bleach mixture one time.  Oh well.

    At one point, I had so many orchids - and multiple types.  My favorites are the slipper orchids and the cattleyas.

    I have a big phalaenopsis on top of the refrigerator because darling (demon) cat kept knocking it over when it was on the kitchen table.  So it's just as well that I'm not super into orchids right now.  

  8. There’s a podcast I adore that does a deep dive into 20th century country music; it’s called Cocaine & Rhinestones and it is amazing. This season is all about George Jones and as a consequence I’ve been listening to George as well as a ton of other artists during the same time period, particularly Billy Sherrill-era stuff.  
     

    Somehow, in that mix, I’ve managed to add some Tina Turner (old school with Ike) as well as some Prince and Howling Wolf.  

  9. 6 hours ago, Xray the Enforcer said:

     

    @Elder Sister I cannot wait for us to have very big silver hair (although right now I actually have very short hair, so I will need a couple of years to catch up). 

    My grey hair is even more insane/uncontrollable than the rest of my hairs.  I will eventually look like Ursula from Little Mermaid if it keeps it up, but I kind of dig her, so it's fine.  :D

    I do retinol from Kiehl's and I like the effect, but I have to be careful with it.  I get a similar result using an AHA/BHA cleanser by One Love called Botanical A - I love love love it.  And I love this line...they make good stuff.

  10. On 1/21/2022 at 12:36 PM, Datepalm said:

    Anyone ever tried henna on their hair?

    I tried twice - once leaving it for about 90 minutes, once for four hours - with no visible effect either time. I'm somewhat ginger anyway, but I wanted to go a few shades redder for a not-too-dramatic change. But I'm failing. (Curl definition for days though.)

    So I've tried this stuff called Surya Brasil Henna cream in the Silver Fox color, because I'm a ginger with a lot of grey coming in, and thought it would make me look like the silver fox IG model who was shilling it.  Epic fail.  I couldn't tell it had done anything on my hair.  It did smell nice, though.  I felt very cheated because you're supposed to leave it on for at least an hour and that's an hour of my life I won't get back.  

  11. On 10/5/2021 at 11:26 AM, Fez said:

    ...

    What is a leave-in treatment?

    I use a leave-in conditioner by Aveda that I really like.  I'll look it up and add it here.

     I have yours and X-Ray's type of hair...it was perfect in the 80s.  It's coarse, curly, and will reach the heavens if I so choose.  

    Unfortunately, it's a wee bit dated, and I live in one of the most humid locales on the planet. So it's frizzy.  And out of control.  I struggle with my hair constantly.  I'm starting to embrace it, though, and in spite of filling up the square on video calls, I'm wearing it large and enjoying it more than I used to.  Large hair might not be an option for you, though.  My brother has the same exact hair and keeps his cropped fairly close to his scalp.  It looks very polished and professional.

     

  12. On 9/3/2021 at 7:48 PM, Tywin et al. said:

    I've heard it's even better for your hair. 

    I have never heard that...I have good hair and skin, and I don't drink, but I think I have genetics to thank more than abstinence.  

    I use Erno Laszlo phelityl soap to cleanse after removing makeup with a cleanser.  I also swear by Dr. Hauschka regenerating serum.  

    Everything else I sort of switch up and play with but those two items I am never without.

  13. My dahlias are actually doing okay.  I lost 3 dahlias that were rotted, but the rest of them are hanging in, blooming, starting to bloom, etc., and are looking good.  I've had to spray them with a 3in1 - the deep south is much different from the climates where dahlias seem to thrive.  I hope they'll pull through and do well; I just love them.

    @lady narcissa, you got some bad weather in your area this week!  I was thinking about you - hope you dodged it and all was well.  @Alarich II, I love that saying about the weather.  It's so true!  

  14. So, I just ran in here to gripe.  We got 13 inches of rain in the last seven days, and my lovely dahlias that I have babied, prayed over, sacrificed small animals to...well, they're not doing so great.  I am SICK.  

    Between all the rain and the f@#%#$ Japanese beetles, I am ready to get one of those giant hot air balloon guys and call that a garden.

    So how's your garden doing?

