2010 Growing Season Not exactly a great year.

[sheepdog 10]

Today has been a rainy dismal day, not fit for much of anything, other than work on my hosting credits here, there's always that. And I decided I need to learn how to post pictures with my messages, so this post is also part experiment. We had a couple pretty nice days before it turned yuky today, so I took advantage of the nicer days and started my cane pole cutting. This is the first year I have cut the poles down in the fall after the growing stoped and they died back. The plantings were pretty new, just been about a couple years, my vet had given me a bucket full of starts and I had planted them all over the place. They grow really tall and one of the reasons I hadn't cut them back in previous years was that even after they die back they still are rather attractive plants, with their tall stalks and feathery tops. I have been dreaming up all sorts of projects that I can make with the poles. Aside from the obvious use as a fishing pole, I think they will make really nice shades. I want to rebuild a little arbor that I bought some years ago at Big Lots, it's pretty but cheaply made, it lasted a lot longer than I expected it to by now it's in pretty rough shape. I have some fairly well established clematis plants on either side of it, so I have to put something back there for it to grow on. I think I will rebuild it from scratch, using cedar poles we can cut here, and the cane for a shade on top. I think it will look pretty cool when I get it done. I would also like to build a concrete bench to set under it. Now, if I can get the picture to post, if you look real close at the planting, you can see a dog pen panel behind the plants. From the base of the concrete to the top of the panel is 5 feet, so you can get a pretty good idea of just how huge this plant gets.

[mahesh2k 0]

Nice. I think you should start blogging about your dogs and garden. Forum thread usually gets less attention and readers than blog. I'm sure if you launch dog tips and garden blog, then it will surely help you and will fetch a lot of replies. Image took a time to load for me, but that is because i'm on dialup. You have nice garden there. I miss my old house where i used to spend a lot of time in the garden, birds and pets. Now with these huge cement societies, i kinda find such pics rare around me.

[sheepdog 10]

Thanks, I have toyed with the idea of blogging,and I do enjoy writing, but truth be told, I have enough trouble keeping up enough posts here to keep up my web site hosting. I went over 2 months without even updating my web site. Which when you consider that's how I make money, it's not a good idea to leave it get behind. I don't think I could ever bear to live in the concrete jungle. I'm just not geared that way. I have plants and animals surronding me every day of my life, I take much of the enjoyment I get from the living things around me. Many times I find myself out in the goat pasture just standing and watching the goats. It's relaxing and refreshing and so peacefull and satisfying. I get a great feeling of contentment being outdoors and around the critters.

[anwiii 17]

you got rain? i got a little snow and i am only about 2 hours north. i picked the WRONG day to do my monthly shopping!

[Teyu 0]

Really nice cane plant, sheepdog. Your pic bring me memories of my hometown. I'm from a small town in Corrientes, Argentina so I know how is to live surrounded by nature. Sometimes I miss that (right know I'm living in a capital city).The option to make the fishing rod is very good, if you go fishing often.Well, I hope the rain stop so you can return to the pole cutting job.PS: can you upload another pics?

[sheepdog 10]

Oh yes, we definatly got rain. Better that then snow of course. Your being 2 hours north is almost like being in a different country from where I am. We live in a pecular area, just 8 miles north of our place there is a line where the climate changes considerable in just that short distance. My vet is 25 miles north of me, and I don't know how many times I was comfortable at home and then gone to his place and feel like I'm freezing. It's always a few degrees warmer here, or rain instead of snow. I think we are actually more likely to have whateve weather Arkansas is having than north Missouri.

[sheepdog 10]

Actually, this might be a good time to try a couple more pictures. One is taken at the front of the house, if you read my roadrunner post, this is one of them sitting on our bulldozer. The other one was taken right out by back door of my back yard. As you can see we are surrounded by wild life.

[Teyu 0]

Nice pics Sheepdog =). Thanks for share.

I bring some pics of a really nice place I have in my hometown. When i go to my home I usually go for fishing, hunting or camping to that place.

Theese pics are from the last year more or less:

[sheepdog 10]

Nice pictures! The poultry one gave me ideas!By the way, was the turkey in the picture Thanksgiving dinner? I could use those cane polls to do a roof simular to the one in the picture. But that got me to thinking, I wonder what kind of grass is used to make "thatch?" The stuff they use to make roofs out of. It surely has to be some sort of tough, rot resistant grass. I can't really think of any grass types that grow around here that wouldn't rot down very quickly. After a couple lousy days of weather, we finally got another decent day so I got really ambitious. Finished cutting the cane, and dug the last of my canna roots. Now the only big project left is the burning of my poor pathetic flower bed. My zinnias get fungus, so I thought burning it this time might help that problem. This was the worst year it ever had. It was so bad I didn't even get enough seed back to plant it again next year. This spring I used 17 jars of flower seed, and this year I have only harvested 5 jars. Last year I could go gather the flower heads for seed and pick a bucket full almost ever trip, this year I never got even one bucket half full. Even my cosmos, which normally makes tons of seed had these weird underdeveloped little flower heads. It is going to be a real challenge to plant it next spring. I'm going to have to do some serious planing. I'm hoping to get the hubby to get me a truck load of saw dust so I can lay a strip down the back side of the bed so it isn't as wide. And I can put my canna's back in it, they haven't been in it for the last couple years, so that will take up some space. LOL, maybe I will have to sneak a few tomatoe plants in it! I tried to make some cuttings from a wave petunia, and for awhile they looked like they were going to survive, but this week several of them croaked, so that idea is out. Every year I try a few new varieties of flowers, this year it was Irish Poet, Bachlor Buttons, and Cosmos Red Crest. I did get quite a bit of the Cosmos Red Crest seed, but it was a bit of a dissapointment as it looks almost identical to the orange cosmos, I was hoping it was going to be a lot more red. The Irish poet is a pretty little orange flower, but very difficult to save the seed from, about the time it matures, it makes this fluffy little downy fuzz that carries it away. If I don't kill it this winter, I can put my big potted Angel Trumpet plant out in the flower row and I have a couple concrete sheepdogs I can put on either side of it to take up some space, and then put a few low growing plants around the base of them. Hopefully I will have a bunch of moss ross volunteer plants come up from a tub I planted this year, I think those would be pretty around the big planter. Anyway, I have all winter to figure something out.