lavender

I love the flavor of Celebrity and always plant San Martzano's for canning. And every year I try another one, this year it's Johnson something? I can't remember the name, but it's Johnson something. I'll see how it goes

Me too. Someone else told me the same thing. I don't know what is going on. I can speculate that since we have had such a late spring they are desperate for something green having subsisted on browse all winter. Animals eat by instinct mostly. They eat my irises and daylilies off every spring. They don't bother them the rest of the year except for eating the flower buds off the daylilies. I guess they are eating the few green things out there despite the stomach ache that results. They also will eat rhododendrons if they get desperate enough in the winter. 

Update on the deer this spring eating daffodils. I had an early morning hair appointment and I was telling the ladies how they ate my crocus, tulips and daffs. Another customer heard me and said that she and all of her neighbors had the same thing happen. How weird?  

You folks have some really desperate deer. According to Poison Control:
All parts of the daffodil contain a toxic chemical, lycorine. The part of the plant that contains the highest concentration of lycorine is the bulb. However, eating any part of the plant can cause symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. These symptoms usually last about 3 hours. More severe problems such as low blood pressure, drowsiness, and damage to the liver have been reported in animals that ate very large amounts of the plant but have never been reported in humans.
The bulb also contains chemicals called oxalates, which are microscopic and needle-like. When swallowed, oxalates cause severe burning and irritation of the lips, tongue, and throat. They can also cause skin irritation.

You folks have some really desperate deer. According to Poison Control:
All parts of the daffodil contain a toxic chemical, lycorine. The part of the plant that contains the highest concentration of lycorine is the bulb. However, eating any part of the plant can cause symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. These symptoms usually last about 3 hours. More severe problems such as low blood pressure, drowsiness, and damage to the liver have been reported in animals that ate very large amounts of the plant but have never been reported in humans.
The bulb also contains chemicals called oxalates, which are microscopic and needle-like. When swallowed, oxalates cause severe burning and irritation of the lips, tongue, and throat. They can also cause skin irritation.

I don't want them either but I'm not sure what we can do about it. No fence is going to keep them out. There is a farm above us and they have permission to shoot them as they are out of the area where they were supposed to be confined. My guess is that strayed or not the Game Commission isn't  going to let us shoot them. 

If they ate enough of those daffs they are going to get at the least a stomachache and maybe dead. Daffs are usually deer proof as they are poisonous.  Tulips and crocus are deer candy. We've had an elk in the yard. I'm expecting real trouble this summer. 

I waited until after St. Patrick's Day to start seeds this year. I usually have them in by the 17th of March.  The weather has been so bad that I couldn't see getting started too early. The broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage is up but doesn't have the true leaves out yet. The peppers are just breaking ground. The tomatoes haven't germinated yet but I put them in just last week.  Some of the odd things like herbs and cardoon are late also. I'll have to start getting the bigger ones into pots next week or the week after. I always do way too many. 

The radishes, not me! 

The radishes, not me! 

The radishes, not me! 

Thanks, I can't do much about the weather but maybe I should thin more. 

Four Common Problems Growing Radishes and What to Do About Them
BY MARIE IANNOTTI
Updated 09/28/17
SHARE SharePIN PinEMAIL Radishes can be one of the easiest vegetables to grow and they certainly are one of the fastest, but there are a handful of problems that can plague home gardeners when trying to grow radishes, such as being too hot to eat, not forming a bulb or growing tough, woody, and/or cracked. There is not much you can do about these problems once you have harvested your radishes. Luckily, all of these problems are avoidable if you grow your radishes in good conditions. 01of 04 How Do I Keep My Radishes from Getting Too Hot to Eat? Photo: © Marie Iannotti This is one of the most common radish growing problems. The "hotness" of radishes results from the length of time they have grown rather than from their size. The radishes either grew too slowly or are too old. Radishes like cool weather, but it needs to be warm and wet enough for them to fill out before the weather heats up. They need to grow fast and be harvested as soon as they reach their mature size. Unlike carrots and beets, they do not get sweeter if stored in the ground.

