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Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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Posted by
Evenie 9b - New Orleans (
My Page) on
Sat, Dec 7, 13 at 11:29
| This is my first fall with a mature tropical garden. I seriously need to rethink my plantings with the climate changing here. I have no more space for compost heaps, and those banana trunks weigh 50 pounds apiece. I hurt in places I didn't know I had. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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I hear ya. I do the same thing. Jump in like I'm 15 and go all day. We gotta learn to slow down! Epsom Salt good for soaking....
I did this last year during bare root season. Planted all of mine in one day. Learned from that mistake! How is your garden? Is anything blooming down there?
Susan |
RE: Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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- Posted by Evenie 9b - New Orleans (My Page) on
Sat, Dec 7, 13 at 12:53
| Unfortunately, I got my winter annuals in late, so things are looking awfully drab. My one baby rose is blooming her little heart out, though, and she is quite beautiful. The color is so bright my cheap camera can't deal with it. It's unusual to have color like that this far south since most things just wash out in the very direct light. I have a few more DA's on order for January and hopefully next year will be a little less dreary. |
RE: Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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| I love cutting bananas! They stain your clothes but the fun part is they cut like butter. I use a corded Ryobi Reciprocating saw and a green (not the color) blade. I slice and dice to small sections. I usually leave them on the ground a day or two cause they are so full of juice and then toss in the trash. Totally paranoid they might sprout up if I put in the compost. |
RE: Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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- Posted by Evenie 9b - New Orleans (My Page) on
Sat, Dec 7, 13 at 13:03
| The Mediterranean walk. The cat's name is Bear and he just recovered from being very sick. I had to crawl under the house with all the black widow spiders to rescue him, but he's much better now. |
RE: Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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- Posted by Evenie 9b - New Orleans (My Page) on
Sat, Dec 7, 13 at 13:13
| The yard cleaned up. The neighbors are less than thrilled about the potager in the front, but the back is completely shaded by a live oak. Grass grows rampantly here anyway, and I rather have food and flowers than more to mow. In the front-right is lemon grass and a favorite marking spot for the neighborhood dogs (major ew!). That will go away in the spring when the new roses come in. I'm hoping that if I plant nice roses, the veggies will attract less attention. |
RE: Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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| I'm glad your little Bear is doing better. It's horrible when they're not well. I think your house and front yard are charming, and the veggie area to me doesn't look bad at all since it's contained. However, a few strategically roses placed around it would be very pretty and will hopefully please the neighbors. Ingrid |
RE: Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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- Posted by Evenie 9b - New Orleans (My Page) on
Sat, Dec 7, 13 at 13:27
| Kippy, I think it is amazing as well how easily they cut. My cousin in Sonoma County came over the summer and was totally flabbergasted when I asked him to help take out a few. The problem is that they are 25-ft tall starch bananas with a trunk diameter of a foot. I got them because they are not cold hardy, plantains are expensive at the store, and I needed something to soak up the water my neighbor is draining into my property. Unfortunately, we haven't had a freeze in a few years and the north side of my house has become a banana-redwood forest. |
RE: Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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- Posted by Evenie 9b - New Orleans (My Page) on
Sat, Dec 7, 13 at 13:57
| Thank you, Ingrid, for the well-wish for Bear. Sadly, he was around when dirt was invented and is now perpetually unwell. He's such a lovable guy, albeit a smelly one, and I really don't want him to go. Every year I think will be his last, but he keeps hanging in there. |
RE: Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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| I love your kitty (tuxedos are a favorite) and wish you both well in his elder years. I went through this quite a while back with my kitty, and it is a hard thing, requiring painful decisions. But what a lovely garden and home you have. I can't imagine what your neighbors would object to in the front yard with its cottagy-bungalow charm. It's lovely, so never mind them. I groaned when I read of your "tropical" problems. I never got my fall cleanup quite finished and an early winter moved in, and now we have snow on the ground (not frequent around here-at least more than an inch), and tonight it will get down to zero, also not common, and certainly about a month early. I actually winter protected two roses. Now, I'll content myself with viewing your lovely garden. Diane |
