Posted on 08/09/2013 3:12:55 PM PDT by greeneyes
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/08/06/NYC-heThe Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.
This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.
It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread ... there is no telling where it will go and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
NOTE: This is a once a week ping list. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest are welcomed, so feel free to post them at any time.
Your mystery looks like a pepper.LOL Good pictures. Thanks for sharing. I wouldn’t want used kitty litter around my stuff.
I really don’t try to chase anything off. I just plant lots of extras, and we do set live traps and haul off whatever we catch. So far it’s left us enough to have a decent harvest.
Yes it hard to fathom. Gives credence to the old saying when it rains it pours.
Thanks Johnny, i think that I will take a leaf in to the local expert at the seed store in the morning.
This is as close as I have come to having Ghost Peppers after 4 plants and a years of trying; the infected plant has 9 peppers.
I will be looking for Pyola in the morning on my trip into town.
There is a lady somewhat near here named Esther. She has a field of categorized day lilies that she sells for 5 bucks a plant. She is a great resource for lily lovers. I’ll ask about the Madonna’s.Thanks very much regarding the lillies! And.... I just ordered a DMC-TZ5 from Amazon. :) I couldn't find a new one online, but they had several used ones in very good condition. I've been searching for months (and months) for the right camera... so thanks again...
Weird - I was laid out with mystery DVT and severe iron deficiency recently. I was told I should have transfusions or at the least IV iron 3X weekly. I am sticking to special easy on the stomach tabs though. Have to take a bunch a day, along with other meds.
When I was able to walk again, I was SOOOOOOOOOOO glad that this year I had decided to try that weed block paper. It saved my little garden and has worked better than I hoped. First year I have even considered using such stuff.
Everything I have is in a raised bed so the litter wouldn’t be that close to the veggies. I have fencing already. but it isn’t very good and MR Bunbun has no trouble getting about it.
One day (before I became ill) I was walking past the picnic table and there was a peach. Sitting on the table, half consumed. We have very cheeky squirrels around here.
And I would never find a single peach rotting on the ground, in fact I was surprised the fiend left the uneaten half on the table. He came back and got it later though. Waste not want not in these parts.
We were told through our local garden haunt, that dried blood would keep the bunnies away (we use it)... Maybe you’ve already tried that?
Great news. Love fresh herbs. I’ll just mention that due to the lack of mustard seed and dill seed while trying to can pickles, I decided to order some bulk spices from sahuaro spice company.
So I ordered some that I don’t typically grow as well as some dill seed and mustard seed. The shipping fees cost almost as much as the spices, but I still saved 50% on the total costs.
Yep. I did an experiment. Took a bag of M.R.Compost and poked holes in it. Turned over and cut out a rectangle around the top. Bag was about 2x2.5 feet. Took a bag of top soil and did the same, kept it close by. In between, I mixed half Mel’s mix and half M.R.Compost together. Compost was the winner by a landslide. Mixture was second place and top soil lost big time.
We started two summers ago with a bland colorless property with abandoned flower beds and nothing growing but Boxwoods surrounding everything in site, including around the base of oak trees and a redbud tree. Boxwoods are fine if thats what you like, but my wife likes color, and she has done well at restoring the outdoor beds.
I live just outside Charlotte, NC This year my cosmos are over five feet tall with not a flower on any of them. Too much rain?
I bought a couple of jalapeno plants yesterday at the nursery and have been watching some YouTube videos on pickling. I think I can do this.
I have to rethink what to have planted on the deck in containers during the hot months of July and August. I fear a heat stroke in these temps of well over 100. Being dead or a mental vegetable isn’t going to help me. Right now, I have nine healthy tomato plants, Mortgage Lifters (think that’s the name), in the large tomato planter that has it’s own trellis when the tomatoes get that high. Only two big grown tomato plants can be in this container. That means I have to transplant, at some time, seven of them in grow bags. I planted nine I grew from seed in order to get some that would stay alive, well, they all did.
The only other thing living on that deck is the four Sweet Potato plants in a ten gallon grow bag and they don’t look great. I have net over the tomatoes and the SP. Some time ago, I planted a Sesame flower seed in a large pot that is sitting in the dirt garden part. It’s been so hot, I hadn’t walked out that far to look at it. I did that yesterday to water it, and the plant is tall enough now that it’s above the top of the pot and looks extremely healthy. I figured it might have died due to my not watering it every day.
Somehow, even if I have to bring in the house the big round tomato plant barrel (the other nine tomatoes are in a big rectangular container) to do it, I’m going to get potting soil mix in there and plant three Tromboncino Squash seeds in it. Wait, I’ll use the paper cups and start the seeds in those with seed starter in the cups. Better chance of success doing that. I’ll do that tomorrow. I can’t stay out there long enough to dump potting soil mix in that barrel as it will take opening several bags of potting soil mix and I would be dead by then doing it outside. Don’t say anything about my dumping potting soil mix into a barrel in my house. That will also make that barrel heavy and it’s not on wheels. Rats. Well, I’ll drag it out of the house, couldn’t lift it I’m sure.
I had grand ideas of planting a lot of various seeds for a fall garden, but the heat is too bad for me to do that. In a SHTF situation, I would have to plant what I was going to do to have more food. The anti-squirrel pellets aren’t going to get out there until my son comes sometime this month or first of next month.
About two nights ago, I was going to pull the curtains over the glass doors and saw a baby possum on the deck about 6 ft. from my tomatoes and SP, and it was moving away from that direction. I made a noise and it move faster and I lost where it went. A baby possum means a family somewhere. I emailed Johnny what to do and he said call Animal Control but I don’t know where that possum came from to direct them to some place. Saw a possum here years ago and once there was a big dead one in the garden and now years later here is another one. I live in town, for goodness sakes, where are the possums coming from?
If you people can work in this heat, you are much better than I am.
Nice Black Russians there. I just ate the first 3 Black Cherry Tomatoes. So sweet! But none of the other “new” old varieties are putting on. Nice healthy plants, most over my head, but no blossoms. Of course, there’s new yellow pear plants popping up all over.
Walked out yesterday and something had eaten through the basil. There’s one sad one left. No digging holes so it wasn’t the armadillos but don’t know what. Something ate a couple of peppers to the ground, too. But the ginger root is sending up shoots.
I was pulling weeds a couple days ago and hubby insisted on helping. What part of no thanks do people not understand? Told him specifically ONLY touch the Johnson grass but we all know how that went. In less than 5 minutes I was down to one green bean vine, sigh. Earlier in the summer, mother decided she’d pull what she thought was the morning glory off the fence - yes, my beans. So, I planted black beans and kidney beans there and cranberry beans in part of the herb bed. It’s really too shady for herbs so maybe the beans will reach high enough for the sunshine. If not, I need to find something that is shady friendly but will tolerate 100+ heat. It hit 110 this week.
Look on the brighter side, is always a good thing to do. Sounds like lots of hard work is paying off.
Stargazer lilies right Gorush? My fav!
Lovely garden!
LOL. I just found a huge cuke hiding behind a big leaf and it is almost a foot long. I rarely have weeds to pull in the raised beds.
It’s another story for the yard. Stuff is knee high and growing fast. Can’t get it dry enough to get out the lawnmower.LOL
Pickling is one of the easiest. If you want to pick up a good all around reference, try the Ball Blue Book of Canning and Preserving. I usually use the cold pack methods easy peasy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.