Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

- Collapse -
Very odd year here
Jul 28, 2014 3:04AM PDT

My tomatoes and peppers have plenty of fruit but the plants just didn't grow tall. It's probably something I did or didn't do. My wife put in something called "pattypan" squash. I think they look more like yellow land mines. The plants are huge and in the same garden space. So what's up with my stuff? I'll blame the winter.

You're dad's flowers look nice. I'll bet you have lots of hummingbirds around the place.

- Collapse -
Those are just a few
Jul 28, 2014 3:17AM PDT

and my photo skills are terrible but yeah, we have a lot of hummingbirds , usually in the morning and late noon if it's not hot.

Dad's the one with the green thumb but I remember when I used to plant a big garden full of toms and peppers and it seems to me that a fruit bearing plant is doing well if it's not wasting effort on growing tall and is putting out a lot of fruit.

Digger

- Collapse -
Are those Florida type vines and plants?
Jul 28, 2014 3:26AM PDT

The red vine is gorgeous and the purple lower to the ground is beautiful....I can't recall the names of them, but I think I checked into similar for here and found that SW Virginia doesn't have the climate zone to sustain them. I'm envious.

- Collapse -
Well, we're in Chicago
Jul 28, 2014 3:52AM PDT

I think the tall red ones are a type of Hibiscus , we bring them in for the winter . None of the others are tropical . I'll ask dad when he comes home. He went to get some prints made .

He's gonna be 85 soon and really loves his flower gardens. People travel to see his art.

Digger

- Collapse -
Man did I get that wrong lol
Jul 28, 2014 5:10AM PDT
- Collapse -
Dad said
Jul 28, 2014 5:12AM PDT

Mandevilla Plants will thrive in Virginia , just bring them in before 1st frost.

Digger

- Collapse -
My wife is the flower fanatic
Jul 28, 2014 3:43AM PDT

She knows most by name be they decorative or just forbs. Ya' gotta' watch her or she'll sneak weeds and bushes into your salad. Happy

- Collapse -
Even stranger here
Jul 28, 2014 3:24AM PDT

I've got tons of deer that have always been around. I used to have large 60x90 and
60x35 gardens in the back yard....no fencing ever around it, and the deer never bothered anything. I put the garden in the front a few years ago, and made it smaller (30-35) since it's just me. Deer began eating the tops of the tomato plants so I put up a double fence....chicken wire and plastic mesh 7' tall that stopped them from coming in. It was all outlined with massive hostas that the deer literally ignored. This year.....no veg garden at all.......and the deer not only have chewed down all the hostas around the garden but have also chewed down every hosta in the flower gardens around the house. I opened the front door the other day and one deer was literally five feet away from me, standing on the sidewalk at the bottom of the porch steps munching away on the hostas that line the sidewalk. Totally fearless......picked up its head, stared me down, and didn't leave until I was literally within arm's reach, clapping my hands and yelling at it. They are the same way with the dog and cat........talk about 'stand your ground'.......very ballsy animals lately and totally indifferent to what's growing in the 20 acres surrounding my yard fence lines now.

- Collapse -
Aren't deer drawn to hostas like moths to a flame?
Jul 28, 2014 3:39AM PDT

and animals get more bold when hungry. That probably means their population is up or food supply down. I'd think your state department of natural resources...whatever it's called...would have a reports on deer if something was out of normal limits. I don't know what can be done about deer other than to try and not attract them. They don't have much that preys on them now other than automobiles.

- Collapse -
Bring back that critter
Jul 28, 2014 3:55AM PDT

that was hiding under your house to scare the deer off Devil

Digger

- Collapse -
Critter is still here
Jul 28, 2014 4:44AM PDT

I have a feeling it's going to have squatter's rights soon LOL

- Collapse -
P.S
Jul 28, 2014 3:57AM PDT

Dad only uses Fish Emulsion for fertilizer, kinna stinky but the proofs in the pudding .

