A Freeze warning issued in our area of WV for tonight. We just had over a week of rain. I am sitting her looking out the window at 140 tomato plants, green beans, peppers, corn, cucumbers and watermelon that need a umbrella for tonight. I told dh looks like someone would invent some kind of a spray to use to protect plants to a few degrees below freezing. They have everything else. He told me he "would go out and sit over 1 plant if I would take another". (Sometimes they can come up with humor like this) We are on top of a hill. Don't know if that is good or bad.
Too much to cover, divvi. Say, half and acre!!!!!!!! Normally everyone in our area says things are safe after May 10 so everybody has planted and set out plants. I seen on the Internet there is a spray for stress you can spray on the folage and it may help up to 6 degrees temp. but SIL checked Lowe's and they don't have it. Well, keep our fingers crossed.
doneit - Isn't it lavender that is recommended for stress!!!!! I think I bought some a couple months ago and forgot about it until now. Spray on your pillow or cushion, I think. After I try it I will post the results.
Oh I hope not. Our weather report was predicting a frost just north of me.... Do I bring in the plants? it's such a pain. I did this last week too, I guess I'll put them under the overhang. Hopefully that'll be enough
Lois, here in Florida we sometimes turn our lawn sprinklers to run on sensitive plants to protect them from freezing, and orange groves have huge sprinkler systems for doing it.
CG I was going to say the same thing but didn't think anyone would believe me. I thought it was crazy when we first moved here and husband worked for Becker Groves. Of course that was when I made the big mistake of calling the groves orchards.
I read where you could use water and instructions how to do it. Our garden is pretty big and we have stuff spread to about every corner with vacant spots in between. Didn't think about this problem. I found a spray bottle of anti-wilt that I had on hands for Rhodendron in the fall to keep the plant from losing moisture through the leaves and curling up. SIL and I figured it wouldn't hurt so he sprayed the tomatoes, beans, melons, cucumbers, squash and corn. Won't hurt the peas, lettuce, onions, radish and beets. Holding my breath.
Our garden is swimming with all the water we got this week, over 6" and I couldn't make myself think about trying to water it and also, I don't have enough sprinklers. If you just have a 12 x 24' garden (like any sensible person) it wouldn't be a problem covering, watering, etc. SIL did the planting this year and he wanted lots of tomatoes, hence 130+. When dh was doing the garden we never had more than 12. Of course, this is for 3 families but still....
DH favorite thing to raise was watermelons and butternut squash. One year we had 75 watermelons and about the same amount of butternut squash. I couldn't give them away. We are not having that many this year but looks like we will make up for it with tomatoes, unless they freeze tonight.
You may be lucky if there is standing water in your garden. Maybe the water will absorb some of the cold keeping the air just above warm. Don't know if that will work, but a positive thought.
This is one of the advantages of living in Maine. Most people plant their gardens after Memorial Day. For those who planted early, there is a frost warning for tonight for southern New England, but we will be OK due to a thick cloud cover that holds the heat in. Clear nights produce "radiational cooling". Temperatures have been in the 50's and 60's. We are supposed to hit 70's next Thursday. Pretty soon it will be too hot.
In RI it's been 54-58 all day and supposed to go to 44 tonite. Nothing about frost. It won't be too hot for long, Marsh, and you know it! Maybe a few days in the next few months will be over 85.. but that's about it. We don't have a.c. here and of course not in Maine. I had one for awhile but it made so much noise... We do have nice foursquare windows though all over the house. Having grown up in Texas, I love the weather up here, even the rain (and it seldom really floods, Nancy. I remember "sunken Oaks" when I was growing up!)
Garden did great!!!! Thanks for asking. There was scattered frost but didn't seem to hurt anything here. Lots of people around covered but we had too much. It was down to 35 last night. I just sprayed the garden and all the shrubs because the bugs are now an issue also. I am wanting to go organic and have some recipes using tobacco juice, dawn, listerine mouth wash and water. Hope to get that mixed up this week and start using it. Will give it a try anyway. I found out last year a very tiny mite has been eating some of my pine-like shrubs and the only way you can see them is to put a white paper under them and shake. So, I have sprayed them twice so far this year. Most shrubs they don't bother so if you have a pine-like one that is looking dead check for those mites.
i dont have any pine mites but i just looked and have 5!! new tiny finernail size baby wrens in the potplant nest at door. awwwww.. such tiny little creatures, and the 'dad ' is singing up a storm! on my pool balcony like saying, i am a new dad today.. hahaha... just darling. its good to see life thriving around us.. sigh.. divvi i hope they all make it out ..
Nancy, I don't remember what thread I read it in, but you were discussing fish eggs.....there used to be a grocery store in River Oaks that had the best in town...and they also had frozen entree dishes that were to die for...It has been 16 years since I was there, and the name slips my mind right now....I went in once a month for a small splurge when I lived there. I think that they even shopped and delivered if you called your order in!!!
