| gardening
Posted: 6/18/2007 10:12:36 PM | I'm a new gardener and a very enthusiastic one!!! 
In my brand new 4'x10' veggie garden I have planted:
cucumber - got 2 plants come out of a bag of seeds
tomato - 3 (cherry) + 1 (beef?) plants- with full of green fruits now 
pepper - super Chili & Jalapeno survived frost out of 5 varieties - transplanted too early 
Leek
sweet basil
rosemary
peas
green bean
wax bean
purple bean
pole bean
fava bean
Love beans of all kinds!!! 
I'd also sowed cantaloupe & green onion that never germinated, while the long bean died soon after germinating.
It's so far been a rather exciting experiment for me & I'm happy to watch them (well, most of them) grow healthily everyday - soon I shall stop buying veggies!!!  Nah! - we eat far too much!!  I shall be happy if the animals/ bugs/ Mather Nature leave me some after taking their shares. As far as the birds, we are on the safe side- our cats love to chase them away all the time- as long as they stay out.
I've still got bags of seeds left- is it ok to store them in a container for next year?:-) | |
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| gardening
Posted: 6/19/2007 3:35:29 AM | Beans need a lot of nitrogen, I recomend the ammonia in water trick unless you regularly use miracle grow. Bean specific innoculant doesn't hurt. You just dip the beans in this powder just prior to planting. Some of the better companies include it with their seeds. 10-10-10 fertilizer is always a great product for any gardener from fruit tree to flowers to veggie gardens. If you are going to buy one fertilizer only make it tententen.
Plus you have to sing to them, everyone knows plants loved to be sung to by a beautiful women. | |
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| gardening
Posted: 6/19/2007 4:17:13 AM | | HI , I remember reading this somewhere in the forums about "Beans need a lot of nitrogen, I recomend the ammonia in water trick "for Broccolli but I forget the ratio . Can you just use household amonia nad water on everything in the garden ?Debbie | |
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| gardening --container growing potatoes
Posted: 6/19/2007 7:20:01 AM | I've done this several times in various modes because hoeing long rows of spuds is against my religion.
method 1: get an old metal barrel or garbage can, especially if the bottom is rusty and has holes in it. put in a layer of dirt, then some spuds. let them grow a few inches above the dirt, then layer them with another mound. continue this til the barrel is full of dirt. water often. after frost kills the plants, tip the whole barrel over, and voila! you'll find tons and tons of taters.
method 2: take a bale of straw, place it where you want it. insert potato eyes in several places as deep in as you can go without bursting the strings holding the bale together. keep it watered do nothing else. in the fall after the frost has killed the plant tops, open it up. WOW! you don't even have to wash these spuds off!!! It's amazing!!!!
anything smaller tends to take more time than it's worth in my book. see, I garden for FUN, so eliminating as much work as possible allows me to have more FUN watching things grow. | |
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| gardening
Posted: 6/19/2007 9:57:26 AM | Random, thank you for the tips! I sowed the beans over a month ago on the new soil & they seem to grow well. I water them most every day & recently put tomato baskets over the purple beans but they overgrow quickly & need some longer poles now- are you saying I should regularly add ammonia & fertilizer to the garden? The one problem I have- I've been pulling the little weeds out & they keep coming back, & chemical isn't an option in my garden.
Oh well, I'm going to get the recommended books & become an expert soon  ... before then you may get some silly questions from me
Thanks all for the great tips!! Now, the idea of adding some potatos is very appearing- windkist makes it sound so fun & it's not even going to take up any space in my already crowded garden  | |
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Erikka
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Joined: 6/13/2007
Msg: 81 | |
| gardening
Posted: 6/19/2007 2:55:31 PM | I'm a gardening fanatic! I try to plant something new and different each growing season. I've had a curious thing happen this year though. Every one of my tomatos on the vine has a "bite" out of it. Every. Single. One. Not a little hole or chew, but a discernible bite mark like two prominent upper and lower teeth. I suspect rabbits but am not sure. Ideas?  | |
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| gardening
Posted: 6/19/2007 3:02:42 PM | Do you sleep walk ??? Match up the teeth !!! You may enjoy that garden more than you think !!!! There's no salt on them is there ?? | |
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| gardening
Posted: 6/19/2007 3:31:49 PM | | Not likely that it's rabbits. More likely groundhog, chipmunks or mice. Lil varmits will cause no end of trouble. | |
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| gardening
Posted: 6/19/2007 10:27:26 PM | | yep. i love them gardens also.... i have 3 gardens been growing gardens for 40 years. | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 6/20/2007 2:07:23 AM | I got my dwarf standard peach tree in the mail yesterday! Now as soon as it is light out, in about an hour, I am going to plant it!
