From master gardener & photographer Marvel:
We’re winding down from a fairly mild Summer here in the Willamette Valley — middling highs, coolish nights — our cool-weather plants thrived, but the heat-loving veggies were pretty underwhelming.
This last week we had a few rainy days but sunny warm weather is again forecast for next week. The garden’s in transition. The Fall carrots have decided to put on some welcome, rapid growth; the little Japanese maple out front is rushing into its red finery and the crimson clover cover crop (in the former tomato bed) is sprouting to beat the band.
We’re winding down from a fairly mild Summer here in the Willamette Valley — middling highs, coolish nights — our cool-weather plants thrived, but the heat-loving veggies were pretty underwhelming.
This last week we had a few rainy days but summy warm weather is again forecasted for next week. The garden’s in transition. The Fall carrots have decided to put on some welcome, rapid growth; the little Japanese maple out front is rushing into its red finery and the crimson clover cover crop (in the former tomato bed) is sprouting to beat the band.
We’ll be planting a bedful of garlic next week and otherwise just shuffling around, conserving energy for the big acorn & oak-leaf wrangling that’ll be sure to hit Big Time next month.
******
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
Mary G
Marvel, I love your photographer’s eye. The shot of the lacy carrot tops above the blue grey gravel is delightful.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ? ??
rikyrah
Gorgeous pictures ?
rikyrah
Jerusalem (@JerusalemDemsas) Tweeted:
.@KamalaHarris being introduced by the first Black woman to be elected to the South Carolina State Senate as “the President of the United States”!
Cue standing ovation ?????? https://t.co/HDVtejBlGt https://twitter.com/JerusalemDemsas/status/1175585582300520448?s=17
rikyrah
Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) Tweeted:
Actually, that’s not what happened. Gun manufacturers are $100M in the red since Donald Trump was elected – it’s called the #TrumpSlump. That’s why gun manufacturers are laying off employees or declaring bankruptcy. Beto is a gun sense champion, but correlation isn’t causation. https://t.co/fMeTW1wsUw https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1175603393848438784?s=17
rikyrah
Black Women Views (@blackwomenviews) Tweeted:
Y’alls receipt for a 70 year old’s allyship is reading names from a post it note. Meanwhile #Kamala has a whole ass decades long record of advocacy.The bar is so low, I can’t…let me log off and get back to my vacation. ✌? https://t.co/P9p3VkBL2q https://twitter.com/blackwomenviews/status/1175424646826647555?s=17
rikyrah
PamplinLaw (@LesaPamplin) Tweeted:
She hasn’t been vetted: The Attack On Elizabeth Warren That Could Actually Matter https://t.co/c5COpJkmwN https://twitter.com/LesaPamplin/status/1175481372812742657?s=17
rikyrah
Isaiah L. Carter (@IsaiahLCarter) Tweeted:
See, this is the smug, passive-aggressive, progressivist racism that makes me sick.
The idea that I as a Black man should be fine with the denial of biological reality running rampant because “we faced discrimination too” stinks of ACTUAL white privilege.
Not gonna happen. https://t.co/rQ40v7DNvB https://twitter.com/IsaiahLCarter/status/1175490821610770432?s=17
rikyrah
José (@josecanyousee) Tweeted:
Kamala recalled the time she convened DA’s from around the country to come up w/ strategies to counter bogus “transgender panic” or “gay panic” defense claims. Kamala remembers the case of Gwen Araujo and mentions her by name without reading it from a prepared list. #LGBTQforum https://t.co/Ebfkg0LfRh https://twitter.com/josecanyousee/status/1175502831907794944?s=17
rikyrah
Madison V. King (she/her) (@madisonvking) Tweeted:
Tonight’s #LGBTQforum has let Marianne Williamson and Tulsi Gabbard, who have both been virulently queerphobic with no real pushback off the hook, while railroading longtime allies like VP Biden and Sen. Harris. @GLAAD should be ashamed of this complete farce. https://twitter.com/madisonvking/status/1175218037676490752?s=17
rikyrah
Madison V. King (she/her) (@madisonvking) Tweeted:
The moderator they gave Biden and Harris was @lyzl, who according to the FEC did not donate to Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in 2008, 2012, or 2016, but DID donate to Bernie Sanders three times. Real thinking moment. https://twitter.com/madisonvking/status/1175225028138418178?s=17
rikyrah
Gay and Bad ?️?? (@SJGrunewald) Tweeted:
I still maintain that the reason so many of these rich/middle class failchildren went “socialist” wasn’t because they identified with the class struggle, but because they weren’t as successful at Capitalism as their parents. https://t.co/OMKtX3XyCq https://twitter.com/SJGrunewald/status/1175532911895822336?s=17
rikyrah
Gay and Bad ?️?? (@SJGrunewald) Tweeted:
Just imagine being so sheltered that you think going to one of the most prestigious law schools in the country was at any point a struggle comparative to poor people skipping college entirely because they’re struggling to feed their families and pay their rents. https://twitter.com/SJGrunewald/status/1175539348969684993?s=17
rikyrah
#ListenToBlackWomenKamalaHarris2020 (@psddluva4evah) Tweeted:
“More Biden supporters are firm in their choice: 26% say their mind is mind up, with 70% saying they could be persuaded.”
