yes if you dry out the seed pods you can plant them.
Garden chat & photos for torts and people ♫ ♫
- Thread starter Prairie Mom
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It has already gone to seed. Those little round things contain many, many seeds.
In my greenhouse:
Dunno but darn it , another lady with perfect nails
Thank you Puffy!!
I had to go to the store this a.m. because I was out of milk for my Kellogg's Frosted Flakes...oh no! In front of the store they had a shelf of veggie plants for sale. Since my seeds from the acorn squash I tried planting didn't come up, I bought two little tubs of zucchini and two of yellow crook neck squash. So I go out there to plant them and here's what's looking back at me:
For cryin' out loud! I planted these seeds sort of in the middle of an open space because I thought they'd take over the space, never realizing I may want to plant something else in there at a later date. So I had to sort of crowd my new plants over towards the lettuces:
Can anyone tell me what the plant on the left is? And starting next to the unknown plant, there's escarole, endive, a couple different red leaf lettuces, another unknown like the first, then romaine and another escarole. I love this mixture. Every other morning I take a bucket and the scissors and nip off about three or four inches from the tops of a row. I've been feeding from this garden for about a month now.
This is an Oklahoma Redbud that's blooming in the desert tortoise yard. I tried to take a close-up of the blossoms, but the camera had a different idea of what to zone in on. So you see a very clear shot of the fence, and a sort of blurry shot of the blossoms:
and lastly, I thought you might enjoy seeing how much Dudley eats over the winter. The desert tortoise, Texas tort and Dudley's yards all used to be one very large front yard for this house. I sectioned it off into tortoise yards. On the far left, the desert tortoise yard, in the near left, the Texas yards and Dudley's yard on the right. The deserts and Texases have been hibernating, so no one has been grazing in their yards. However, cold weather means nothing to Dudley, and his yard is mowed and sculpted very nicely. All the same kinds of grasses and weeds, just mowed down to eye-pleasing height:
For cryin' out loud! I planted these seeds sort of in the middle of an open space because I thought they'd take over the space, never realizing I may want to plant something else in there at a later date. So I had to sort of crowd my new plants over towards the lettuces:
Can anyone tell me what the plant on the left is? And starting next to the unknown plant, there's escarole, endive, a couple different red leaf lettuces, another unknown like the first, then romaine and another escarole. I love this mixture. Every other morning I take a bucket and the scissors and nip off about three or four inches from the tops of a row. I've been feeding from this garden for about a month now.
This is an Oklahoma Redbud that's blooming in the desert tortoise yard. I tried to take a close-up of the blossoms, but the camera had a different idea of what to zone in on. So you see a very clear shot of the fence, and a sort of blurry shot of the blossoms:
and lastly, I thought you might enjoy seeing how much Dudley eats over the winter. The desert tortoise, Texas tort and Dudley's yards all used to be one very large front yard for this house. I sectioned it off into tortoise yards. On the far left, the desert tortoise yard, in the near left, the Texas yards and Dudley's yard on the right. The deserts and Texases have been hibernating, so no one has been grazing in their yards. However, cold weather means nothing to Dudley, and his yard is mowed and sculpted very nicely. All the same kinds of grasses and weeds, just mowed down to eye-pleasing height:
Prairie Mom
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beautiful greenhouse plants!! You'll have to tell us what everything is!
Prairie Mom
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Yvonne, your garden and tortoise yard looks wonderful!! What pretty blossoms on that redwood!! I don't have any experience growing lettuces, so I'm zero help regarding the mystery plant.
How long will you be able to keep snipping away at the lettuce leaves and letting them regrow for tort food? Will they keep growing like that until it gets too hot? Do you have to leave a certain amount at the base of the plant to keep them continually growing?
I LOVE that your acorn squash sprouted after all! It's hilarious that the stubborn little seed had to tease you AFTER you bought replacement plants. I plant my squash vines close together too. I'm sure it will all work out. Be warned that sometimes they'll cross pollinated and you can have some funny looking mystery vegetables, but it's all in good fun. I once had a zucchini and a pumpkin cross pollinate and I had a pumpkin shaped zucchini. -We thought it was so cool that we kept it as a decoration until it rotted
I am SHOCKED at the difference between the tortoise yards! That is really EYE-OPENING for me! I can't believe that grass was only tortoise-mowed!!! That is incredible! I wonder how long it will be before my lawn mower heads into retirement??
I hope the frosted flakes were enjoyable! Thanks for the great photos!Brilliant Yvonne , it all looks lovely & that tree is breathtaking, I thought at first glance it might have been a jacaranda , which I have seen all around Arizona, we grow them here but never get the beautiful blue blooms like I saw in the States.
I am amazed that your lettuce etc is not scoffed wholesale by rabbits, my Madeline would make them disappear in a twinkling !
I am amazed that your lettuce etc is not scoffed wholesale by rabbits, my Madeline would make them disappear in a twinkling !
I cut the tops off the lettuces until about June or July. The hot weather renders the plants bitter and less appetising to the tortoises. They continue to grow as long as you don't cut down too close to the ground.
What gets me about Dudley's mown lawn is how evenly and consistent he is. It is all over short, with no tall clumps anyplace.
