It’s that time again. You ask, and I pretend to know things and answer your burning questions. It really is so much fun to open my inbox and see the wide variety of questions you guys have. Reminds me that my readers are so diverse and pretty dang awesome. So keep those questions coming and I’ll keep racking my brain for answers.
Hi Mavis, My son (age 7) is determined to grow an orange tree! Whenever he is eating an orange or satsuma and finds a seed he will plant it. He takes great care in watering it and taking the pot inside and outside depending on the weather.
Unfortunately, I don’t think he is going to have success with this method. I was wondering if you or your readers have tried growing a satsuma tree in a pot. We live in Southern Oregon, so we would need to keep it inside during the winter (I’m assuming). I’d like to know how long do they take to grow fruit (if grown inside/outside) and are they fairly hardy? I wouldn’t want to get this for him and have it die in 6 months. Any help you can provide would be much appreciated! Thank you!
~Julie
Hi Julie,
Well, I don’t have any experience growing satsumas but we have grown Meyer lemon trees before and we kept those in pots. I wrote a little tutorial a few years ago that you can find HERE. There are all sorts of tips from planting a tree to keeping it fertilized. I hope that helps. But please….. If anyone out there has experience growing a satsuma tree, chime in.
If I’m remembering correctly, I think we planted our lemon tree in late January and a year later, we were picking lemons off our tree. We overwintered our tree in an unheated greenhouse during the winter months in the PNW. My friend Heather, who lives just outside of Boston has had great luck growing citrus indoors as well. I think you should give it a go. After all, you won’t know unless you try.
Hi Mavis, long time follower here with an unusual question. My friend/co-worker has raised chickens ( beloved ) for years… loved these birds! Recently, despite her best efforts, a fox has killed all of her hens… I want to do/say something other than “ I’m sorry” but not sure what … help?? Especially as she has decided to give up raising chickens as a result…
~Sam
Oh Sam, that is AWFUL!!! A few years ago we had a raccoon wipe out 3 of our hens over the course of one summer and it was pretty tragic. To have an entire flock decimated all at once, I don’t know what I would be able to say or do that would be comforting to a friend. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we just can’t seem to keep them safe. Hopefully someone here on the blog will chime in and offer some advice. 🙁
How do you keep up with the garden maintenance? I always get so excited to put my garden in, then when it comes to the maintenance, especially when the days are hot, I just can’t get myself out there to do it regularly.
Do you mulch your vegetable beds? I saw a post once about landscaping fabric, do you reuse it? What about Lucy? My dogs would probably shred landscape fabric. Is there a tool you love for weeding or is my only option to suck it up and get out there and weed the beds?
~Oliva
Gardening in hot weather is no fun at all that’s for sure, so I try to get out to the garden bright and early to tackle the weeds. Which of course is easier said than done some weeks. 😉 I don’t know…. I think you’ve just got to do the best that you can and try not to beat yourself up about it too much.
You asked about landscape fabric. A couple of houses ago we placed landscape fabric pretty much around the entire backyard and then tossed a little bark over the top. Did it keep the weeds away?
You betcha!!! Do Lucy mess with it? Nope. Not even once. I can’t say enough good things about landscape fabric. That being said, I probably won’t be using it here at our new place. This fall we plan to mulch the garden and flower beds with wood chips once the leaves drop. Every property is a little different, but if the area you want to lay landscape fabric isn’t too big, I say go for it.
As far as my favorite weeding tool goes…. I probably use my Flexrake the most.
Have a question for me? Submit them HERE and I’ll try to answer them.
Have a great weekend everyone,
~Mavis
Lisa Millar says
I would have been devastated to lose my chickens like that. Its hard enough when one passes away naturally!
When I have had friends that have lost animals, apart from expressing my sympathies or if they are near – lots of hugs, I have put together little ‘care packages’
Its just little things – chocolates, hand made jam maybe, funny socks, hand made soaps… just a few things with a card to say that I am thinking of them very much.
Someone did that for me out of the blue when we lost our big beautiful Siamese. It came from one of my husbands work mates and it was such a gorgeous thought that made me feel loved. It wasn’t meant to ‘cheer me up and forget’ but the feeling that someone had gone to a bit of extra effort and love when I was feeling so horrible was a real bright spot. I adopted the idea for when other friends/family lost pets or were going through a tough time.
