| gardening
Posted: 6/25/2008 3:41:53 PM | | picked my first 2 early girl tomatoes today, and the green beans are coming in and picked a bell pepper! I ate the tomatoes omg! I love gardening. | |
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| gardening
Posted: 7/4/2008 5:52:17 AM | feel like the father of a newborn again...last week i started my cukes and tomatoes from seed for a change...(also cuz bedding out plants are a buck fifty each)...guess what?...probably 75% of my *babies* germinated already...WOOOOO HOOOOO...
*hands out PoF cigars*
my *babies* are outside right now basking in the warmth and drinking lots of water in my mini greenhouse...i'm all excited now...lol...
(i need to get out more)
Fistncuffs, I read that and laughed! I have my first garden this year, started with one tomato plant put in the border around the house, kept adding one foot at a time until I now have, yellow squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash, eggplant, tomato(2 kinds), swiss chard, mesclun lettuce, malabar spinach, 5 types of honeydew/canteloupe type melons, 5 watermelon plants, bell peppers, sweet cherry, cayenne, other peppers, a few other things I am experimenting with..I want to make my entire front yard an edible little paradise LOL.
The first time I had to be away I told everyone it felt like I was leaving my babies alone...I didn't know gardening could be so rewarding *smile.
I guess I need to get out more too LOL....
I need some knowledgeable melon growers for advice...we have gotten way too much rain for my poorly draining melon area lately and my sugar baby melons that appeared on the vines have rotted at the size of a large marble..my midget canteloupe was literally loaded with marble size canteloupes and they turned yellow and I found holes bored all in them..they were treillised on a chain link fence..Does this sound like too much water that attracted the insects or a boring insect alone? Anyone with more info please email me so I can save my babies LOL.
EDIT: I am still reading thru the forum, so if it is posted just ignore, but you keep mentioning GREEN TOMATO PICKLES..can you post recipe? I have made watermelon rind pickles that amazed me at how delicious they were, especially wrapped in bacon..yummy..I have loads of tomatoes I could do something else with. | |
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| gardening
Posted: 7/20/2008 6:35:07 PM |
For those flying things: gallon of water, ammonia, one beer, one cup of vinegar; it's a good fertilizer as well. are you saying spry all plants with this? to keep bugs away or birds? | |
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| gardening
Posted: 7/20/2008 7:02:38 PM | | Until this year, I was a big flowering plant gardener. In January of 08, I became a Vegan. Just made sense to add veggies to my gardens. I have several types of tomatoes, growing radishes, two kind of peppers, two kind of cucumbers, zucchini, beans, eggplant, cantaloupe, watermelon. Not bad for a first time veggie grower. I don't have a large area but some how, so far it's working. The cukes and the zucchini are definitely taking over the garden. I put the melons in a separate space. | |
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| gardening
Posted: 7/20/2008 7:07:22 PM | | I'm growing melons for the first time. I read that if you plant radishes near the melons, it keeps the melon worms away. I did plant the radishes, man, they are fast growers. Don't have any melon on the vine yet so I don't know if it works, but at least I'll have radishes. | |
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| gardening
Posted: 7/20/2008 8:05:16 PM | ...I've been raising a garden for a looooong time...and still have problems growing melons without spraying them now and then. Sevin will take care of the adult cucumber beetles..(black and yellow striped beetles) and the squash bugs...but you really need to get good coverage for the squash bugs. A spray of elemental copper will help with powdery mildew, and a few other minor fungi...I think maybe the excessive rainfal probably rotted off the roots of those melon plants...and once that happens..nothing is going to help those plants. Maybe a slightly better drained area is in order next year.
...Radishes can be used to mark the rows where you have very slow germinating plants...just toss a radish seed in with the rest of them...and it will always germinate fastest...so you can weed very close with your hoe. | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 7/20/2008 8:12:18 PM | | ...It's kind of funny...there is a class of chemicals...that are referred to as "Nicotinoids"...because nicotine is part of the active ingredient in them. Who knew Jerry Baker was a chemist?...LOL | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 7/22/2008 5:18:20 PM | | I hope someone in the know answers you letmefly cuz as a beginning vegetable gardener I too have wondered. Now last year, I planted some pumpkins and parsnips rather late (late July) and got some decent pumpkins in Oct. and some great parsnips ( had started them from seed) to my surprise in the spring by forgetting to harvest them in the winter as I read I could do. | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 7/23/2008 9:11:33 AM | | ive got about 2-3 acres planted this year, was planning on having a large fall market, ive got in 20 varieties of pumpkins and winter squash, 5 varieties of ornimental corn, 7 kinds of cantalopes, and 7 kinds of watermelons, prolly 75 pepper plants and lots n lots a maters and green beans, planted 150 pounds of taters, we dug some last weekend and they are ready now but will get much larger with the timely rains, ive also added two honey bee hives this year for polination, the bees have allready made a 40 pound box of comb honey, and all the stuff in the garden is in blooming stage right now, i actualy observed many bees on the flowers in the cantalope patch | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 7/25/2008 9:16:50 PM | *Now last year, I planted some pumpkins and parsnips rather late (late July) and got some decent pumpkins in Oct.*
If i tried that, they would get frost bitten soo bad or be covered by snow in oct. I live in a zone 3 area. We lave long winters. Most people try to get their garden in middle or end of may and they are usually done by the end of Aug. If we are really lucky maybe to the middle of Sept.
In my garden this year i tried to start alot of my own bedding plants, however they never made it or they died when put outside to harden off. Not good. Oh well, now i know what i did wrong and can fix it for next year. A few plants survived, ie: corn plants and a few flowers. But I had to get more seeds so i could start things new.
