Welcome! Please introduce yourself here.

[Anne]

I can't even think about food crops. I already have critters eating my plants, roots, flowers, bulbs, whatever. I think I have to move.

[M.A.]

I've been searching for a gardening group on here for ages, Goodreads is still a minefield for me!

I love gardening, I usually enter a local gardening contest in which they award prizes. So I guess you could say I'm an award winning gardener. lol

Things have got on top of me this year though, only just finished weeding which I usually start to in March, so far I've cleared 30 odd sacks of black bags from the flower beds already!

I just wish we had more rain as the plants have really suffered this year and the grass on my 3/4 acre lawn is like straw at the moment.

Can't wait to pick up some great tips from you all.

[M.A.]

Anne, you have my sympathy we have lots of moles in our garden, by the size of the soil mounds I'd say they were huge too.

;-(

[Bloomin’Chick (Jo) aka The Eclectic Spoonie]

Welcome Mel! Gald you found us :o)

For the past couple of years we had moles & their monded tunnels. Instead now we have voles, their quater sized hols & mini mounded trails!

[M.A.]

Hi Jo.

How did you manage to get rid of the mole? I live in the country in Normandy, France, next door is a farmer's field, when the farmer drives his tractor on the field it chases the moles into my garden! ;-(

[Bloomin’Chick (Jo) aka The Eclectic Spoonie]

We didn't, he moved on aparently of his own accord lol!

[M.A.]

LOL, we've tried everything. I even used these little little bombs that look like TNT and it ended up going off before I could push it in the hole. I was at the top of a hill and tumbled backwards down it, my face blackened with whatever powder was inside. LOL

[Petra X]

Mel wrote: "Anne, you have my sympathy we have lots of moles in our garden, by the size of the soil mounds I'd say they were huge too.

;-("

When I was a kid we had moles in the garden and nothing we did got rid of them. Then my mother got the gypsies in (she believed in stuff like that) and then moles went next door. The neighbours were furious, they knew what my mother had done, but not being supersititious themselves there really wasn't anything they could say. The moles, by the way, never came back. Weird eh?

[M.A.]

Petra X wrote: "Mel wrote: "Anne, you have my sympathy we have lots of moles in our garden, by the size of the soil mounds I'd say they were huge too.

;-("

When I was a kid we had moles in the garden and nothing..."

Oh that's spooky, don't know about being weird! lol

We had to move from our last house because gypsies moved in next door, not very pleasant I can assure you. ;-)

[Petra X]

I know there is a lot of prejudice against gypsies but I lived in an area with a lot of them and they were fine. I went to school with one of them (he was absent a lot when they went travelling). They mostly did proper jobs, stuff with cars, horses, gardens, and not 'magic' like the moles. They are just people living a different way of life.

[Miriam]

I would love to know more about "gypsies". Can anyone recommend a good non-fiction book?

[Miriam]

Not on my old laptop, it would take a day to download!

[Cheryl S.]

I once watched a documentary on a specific sect of the gypsies in the US called The Travelers and it was not complimentary to their culture at all. I can't remember the name of it and it was a while ago and I doubt it is representative of the entire culture.

[Petra X]

Hardly anyone is complimentary about gypsy culture, its always the bad stuff that gets mentioned.

In the UK there is a big difference between gypsies and travellers. Gypsies are Romany, an ethnic group. Travellers are Irish people, sometimes referred to in as 'tinkers' (not always considered flattering). Growing up we had both gypsies and tinkers around. There was an overlap in their occupations, both did horses for instance. The rag and bone men were all tinkers, as were the knife sharpeners and the men who fixed your pots and pans. I don't know if the distinction between travellers and gypsies is the same in the US.

[Cheryl S.]

Petra X wrote: "Hardly anyone is complimentary about gypsy culture, its always the bad stuff that gets mentioned.

In the UK there is a big difference between gypsies and travellers. Gypsies are Romany, an ethnic ..."

I don't know either. In this case the Travellers were depicted as unscroupulous in their business dealings and their culture encouraged marriage at a very early age from what is considered the norm in the US.

[Petra X]

Both Travellers and Gypsies have reputations as being unscrupulous. I don't think its true of the majority of them, just people don't like their way of life. I used to see a lot of women begging in the London Underground, usually with a seemingly sick baby and scruffy urchins by their side, gypsies. Turns out that they are East European immigrants, not a gypsy among them, it was just they got labelled as that.

I don't know about travellers, but gypsies don't allow dating so early marriage is the thing, but the marriages are not arranged and not below the legal limit. Usually the girls are late teens. All this is UK though.

[Tucker]

What's up FAM? Just joined this gardening group. Very excited to exchange consciousness and gardening knowledge when im not in the garden im on here. Most importantly I love to drop knowledge on garden especially on compost tea, subtle energies, rock minerals, and anything related. Lets talk and get this consciousness wide open. I'm gonna set an example right now and say if you haven't read any books published by ACRES USA then you are about to be BLOWN OPEN with WISDOM!!!