We've had enough rain this spring that I am growing a lovely crop of mushrooms in and around many of my plants. It always amazes me how big those things can get and how fast (tops on some were small plate size and larger). At least they are easier to get up than some of the weeds.
Isn't it the truth therrja? We have had soooooo much rain and my mushrooms are growing big too! You're right about the weeds too - mushrooms are easier.
Are those mushrooms poisonous? I have never picked mushrooms to eat. My Mom loved to go out in the spring and cut wild greens. Dock, creasey, dandeline and some others I can't remember. I wish she had educated me but I really wasn't interested then and now it is too late. I read in the paper today you could cook maple tree seeds to eat. I have an elderly friend who eats some kind of a weed that grows in the garden.
Have to be careful about mushrooms. Some are poisonous and others aren't, but I don't know the difference. I think the ones growing in lawns may be poisonous. Our vet said to be careful with our dog and not let her eat them. But I don't really know.
We have a "weed" that grows here called poke. Some people make "poke" salad with it but I sure don't like it! But it just grows everywhere and invade anything.
I have cooked poke in early spring and we like it. It grows tall and has long sort of slender leaves. You also chop up the stem - to a point. Add salt and butter. We had it growing at our last house but I don't see any here.
I hunt mushrooms. Haven't this spring bec. I haven't been walking much, but there are five or six species that I hunt, that I know well and am not afraid of fixing. If I get a good hen o-the woods in the fall, there are a good ten pounds of cleaned, sauteed 'shrooms out of it, enough for the season! Now, there are pink-bottoms and puffballs and some boletes. My caregiver found a book I'd just left out - my husband had bought it and squirreled it away for a present, heaven knows how long ago,and he was fascinated!!
Mary, I bet you were thinking of either Jamail's in River Oaks o the Rice Supermarket. Both are/were wonderful. Jamail's closed about 12-15 years ago. The produce man would select your tomatoes and avocados, depending on the day you planned to serve them...and the meat market was incredible. Rice is still a beautiful supermarket with the finest meants and speciality foods, and they still deliver in certain areas. Unfortunately, they are not as far north as I am,...but I used to live in their market area. They'd bring the groceries in and put them in the kitchen. In both stores, if you were a regular customer, you would just sign your check out ticket and they'd bill you at the end of the month. Many household maids were on the charge accounts for the customers and would do the shopping for the family. Ahhhh, what a luxury that would be today.
Nancy, it was Jamail's! I'm sorry it closed! It was wonderful! Yes, you are right - what a luxury it would be to have a household maid and have my shopping done for me! I've always been a dreamer! Still am.
Now, my specialty shopping is at the Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings! I love to go early and get my fruits and veggies before the crowd arrives.
You who hunt mushrooms - you have the knowledge and the knack! Enjoy! I love mushrooms, but depend on the market for mine! If I tried to hunt my own, I would be the one who would get the wrong mushroom!
I agree, Mary...about the mushrooms. The only kind we have around here are those in the yard after a rain. I am sure they are poisonous. I went to a Mushroom Farm on Seabrook Island SC once...it was very interesting..and very musty/moldy smelling. Huge rooms filled with tables of every kind of mushroom you ever could imagine. But I will continue to purchase mine, thankyouveddymuch!
In 1971 I was working in a hospital in Methuen,MA. We had a family of 8 come in one night all very sick. They had gone mushroom hunting and picked the wrong mushrooms. They were in terrible pain, the children the hardest to watch. Unfortunately, I think about 6 of them died (been a long time ago). After that I refuse to eat mushrooms if at all possible even though I know the ones at stores, in packages food and restaurants are safe.
Charlotte, I don't eat them either, but it is because they just don't have any taste for me, and they seem like they have a kind of plastic texture, except in a good beefy mushroom gravy, chopped up. My DW, however, has always loved mushrooms.
When I lived in Salem OR they had a mushroom processing plant close by. The smell was Awful. It was enough to curb any desire for mushrooms at the time.
A friend of mine and I had decided to take the "avenging angel" shrooms, sautee them and freeze them and use them to commit suicide if we became terminally ill. They're supposed to taste marvelous, but be deadly. +++EDITED+++ This was intended to be a joke but I didn't put on a smiley face and certain rays of light have shone on me to tell me that someone might take it seriously. First of all, finding avenging angels is hard - you'd spend more time studying how to identify them than you would deciding to use them! Secondly, and most importantly they MAY be deadly but there's also a good chance you'd be "saved" with a lot of physical damage.
I have NO intention of committing suicide, never have; in spite of everything life isn't bad at all right now!! ;-) Nothing to see here, folks. Move along. ++++EDITED++++
There are really only a few species that are DEADLY, as opposed to poisonous/give you one hell of an attack of gastritis. I don't pick any that are anything like those. It's like with dogs, you wouldn't mistake a great dane for a chihuahua. The white ones in the market are indeed bland. The darker ones have a lot more taste, and the dried ones are best of all.