What gets me about Dudley's mown lawn is how evenly and consistent he is. It is all over short, with no tall clumps anyplace.
Yvonne thanks for sharing your pics!
So you just snip from the top of the lettuce? I have been meaning to ask you. I have been cutting from the base. I'll try it your way. My RF love the escarole I have, but it hasn't grown since I bought it, so I'm afraid to cut from it. It has a really strong thick base but won't grow. Any ideas?
So you just snip from the top of the lettuce? I have been meaning to ask you. I have been cutting from the base. I'll try it your way. My RF love the escarole I have, but it hasn't grown since I bought it, so I'm afraid to cut from it. It has a really strong thick base but won't grow. Any ideas?
I have it growing very densely together, and I grab a handful with my left hand and cut it off with my right hand. I cut about 2" up from the ground. It continues to grow, and by the time I've gone down the row (a week or so) and am ready to start at the beginning again, it's grown enough for me to harvest some more.
Prairie Mom
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Good tips! I'll be trying this out once my snow disappears.
Prairie Mom
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"Food Inc." shared this photo on Facebook. I thought it was hilarious...
I want Dudley to come teach my sulcatas to mow. I have just spent two batteries worth of time weedeating down the big clumps from last year that they never ate. Not to mention all the time last year spent doing the same thing.
Nothing blooming here, but the tulips are up. So are those dang stinging nettles.
So are those dang stinging nettles.
Those darned nettles! I have them in my box turtle yard. I pull them up by the roots as soon as I see them, and never allow the seeds to drop, but they keep coming back, year after year.
Are the nettles ok for grazing? I hate them too! They always get my ankles because I live in flips. I chopped a bunch down this morning. To lazy to pull them.
I found this interesting:
Nettle
by Euell Gibbons
A surprising feature of herbal research is that it is seldom the rare, exotic, and beautiful plant that proves the most interesting; more often it is some common, familiar, and despised weed that it discovered to have undreamed of virtues. The common nettle is a good illustration.
Nearly everyone who has ever run barefoot as a child knows and hates this plant, but it is only a stinging acquaintance.
Nettles are common along roadsides, in waste places, and on vacant lots where barefoot children like to play, and when contacted by a bare ankle it causes a painful smarting followed by a red rash.
I was recently picking nettles on a nearby farm, and the puzzled farmer wondered aloud why anyone would want to gather "them damn weeds." I started to explain some of the uses of this wonder plant, but he interrupted and said, "All I want to know about nettles is how to get rid of them." This is the attitude that most people have toward this herb.
And yet, this detested weed is one of the finest and most nutritious foods in the whole plant kingdom. Unlike many health foods, nettle greens are really good, as well as being good for you.
In addition to their good taste, nettles are rich in vitamins A and C, amazingly high in protein, filled with chlorophyll, and probably exceedingly rich in many of the essential trace minerals.
No grazing animal will eat a live nettle, but when nettles are mowed and dried, all kinds of livestock eat them avidly and thrive on them. Horses get shinier coats and improve in health when fed dried nettles. Cows give more and richer milk when fed on nettle hay. Hens lay more eggs when powdered nettle leaves are added to their mash, and these eggs actually have a higher food value. Even the manure from nettle-fed animals is improved, and makes better fertilizer.
Nettles furnish one of the most valuable of all plant substances to use as a mulch in your garden, or to add to your compost pile. Having approximately seven percent nitrogen, figured on a dry-weight basis, this plant is richer in this essential nutrient than many commercial fertilizers.
Nettle
by Euell Gibbons
A surprising feature of herbal research is that it is seldom the rare, exotic, and beautiful plant that proves the most interesting; more often it is some common, familiar, and despised weed that it discovered to have undreamed of virtues. The common nettle is a good illustration.
Nearly everyone who has ever run barefoot as a child knows and hates this plant, but it is only a stinging acquaintance.
Nettles are common along roadsides, in waste places, and on vacant lots where barefoot children like to play, and when contacted by a bare ankle it causes a painful smarting followed by a red rash.
I was recently picking nettles on a nearby farm, and the puzzled farmer wondered aloud why anyone would want to gather "them damn weeds." I started to explain some of the uses of this wonder plant, but he interrupted and said, "All I want to know about nettles is how to get rid of them." This is the attitude that most people have toward this herb.
And yet, this detested weed is one of the finest and most nutritious foods in the whole plant kingdom. Unlike many health foods, nettle greens are really good, as well as being good for you.
In addition to their good taste, nettles are rich in vitamins A and C, amazingly high in protein, filled with chlorophyll, and probably exceedingly rich in many of the essential trace minerals.
No grazing animal will eat a live nettle, but when nettles are mowed and dried, all kinds of livestock eat them avidly and thrive on them. Horses get shinier coats and improve in health when fed dried nettles. Cows give more and richer milk when fed on nettle hay. Hens lay more eggs when powdered nettle leaves are added to their mash, and these eggs actually have a higher food value. Even the manure from nettle-fed animals is improved, and makes better fertilizer.
Nettles furnish one of the most valuable of all plant substances to use as a mulch in your garden, or to add to your compost pile. Having approximately seven percent nitrogen, figured on a dry-weight basis, this plant is richer in this essential nutrient than many commercial fertilizers.
Who knew?
