Here’s the drill: You ask a question in the comments below. I answer it, but any of you other smarty pants can chime in too; a chance for dialog, see?
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Ask the The Gardener: April 2012By Jason Moorehead, on April 18th, 2012
16 comments to Ask the The Gardener: April 2012 |
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The Garden Beds:StatCounter8-5-2011 NEW SHOWS ARE COMING SOON!IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTThere is a big change about to happen with public access television as the Seattle Community Access Network (SCAN-TV) transfers operations over to Seattle Community College (SCC-TV).
The station will continue to be on channel 77 (Comcast) or channel 23 (Broadstripe) and for the foreseeable future the program schedule will remain the same. The new provider for public access, or rather community access, will be Seattle Community Media. They have some great ideas for expanding the concept of community media and I look forward to working with them.
However, due to some foot dragging from the city and the inevitable technical difficulties involved with setting up the infrastructure in a new facility, there will be no new shows uploaded during the month of July. We will also be losing the "video on demand" during the month of July. I'll post a new link to this service as soon as it is up and running. For those who follow the program on a weekly basis, I'll look into uploading some shorts either on this site or link to something like YouTube, etc.
On the other hand, a whole month off after eight years of weekly shows? Maybe I'll just go trout fishing. Either way, continue to check out this website and Seattle Community Access.org for updates on our progress.
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Why does a round pizza come in a square box.
The printing process demands a four cornered sheet, and while you could certainly die cut a round box shape out of that sheet, it would be a very specialized and expensive machine that would be able to fold and glue it. Due to the nature of the material, the form takes on a square shape.
On the other side of the equation, the pizza is round for equally practical reasons: the best way to get an even crust is to spin it and let centrifugal force stretch the dough. Again, form, function and material imply the final shape.
Ah, yes, such a simple explanation, but maybe there is more. What about the elusive aesthetic appeal; is there some secret yearning that prevents us from striving for a square pizza or a round box? Perhaps the squaring of the circle holds some subconscious meaning for us. The round, the whole, the community, held safely within the cardinal points of time and space, of color and of light. Or perhaps the round pizza represents the expanding universe, and the empty corners of the box assure us that there is always room for this expansion, this evolution, this being.
Then why is “bra” singular and “panties” plural?
“Panties” is a diminutive of “pants” which is a shortening of “pantaloons”, and I assume the consistent pluralization of these terms is due to the fact that you have two legs, both on your anatomy and on your pant. You take one pant leg (one of the few times you use “pant” in the singular) and add another pant leg, you have yourself a pair of pants.
Bra on the other hand, comes from brassiere, which is derived from the Old French “braciere”, which is an leather arm guard as used in fencing (particularly epee) and archery. Generally this guard is only worn on the forward arm, thus “bra” and brassiere have the singular form tattooed to their history.
I will point out that “panty” is an accepted singular form, but as with “pant leg” this usage is usually as an adjective, as in panty raid or panty waist.
Thanks for letting me actually use my college degree.
J
why is there no ‘home page’ button on TRG website? Every time I click down one of the myriad and delightful rabbit holes on the site, I find myself having to type in the homepage url in the address bar to get back to “Go”, and I cannot collect my $200…call me lazy, but what gives?
Talk about materials dictating form. The reason for the funkiness is that I am adapting a freebie blog format for use as my website, and yeah, it doesn’t flow very well. However, if you use the side bar links labeled “The Garden Beds”, you can short cut back to whatever topic you are interested in. Essentially, “This week in the Garden” will always have the most up to date info, and then posts are assigned to specific categories as their secondary locale.
If any web designers out there want to build me a more function platform on a near volunteer basis, I’d gladly offer seeds, plants, consultation in exchange.
Here’s a garden related question…three actually. CW and I bought some little Walla Walla sweet onions in the form of a bunch of little baby onions about six inches long. Looking at the web, they mention “sets”, is that what these are? What do you think about them vs. seed?
Question two: cw dutifully planted all of them about one inch deep and six inches apart in a beautiful geometric grid. The next day every one of them had been carefully pulled out and laid neatly on the ground. Who or what did this? And more importantly, why?