Elizabeth Warren leads Register’s Iowa Poll for the first time, besting Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders
#ListenToBlackWomenKamalaHarris2020 (@psddluva4evah) Tweeted:
“Warren’s numbers also reveal some vulnerability.
Among those who say she is their first choice for president, only 12% say their minds are made up, while 88% say they could be persuaded to support another candidate. https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/1175587294650228736?s=17
rikyrah
Jeff Fecke (@jkfecke) Tweeted:
If you’re yelling at Pelosi but silent on McConnell, the Republicans thank you for your support. https://twitter.com/jkfecke/status/1175494523146907649?s=17
rikyrah
Propane Jane™ (@docrocktex26) Tweeted:
The paralyzing fear of Whitelash to Trump impeachment is akin to the fear of Whitelash to gun & fossil fuel regulation, ultimately it’s a collective refusal to take the keys and privilege away from people who are intentionally driving America’s democracy and humanity off a cliff. https://twitter.com/docrocktex26/status/1175568169416712194?s=17
rikyrah
Propane Jane™ (@docrocktex26) Tweeted:
Let’s face it, when the talking heads catastrophize about impeachment backfiring on Democrats, they mean with White voters specifically. No one with good sense expects the non-White electorate to take issue with Trump facing consequences for his crimes, acquittal or not. https://twitter.com/docrocktex26/status/1175584236105019392?s=17
rikyrah
Propane Jane™ (@docrocktex26) Tweeted:
On the contrary, the Democratic leadership runs an even greater risk of dejecting their most reliable voting coalition by being inexplicably weak and afraid in the face of #crimingwhilewhite and fascism. “Too afraid of White people to make change” isn’t a motivational campaign. https://twitter.com/docrocktex26/status/1175587366708371456?s=17
rikyrah
Neptune (@coldlawgic) Tweeted:
Elizabeth Warren’s LGBT rights record starts when she began running for president…that’s it? https://twitter.com/coldlawgic/status/1175229500122116097?s=17
rikyrah
Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) Tweeted:
Put another way, Sanders is doing worse among blacks and Hispanics than in 2016, but he’s doing *much* worse among whites, among whom he overperformed last time. That’s the sense in which his support is more diverse, not in his actually having made inroads with voters of color. https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1175586860825022465?s=17
JPL
Lovely photos.
rikyrah
ro? (@rolandodiaz16) Tweeted:
I grew up in early/mid 2000s CA as a gay child seeing Kamala Harris on TV as DA & AG. While more than half the country was debating gay marriage, Gavin Newsom & Kamala Harris were issuing marriage licenses for same-sex couples. How dare you question her as an ally. #LGBTQforum https://twitter.com/rolandodiaz16/status/1175459249922592770?s=17
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Amir Khalid
@rikyrah:
Was Warren ever noncommittal or even hostile to LGBT rights before she declared her run for POTUS?
Baud
Nice macros, marvel.
