Miserable morning, light mist falling, low forties temp, warmed up some
by 1500, 47f, no rain, some sunshine. There is hope that spring may be
just around the corner.

Put some compost in the long bed and raked it in. Cleaned out the green
peas and the cabbage from one of the short beds. Will slice up the
cabbage tomorrow and try to turn it into sauerkraut in a bucket. Prefer
that to cooked cabbage on a regular basis. Need to clean out the other
short bed and make some more mix to amend that one and ready it for
planting in mid March to early April. Going to plant some ginger this
year along the back fence, maybe just one joint of ginger planted.
Should provide us with all the ginger we would need for a year or so. I
probably will sugar and dehydrate a bunch of it if we get a crop.
Otherwise the gardens will be the usual, crowder peas, green beans,
tomatoes, peppers, carrots, more lettuce and whatever else strikes our
fancy. We miss the Sulphur garden, spent twenty years amending that dirt
and you just had to toss in some seeds and jump back. Miss the mature
fruit trees too.

Just finished pinching off the blossoms on the new blueberries, gives
the roots a jump in energy and should help to produce a better crop next
year. The pear tree is in bud and should be opening blossoms soon.
Finished picking the last kumquat today. We have been nurturing a small
bed of dewberries that crept under the fence and are now climbing some
string. Lots of dill weed up from last years reseed, and all the other
herbs are doing well too.

Need to weed eat the darned rye grass and try to keep it from seeding. I
hope the dairy farmer two miles away gives up seeding rye grass all the
time as it is a pain to get rid of where it's not wanted. We're just
trying to stay warm and still get things done.

George

George Shirley wrote:
Miserable morning, light mist falling, low forties temp, warmed up
some by 1500, 47f, no rain, some sunshine. There is hope that spring
may be just around the corner.
George

You call that miserable ? We got up to snow on the ground and low 20's ,
snowed all night and all morning and the roads are covered and more of the
same coming our way later this evening , I told the wife to call in to work
.... I grew up driving on snowy roads , but the roads in this area get icy at
a glance and a slide off the road up here could end up slidin' off a
mountain .
My seedlings are doing great , 'maters over 6" tall now . As soon as we
get a break in the weather I'll be bustin' butt to get my hot
box/mini-greenhouse built . I have a growing problem grin .
--
Snag

On 2/28/2015 4:30 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
Miserable morning, light mist falling, low forties temp, warmed up
some by 1500, 47f, no rain, some sunshine. There is hope that spring
may be just around the corner.
George

You call that miserable ? We got up to snow on the ground and low 20's ,
snowed all night and all morning and the roads are covered and more of the
same coming our way later this evening , I told the wife to call in to work
... I grew up driving on snowy roads , but the roads in this area get icy at
a glance and a slide off the road up here could end up slidin' off a
mountain .
My seedlings are doing great , 'maters over 6" tall now . As soon as we
get a break in the weather I'll be bustin' butt to get my hot
box/mini-greenhouse built . I have a growing problem grin .

Only if the holocaust came in the night and I had to run for a cold area
or die would I ever spend a winter where it freezes more than once. I
learned that I don't like cold at all many, many years ago up along the
Arctic ice in the North Atlantic. I was fifty odd years younger then and
the old me still doesn't like it.

I should have run off to Belize when I came back from Saudi in 1986 and
the wife said we had to live close to the kids. Land in Belize back then
was fairly cheap and I would still be living where it never gets cold,
seldom has hurricanes, and the fishing is great.

We are supposed to be getting up to about 80F this coming week and I
hope, for once, that the weather heads are right.

George

On 2/28/2015 4:58 PM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

Miserable morning, light mist falling, low forties temp, warmed up some
by 1500, 47f, no rain, some sunshine. There is hope that spring may be
just around the corner.
We're have semi-miserable weather, here, I guess you'd say. Couple
of cloudy days followed by a wet day (today). Temps, though, are
warm-to-mild with no hovel heat needed. Little going on in the garden
because I just don't any longer enjoy working outdoors in crappy
weather, although, there was a time....

Been there, done that, working in the garden when in my twenties just
wearing a swim suit and a straw hat, raining like hell and I was still
happy. Wife and kids stood in the garage and watched the crazy man
harvesting tomatoes and sweet chiles and grinning while he was doing it.
Not sure I would do that at my advanced age now though, probably catch a
cold and croak.

On Sat, 28 Feb 2015 16:30:57 -0600, "Terry Coombs"
wrote:

George Shirley wrote:
Miserable morning, light mist falling, low forties temp, warmed up
some by 1500, 47f, no rain, some sunshine. There is hope that spring
may be just around the corner.
George

You call that miserable ? We got up to snow on the ground and low 20's ,
snowed all night and all morning and the roads are covered and more of the
same coming our way later this evening , I told the wife to call in to work
... I grew up driving on snowy roads , but the roads in this area get icy at
a glance and a slide off the road up here could end up slidin' off a
mountain .
My seedlings are doing great , 'maters over 6" tall now . As soon as we
get a break in the weather I'll be bustin' butt to get my hot
box/mini-greenhouse built . I have a growing problem grin .

Today was the first day that I could get to the greenhouse, what with
snow 3 times in the past 2 weeks and temps ranging from 3°F to about
30°F. DH was not the most prompt about getting the steps and walks
cleared. To top it off the germination on the onion and spinach seeds
was poor. Got them moved to the next size tray. Tomorrow I will
start some lettuce and herbs. In another week, probably tomatoes and
cucumbers. I think my vegetables will be set out late, seeing as how
the weather has started off so bad this year.

The garden will be small. My back is recovering but I can't predict
what I will feel like in May. Things that have not prospered in the
past do not get a chance this year. Got to go see what the rhubarb is
doing if anything.

Here's hoping this year will be successful for everyone.
--
USA
North Carolina Foothills
USDA Zone 7a
To find your extension office
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/index.html

Once upon a time on usenet Terry Coombs wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
Miserable morning, light mist falling, low forties temp, warmed up
some by 1500, 47f, no rain, some sunshine. There is hope that spring
may be just around the corner.
George

You call that miserable ? We got up to snow on the ground and low
20's , snowed all night and all morning and the roads are covered and
more of the same coming our way later this evening , I told the wife
to call in to work ... I grew up driving on snowy roads , but the
roads in this area get icy at a glance and a slide off the road up
here could end up slidin' off a mountain .
My seedlings are doing great , 'maters over 6" tall now . As soon as
we get a break in the weather I'll be bustin' butt to get my hot
box/mini-greenhouse built . I have a growing problem grin .

