A gardening chat room

[joyce]

This looks like a pretty good site to visit. A gardening chat room sorta. You can go to your part of the country and talk with gardeners.


gardenweb.com/

[olhillbilly]

I see they have a sister site called The Kitchen Gardener. That be me. Cuz I got things growin in my fridge.

[cenaub4]

Well, I wish I had good news.

I've been a member of GW since '96. It is an awesome site, BUT.
They have over 250 different topic sites under the main umbrella. SOME of them, like the one HB saw, is Pay To Post. If you go over there to the HousePlants Forum, you will see lots of stuff under the Photo Gallery that I have grown, and some of my very best Imaginary Friends.

The BUTT comes from the fact that iVillage bought the site this year. They have ripped the guts out, stuffed them back in higgledy piggledy, and now are being really creepy. If you link to your personal site, or post personal photos directly into a thread, they are now claiming durable, forever copyrights to access that site, and use that photo.

They switched servers, and failed to tell ANYone they might have a hiccup or two. They also didn't test drive it first. Long time members were dumped back into years old member names, and some could not log in for days.

The previous moderator ran a TIGHT ship. I, myself, have been banned a number of times from posting into this community. He did not allow talk of Politics, Religion, or Criticism Of Management. You would be prevented from posting until you Apologized Formally To Him. It kept the incorrigebles out, the you-can't-tell-ME-what-to-do types, and the address gleaners and general Troll Hatemongers.

I've seen it all there.

Recently, with new management, they have let slide the vocabulary filters, you can say just about anything now, where before typing damn would get you automatically forewarded to the Disney HomePage, over and over and over. They do purchase more bandwidth, as the history files are now 30 + pages long, where before there were 30 posts per page, and only 20 pages.

It is a good site that I've enjoyed my membership in for nearly 10 years now. I've met more than a handful of people I found there. I've traveled to other cities mainly to meet people from 'online' at this site. The people are great. The knowledge is huge. The management is currently sucking.

Now that you know WAY more than you ever wanted to about GW....

[joyce]

Wow, thanks for the info. I'll admit I'm new to all this kind of stuff, so I didn't have a clue. I just plan on going there to read and hopefully learn a couple of things I didn't know. But then again they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

[cenaub4]

Oh, Jopyce, it is the BEST place to learn. I have spent a LOT of my life learning there.

It just turns out the new management is its own worst enemy.

Pick a subject or a plant. Fall in love. Just don't get emotionally involved in a particular subject or the people there. The new management isn't keep as tight of reins on stuff, thus trolls move in and raise heck. Old Disgruntled users are finding their ways in to wreak havoc and settle old grudges. And folks are flexing muscles they didn't even know they had.

Since the language filters have backed off, folks seem to be pushing the line all the way!

Search out and feel a space. I've been all over the place for years.

forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/farmlife/msg1101443724889.html
forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/farmlife/msg1222304512098.html
IALBTC = It All Leads Back To Compost. There USED to be a Soil UnderGround, anyway, these folks are GREAT, and friends...
faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/midatl/2002101805019109.html
Oh, yeah. Don't judge, I have a jug for 'bathroom gold' just to NOT freak out the neighbors. I have a bucket, I have rules about what IS trash, and DON'T let me catch you breaking them. Yes, I AM a Compost Nut! Just ask, I will bore you to DEATH. I turned the last four feet today, in the rain. I was also seeking protein for the chickens. To date, since my introduction to these people shortly after March last year, I have harvested over three trash cans full of shifted, wonderful 'Black Gold' from my mowings, kitchen scraps, and general yard work. I'm commited. Just don't tell those guys in white jackets over there....

Just to show I've been there awhile. Most forums move faster than this, and you shouldn't EVEN be able to find posts from '03!
forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/sansevieria/msg1002313721302.html?21
forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/sansevieria/msg1021452218370.html?10
forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hoya/msg121427449143.html?7


Just a quick look into a few different places there.

[joyce]

Thanks, I'll check it out. I've gardened all my life. When I wuz a kid, we truck patched, had a large strawberry patch. That's how I made my money fur my school clothes in the fall. I have my dear grandmother to thank for my love of flowers. I never learnt all the proper names, just what the old timers called um. I have a compost pile. It is wonderful. I probably don't put as much effort into it as I should. I try to do as much organic as possible, but sometimes between the dang bugs, lice, deer, rabbits, moles, voles, I get pi$$ed off and bring out the heavy duty equipment ;D ;D. We have a small orchard, peaches, apples, cherries, and pear trees. Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, grapes. Gonna plant a muscadine vine this spring. I have 2 different garden spots, probably about a 1/2 acre total for garden. Then sooooo many flower beds. Now that I kindly sorta know how to use my camera and do pictures, I'll be sure and post a bunch this year.

