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BS: Gardening, 2009
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Oct 09 - 02:46 PM Good! I had straw in mind to mulch them. And weeds--all the better. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: maeve Date: 13 Oct 09 - 10:27 AM I have had my first successful strawberry pot this year, SRS. I'll be tucking it into a shed I think, with somstraw tied 'round it I think. Other strawberries are in a whisky barrel ('Roman' variety with pink flowers and good-size fruit) and several hanging baskets. I'll be experimenting with winter care for those too. The strawberries out in the asparagus bed I'll simply mulch well with straw. Alpines I just ignore and they are fine each spring. maeve |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 13 Oct 09 - 10:08 AM Strawberries are like weeds, Magz... No problem over wintering them... Yes, you can cut thru the stolins and make new plants... Mulch with something that allows air movement such as straw or pine needles... Straw is better... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Oct 09 - 10:01 AM Yesterday as I drove my daughter back up to college in the late morning we drove past a huge pile of tree chippings that had a light steam or smoke coming out of the top. I explained to her about spontaneous combustion. Don't see it often, but it has been known to burn down barns in the hay was put away wet. I'm going to work on building up the soil levels over the winter. It will probably be on the budget plan--for every bag of store-bought top soil and bag of humate I'll mix in a bucketful of my backyard compost. It will get mixed in the wheelbarrow and then poured into the places I want a higher profile. I have a question. I haven't grown strawberries before, but I put in some this year. Will they overwinter if I put mulch over the top of them, and what about all of these new little plants on the runners? Can I dig them and relocated them without harming any of the rest of the plant (my guess is yes, but I'd like to hear what creative strawberry things the rest of you are doing). Have you ever used one of those strawberry pots? I have one that I've never planted, but if I tucked some of these little plants into it, will they overwinter and will this continue to produce for more than one season? SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 13 Oct 09 - 08:38 AM I have been negligent in my composting... I was hoping to have built a chicken wire bin for my leaves but just never got to it... I even know where it is going to go but, alas, time slipped way this season... I do have several piles doing the slow burn and I have my tumbler but, geeze... Need to get that going... I did, however, end up buying some crappy straw this past year to multh the veggie garden which had alot of see in it and the barley was up 18 inches yesterday when I plowed so I set the plow for the full 15 inches and let 'er rip... That barley, plus the straw is under 15 inches of freshly turned garden soil now so we should be okay with organic material rotting this winter... We are going to sort thru our final harvest this morning and come up with a distribution plan... Fortunately, the Garden Club meets today so there will be some willing takers... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: maeve Date: 13 Oct 09 - 04:56 AM Great idea, Janie. The Time as soil-maker technique has worked well for me. If you're able to toss on some organic fertilizer before covering your piles the process will be enhanced. Most of the veggie gardens are now clear, and I hope to get some mulch on the beds after a hard freeze or two. I have several beds of young beets, kale, carrots, spinach, and chard planted as well as the mature beds of the same. I've put row covers over them and will add plastic over the covers so the young ones will grow for another month before resting over the winter and harvest can continue for much of the winter in the beds with more mature plants. Come spring we'll have early greens and sweet carrots. I still have hundreds of potted perennials to replant, pots to clean and sort, greenhouse to clear and set up for spring planting...and ripe strawberries in the greenhouse. Happy garden dreaming for next season... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 12 Oct 09 - 09:33 PM Sorry. Forgot to the after will. I ain't nearly as emphatic as I typed:O) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 12 Oct 09 - 09:31 PM Still harvesting cherry and patio tomatoes from pots, and still have lots of basil. The caladiums are starting to feel the cooler night temps. I'm still having to irrigate the hydrangeas and Bobert's azalea that I planted out this spring. The neighborhood is alive night and day with the sound of acorns falling with pistol-fire cracks onto metal-roofed sheds and free-standing aluminum carports. The slightest breeze sends thousands of them. A good year for mast for squirrels, deer, bear and such in the Carolinas. Wish I had a pecan tree here. Am hoping my youngin' will bring me a 5 gallon bucket of them from the old place when they start falling heavily in November. Nut trees bear in cycles, and this year looks to be a good one. I'm not going to buy a leaf shredder, but I am going to buy a leaf blower this fall if budget permits at all. The soil here is heavy, red clay. I don't have the money to buy hardscape materials, nor the truck or trailer to haul loads of topsoil and compost. So I am going for a very long range plan. I will have mountains and mountains of leaves. I'm going to blow them into high mounds anywhere I think I might want to plant something or start a bed in the future, wet them down good and cover the mounds loosely with black plastic to keep the leaves from blowing away. Would be better to shred them first, but pile them high enough and leave them long enough and they will rot. I'll let the earthworms til them into the clay. I have finally accepted that my life circumstances are not going to allow for much gardening for a few years other than in pots or a small bed here and there. So I'll let time work for me. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 12 Oct 09 - 06:30 PM Mine should be going for another month, but it is still so wet that it's difficult to get out to put in winter stuff. Too wet, the seeds will rot. I have some tomatoes but this rain ruined the eggplants. I had one bean plant in I'd ignored and found about a pound of beans on it last week. Nice surprise! Lots of peppers and herbs. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 12 Oct 09 - 03:58 PM Sniff... Well, this one, for the most part, is in the books (and jars and the freezer)... Today was put-the-garden-away-for-the-season day... Yep, we harvested evrything left (10 pounds ripe tomatoes, 30 pounds green tomatoes, 20 some large eggpant, 10 pounds banana peppers, 10 pounds assorted other peppers, a couple stray pumpkins, 15 pounds of lima beans in their shells), removed all the cages, pulled up the plants for drying and burning and plowed evrything else in... We still have fall crops at the top end of the garden (kale, spinich, arugala, lettuce and brocolli)... Gonna shell the limas tonight and we'll freeze them... The eggplant does not freeze well so the P-Vine will take most of it to the garden club tomorrow along with alot of the peppers... But, sniff... ...this one is done!!! On the other front, however, this is a great time to transplant everygreens and move other plants so that is exactly what the P-Vine is doing this afternoon... Been fun... Got loads of food for winter but... ...sniff, none the less... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 18 Sep 09 - 11:05 PM Back in moderate drought, but with some very helpful slow, gentle rain the past few days - not a drought buster, but what fell came softly enough to soak in and not run off, and has saved some plants whose survival was otherwise questionable. Looking at the big cracks in my yard and really, really understanding how much more clay-ee the soil is here. Also contemplating the full effect of all the trees in terms of moisture. Got some pretty extensive cost/benefit analysis to research and think through in addition to site analysis. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 18 Sep 09 - 03:05 PM I'm with maeve... Post when I have more time... But 3/10's inch of rain in the last 4 weeks sucks... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 Sep 09 - 02:51 PM We've had so much rain I'm glad I didn't plant anything, it would have rotted. I'll try once it drys out a little. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: maeve Date: 18 Sep 09 - 10:19 AM Refresh... I'll post when I have more time. maeve |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 31 Aug 09 - 08:42 PM Maryrrf, I used to have a garden when I lived in Richmond and had eggplant and tomatoes well into October... Also peppers of all varieties... We have lettuce pokin' up and our brocolli has doubled in size since last week... We've got a black squrish beetele on the limas and think he's eatin' bean beetles 'cause we don't see too many so we'll just leave well enough alone and hope they fill out... Limas are my favorite fresh bean outta the garden... Went into my local deli Sunday to pick up a few sandwiches while the P-Vine and her sister had the kitchen clogged up with making yet more tomato sauce and was talkin' with my buddy who owns it and mentioned that I have an abundance of tomatoes.... Bottom line, I'm dropping off 20 or so pounds tomorrow in exchange for a couple lunches for me and the P-Vine... I love barterin'... Down in the 50's tonight here in Page Co., Va... Yezzir... Good sleepin' weather... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 31 Aug 09 - 12:15 PM I'm going to start onions from seed along one soaker hose that will stay in place over the fall, in case it is needed. They'll do fine on their own over the winter and will be ready by spring. Other stuff also, but I need to decide when I'm going to start reshaping this new bed. I'm going to add dirt and make it into a truly raised bed. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Maryrrf Date: 30 Aug 09 - 01:04 PM I cleared half my garden, where the squash and cucumbers were, and fertilized it, then tilled it. The weather seems to have cooled off a little, it's only in the 80's today. I guess it's time to put in the fall stuff like lettuce, collards, carrots, radishes, etc. I'm still getting okra, eggplant (made another batch of babaganoush last night), tomatoes, melons, and peppers, so I'll leave that section for a few more weeks. The cantaloups produced, then didn't do anything, but now they're producing again so looks like they got a second wind. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 29 Aug 09 - 05:38 PM We've had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year... Probably the chicken manure... Anyway, we've put up 14 quarts of marinara sauce and today put up 19 pints of V-8 juice... Still not much rain here so the oscillator goes from dawn to dusk... Ready for winter...lol... Actually, there's plenty of gardening yet to be done before winter... Lotta weeding around a healing bed that we put in that is growing out azalea cuttings and boxwood cuttings... The weeds are growing in the mulch itself... Easy to pull but geeze... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 29 Aug 09 - 02:05 PM I did a little foliar feeding and dosed the tomatoes with BT--after our heavy rain I'm sure the last batch washed off. I'm picking eggplants and cherry tomatoes these days. I have a huge crop of basil so will make pesto. