Weekly Gardening Thread – 2011 (Vol. 24) June 24

Free Republic | 06-24-2011 | Red_Devil 232

[Red_Devil 232]

Good morning gardeners. Well this past week brought a respite from the sunny hot weather here in Mississippi. We received two days of beneficial rains, which helped to revive my garden. Watching the radar it looked like a good portion of south-central Texas from San Antonio to the northeast corner received some rain also. I hope it was helpful to our gardeners over that way. My winter squash are growing like mad and my hot and sweet peppers are doing great. What is left of my tomatoes seem to have revived a bit during these rainy and cloudy days. I really hope that what ever weather you have had improved a bit for you and your gardens this past week.

If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels from Master Gardener to novice.

[MtnClimber]

I put some starts in to the garden which I have fenced with chicken wire. I also fenced individual plants with 1/4 inch fencing. Those darned ground squirrels dug under and ate two eggplants down to the ground.

[greeneyes]

Poor little thing. That is one saaaaaad tomato.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

I bring the rebar home in the 20' lengths and cut it myself with a chop saw. For the tomato and pepper stakes I use 3/8" ... for the cattle panel supports I use 1/2" ... and I use 3/4" for other cattle panel projects, like my grape arbor and the compost bin.

For tomatoes I will usually cut the stakes at 6-1/2 ft. or so to get 3 stakes from a stick of rebar. For peppers, sometimes I will cut them 5 ft. to get four of them. With tomatoes, I drive them about 18" into the ground, but at least a foot. If I'm feeling good, I'll use a sledge hammer to build up my sculpted guns, but my husband did weld me up a driver out of square steel tube with a foot or so of old tractor pto shaft inside for pounding power. It's a really neat thing that will drive the rebar in very few hits.

Here are a couple of photos of my rebar jungle, with a few tomato plants thrown in for good measure:

And just because I can't stand to keep the cuteness all to myself, here is my 2 year old granddaughter and the new miniature baby donkey. They are bestest friends.

[Ellendra]

Well, I finally got the second garden bed finished and planted! This, in spite of the fact that my shoulder has been acting up enough lately that I've been keeping that arm in a sling part of the time.

I even took pictures!!


The garden bed, after the landscaping fabric was pinned in place, and showing my lovely chalk marks. Each symbol stands for a different type of plant, otherwise I lose my place.


The same bed after being planted. I ran out of the cardboard tubes, so i used paper dixie cups with the bottoms cut off.


The first garden bed, planted a couple of weeks ago. My green beans are trying to outgrow everything.


Here, you can see how the two beds were arranged. The plants with the longest vines are planted at the ends with the arbor, later I'll be putting a shorter trellis that runs the length of each bed, for the melons and tomatoes to grow on.

The stump I innoculated is covered in what I hope is the mycelium of the mushrooms I planted:

I was expecting it to take months to get that far. I'm allergic to mushrooms, but the rest of the family loves them, and they're fun to grow. the purple spots in the picture are colored wax. You're supposed to seal the plug spawn in with parafin, but I didn't feel like dealing with that much hot wax when I was only innoculating one stump, so I dripped wax from a candle instead.

My strawberry garden is finally slowing down to the point where I can almost keep up with it! My shoulder usually starts screaming at me at about a quart and a half of berries. When mom has time she picks the rest of the way, we've been getting around 5 quarts a day for 2 weeks! Some we froze, others I made into strawberry syrup, just right for both pancakes and ice cream. And of course, we've been eating them fresh by the bowlful:

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Wow! Holy cow! Very nice.

[greeneyes]

“Here in NY we can’t plant to the ground until the very end of May.”

That has been my experience for the last 2 years in Missouri. Last fall, I decided to have a winter and indoor garden. So I planted lettuce carrots onions garlic and new zeland spinach out side and inside.

When the nights got close to freezing, I put on row covers, then straw. When we got freezing rain and snow I added an old Styrofoam egg-crate mattress. We also planted some winter wheat. It is harvested in June, and by then the weather is better for planting.

It was great to look out at the green wheat in the middle of winter. The lettuce has lasted until now. From now on that's the way I will do lettuce, onion, garlic and carrots.
Spinach actually did better in the indoor pots.