RE: Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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| It is shocking how we lose our limber youth (although I am fantasising about mine because I have always been a bit of an idler). I swear I am aching after a day of half-mooning lawn edges (not mine....as if).... and am giving myself a bit of a talking to because I know full well what awaits me tomorrow (assuming all is not under water). 7 horizontal poplars, needing cutting and stacking, topped off with babysitting duties. Mmmm, smelly cats, adored only by their servants. Nanadoll, I have seen where you live and it looks like the surface of the moon....or maybe Titan or something. How is it that your roses appear to have been grown in some nutrient soup of complete lushness. Or, do you actually live in Ireland and are just playing with us? |
RE: Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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- Posted by Evenie 9b- New Orleans (My Page) on
Sat, Dec 7, 13 at 16:25
| Diane, I'm so sorry to complain! I am truly a southern weenie. I tried to live in Chicago some years ago and didn't make it through the first winter. I had to take a bus back down south in January. I kept getting hypothermia trying to shovel the snow off the walkway or break the ice off the porch. My poor southern car just up and died. But, it's not just the people around here who are soft... today is a drizzly 45 degree day and the animals are having none of it. |
RE: Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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| Aren't the cat and dog in the wrong positions? In my house, all vantage positions atop chairs or sofas are viciously contested (by the clawed ones) - a dog wouldn't get a sniff in. |
RE: Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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- Posted by Evenie 9b - New Orleans (My Page) on
Sat, Dec 7, 13 at 16:44
| The dog is very young and the cats are very old. The dog is ignored at all costs as to not incite any noise or acrobatics. |
RE: Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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| Evenie, I just love your sayings, you southern weenie (ha). I haven't had to cut any bananas down lately. Then I would be a northern weenie. Anyway, that "even a blind pig finds an acorn once in while (did I get that right??)" had me rolling on the floor. Campanula, now my patriotic Idaho dander is up. Here is a shot of the moon surface (as seen from my front yard a while back).
Diane |
RE: Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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- Posted by Evenie 9b - New Orleans (My Page) on
Sat, Dec 7, 13 at 19:33
| Woah, that's an amazing picture. Clear skies without haze are both beautiful and frightening. That never happens here. As for the southernisms, I don't make them up, and they almost always reference some poor blind animal. My favorite was when my mother's Minister told us in a sermon that he was as useful to his wife as a blind goose at a horse race. He was from Louisville. |
RE: Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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| I used to grow bananas. Delicious! A fresh home grown banana beats a store banana every time. But then you have to cut down stalks after they fruit. And they are heavy. I couldn't drag them and nowhere to let them rot. I tried chainsawing them and got a bath when all the water in the trunk doused me while I was sawing through them. Who knew there was that much water in a banana stalk? Then I saw a show on banana farms where a big guy cuts them down with a monster machete with one whack and they rot where they fall. There are wires between the rows of plants that run from poles and the bananas are clipped to these lines and slide along to the end where they go into a box. I could not figure out what to do with my old stalks and the weight of hauling them off was too much to pay at the local disposal station. But I did love growing bananas. Now I have figs instead and it's much easier. As far as dogs visiting. You might try my idea of society garlic and ground cover thyme. The dogs don't like the scent and wander on to the next grassy place. I have not had to clean after dogs since I changed the grass for strong scented herbs. I am getting ready to move some big plants between Christmas and New Years and I will be feeling it I'm sure. A warm soak or a shower feels so good after a big day of physical gardening. Poor old blind goose |
RE: Fall cleanup... I think I broke myself
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| I took your courage and applied it to our bananas tonight, thank goodness ours are not 25 feet tall!! I whacked these 3 down so they would stop growing up and under the eves. The house is raised so they can get kind of tall, but not half of what you have. Kitty, if you miss your banana trees, I have 4 pups I have to dig out. I can pot you up a few. Mom was upset, she thought the neighbors wanted the bigger ones. I had tried giving them to them but they wanted nothing to do with bananas |
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