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Godless in the garden

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Welcome to gardeners, growers of veggies, fruits, flowers, and trees!

Welcome backyard hen enthusiasts, worm farmers, beekeepers & composters!

Location: Planet Earth
Members: 142
Latest Activity: yesterday

9 members like this

If you like to dig in the dirt, plant & prune, grow food & flowers, or sit and watch as someone else does your landscaping, you'll find something here to discuss!

Selected topics, in no particular order:
Moon Phase Widget here. Moon phase topic here.
What's your gardening style?
Frugal gardening.
Backyard Chickens here. here. here. here.
Growing Fruits
Wild Parsnip - It can burn skin.
Why buy locally-grown plants?
Squirrels.
bees.
Cheap gardening.
Buy locally grown plants to prevent blight transmission here.
Grow lots of fruits in a small space, by backyard orchard culture.

Started by Sentient Biped. Last reply by Sentient Biped yesterday. 7 Replies 1 Like

Started by Randall Smith. Last reply by Randall Smith Jun 2. 4 Replies 0 Likes

Started by Sentient Biped. Last reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner May 27. 3 Replies 2 Likes

Started by Ruth Anthony-Gardner. Last reply by Sentient Biped May 27. 3 Replies 1 Like

Started by Dallas (on hiatus). Last reply by Sentient Biped May 27. 2 Replies 1 Like

Started by Randall Smith. Last reply by Randall Smith May 15. 3 Replies 1 Like

Started by Sentient Biped. Last reply by Randall Smith May 14. 4 Replies 1 Like

Started by Joan Denoo. Last reply by Sentient Biped May 4. 2 Replies 1 Like

Started by Joan Denoo. Last reply by Sentient Biped May 1. 1 Reply 0 Likes

Started by Steph S.. Last reply by Sentient Biped May 1. 1 Reply 0 Likes

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Comment by Dominic Florio on January 16, 2013 at 6:43pm: 2000 yr old tree of life from Africa.

Comment by Idaho Spud on January 16, 2013 at 1:14pm: Neat patterns Joan, but a lover of going barefoot would have to watch his step. :)

Comment by Joan Denoo on January 13, 2013 at 1:44am: I love hellebores for all the reasons you mention. They self sow and easy to transplant the wee ones. I didn't know they are toxic. I will wear gloves. We still have snow, but as soon as it is gone, I will cut off last year's leaves, retrieve any babies I want, and enjoy the blossoms until they get covered by leaves about spring equinox. They remain upright, standing proudly, and one has to hunt down in the growth to find any flowers. However, the green is so pretty, I don't mind.

Comment by Sentient Biped on January 12, 2013 at 11:04pm: New group icon, Helleborus niger. This pic from wikimedia commons. I have some in bloom now, freeze and snow doesn't seem to faze them.

"Black hellebore" was used by the ancients in paralysis, gout and other diseases, more particularly in insanity. "Black hellebore" is also toxic, causing tinnitus, vertigo, stupor, thirst, a feeling of suffocation, swelling of the tongue and throat, emesis and catharsis, bradycardia (slowing of the pulse), and finally collapse and death from cardiac arrest. Research in the 1970s, however, showed that the roots of H. niger do not contain the cardiotoxic compounds helleborin, hellebrin, and helleborein that are responsible for the lethal reputation of "black hellebore" Google images. H. niger seems long lived. I have some that are 12 years old, growing in shaded, cool locations. The one down-side is the flowers are pendulous, so you amost have to get under them to appreciate their simple elegance.

Comment by Idaho Spud on January 9, 2013 at 3:02pm: It was hard to make-out, but I guessed lizard. One of my favorite species as well.

Comment by Annie Thomas on January 9, 2013 at 2:52pm: Joan- it is an anole, a very common lizard found here in Florida.

Comment by Joan Denoo on January 9, 2013 at 1:14pm: So, we have a very handsome frog to enjoy. Love your photos and stories.

Spud, your "More hansom than most princes and a lot more beneficial" tickled me .. sadly, handsome and beautiful of face does not always include honorable of character!

About the squirrel formula, I wonder if an edible oil could substitute for Murphy's oil?

Comment by Joan Denoo on January 9, 2013 at 1:03pm: When I lived in El Paso, I brought home some wild cactus for my garden. A friend told me tarantulas and scorpions breed in cactus and when the babies get big enough, the cactus will shake and explode. When you wrote about cactus, I Googled cactus + scorpions and this is what I found:
Exploding cactus an urban legend.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/insects/cactus.asp