The tomato branches I whacked off and stuck into a pot grew roots and provided tomatoes all winter indoors. I whacked them again this spring and repotted them, then transferred them out doors where they are way ahead of the tomato transplants started from seed. All in all it was a better spring thanks to the winter plantings(at least mentally better)

[tubebender]

You just keep pouring it on but I am on to you now... you have a degree ag engineering and cinched the layout exam!!! Love the granddaughter and the mini burro. I’ll leave your photos up for Mrs Bender in the morning...

[tubebender]

The second planting of the potatoes was on May 28th 16 days after the first planting...

[tubebender]

Where do you get the rice hulls from?

I buy mine at Nilsen Feed here in Eureka Ca. They sell feeds etc to the dairy industry and also to the horsey crowd including bedding material. The rice hulls come in compressed bags of 3 cubic feet

[joesjane]

I am getting ready to dive into homemade trellis construction. I think I may try your rebar trick as well. Where do you pick up your supplies? I’ve never had to buy rebar and wouldn’t have a clue where to pick it up. I also was watching a video of trellis construction, they were using a sort of wire fencing that is used in poured concrete but I can’t think of the name right now. I just don’t have enough space to it’s time to go vertical.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Pimm's Cup

[kalee]

Yes, Pimm’s Cup!

[Red_Devil 232]

Good morning folks. I received my newest toy yesterday. It is a 4 cycle, Propane powered Grass Trimmer. It looks to be a quality product. I did not get it put together yesterday because I had to replace the in-tank fuel pump on my Wife's car. I decided to go with Propane because I have 4 different 2 cycle gas powered tools; chainsaw, blower, tiller and a non working grass trimmer. Each one requires a different oil gas mixture. Just got tired of not having the right mix when needed. With this new toy I just have to pop in a 16.4 oz propane tank (2hr run time), no oil gas mixing, no choke or priming, no winterizing or carburetor gumming up and it is very easy to start. I know the same company, LEHR, makes a leaf/grass blower so I will look to get one of those soon.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thank you, JustaDumbBlonde. That makes sense to me. I'm going to see if (despite the trellising) I cn find some leaf-node areas on the stem I can bury via adding soil and hilling a little, so the plant can hopefully grow more roots. And lay off the nitrogen fertilizer!

I may report later whether this was successful or unsuccessful. Thanks for the insights.

[tubebender]

That’s interesting. I would like to have a propane powered 6,500 KW generator but the California Air Nazis won’t approve them for use here. You are right about carb problems in small engines and especially here where the ethanol in the gas attracts moisture in the tank causing corrosion and non-start conditions even tho I add Sta-Bil to the 5 gallon gas when I buy it. Why do you need a different fuel mixture for each tool? I have 4 chain saws, 4 weed trashers, blower and a hedge trimmer and I use the same mixture in all of them plus I use it in the power tools at our Church. I buy my oil at the Stihl power tool store. Nice day here in Benderville and we are going to the Farmers Market in Arcata 3 or 4 miles north of us...

[rightly_dividing]

Thats really neat, I haven’t seen one that runs on propane. I have looked at the 4 cycle ones and the guy at Lowes says they are really the way to go. He said they have almost no come backs with 4 cycle.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Any hardware/lumber or building supply store should have rebar. I have a roll of that wire reinforcement, but I don’t like it as much as the cattle panels that don’t rust.

[Red_Devil 232]

The different gas to oil mixtures come from the manufactures. My Tiller says to use 24:1, my leaf/grass blower and my chain saw says to use 40:1, my old gas trimmer uses a 50:1 ratio. So I have been going by what the manufacturers say to use.

Just got through whacking a bunch of weeds. I was so nice not to be smelling and tasting the oil/fuel exhaust fumes!

I have a 6250 KW generator that runs on gas there is a conversion kit available that will let me run it on propane.

Seems like the California Air Nazis would approve a propane run generator over a gas powered one. Propane = zero evaporative emissions, zero ozone depleting hydrocarbons, 97% fewer particulate and carcinogen emisions.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Very nice toy. I’m in the market for a new weed whacker and will certainly take a look at that one.

[Red_Devil 232]

The only reason I stumbled across this propane trimmer is I was looking to get a battery powered one. But after reading some reviews on their battery life and lack of power. I moved on and started reading about the propane models. I ordered this one on line for $149 on Wed. and received it via UPS ground on Friday no shipping charges.

I just got through using it and there was no smell or taste of the typical gas/oil exhaust fumes. Lots of power and runs just like a gas powered trimmer - noise and all.