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BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Bobert Date: 12 Jan 11 - 07:45 AM Well, the P-Vine and I are going to brave the ice and snow this morning and head over to Charlottesville for a doctors apoontment and then its on to... ...the Greensboro Nurseryman Trade Show in NC to check out what new hybrids are going to availbale this coming season... Last year's big find was the "buckthorn" hybrid which we love... I'll be checking in from various motels... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: maeve Date: 12 Jan 11 - 07:47 AM Have a safe trip, Bobert. We'll enjoy your reports as they come in. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler Date: 13 Jan 11 - 07:41 AM Stupid question. Can you double glaze a greenhouse - and is it worth the effort? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: maeve Date: 13 Jan 11 - 08:32 AM That's not a stupid question at all. Yes, you can. You can also use what we know as bubble wrap to provide an insulated inner air space. It can be worth the effort. I'd suggest you check with a local garden club or some locally experienced allotment gardeners (whatever is possible there) for input. Someone may be willing to help you get started. Regarding the time and effort to establish the raised beds you mentioned a few posts back, You could be making piles gradually starting right now. Just start with a few layers of newsprint (black and white), topped with available compost, soil, straw, manure, soil amendments, coffee grounds, etc. on top of the places you reckon you'll want them to be. Never mind shaping or perfection; just get it started, then keep adding to the different piles as you have time and finances. By the time you are ready to really focus on the raised beds you'll have done much of the hard work already. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: GUEST,Jon Date: 13 Jan 11 - 08:35 AM Twin walled polycarbonate is another glazing option. I think we will opt for this if we get the lean to. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: GUEST,Jjon Date: 13 Jan 11 - 08:42 AM One person's opinion re: twin wall polycarbonate here |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Jan 11 - 07:45 PM I picked up a couple of bundles of onion sets and a few seed potatoes today at the feed store. It's cold out now--too cold for the gardener, but by the weekend or early next week I might be able to put some of this in the ground. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Bobert Date: 13 Jan 11 - 07:53 PM Just got back to the motel after a day of the nurseryman's show and me head is spinnin'... Everyone wants to give you stuff to take home and we have alot to go thru later... Found some real cool stuff but will wait until we're home and can digest it all... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: maeve Date: 13 Jan 11 - 08:17 PM Stilly, I echo what MMario said- Solanaceous members (potatoes, tomatoes, etc.) not only are all vulnerable to the same diseases and insect pests, they have very similar needs in terms of trace minerals, nutrients, etc. It's much better to not follow one with another for those reasons. I find it difficult to effectively rotate crops effectively in a reliable way in a small garden, but by amending soil regularly, planting catch crops and cramming in cover crops wherever possible, we've managed with minimal rotation. I'd follow the tomatoes with a legume, say, and use the spuds in a new soil location. Potatoes are a good starter crop in new soil. You'll figure it to suit your garden. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 14 Jan 11 - 12:50 AM I've been aware of the rotation need for a while - I think I may have discussed this with MMario before. Thing is, so many of my plants are in the same family - peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, this year potato, that it is difficult to put them in new spaces. I need to turn over some of the dirt and rearrange the raised beds, that will help. I had a lot of volunteer tomatoes in the eggplant area last summer, and they all did better than the rest, so I suspect it takes more than two season for problems to develop. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 14 Jan 11 - 05:37 AM I usually grow two tomato plants outside in huge plastic pots filled with compost. At the end of the season, I empty the spent compost on the flower beds as a mulch, and the next time start afresh with new compost, after having well washed and cleaned the pots. I think this prevents disease from lurking about any new tomatoes. As my requirements are few, two plants well fed and tended give me massive amounts of tomatoes. I stick a great big long cane down each pot before planting, and tie the plant to it gently as it grows. I just adore the smell of newly picked tomatoes, they're full of flavour and nothing like Tesco's offerings! In fact, isn't there a world of difference between home-grown fruit & veg and the supermarket apologies for same? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: GUEST,JTT Date: 14 Jan 11 - 01:02 PM I've been reading Chocolate Wars by Deborah Cadbury - it's an account of the Quaker families that made the English chocolate trade, and their competitors in Switzerland and the US. One of the things the Cadbury family did was build a 'factory in a garden' in the countryside near Birmingham, so that their workforce could have a healthier workplace. They built houses with 140-foot gardens, with an orchard at the back for the fruit and the pleasure of the blossom. Not only that, but they provided a gardening teacher so that people could learn to grow their own flowers and vegetables. Within a few years the children of Bournville, the village built around the factory, were inches taller and pounds heavier than the friends they had left behind in the city. There were no pubs or bookies in the village, but there were playing fields, swimming pools (outdoor and indoor) and gymnasia, with a sports instructor supplied. Apart from the cheap and nutritious food that people grew, the lack of pubs and bookies meant a higher proportion of the wage went to buying food for the family... Inspired by my reading I got out this morning and spent an hour tidying up the garden - far too early to start sowing or planting here in Ireland, but I'm doing some cutting-back. It looks lovely now. Rather than a compost heap, I've been burying compost in a dedicated vegetable-grave for a couple of years now. It's crammed with healthy earthworms, and the compost made in this pit is far better than anything from any heap I've ever had - and it 'makes' in six weeks. I've also got a wormery on the go, with plenty of healthy wrigglers eating up vegetable peelings and banana skins; and have found the ultimate way of growing strawberries - a discarded wheelie bin with 5cm holes punched in it, filled with that good compost and planted up with Lidl's strawberry plants (delicious berries from these). |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: GUEST,JTT Date: 14 Jan 11 - 01:04 PM Incidentaally, on the 'native plants' question, I've always found the concept queasily eugenicist. Apart from obvious disasters like the grey squirrels, which gobble up the food of native red squirrels, most invasion has been benign. Certainly don't try to take spuds from the Irish; we'll resist that forever! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 14 Jan 11 - 01:52 PM In this instance, to reverse the joke, his dogma is trying to run roughshod over our karma. :) I heard an interview recently with Deborah Cadbury, on either Diane Rehm or Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Possibly with both. It sounds "too good to be true," in some ways, but I think in fact it's a simple concept that healthy good, fresh air, and lots of exercise in a good environment is good for people. The politics of chocolate was a real eye-opener in those interviews. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: open mike Date: 15 Jan 11 - 05:40 PM indoors plants--forced bulbs popping up..esp. paper white narcissus and hyacinths....i stuck some potatoes in the ground a while back.. they may get frozen back, but mulch might protect.. most of my plants are container plants..hundreds of tree seedlings.. esp. Osage Orange...my experiment for propagating has proven successful i made a slurry of the fruits...the size of grapefruits...and poured in in a trench -- had a lot of sprouts...transplanted some into 1 and 2 gallon pots. they make a hedge row...and the wood is rot resietant and a beautiful golden color... also have dozens of lavendar plants in containers...waiting to plant in a labyrinth...shaped garden path ... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: pdq Date: 15 Jan 11 - 07:10 PM In the last few days, there seems to have been a workshop on PVC framed greenhouses right here in my little town. Over 150 people attended representing about 4% of the town's population. The simplest idea is to take 20' stock pieces of 1" PVC water pipe and slide each end over a piece of 1/2" rebar driven into the ground. Put two or more of these hoops in row and stretch cheap clear sheet plastic over the frames and yer done. Much fancier designs are common too. I will look for websites with more ideas, but this may be one... http://www.pvcplans.com/pvc-greenhouse.htm |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Janie Date: 15 Jan 11 - 07:50 PM I haven't made a greenhouse that way, pdq, but have done that on a small scale to make grow tunnels. I also made a small 3 x 3 cold frame that I could simply lift off the plants, then sit it down over them again. I used t and elbow fittings and lengths of pipe cut to the distance I wanted between hoops to make a rigid base. Worked pretty well once I realized I needed to tape the joins to keep them from popping apart when I lifted the frame. Thanks for the link to that site. I'm gonna go explore it further. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 15 Jan 11 - 07:56 PM Bois d'arc is the osage orange, native to a small corner of Oklahoma but it has been carried around and planted in much of the U.S. It grows along fences in the prairie north of us, and when the fruits are big and lime green they are easy to pick out of the cedar brakes and hackberry clumps. I think it was a particularly valuable wood among the indigenous people who harvested, perhaps even traded it. This afternoon was heavily overcast but a comfortable temperature for once. A couple of layers over t-shirt and jeans was exactly right for slow-moving work in the garden. I dug up the area where I planted potatoes. Only four, I'll see how it goes before I decide to plant any more in future years. I have a couple that I may plant in containers to see how that works. I planted some yellow granex and white granex onion sets today also. I tend to make short rows and plant them in zones, and this is the area close to my side door where I have herbs and chard. I designated the spot for this year's compost with the weeds I dug out of the garden. Last year's heap is slowly sinking, the year before looks good and is what will go in the gardens this year. