Re: [gardeners] Pinetree
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Fri, 30 Jan 1998 14:49:23
At 01:33 PM 1/30/98 -0600, you wrote:
>>At 08:51 AM 1/30/98 -0700, you wrote:
>>>At 08:46 AM 1/30/98, George Shirley wrote:
>>>>Pinetree must have recovered from the freeze in Maine, got my catalog
order
>>>>yesterday and a 1998 catalog. Found a source for Golden Queen tomatoes in
>>>>that new catalog so guess I'll have to get another order off to them.
<VBG>
>>>>
>>>>Currently have two 36 pot flats going under the lights and over the heat
>>>>and have two more like that plus a flat of 3" pots sanitizing in the
bleach
>>>>mix right now. Does anyone have some garden space I can borrow? It's
either
>>>>that or dig up some more backyard. Hope Miz Anne's back can stand up to
it.
>>>>
>>>>We've been having a lot of sunshine and 70F days here with nighttime temps
>>>>down into the high thirties. Beautiful SPRING weather in SW Louisiana.
>>>>Thank you El Nino!
>>>>
>>>>George
>>>>
>>>George, during the time I was on OGL, there was a lot of talk about no-till
>>>gardening. What they were advocating was covering the lawn with cardboard
>>>(some said spray Roundup first, others said don't worry, it'll die), tack
>>>it down, and cover it with 4 to 6 inches of compost. Let it sit, water it,
>>>etc., then reach in and plant. Now you may be in a hurry to plant, so that
>>>might present problems. But it is easier than digging up the lawn.
>>>Margaret
>>>
>>I've never had much luck with no-till gardening here, I think it may be to
>>wet. We average 65 inches of rainfall per annum and some times we get 6 or
>>8 inches all at once. We experimented with no-till a number of years ago
>>and got bumper crops of snails, slugs, pill bugs, earwigs, and lots of mold
>>and mildew. Even on an average sunny day we will have 96% humidity. We do
>>mulch in the summer but not deeply. I'm solarizing the new patch along the
>>fence with polyethylene film weighted with brick bats and then will turn
>>under the dead grass and weeds. Still contemplating getting a Mantis tiller
>>as I have trouble using a shovel anymore.
>>
>>George
>
>
>Out of curiousity what is a brick bat? I have hear the expression "hard as
>a brick bat" all my life and never knew what it was for sure. Also I
>love my mantis tiller FWIW, we got ours about 12 years ago, and it is still
>running with very little maintenance. Jane
>
The half a brick or less that is left when the brick mason breaks a full
brick to end a course. Does that help? Our brick bats are all half bricks
left over from building this house 25 years ago. The first owners neatly
stacked them in a corner of the yard and I found them 8 years ago when we
moved here. Miz Anne and I have been known to knock on doors and salvage
stuff out of other peoples trash. Got some good used doors that way plus a
good many cinder block, brick, etc. Anne's out picking up bagged leaves as
I write this. We ran out early this year and the neighbors just put theirs
out for the trash pickup. What a waste of good organic material.
George, who's probably missing a little more than half a brick in his top
course