You call that miserable? Here just south of Auckland New Zealand it's over
30ºC both outside and inside my house and very humid. It's too hot to do any
gardening other than the 'must do' things in this weather like water the
newly-grafted, newly sprouted citrus grafts (on Flying Dragon rootstock to
dwarf the trees).

I'll water the tomatoes etc. after midnight when it's cool enough to move a
bit without sweating so much I have to shower every other hour.

I'd really like to be gardening, instead I'm sat here in front of a fan.
It's too hot to even finishing up my LED growlight that I'm making. I've
soldered the emitters onto 'star' bases, marked, drilled and tapped the
hestsink they'll be screwed to - I just need to solder all the wires to each
emitter and back to a connector and do final assembly with heat transfer
paste. However I don't want to be weilding a 400ºC soldering iron in this
weather.

I've finally decided I have to have a decent energy efficient grow light.
Not so much for starting seedlings but for rooting cuttings. With these
hotter summers of late it's very difficult to regulate the right amount of
light for cuttings in a 'humidity chamber' using the sun as a source without
them getting far too hot.

I've wasted a lot of time this season taking (mainly tree) cuttings and
trying to get them to root only to have them wilt and/or rot. It never used
to be like this! Next season I'm going to use the growlight for some and
air-layer others. Air-layering works really well but it's far more work than
cut, snip, dip and pot. :-/
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a
cozy little classification in the DSM."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)

On 2/28/2015 9:04 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
Once upon a time on usenet Terry Coombs wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
Miserable morning, light mist falling, low forties temp, warmed up
some by 1500, 47f, no rain, some sunshine. There is hope that spring
may be just around the corner.
George

You call that miserable ? We got up to snow on the ground and low
20's , snowed all night and all morning and the roads are covered and
more of the same coming our way later this evening , I told the wife
to call in to work ... I grew up driving on snowy roads , but the
roads in this area get icy at a glance and a slide off the road up
here could end up slidin' off a mountain .
My seedlings are doing great , 'maters over 6" tall now . As soon as
we get a break in the weather I'll be bustin' butt to get my hot
box/mini-greenhouse built . I have a growing problem grin .

You call that miserable? Here just south of Auckland New Zealand it's over
30ºC both outside and inside my house and very humid. It's too hot to do any
gardening other than the 'must do' things in this weather like water the
newly-grafted, newly sprouted citrus grafts (on Flying Dragon rootstock to
dwarf the trees).

I'll water the tomatoes etc. after midnight when it's cool enough to move a
bit without sweating so much I have to shower every other hour.

I'd really like to be gardening, instead I'm sat here in front of a fan.
It's too hot to even finishing up my LED growlight that I'm making. I've
soldered the emitters onto 'star' bases, marked, drilled and tapped the
hestsink they'll be screwed to - I just need to solder all the wires to each
emitter and back to a connector and do final assembly with heat transfer
paste. However I don't want to be weilding a 400ºC soldering iron in this
weather.

I've finally decided I have to have a decent energy efficient grow light.
Not so much for starting seedlings but for rooting cuttings. With these
hotter summers of late it's very difficult to regulate the right amount of
light for cuttings in a 'humidity chamber' using the sun as a source without
them getting far too hot.

I've wasted a lot of time this season taking (mainly tree) cuttings and
trying to get them to root only to have them wilt and/or rot. It never used
to be like this! Next season I'm going to use the growlight for some and
air-layer others. Air-layering works really well but it's far more work than
cut, snip, dip and pot. :-/

You poor soul, I've been walking around all day in long sweat pants, a
long-sleeved shirt, and a sweater on. While working on the blueberry
blossoms I was also wearing a nice coat and my Peruvian beret, knitted
from llama wool, and was still cold. I miss the Arabian Peninsula and
the 125F days and 90F nights.

I was grafting rose bushes in the growing field when I was twelve, that
was enough for me, haven't done a lot of grafting since except for a
couple of pear trees a few years ago. I generally air layer for various
rosemary plants.

Your LED grow light sounds handy for what you need. I am slowly moving
to LED everywhere on the property for better efficiency, longer life,
and lower electric bills.

On 1/03/2015 11:24 AM, The Cook wrote:
On Sat, 28 Feb 2015 16:30:57 -0600, "Terry Coombs"
wrote:

George Shirley wrote:
Miserable morning, light mist falling, low forties temp, warmed up
some by 1500, 47f, no rain, some sunshine. There is hope that spring
may be just around the corner.
George

You call that miserable ? We got up to snow on the ground and low 20's ,
snowed all night and all morning and the roads are covered and more of the
same coming our way later this evening , I told the wife to call in to work
... I grew up driving on snowy roads , but the roads in this area get icy at
a glance and a slide off the road up here could end up slidin' off a
mountain .
My seedlings are doing great , 'maters over 6" tall now . As soon as we
get a break in the weather I'll be bustin' butt to get my hot
box/mini-greenhouse built . I have a growing problem grin .

Today was the first day that I could get to the greenhouse, what with
snow 3 times in the past 2 weeks and temps ranging from 3°F to about
30°F. DH was not the most prompt about getting the steps and walks
cleared. To top it off the germination on the onion and spinach seeds
was poor. Got them moved to the next size tray. Tomorrow I will
start some lettuce and herbs. In another week, probably tomatoes and
cucumbers. I think my vegetables will be set out late, seeing as how
the weather has started off so bad this year.

The garden will be small. My back is recovering but I can't predict
what I will feel like in May. Things that have not prospered in the
past do not get a chance this year. Got to go see what the rhubarb is
doing if anything.

Here's hoping this year will be successful for everyone.


It has been so far but then we get ANOTHER summer before the end of the
year.

Once upon a time on usenet George Shirley wrote:
On 2/28/2015 9:04 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
Once upon a time on usenet Terry Coombs wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
Miserable morning, light mist falling, low forties temp, warmed up
some by 1500, 47f, no rain, some sunshine. There is hope that
spring may be just around the corner.
George

You call that miserable ? We got up to snow on the ground and low
20's , snowed all night and all morning and the roads are covered
and more of the same coming our way later this evening , I told the
wife to call in to work ... I grew up driving on snowy roads , but
the roads in this area get icy at a glance and a slide off the road
up here could end up slidin' off a mountain .
My seedlings are doing great , 'maters over 6" tall now . As soon
as we get a break in the weather I'll be bustin' butt to get my hot
box/mini-greenhouse built . I have a growing problem grin .

