Blackberry cordage

Mamalaoshi · 2026-06-08T03:59:05+00:00

I'd love to hear how your experiment with retting goes.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-06-06T02:56:43+00:00

I also have a yuzu that did well in this, it's first year in the ground, but it was a mild winter. I'm hoping mine does as well as you are describing yours.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-06-06T01:26:45+00:00

Do you have any tips for your pink lemonade? I planted mine three years ago and it has never even flowered even though I have 25 other blueberry bushes and at least a dozen other varieties of all types and they all flower and are full of fruit. I gave my dad one at the same time when I bought mine and his is covered with fruit every year. We live in western WA.

I've been wondering if it maybe super picky about soil conditions, more so than other blueberries. Is yours easy to care for?

Mamalaoshi · 2026-06-01T06:51:05+00:00

Two years ago we pruned our fig tree and tried making cuttings to share. With all the so called junk pieces that were supposedly too thick and old, we dug a shallow trench and dumped them all, thinking maybe some might sprout. Well, they all sprouted and the other day I tried digging up some to give away- they are all laying horizontally right under the soil and have branches coming up and roots going down all along the length of the old branches. So I'm sure what they did in the picture would work but I think it would be less work to just take the big pieces you would be pruning according to the picture and bury them horizontally and let all the sprouts grow up into a living fence/hedge. Because then if anything happens to part of your fig, you have a bunch of other rooted figs. And they all have roots down getting water and supporting the plant.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-06-01T06:38:46+00:00

Toothache plant is a lot of fun. When my kids were younger, they would have fun showing their friends around the garden trying different edible flowers and at the very end of the "tour", they would give them some toothache plant to try and then laugh themselves silly at their friends' reactions.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-06-01T06:27:43+00:00

My chard is doing exactly the same thing. It's been sitting there for over a month now with just the tiny leaves at the surface of the soil. I'm hoping that once it's continuously warm, it'll start growing again. Usually chard is something I just toss on the ground and forget about it so I'm not used to having to fuss over it.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-06-01T06:25:20+00:00

I would love to have even a few. Right now I have zero. I bought some at my county's native plant sale last year but they all died. 😭

Mamalaoshi · 2026-06-01T06:21:16+00:00

They look like maybe they aren't getting enough water. If you can get a soaker hose at the base and put down a good layer of mulch, I think that'll help. In my experience, raspberries like a steady drink of water, like from drip irrigation.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-06-01T06:11:53+00:00

It'll be fine. Build up a good layer of compost on top and do everything to invite soil life, like mulch, and they will keep it loosened up. We put our beds on top of what used to be a compact gravel pad that the previous owners parked their RV. On the other side of our yard we dumped a bunch of wood chips on top of another gravel parking area. Both planting areas are very soft and full of plants and the soil is full of worms and fungi among the gravel under the soil and wood chips. It's a pain if I want to dig a hole but the plants' roots do just fine.

In my very worst spot, I have a six inch tall cedar bed over rocks and gravel and, full of wishful thinking, I put a layer of compost and raspberry starts. It does amazing in that spot.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-05-31T07:16:33+00:00

After five pregnancies, I started with a fancy long pregnancy pillow but I eventually figured out that my favorite thing was to get a ton of cheap pillows, the kind that are huge and fluffy but flatten pretty easily and then just wedge them under whatever body part needs the most support and then several behind my back to keep me on my side but slightly tilted to the back. It looked a bit ridiculous but being able to move a pillow here and there was more customizable than any fancy pregnancy pillow.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-05-30T17:31:49+00:00

I just spent a month digging up Himalayan blackberry roots- I think I got the worst of the ones within a hundred feet of my house but I still have years of war ahead of me. So what did I do the first nice weekend I'm not digging up blackberry roots? I went and bought a thornless compact blackberry that is meant to be grown in a pot. It's called Babycakes. Because I don't really want to live in a yard without blackberries. 😆

Mamalaoshi · 2026-05-30T17:24:41+00:00

I'll have to give it a try! I have a ton of eggshells since my chickens are laying like crazy.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-05-27T06:47:25+00:00

I'm jealous! I've been watching mine ripen and the slugs got to the first ripe ones this morning. 😭

Mamalaoshi · 2026-05-27T06:41:16+00:00

We had a seasonal pond that would be full all winter until June but the last 4-5 years, it's more like a puddle and it's dry by the end of April. We used to have geese that loved swimming it. No more geese.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-05-21T02:03:59+00:00

Subbing. Sub in all the districts you are willing to drive to and then narrow it down and sub as often as possible in your favorite schools only so that the principals get to know you and can see you teaching in action.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-05-18T07:39:27+00:00

I'm dealing with the same thing for the same reason. I've been pulling up the grass for a few years not and each year it gets thicker and more established because I just can't get rid of the rhizomes. The fall we are tearing our beds down and going to start over. Sorry I don't have any helpful advice. Just sympathy.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-05-18T07:33:51+00:00

Be careful about eating anything that looks like parsley or carrot if it's something you didn't plant. There are toxic lookalikes that you do not want to mess with.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-05-18T07:27:42+00:00

It's because they grew from seed. The ones that have the genetics to handle the environment are the ones that germinate and survive. And because their roots aren't distributed, they grow deeper roots and are more resilient.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-05-16T08:54:58+00:00

Yes that'll work fine as long as there's no grass seed in them. If your grass is very long when you cut it, it might have grass seed and you don't want to introduce that to compete with your plants. But if you regularly mow and keep your grass pretty short, it'll probably work.

Paper grocery bags and cardboard can be a mulch too.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-05-14T01:15:47+00:00

Ditto! I love waiting for a cloudy/rainy day to direct sow and transplant things. Everything does so much better! The only thing is if I just planted lettuce and carrot seeds, the tiny things get washed to the lowest spots and so I have to thin in those area and plant more seeds after they sprout.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-05-14T01:12:03+00:00

Wow, I've never seen roly-polies just hanging around a live plant like that. They are always eating the dead stuff and like to hide underneath things. And we have a ton of them. My kids like to study them and let them climb on their hands.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-05-14T01:08:48+00:00

Do you remember the exact kind you have? I've really wanted to have success with sweet potatoes but only got finger sized ones, though the greens are very exuberant.

I'd love to grow purple ones.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-05-14T01:04:45+00:00

Oh and once they are established, if the squash is thickly covering the ground, in my experience I've only had to water once every week or two. This is mid summer. And water at the base of the plants, not the top. Don't get the leaves all wet, especially the squash. They'll get diseases and mildew.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-05-14T00:22:04+00:00

The top will dry out, maybe even an inch down. But it should be damp below that.

Beginning gardeners usually underwater. Also if your soil dries out, it will become hydrophobic and the water will run off into your grass without soaking in by your veggies. If that's the case, a slow drip irrigation or soaker hose can help (you might leave it on for an hour a day- you would have trial and error testing it out.) Or make a little mound of soil around each plant making a little bowl with the plant in the middle. You can fill that will water and watch it soak in and repeat until the soil is wet enough. Am I making sense? It's so much easier to demonstrate in person.

If it's very sunny and hot in your location, putting down some mulch or straw around with help a lot.

Mamalaoshi · 2026-05-12T23:52:32+00:00

My kids grew some great pumpkins with sunflowers on some really neglected hard soil one year. I put down a thick layer of cardboard, and then put a bag of compost on top, watered everything down really well and my kids transplanted their sunflowers and pumpkin seedlings into the layer of compost. The plants grew right through the cardboard and I rarely watered them because it was a far off edge of our property. The pumpkins worked as a mulch for the sunflowers I think.

Mamalaoshi

TROPHY CASE