Rikyrah had a extra cup of coffee this morning.
rikyrah
David Frum (@davidfrum) Tweeted:
Can we please drop this nonsense about Trump asking Ukraine to “investigate” Biden? As Anders Aslund, a real expert, notes: there is no honest accusation against Biden. What Trump wanted was a fabrication, not an investigation https://t.co/c0xjXsv9Ac https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1175393078309527553?s=17
rikyrah
@Baud:
I can’t get back to sleep ??
Baud
@rikyrah:
My sympathies. I hate when that happens to me. Ruins my whole day.
rikyrah
Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) Tweeted:
Waymint!!! Did we not send instruction booklets with all the War Shit we sold Saudi Arabia??!! https://twitter.com/SamuelLJackson/status/1175198850400702464?s=17
eclare
@rikyrah: She is here (Memphis) tonight, I’m going!
satby
Beautiful pictures as always Marvel!
I’m a hard nope on diving into tweets this morning. I like that garden threads are a bit of a respite from the daily horror show. Think I need a day offline entirely. Have a good one everybody!
RAVEN
Go Dawgs!
OzarkHillbilly
Down to just peppers and a few lingering maters from the garden now. Picked a peck of (unpickled) sweet peppers yesterday and gave about half to the neighbor to enjoy and share with others. Also got a bunch of paprikas which will go in the solar dryer, poblanos which will get smoked, and jalapenos which will get stuffed and then stuffed in my mouth today. I may yet make some chile rellenos, but it’s a lot of work if I’m going to be the only one eating them.
My meat birds are on the final lap before they go to the processor on 10/3. I am still working out the finer details of their feeding schedule from one year to the next. Last year at this point they were so fat I was wondering if they were going to all have heart attacks before they got to him. This year I am wondering if they will be at butcher weight when the day comes. A week ago I upped their protein intake and started leaving the feed out 24 hours and I can see the difference but I still don’t know if I will reach my target.
I’m also raising double my normal as my son and DiL said they would like some free range birds in their freezer too (I’ve got a grandbaby coming in a week or so and what goes in Mama’s stomach comes out her breasts). When I offered I had no real idea of how much extra work I was signing up for. An expansion on the coop, an expansion on their yard, not to mention the daily water and feeding schedules. Today is going to be mostly building 4 more transport cages for the extra birds, plus I need to rewire the trailer.
And next year I’ll be doing the same for the daughter and SiL.
OzarkHillbilly
@RAVEN: Go CARDS!
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Good morning. ?
waratah
@OzarkHillbilly: I had a long story on the year my husband decided to raise and butcher chickens but hit something and lost it. I just want to say that they were the best chickens I have ever eaten and if we had someone to process them like you I would have done it every year.
OzarkHillbilly
@waratah: The processor I use is 3 1/2 hours away on the far side of Jeff city. I just take a mini vacation for the day. Drive around visiting small towns, conservation areas or state parks in the area with my camera. This year, a friend offered me the use of their chicken plucker. Screw that, the $2 a bird I spend is well worth not having to deal with the mess, plus their operation is spotless, about what one would expect from Mennonites.
And yes, the taste is superior to anything a CAFO could possibly produce, antibiotic and hormone free.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: The local farmer has free range chickens and turkeys. The turkeys are incredible but very pricey.
currants
Gorgeous, Marvel. What do you do with the crimson clover–is it planted primarily as cover crop, or do you make…tea or something with the blossoms? I usually plant garlic every year but I’m giving it a rest this time.
Wanderer
Many thanks to all who offered reassurances and suggestions last week. My Butterfly Bushes will spend the winter nestled in mulch.
Sab
Thanks to those who suggested cardboard as a weed barrier. My new little lawn strip betweenmy fence and the neighbors garage is doing nicely. After the goats, I put down cardboard, 4 yards of topsoil, then grass seed and straw, and I have been dutifully watering it twice a day. The grass is about four inches high now, fairly thick, and no weeds!
We’ll see if it survives fall leaf clearing and next winter. So far so good.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: Yes, it’s not cheap. I might break even on the deal but if money was the only reason to do this, I’d just go to the store. Of course what I’m raising for son and DiL will be at cost but if I were trying to make money it would be a hard lift. My pig farming buddy does it but I think any “profit” he makes just goes right back into the farm. Maybe he can buy an extra 6 pack of beer.