You call that miserable? Here just south of Auckland New Zealand
it's over 30ºC both outside and inside my house and very humid. It's
too hot to do any gardening other than the 'must do' things in this
weather like water the newly-grafted, newly sprouted citrus grafts
(on Flying Dragon rootstock to dwarf the trees).

I'll water the tomatoes etc. after midnight when it's cool enough to
move a bit without sweating so much I have to shower every other
hour. I'd really like to be gardening, instead I'm sat here in front of a
fan. It's too hot to even finishing up my LED growlight that I'm
making. I've soldered the emitters onto 'star' bases, marked,
drilled and tapped the hestsink they'll be screwed to - I just need
to solder all the wires to each emitter and back to a connector and
do final assembly with heat transfer paste. However I don't want to
be weilding a 400ºC soldering iron in this weather.

I've finally decided I have to have a decent energy efficient grow
light. Not so much for starting seedlings but for rooting cuttings.
With these hotter summers of late it's very difficult to regulate
the right amount of light for cuttings in a 'humidity chamber' using
the sun as a source without them getting far too hot.

I've wasted a lot of time this season taking (mainly tree) cuttings
and trying to get them to root only to have them wilt and/or rot. It
never used to be like this! Next season I'm going to use the
growlight for some and air-layer others. Air-layering works really
well but it's far more work than cut, snip, dip and pot. :-/

You poor soul, I've been walking around all day in long sweat pants, a
long-sleeved shirt, and a sweater on. While working on the blueberry
blossoms I was also wearing a nice coat and my Peruvian beret, knitted
from llama wool, and was still cold. I miss the Arabian Peninsula and
the 125F days and 90F nights.

I'll take too cold over too hot (for comfort) any day of the week. It's
easier (and legal!) to keep putting clothes on than keep taking them off.
It's can sometimes afford a bit of heat in my home - there's no AC.

I was grafting rose bushes in the growing field when I was twelve,
that was enough for me, haven't done a lot of grafting since except
for a couple of pear trees a few years ago. I generally air layer for
various rosemary plants.

A few pleasant years of my youth were spent working in vineyards and
wineries and I spent many a day at the grafting benches, bench-grafting wine
grape varieties onto phyloxera resistant rootstocks. That was over 30 years
ago and I haven't grafted since. Bud grafting is a whole other ball-game to
bench grafting.

Your LED grow light sounds handy for what you need. I am slowly moving
to LED everywhere on the property for better efficiency, longer life,
and lower electric bills.

Every source of light in my home is LED and has been for a couple of years
now. The council even replaced the old sodium-vapour street light outside my
place with an LED street light a few weeks back. It's amazing, instead of
there being a circular pool of orange light that shone as much onto my
bedroom curtains as anywhere there's directed white light onto the road and
footpaths. I asked to see the light as they were replacing it because I'm
nosy. g

It has a very clever system of TIR optics that directs the light evenly
below the light and up and down the street, there's almost no spill-over
off-road on either side. Also, as there's no light shining upwards (or even
horizontally, the LEDs are recessed) I get to see the stars again! The lamp
they removed was an 80w unit, dull and ugly. The replacement LED lamp is 32w
(16 x 2w emmiters powered by a Philips potted 32w driver) and it lights the
areas that need to be lit so much better. There isn't the large pools of
darkness between lamps any more. Brilliant!
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a
cozy little classification in the DSM."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)

Once upon a time on usenet Derald wrote:
"~misfit~" wrote:

You call that miserable?
Miserably cold or chilly, that is.

Here just south of Auckland New Zealand it's over 30ºC both outside
and inside my house and very humid.
30°C is the typical late summer temperature range (inside and out)
where I live in Florida, USA, and I love it!

I was born in England and spent my childhood there. Even in winter I was
very warm. Long after it was necessary my mother would hold my hand when she
walked us to school because my hands were always warm. Then my parents
bought me to a fairly hot climate and I've never been comfortable in summers
since - I used to love them! Now I like autumn for the temperature but alas,
the plants are all dying back then.

Since FL is a narrow
peninsula, the humidiy is a constant but it does not approach what one
experiences further north along the US "mid-Atlantic" seaboard.

I met a guy on-line who's in FL. He works outside all day removing old
fronds from palm trees and the like for the council and is brown as a nut!

No, not a lot of gardening going on at those temps, although, okra,
eggplant and a few other "heat lovers" continue to thrive. In this
climate, the gardening year begins in Sept-Oct. (depending on
temperatures) and begins to fade in late June, early July.
The only cuttings I take are from tomatoes and rooting them is pure
zydeco: Just poke them in the ground and keep them moist. I
occasionally cover them with a cloche fashioned from a translucent
plastic one-gallon milk jug.

Yeah, I can do that too but, being an invalid with linited mobility, I
prefer to do most of my propogating close to the house and at bench level. I
put them in the ground when they have enough roots so thay can manage
without me keeping them moist too regularly.
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a
cozy little classification in the DSM."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)

On 3/2/2015 5:02 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
Once upon a time on usenet George Shirley wrote:
On 2/28/2015 9:04 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
Once upon a time on usenet Terry Coombs wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
Miserable morning, light mist falling, low forties temp, warmed up
some by 1500, 47f, no rain, some sunshine. There is hope that
spring may be just around the corner.
George

You call that miserable ? We got up to snow on the ground and low
20's , snowed all night and all morning and the roads are covered
and more of the same coming our way later this evening , I told the
wife to call in to work ... I grew up driving on snowy roads , but
the roads in this area get icy at a glance and a slide off the road
up here could end up slidin' off a mountain .
My seedlings are doing great , 'maters over 6" tall now . As soon
as we get a break in the weather I'll be bustin' butt to get my hot
box/mini-greenhouse built . I have a growing problem grin .

You call that miserable? Here just south of Auckland New Zealand
it's over 30ºC both outside and inside my house and very humid. It's
too hot to do any gardening other than the 'must do' things in this
weather like water the newly-grafted, newly sprouted citrus grafts
(on Flying Dragon rootstock to dwarf the trees).

