Weekly Gardening Thread
Posted on 09/25/2009 4:00:09 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning to all of you gardeners. Rain! Rain! Rain! Constant trains of thunderstorms have brought my gardening to an end for this year. My tomatoes could not handle all the water and they have drowned. My other garden plants have succumbed to the big wet also. Once things dry out a bit I will be digging up the garden and concentrate on building up my compost pile.
I will miss the fresh tomatoes but have more than enough canned to get through the winter months. I enjoyed my garden very much and will now work to make next years garden even more productive.
Weekly Gardening Thread
I hope all of you will stop by.
This is typically a low volume ping list. Once a week for the thread and every once in a while for other FR threads posted that might be of interest.
If you would like to be added to or removed from the list please let me know by FreepMail or by posting to me.
Hello from flooded North Georgia.
We have our seedlings up and growing of lettuces, greens and radishes. The low light did not help, but the abundant (ahem) moisture and warmth allowed for good growth in the starter flat.
We are planting the weekend at the community garden and those that planted seeds have their sprouts up. We are planting our seedlings as well as the other side in seeds. We hope this will allow a somewhat continual harvest until the garden is put to bed in Nov.
Our community compost bins are doing well. We all bring trimmings, cut our summer plants into it and I am going to the local brewery to get spent barley and hops.
Good morning.
My garden really liked the rain. We had over 2” this past Tuesday. This has been our wettest month for over two years.
Most ot the seeds are up and growing. I plan to pick up some 10/15 onions on the way home today and get them into the ground.
My habaneros, scotch bonnets, peters, and other hot peppers are ripening...I can ‘feel the burn’ already...
My garden is about 22 x 32, and I also rolled out the black gardening cover. Tip to the wise: Don't buy the cheap stuff at the dollar store. It did OK for weed control in the areas that got covered with mulch. However, I ran out of mulch about halfway through, and the non-covered section is now a tangle of weeds that won't allow me to remove the stuff without digging it all out by hand. More work than it was worth. I may try a better one next year, but I almost could have bought the veggies at the farmers market for what I paid for seed, fertilize, weed control, etc.
This year I was recovering from back surgery (fused disk in Jan), and really wasn't able to do all I needed to do. I had a fall garden planned, but didn't realize that the garden would resemble a rice patty in September. The fall garden has been cancelled due to rain! I'm really glad that I don't have to live all winter off of what I grow. We would starve this year!
Please add me to your weekly gardening ping list...
Also, please add me to the ping list.
I use newspaper instead of the black garden cover....It works great and adds to the compost of the garden.
I got my fabric at Sam's it is a quality product. I thought it was a good price for a 4x225 ft. roll. My garden only needed one roll. I did have about 15 ft left over.
YOU HAVE BOTH
ADDED TO THE WEEKLY GARDENING PING LIST
Do you re-use it or throw it out after a season?
This is the first year I have used the landscape fabric. I do plan on re-using it on next years garden. FReeper JustaDumbBlonde recomended it and has used it longer than I have maybe she will add her two cents on if she re-uses.
BUMP for later today.
Good morning from dry CA. My gardening buddy (adult daughter) and I have most of our seeds in already for the fall/winter veges.
Tomorrow we will pull out the zinnias and get ready to plant pansies and snap draggons for winter color. I need to climb up and clean out the unwanted small limbs inside the canopy of the orange tree, as the oranges are coming on and it is hard to get the ladder up into the tree to pick.
We are putting extra fertilizer on the pumpkin plant (not sure if this is the right thing to do) to try and give our 3 pumpkins a last push.
Next project is to tackle all the watering system (a rube goldberg affair I rigged up in the spring).
Happy weekend gardening to all!
Cabbages and broccoli are the only things worth leaving in. We will try to clear out as much as possible and get ready for next year. Potatoes are ready to dig. There's a few luffas that might mature enough to use.
I put down some layers of newspaper, rotten veggies, & grass clippings in an area to start a bed for next year. I looked out to see a clump of green coming out of the bed. It looks like a bunch of cucumber seeds sprouted.
>>> I got my fabric at Sam’s it is a quality product. <<<
RD, Good Morning and Thanks for the heads up on the fabric, Will plan to use it next year..
Quit emptying the rain gauge .
Tomatoes all gone.. few late squash surviving and soon as it clears up will pick the cornfield rattlesnake and butter beans..and the last of the blueberries..
I will be planting four varieties of garlic in a few weeks and trying to build up the soil to expand my gardening area for next year.
Well, my first garden I would say was pretty successful except for the last couple of weeks, the tomatoes have gotten the darned blight that everyone was talking about earlier. I still have peppers flowering and growing. Jalapenos still coming out of my ears. I still have two watermelons that are growing.