    :bang:

  15. On 5/1/2021 at 5:57 PM, DanteGabriel said:

    Hello, fellow gardeners. Mrs. Gabriel and I spent a few hours today uprooting bittersweet from around our property. Some of it clinging to fences, some of it threatening the black raspberry patch in our front yard. It is endemic to the property. We're going after it before it seeds or flowers. We know we'll never fully eradicate it because it's just so deeply established and the more senior root clusters are so deeply anchored we'd need a backhoe to get them.

    Since we moved here we've been trying to name our house/land. The previous house was Dragonfly Dell because of the amazing dragonfly swarming behavior we'd occasionally see in the sky above our heads in late summer afternoons, and the house sat on a small ridge overlooking a beautiful little dell. So we decided today that this house will be named Bittersweet Farm.

    We hates the bittersweet, preciousss. Kill it with fire!

    Is bittersweet like a vine?  We don’t have it down here. It looks pretty but is obviously invasive.

    I will trade you bittersweet for creeping Charlie. We HATES IT SO MUCH. 

  16. On 4/20/2021 at 7:10 PM, Mlle. Zabzie said:

    I’m sorry-that just seems wrong.  Mind you I think we get that Thursday, but I expect frosts up here until at least mid-May.

    It didn't do anything, thank goodness.  I was so disgusted because two weeks prior, I had covered EVERYTHING and my Dear Dolores hydrangea STILL got burned by the cold.  She's just not happy, period, and I'm thinking I'm going to have to move her.  As much as I like the hybrids, you cannot beat the old-timey, tried and true heirlooms...they just perform so well.

  17. 17 hours ago, lady narcissa said:

    So my potted basil and mint have grown like gangbusters in 2 weeks and are threatening to jump out of their pots and take over the neighboring ones.  Any advice on harvesting from them / thinning them out but not killing them off?  I've only ever had herbs for short term use before, I've never tried to long time sustain them.  I can't move them to larger pots because of limited room but would like to keep them going in their current pots for as long as possible.

    Mint is a total thug - I love it, but the only way to grow it is in the pot.  

    Don't let either start flowering - keep them trimmed and fertilized and they'll stay bushy and gorgeous all summer.  Once basil starts flowering, you have to mercilessly cut it back or it starts getting leggy.

     

  18. 14 minutes ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

    Same here. I also had one friend tell me that he was happy that I reached out; he’s not reaching out to anyone because he’s been a little out of sorts and doesn’t want to get anybody down.

    It has been a tough year for a lot of people, and also time seems weird, if you work from home, as I do. It’s like, “where did the whole damn first quarter go?” And “what day is it, anyways?”

    For some reason, between covid and work from home along with medical issues within my family, I have gotten so strung out and just raw...I don't know how else to describe it.  I tried an antidepressant and hated the way it made me numb so I quit taking it.  the last 4-5 months I've tried to focus on my faith, and doing serious weeding out of the things that add stress/anxiety to my life.  I got rid of some social media accounts, stopped wearing a watch on the days where I can get away with it, quit watching a lot of news, started getting militant about my daily devotional/meditations, and worked on diet and exercise.  It's a lot better, but I still have bouts of bad anxiety sometimes.  I guess everyone does?  I don't know.  Gardening is cranking up, and that always helps tremendously...just being outside and getting to observe birds and critters is therapeutic.  

    Regarding the trust thing...I struggle with that as well.  I try to remind myself that no matter how many times I've been burned, I've also been blessed with staunch friends/family members who haven't done anything but love me and be there.  No, they're not perfect, but neither am I.

    I love the description of a 'social ghost' that @Tothuses.  For me, up until 4-5 years ago, my life was full of relationships where I felt like that.  If I wasn't in front of them, or wasn't doing for them, I didn't exist.  When I got divorced (from the worst offender of this) I did some weeding there as well and got rid of people who made me feel like this.  It was pretty therapeutic.  

  19. @Tears of Lys, I got married about 2 years ago.  He's amazing, thinks I'm amazing, and doesn't mind when I spend $200 on dahlias.  And he's constantly rescuing animals.  He's a dreamboat.  <3  I hope you're doing well - I think about you often!

    I spent the afternoon in the woods yesterday and dug up several buckeyes and wild azaleas on a river bank.  I'm hoping they do well...I'm trying to establish some "natural-ish" looking beds with river rock, different types of wild ferns that I've dug up, and some hostas as well as Lenten roses.  It's coming along.  

    Mr. ES and I also found some tracks that we feel strongly are panther, but that's a subject for another thread.  I suppose.  :D

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