I'll water the tomatoes etc. after midnight when it's cool enough to
move a bit without sweating so much I have to shower every other
hour. I'd really like to be gardening, instead I'm sat here in front of a
fan. It's too hot to even finishing up my LED growlight that I'm
making. I've soldered the emitters onto 'star' bases, marked,
drilled and tapped the hestsink they'll be screwed to - I just need
to solder all the wires to each emitter and back to a connector and
do final assembly with heat transfer paste. However I don't want to
be weilding a 400ºC soldering iron in this weather.

I've finally decided I have to have a decent energy efficient grow
light. Not so much for starting seedlings but for rooting cuttings.
With these hotter summers of late it's very difficult to regulate
the right amount of light for cuttings in a 'humidity chamber' using
the sun as a source without them getting far too hot.

I've wasted a lot of time this season taking (mainly tree) cuttings
and trying to get them to root only to have them wilt and/or rot. It
never used to be like this! Next season I'm going to use the
growlight for some and air-layer others. Air-layering works really
well but it's far more work than cut, snip, dip and pot. :-/

You poor soul, I've been walking around all day in long sweat pants, a
long-sleeved shirt, and a sweater on. While working on the blueberry
blossoms I was also wearing a nice coat and my Peruvian beret, knitted
from llama wool, and was still cold. I miss the Arabian Peninsula and
the 125F days and 90F nights.

I'll take too cold over too hot (for comfort) any day of the week. It's
easier (and legal!) to keep putting clothes on than keep taking them off.
It's can sometimes afford a bit of heat in my home - there's no AC.

I was grafting rose bushes in the growing field when I was twelve,
that was enough for me, haven't done a lot of grafting since except
for a couple of pear trees a few years ago. I generally air layer for
various rosemary plants.

A few pleasant years of my youth were spent working in vineyards and
wineries and I spent many a day at the grafting benches, bench-grafting wine
grape varieties onto phyloxera resistant rootstocks. That was over 30 years
ago and I haven't grafted since. Bud grafting is a whole other ball-game to
bench grafting.
That's exactly why the family friend who owned the rose farm hired young
boys, eleven to thirteen years old. Older boys in their late teens
carried a two by twelve board down the rows, bent the bushes over, young
guys did the bud graft and wrapped a powdered rubber band above and
below the graft. I got 25 cents an hour US plus room and board. Big meal
of the day was noon, called "dinner." Came back to the farm house around
noon, all kinds of home grown, home cooked with care, food. Hams,
chickens, turkey's, all sorts of vegetables and desserts. After dinner
we laid under the shade trees and rested for two hours then back to the
field. Big breakfast in the morning, small supper when work stopped for
the day. I grew two inches taller and twenty lbs heavier that summer.
Put some muscle on too. Folks that owned the rose farm had been friends
with my parents since they were very young. Good people, long gone.

Your LED grow light sounds handy for what you need. I am slowly moving
to LED everywhere on the property for better efficiency, longer life,
and lower electric bills.

Every source of light in my home is LED and has been for a couple of years
now. The council even replaced the old sodium-vapour street light outside my
place with an LED street light a few weeks back. It's amazing, instead of
there being a circular pool of orange light that shone as much onto my
bedroom curtains as anywhere there's directed white light onto the road and
footpaths. I asked to see the light as they were replacing it because I'm
nosy. g

It has a very clever system of TIR optics that directs the light evenly
below the light and up and down the street, there's almost no spill-over
off-road on either side. Also, as there's no light shining upwards (or even
horizontally, the LEDs are recessed) I get to see the stars again! The lamp
they removed was an 80w unit, dull and ugly. The replacement LED lamp is 32w
(16 x 2w emmiters powered by a Philips potted 32w driver) and it lights the
areas that need to be lit so much better. There isn't the large pools of
darkness between lamps any more. Brilliant!

We still have mercury vapor lights along our streets. The only progress
they made with them was to put detectors at street level so if you
walked or drove by the street light goes on and then turns off three
minutes later. Since our subdivision has to pay the light bill we like
it that way.

Once upon a time on usenet George Shirley wrote:
On 3/2/2015 5:02 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
Once upon a time on usenet George Shirley wrote:
On 2/28/2015 9:04 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
Once upon a time on usenet Terry Coombs wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
Miserable morning, light mist falling, low forties temp, warmed
up some by 1500, 47f, no rain, some sunshine. There is hope that
spring may be just around the corner.
George

You call that miserable ? We got up to snow on the ground and
low 20's , snowed all night and all morning and the roads are
covered and more of the same coming our way later this evening ,
I told the wife to call in to work ... I grew up driving on snowy
roads , but the roads in this area get icy at a glance and a
slide off the road up here could end up slidin' off a mountain .
My seedlings are doing great , 'maters over 6" tall now . As
soon as we get a break in the weather I'll be bustin' butt to get
my hot box/mini-greenhouse built . I have a growing problem
grin .

You call that miserable? Here just south of Auckland New Zealand
it's over 30ºC both outside and inside my house and very humid.
It's too hot to do any gardening other than the 'must do' things in
this
weather like water the newly-grafted, newly sprouted citrus grafts
(on Flying Dragon rootstock to dwarf the trees).

I'll water the tomatoes etc. after midnight when it's cool enough
to move a bit without sweating so much I have to shower every other
hour. I'd really like to be gardening, instead I'm sat here in
front of a fan. It's too hot to even finishing up my LED growlight
that I'm making. I've soldered the emitters onto 'star' bases, marked,
drilled and tapped the hestsink they'll be screwed to - I just need
to solder all the wires to each emitter and back to a connector and
do final assembly with heat transfer paste. However I don't want to
be weilding a 400ºC soldering iron in this weather.

I've finally decided I have to have a decent energy efficient grow
light. Not so much for starting seedlings but for rooting cuttings.
With these hotter summers of late it's very difficult to regulate
the right amount of light for cuttings in a 'humidity chamber'
using the sun as a source without them getting far too hot.

I've wasted a lot of time this season taking (mainly tree) cuttings
and trying to get them to root only to have them wilt and/or rot.
It never used to be like this! Next season I'm going to use the
growlight for some and air-layer others. Air-layering works really
well but it's far more work than cut, snip, dip and pot. :-/

You poor soul, I've been walking around all day in long sweat
pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and a sweater on. While working on the
blueberry blossoms I was also wearing a nice coat and my Peruvian
beret, knitted from llama wool, and was still cold. I miss the
Arabian Peninsula and the 125F days and 90F nights.

