Daydream thread... without the rose-tinted specs

azzabazza

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Potted up all the perennials I'd bought over the last few weeks - peony, eryngium, red-hot poker, dahlia, aquilegia etc. They'll be left to shoot in the conservatory.

I have bought dahlia tubers for the first time and am proposing potting up soon so they start to shoot. How did you pot yours up? Do I put them in individual pots and at what depth?

Any advice much appreciated.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

has anybody heard or got any feedback on these strawberries??


http://www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/strawberry-mara-des-bois-buy-one-get-one-free-plants-pid7874.html?utm_source=product&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MaradesBoisMarch2014


I want to get some strawberry plants on the go now, ready to plant out in one of the raised beds we will be hopefully be doing, when the weather changes...


LIR sorry been meaning to pm you with the details.... will pm you later

lostinrates

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

has anybody heard or got any feedback on these strawberries??


http://www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/strawberry-mara-des-bois-buy-one-get-one-free-plants-pid7874.html?utm_source=product&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MaradesBoisMarch2014


I want to get some strawberry plants on the go now, ready to plant out in one of the raised beds we will be hopefully be doing, when the weather changes...


LIR sorry been meaning to pm you with the details.... will pm you later

Thank you, DH was nagging me earlier to get details from you!

lostinrates

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

LIR

I didn't realise your opinion on hunting and therefore assumed mentioning it meant "against it" iyswim. I've only ever come across one other person who commented pro-hunting ever in my life (one person on the Internet the other day) and never met anyone ITRW who ever was. Its my experience that people only ever mention hunting to express an opinion against it.

Therefore, my assumption that anyone with the other viewpoint simply never mentions it anywhere.

I was not meaning to be "personal"...I was just very surprised.

The only other mention I've ever seen was a recent one talking about an annual hunt event in my new locality. I was very surprised to see that mentioned in the media in a "just another event" tone of voice and just made the decision that I obviously can't be anywhere near that event in case I found myself disagreeing with any "locals" I know etc etc.

Anyways, having found my assumption as to why you mentioned it was incorrect...back to the gardening theme...

Tbc, I am neither pro nor anti.

I used to hunt and retired before health would have forced it. Its not to my taste, but I've taken my nieces who wanted to go, because I felt they should have opportunity to make up their own minds and their parents were keen for them to go.

There are certainly far less ethical ways of fox control and its a myth that the hunt hate foxes or enjoy animal cruelty. It is NOT a myth, IME, to say they view animals as working animals rather than pets , but then.....here amoung the dreamers we range form vegetarians to ' would rather not think about meat' to prepared to raise and butcher meat animals.

My route into this world was through science, my route into science was interest animal welfare. I make all the choices I make about pet keeping and animal keeping and my business on a . Welfare /ethical basis tied into my lifestyle. I know many others who feel the same way yet whose calculations gives them a different answer. Mine work for me and my reasoning, which are based on the short years I spent at university and researching combined with my practical experience and extrapolation. They also change and develope. Others go more on other areas of research, or lifestyle choices which don't apply to me or so on.

My guess is I'm hopefully right - percentage of the time. I'm certainly going to be wrong a percentage of the time. Ethics are the hardest, because the tangible results are the hardest to test, the testing of things like hunting and culling are in them selves either flawed or stress inducing usually. Many heavily rely on either anthropomorphism or inversely the idea that animals have no feelings. My feeling is entirely different. I am very clear animals are not humans. I also do not believe humanity to be a 'higher' being. I am also entirely certain they feel emotion.


In no way are my posts pro hunt, but they are also not anti hunt. I am truly, like nature, aware of a chain going on that I have a niche in. That of the not dispassionate but not partaking.

Saboteurs, however, are the cause of significant animal cruelty to hounds and horses ( what they do to people doesn't bother me, people, perhaps apart from children, have chosen in full capacity to be there) and choosing to reference people who sab ( rather than protest ) as a viable course of action is to me no different to hunting.

lostinrates

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

When I had ponies, MANY moons ago.... I used to go on the hunt... there is more to Hunting than trying to catch a fox... its the social interaction etc... I don't think we ever managed to get a fox when we went out ... so the assumption by people who have never hunted, that umpteem foxes are caught are totally untrue..


Even though hunting foxes is banned the tradition of the actual hunt goes on, as I said its all about the interaction of it all, Plus I have noticed a lot more foxes dead on the road, hit by cars etc...


I am not saying it was right or wrong... It was a part of our country life...

To clarify, hunting foxes is Not actually banned. You can hunt with two hounds but not a pack, or flush with a pack of hounds. And use a bird of prey. (Which is IMO extremely odd, I've not seen this in action, but i cannot imagine a bird of prey killing a fox) Its quite an odd piece of legislation. Flushing to guns remains legal in Scotland and I believe exmoor.

If any one is interested

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunting_Act_2004

I_have_spoken

I have bought dahlia tubers for the first time and am proposing potting up soon so they start to shoot. How did you pot yours up? Do I put them in individual pots and at what depth?

General purpose compost with plenty of vermiculite mixed in. Pots sized for the tubers, allowing about 3cm all around and planted so that the cut-off top was just showing then covered with a thin layer of grit and dunked in a bucket of water for 30 mins to take up.

azzabazza

I_have_spoken wrote: »

General purpose compost with plenty of vermiculite mixed in. Pots sized for the tubers, allowing about 3cm all around and planted so that the cut-off top was just showing then covered with a thin layer of grit.

Great, perfect instructions. Will need to get some vermiculite but I have loads of plastic pots, compost and grit. I presume I just water sparingly after the initial dunking.

Would I follow exactly the same method for non-stop begonias?

COOLTRIKERCHICK

LIR... doesn't make sense... but there we go, a lot of rules and regulations normally don't.


Raining here off and on.... Really do need a few days ( or a whole weekend) like the lovely sunny, but cold weather like yesterday... not only so that I can get started on the ranch's garden, but to actually lift my spirits up...

lostinrates

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

LIR... doesn't make sense... but there we go, a lot of rules and regulations normally don't.


Raining here off and on.... Really do need a few days ( or a whole weekend) like the lovely sunny, but cold weather like yesterday... not only so that I can get started on the ranch's garden, but to actually lift my spirits up...

Our long range forecast here is suggesting a spring a little like last years. Cool (if not as cold) and long.

June looks in the unreliable long look, more promising. :rotfl:hopefully things will cheer up long before then! After all, winter predictions were not for such mild temps.......


DH has gamely left me inside while he goes out to do the chicken housing. Its cold. I'm right by the wood burner, i almost never sit right byi the darn thing, Its not good for me, but I cannot get warm.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

get a Duvet or a blanket and cwtch up infront of the fire.... All winter I have a duvet on the sofa, and whenever I am sitting on the sofa I automatically pull the duvet over me....


I have noticed I have really felt the cold/damp this year, even though it has been quite mild...must be either my age, or the stress dragging me down....