I’ve thought about raising heritage turkeys for friends and what not but I’m not all that fond of turkey to begin with, so why go to all the trouble?
debbie
@rikyrah:
The Log Cabin Republicans at work. //
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: The little one is eating the chicken. I purchased a Little Foodie Baby Food cookbook for my son, as a joke because he’s a food snob. The recipes are really good though and it introduces all types of different flavors. There was one recipe with broccoli and leaks that he loves. go figure.
OzarkHillbilly
When I first heard the term “resting bitch face” I just thought it was some kind of misogynistic bullshit perpetuated by emasculated men. This AM I read this from Arwa Mahdawi:
WTF? So I looked it up. Turns out RBF is real. It is still misogynistic as all fuck (tho men apparently can have it too) but there is actually a structural component to it. Or so says Throwing Shade: The Science of Resting Bitch Face:
I have to say tho, I don’t know that face. I googled it. It took a bit but I finally found some pics of RBF. Guess what? I still don’t see it. So I come back to it’s all just a bunch of misogynistic cultural aspirations of the “ideal femininity” that are hung around the necks of women in the form of pressure to please the emasculated male.
Or maybe I’m just prejudiced because I have “resting bitch face” too. All my life I have been told that I don’t smile enough, asked why I am not happy, or told that I am intimidating. Funny that I never felt any pressure to have surgery so that people I meet would feel more comfortable tho.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
I have RBF. Fuck them. It especially helps at work; they can’t tell when I’m actually ticked off. This has probably saved my job a time or two.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly:
How about surgery to look more intimidating? Maybe remove smile muscles and add a dueling scar?
Great pictures Marvel! Yes the pic with the green tops, grey gravel with that one red leaf — wow!
Meanwhile, after not growing a garden this year because the house was going to be painted in early July, the painters showed up yesterday to start work. Now I have to find a lumber yard that sells old dimension, 10 inch cedar siding for less than my whole house is worth. Wish me luck!
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly:
Smoke ’em if ya got ’em.
Sab
@debbie: I used to have deer in the headlights face. Thanks to gravity, I now have RBD ( frowning mouth when I am not actually smiling.) I wouldn’t change it for the world, but I do have to make a point to be cheerful at home so as not to scare the spouse.
debbie
@Sab:
Heh. “Really, I’m smiling on the inside!”
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: I was working a job and one of the asst superintendents, you know the guy- the 6′-2″one with the gym made chiseled body and movie star masculine good looks who’s always happy and glad handing everyone with an entourage following his every move? -yeah, that guy, comes in the apt where I’m hanging drywall (stretch board, 4 1/2 feet for nine foot ceilings) by myself, covered head to toe in gypsum dust, and says, “How come you never smile? Don’t you like it here?”
“I’m working, and you are in my way.”
Fuck ’em is right.
@Immanentize: I actually have a number of dueling scars, not that anyone ever notices. The most notable one is all but invisible except for the fact that on one side of my face the smile lines (maybe that should be “frown” lines?) run more or less vertical but on the other they are all but horizontal. That surgeon was good.
debbie
I have no yard, but I always eye the plants at garden stores, grocery stores, wherever they may be, and wish I could have one of my very own. Well, yesterday, I succumbed and bought a pot of purple asters. Minutes after I got home, we got a monsoon. I figured it would be a great opportunity to water the plant, but it really only beat the poor thing down. This morning, after almost 24, hours, it still hasn’t bounced back. Have I killed it?
OzarkHillbilly
By the way Marvel, I love that first pic. Just beautiful.
NeenerNeener
Ghouliani is on some morning show slandering the Bidens.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: No.
Sab
My new garden plan obsession is moss. We have a maple tree that really blocks the sun. It’s very nice, but the ground underneath is bare dirt. There is also a pile of abandoned concrete (chopped up driveway that used to be a flowerbed border) because I am a packrat.
I started looking into moss as an option after last week’s moss and buttermilk comments. It has real possibilities for a rock garden.
Moss is really fascinating. I had no idea.
ETA: Ohio has a moss and lichen club that does semiannual field trips to look at and photograph mosses and lichens. Kind of like birding but more stationary.
