Posted on 11/01/2013 12:11:04 PM PDT by greeneyes
The 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.
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Between the nursing a cold and rainy weather, the outdoor activities were severely curtailed this week. The indoor garden is doing well.
Lemon tree has several more lemons ripening, and is loaded with blossums which make the air fragrant with their pleasant smell. Peppers are continuing to ripen and putting out new blooms.
My basil continues to amaze me. I have a pot that I started back in 2010. I have harvested it and cut it back every year. A couple of weeks ago, I got carried away and cut it back so severely, I thought it might be done for. It is loaded with little green buds all along the stems which are now as big around as my fingers.
My farmer's Almanac for November says: After digging dahlia tubers store them in a protected place in dry soil. Winterize irrigation systems. Mulch roses and protect winter veggie crops. Work bonemeal into soil before planting bulbs for spring blooms. Prune deciduous shrubs. Waste not- use regular compost or worm compost for kitchen scraps.
Hope all is well with you and yours. Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Pinging the List.
Thank you greeneyes for getting us together. If I can move
Hubby I’m going to plant some fingerling potatoes and 1
sweet potato that sprouted. I’ve asked him to move the
pot for the potatoes, nearer the garage, so as soon as the
spirit moves him, I’ll put the little things in the ground.
Tomorrow is community garden day. I have two HUGE tires
out there. I’m going to line them with cardboard and news
paper along the bottom and sides, fill it with twigs, compost, twigs, compost and soil, the plant some carrots and turnip seeds. I don’t know what else, yet.
Thanks for the Ping. I’ve been baking all week, and my garden doesn’t seem to have suffered from the benign neglect.
Picked tomatoes this week. My lemon boy, and Tycoon tomato plants are loaded. Have a few peppers, and the pak choi, I transplanted from under the growlight is huge compared to that I direct seeded.
I haven’t yet tried planting potatoes in pots. I’ll be interested to hear how yours turn out. How does the community garden stuff work in your area? Is it a city or county thing? What kind of rules do you have?
I've been breaking off sprouts from a sweet potato, and stuck them in a jar of water. They're making lots of roots.
LOL. Benign neglect was the best thing I discovered for my garden. Before that, I killed lots of stuff with kindness.LOL
I harvested about 600 lbs of weeds and grass clippings while they were slightly damp and loaded up the compost pile yesterday. As of a few minutes ago, the internal temp on the compost pile was over 100F. My compost tea really gets a compost pile working quickly.
/johnny
Haven't learnt much since last communique. Did learn one thing, though -- all the organic remedies in the world (and I've used, to date, 23 different ones) do NOT deter the determined leaf-cutter ant.
The only way that works (on empirical evidence) is a neurotoxin, typically an organophosphate. The crop: sweet peppers, aka pimentones here in Panama. After having EVERY plant in a 30-plant plot denuded of leaves between 60 and 95 percent (the little bastids leave JUST enough leafstock so the plant doesn't die), I treated the ground immediately around half the plants with a local product called Hormitox (hormiga is the word for 'ant' in Spanish).
To date -- and this was approx 3 weeks ago -- all plants so treated are developing new leaves by the bushel. No flowers yet, but I imagine that the plants must recover from stress before flowering (no seasons here, remember, except 'wet' and 'dry'). As to the others, I've kept treating them with regular doses of spice and garlic tea, and packing their stems w/coffee grounds. No improvement.
This is fairly definitive evidence, where I come from (oh, that's right...Missouri).
As ol' MJ said: you can't always get what you want. In this case purely organic ant repellent. But, sometimes, you just might find...you get what you need. In this case, ant-free pimentones.
After 6 weeks of growing dill seedlings in plastic cups, I've started transplanting them into the garden. Some are quite impressive, 10-12 inches high. Theoretically, it's a little early, still the rainy season (and, it has stormed for the past 3 days in the afternoon). Middle of November is theoretically better to transplant, BUT, good news, the four already transplanted are evidently too big to be crushed by the rain (yay!).
Happy gardening, young lady!
Sounds like life is good down your way. I am behind schedule here for the fall/winter plantings, and I haven’t started the home canning of meats yet this year either.
Refresh my memory please - what is in your compost tea?
/johnny
Tis so sad, but true. Sometimes the organic ways just don’t cut the mustard! Then ya gotta make a choice - do without or go with the stronger stuff.
I have to do that periodically with my lemon tree. I wait untill I have harvested all the fruit, and spray it with pyola a couple of times really good. Then I kinda pick off the flowers after they bloom for a while. Once the foilage is looking healthy again, I’ll let the flowers set fruit.
So far I can get at least a year and a half between doses.
I look forward to hearing more from you, as your climate is so different from here. Happy gardening to you too.
“Sachet of horse poop.” How poetic!
Hi! Harvesting last of the bell peppers.
Dig one up and bring in indoors for the winter.LOL
What if you didn’t have the pump, and weren’t inclined to use a pump - how would you jump start the compost pile?
Story of my life. my 4x4’s are now in their 9th month of existence. I used the Mel’s Mix formula in one and I took a shot at figuring it out for myself in another.
Carrots, onions, tomatoes you name it went into those gardens. Nothing but beautiful flowers and no fruit.
Finally, a baby tomato, a baby carrot, a baby zucchini, some string beans. Not enough for one lunch. I lost all hope.
Yesterday I went out to the garden with the intent to plow it all under, let it rot and wait for next year. To my suprise hidden under all the flora and fauna was a zucchini, a little smaller then the length of my hand. Or is it a squash? It is green AND yellow.
So after all this work, I ind up with one veggie and it has an identity crisis. But like they say in golf, it only takes one good shot to keep you coming back. I am looking forward to the next planting season.
/johnny
Sounds like our raised garden. We had to pull both tomato plants due to some sort of fungus. The only thing we got in spades was beans and squash, and a few zucchini. Dumped some rabbit poo/straw/hay mix into the garden for over winter and mixed it thoroughly with a pitchfork, and now have what appears to be grass growing (maybe wheat?) all over the thing.
johnny
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