If the...M
02of 04 Why Do My Radishes Crack Open?
Tetra Images / Getty Photos Sometimes radishes simply split open as they mature and get older. However very often cracking is the result of uneven watering. Trying to make up for a period of drought with a lot of water all at once will cause the radish to grow too rapidly and split open. Make sure your radishes are getting at least 1 inch of water per week.
Just because the radish bulbs have split does not mean they are no longer edible. If it is just a cosmetic split or two, you can still enjoy them in your salads. 
03of 04 Why Do My Radishes Get Tough and Woody?
Photo: © Marie Iannotti Radishes need to grow quickly, to ensure they are tender and plump when harvested. If radishes don’t get the cool temperatures they need and lots of regular water, they will start to get hard and dry.

Spring and fall are the easiest times to grow radishes. Some radishes, like 'Black Spanish', prefer being grown in the shortening days of fall. They are left in the ground over winter and harvested in the spring. Black radishes look tough, but the skin is actually quite tender. 
04of 04 All I Have are Green Tops. Why Aren't the Radish Bulbs Forming?
Photo: © Marie Iannotti The most frequent cause of radishes growing only greens is hot weather. Once the weather warms up, the radish plant bolts and tries to set seed.
Planting too thickly and not thinning to about 1-2 inch between plants will also cause radishes not to develop. They are too crowded and don’t feel they have room to plump up, so again, they will go to seed.
Another cause of under development in radishes is not enough sunlight. Radishes can handle a little shade, especially if the temperatures are hot.

You're welcome. Let me know how they grow. I just can't grow radishes no matter what I do. 

I have no doubt California will promptly recognize him/her (or other choice of gender) and promptly make him/her its state mascot. Our bigfoot will soon have relatives in high places. 

Was the chicken "messing" around with an ostrich?? An emu?? Lucy, you have some explaining to do!!!

I just toss things on the smoker and cook them until they are done. I think the smoke provides a distinct flavor and masking it with sauces and marinades defeats the purpose. Or maybe that is just an excuse because I don't do much planning in advance.   Try turkey legs and trout. 

"Like most human perpetrators of violent crimes I'm sure the bull had some psychological or personality disorder", she sad sarcastically. 

Huge cabbages!

Huge cabbages!

The green seem to be hardier than the natives. It is just the opposite around here. We'll drive on anything but the greens don't do much even in the greenhouse. I had a friend who was all excited about growing kale all winter in an unheated greenhouse. It sat there and looked at her until spring. 

Climate change is a normal thing for the planet. It is the concept that I am changing it by burning my trash and using hair spray that I find difficult to accept. I think they are reaching to find a man made reason for what is an normal phenomenon. 

Tell me about it! That is about the time we moved to DuBois. The first year I got nothing because of the groundhogs and then for two or three years we ripened tomatoes in the basement and on windowsills because nothing ripened in the garden. We did get beautiful cabbages and broccoli though. Now the tomatoes ripen and the peppers grow but the spring crops are iffy. The climate seems to have changed in the last 20-30 years. 

I know, we need some warm nights! I remember way back, maybe 20 or more years ago, we had the same situation. We picked all of the tomatoes and put down newspapers and laid them all out in a single layer and then covered them. They did ripen but it took time. And I just don't like the thoughts of it, I'd rather they ripen naturally, on the plants.

I was out in the yard today and the ironweed (Vernonia) was in full bloom.  Mine is a species that gets to be about 7 ft. tall but V. glauca is shorter. I've just never seen that one  grow wild around here. The flowers are very similar to your picture. It didn't occur to me at the time because the knapweed was in bloom and I don't think the ironweed was. It is hard to tell the difference from a picture! Ironweed is a more upright plant and the individual stems all come up from the bottom. Ironweed is a very desirable plant. I've got three of them that may or may not all be of the same species. I know one of them was mislabeled as it grew way too tall for what it was supposed to be. Here is ironweed.