JPL
@NeenerNeener: I was streaming CNN earlier and Munchin was asked why trump’s children can work all over the world, but they are attacking Biden’s. He was spinning that it was different cuz…. That’s all I saw.
JPL
@Sab: I have hosta under mine.
OzarkHillbilly
@NeenerNeener: Headline at the guardian: Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani will ‘lay out evidence’ on Biden and Ukraine I am absolutely terrified.// It’s almost like they want to lose.
Baud
@debbie:
I should design a t-shirt:
“I DON’T have resting bitch face. Tread carefully.”
Gelfling 545
Lovely as always, Marvel. I wish I had a better hand with vegetables but it has never been my strength. And, of course, my city lot doesn’t leave much room with enough sunlight. I am going to try a little fall lettuce. Seed was marked down to half price so no big deal if it doesn’t do well. Weather is too iffy here in spring to get a good crop.
Your maple is gorgeous. Every fall I’m reminded how beautiful Japanese maples on the turn are. So far I’ve resisted the lure. Maybe I’ll try one potted next year.
Sab
@JPL: I am considering hosta, and a bunch of other things, like astilbe and brunnera. I still want a patch of “lawn” also.
I am so excited. This shade “problem” looks to have real potential.
debbie
@Baud:
I’ll buy one in each color!
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s an opportunity for Biden to recapture momentum from Warren.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
There’s a great YA series by Scott Westerfeld. The first book in the series is Uglies. The books are a fast and fun read. They spoke to the punk teen in me. In a post apocalyptic future, the lesson they learned was that everyone should be surgically altered to have features that will prevent conflict – make everyone pretty. Of course there are some young people who would rather be real and be uglies.
If anyone wants a fun escape, go to the library and get the first three because you will read them all in about a day. There’s a fourth called Specials. I didn’t like it as much as the others.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I’d buy one of those for every women I know.
MomSense
@Sab:
Hosta, astilbe, ferns, japonica, vibernum- so beautiful. I have a bed of hostas, astilbe, and ferns “mulched” with moss and it’s so pretty andnliw maintenance.
Aleta
@debbie: My experience (basic asters in yard dirt or wild roadside ones) is purple asters are really really tough. The little roadside ones even come back soon after a thrashing by a crew with a flail mower.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sab: I have several similar locations here. I’m going to tackle on or 2 this winter/spring. I am considering some more bee balm as it has done very well in the shade here. Not certain because It can really take over.
Gin & Tonic
@debbie: I end up having to say that pretty often.
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s also not helping increase US influence in Ukraine. Ukrainians now feel like between Scylla and Charybdis and aren’t liking it.
schrodingers_cat
@OzarkHillbilly: Neither have I.
Aleta
@OzarkHillbilly: That made me think about people who can’t read expressions well (I live with one). Or people who misinterpret faces as critical or hostile (mean drunks or slight paranoids, racists, people in highly anxious states, misogynists). But blame the other for their mistake.
If someone’s led to believe they need this surgery after having too many bad encounters… yikes. Vs being around people like you who don’t do that — could make all the difference.
eta: Oz H: “I finally found some pics of RBF. Guess what? I still don’t see it.”
debbie
@Aleta:
Thanks, that’s definitely reassuring.
WaterGirl
@debbie: The substitute mower when my neighbor was out of town weed whacked one of my flowers two days after I put it in the ground. It took awhile, but it came back with a vengeance. It is quite lovely now. Given time, and I think there is plenty of time before winter, I predict that your poor purple asters will be just fine.
Marvel
@currants: (Re what I do with the red clover) They’re SUCH lovely things, I use ’em as cut flowers, alone or in combo.
Aleta
So true. Do you fertilize them or do anything to grow bigger flower heads?
Aleta
this happy child bathing in puppies might have been posted already, but wtf
https://twitter.com/goldengateblond/status/1175486459458932736
debbie
@Aleta:
The kid’s fatal mistake was to sit back down again!
scav
I may have RBF, but I definitely have permanent ironic/sarcastic face. Half of it’s paralyzed. Must be my resting personality core fighting desperately to get through.
Stunning caramel fall leaves stRting here against the backdrop of firs.
OzarkHillbilly
@Aleta: I want puppies just so my very soon to be born granddaughter can experience that.