Digger

- Collapse -
As kids weren't we told
Jul 28, 2014 5:53AM PDT

that Native Americans taught the pilgrims to plant fish with their crops? Sabotage!! All that ever sprung up was the corn and such...not a single trout. Grin

- Collapse -
Maybe they were plaiced wrong.
Jul 28, 2014 6:10AM PDT

Dafydd.

- Collapse -
There is an old joke that goes something like this
Jul 28, 2014 6:46AM PDT

but it won't be funny the way I'll tell it.

A redneck (if you've heard that term) wanted to raise chickens. He bought a bunch of them, dug holes and buried them up to their heads. None of them grew so he bought another bunch and did the same thing with the same result. He check with his redneck neighbor and was advised to consult with the agricultural department at the local redneck university. He dug up a couple of the dead chickens and took them to the head of poultry there and explained what he had done. "Hmm", said the professor. "What I need you to do is go back to your farm and bring me a soil sample so I can test it."

That's it...the joke I mean.

- Collapse -
HAHA
Jul 28, 2014 6:56AM PDT

Good one too !

When Mom and Dad moved to Chicago , from Southern Illinois in 1950 , the city boy's here nicknamed my Dad "Hoedown" ROFL .

Digger

- Collapse -
My true story
Jul 28, 2014 6:57AM PDT

Shortly after I moved here, my son became friends with a boy down the road. I visited the parents and became friends as well. They raised chickens and had them all over the place running free and laying eggs everywhere. I purchased a small handful of their chicks....came home built an 'a' frame small building for them for shelter and put out feed. Went into the house and about an hour later went outside to check on them......they were all gone and never to be seen again. I went to the neighbor and asked what happened since theirs all stay close to the house. I was told that I was supposed to build a fence around the coop so they wouldn't run off. When I asked why I needed to do that when they didn't I was informed......."our chickens grew up with their mothers around to show them their boundaries....since you didn't take one of the mothers, they all left to find her". Leave it to a Yankee to not grasp the logic behind a purchase enough to ask questions and leave it to a redneck to not give needed information UNLESS asked for LOL......my baby chicks turned into hawk or snake bait.

- Collapse -
and that's why....
Jul 28, 2014 8:34AM PDT

....farm jokes are always the "corniest".

- Collapse -
Yes, that's true. Farmers have
Jul 28, 2014 9:14AM PDT

a truely a-maize-ing sense of humor.

- Collapse -
And they're outstanding in their field.
Jul 28, 2014 9:20AM PDT

Dafydd.

- Collapse -
I tell you that jokes are rarely born or hatched. Instead,
Jul 28, 2014 9:28AM PDT

they are mostly groan.

- Collapse -
Nice one.
Jul 28, 2014 9:32AM PDT

Dafydd.

- Collapse -
(NT) ooh, a triple crown there!
Jul 28, 2014 2:25PM PDT
- Collapse -
a good funny!
Jul 28, 2014 8:33AM PDT
Happy
- Collapse -
(NT) Very nice. Thanks for sharing.
Jul 28, 2014 7:21AM PDT
- Collapse -
that looks great.
Jul 28, 2014 8:31AM PDT

I see some dusty millers, mallow, hostas, calladiums, coleus. Those coleus go wild around here! If they drop seeds in the yard, you are stuck with them forever it seems.

- Collapse -
Same with morning glories
Jul 28, 2014 9:18AM PDT

and some ground covers.

- Collapse -
Yes, and I often forget that morning glories
Jul 30, 2014 7:30AM PDT

are God's creatures. Happy

- Collapse -
(NT) And Sweet Peas......grrrrrrr
Jul 30, 2014 7:32AM PDT
- Collapse -
Everything God gives you is a gift
Jul 30, 2014 7:33AM PDT

Be it an ice cream cone or an armload of hungry mosquitoes, it's a gift. Happy