I'll take too cold over too hot (for comfort) any day of the week.
It's easier (and legal!) to keep putting clothes on than keep taking
them off. It's can sometimes afford a bit of heat in my home -
there's no AC.
I was grafting rose bushes in the growing field when I was twelve,
that was enough for me, haven't done a lot of grafting since except
for a couple of pear trees a few years ago. I generally air layer
for various rosemary plants.

A few pleasant years of my youth were spent working in vineyards and
wineries and I spent many a day at the grafting benches,
bench-grafting wine grape varieties onto phyloxera resistant
rootstocks. That was over 30 years ago and I haven't grafted since.
Bud grafting is a whole other ball-game to bench grafting.
That's exactly why the family friend who owned the rose farm hired
young boys, eleven to thirteen years old. Older boys in their late
teens carried a two by twelve board down the rows, bent the bushes
over, young guys did the bud graft and wrapped a powdered rubber band
above and below the graft. I got 25 cents an hour US plus room and
board. Big meal of the day was noon, called "dinner." Came back to
the farm house around noon, all kinds of home grown, home cooked with
care, food. Hams, chickens, turkey's, all sorts of vegetables and
desserts. After dinner we laid under the shade trees and rested for
two hours then back to the field. Big breakfast in the morning, small
supper when work stopped for the day. I grew two inches taller and
twenty lbs heavier that summer. Put some muscle on too. Folks that
owned the rose farm had been friends with my parents since they were
very young. Good people, long gone.


Sounds like one of those summers that that go a long way to defining a
developing young person.

Your LED grow light sounds handy for what you need. I am slowly
moving to LED everywhere on the property for better efficiency,
longer life, and lower electric bills.

Every source of light in my home is LED and has been for a couple of
years now. The council even replaced the old sodium-vapour street
light outside my place with an LED street light a few weeks back.
It's amazing, instead of there being a circular pool of orange light
that shone as much onto my bedroom curtains as anywhere there's
directed white light onto the road and footpaths. I asked to see the
light as they were replacing it because I'm nosy. g

It has a very clever system of TIR optics that directs the light
evenly below the light and up and down the street, there's almost no
spill-over off-road on either side. Also, as there's no light
shining upwards (or even horizontally, the LEDs are recessed) I get
to see the stars again! The lamp they removed was an 80w unit, dull
and ugly. The replacement LED lamp is 32w (16 x 2w emmiters powered
by a Philips potted 32w driver) and it lights the areas that need to
be lit so much better. There isn't the large pools of darkness
between lamps any more. Brilliant!
We still have mercury vapor lights along our streets.

I live on a cul-de-sac in the 'bad' part of town (read; cheapest rents). I
needed somewhere to rent after my injury when I lost my business and the
house I'd been paying a mortgage on for a couple of years. The Invalid's
Benefit is quite low and really I should have moved into a flat but I wanted
a garden and space between me and neighbours so moved here.

When I moved into this house there was a mercury vapour street light
outside. The Streetlight is right outside my gate, about 15 - 20m from my
bedroom window. That wasn't so bad, it was a 50w unit and threw out a white
light. It illuminated my curtains a little but wasn't enough to upset my
sleep.

When it went out about seven years ago I rang the local council and told
them the lamp need replacing. However they replaced the whole 'head' and it
was an 80w High Pressure Sodium lamp. Yuk! Orange light that lit up my
bedroom and forced me to buy thicker curtains.

Now, with the LED lamp there is almost no light hitting my curtains but the
street and footpath are lit with bright white light, it's a massive
improvement. The light is directed so that it shines up the roiad ~50m
either side. The gateway at the end of my drive is also illuminated so I can
see it but, progressing across my front lawn it goes from bright to dark in
~5m. Such a difference compared with the previous lamps that had a bright
bulb hanging below them surrounded by a clear pastic 'bubble' and which
shone light randomly everywhere and left big dark areas between lamps.

I was given the install spec sheet from the council guy and this lamp is
made by a New Zealand company. They are very good indeed. I couldn't find a
website for them however.

Hmmm, I just Googled again only this time using the lamp model number as
well as their name and found this page;
http://www.betacom.co.nz/assets/GL520_0314.pdf this lamp outside my place
has optic 7032. I was wrong about the number of LEDs too, I thought it was
16 but the pdf says 24. (It was early morning when I saw it, I was only
half-awake and the workmen didn't exactly hold the lamp still for me to
examine for long.)

They use high-quality components (Cree and Philips) so the lamps should have
a working life of decades, using about half the power of previous lights but
providing twice the brightness and spreading it sideways towards the next
light so there is less of a light / dark effect that the old lamps gave.

The only
progress they made with them was to put detectors at street level so
if you walked or drove by the street light goes on and then turns off
three minutes later. Since our subdivision has to pay the light bill
we like it that way.

We don't pay for the lighting directly but it comes out of rates, and
ultimately in my case rent. I wouldn't like it if the lights were going on
and off all night. As someone who's struggled with insomnia all my life that
would drive me to distraction rather than sleep. Also, as I live in a....
'low socio-economic area' there is a lot of crime it's great to be able to
look out the window (or at the CCTV monitor) if you hear a noise. From what
you say above it sounds like you live in a 'better' area, maybe a gated
community?

Most of this town has had its streetlights replaced with LED lamps now and
it's a startling improvement whether you live in a street or drive around at
night. Of all of the things I like about these lamps the fact that they
don't spill light sideways / upwards so that I can stand on my front deck
and see the stars now.

(I remember hearing a while back that the New Zealand government had decided
they were going to combat light pollution. Being an island nation we mostly
have very clear skies and the night sky is really a sight to behold. Most
visitors to NZ mention it.)

Gosh, I wrote more than I inteded. Time to go to the pharmacy and get my
pain meds. They are so tightly controlled so as to try to avoid misuse /
diversion that the maximum anyone can pick up at one time is 10 days supply.
That got old five years ago!
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a
cozy little classification in the DSM."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)

On 3/3/2015 6:40 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
Once upon a time on usenet George Shirley wrote:
On 3/2/2015 5:02 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
Once upon a time on usenet George Shirley wrote:
On 2/28/2015 9:04 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
Once upon a time on usenet Terry Coombs wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
Miserable morning, light mist falling, low forties temp, warmed
up some by 1500, 47f, no rain, some sunshine. There is hope that
spring may be just around the corner.
George

You call that miserable ? We got up to snow on the ground and
low 20's , snowed all night and all morning and the roads are
covered and more of the same coming our way later this evening ,
I told the wife to call in to work ... I grew up driving on snowy
roads , but the roads in this area get icy at a glance and a
slide off the road up here could end up slidin' off a mountain .
My seedlings are doing great , 'maters over 6" tall now . As
soon as we get a break in the weather I'll be bustin' butt to get
my hot box/mini-greenhouse built . I have a growing problem
grin .

