Three shots from just a few minutes ago

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Brilliant pics there, Rob...

+1

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~Sue~

This fellow knew he was out of season. I was going to my dads house and this turkey was walking down the road. The turkey just calmly walked past my car. I was lucky to get my cellphone out to get a picture.
Turkey without a care.

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My green thumb is doing pretty well this year, especially since I'm growing everything in containers. My elephant ear plants have doubled and are growing quickly. The purple lantana are flowering like crazy and, if you look closely, you can see that the yellow lantana are not far behind.

I'm pretty sure that my lack of success with other plants has been due to voles. (I've found what look like vole holes in my yard.) I learned that voles are notorious for eating the roots of most plants. That would explain why the container plants are doing so well. I've researched how to defeat voles and plan to implement some of those ideas in the future.









Yellow peeking through.

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~Sue~

Here is an update on our gardening efforts this year.

[img] [url=https://postimg.cc/8f46ytBF[/img]

More images of my Garden.

More images of my Garden.

Why are they so small?

Okay, I see now that if I click on the small photo I'll get to see a larger version.

I love your raised beds. I'm going to put some of those in my front yard. The soil in my yard isn't great for growing, and I have voles, so I'm going to put down some hardware cloth, put the raised beds over that, and then - maybe - I'll have some success growing pretty things in my front yard.

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~Sue~

Yes, The pictures came thru Postimage.org to get the bulletin board format. They have apparently changed their site and even after messing with these for a while I cant make them work as before. I will try more later on.

As for the garden you will have trouble due to the fact that you might need more than 1 foot of good soil depth to grow tomatoes etc. You can find the corner units (cement) at Home Depot. I used two at each corner and drove 24 inch rebar to make them extremely stable. The sides in my garden are 2" by 6" and 8, 5 and 10 feet long. Unless you can find good top soil you will have the expense of filling the bed with good soil and peat moss. I bought garden soil and peat moss when it was on sale--saved about half of normal cost--it still cost a lot of money. I have a roto-tiller and used it to mix the soil and to bring up some of the regular soil here in my back yard. If I were you I would investigate the cost of having a load of top soil delivered from a landscaper or dirt supplier. Be sure to inspect the soil before they dump it--one time I got a load of clay mixed with sand that was not good for growing anything. Ask for river-bottom soil and be sure to see it before you let them dump it.

All in all it is expensive to to undertake a raised bed--But, the pleasure of seeing neat rows of vegetables and herbs and of tasting what a real tomato is like is worth it for me. Nipping out to the back yard to make a salad and to pluck herbs for cooking is a big plus also.

I made cages for the tomatoes out of wire fencing and steel fence posts--get them at tractor supply or home depot. Try to find a 25 foot roll of 4" by 4" mesh to make three cages. Last year I lost a fair number of tomatoes to birds and squirrels who would just poke holes in the fruit. This year the wire cages should help solve this problem. I put a fake owl and a wind whirly gig to keep varmints away--you can hang small clusters of old CD's to clang and shine in the wind.

One year my dad went to the compost facility the city here has. He got a pickup bed full of black rich gold.

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Thats a great looking garden! I tried starting mine a few weeks ago, forgot to de-weed. So it looks like a tomato/pepper jungle almost.

Heres two aerials from my UAV of one of my most favorite places in the entire world. Little town close to the Mexico border called Terlingua, TX. Next door to Big Bend Natl Park. It has absolutely some of the best night skies in the continental US. The only down side...its hot, very very hot.

Really great shots - I'm not a "desert person", but it certainly looks a great place to explore.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Yes, The pictures came thru Postimage.org to get the bulletin board format. They have apparently changed their site and even after messing with these for a while I cant make them work as before. I will try more later on.

