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I don't think I would have made it through my cancer if I wouldn't have had my flowers and yard to take care of. I had help with the mowing a few times and offers of help with my flowers. The flowers are what got me through. Digging and planting (I was going through chemo in the spring, I would sit on the ground and scoot, getting up and down was too hard. Could only work about 30 minutes at a time, but I always had flowers and I couldn't not have them! As I get older it is slower and slower😉 but since I moved into my parents to be their caregiver I use the gardens as a way to relax. Planting and nurturing make me relax😊 weeding and pruning help me vent😒. It's a win win, my mother loves the flowers and my dad likes to give the vegetables to his coffee buddies.
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Tacy, take a close-up photo of the berries, then do a google image search to determine which berries they are specifically.

My raspberries typically fruit in July; there are hybrids that fruit again in the fall. This year was so dry they didn't produce berries at all.

Mulberries are longer and darker than raspberries and often are on trees that grow much larger than raspberry bushes, which really produce canes rather than branches. The trees are nuisance trees; they spread like wildfire and are hard to kill, and they're extremely invasive.

Mulberries are tasty and make nice pies and jams, but the stems don't pull out easily as do cherry stems, so it's a bit of a nuisance to bake with them. They are juicy and tasty though. If they grow close to and overhang a driveway, they make a nasty mess as they fall off easily. Birds and raccoons help disperse them, so if you ever plant them at home, you'll end up with a lot of volunteers.

I wouldn't eat any wild berry though w/o comparing it to a wild plant list or something that clearly identifies the berry.
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When I find a german chocolate cake, fresh made, like the picture, then I am buying a whole one.
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This is my bougie plant y'all helped me save in January, doing nicely now.

Cwillie, don't worry one second more if you didn't get chocolate cake. After sharing 1/2 piece it was so rich could not finish it, not that good, it was dry. Save dessert for a smoothie, make it yourself. Top with whipped cream.
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You be funny Cwillie, What would caregivers do wirhout you?
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Mmmm, added protein!
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tacy022, If they are raspberry looking, they are safe. There are no poison look alike berries that have the tiny cluster like raspberry. BUT they often have little tiny white worms inside (which are also safe to eat).
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Lol, everyone, even gardeners have to eat!
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I prefer salmon filets seasoned with lemon pepper. I broil in the oven for about 6 minutes one side, turn, broil about 3 minutes and it is done. If salmon or other fish is fresh, it will not smell fishy.
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Or a mix of brown sugar and chili powder Just pile it onto the salmon and bake it.
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Oh and I use Morton's Lite Salt instead of table salt
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Tacy022, get Chinook salmon, rinse thoroughly and soak it in brine overnight. The brine should taste as salty as the ocean. Pat it dry and rub on some molasses and brown sugar. Yummy. I smoke mine at 200F (95C) for three hours.
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Here you go, Tacy: These mixtures typically contain savory, marjoram, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and other herbs. In the North American market, lavender leaves are also typically included, though lavender does not appear in the recipes in Jean-Baptiste Reboul's 1910 compendium of Provençal cooking.[2]

Schwarzkopf do a blend, apparently. Personally I don't set too much store by prescriptive combos - the balance depends so much on how well any particular plant is doing in any given year, and how mature the leaves are, and how much sun there's been to concentrate the oils... keep chopping until you're happy with the fragrance, I should.

What recipes are you looking at?
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GA, I don't know about wisdom. I just knew that I needed to approach the garden realistically, based on how much time and energy I figured I'd have. If I get some oomph next month, I'll start some spinach and a few fall things and plant them in the empty bed. My soaker hoses got clogged with hard water residue so I need to get drip tape/ hoses next year. We've actually had rain yesterday and real storm today. Hopefully the summer rains are here. I need to watch the zinnias for mildew with the late afternoon rains. I'm trying gather and dry herbs to make herbs de Provence for gifts at Christmas. But my thyme plants have been struggling.
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GA, Have never seen. Stargate. My sister is the zen master-maybe I am so stressed that I am accidentally channeling her, if that is possible, hmmmmmn. I don' know what I am saying.
Namaste dudette!
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Speaking of potash, my hydrangea macrophylla has some blue and some pink and some blended flowers. From which I deduce that somebody has been sticking something in its pot; because all I gave it was ericaceous compost and an encouraging pat; and our water is as close to pH neutral as it gets.


Actually, Garden, I have a photo of myself aged ten grinning broadly as my sunflower towers over me. It was beginner's luck, of course; but ever since I have taken a deliberately amateur interest and had modest success - usually by being a fool rushing in where angels fear to tread. My daphne cuttings rooted in a small narrow-necked pottery vase, for example - it wasn't until I looked up daphne care that I learned that they will only root with hormonal rooting powder, bottom heat and the right gritty compost. Well, my daphne obviously hadn't read the book. I start every year with good resolutions and think 'oh well next time' by around about late May when I realise I've missed most of the sowing windows.

