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Golden,
So...you are growing a Catalpa tree from seeds?

O wow!
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send - What fun! A neighbourhood gopher called Howard that eats red ants. I like the "live and let live" as long as you remember that when you are parking.

Yes, we are growing seeds. I think I mentioned before that R in his travels collects seeds from any bush or tree that he likes and dares to try growing them in our climate. He came back from his trip with 3 kinds of acorns, 2 kinds of maple seed, sand plums and I'm not sure what else. I germinated some catalpa seeds he had collected earlier which are growing nicely in a pot and we are working on some acorns. We will try to grow them into trees on the lake lot. It's a good hobby for both of us - very manageable.
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nacy - an overabundance isn't a help really.
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Hey Golden, we’d like to try growing catalpa trees too! I have eyed a tree in a nearby city. Just have to get up the nerve to approach the owners for pods. We have planted thousands of indigenous trees and including species at risk, such as Kentucky coffee trees and butternut (aka white walnut).
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Hi Ana - The owner shouldn't mind, I think. R took a number of pods and let them dry well. Then he split them open and took out the seeds and stored them in an envelope. A few weeks back, I trying germinating some seeds on damp paper towel in a baggie in a warm place, which I just realized from looking it up online, is not the recommended way to germinate them. But it worked. They didn't all germinate - about 1/2, I guess - so I planted them in potting soil and put the pot on the balcony. I have 5 very happy healthy seedlings growing there,

I think the plan is to keep them inside for the winter and plant them out at the lot next spring. I hope our climate isn't too harsh for Catalpa,

I suspect R wouldn't mind us sending you some seeds if you can't get any.

Good for you planting indigenous trees and those at risk, I love trees. Parts of Ontario, I gather where you are, have a great mild climate for growing.

We have a couple of different acorns from the Denver Co area (which has some cold weather) planted in pots. and will see what happens there.
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Once I started noticing I was surprised at the number of catalpa trees there are near me, big ones that had to have been planted many decades ago. There is a tulip tree on my street too, and although it's not an unusual species here a massive black walnut that has to be centuries old. I've noticed a lot of interest from Ontario gardeners in planting pawpaw trees, that's something I've never come across. It grieves me that we've lost all the ash trees.
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Ana - R got all his recent seeds from boulevards. He suggests contacting towns/cities to see if they have planted catalpas in parks or on boulevards. Then you are free to pick pods. Otherwise we could send you some.

cw - I'd never heard of a catalpa tree until we identified the pods. R took them from boulevard trees in Calgary. Tulip trees are lovely (I saw many in the UK) and the black walnut sounds amazing.
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Yes Golden, I’m in Ontario. I spent a great deal of my childhood in Rondeau Provincial Park, a Carolinian forest.

We’re now northeast of there, in a cooler zone. We have a lot of black walnuts. We planted hundreds of conifers, then once they grew tall enough, infilled with deciduous trees. Hoping the conifers would hide the deciduous seedlings from hungry deer. We have gluttonous rabbits too.
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Ana, I figured you were in Ontario. Rondeau Provincial Park must have been awesome. I have not been there but when mother lived in Windsor we visited Point Pelee and did a board walk in the area. That part of Ontario has a great growing climate.

I understand your "un-ease" at asking for catalpa pods. I don't find that sort of thing comfortable. R just walks up, rings the doorbell. has a good chat and gets what he wants - be it seeds or sometimes fruit.
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We have had a beautiful, productive monsoon season and the prickly pear tuna harvest is bountiful. Yay!!!!!

2 gallons put up yesterday and planning one more excursion to have some to share. I process everything and give frozen canning jars of fresh tuna juice. I may be doing it all wrong when I read about all the gifts of fresh produce that the recipient has to process. :-/ oh well! I am happy when I get my jars back.

We are heading into our planting season and I am looking forward to the harvest. Hopefully it is as bountiful as what I have been reading here.
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New Bromeliad plant is indoors. Easy care.
We are about to get pups! (Something the plant does to reproduce itself).

Something is terribly wrong when you buy something beautiful you might like, bring it home, and find that you want to give it away to neighbors. It's been that way for awhile now.

My own garden is neglected in 107 degree heat.
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GARDENING COULD BE DANGEROUS.....
Tree trimming incidents between neighbors could be increasing.
It's common to have disputes-one wants the trees to grow, the other objects to the overgrowth onto their property.

The tree company cut a nearby tree, and I heard yelling. Went to see, and the tree owner was yelling not at the tree trimmers, but the neighbors. Content was actually a hate incident (not a hate crime). Used profanity, told them to go back to where they came from.

Another person down the street was angry they cut her fruit tree on her own property.
Others with fruit trees were not cut.

