I Think

I may have told this before, but it turned out our neighborhood committee was a sham outfit. It sputtered and died some years back. I thought about starting a legal one, but there is no support for it.

bump

My neighbor is a widow, who often asks me to help out with small tasks. I have told her I don't want larger jobs from her or any of the neighbors. So, today I cut off her hose and put on a new end. Turned out to be the wrong end piece. So, now she will go back and exchange the parts. I had advised her, last week, to just get a new hose. Why spend a week or two getting the old one in shape, when she has plenty of money for a new one? Oh, well; she gave me a package of tiny sweet tomatoes from HEB. I told her it wasn't necessary to give me things for a task so trivial. But, if she had bought the new hose, those tomatoes would have been one less expense for her.

It's a particularly muggy day. Only going to be about 80, but I'm ready to start the ceiling fan. We get many nearly rainy days, with mist, but no real rain. I was looking at the moringa tree a while ago. It is poised to make flowers, but I haven't thought of a way to keep the birds off, before seeds can form. Likely they will have their way again, this year.

Aren't there nets for that? or are the seeds really tiny? I'm thinking of what we used to call 'saran', but garden suppliers use other names now. I think saran used to come in different sized weaves.

I have the nets, but the tree is skinny and weak. I may come up with something. Still pondering. - The seeds resemble string beans and can be eaten the same way. The flowers can be used for tea.

I figure you have tried staking it? I've a photo I took of young triple staked trees in Lucca. Oh, my, Lucca - the old city is high up relative to the newer areas and the entire perimeter of the high part is a walkable park, with a grassy swath below, the high part held by a humongous wall. Anyway, that's where I saw that staking, and it was three posts with wood also between the posts around the tree to help hold the stakes apart in big wind, at the somewhat higher part of the tree.

I'm sure it's not now in my photobucked batch of stuff, so never mind. That may have been the only triple staking I've seen, not sure, except when people are guying bigger trees...

Edit - maybe a double net layer, a little bit apart?

Some sort of stakes seem to be in order.. The tips of some limbs are about eleven feet off the ground, with a single slender limb and a few branches with leaves up around the tip, where the buds are. The lower part is essentially the same. I have not found the right combination of material for stakes. Still pondering.

I discovered a stout but light and slender tree limb with spread branches and put it to a five foot stake I already had there. It worked nicely on the lower part. Tomorrow, I will try to do the same for the higher parts.

I've even used rebar, if you have any lying around. An old broom handle? and so on..

I don't have any 11 foot broom handles or rebar. But I think I can come up with another long tree limb or two. I think I saw them under a brush pile today.

Reaching the higher parts of the tree is a bit tricky. I have a ladder that can be used for a step ladder or straightened to be a regular ladder, for getting on roofs. It has a cross piece to keep it from tipping over. I think I will be able to do it on that. If not, I will just give up.

In the words of Winston C. "Never give up!"

I'm not sure why you are wanting to reach the higher parts of the tree.
The basic idea is to keep the rootball from moving all over the place.

The very substantial staking I saw in Lucca (high winds, fairly large newly planted tree) that kept the tree trunk sort of boxed in actually still left quite a bit of footage around the tree trunk so that the tree could move in the wind - just not too much, as in falling over with wind and rain. Too much tieing of the tree can keep the tree weak.

This article is not bad..

http://www.gardeningblog.net/2009/05/20/how-to-stake-a-tree/

I like this one better, it's clearer -

http://www.plantretrievers.com/Treestakes.html

Adds the Lucca trees along their city wall -

No no no. I want to protect the flowers and seeds from birds. I already have the bottom staked, because of the ferocious winds we get. Before I did that, the wind broke off half of the tree. It looks similar to the tall one in the left foreground.

I sometimes buy products from a company in Ecuador. My bank charges a ten dollar fee if I pay by Visa. So, I have been ordering via PayPal. For several years, this has worked fine and will work as well in the future. But, last month, I changed my habit in the paying process, by, instead of logging into PayPal first, clicking on their logo in the body of the email. It logged me in and took my money out of my bank, but, the intended recipient told me it had not gone to them. From the sixteenth of last month, until the sixth of this month, I tried different methods of getting the money properly paid, to no avail. Turned out, the icon in the email was a link to an old and inactive account of the same company. So, now, they have been paid and my stuff should soon get here. H'ray?

Important!!
I saw this at Home Depot yesterday!
Do not, I repeat, do not buy plants treated with neoniconoids. Bees take the pollen back to the hive and feed it...

Those selling neoniconoids should be charged with a crime against nature.
https://www.uwsp.edu/cnr-ap/clue/Documents/Ag/Honeybeefactsheet.pdf

Please send a message to Home Depot that they will lose your business if they keep selling this poison.
I did: http://www.homedepot.com/c/Send_Us_An_Email_Confirmation

Thanks, CI.