You call that miserable? Here just south of Auckland New Zealand
it's over 30ºC both outside and inside my house and very humid.
It's too hot to do any gardening other than the 'must do' things in
this
weather like water the newly-grafted, newly sprouted citrus grafts
(on Flying Dragon rootstock to dwarf the trees).

I'll water the tomatoes etc. after midnight when it's cool enough
to move a bit without sweating so much I have to shower every other
hour. I'd really like to be gardening, instead I'm sat here in
front of a fan. It's too hot to even finishing up my LED growlight
that I'm making. I've soldered the emitters onto 'star' bases, marked,
drilled and tapped the hestsink they'll be screwed to - I just need
to solder all the wires to each emitter and back to a connector and
do final assembly with heat transfer paste. However I don't want to
be weilding a 400ºC soldering iron in this weather.

I've finally decided I have to have a decent energy efficient grow
light. Not so much for starting seedlings but for rooting cuttings.
With these hotter summers of late it's very difficult to regulate
the right amount of light for cuttings in a 'humidity chamber'
using the sun as a source without them getting far too hot.

I've wasted a lot of time this season taking (mainly tree) cuttings
and trying to get them to root only to have them wilt and/or rot.
It never used to be like this! Next season I'm going to use the
growlight for some and air-layer others. Air-layering works really
well but it's far more work than cut, snip, dip and pot. :-/

You poor soul, I've been walking around all day in long sweat
pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and a sweater on. While working on the
blueberry blossoms I was also wearing a nice coat and my Peruvian
beret, knitted from llama wool, and was still cold. I miss the
Arabian Peninsula and the 125F days and 90F nights.

I'll take too cold over too hot (for comfort) any day of the week.
It's easier (and legal!) to keep putting clothes on than keep taking
them off. It's can sometimes afford a bit of heat in my home -
there's no AC.
I was grafting rose bushes in the growing field when I was twelve,
that was enough for me, haven't done a lot of grafting since except
for a couple of pear trees a few years ago. I generally air layer
for various rosemary plants.

A few pleasant years of my youth were spent working in vineyards and
wineries and I spent many a day at the grafting benches,
bench-grafting wine grape varieties onto phyloxera resistant
rootstocks. That was over 30 years ago and I haven't grafted since.
Bud grafting is a whole other ball-game to bench grafting.
That's exactly why the family friend who owned the rose farm hired
young boys, eleven to thirteen years old. Older boys in their late
teens carried a two by twelve board down the rows, bent the bushes
over, young guys did the bud graft and wrapped a powdered rubber band
above and below the graft. I got 25 cents an hour US plus room and
board. Big meal of the day was noon, called "dinner." Came back to
the farm house around noon, all kinds of home grown, home cooked with
care, food. Hams, chickens, turkey's, all sorts of vegetables and
desserts. After dinner we laid under the shade trees and rested for
two hours then back to the field. Big breakfast in the morning, small
supper when work stopped for the day. I grew two inches taller and
twenty lbs heavier that summer. Put some muscle on too. Folks that
owned the rose farm had been friends with my parents since they were
very young. Good people, long gone.


Sounds like one of those summers that that go a long way to defining a
developing young person.
Particularly since we had Sunday off, went to church with the family,
came home, ate a big lunch, about 2 pm we began the baseball game, went
on until oh dark thirty. The boss's son made it to the minor leagues as
a pitcher but came home after two years, said he knew he would never
make the majors and he would just as soon raise roses. He did raise
roses until in his early sixties he fell over dead with a heart attack.
I guess it went to his kids after that. That area of Texas used to be
well known for growing rose bushes.

Your LED grow light sounds handy for what you need. I am slowly
moving to LED everywhere on the property for better efficiency,
longer life, and lower electric bills.

Every source of light in my home is LED and has been for a couple of
years now. The council even replaced the old sodium-vapour street
light outside my place with an LED street light a few weeks back.
It's amazing, instead of there being a circular pool of orange light
that shone as much onto my bedroom curtains as anywhere there's
directed white light onto the road and footpaths. I asked to see the
light as they were replacing it because I'm nosy. g

It has a very clever system of TIR optics that directs the light
evenly below the light and up and down the street, there's almost no
spill-over off-road on either side. Also, as there's no light
shining upwards (or even horizontally, the LEDs are recessed) I get
to see the stars again! The lamp they removed was an 80w unit, dull
and ugly. The replacement LED lamp is 32w (16 x 2w emmiters powered
by a Philips potted 32w driver) and it lights the areas that need to
be lit so much better. There isn't the large pools of darkness
between lamps any more. Brilliant!
We still have mercury vapor lights along our streets.

I live on a cul-de-sac in the 'bad' part of town (read; cheapest rents). I
needed somewhere to rent after my injury when I lost my business and the
house I'd been paying a mortgage on for a couple of years. The Invalid's
Benefit is quite low and really I should have moved into a flat but I wanted
a garden and space between me and neighbours so moved here.

When I moved into this house there was a mercury vapour street light
outside. The Streetlight is right outside my gate, about 15 - 20m from my
bedroom window. That wasn't so bad, it was a 50w unit and threw out a white
light. It illuminated my curtains a little but wasn't enough to upset my
sleep.

When it went out about seven years ago I rang the local council and told
them the lamp need replacing. However they replaced the whole 'head' and it
was an 80w High Pressure Sodium lamp. Yuk! Orange light that lit up my
bedroom and forced me to buy thicker curtains.

Now, with the LED lamp there is almost no light hitting my curtains but the
street and footpath are lit with bright white light, it's a massive
improvement. The light is directed so that it shines up the roiad ~50m
either side. The gateway at the end of my drive is also illuminated so I can
see it but, progressing across my front lawn it goes from bright to dark in
~5m. Such a difference compared with the previous lamps that had a bright
bulb hanging below them surrounded by a clear pastic 'bubble' and which
shone light randomly everywhere and left big dark areas between lamps.

