We had a nice time last night, in spite of the dire end of the world predictions. We headed to "the other side" of the water for a get together with some other gardeners from our meetup.com group. It's so nice having some face to face social conversation and shared interests in this age where people sometimes only "meet" on Facebook! The drive was lovely, couldn't have asked for better weather, it was about 80,no humidity & sunny.
heheehee, the bridge tunnel under the Chesapeake Bay struck me as funny today, since where else would you want to be during a world wide earthquake prediction, LOL....
headed under...
I was trying not to look at the clock reading near 6 pm and start laughing...
Finn getting excited about???
The folks headed the other way, not so lucky, the traffic headed south was at the usual standstill, and I might add had completely cleared up by the time we headed back later in the evening.
Then it was time to relax! M's house sits right on a nice salt marsh type environment, very peaceful, yet right in the city. Here's part of our group below:
They had set out supplies to make rain barrels and were ready to provide instruction, they have several already in use, 5 or 6 I think!
The food that shows up is always fresh and yummy from the garden, with the usual random bag of excess produce to pawn off on someone, - wait until zucchini season!
I love, LOVE just seeing and being able to walk through others' gardens. I think it's the gardener's equivalent of rifling through someone's medicine chest :) There is always something new to learn, a new way of trellising, new varieties, etc. It's amazing also to see how certain things grow differently. We are only about 35-40 mins apart yet she has things flourishing that I don't have success with, and vice versa.
I thought this was really cool...
I have never seen a carrot flower! She is planning on saving seed so this was a rare opportunity to see it up close.
M is also the only person I know personally that is actually doing it - gardening in her front yard in the city! It looks fantastic, and I bet she gets lots of people that slow down to look on their evening walks, I know I would! Heck, I'd probably knock on the door and introduce myself if I didn't know them already - gardeners are usually a pretty friendly sort and I don't think they would shoo me off :) !
After good conversation, good weather, good food and a garden tour, I came home refreshed and woke up at 5:45 am today to tackle the peas, over 3 lbs today, but I think it's about over, I didn't notice any new blossoms and temps should hit 90 by midweek.
Then my garden laughed at me and my renewed vigor and said -
"oh, yeah?" Well..."just look at this! Let's see how tough you are now!"
(enlarge for full on aphid action depicting all life stages LOL...)
I'm guessing the below is a whitefly? That's a new one here.
Time for the kids to mix up some Dr. Bronners soap in their Super Soakers! Let the games begin...
*note to any local readers I might have: our group would love to have you join us! There are plenty of online q&a forums, but if you have a desire to meet up with other gardeners face to face for learning or social time, check us out! There is a link at the very bottom of my right hand sidebar that will take you to our site.
That would be cool to do! I'd have to bring a tape recorder so I made sure to catch every last word! Props to your friend for using her front yard!!!
ReplyDeleteLook! You're wearing your skirt! Very cool.
ReplyDeleteKill the bugs. Kill them Nnooooowwwwwwww!!!!!
Aren't gardeners the best?? Always ready to give a tour. I haven't worked up the nerve yet to knock on the door of a lady with a FANTASTIC garden down the road, which is stupid, because I know most people LOVE to talk about their gardens. Sounds like such a great night. Glad your weather behaved---it hasn't been doing too much of that this spring!
ReplyDeleteUgh, aphids and white flies. I grew tomatoes in the greenhouse last year and both insects were so bad in there nothing helped. I was out there with a fire hose trying to knock them off (well not really). Every ladybeetle I found was re-homed to the greenhouse. It is just a constant battle that we never win, isnt it.
ReplyDeleteEwww... whiteflies. I'll have to post the recipe I used to use on whitefly and aphids when we lived in VA. It's from an old book on "greener living". It's essentially a mix of garlic oil and soapy water. Works wonders. You can add jalapenos for extra kick but I know that you would NEVER have any extra of those....
ReplyDeleteJudy
I can't wait to arrive and meet everyone. I was just in the basement laughing at all the containers of Dr. Bronners the movers are going to have to pack (they were cheap through co-op here, I HAD to!)... didn't know it was a good insecticide, that's good to know.