Question three: onions yes or no? I’ve never grown them and I don’t remember you growing them either. I’ve always believed you shouldn’t grow something that cheap at the store. But I love growing garlic, we eat tons of onions. What is your position on onions?
The bundles of baby onions that you got are actually “slips”; they are young plants that were grown from seed planted last fall. “Sets” are little dried onion bulbs that you plant just below the surface of the soil, and then they break dormancy and grow a full sized onion. Between the seeds, the slips, and sets there are advantages and disadvantages.
Seed has the advantage of cost and selection. A three dollar package of seed may have enough seed to plant your entire garden, and you can find all kinds of varieties that ship easily. Be aware that allium seeds (onion, leek, etc) have a pretty short shelf life so make sure you are using seed packed for this season. Onions are easy from seed, but obviously, it takes longer.
Slips are a great choice if you are ready to plant, they are already up and growing and if treated right, can get their roots down and get to work right away. Disadvantages would be slightly higher cost, and they are a very perishable product. They are, as you are finding out, kind of a pain to plant. They always flop over for me and look sad for a while, but they recover with adequate moisture and mulch. If you just water them in and let them flop down into the mud, they’ll hate you for that.
Sets have the advantage of any bulb: all the work is done for you already. That little bulb has enough energy stored up that it is really hard to mess things up, so you can lay out a nice grid with the proper spacing, knowing that a strong onion plant will emerge at each location. You can buy the sets and keep them in the refrigerator until you are ready to plant. Planting is easy- just dig the bed, stick the sets in with your fingers, smooth and mulch. Disadvantages of sets would be higher cost, limited selection and since they are dormant, it takes a week or two for them to break dormancy and start growing. The latter problem can be overcome by just planting really early (like early February); onion sets are very tough. In fact, you might want to try planting a short day length variety in the fall like your garlic and see if you get onions in March.
“Short Day Length Variety”? What? Different varieties of onion require different day lengths in order to bulb properly. So you need to plan ahead and figure out when you are going to plant, and pick a variety suited for that time of year, or pick your onion and figure out when to plant it. There are short, and intermediate and long day length varieties. If you were down in the southern states, you would pick a short day length variety, if you are way up north, a long day variety. It gets tricky here on the west side, where you can grow onions almost all year long, and depending on the time of year, it is either very dark or very light. You could try over wintering a short day variety for onions in March, but you better go with intermediate or long day varieties if you expect to be growing through the summer months.
Who or what is pulling up your onion slips? Haven’t you heard the old Ballardian legend of Ebeneezer The Tweezer? It is said that the ghost of this disgruntled gardener haunts the back yards of Ballard, using his silver tweezer fingers (wood chipper accident) to pull up all the hopeful young starts in people’s gardens. Either that or it’s the crows, the squirrels, the possums, the raccoons, the wombats, cats, rats, etc. I’ll go with the crows in this instance. Squirrels might dig a hole or two in a fresh bed, but they aren’t so methodical as to pull out each and every onion. You’ll notice the culprit had no interest in the onion itself, it was probably seeing what goodies might be at the bottom of the hole; sure beats getting your beak all muddy digging your own hole. Also, crows being crows, maybe it just thought it was a fun diversion, and there was no real motive at all. I’ve noticed that whatever the pest -birds, squirrels, and cats in particular- a freshly prepared bed is a flashing neon sign that says, “Dig Here”. They can see the soil is all fluffed up for easy digging, and maybe there’s a yummy treat in there (or a freshly laid cat turd). I find that mulching immediately kind of disguises the bed- it definitely discourages the cats. I also have protective cages made out of doubled up rabbit wire for when I have to plant tiny seeds that can’t be buried in mulch right away. (I have too many actually, you want one?)
I share your philosophy that with such limited space, the gardener shouldn’t waste time on things that are bountiful and 59 cents a pound at the grocery store. However, I also think we should all try all the crops at least once, just to keep sharp. A really good onion is a beautiful thing, so heck yes on growing onions!
Maybe someday you will introduce us to the ‘camera crew’? Whoever that is does an excellent job! Great with closeups especially and perfect shots of whatever you are trying to convey. I know you feed him/her every once in a while.
Thanks!