Kristina says
What a lovely and thoughtful idea, which I plan on implementing, too. I think just letting people know you are thinking about them and that they are not alone in their grief — that is such a comfort, regardless of who they are grieving.
Carrie says
Sam, I’d encourage your friend to start over. Offer to help make some improvements to predator proof her coop and run and get some chicks. There is nothing like new babies to stir the soul. When I lost 2 girls who had just started laying I was so upset I called in sick to work. My boyfriend insisted we start over and we went out that day and bought 2 chicks to replace them. I learned that I must “tuck in” my girls at dusk or risk more fatalities. That was 3.5 years ago and haven’t lost one to a predator since. I did lose one hen last fall because of a lodged grape (found in necropsy.) I was worried about contagious diseases so I paid for my vet to do one. Now I rarely give grapes as treats or chop them.
Life is a big experiment. There will be successes and failures. We can learn from both.
Lynne says
I think making the effort to respond to this loss as you would if it was a family member (which can include the lovely ideas just shared) will validate the sense of loss the friend is feeling and provide comfort. Those of us who count our pets (including chickens) as our family members feel a loss like this as deeply as some would feel the loss of a human family member, but many of those around them don’t recognize those feelings. I’m sure a note of sympathy and any more elaborate expression you would want to make would be very appreciated by this friend.
Rosaleen says
Sometimes predators can overcome or best efforts. A friend kept chickens before I knew her. I don’t know all the details, especially now the chicken coop was constructed, but all the chickens were lost at once. A bear knocked out a corner of the cinder blocks, bit off the back end of one chicken and the rest were found dead, appearing to be untouched. Were the blocks cemented, reinforced, etc.? I don’t know. I do know that a bear can smash a car windshield or rip open a car door if it wants to do so.
Sad for those who lose livestock/pets.
Diane says
Regarding landscape fabric, I’ve always been hesitant to use it because I’ve read that if little weeds manage to get there roots through the tiny openings, then it becomes very difficult to pull up the weeds. What are other people’s experience with that?
Diane says
“Their roots”
Mama Cook says
Our current property has landscape fabric EVERYWHERE!!! It works well, at first, at keeping weeds at bay. But, the fabric that has been here a few years has weeds growing through it and they are impossible to pull!!! Also, any long-term shrubbery or trees will end up not faring well.
We have a Sequoia on our property that looked like it was suffering – very thin and dry. My arborist son said pull the landscape fabric underneath it. So, my 16-year-old son and I spent an afternoon pulling up the landscape fabric… What we discovered was all of the mulch on top of the tree was wet, but everything under the landscape fabric was dry! This spring we saw new growth on the tree! We are now undergoing Operation Irradicate the Fabric on the whole property and will replace with thick wood chip mulch!!!!
Deb K says
Same thing happened at my house. The first few years the landscape fabric held but eventually weeds came through, a lot of them all at once, couldn’t be pulled and had to remove all the landscape fabric. It was a mess and an awful job. Didn’t want to come up in some places so ripped as we pulled it up. The weeds felt as if they were cemented into the ground. Just a nightmare. The bark we had added periodically had begun to break down on top of the landscape fabric so it was very, very thick and heavy to pull. Some spots didn’t want to lift because the weeds were anchoring the landscape down. Nightmare, nightmare, nightmare. Thick, heavy mess hard to dispose of, too. Maybe if you only use it 1-2 years then replace with new, it’s different. I don’t know. Now I use thick layers of wet cardboard or newspaper. O.K for that to break down, just gets absorbed into ground. Add new bark yearly. Weeds just pull right out. At least that’s what it has been like at our house. Good luck.
Debby says
I also use newspaper. It works great. It becomes mulch and turns into the soil in the vegetable garden. So I have to replace every year. Only issue is finding the newspaper. I don’t get the weekly paper anymore and the kids use it to start fires in the fire pit. I have to hide it.
Mama Cook says
Try the nearest newspaper printer…they will give you the end rolls for free! No ink mess and you can just unroll it! You’ll be surprised how much is left on one roll!
Diane says
Thanks, you’ve confirmed what I’ve heard before. I think I will stick with thick newspaper and/or cardboard with mulch or compost on top. Thank you for your feedback!!
Another question for everybody, I’ve been watching some YouTube videos by Charles Dowdy and his no-dig method. I don’t understand how he doesn’t get lots of weeds in the compost surface. He doesn’t cover the garden with mulch… Just fresh compost each year.
