nw baltimore wx

An update photo on the spontaneous sunflowers. Should be peak bloom next week here. Btw, if anyone is in the Poolesville area, I read today on WTOP's site that there's a 30 acre site out that way at full bloom now.

I did something different this year in the garden that's really helped keeping the weeds down. My normal routine was to collect all the leaves in the fall, pile them several feet high across the garden, let them compress to a flat slurry-mat over winter, rototill them under in the early spring, plant, and collect grass clippings throughout the summer and spread them over the garden. The grass clippings helped a lot but I still spent a lot of time over the summer weeding. The difference this year was that I didn't till under the leaves in March/April and I haven't had to weed at all. Now I have to decide whether to till before I pile on the leaves this fall. Does anyone have strong opinions on the benefits of tilling?

I had to look them up but may have to get one or two of those. If you want some company, let me know when and where you're going.

That's always a problem for me too. I've used stuff like the Scott's DiseaseEX with success, but I've found it works best as a deterrent rather than a cure. I haven't put it down yet this year, but probably should.

I always wish that I had a more open and bigger space, but I know I'd still get frustrated. I'm pretty fortunate that I don't have the battle what I know a lot of you have to because of the size and openness of your domain. Considering all the varmints that I could have patrolling my yard, I'm fortunate that a few squirrels and rabbits are the worst of it. There are plenty of cats in the area that keep the mice and mole population in check, and though there are tons of deer very close by, rarely do any come into my neighborhood. We had a family of raccoons try to move in under the back porch once, but a rag soaked in ammonia drove them off quickly and they haven't been seen in a couple years. I always worry about rats because I'm so close to the businesses and their dumpsters on Reisterstown Rd, but, knock on wood, I've never seen any. Between the cats and the several foxes that patrol the neighborhood, small critters are kept in check. But I know what you mean about the squirrels moving seeds all over the yard. There's a walnut tree close enough to my yard that I am regularly digging up saplings, and they're always in the most inconvenient places with a deep tap root that's never easy to remove. And don't get me started on the ground ivy that I have to constantly battle on the backyard perimeter... Higher cut turf also cuts down on the opportunity for weed seeds to germinate.

The birds here aren't picky but, out of convenience, in March I picked up a bird seed from a "bird store." Unfortunately, within a few weeks, a bunch of seeds sprouted under the feeder and I thought that's the last time I'll use anything other than the cheap box store seed. But, out of curiosity, I thinned the "weeds" and let them grow to see what they might look like. Now I've got a nice cluster of sunflower stalks growing under my feeder. The squirrels took the tops of a few, but the heads have set on about 10-15 so it should be a good show in a month or so.

Ha! I'd never put good beer out for slugs! Natty boh or nothing for them!

I did a little more searching and this bottle trap claims to be far more effective. Also watch the embedded video. That's a hardcore gardener there! https://www.earth-ways.co.uk/resources/slugs/

Moving from the obs thread.

I'm pretty sure it was a Don Sutherland post.

Thanks for getting schools closed.

I need you to do something about this. I need a snow day tomorrow.

Moderate snow. About .5” an hour rates

Picking up here again. Around 5" total so far.

4.75" at 9:30 AM here. Awesome.

Lol. And just as I type that, our band starts drying up.

We are in a lucky spot right now. The radar looks good for us for at least another hour. I expect alternating bursts like this and lulls throughout the day.

Yeah, it's snowing very nicely here now. A few bands like this today would be great.

And now the radar is looking much healthier. Let's see what happens as those bands start stacking up against the wall.

For us north of 70, it's nice to see some radar returns popping up to the west. I don't much care about totals at this point, but I'd like to see it snow throughout the day and into the evening. Nothing better to me than snow falling as day goes to night.

4.0" at 6AM

Picking up here and when it does, it piles up fast.

Lol. Did anyone else use wonder bread wrappers as a kid to help get those damn rubber boots over your shoes? Very light snow here now.

I kid you not that white toast and butter is a huge weakness for me. I love it. I'd finish my paper route as a kid and ride circles on my Stingray outside my grandmother's house until she'd come outside and say, "Son number 3, come on in and have something to eat!" She made the best toast because she always had a stick of real butter softened on the counter in a covered dish. Damn, she was a great cook! By the way, it's snowing.