[Katy]

Just found this group. I am probably more of a "wanna be" obsessed gardener. I think I grow some of the best crop of weeds around. But I love to "dig in the dirt."

[GardenSinger]

Hello everyone. I love to garden...maybe I just still love playing in the dirt. Look forward to chatting with you. :)

[Bloomin’Chick (Jo) aka The Eclectic Spoonie]

Welcome Kathy & GardenSinger! Glad you've found us and I look forward to getting to know you here in the threads! Make yourselves at home :o)

[Cheryl S.]

Welcome to Kathy & GardenSinger!

[Katy]

One of the best things about gardening is to share it with others. I had my niece over this weekend (my own children are grown and moved out) and she loves to take walks around my gardens. She is only 11 and one of her favorites things is to sit and read in the different garden spots.

[Miriam]

Welcome Kathy and GardenSinger. Kathy, glad to hear of another young reader!

[Cathy]

Anyone here familiar with Tomato Hornworms and have some good advice on how to get rid of them for good? My poor tomato plant doesn't stand a chance.

[Miriam]

I always picked them off by hand.

[Cathy]

We finally did that. I just hope they don't come back. I'm not one to deny any creature food, but, good grief, it completely destroyed the plant. :-/

[Miriam]

Just keep an eye on them. If you have kids, pay them for each one they pick. They will keep looking for them!

[Bloomin’Chick (Jo) aka The Eclectic Spoonie]

Most tomato hornworms have a paracitic wasp that eats them and therefore protects the plant - did you have those gross looking white sack things on your plants? If soyou can leave them and if any other hornworms try to eat the plant, the wasp larvae will get them. (SO Gross!!! LOL!)

[Miriam]

Jo, I have never seen the parasitic wasps in either Idaho or Iowa, so I don't know if they are everywhere.

[Bloomin’Chick (Jo) aka The Eclectic Spoonie]

Huh! Hadn't thought of that since they seem to be so widespread from what I've seen online elsewhere. Good point!

[Cathy]

Yep. The bigger ones had the white sacks on their backs. Definitely disgusting. We still picked them off. So far, they haven't come back.

[Greta]

Hi!
We moved to the Texas countryside a few years ago after many years of living and gardening in cities on the West coast. Our area of the state is called the Hill Country- scenic and charming,really rock intensive and truthfully a crazy place to garden. A fellow optimist called growing anything here "An Extreme Sport"!

[Bloomin’Chick (Jo) aka The Eclectic Spoonie]

Welcome Greta! Glad you found us here and look forward to getting to know you better, make yourself at home!

[Cheryl S.]

Welcome, Greta!

[Miriam]

Welcome Greta! I have siblings in the Austin area so I know of your struggles!

[Cheryl S.]

Greetings and welcome!

[Bloomin’Chick (Jo) aka The Eclectic Spoonie]

Welcome Mey! Make yourself at home and if you need any help, my in-box is always open!

[Petra X]

Hello Mey :-)

[Bloomin’Chick (Jo) aka The Eclectic Spoonie]

Just jump right in!!! No worries :o)

[Petra X]

Who was the 'deleted member'? All the threads I had read popped up as unread and I see all the usual suspects here!

[Bloomin’Chick (Jo) aka The Eclectic Spoonie]

'Deleted member'?? I don't know what threads/comments you're referring to - I don't see anything different right now. Deleted member means the've left the group. Last time I remember seeing that was within the first year I created the group but I'm sure there have been others who've left the group since.

[Petra X]

Hmmm, I just did a snip of what I got a few minutes ago when I hit 'unread messages'. Maybe messages were deleted in those threads?

http://photo.goodreads.com/photos/133...

[Zenyatta]

Helloes to everyone.

[Bloomin’Chick (Jo) aka The Eclectic Spoonie]

Welcome!

[Lillianna]

Hi everyone,
New to this group, live in Wales, UK.
I look forward to chatting to everyone here and maybe getting some new tips.
I enjoy growing cottage flowers, vegetables and herbs and wildlife gardening.

[Petra X]

Hi :-)

Where do you live Lillianna? I'm from Wales too although I live (mostly) in the Caribbean now.

[Kimberly]

I'm so thrilled to find this group! For the last two years, I've been converting my back yard into a small farm, and was caught off guard when a neighbor I'd not met before knocked on my door asking questions about what I was doing and how I was doing it. She was interested in doing the same with her back yard. I immediately invited her into the back yard and we had a wonderful two hours talking plants and bed layout and wild animals. Until she knocked on my door, I didn't know that others had been watching me work. I've since discovered that I've (unintentionally) inspired a number of neighbors to begin vegetable gardens, build raised beds, and compost kitchen and yard waste. What a joy, not only to see my gardens grow and produce, but to have new gardening friends with whom to share plants and information and successes and failures.

[Bloomin’Chick (Jo) aka The Eclectic Spoonie]

Welcome Kimberly! Make yourself at home!

[Kimberly]

Thanks so much for the welcome, Jo.

[Lillianna]

Hi Petra
I live in Cardiff, where did you live?