I planed out peas, pole beans, carrots, onions, a few different kinds of tomotos (yay they have a few growing on them!!!) lettucs and then flowers. I also have lost of perannules in the yard (daylillies a few different kinds, delphiniums, wolfsbane, and more.) I also planted a few grape vines in the back yard as well as a red current vine. Not expecting miracles, but it will be neat to see what happens next year.
Now to just finish a patio in the back yard.......... | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 7/26/2008 3:29:47 PM | ..Whenever I set my bedding plants out to harden off..I set them on the north side of the house..in a large box to limit the amount of wind that will get to them...they're too weak from growing inside to go straight into the wind...and direct sunlight outside will sunburn them if they're not allowed to acclimate for at least a week.
..As far as things you can plant right now..try some carrots, they are the best you'll ever eat if you let them get frosted in the fall. Mulch them with 8-10 inches of leaves..and you can dig them all winter.
..Also..try to start some fall spinach and lettuce...they'll be great into the fall... | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 7/27/2008 5:53:26 AM | | Pupdaddy (cute name!), does your advice about fall planting hold for New England as well? And from seed, directly into the soil--now? | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 7/27/2008 5:59:14 AM | I'm in the deep south, so your mileage may vary
fall crop consists of lettuce, broccoli, spinach, carrots, butter beans | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 7/27/2008 11:02:06 AM | | Sow such seeds straight into the soil now and harvest in October maybe? Later for the carrots. Parnsips too I imagine. Yes? If all goes well, that is. | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 7/27/2008 2:04:05 PM | | Notchuraverage1..If your first killing frost date is after Oct. 6-10th..then the carrots will work. You need to plant them from seed now...not next week...and place a board over the top of the seed furrow to hold the moisture around the seed..and keep the water from your sprinkler from compacting the soil over the top of it. Remove the board at the end of 7 days..(No more, no less) preferably in the evening..because you will have all these spindly white carrots starting to stick through the soil..and the mid-day sun is hard on them. Do not fertilize these carrots..because it generally causes the carrots to fork..and you're looking for a long deep carrot. And yes..you can get spinach and lettuce to harvest from seed in this amount of time too...but I would start the seeds indoors, (Spinach in particular doesn't work really well in hot soils, so starting them indoors in the shade makes sense.) | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 7/27/2008 2:12:47 PM | ..now she's got me inspired...I did plant my carrots on Friday..and I'm going to go sow some six packs of spinach and lettuce now...LOL
...Thanks... | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 7/27/2008 2:14:43 PM | | Thank you so much PD for the green light and the detailed advice, I'd never find the board advice in a gardening book would I? Weather permitting, I'm going to plant carrots tomorrow and I'll let you know. And may I ask, can I do the same with parsnips? And spinach inside too, yes! | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 7/27/2008 2:19:19 PM | | ..Oh by the way...those parsnips will work the same way as the carrots...you let the frost hit them...and all the sugars that are stored in the leaves will move to the root. They're both biennial plants..so they store their sugars in order to go to seed in the next year. We take advantage of the fact to get the extra sweetness. Red beets will probably work the same way..but if they're spring planted they will usually be much too big and woody by fall...Maybe they can be summer planted...but I'm not sure...I'd use the same method I use with carrots if I did...because constant moisture around the seed is the way to get them to emerge fastest. | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 7/27/2008 2:21:37 PM | | ..I believe you can start parsnips in the spring..and let them go until frost. Somewhere they have a competition to see how long they can get the parsnip roots to grow...They actually take post hole diggers and dig holes about 4-5 foot deep and fill them with sand and compost to plant in. But the smaller ones you might get from a summer planting would be great to add whole to stews and such. | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 7/27/2008 2:38:14 PM | | For what to plant and when, check online with your state agriculture service. In Louisiana I was able to download a veggie planting guide. It gives dates for planting and what varieties do well in your area. | |
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| gardening
Posted: 7/27/2008 3:08:31 PM | Okra, cucumbers watermelons, cherry tomatoes, a few heirloom tomatoes, banana peppers, squash, zucchini.
Okra, cucumbers, watermelon, squash, zucchini, and cherry tomatoes have provided almost more than you can eat.
Banana peppers have provided several peppers. Have not had good luck with the other tomato plants.
Overall it was a success. Growing your own veggies really forces you to eat better. 5-6 cucumbers a week and 15 cherry tomatoes makes you become adept at making salads.
Piles of squash and zucchini forces you to get inventive so you don't waste any.
I'm very sad that the larger tomatoes haven't been so healthy though. That's what I was really looking forward to. | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 7/27/2008 5:38:20 PM | | Again, my thanks to you PD. You are a source of good info I'd most likely not get elsewhere. PS I made a killer cream of parsnip and ginger soup w/ my yield last yield. | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 7/27/2008 5:41:43 PM | | Thanks mandeville! I will check that out; I'm sure we have the same guide. | |
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| Healthy Garden Formula
Posted: 7/27/2008 7:24:57 PM | | just dug a hundred or better pounds of taters today, was hot n muggy, we quit after the lightning started in, i'm getting $2.00 a pound us funds, and cannot keep up with demand, i'd love to keep 150 pounds for me and family, i found 18 potatoes under one plant, large enough to peel, not counting anything small, is unbelievable tater harvest, i have pics but not sure how to post them, would happlily email them though, also the onion plants are starting to die off, the onons this year are the best ive ever grown in 20 some years, just learning along the way and god musta give me a green thumb | |
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