but tk,---- some of us are not familiar with that plant.
What is it?

I'm sorry. Its an artichoke

Thanks.....I wondered if it was, but have never seen them growing.

Spring is here. Lots of flowers/blossoms and our best weather. I brought some tomato plants home with me from Ca. I picked the containers that had two or more plants so I have quite a forest. When they start making suckers I'll be able to have plants to share. I've talked to my friend Manuel who has a rancho. He told me once that he has a goal of having oranges year-round. (He also has one of the few yellow lemon trees in the area - I bought it to him from Ca.) I suggested that we try for year-round tomatoes. It might be possible and, anyway, it will keep us busy. Right now we have lots of black cherry tomato plants courtesy of one plant I put in last year. It has reseeded itself and we are getting a few tomatoes.

I also got some little fruit trees from my eBay friend and grower in Hawaii. I rescued three marked-down gardenia plants (among others) and they are all hanging in.

Mostly, we are still doing construction in several areas. I've been able to work for a few hours every other day or so and things are gradually improving.

My last trip I bought a Jackfruit near Ensenada and the seeds from it are starting to germinate. I had some a couple of years ago but lost all the starts in the chaos that is my life. We do have sapotes which tony planted. A worker next door ate the fruit and Tony rescued and planted the seeds.

The dragonfruit plants are doing well and should start blossoming soon.

In other couple of months it will be so hot that we will be in survival mode so we're doing what we can now.

katie

Snow peas going to town.
Time to get summer veges direct seeded. Very back a few tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings in.
Right side , a few collards.
Foreground. Perrenall New Zealand Spinach.
There's also some miners lettuce, mixed around.
I've been cultivating it. It reseeds itself.

Well, guys, I'm beginning to think I'm on the wrong end of the veggie garden. In the last 10 days, I've collected 175 lbs. of coffee grounds, three buckets of chickety doo doo, 50 lbs. of bunny berries, and more bananas & old fruits than the law allows!

I discovered a huge red ant pile had taken up residence in my #1 Geobin composter, but, I'd been encouraging them to take up residence elsewhere by disturbing the pile and watering it beyond what they tolerate. Yesterday, I examined it and only found a few stragglers. So, I started layering half a garbage bag of the bunny berries in each of the Geobins, and the other bag was divided between the 90-gallon (converted) recycle bin and two 35-gallon brute Rubbermaid garbage cans. I can hardly wait to see how hot the compost gets!!!

Won't be disturbing the composters again until September, when I prep the fall/winter beds.

Hey, Guys!

I checked Geobin #2 this morning, and it is SMOKING!!! The thermometer was at 145° and, when I pulled it out, the smoke puffed out the hole like a tea kettle! It was hot to my hand!

Geobin #1 is tryna decide what to do...

Linda. Howdy
For ants. A light dusting of regular corn meal over whole area of yard will take care of ants for rest of year. Spot treatments dont work.
Ants, take it to there burrows. When they eat it, they cant digest it, and , they die.

If you used banana peels in your compost ! I would throw it all away ! Banana peels are poisonous !
Because they spray some nasty, toxic, hazardous chemicals on them to kill all the vermin that live inside the bunches ###!!!!!
😡😡😡

Now, how come I never heard that about bananas before???!!!!

I've never heard that either...

It's sad. The places, outside the U.S. dont have any chemical restrictions. They use DDT. and whatever the heck they want, on everything that they grow, veges, fruit.
The second sad part is ..........
We manufacturer it for them ###
Enjoy your Guatemalan squash 😁

I have "fed" staghorn ferns pieces of banana peels for several decades and still do so frequently. I have never seen the slightest bit of problem in doing so. In fact, sugar ants sometime take up residence in my stags while they are outside, and believe me, the peels don't bother the ants one iota. I grow a lot of staghorns each year........a lot.

I am not saying the peels are not sprayed (the vast majority of our fruit and vegetables are), but I have a feeling the USDA would have a say about what's being spayed on crops that are imported to America. Just my thoughts here, and they are worth what one pays for them.

Humm ?😕?
Whats the lifetime of an ant ???

If concerned about the pesticides, I imagine one could always wash the bananas the same as other fruits and vegetables.

Just a interesting story about DDT. My husband and his friends, as a child, use to play in the stream of pesticides by following the truck. The drivers said nothing. He has no physical problems. Maybe it killed any parasites???

TK, I'm pretty sure that can't have been healthy in any way; even back then, it seems like people would have known better than to let kids do that. (I was a kid then too, but don't remember the DDT spraying; maybe they didn't do it where I lived?) At any rate, I'm happy that your husband hasn't suffered any ill effects!

Really, though, there still is a lot of ignorance; we were watching a "Doomsday Preppers" show on TV some time back and one of the people on the show was focusing on learning to forage wild plants. He was concentrating (for some reason I don't understand) on foraging along railroad tracks. The railroads use some pretty powerful herbicides along their right-of-way, and I think that would be about the last place I would want to collect plants to eat. Then again, other people who were focusing on preparedness for a big earthquake had all sorts of food stored on shelves in the basement, in glass jars. "Reality TV" at it's best!

What variety, Philip?............... Perhaps a better question would be: "What's the lifetime of a colony".

I don't have a clue. I never gave it any thought. Or for that matter, any other insect.

Ants --
according to this source, at least, males live for a few weeks, workers live for a few months, and the queen can live for decades.

https://www.reference.com/pets...

I want to be a queen!

drdawg said:I want to be a queen!