Green Group discussion

I thought since there had been much discussion of gardens lately, that maybe it needed a topic!

Feel free to add pictures, tips, books, whatever to it. I would post a picture of what I have started, but it's not any good yet. :( It was a cold spring

I have not done any gardening unless you count the plants I bought for the aquarium. My turtle ate one of them promptly.

You have a turtle?! Awesome.

I have 4 turtles....
3 three striped mud turtles and 1 razorback musk turtle (he is the one who ate my plants). His name is Tank. The others are Pugsley, Wednesday and Gomez. I am a few weeks away from ordering another turtle. I have a giant 6 foot aquarium my husband built from scratch. He is in the planning stages of another one.

I have a box turtle named Cecilia. I really should call her Miss Piggy. She's very demanding. I want to build her an outdoor garden enclosure.

LOL Tank is my Miss Piggy....he literally eats until he pukes....then....(this part is gross)...he eats his puke. He is such a funny turtle. I had two box turtles a long time ago. They are super cute. I want to get a tortoise....but they get large so I have to wait until I have more room. All of my turtles right now are strictly aquatic.

I'm so jealous, of you guys. I love turtles and I miss working with them. My old job allowed me hang out time with the turtles we kept for teaching or rehab...only the local species.

I never really thought about keeping one as a pet, though. I'm so used to seeing them in the wild.

Kirsten wrote: "I'm so jealous, of you guys. I love turtles and I miss working with them. My old job allowed me hang out time with the turtles we kept for teaching or rehab...only the local species.

I never r..."

we have them in the wild here, too. Cecilia is an eastern box turtle. i found her in the alley behind my house when i lived in the city; i decided that wasn't a good place for her. she was so social that i fell in love and kept her. i probably should have taken her to the local rehab group, but i have had her since 2003 and she is about the same age as me soooo...i'm not giving her up now! :D

Well....if she was social she might have been a pet anyway that someone lost or discarded. I love my turtles....I really would love to have a job working with turtles...especially sea turtles. I am going back to college to be a marine biologist.

I didn't mean that you don't have them, but eastern MN is basically mostly a lake...one that I spend lots of time fishing on!

We had a Blanding's turtle at work that someone had kept as a pet for many years, but that's illegal since they're endangered. She came to live with us and would follow people around.

Jennbunny-awesome! Sea turtles are super cool, but I really like freshwater better. Guess that means we won't be competing for a job any time soon?

LOL good to know Kristen! I fell in love with sea turtles many years ago! All species of sea turtles here in the US are endangered.

I will have to spruce up my plants again. It is a never ending job. Tank ate all of the bamboo this year too. So no more bamboo!

I live in townhome so I don't do any gardening really. I do miss being able to go out and kill me plants.

Sea turtles are super super cool, but the ocean...just isn't really my thing as much as lakes.

Sounds like he eats everything...

I'm in charge of the garden here. Mostly because I have a young, strong back and take directions well.

apparently i'm killing plants for you, Jennbunny! but for no good reason. i think my hydrangeas have a fungus. :(

Tank does eat everything! I gave him a dog biscuit once and he ate it!

Fungus sounds about right, BUT it is treatable!

Aw, fungus infestations are definitely treatable, sounds like they're in a place they'd normally grow, so it must be something like that.

Ha, Tank sounds like a college boy in turtle form.

LOL he pretty much is as he throws up as much as a college boy!

I have other news.....my three striped mud turtle just laid four eggs!

jennbunny wrote: "LOL he pretty much is as he throws up as much as a college boy!

I have other news.....my three striped mud turtle just laid four eggs!"

omg! babies!

i used to soak and mash dog kibble for my turtle in the winter time if she woke up and i didn't have anything more appropriate to give her. i don't hibernate her so she'll sleep for four or five days straight and then wake up for a snack.

i downloaded a pdf all about Hydrangea diseases and plan to figure out how to deal with the fungus ASAP. i noticed it spread to my purple one. :(

How are your hydrangeas doing, Marieke? One of my plants is weird, half the blooms are pink, and the other half blue. Must have had a water pH change in between blooming cycles.

Oh yes how are the plants?

And the baby turtles??

Well, I'm a crappy gardener so I haven't done anything about it yet. They haven't gotten worse, though. I just got Gardening for Dummies from the library because I have a lot og gardening to do--hydrangeas are a priority but I have a lot of other things to do too so I hope to start coming up with a plan...that book seemed the least daunting to start with. :)
My container herbs are doing well!

Yeah, how are the baby turtles?!

Well we now have a total of 11 eggs! Both female turtles have laid eggs! I am super excited. They look healthy but you can never tell unless and until they hatch.

Marieke-nah you're busy. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you inherited this garden when you got the house? That is probably pretty overwhelming. The only reason my gardens don't overwhelm me is because I started with none, and they've been built up over time. The only bad things were the shrubs, but over the last few years those have been trimmed back about 1/3 at a time until they're finally getting healthy. It can take a lot of patience and trips to the brush pile, but I have full confidence in you :) They hydrangeas could be fighting if off for themselves...plants have natural defenses, so maybe?

Jennbunny-that's so exciting!!

Kirsten wrote: "Marieke-nah you're busy. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you inherited this garden when you got the house? That is probably pretty overwhelming. The only reason my gardens don'..."

indeed, i did not start this garden. an old lady who was home all day built it and took care of it. the house was built in the mid-50s, so the garden dates to that time and the same family lived here until they each died (dad, mom, son--he was only in his sixties i think, but had lung cancer when he died about three years ago). anyway, most of the plants and trees are like 50 years old, including the hydrangeas. i really tried this year to get ALL the azaleas and forsythia cut back, but i failed. oh well, next year. i feel bad for the hydrangeas, but i also think that because they are native to the area, a hardy species, and have lived in this garden for so long, it will be okay. i just felt really crushed when they turned out to look so miserable this year. but i think we'll be able to bring them back.

Wow a 50 year old garden. That's amazing. Maybe you could post a picture of it?

All we put out this year were tomatoes. We love them, but cannot stand the store bought variety. But, they are not doing well. I wonder if it's the heat?

Kernos wrote: "All we put out this year were tomatoes. We love them, but cannot stand the store bought variety. But, they are not doing well. I wonder if it's the heat?"

i totally sympathize and i do think the heat could have something to do with it. we didn't get any planted this year and i just bought some that were on the vine, thinking they might be a decent substitute. nope. :(

I still have time here in FL to plant if I ever get around to it.

Sounds beautiful, Marieke! But very time consuming.

Hydrangeas are tough :) They'll be fine most likely, I have one that has been dug up and moved at least three times, and not all that carefully, but it's going strong.