So, in the news, a person was killed over a tree incident. First ever I have heard of this. Maybe the anger is out of hand, out of control.
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I'm often seeing posts on r/gardening from people who have had a landscaping company annihilate their gardens either by mowing them to the ground, spraying herbicide or pruning trees and shrubs to bare twigs. I can't help but wonder how people in the business can be so wilfully ignorant and I have no doubt that confrontations can arise over it.
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CWillie, my hubby and I are continually amazed, not in a good way, at the many local landscaping businesses around our area. They shouldn’t use the word landscaping at all. At best, they mow, haphazardly trim shrubs either too little or into oblivion with awful power tools, and plant things entirely unsuited to the environment or location. We see lots of loropetulums which quickly grow to 10-12 feet placed right next to house foundations, then they get ridiculously butchered for growing, and look awful and never bloom. That’s one example from many of having no knowledge of what they’re actually doing. There’s no actual interest in plants or gardening, just get it done quickly, and leave. Many people are happy to pay for this. I fully get gardening isn’t for everyone, but if you’re paying for a landscaper shouldn’t they have some clue? Okay, just my bafflement…
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Re: felling trees. Behold our tremendous skill! (or incredible luck) My avatar photo shows a dead tree my hubby cut Sunday, in the midst of a stand of saplings and seedlings. Bet that caged butternut panicked. When it's a tree close to the house we hire a pro. One with skill. And insurance. Just in case.
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I was cutting the grass and discovered my sometimes problematic neighbour has cut back part of my black lace elderberry bush, leaving a big dead branch. WTF? I do understand you can prune something that is encroaching onto your property (and maybe it was by 6") but who does that without saying something?
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cw - back at the house, I gave my neighbours to the west blanket permission to trim anything that grows over the property line - and they have. We haven't discussed any of the instances, and we do get along well. She is watering my house plants since I moved down here.
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On another note, we are very saddened that the property owners of the condo complex are cutting down all the trees that were left from the original farm. We saw a large healthy mature poplar get felled this morning and heard the equipment munching up other trees yesterday. It hurts my heart that this was done.

R has talked about making a presentation to town council about the planned development on our side. Permissions would have been given over 20 years ago when there may not have been as much concern for keeping trees.
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I think it's just weird that he would chat with me several times over the last couple of weeks about some stuff he was planting and then do that without even mentioning that my shrub was annoying him. I would have pruned it myself if he'd asked, and I wouldn't have left an ugly naked branch behind
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cw - I agree - that seems a little weird
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Sorry I’m popping up all over on here but I’m new to the site and just beginning to explore.

My garden is a blessing to me but has been a mixed blessing since DH has declined so much. Yes, it’s the very best therapy for me, physically and mentally, but I didn’t know I would be taking care of it all by myself. Still, I wouldn’t give it up for anything.

I’d give up the deer in a hot minute though. And the moles. And the mice. And the spiders.
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Psue -glad you are popping up on different threads. There is a lot to explore here. Good that your garden is therapy, even though sadly you have to do it by yourself. I'm with you on the critters esp the deer. They loved my cedars - not anyone else's just mine! That's someone else's problem now thankfully.
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Thanks for the welcome!
Nacy, we moved away from the snow only a couple years ago so I understand that feeling of relief at the end of the season. Seems like it never gets cold enough here in the PNW to kill the weeds. If I don’t get out with the hoe over the winter, by spring they have trunks!
Golden, if the deer don’t eat it, they stomp through it, scrape their antlers on it or lay in it and stare at me when I try to run them off.
On a non-complaining note, just looking out a window here makes me breathe a little deeper and if I can get outside for a couple hours (or 8) I am a happier person.
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I’m fortunate enough to garden year round, even through the freezes, as the ground doesn’t freeze. I can grow dianthus, pansies, snapdragons, and ornamental cabbage and kale all fall and winter. However, we have deer aplenty, and they love pansies. And the ornamental cabbage and kale are like screaming “salad bar!” to them! So I usually stick to mostly snapdragons and dianthus. Glad to have year round color
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Daughter, I HAD a snapdragon but I accidentally pulled it up thinking it was a weed. Arrrgh. There is a big learning curve in this new climate. Plus, this yard is humongous and the snapdragon was teeny.
As you can see, I’m making excuses for my ignorance.

Do you have these plants you speak of in containers? And do your deer come right up to your house to snack on them?
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I have plants both in the ground and in pots. The deer are happy to come most anywhere. Maybe they appreciate the pots so they don’t have to bend down as low, just like we get with some age 😉
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Daughter, so kind of you to accommodate your deer population by providing raised feeders!
Golden, I lost my very favorite cedar to the antlers of a buck.

Do any of you spray deterrent? How about anything for the moles, voles, gophers, rabbits, etc? When we moved here the previous owners left 9 (9!) sprayers in the garage - all were partially filled and unlabeled. I had to pay to have them disposed of at a hazardous waste site. I do NOT want to use anything that might find its way into the water or harm the predators but I would consider safe deterrent’s if there are any that work.
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Psue - the deer especially liked my globe cedar in front, so we had to trim it off to being a 1/2 globe which looked ok as the whole tree was about 10 ft tall. When the snow was piled high they could just reach the lower branches.My backyard was fenced 6" high so the cedars there were safe, They did come up on to the deck and nibble on the shrub roses. I never found anything to deter them. The wildlife officers said to put a coat on the tree and the human smell would keep them away. Never tried it. Didn't especially like the look of clothing on the tree which is right at the front of the property.
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Maybe at Halloween. lol🎩
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Hahah! You girls are a hoot! (As my dear grandma would say)
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