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 15 Jan 11 - 09:59 PM When I worked at an Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station - 1957-8 - it was found that Osage Orange fence posts outlasted concrete. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Bobert Date: 16 Jan 11 - 08:24 AM PVC is wonderful for making frames... I'd suggest a little larger than the 1" if it's going top be something that one can actually stand up in... PVC, incidentally is for sewage and CPVC is for water but never mind that... Don't forget to clean the ends of the pipe real well with wet-dry sandpaper and prime before gluing... Great stuff... There also used to be an outfit, Cover-it, that sold very expensive greenhouse kits... They sent you round galvanized pipe for your frame and were cheaper than anything else on the market and easy to assemble... BTW, we're back from the nurseyman's convention and it's going to take a couple days to go thru all the material and then I'll share some of the plants I have found that some of you may or may already know about... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: GUEST,Jon Date: 16 Jan 11 - 10:12 AM I'd not seen PCV fittings for making frames before but following PDQ's link, I see there is a place in the UK selling them and suitable pipe. I might try this for a couple of tunnels. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: pdq Date: 16 Jan 11 - 11:26 AM I haven't looked for any more websites showing PVC "hoop" plans, but the one I linked to would be described as "pretty fancy" compared to the basic "Okie" version mentioned. Just pound pieces of rebar in the ground and slip a stock 20' piece of Schedule 20 plastic pipe over the rebar. Line up three "hoops" and tie the tops together with baling wire and guy wire them to stakes in the ground. I suppose the sheet plastic should be held on with small metal hoops so that the plastic can be raised in hottest part the day. Details needed. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Bobert Date: 17 Jan 11 - 10:28 AM The nice thing about PVC fittings is that you can get elbows in 90, 60, 45 and 22 1/2 degrees plus all kinds of couplings that couple as many as 4 pieces of pipe... Wish I didn't know all that stuff but plumbling is about all I did last winter... lol... BTW, they say yer never too old to learn stuff and, boy, that is true... I put 200 or so of the 300 or so plants that I've dug in my open equipment shed/barn with deer fence across the front and they just didn't look as happy as the other 100 or so that I had down in the woods so I checked 'um out and the pots were frozen solid and frozen to the concrete floor... Hmmmmmmmm??? So yesterday I took what was left of the deer fence and made an outdoor pen for them and moved them all (yes, I'm sore today) into the pen with bags of pine fins around them... We're expecting snow/slop, rain and ice over the next couple days so hopefully the water will make them happy and with them being all packed together and surrounded with the bags of fines maybe the pots will thaw enough to get 'um back into being happy plants... Spent last night sittin' on the floor organizing the hundred or so catalogs/price & availability sheets we got from the various nurseries and so over the next couple days I should have some plants, some new and some old, to talk about... Imagine that??? Talking plants on a gardening thread??? lol... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: maeve Date: 17 Jan 11 - 10:42 AM We use all sorts of row covers and hoop materials. My favorite was probably the 20 or so trapper's skin stretchers I bought for a dime apiece at a yard sale; just the right size and shape for a small hoop house row cover, with a dollop of poetic justice on top. My goal is to try the method described in the Maine-based Johnny's Selected Seeds catalog starting on page 180. I like most of the methods used by Elliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: maeve Date: 17 Jan 11 - 10:52 AM Oops! The link for the Coleman/Damrosch gardens is http//www.fourseasonfarm.com/ Welcome home, Bobert. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Bobert Date: 17 Jan 11 - 03:44 PM Thankee, maeve... Okay, I've got about 10 or so plants to share and this is the 1st one: **CRYSTAL FALLS MONDO GRASS** (Ophiopogon jaburan "HOCF") This one really excited the P-Vine... It's new to the trade and looks very much like liriope except it is much larger... The leaves grow to 30 inches and are 1/2 to 3/4 inches wide... It blooms white in mid summer up until early fall followed with bluer berries... It is cold hardy to 6b and will grow up to 9 climate zone... It is disease resistant and leave don't spot like liriope... I can see using it along woodland paths interspersed with other perennials... The only thing I don't like about this plant is that it is a clumping plant rather than a spreader so it's going to be a little harder to grow out... Not too sure if the berries will grow new plants... Just going to have to do a little experimenting with it... We stayed until the end of the show where the vendors are "allowed" to sell out of their booth and bought one of the four that were there at the show... So, Janie... Here's a good one fir you for your woods... I think the 1 gal. pots will be about $8 at the garden centers that carry it... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 17 Jan 11 - 04:51 PM I was going to move the bird feeder beside the kitchen door garden, but the birds were poking around looking for it and I realized I'd better put it back or they'd be disturbing my newly placed onions. This week I'll plan to do some digging in the new bed down at the front, and see if I can make inroads on the next part of the bed I have been extending each year. The soil is muc easier to dig in now, and the Burmuda seems a lot easier to pull out in this dormant stage. The roots don't seem to have so many shoots. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Bobert Date: 18 Jan 11 - 09:36 AM Here's one that I'm sure Janie and Magz know all about... Okay, maybe not "all about" but it is a Zone 7-9 plant: *** CALLISTEMON "WOODLAND'S HARDY" *** ("Bottlebrush") Sorry to my more northern gardening friends but I saw this at the show and thought it would make for a nice smallish plant in them landscape... It is evergreen with thin-ish leaves (like a yew) and red caterpillar shaped (fuzzy) blooms in late summer... Does nice in full sun or semi-shade... 3-5 feet High... Bushy... Definitely one that we'll be addin' to our gardens when we get moved to NC... Happy gardening... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: pdq Date: 18 Jan 11 - 10:04 AM Bottlebrush are native to Australia and they are close relatives of the Eucalyptus. Once established, they need almost no attention which is why they are used many commercial applications such as parking lot landscaping and along freeways. I don't believe any pests came here with them, but they can get rust if the humidity is too high and are subject to root rot if continually overwatered. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 Jan 11 - 10:14 AM I used to see those in the landscape plantings on the Tucson and Phoenix areas years ago. They're attractive - are they xeriscape? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: maeve Date: 18 Jan 11 - 10:20 AM Yes, Stilly. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/74813/ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: pdq Date: 18 Jan 11 - 10:47 AM Starting as early as late June and going into September, the Arizona desert can get occasional huge rains, often called monsoons. In very dry years they probably need some water. In a normal years with summer rain, probably not. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Janie Date: 30 Jan 11 - 05:29 PM Bobert, I would really like to get a head start on the lacebug problem with the azaleas this year. That one beautiful and unusual azalea (the first you gave me and I always have to go look up the name,) seems especially vulnerable and while it has hung in with me, it gets so infested, and so quickly, that it is not doing as well as it might. Another summer like last, and it might not survive the on-slot. I don't have the time to spray it at least weekly all summer long (I've used insecticidal soap, neem oil, I'm wondering if using a winter dormant oil might help reduce the infestation, and if so, when can I apply it? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Bobert Date: 30 Jan 11 - 08:40 PM The lacebugs are worst in dry weather... The plant needs to be kept watered... The lacebugs tend to get up under the leaves making it very difficult to spray them... The best is to use a "soil drench" insecticide that will treat them systemically... BTW, it's a "Koromo Sheikibu"... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 30 Jan 11 - 08:52 PM It's 2 below F or abt. -26C outside and people want to talk about gardening? I'd be happy to see a lacebug or two. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 31 Jan 11 - 12:26 AM Janie, I use a wide piece of masking tape and when I go through the garden whenever I see the bugs, the nests, or the young, I roll the tape across the leaf and they're stuck to it. If you go out and poke around in the spring it might seem tedious, but it keeps them down later. And I found that companion planting works well last year - a large sunflower attracted most of the lace bugs, they left the eggplants alone. I heard today that a good way to repel the squash bugs that attack yellow squash and zucchini is to grind up dried bay leaves (the cooking type) and work them into the soil amendments where you'll plant the squash. Might put a few in the mulch as well. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: mouldy Date: 31 Jan 11 - 03:00 AM I'm enjoying reading the posts and tips. It would make a very handy gardeners' book! Unfortunately, my back garden is going to be on hold for the forseeable future as, according to the planners, I have to provide a materials compound on site when the work eventually starts. this is so that the little road at the side of the row of houses doesn't get blocked. The only place is my garden. However, I have ordered a rhubarb, and a minarette apple tree. The one I wanted (the Bardsey Apple) was sold out, but I ordered another variety. Darned if I can remember which one now! I was on the phone and had to choose from a few I like pretty quickly. Anyway, the rhubarb is a new variety called Raspberry Red. I can grow both in containers for now. I just hope I can get the work sorted out to be done this year, then I can really get to grips with the garden the following season. Andrea |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler Date: 31 Jan 11 - 08:11 AM My gardening so far seems to have been confined to rebuilding dry-stone walls that have shifted in the winter. This recent one had fallen across a footpath (not much used) but by the time I noticed it the stones were all frozen to the ground! Is it the ground heaving when it freezes that disturbs them or is it some of these earthquakes (minor ones in the UK, I know, but they seem to have been more frequent of late) that we've been having? The ground is still frozen so I can't dig it yet with anything less than pick axe, even a pile of gravel is a solid block. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: GUEST,Jon Date: 31 Jan 11 - 09:04 AM Put three bat boxes up yesterday and helped move some logs to the shed but that's been about it outside, except for confirming some items including the marine pump did survive not being drained/disconnected before the freeze. I think that means we will be able to do the lean to greenhouse this year (providing the land owner gives the OK). We quite fancy the 8' 5" version of this Elite Easy Grow with polycarbonate glazing. The width is right but I would might to sort the fixing out as the wall is only about 4'6. Also as I don't want to block too much light over the wall, I guess polycarbonate or acrylic for the back where the greenhouse extends above the wall. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Bobert Date: 31 Jan 11 - 09:16 PM Yo, Cat... Yeah, when the ground freezes it pushed the rocks upward... Don't ask me why... John in Kansas knows but I am clueless... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Janie Date: 31 Jan 11 - 09:41 PM No way, Stilly. Azaleas have waaaaaaaay too many leaves to do something like that. Time is the issue here. I was hoping horticultural oil would smother a good many of the eggs that are over-wintering. I also need to move it to a shadier area, as Bobert suggested on a previous thread. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Bobert Date: 31 Jan 11 - 09:49 PM Yeah, azaleas love morning sun and that's about it... Also love pine needle mulch... Hate lacebugs... Treat the soil and keep 'um wet... BTW, Janie... I had a sport on one of my Koromo Sheikibus last years and got a double flower... I know... Weird for a strap pedal azalea... I have a cutting from that sport... We'll see??? B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: maeve Date: 09 Feb 11 - 04:09 PM Gutter garden idea here: http://www.ahahomeandgarden.com/garden/how-to-make-a-hanging-gutter-garden/ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Bobert Date: 09 Feb 11 - 05:14 PM Nice idea, maeve, for patio or folks who don't have a lot of space... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 09 Feb 11 - 06:58 PM I have several places in our city garden where I could use that gutter garden quite effectively! Great idea, Maeve. Hard for me to think garden when everything is under two feet of snow. I am hoping to get a few yellow heritage tomato plants ASAP but that is a long way off! Of the 8 different varieties I had last year, that one did the best (Djeena's Orange) and was tastiest for us. If I get good lighting, I can start them indoors in large pots this year and bring them back inside in the fall, she says, hopefully. There is not much room in our yard yet for more than the rhubarb, the herb bed and a few tomatoes. The gutter system could hold lettuce sorts, thins that are small and do not need a lot of sun. I could make a "second story garden" hanging them from tall metal posts, a few feet above the other gardens. Exciting concept! Thanks again, Maeve! I have something to plan - in addition to all the non-garden planning!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 09 Feb 11 - 09:02 PM I noticed on Sunday after the last of the snow and ice melted that a row of daffodils have sprouted and are 2-3 inches out already. We had more snow today, but they seem to have some kind of antifreeze in them. And I noticed daffodils coming up in an area where I thought I'd dug them all up last summer, along with some iris I moved. :-/ SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Janie Date: 09 Feb 11 - 09:35 PM A couple of new shoots on the hellebores have broken ground. If the weather and my back cooperate, gonna plant lettuce, mescun mix, spinach and onion sets this weekend. Should have done this last fall, but am also gonna sow some poppy seeds and see what happens. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Maryrrf Date: 09 Feb 11 - 09:50 PM It's too cold to plant anything now, but next month I'll put in lettuce and mesclum and maybe some greens. Thinking ahead - does anybody have any remedies for those stink bugs that seemed to be everywhere last summer? They ruined my melons and seriously affected my tomatoes. I had a hard time keeping them out of the house when it started turning cold. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 09 Feb 11 - 10:24 PM The organic solutions are several: spray with orange oil (a couple of ounces per gallon is all you need) will kill them, and I heard a reminder on my organic gardening program that to avoid some other pests, particularly the squash beetles (that some of them look like stink bugs - they're related) and the vine borers, grind up some bay leaves and mix it into the soil around your squash and melons. Use some in mulch also. I've been meaning to plant a bay shrub, and this is another good reason why. Be sure you get the plant that is used for cooking, there are several things that are called "bay" leaves. I wear gardening gloves when I work in the garden, and these days I simply pinch and kill those bugs when I see them. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011 From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 10 Feb 11 - 01:45 PM The gutter idea reminded me of the means of watering plants in the beds around the balconies on my upper floor of a hotel in arid Kona, Hawai'i. Little tubes brought water to the shrubs periodically, as needed, with little being sprayed about to be evaporated. The same is used in many greenhouses. Tubes and soakers give water to plants without much loss to the air during the process. These accessories are found in many garden catelogues. |