Bluemoon, mulch is your friend for keeping weeds down. Even better is to put down like four layers of newspaper, wet it, and then your mulch atop it. Grass clippings help. Or leaves. Around here woodchips are free from the city. Compost is available free at certain places. Call your local state university's horticulture/agricultural section and ask them. Sometimes the local city hall might know about those things, but don't count on it.
HI , I remember reading this somewhere in the forums about "Beans need a lot of nitrogen, I recomend the ammonia in water trick "for Broccolli but I forget the ratio . Can you just use household amonia nad water on everything in the garden ?Debbie
Yeah, the one I used for years by Jerry Baker on TV is to take one of those Miracle Grow sprayers that go on your hose and fill it with any ingredients of the following mix:
1 cup lemon ammonia.
1 cup mint mouthwash
1 cup lemon dish soap or laundry detergent (non bleach types only!)
1 cup tobacco juice tea
2 T epsom salts
1 can regular soda or a cup of sugar
1 can of beer
But you don't need all the ingredients, just use whatever you have. When you have the tobacco in it you have to be careful since it goes right through skin but other than that it is very safe and nontoxic. Spray everything, from the flowers to the lawn to the cracks where the ants like to dwell.
The ammonia is the food for plants, nitrogen.
The mouthwash, soap, and tobacco tea are all organic equivalents of pesticides. Soap is a fantastic problem preventer in the garden!
The epsom salts provides trace minerals sulfur and magnesium.
Pop or sugar helps the good bacteria. Feeds plants, too. Also helps with the breakdown of old organic material like thatch in the lawn.
Beer helps the thatch and good bacteria as well.
Just mix that all together in an old bucket and spray. You will find very few mosquitos around after that, too!
If you can only do two things do the soap and the ammonia. Spraying the sidewalk cracks will help keep the ant populations down.
Every week or two. It's best after a rain so the stuff stays near the top near the plants and doesn't get washed away. But by the gallon its 1 Tablespoon each of soap and ammonia. | |
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| gardening
Posted: 6/21/2007 8:02:34 AM | I have a small patch behind my garage - probably about 8x8, expanded it a little this year. Homegrown tomatoes rock - I only eat them during those few short months you can get them fresh off the vine. This year I have two big tomatoes, one cherry, couple cabbages, zucchini, onions and green peppers. Kind of scared to see my next water bill cuz we're getting no rain around here but anyway.
Tomato plants are doing great, cabbage and zucchini are monster plants already and the onions are popping up great too. For some reason though I haven't had much luck with my green peppers - they're growing but very slowly, starting to get some buds. Last year I got a few peppers but the biggest was only slightly bigger than a golf ball. I switched them and the tomatoes around this year but I think they should be growing faster. Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.
And the local sweet corn around here is the bomb - can't wait to slather an ear in butter and dive in... don't have room to grow it but it's readily available, I think it's mostly Silver Queen.
Look forward to hearing about everyone's harvests soon - 4th of July is usually the start of pickin' season around here. YUM!! | |
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| gardening
Posted: 6/21/2007 8:10:35 AM | Since I'm commuting to work and only home on the weekends I'm not doing much by way of a veggie patch this year. But oh the flowers!
I've planted lots of purple salvia, hostas, daylilies and asiatic lilies....glads and petunias and morning glories. Let me tell you the butterflies and hummingbirds are liking my place now!! A lot of things won't bloom well til next year, but next year just stand back! | |
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| gardening
Posted: 9/17/2007 9:46:36 PM | This has been a great garden year for me. I've had wonderful crops and continue to get them. I'm going to miss it when the cold weather hits. It's been fun nurturing all of the vegies and reaping the benefits. My tomatoes and bell pepper have been wonderful and tasty. It's amazing to me how much more red my tomatoes are when sliced, than those in the store. And the flavor... beyond compare! | |
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| gardening
Posted: 2/29/2008 1:15:03 PM | For all you gardeners out there, here is a solution to the mosquito dilemma we face when
trying to get/keep our gardens in shape.