[cenaub4]

Well, how funny is that? My family never had patches of anything except bad luck and an unwillingness to work, but I've gardened off and on nearly my whole life. I took it up again, in a container way after I met my husband. Only in the last two years have I had a real garden, and I started a heap shortly after I moved in. I have a set of circumstances that get me fussed at from other gardeners, because I don't freeze. No one ever remembers that I have to irrigate everything I do, including my heap. I have some real creepy bugs too.

Right now, we just picked fruit off the tangerine, I think we are loosing it, bark coming off in huge pieces. The orange tree, the fruit looks like Jack-O-Lanterns it gets so little water. Now, the lemon tree I do take care of. I don't have nearly the opperation you have going, but I live vicariously through my moms property. 46 trees total, mostly pines of some type, but 5 apples, 2 or 3 plums, 2 pears, 2 cherries, 2 apricots. Not sure if the nut trees make it, I'm the gardener, shes the farmer, so most of her effort is turned towards the live stock.

We can swap notes on compost ingredients!

Gotta go, my fish is done.

[joyce]

I just mainly put all my peelin's, eggshells, hulls where I shell stuff in the summer, leaves, things of that nature in my compost pile. I'll go down to the barn ( we use to have goats and a horse) and there is alot of their manure there. I jest work it in with my other dirt.
In the fall when people are a rakin' their leaves and sack em up to put to the curb for the garbage men to pick up, we will get alot of them. I'll put em on my garden and till em in in the spring. I have learnt with my garden spots that I had rather have maple leaves than oak leaves. I don't quite know what the difference is but in one section a couple of years ago, all I put was oak leaves and the next year, my stuff I planted stayed stunted lookin' all year, didn't produce that good. So for the past year I will actually open these other peoples sacks of leaves and make sure they are maple. I am a firm believer in Miracle grow and fish emulision.

[cenaub4]

Well, I'm a bit of a different gardener, but hey! That's what makes the world go round.

I keep a slop bucket with a lid. Any liquid, whether unfinished coke (serious Soda Drinkers here!) or left over water, or rinse water from rise, or cooking spaghettie... all this liquid goes to my heap. Any vegetable peelings, ANY food left over that is not favored by chickens, goes to the heap. Every single paper towel used in this house goes to the heap. Dryer lint, toilet paper rolls, klenex, nearly ANYthing biodegradable.

I have been putting egg shells into my houseplants dirt for years now. Before, when i mixed them up with my soil, I would always nuke them. Now, they just go through the heap. Every mow from my yard, every weed pulling event (depending on the time of the year, and how hot my heap is getting) go in. I take all my stupid credit card applications right out of the shredder and they go into the heap. Every plant I kill and all its dirt go into the heap.

When I clean out after my chickens, straight to the heap.

One of the BEST things I've found, and don't throw rocks. StarBucks has a Fantastic Gardener program. All the coffee grounds from their businesses are put out, free for any gardener to come in, pick up, and use in a compost heap or as worm food, or for just beefing up your soil. I have been blessed by these people for the last year. Coffee made strong, or even grounds will keep slugs and snails dead, or at least away from your garden. I bless these crazy coffee people, even though I rarely ever give them my money. They don't care, they give me coffee grounds, free for hauling away.

I am sorta in the process of giving up on MG. I am trying to become greener (meaning more chemical free, and MG and assorted ARE chemicals!) There are all sorts of things I'm trying. There are all sorts of bugs that really refuse to respond to anything aside from big guns.

I have a 15 foot running heap, three feet wide at any time. And ALWAYS 10 feet working. I am having trouble with cats in the heap, but they Do Not like coffee grounds. CG's attract earth worms, helping to work your soil, leaving you NOT requiring tillers. I have a dandy one, given to me. I only used it the first year, I have E.Vile burmuda grass or some other nasty thing that needs to be removed root by root. This year, cause of compost and green garden practices, I double dug my entire 15x6 garden with a potato fork. Tillers scare off, or worse, destroy earthworms.

I DO regularly till the Cat OutHouse!

Yes, I do live in California, but just ask those that know. I've been 'one of those ODD people' my whole entire life. I have opinions about gardening, but hey, they work for me, maybe not for you, maybe even NutJob as far as anybody is concerned. Okay. But, this is what I believe.

I CAN tell you lady bugs bite HARD, and I will NEVER import any again. There are certain weeds I would pour gasoline on, even though I;m so green. But I will try to improve, not harm the earth.

The reason I think MG products harm the earth is the fact they mostly are made from chemicals, and they can, over time, kill any plant they are used on.

I wait hearing more about your heap. I too, use fish pooh to great advantage. I have orchids blooming right now, just from FE!