The camera crew is my wife who wishes to remain behind the scenes in blissful anonymity. I think we can all agree she does a fantastic job every week and the show wouldn’t be the same without her vision and talent. When I first conceived the show, I actually thought I could do it by myself using a tripod! Ha! What an idiot! I am merely the mouth, she is the eyes and ears of the show.
So, on behalf of the crew I thank you for acknowledging her invaluable contribution to the show.
P.S.: It really is scary/wonderful how C.K. can get inside my head, look out from my skull, see through my eye sockets, and show you, the audience, exactly what I am talking about; whether it is a big old panorama or a tight, macroscopic “bug shot”, she gets it. I also appreciate how sometimes she’ll get bored with what I am talking about, (BORING!) and point me/you to something more interesting by swinging the lens around to another part of the garden. Yep, that’s a better subject, thanks hon….
Simply put: my partner, my friend, my wife. I love you darling….
Oh! The new chickens looked so FINE last night! They are growing beautifully! Could I trouble you for some biographical information on them? You mentioned some of their names sometimes but I don’t know which is which. Also, what is their birthday and did I really hear you say they came by mail? How does that work?
Thanks and say Hi to the brilliant camera crew.
Thanks Arianna. They are indeed the finest brace of chicks you’ll ever see. Happy, healthy, nice strong feet, and they all get along beautifully, not a bully in the bunch (although once they approach sexual maturity, we might see more of a hierarchy develop). Yes, they come through the mail right after hatching out- they are still absorbing the yolk for about 24-48 hours, so they don’t need food or water during this brief window of time. You can look at the last few posts for more pictures, or go to the side bar entitled “Chickens, Our Co-evolutionary Partners”. Stella is the statuesque “Black Star” sex-link, Gilda is the Golden sex-link, Rosasharn is the Plymouth Barred Rock, and Mariek is an Americauna. Most feed stores are getting chicks in this time of year. I do not officially endorse any product or business, however, I give a big double thumbs up to the way Bothell Feed has been running their operation. They are getting good birds, good variety, and they are treating them very well so you get a healthy and stress free chick. The chicks hatched out around March 8th, so they are 8 weeks old today. They spent five weeks in the kitchen in a box, and week five until now they’ve been living in a 3×5 foot hut I built on the back porch. They are just about to be moved out in to the new “south wing”
of the chicken run before integrating into adult life.
Thanks for acknowledging C.K. the camera crew. She really is the best.
I love growing summer squash. This year, I started a little too early. I started early April because of my vacation scedule in early May. Just about to leave for my vacation, I plugged beautiful seedlings(2~3 true leaves plants) into the covered bed and ask the chicken sitter to watch over the plant. When I returned home, I ran to the garden and found weak, yellowish, same size as I saw two weeks ago plants. I think they are cold and dry stressed.
Now, I am torned whether to start over or leave them there. The seed package says young plants should NOT be in low temparature. What do you think?
Hi Sowoon, you are definitely pushing the envelope if you planted the squash that early with no protection. Here’s what I would do at this point. Go ahead and leave your transplants in the ground, but also plant a few seeds in each position next to the plants. Water everything in with a good dose of nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen is less available to the plants at low temperatures, and that might be what is causing the yellowing of the leaves. (Peppers do the same thing if they are planted too early- they start to sulk and actually start losing ground). If the squash plants recover and start growing well, great, just rip out the new seedlings when they emerge. If the squash plants show continual stunting for their ordeal, then let the new seedlings go, picking the best plants and thinning the rest. You still have plenty of time to get these going.
Hey Jason, I tuned into your tv show Monday a little late and you were just finishing a talk on a slug repellant/destroyer?, I’m not sure which. Homemade I think.What was it? I enjoy your show and hope you keep at it. Randy
Thanks Randy. The ole Slug Fizz recipe: one part clear ammonia (no suds) and 3 parts water, put it in a pump sprayer and use a fine mist nozzle. Spray at night. At this concentration, it usually will not burn plants, but test it first on delicate plants. Don’t forget to get all the non-garden areas that slugs love: the lawn, the wood pile, under the deck, etc. The slugs fizz up and turn into a high nitrogen addition to the garden. Satisfying.
J