Now I’m doing most of my gardening in Farmville on Facebook... I think I’m hooked on the gardening thing. My freezer is full of tomatoes, peppers and someone local took pity on me and brought me a bag of green beans since mine failed for some reason.
Oh, my carrots. Stupid question: How do I pull them without breaking off the greens?
Upper 80’s in the Bend (central Oregon) area thru Sunday then it starts to go downhill.
I’ve been spending the afternoon’s “insulating up” and weatherizing outdoor fixtures.
>> How do I pull them without breaking off the greens? <<<
What few I managed to grow, the orange of the carrot popped up out of the soil so I grabbed them by the body of the fruit.. and a note I made to myself... next season I’ll make sure the ground is tilled very deep to allow them to grow straight and not crooked .
best of luck
We’ll be back to normal this weekend, 90s and sunshine.
And I will be happy, don’t like these cold 70 degree days.
My garden started out great, then unintentionally over fertilized with nitrogen. Got that issue resolved to have cucumbers succumb to that dreadful squash borer. Tomatoes turned out ok, but when the extreme temperatures hit, the plants stopped producing. On the plus side, herbs did very well and I made lots of my summer favorite of pesto. Flowers did very well too. Enjoyed many bouquets of zinnias. Even roses. Recently started on my winter garden with arugula, lettuce, pansies and mums.
Spoken like a True Texan...
LOL
Our system crashed right after I answered, just got back up.
Ya should-a got a Mac...
It was the ISP, right in the middle of billing.
Whoa! Make sure you did not pay twice!
Billing, not paying. If it did go through twice, the boss would be quite pleased. :)
Heeee! Heeeeee!
HSX2 says he wants to be added to your garden ping list...
Hey tubebender is that happydogx2 who would like to be added? FR does not know HSX2.
LOL... Yes and he swears he doesn’t have fleas but he does chase cars with Mississippi license plates...
You need to ask him if he is a Setter or a Digger. I suspect he is a Hairless Chihuahua. He lives a 4500 ft elev and I have not certified him as a RSG. (Real Series Gardener)...
The last of my tobacco has been harvested producing about 15-18 Lbs of cigarette bliss.
Pumpkins got killed off by squash beetles, ugly little buggers.
Over-all a great year, and I still have tomatoes and peppers blooming.
Crazy tomatoes.
My experience with the Preen fabric that RD has linked is that it will last for at least 3 years, but that is with it staying down rather than taking it up and putting it back down again. If you run your water and fertilizer through a drip tape, there is really no need to pull the fabric up to work the ground each season.
I have been entirely impressed with the durability of the Preen fabric. I do not mulch mine with straw like I should -- it is just bare fabric that I sweep with a broom from time to time. It takes a tremendous amount of foot traffic without showing wear (hard soled shoes are not allowed -- I usually wear Crocs in the garden).
Is it treated with the Preen reemergence herbicide or does it just carry the Preen label?
Just carries the name ... no treatment. It is great fabric — landscape contractor’s grade that appears to be at least 4 times thicker than any of the stuff that they sell at the home centers, at 1/4 of the price. I don’t know if you remember the pics of my garden, but this stuff gets walked on day in and day out and doesn’t have a single tear.
Yes I remember your photos. That was the day I sprayed our garden with Agent Orange and painted the soil green...
btw... There is a small nursery near us that has had a fabric for walk ways and all their potted plants also sit on it. It has been in place for 4 or 5 years..
Okay ... I just laughed so hard that the dogs and the husband are looking at me like I’m from Neptune. I’m sorry. LOL!
Do I dig up “just planted” gardens? Absolutely not, I wait for about 4 weeks before I dig in a freshly planted garden.
I do fertilize for free, though...
Oh, I’m serious all right. Between the frosts every 60 days here on the high-desert to the mule-deer eating most everything you have to be serious.
The days of lazy gardening, like the kind you enjoy, and the kind that I used to enjoy with coastal living, are over. The quail dig up peas, eat the lettuce and the deer take care of the strawberries, carrots, parsley. IF I can cover the zucchini and cucumbers before an unexpect frost I’m ahead of the game. This year I only had to re-plant twice. I will be planting three varieties of garlic soon (Elephant, Select & Italian) before the ground freezes.
I am looking forward to tips and tidbits.
We live at least 3 miles form the jetty/breakwater to the entrance to Humboldt Bay and the breakers are crashing so hard that you can not only hear them but you can feel then...
Sigh, I dis-like you intensely for reminding me of something else I miss.
We lived about 3 miles SE of Bandon at about 400’. We could easily her the fog-horn and on a rare occasion the breakers which you describe.
Lifes circumstances have dictated that we be in Bend and I suspect that, barring some unusual events, here we will stay.
I bet the mist is salty too.
Last week you told me you lived 3 miles WNW of Bandon. I’ll bet it rarely snows or freezes in Bandon...
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