The RHS is very useful for technical details, that's why I was looking it up this morning. "Avoid planting dahlias by wooden fencing" it says - to which I thought, yup, done that; an exchange repeated with almost the entire list of dos and don'ts, as I'd mainly done the don'ts and skipped the dos.
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Send, is today Zen day?

You wrote: "The answer to the riddle will be provided, once the puzzle is discovered." Is this from one of the Stargate episodes, in which Daniel is advised by either one of the women who's "ascended" or the zen master, in the episode in which he's able to view his son?

I also was thinking about ash from the wildfires, although potash is available in other forms.

You must be pretty close to the fires, or directly in the line of wind drift. Better keep your windows closed.

I believe CM is referring to the Royal Horticultural Society. If you need some relief from the CA wildfires, google RHS and check out the photos of some of the shows. They're spectacular!
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Oops, on my way out the door...the only two people (and very few others) that I knew would understand are GardenArtist and you, Cwillie!

So you solved it, Cwillie!

478 M jackpot tonight!
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Churchmouse? What is the RHS?
Replant Hothouse Squash?
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You solved the oblique statement GardenArtist! Thanks for playing. Now, I am going to have to look up what oblique statement means.
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???
Sorry Send, I guess I am dense today, are you referring to sweeping up the potash? I assumed you were making an oblique statement about ash from one of the CA wildfires?
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The answer to the riddle will be provided, once the puzzle is discovered.
I knew no one was reading my posts above.
Doesn't anyone want to have some fun?
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CM, you've discovered one of the very useful and sometimes mandatory interactions of gardening - companion planting. It's an interesting subject to study as you plan your garden over the winter. I'm assuming that you've been bitten by the gardening bug and will begin to accumulate gardening magazines and catalogues and spend the frigid, snowy, stormy winter days poring over magazines, making lists, reviewing your financial situation, making the difficult decisions to cut back the lists, while sighing that you don't have endless funds to buy all the plants you want.

Join the crowd! What I've described is a ritual that I go through annually.

But your plants will look at you with admiration when you plant them next to their favorite companions.
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You have all inspired me to do what I have been meaning to do for years and join the RHS.

I now discover that I have planted everything in the wrong place, and that I have pretty much made one bed into an All You Can Eat buffet bar for earwigs. Also that the reason the black-fly vanished overnight from the viburnum was probably that it was next door to said buffet bar, and apparently earwigs enjoy aphids as a savoury.

Well I'm not starting all over again. The plants will just have to look at me reproachfully until I get round to moving things.
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My bouganvillia is surviving under the carport, except the bright magenta color has changed to more of a lighter shade, more pink. Must have watered it too much.
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Rain would be nice here too. This week nature is fertilizing my plants and entire yard with potash. Mother nature has been messy, getting the fertilizer everywhere so I had to sweep up where she missed.
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Rain! You lucky dog! We have had more rain than some in the area but things are still terribly dry. I've been hoping for a good pop up thunderstorm this afternoon but it isn't looking likely.
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Linda, sounds as if you've factored a lot of wisdom into your planting to adjust for space and weather. That's something I need to do!

I'm thinking that a lot of vining plants cover easily cover some of the space if allowed to just remain on the ground and spread out, acting as a ground cover. That's probably the first and easiest step I'll take. But I do want more flowers surrounding the veggies, to provide continuous color once the veggies finish producing.

We're having a short rain event right now - it's bringing some wonderfully cool relief to the stifling hot heat we've been enduring. I love the fresh and cooling fragrance of rain.
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GA, I established some small xeric plants using plastic juice bottles with holes down one side, sunk in the garden to water roots. I only planted two raised beds in vegetables this year - left one empty and scattered zinnia and cosmos seeds in the fourth bed. The flowers are really pretty, easy care and I don't have to freeze or can anything. The tomatoes aren't happy with the heat but producing some. Peppers are dropping blossoms so that's not good. Basil is doing surprisingly well as is the chard and fennel. The pole beans are going crazy. I planted just enough to satisfy my need to garden, but not so much that it's a burden instead of a joy. I didn't grow any squash because I knew I didn't have time to hand pick the bugs. The volunteer sunflowers are really nice this year. And the bees are having a feast on fennel pollen, oregano, thyme, sunflowers and vitex.
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My parents were of the generation that froze and canned most of what was needed to eat though the year so they had some very large gardens. I eventually sowed grass seed in one and reduced the size of the other but I was still left with a lot of garden space that I just couldn't leave idle, so I had fun experimenting with different gardening techniques and planting things like popcorn, peanuts and sweet potatoes. Unfortunately I still had way too many veggies to use, the beans would yield a pailful every few days, we ate cucumber salad until we could eat no more, and don't even mention the zucchini! Now I have a half dozen beans in a pot (not big enough, they are always dry), along with 2 cucumbers and 2 tomatoes in pots as well. What I really miss are pepper plants, I have stuck a few in amongst my flowerbeds but I have walnut trees and they are not looking very happy.
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