The best way of getting rid of mosquitoes is Listerine, the original medicinal type. The Dollar Store-type works, too. I was at a deck party last summer, and the bugs were having a ball biting everyone. A man at the party sprayed the lawn and deck floor with Listerine, and the little demons disappeared. The next year I filled a 4-ounce spray bottle and used it around my seat whenever I saw mosquitoes. And voila! That worked as well. It worked at a picnic where we sprayed the area around the food table, the children's swing area, and the standing water nearby. During the summer, don't leave home without it.....Pass it on.
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A FRIEND'S COMMENTS: I tried this on my deck and around all of my doors. It works - in fact, it killed them instantly. I bought my bottle from Target and it cost me $1.89. It really doesn't take much, and it is a big bottle, too; so it is not as expensive to use as the can of spray you buy that doesn't last 30 minutes. So, try this, please. It will last a couple of days. Don't spray directly on a wood door (like your front door), but spray around the frame. Spray around the window frames, and even inside the dog house if you have one. | |
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| gardening
Posted: 3/1/2008 2:30:54 AM | NOW you tell me!!
Thanks alot for the tip; I will pass it along (living on the Cape Fear River, that knowledge will make me the most popular girl on the block!!).
I can already see it; I'll be taking a walk and people will say, "Who IS that "minty-fresh" woman?? 
Rx | |
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| gardening
Posted: 3/1/2008 11:20:37 AM | | ...The first thing I get going in a garden is the Onion plants...and last year I tried a variety called "Candy"...they grow large..like a Sweet Spanish..but also will keep well...am still using some kept in a cool cellar all winter. Successive plantings of lettuce greens- the Mesclun mixes are good...and Spinach is another early plant that I love...Radishes are the easiest thing to grow...but I'll pass on trying to grow Carrots in the spring...Once you've had a carrot that's been frosted....and then mulched over in the fall so you can dig them all winter..you'll know what I mean...Plant them in mid July for a climate like Ohio's...and if you need a guaranteed method of getting them out of the ground..just email me..I've worked out a system. Broccoli, Cabbage and Cauliflower all grow well early...but unless you have a source of some Baccillus Thuringiensis (organic biological worm control)..you might as well forget them..You'll get overrun by the cabbage looper. | |
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| gardening
Posted: 3/1/2008 11:46:36 AM | Onion bulbs zigzagged by the tulips keep the rabbits from eating the tulip off before they bloom and you get to enjoy them. I had a neighbor who used to grown them by putting them down 2-3 feet, cover with dirt, then leaves, then more dirt and they'd continue growing under the frost line near the base of his garage foundation. He'd plant them in summer and next spring the tops would pop up.
Just bought some lime basil seeds that I can't wait to try! | |
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| gardening
Posted: 3/1/2008 1:54:29 PM | i prefer planting in 4'x4' squares of one type of veggie which can be planted closer together then in rows and takes up a lot less space..rotating crops like green beans or peas really assists with the production of nitrogen in the soil.these type of veggies give off nitrogen into the soil which is necessary for other veggies.companion planting helps produce quality crops as well.ie green beans don't like to be planted next to onions.
another tip if you have problems with those ugly tomato worms is to place a toothpick on opposite sides of the plant protruding out of the soil to prevent the worms from cutting through.planting a few marigolds around veggie plants can prevent some pesky pests as well from destroying the plants. | |
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| gardening
Posted: 3/1/2008 11:13:18 PM | Where I live there are distinct gardening seasons, that you really can't cross over much. If you want green beans, you have to grow them when conditions are right. So there are cool weather crops,warm weather crops and then a couple of items reserved for the 5th season when it's 110-115 degree. I use French bio-intensive method and the Sqare Foot Gardening method several have talked about for soil gardening. There is nothing like planting proplerly to decrease your workload later.
Most of my gardening now uses the same principles but is done in EarthGro boxes. I grow quite a respectable garden in the EarthGro boxes on the patio. Using the boxes I am able to have a winter garden even though all the dirt in my front and back yards are deep in shade.
