K Mortensen

Thanks, that's really good to know.

Google was failing me. All I seemed to be able to find was why it was important to allow trees to go dormant. Kind of a downer.

I will stop worrying about it.

I planted a couple of apple trees last spring, a honeycrisp and a cripps pink. All seemed to be going well until winter. The other apple tree around here all lost their leaves and went dormant in mid fall, however mine didn't... The honeycrisp lost most of its leaves, but it still has 3 or 4 hangers on. They still look somewhat vital and don't look like they will be falling off any time soon, so I'm not sure whether to call it dormant or not. The Cripp's Pink still looks like it did in the middle of summer: lots of green leaves on every branch. I'm in zone 7a, it has snowed several times, both trees were standing in at least 6 inches of snow for several weeks, and overnight temperatures have dropped into the single digits (Farenheit) a few times. It doesn't get much colder here than that, though last winter it did. Should I be worried or do something for them? They don't look damaged. They are on the west facing side of the house, could that be throwing them off-kilter somehow?

I made a mildly interesting observation about bindweed today....

I've had two lawns in two different homes with bindweed problems. Both of these problems were minor when i moved in and progressively became worse. I don't water or mow nearly as much as i should to keep the grass looking good and don't weed much either. So the bindweed took over; granted the previous caretakers may have used weed and feed...

I created a new garden area this spring by tilling under some grass with a small bindweed problem. Of course, with the tilling, the bindweed completely took over. It is now planted with corn and potatoes, which fortunately seem to be doing well, I didn't have enough mulch to smother the weeds, so i mostly just left them alone. I've got to say, the bindweed seems to make a pretty effective green mulch. There's some mallow, dandelion and purslane in there too, but mostly bindweed. It is over a foot deep in the most-heavily watered places... It even managed to solidly establish itself in a brand new raised bed (filled with 6+ inches of brand-new potting soil) . It is profuse in a park area nearby, (though nowhere near as bad as it is in the garden) but mainly only in high-traffic areas where the grass seems to be seriously struggling. That park gets watered regularly, but is also scalped with a mower once a week.

Today I realized something, though. The bindweed in the park and the bindweed in my lawn both have been flowering for over a month now. The foot-deep stuff in my garden doesn't have a bloom in sight. So... I would infer from that, that the stuff competing with the grass is seriously stressed and only surviving where the grass doesn't... I haven't been around long enough to know, but aside from making gardens and yards look horribly neglected, and perhaps smothering a small sun-loving plant or two, does bindweed really do much damage? My corn and potatoes seem to mostly be doing fine. The potatoes have a small bug problem, but it doesn't seem to be related to the bindweed at all. Actually the bugs seem to be the most active where there is the least bindweed. My observations make me think bindweed is just an opportunist that can be out-competed, with tolerable ease...

Did not know about the oxalates. Google isn't proving to be particularly helpful on this, but I guess if chickens decide to take a mouthful here or there they will probably be ok? I saw one source that says cows can eat it. It's rather pretty, but I definitely plan on aggressively trimming it back before fruiting. I do not want my kids tempted by those berries. Fortunately the birds seem to eat them pretty quickly, but they can pick theirs off of the neighbor's side of the fence... As long as they wont root, the trimming should make a nice (dead) ground cover...

Anyone have any use for Virginia creeper? It isn't mine, it's my neighbors, but there is a ton of it spilling over the top of one rather long fence line. Personally I would probably prefer to see it gone, but these neighbors aren't much into gardens or yards either, so I doubt they would be bothered to get rid of it.
Dare I use it as mulch or compost? I don't want it to spread. Can chickens or rabbits eat it?

Ah, see if there is variation that is breed specific, that tells me that there is probably a genetic component to crowing that can be bred on further.

I am fairly familiar with roosters' crowing behaviors, having lived with/around them before... Just saying "roosters will be roosters" isn't particularly interesting without further knowledge or investigation. I would really like to know if someone has tried/failed though.

Has anyone ever tried to breed quiet roosters? It seems to me that the demand would be huge for such a bird. I personally would love to have one.

I'm not a chicken expert, but from what I've read there is a fair amount of variation in crowing behaviors... I wish I was in a position to try. It seems like it would be more feasible than trying to change the laws...

Hi Victoria !
We're going to be getting 4 chickens this spring/summer. We tried it last year and it didn't work out.

Heh, dream is far from gone I'll ask about semi-dwarfs at a nursery when I get a chance.

What would you do?
Couple Rules:
1.Cannot destroy [much] home value. Want to be able to sell this place to get the real deal in a few years, after all.
2.Need some lawn in the back yard for the kids to play on, throw a frisbee for the dog, etc.
3. Food plantings should be fruit heavy if I want to keep the family excited about this. Unfortunately I am cursed with a BUNCH of picky eaters so anything particularly unusual probably wont work at all.
4. Kids want a tree big enough to build a tree house in. Mulberry?
5. Anything not along a fence line is at risk of being trampled, so being able to fence it off would be a plus.

The front yard is mostly up for grabs and the west side yard at the moment is 100% wasted space. The back door is on the east side. The only redeeming quality of the two planting beds in back is that they are in full sun.


Heres the yard layout:

Or should I just scrap the whole idea of trees there, put shades on the windows and just build a nice raised bed there as I originally planned? This was before I though we were going to be here long enough to make trees worth while. My kids prefer fruit to vegetables any day .