Beverly says
I do this method although I use rotted mulch instead of compost. After a year or two of pulling the weeds out, they get fewer and fewer every year. I also keep a covered bucket in the kitchen and after I fill it up, I take it out to the garden dig a hole and bury it. It decomposes very fast that way and the dirt is really looking good. There is always the problem of getting seedlings of tomatoes, rogue potato plants from peels, etc. where you really don’t want them, but I don’t find this to be a problem. My real problem this year is the lack of rain and any moisture. Tomorrow I will have to pull up all my dead and dying plants because of that. Hand watering way out in the garden, on city water, just can’t do the job when even the nights are so dry and you don’t even get dew. I do take my hoe and make rows when I plant, just because I like the look of that. Start small and build your way up. I’m in central North Carolina by the way.
Gee says
I’d be hesitant to push your friend to get more chickens right away, but each of us is different. In a 15-month span in 2002-2003 I had to take three of our five animals to the vet to be put to sleep, some we had had for 19 years. It was miserable, and I was convinced that I wouldn’t have any more animals because the endings were too devastating.
We waited a few years until the other two were gone, and I tried life (for the first time ever) without animals in the house. After a few months, I realized I did want more, maybe just one cat. Then three kittens from the same litter turned up on our doorstep, and they’ve been ruling the place for the past nine years. (Two are currently on my lap.)
I think, at least in my case, it gets harder to deal with the loss as you get older. We don’t bounce back from things the way we did when we were younger.
Lisa Millar says
I used fabric on a part of the garden years ago… now its a pain as its is tangled in weeds and really hard to get up and out. I now use newspaper which I get for free. Spreading it out and dumping mulch on top of it. It eventually breaks down and is a good weed suppressant 🙂
Pauletta says
Living in west central Florida we will get an unusually cold winter about every 3-5 years with freezing temps. After losing our orange and lemon tree despite our best efforts we were about to give up. My husband found that the Satsuma will withstand temps down to the mid 20’s. We have had great success with the tree we planted. It provides enough delicious fruit for my husband and I. I juice enough fruit to make a cheesecake as well. Ours is planted in the ground so I can’t say how it would do in a pot. You could always start it in a pot then transplant it if it outgrows the pot. Hope this helps .
Julie says
Thank you Pauletta! I just ordered a satsuma tree! I’m glad to hear that they are hardy and make plenty of fruit! An orange cheesecake sounds delicious!
Diana says
I’ve been growing potted citrus for about 6 years now and do have one that is a Satsuma. Although it has bloomed every year, it is fruiting for the first time this year and the tree I bought was an adult, fruiting tree. I’ve discovered a website that gives lots of advice on how to grow citrus in pots and there are tons of tips and tricks to learn. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/citrus
If he’s growing a tree from seed, fruit trees, in general, will take up to 4-6 years before they fruit. It would probably be better to buy one that is already fruiting size if he’s impatient to see oranges. If he’s the patient sort, then it would be loads of fun to see it grow to fruiting size. Keep in mind that most citrus trees are grafted trees and that trees grown from seed may not be very hardy or duplicate the parent fruit.
Good Luck!!
Julie says
Thank you for the website suggestion Diana! I just ordered him a tree. He is so excited!
Linda says
I bought a flexrake on your recommendation early this spring. I hesitated because of the price (right around $30 as I remember) but bought it anyway because you said it was great. I am absolutely thrilled with it, use it for everything, and find that one side or the other will work for just about any garden task. It is fantastic, and I’m so glad I got it! I have had this reaction to very few other things I buy.
Linda says
I’ve had excellent experience with heavy duty landscape fabric. I cover the garden in the fall and remove in the spring, no weeds to deal with! I’ve re-used it 3 times so far.
Kim says
For Sam with the friend wgo list chickens:
Perhaps it would be a nice gesture to donate a flock of chickens to via Heifer International ($20) in the family’s name. Great organization and nice sentiment. Check out this link.
https://www.heifer.org/gift-catalog/animals-nutrition/flock-of-chicks-donation.html?msource=KIK1B14000438&gclid=Cj0KCQjwm6HaBRCbARIsAFDNK-h47kYrbqR-IZKLbvNksmWOzhGDWyBNIcd5HRrE4FxT_W7xA3NbIcgaAhyYEALw_wcB
Maggie says
I love this idea!