Right now I have lettuces (4 or 5 kinds), garlic, onions, beets, carrots, potatoes (they aren't anywhere near ready), cilantro, kale, parsley, lemon balm and broccoli in various stages of readiness. I should be able to start clipping lettuces next week and some of the onions ae ready for eatin as green onions. Tucked away in areas where the sun and earth actually meet, I have swiss chard planted in the regular dirt. It is so pretty that I put it in amonst geraniums, dusty miller, and cyclamen. Tucked in elsewhere are oregano, sage, mint (Oh maaaan!! What was I thinking??? I didn't contain it!!), chives and thyme. In a month or so, I'll plant cucumbers, peppers and for my friends and neighbors a few tomatoes since I can't have them. I will have more than I can keep up with just from those boxes. I have yet to successfully grow zucchini in the boxes although I grew winter squash one year.
With some thought, I've been able to do pretty well. I love the earthgro boxes for 3 reasons:
1. They bring the crop 12 " off the ground which makes all of the planting and tending easier,
2. I can move them to a position where the sun is right or to a more protected area when that blazing killer sun of our San Joaquin Valley summer hits;
3. Water goes to the plants through their roots rather than their leaves. So there is less chance of mildew, and there is water in the reservoir when they need a drink. You can't overwater the plants that way.
Now, in the worst of the summer heat, I have to water more frequently than usual and I create a skirt of shade cloth around the containers themselves and the surrounding patio area, because at 110 degrees the water can superheat.
I love to garden. I have to have just a little patch of dirt somewhere, somehow. It is so nice, so tasty, so convenient to go out and pick the little dab of something I might need instead of going to a grocery store to get it. Oh btw I use a seed company called PineTree seeds. Their prices and selection have been fantastic, very, very reasonably priced. Their catalogue is like having a really good gardening book. I can't say enough good about them. They do have a website. And no I'm not a plant. I live in California and I think they are in Maine or somewhere at the opposite end of the country from me.
Yaaaay gardening!! I just wish I had more time for looking through catalogues and planning but it's almost a year round proposition here. Almost? It is year round. Christmas decorating and planting happen at the same exact time.
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| gardening
Posted: 3/2/2008 5:11:50 PM | | ..Weezy..if you have trouble with your tomato plants being cut off at the soil line right after you plant them...it's caused by a "cutworm"..not a tomatoworm...and the best way to prevent it is with a cutworm collar...nothing but a piece of cardboard..formed in a circle that surrounds the plant. I've even been known to use paper cups that I cut the bottom out of...they are waxed...and don't have to be picked up before next spring in the garden...Next time you have something cut off at the soil line...look for a hole about the size of a pencil somewhere near the cut off plant...that's where the cutworm emerged from. | |
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| gardening
Posted: 3/3/2008 5:00:17 AM | | yes you are right pupdaddy..i was having a blonde moment at the time and just couldn't think of the right name..and yes i've tried the collar,but thanks for the suggestion and i knew about the hole except i prefer not to touch one of those ugly little creatures | |
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| gardening
Posted: 3/4/2008 6:29:58 PM | I have done cucumbers, tomatoes (roma, yellow, and cherry), basil, chives, parsley, cilantro, green peppers (and red ones too!), lettuce all together in a very limited amount of space. You'd be surprised what I can grow in not a whole lot of space!
One year, I had several different types of tomatoes going and never got a single one because my oldest child can eat them like there is no tomorrow and would eat them as soon as they got ripe, like apples! I felt very deprived but was happy she enjoyed them so much! | |
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| gardening
Posted: 3/26/2008 6:22:12 PM | Hello garden friends
My little earth gro box gardens are in full swing. I'll be transpanting about a gazillion Italian Flat Leaf Parsely plants to make borders around my flowers. I think there must have been a hole in the bag because I do NOT plant that way. Too much work later LOL. They will make a pretty border. Have been eating lettuces and onions for a cople of weeks, peas are just now poking up as they got planted late. Carrot and beet thinnings have provided a couple of meals already. Broccoli and potatoes are coming around slowly. I'm being very careful to plant according to the guide the local seed store gave me. Things have really improved since I began relying on that chart. Gardening here makes no sense compared to anywhere else I've lived. I want to be planting more right now (!) but I'm being patient. Everything is lush and pretty.
By the time most people's gardens are coming in and looking pretty, mine will have dried up and be looking like the last rose of summer, all thirty and hot. Then I will get my gardening fix by reading all about your lovely gardens.  | |
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| gardening
Posted: 4/6/2008 10:14:08 AM | | Offthewheel, Have your soil tested. I suspect you may be a little high in Nitrogen. | |
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