I was given the install spec sheet from the council guy and this lamp is
made by a New Zealand company. They are very good indeed. I couldn't find a
website for them however.

Hmmm, I just Googled again only this time using the lamp model number as
well as their name and found this page;
http://www.betacom.co.nz/assets/GL520_0314.pdf this lamp outside my place
has optic 7032. I was wrong about the number of LEDs too, I thought it was
16 but the pdf says 24. (It was early morning when I saw it, I was only
half-awake and the workmen didn't exactly hold the lamp still for me to
examine for long.)

They use high-quality components (Cree and Philips) so the lamps should have
a working life of decades, using about half the power of previous lights but
providing twice the brightness and spreading it sideways towards the next
light so there is less of a light / dark effect that the old lamps gave.

The only
progress they made with them was to put detectors at street level so
if you walked or drove by the street light goes on and then turns off
three minutes later. Since our subdivision has to pay the light bill
we like it that way.

We don't pay for the lighting directly but it comes out of rates, and
ultimately in my case rent. I wouldn't like it if the lights were going on
and off all night. As someone who's struggled with insomnia all my life that
would drive me to distraction rather than sleep. Also, as I live in a....
'low socio-economic area' there is a lot of crime it's great to be able to
look out the window (or at the CCTV monitor) if you hear a noise. From what
you say above it sounds like you live in a 'better' area, maybe a gated
community?

Most of this town has had its streetlights replaced with LED lamps now and
it's a startling improvement whether you live in a street or drive around at
night. Of all of the things I like about these lamps the fact that they
don't spill light sideways / upwards so that I can stand on my front deck
and see the stars now.

(I remember hearing a while back that the New Zealand government had decided
they were going to combat light pollution. Being an island nation we mostly
have very clear skies and the night sky is really a sight to behold. Most
visitors to NZ mention it.)

Gosh, I wrote more than I inteded. Time to go to the pharmacy and get my
pain meds. They are so tightly controlled so as to try to avoid misuse /
diversion that the maximum anyone can pick up at one time is 10 days supply.
That got old five years ago!

Our son-in-law was injured in a fork truck accident over ten years ago,
the only thing that helps with the pain is oxycodone, think he has a
permanent prescription for that. Plus he has had multiple operations on
both feet and lower legs. I try to steer away from anything stronger
than aspirin, was addicted to nicotine for 42 years and finally got off
the cigarettes and want to stay that way. I think I'm getting addicted
to diet cola though. Naw, not really, about half a liter a day.

Late afternoon temperature was 81F, startled me as the house temp was
still about 72F, reckon this house is better insulated than I thought.

Once upon a time on usenet George Shirley wrote:
On 3/3/2015 6:40 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
Once upon a time on usenet George Shirley wrote:

[snipped for brevity's sake and to save srcolling]

That's exactly why the family friend who owned the rose farm hired
young boys, eleven to thirteen years old. Older boys in their late
teens carried a two by twelve board down the rows, bent the bushes
over, young guys did the bud graft and wrapped a powdered rubber
band above and below the graft. I got 25 cents an hour US plus room
and board. Big meal of the day was noon, called "dinner." Came back
to the farm house around noon, all kinds of home grown, home cooked
with care, food. Hams, chickens, turkey's, all sorts of vegetables
and desserts. After dinner we laid under the shade trees and rested
for two hours then back to the field. Big breakfast in the morning,
small supper when work stopped for the day. I grew two inches
taller and twenty lbs heavier that summer. Put some muscle on too.
Folks that owned the rose farm had been friends with my parents
since they were very young. Good people, long gone.

Sounds like one of those summers that that go a long way to defining
a developing young person.

Particularly since we had Sunday off, went to church with the family,
came home, ate a big lunch, about 2 pm we began the baseball game,
went on until oh dark thirty. The boss's son made it to the minor
leagues as a pitcher but came home after two years, said he knew he
would never make the majors and he would just as soon raise roses. He
did raise roses until in his early sixties he fell over dead with a
heart attack. I guess it went to his kids after that. That area of
Texas used to be well known for growing rose bushes.


Yeah, that sounds like a really great summer for a young fella. No wonder
you're such a nice person.

Your LED grow light sounds handy for what you need. I am slowly
moving to LED everywhere on the property for better efficiency,
longer life, and lower electric bills.

When I get the wiring finished I'll put a pic of it up somewhere and link to
it.

Gosh, I wrote more than I inteded. Time to go to the pharmacy and
get my pain meds. They are so tightly controlled so as to try to
avoid misuse / diversion that the maximum anyone can pick up at one
time is 10 days supply. That got old five years ago!

Our son-in-law was injured in a fork truck accident over ten years
ago, the only thing that helps with the pain is oxycodone, think he
has a permanent prescription for that. Plus he has had multiple
operations on both feet and lower legs.

I'm on morphine, slow release morning and night and four pills / day
standard release 'prn', to take as and when the pain is worst. I keep my
dose as low as I can, just enough to take the edge off (40mg morn and night,
4 x 10mg pills for during the day) but not enough to mess too much with my
head and motivation.

I was on oxycodone for a while but it messes with my head too much, makes me
feel spaced out - I can see why it's abused so much. I tried hydrocodone for
a while, supplied by a friend from NYC (who I met on usenet in a pain
support group) who came to visit for a few weeks. It was great, faster
acting than morphine with less side effects (like constipation shudder)
but it didn't make me feel thick and slow. Alas, it's not commonly
prescribed in NZ and I'd rather not chase up specialists to try to get it -
I already got a note on my medical jacket ~15 years ago as a 'drug seeker'
that was hard to get away from[*]. I really don't want to get labelled a
drug seeker again - medical professionals hate it when a patient has the
temerity to tell them what meds work best for them.

I try to steer away from anything stronger than aspirin,

Believe me I wish I could!

was addicted to nicotine for 42 years
and finally got off the cigarettes and want to stay that way.

Same here! Only 38 years in my case but I was a heavy smoker. I've been quit
for over five years now and hate the smell of the stuff and wouldn't ever
touch it again. It took me a few attempts over a decade to give up and the
method that finally worked wash to brainwash myself into being disgusted by
it. It wasn't that hard as it IS disgusting. The hardest bit wasn't just to
convince myself logically but drum it into myself to the extent that I
overcame the cravings and triggers.

