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    haskap/honeyberry (edible honeysuckle) report - excellently tasty!

    I know there have been a coupla threads on this site where people were asking for more information on these, and at least at the time and from what I remember, some of us had planted them but few if any had actually EATEN any yet. So I am posting this as an update sort of thing. I planted two...
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    how early in plant's life does it produce usable small potatoes?

    This is only my second year of growing potatoes so I am still on the steep learning curve. Apparently I missed a few small fingerling potatoes last fall. They did not sprout until after I'd planted tomatoes in that space. Being congenitally incapable of killing a perfectly good plant unless it...
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    flowers (besides blue flax) that bloom ONLY in the a.m.?

    Inquiring 6-yr-old-son minds want to know :P All I could think of was perennial blue flax. What else opens at dawn-ish and is over by afternoon? Are morning glories finished that early? I haven't grown them for years and years and years, don't remember. Pat
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    does anyone have "Immortality" iris growing in shade or under pines?

    I know this is a very specific and weird-sounding question, but by any chance do any of y'all have iris "Immortality" (a white rebloomer) growing in shade or under pines? The reason I'm asking is because a couple years ago I wanted some in the morning shade near some pines, and stupid me...
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    anyone ever SUCCESSFULLY controlled star-nosed moles?

    The key words in the title up there are "star-nosed" (the ones that live in wet areas, and dig DEEP tunnels, so that you never see nor feel the tunnels, just the expelled mounds of dirt) and "successfully" ;) Can't/won't use poison; and as far as I can tell, star-nosed moles tunnel too deep for...
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    anyone grow miners' lettuce (Claytonia somethingorother)?

    Hi all, back after a loooong hiatus, good to see so many familiar 'faces' still here :) I am not a very adventurous veg gardener, I tend to stick to the same old things most years (and a rather limited set thereof -- last year was the first time I actually tried potatoes, for heaven's sake, and...
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    will cherries (specifically chokecherries) ripen further after picking

    The chokecherries are getting towards ripe but not there yet -- red to turning purplish -- but in past years the birds have et them all before I could pick any for jam. Could I pick them now and ripen them the last bit of the way in the kitchen? Or do cherries not do that. (which is my vague...
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    how high do I need to hill up my taters?

    Finally this year I am actually growing potatoes. I planted them about 4-6" deep to start with, and have hilled them up to maybe 8-10" above normal ground level. There is still a LOT of vegetation stickin' out atop the hilled rows, at least a foot high and probably more in places. Am I...
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    more "edible landscaping for chickens" :P

    I did figure I might have to protect one or both of my veg gardens now that I've started letting seven of the chickens run loose in the yard in the afternoons. What I did NOT anticipate, I can't imagine why not, was that the wild strawberries I've been encouraging as a "ground cover with...
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    any way to preserve the green seedpods of sweet cicely (Myrrhis)?

    This is kind of an obscure question but maybe someone knows... I just *love* the green, still-soft seedpods of sweet cicely, to snack on while weeding or as a candylike 'snack'. They are like Good-n-Plenty candies, only green and they grow on a plant :) The problem is that all too soon they...
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    The Useful Rock

    I was just out there putting some rocks around for utilitarian purposes, and it reminded me, it's not NEARLY commonly-enough talked about in gardening books and such, so I thought I'd post this in case anyone else finds the technique as useful as I do. Rocks are just great in the garden. Not...
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    recommend me a carrot?

    I have failed enough at carrot growing in long-past years that I just gave up trying, but now my 5 year old has it in his head that we HAVE to grow carrots :P What would your recommendations be for a fairly bombproof reliable variety, not too strong-tasting, for fresh eating not storage, for...
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    "pat yourself on the back" - what went RIGHT for you this year?

    It seems like for a lot of us it has been a Rather Difficult (or downright terrible) gardening year, especially for veg gardens. I was brooding about this while walking the cat this morning, noticing that to cap it all off, I've left my scarlet runner bean pods on the vine too long and they've...
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    Cat-scaping :P

    So Mojo went on another week-long hunger strike for no obvious reason (current best theory is a combo of ulcers and IBD set off by stress), causing me to drop all other projects and extend the cats' outdoor run last week. Here is its attachment to the previous run you may have seen my pix of in...
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    Big $0 coldframe from scrap

    I have a couple coldframes I use for seedlings in the spring, but they've always been frustrating to use for fall lettuce because it is just basically too tall for them. I have a pile o wood from the rotting old back deck that I ripped off last month, and the more of it I can salvage the less I...
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    last look at the garden til next year (pics)

    I have to face that the perennial-garden season is pretty much over for the year - we have had several light frosts, and are now into the pattern of cold hard rainstorms passing through many times per day. Here is what things looked like just a couple days ago, it is probably the last "alive and...
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    First light frost of the year!

    Night before last. Only in the lowest parts of lawn, and not closer than about 20' to the veg garden which had the tomatoes and groundcherries and lima beans covered anyway... ...but frost nonetheless! Howzabout everyone else? Pat
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    leashed cat chasing butterflies 1; trellised snap peas 0, grrr

    This new cat we've got... I started walking him a coupla times a day to pep him up and get him eating again (it worked) (we're right on a very busy very FAST road, outdoor cats do not live long around here). He is one of the better leash-walking cats I've had over the years, in general...
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    they don't make nursery employees like they used to... :P

    I'm looking for 5% Sevin dust, not for the garden but because DE and rotenone dust are just not doin' it for a mite problem with my chickens and I have been told that Sevin is the definitive go-to for northern fowl mites. But, after this summer it will no longer be legal in the province and most...
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    any advice for live-trapping red squirrels?

    (they're eating my iris flowers, among other things, although that is not the main reason I want them gone). For the first time in 6 yrs we've got squirrels living here, a pair of red squirrels that has now sprouted at least 4 juveniles. I would like to try to trap and remove them ASAP, before...
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