As for the garden you will have trouble due to the fact that you might need more than 1 foot of good soil depth to grow tomatoes etc. You can find the corner units (cement) at Home Depot. I used two at each corner and drove 24 inch rebar to make them extremely stable. The sides in my garden are 2" by 6" and 8, 5 and 10 feet long. Unless you can find good top soil you will have the expense of filling the bed with good soil and peat moss. I bought garden soil and peat moss when it was on sale--saved about half of normal cost--it still cost a lot of money. I have a roto-tiller and used it to mix the soil and to bring up some of the regular soil here in my back yard. If I were you I would investigate the cost of having a load of top soil delivered from a landscaper or dirt supplier. Be sure to inspect the soil before they dump it--one time I got a load of clay mixed with sand that was not good for growing anything. Ask for river-bottom soil and be sure to see it before you let them dump it.

All in all it is expensive to to undertake a raised bed--But, the pleasure of seeing neat rows of vegetables and herbs and of tasting what a real tomato is like is worth it for me. Nipping out to the back yard to make a salad and to pluck herbs for cooking is a big plus also.

I made cages for the tomatoes out of wire fencing and steel fence posts--get them at tractor supply or home depot. Try to find a 25 foot roll of 4" by 4" mesh to make three cages. Last year I lost a fair number of tomatoes to birds and squirrels who would just poke holes in the fruit. This year the wire cages should help solve this problem. I put a fake owl and a wind whirly gig to keep varmints away--you can hang small clusters of old CD's to clang and shine in the wind.

I'm not growing tomatoes or any other vegetable. I'm going to plant decorative plants/flowers - perennials, mostly. I don't know what, exactly, but today I wandered thru the outdoor part of Lowe's and found there are about a zillion choices. :-D

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~Sue~

One year my dad went to the compost facility the city here has. He got a pickup bed full of black rich gold.

I'm going to have to check to see if there's anything like that around here.

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~Sue~

Heres two aerials from my UAV of one of my most favorite places in the entire world. Little town close to the Mexico border called Terlingua, TX. Next door to Big Bend Natl Park. It has absolutely some of the best night skies in the continental US. The only down side...its hot, very very hot.

Great shots there.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Some of you might remember that I put a small, decorative windmill in my front yard a while back. After it was there about a week, I put some gravel underneath it in a small square. I just thought it looked better that way. (I don't think I uploaded a pic with the gravel underneath.)

Well, as I suspected they might, the cats started to use the gravel as a litter box. To prevent that, today I put this planter underneath the windmill. It's not quite big enough to completely deter the cats, but it'll help a bit, and it looks nice, imho.

Plants in the planter are one flax lily (the tall one in the middle), two Mexican heathers, two "wheels of wonder" ice plants, and one black sweet potato vine (I don't know what I was thinking with that one). All are full-sun perennials.

As far as the "lawn" is concerned, I've been having trouble with my lawn mower, which is why the lawn hasn't been mowed for a few weeks. I started mowing one day, but then the mower wouldn't restart after I had to stop for some reason. And I haven't been able to get it working since. (I've had it "repaired" and "serviced" twice, so please don't suggest that I have it looked at.) I have a new, electric mower on its way so the lawn will be mowed by the weekend.

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~Sue~

My lantana is doing very well. Four plants per pot - two violet and two yellow.

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~Sue~

We had a wicked storm here last night and, while it could have been much worse, this is what I woke up to today. I'm going to try to straighten it out, but it will never be the same. :-(





I'm thinking about contacting the company that makes it to see if they'll replace the top part. Maybe.

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~Sue~

I think I see the problem. Those bolt holes at the bottom of the feet. They were supposed to be bolted to something, like a large heavy poured foundation.

You should consider that, not for the next wind, but because some children might come along and tip it over and hurt themselves.

I think I see the problem. Those bolt holes at the bottom of the feet. They were supposed to be bolted to something, like a large heavy poured foundation.

You should consider that, not for the next wind, but because some children might come along and tip it over and hurt themselves.

The windmill came with four L-shaped things to go through those "bolt holes." When I saw them I thought, these will never work. I was right. I've ordered some screw-type ground anchors and will try those.

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~Sue~

A picture made by my wife on our way to Moab, Utah.

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.