I think
I'm getting addicted to diet cola though. Naw, not really, about half
a liter a day.
Late afternoon temperature was 81F, startled me as the house temp was
still about 72F, reckon this house is better insulated than I thought.

Cooler today, only around 26C in and out. However there's thunderheads on
the horizon (have been for 36 hours though) and the humidity's so high I'm
all clammy. I really don't like this weather.

To bring it back on topic I'm fighting a spider mite infestation on my
Flying Dragon treelets before it gets to all of the rather crowded potted
citrus on my deck. The FD plants came direct from a wholesale nursery, I
think just before a major blitz was due. I dislike strong chemical
insecticides as they kill beneficial critters too so I've been trying neem
oil. I have no experience with it so it's an education.

Big fat raindrops just started hitting the roof. Yay!!! The ground is /so/
dry. Large parts of my lawn are brown. However I doubt this weather will
stay long enough to be more than a leaf-wash. (Which in itself is a good
thing though.)

Cheers.
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a
cozy little classification in the DSM."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)

On 3/3/2015 10:27 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
Once upon a time on usenet George Shirley wrote:
On 3/3/2015 6:40 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
Once upon a time on usenet George Shirley wrote:

[snipped for brevity's sake and to save srcolling]

That's exactly why the family friend who owned the rose farm hired
young boys, eleven to thirteen years old. Older boys in their late
teens carried a two by twelve board down the rows, bent the bushes
over, young guys did the bud graft and wrapped a powdered rubber
band above and below the graft. I got 25 cents an hour US plus room
and board. Big meal of the day was noon, called "dinner." Came back
to the farm house around noon, all kinds of home grown, home cooked
with care, food. Hams, chickens, turkey's, all sorts of vegetables
and desserts. After dinner we laid under the shade trees and rested
for two hours then back to the field. Big breakfast in the morning,
small supper when work stopped for the day. I grew two inches
taller and twenty lbs heavier that summer. Put some muscle on too.
Folks that owned the rose farm had been friends with my parents
since they were very young. Good people, long gone.

Sounds like one of those summers that that go a long way to defining
a developing young person.

Particularly since we had Sunday off, went to church with the family,
came home, ate a big lunch, about 2 pm we began the baseball game,
went on until oh dark thirty. The boss's son made it to the minor
leagues as a pitcher but came home after two years, said he knew he
would never make the majors and he would just as soon raise roses. He
did raise roses until in his early sixties he fell over dead with a
heart attack. I guess it went to his kids after that. That area of
Texas used to be well known for growing rose bushes.


Yeah, that sounds like a really great summer for a young fella. No wonder
you're such a nice person.

Your LED grow light sounds handy for what you need. I am slowly
moving to LED everywhere on the property for better efficiency,
longer life, and lower electric bills.

When I get the wiring finished I'll put a pic of it up somewhere and link to
it.

Gosh, I wrote more than I inteded. Time to go to the pharmacy and
get my pain meds. They are so tightly controlled so as to try to
avoid misuse / diversion that the maximum anyone can pick up at one
time is 10 days supply. That got old five years ago!

Our son-in-law was injured in a fork truck accident over ten years
ago, the only thing that helps with the pain is oxycodone, think he
has a permanent prescription for that. Plus he has had multiple
operations on both feet and lower legs.

I'm on morphine, slow release morning and night and four pills / day
standard release 'prn', to take as and when the pain is worst. I keep my
dose as low as I can, just enough to take the edge off (40mg morn and night,
4 x 10mg pills for during the day) but not enough to mess too much with my
head and motivation.

I was on oxycodone for a while but it messes with my head too much, makes me
feel spaced out - I can see why it's abused so much. I tried hydrocodone for
a while, supplied by a friend from NYC (who I met on usenet in a pain
support group) who came to visit for a few weeks. It was great, faster
acting than morphine with less side effects (like constipation shudder)
but it didn't make me feel thick and slow. Alas, it's not commonly
prescribed in NZ and I'd rather not chase up specialists to try to get it -
I already got a note on my medical jacket ~15 years ago as a 'drug seeker'
that was hard to get away from[*]. I really don't want to get labelled a
drug seeker again - medical professionals hate it when a patient has the
temerity to tell them what meds work best for them.

I try to steer away from anything stronger than aspirin,

Believe me I wish I could!

was addicted to nicotine for 42 years
and finally got off the cigarettes and want to stay that way.

Same here! Only 38 years in my case but I was a heavy smoker. I've been quit
for over five years now and hate the smell of the stuff and wouldn't ever
touch it again. It took me a few attempts over a decade to give up and the
method that finally worked wash to brainwash myself into being disgusted by
it. It wasn't that hard as it IS disgusting. The hardest bit wasn't just to
convince myself logically but drum it into myself to the extent that I
overcame the cravings and triggers.

I think
I'm getting addicted to diet cola though. Naw, not really, about half
a liter a day.
Late afternoon temperature was 81F, startled me as the house temp was
still about 72F, reckon this house is better insulated than I thought.

Cooler today, only around 26C in and out. However there's thunderheads on
the horizon (have been for 36 hours though) and the humidity's so high I'm
all clammy. I really don't like this weather.

To bring it back on topic I'm fighting a spider mite infestation on my
Flying Dragon treelets before it gets to all of the rather crowded potted
citrus on my deck. The FD plants came direct from a wholesale nursery, I
think just before a major blitz was due. I dislike strong chemical
insecticides as they kill beneficial critters too so I've been trying neem
oil. I have no experience with it so it's an education.

Big fat raindrops just started hitting the roof. Yay!!! The ground is /so/
dry. Large parts of my lawn are brown. However I doubt this weather will
stay long enough to be more than a leaf-wash. (Which in itself is a good
thing though.)

Cheers.

I like morphine, had back surgery many years ago and they put a morphine
drip line into my harm with a button to push to get a shot. I kept
clicking that damned thing and nothing happened, nurse came in and told
me it would only go on at certain times and she could hear me clicking
the thing all the way down to the nurse station. I stay away from all of
it because I am sure I could be an addict in a heartbeat.

Was going to start amending the last raised bed today, got another !@#$%
cold front moving in and it might freeze by the end of the week. Drat!
my pear tree is currently in full bloom, might mean another year with no
pears. Have to go to town and buy some dirt. Never thought I would be
buying dirt but we live on six inches of river sand atop five feet of
Houston gumbo clay so we have to amend everything we plant.