Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Feb. 25

Well, bad weather, even in California, has made international news.

Los Angeles has first blizzard warning in decades

As much as five feet of snow could fall in some areas of usually balmy Southern California

Well, in the mountains. How is the weather treating you and your yard or garden?

Fortunately, we have friends in the Southeast. See the lovely photo above, of a swallowtail on plum blossoms. There are also photos of a bee making plums and some blueberry blossoms below.

Edible Gardening/Farming/Putting Things By

We've already learned a little about the Super Pig Invasion that started in Canada.

A hybrid breed of super pigs--a mix of a domestic pig and a wild boar--is running wild in Canada. And now they have their sights set on the United States.

Originally crossbred to help farmed pigs grow larger and tolerate the cold temperatures of Canada, a drop in the market about two decades ago led some farmers to let their hybrid pigs run free. Now they're running very free, according to Field and Stream. The super pigs are coming south, likely heading to Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Michigan.

The problem? The super pigs are proving hard to eradicate.

These critters seem smart. They eat waterfowl. They pose all sorts of problems, just like regular wild boars do elsewhere in the nation (only worse).

Got any ideas for dealing with them?

This is a domestic hog on our friend's farm. Apparently free from wild boar mixing. Still looks a little scary to me.

The mix that I like is 75% Berkshire, 10 Yorkshire 10 Gloucester Old Spot, 5 Tamworth. No Durock at all.

I have heard stories, years ago, of hunting wild boar/domestic hog mixes in the Mississippi River drainage area. They sounded massive and scary. Don't know if the wild boar part is the same as with the Canadian "super pigs". I'll leave their appearance to your imagination. Unless you have encountered one in real life.

Bacon

This is an Orange Hat micro dwarf tomato, growing in an Aerogarden.

It's said to have dense foliage, and this certainly does. I only planted three pods in the 5 pod garden and it appears that was a good choice!
Supposedly the tomato is cherry sized, a sweet one, with a thin skin. If it is (another dwarf I tried was very thick skinned) I'm going to plant another group outside.

Lirio100

This is fantastic!

International Travel and Adventure

Neal in Israel has done some traveling and has sent us some plant photos. Here are the first of them:

My wife and I visited in Amsterdam in December. When planning our visit, I of course included Amsterdam's small botanical garden, founded in the late 17th century.

Though a botanical garden obviously isn't at its best when the temperature is in the 0-4 degrees Celsius range, the visit was very interesting. We paid the additional fee for a private guided tour, and it was definitely worth the money.

Eastern Cape Giant Cycad - This is one of the oldest container plants in the Western world. It is estimated that it was brought to the Netherlands from South Africa over 300 years ago, and it's still going strong. This is a male plant and, as you can see, it is still virile.

A 300 year old potted plant!

Turkish manna ash, grafted onto local common ash rootstock

"Manna ash". Interesting for our grafters . . . .

Plant Nuts

Tommies are also squirrel resistant (compared to other crocuses)

Crocus tommasinianus is a reliable source of utter joy in the spring garden. In the autumn plant corms of different varieties, and in a few years, the bees and the ants will do the work for you and spread these beauties around, as they have done in our garden at Pershore. pic.twitter.com/qgJhjya3mD

— Alpine Garden Society (@AlpineGardenSoc) February 20, 2023

Gardens of The Horde

We have rain this weekend, snow and wind in the mountains. Anything going on in your yard, garden or neighborhood?

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, the address is:

Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.

Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Feb. 18

Any thoughts or questions?

I closed the comments on this post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 01:26 PM

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