ReplyDeleteAPG, I would do it in my front yard in a heartbeat if I didn't have to worry about selling in a couple years!
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Ribbit, I love that skirt! I almost camo'd up when I went on my kill spree tonight LOL
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Sue, gardeners are the BEST! The world would be at peace if everyone gardened :)
Jane, I thought I'd be okay until squash bug time, wasn't to be!
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Judy, I did really well - only 3 jalapeno plants (I think!) out there this year, but still have gobs put up!
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Lanette, can't wait to meet you, Dr. Bronner's is awesome stuff LOL!
Looks like a great get together. It IS a blast to see other gardens, for sure.
ReplyDeleteWowser, did you ever get a good pea crop this year! I see many, many stir fry dinners in your future.
Very cool post! We learned about something new today. That bridge tunnel is the most fascinating thing I've learned about in a while. None of us had heard of it before. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteOooh, what a fun meetup! I love that you learned how to make rain barrels too! Totally awesome. I can't agree with you more about touring other's people's gardens. It is so much fun and is totally a learning experience indeed! I love that photo of Finn. Too cute how excited he was.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great time! But returning to all those bugs? Man...I'd get the camo on and go huntin'!!
ReplyDeleteThe outfit you picked up at the thrift store looks great on you!
ReplyDeleteLooks like fun! I still haven't gotten my "local" group big enough to meet in person yet. With all the rain I haven't been able to get anything done :(
ReplyDeleteOn the "bug" end, you're lucky yours are where you can spray something on them! I've got something eating the roots of my mizuna :( Tiny caterpillars. I just hope they don't move on to my broccoli - they're doing so well I'll be really pissed if I lose them all!
Woo-Hoo - another front yard gardener! Gotta love it. I rarely see it, so pardon my enthusiasm for seeing another of my kind. :)
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a great night, must be a fun group.
Mama Pea, the peas are amazing this year, I'm thinking it just must be because we actually HAD a spring period instead of straight into hot!
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Patty, those things are the bane of our existence, we have 5 of them, and we have to take one to get to any part of a mainland area, as you can imagine it makes hurricane season stressful at times, since those are the first things to close due to wind restrictions. We always have to prepare to stay and tough it out since there is no good way to evacuate :)
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meems, good times for sure! I only wish we could have a blogger convention, how fun would that be?!
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Mama Tea, the bugs seem to come from nowhere, I had just checked all the plants the day before!
Dani, heck yes! I'm proud of my $3 outfit :) Some of the stuff I find is like brand new - one can only imagine there's someone out there who isn't eating their veggies and not fitting into their nice clothes anymore LOL
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Alison, I just started some more Mizuna, it seems to be the only lettuce I have that can reliably germinate in the heat, I haven't checked them for bugs yet but I'll be doing that today for sure :)
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Kelly, it is SO eye appealing to see a yard that looks ALIVE rather than manicured and unused! I'm definitely doing it when we get to our "forever home". - that kinda sounded like our family is a bunch of rescue pets LOL
1ST OFF ERIN YOU MUST THINK I'M STUPID ---I REALLY NEED NEW GLASSES I THOUGHT YOU SAID SHIRT NOT SKIRT , DUH. ANYWAY YOU WILL STAY NICE AND COOL IN THAT NICE SKIRT IN THE SOUTHERN HEAT. MY HUBBY JUST TALKED TO HIS BROTHER IN FRANKLIN ,KY. YESTERDAY--IT'S IN THE 90'S ALREADY. YOUR LUCKY TOO TO GET GOOD INFO FROM SOME FARM FOLK- I TRY TO PICK UP TIPS &RECIPES AT THE LOCAL FARMERS MARKET THO--SOMETIMES IT PAYS OFF
ReplyDeleteArg, white fly - my arch nemesis. We had them so bad last year, they pretty much killed the raspberry bush and the strawberries - disgusting little creatures.
ReplyDeleteHow fun to have a group of like minded gardeners to get together with. I wish you lived closer...