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 28 Aug 09 - 07:44 PM Janie, What is your pesto recipe? And how do you freeze your basil? It is my experience that freezing any herb is tantamount to freeze-drying them. To keep the coriander/cilantro flavor I want for beans I put it in a pie pan, pour a little boiling water over it to wilt the leaves, then freeze the whole thing. I pull out my block of ice and chip off enough for whatever I'm using it in. I want to make pesto, I've picked up a couple of recipes, but the more information the better. I've been picking and drying oregano off and on all summer, I trim off any flowers or seed heads and then dry the leaves so I don't have to sort it out later. The basil went to seed but I've had great luck cutting branches and giving them to people only the have to plant grow back new great looking branches very quickly. And of course it is seeding itself in the garden and I have plants all over. (I love it!) I was over at the ex's house last weekend and it smelled strongly of oregano. I've been sending these herbs home with him and he has basil, oregano and rosemary drying all over the kitchen. I think that for all of the time I've been a gardener, one of the things I will never get tired of is that there is usually enough to share, and it's so nice to be able to send people home with fresh grown things that they really appreciate receiving. Or to be talking to someone in the yard and be able to reach over and pick a nice tomato or squash or something and send them on their way. I'm thinking about taking up the practice I read about somewhere (maybe here) of planting something down by the street so people can help themselves from that plant as they walk by. If no one picks it, I'll harvest it, but tomatoes or peppers, I think they'd go quickly and they're easy to pick (eggplant have such tough stems you practically destroy the plant if you don't have a blade of some sort with you). What do you think? I already know that people regularly pick twigs of rosemary off of the bush I have growing next to the street in my front yard. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 27 Aug 09 - 11:20 PM Will cut and start drying oregano and basil tomorrow evening. Should have done this with the oregano 6-8 weeks ago. Even well past bloom, however, I figure it will be more potent and flavorful once dried than what I might otherwise buy in the store. Having trouble using enough fresh basil to keep it cut back to prevent budding, so it time to start drying. Have frozen an ice tray or two of pesto, but will also freeze some basil, stems and all, to make pesto this winter. Had good success with drying some of the mophead hydrangea blooms. Also got a few dried heads of the native hydrangea to dry green, but the timing is apparently a bit more critical with them than with the mopheads. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Aug 09 - 01:46 PM I woke to a gentle rain, about 1/4 inch. I rescued a toad out of the dogs' wading pool. I guess I can't give them credit for problem solving--I've been putting a couple of bricks in the water as a way for critters to get out of the water even if they can't get out of the pool, but this week we've had a gecko drown in a water pan (a dutch oven we found down in the creek when Mudcatter Marion was in town for a visit) and this toad in the pool was in desperate shape when I pulled him out. But then, he might just have been a little stiff because the water cooled overnight. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Aug 09 - 09:57 PM Those are the planaria (aka planarian) that you dissected in ninth grade biology, and they are not good for the garden. They're introduced, and if you find one, don't squash or cut it because it just becomes that many new ones. Seal it in plastic and throw it in the trash, or spray it with orange oil and let it shrivel and melt away. Land Planarian from the dirtdoctor.com site. Planaria reproduction. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 26 Aug 09 - 08:35 PM i ran into a gardening friend this morning and she has recently noticed flat head worms in her garden. Their spread into this immediate neck of the woods is quite recent. Not much information available on them that I could find. They apparently eat earthworms, but also slugs. Dave's garden has a bunch of posts, most neutral and a few negative, but no real information regarding whether they should be considered friend or foe in the garden. Maggie, I'm guessing you have them. Any thoughts or information? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Aug 09 - 08:23 PM I cut down the corn stalks this afternoon and set them aside to dry. Maybe they'll be useful in a decorative fashion? Clearing those gives me room to put in another fall crop. I'll replace the soaker hose in that area first, it sprung enough of a leak that I had to turn it off (I had two that were attached to a siamese fitting and would drag the hose to it every couple of days). Looks like we have a chance of rain tonight. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 25 Aug 09 - 07:01 AM Alas, the pecan was at the old house. My mom, the big Christmas baker, counted on me to keep her supplied. She is heart-broken;>) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 25 Aug 09 - 12:36 AM Hopefully you'll at least get some pecans! We all love them, they grow so well in Texas. My dogs will kill for a pecan on the ground and eat them shell and all. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 24 Aug 09 - 06:01 PM Growing many fall crops here is a bit dicey. Kale and turnips always do well, and green onions. Baby lettuce greens might do ok, depends on when the soil temperatures cool down enough for germination. Broccoli struggles in the late summer and early fall heat, but if it makes it through that, will do ok. Part of the reason I may have had trouble with fall lettuce is that my garden didn't get nearly as sun in the fall as in early spring. Our large pecan tree leafed out late, and also shed very late in the season. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 24 Aug 09 - 05:06 PM Don't know how they taste, Magz... They are still hardenin' off... Prolly ready to come in by tonight... Came home early and tilled the old tater patch and so we're ready to put in our brocolli seedlings and plant out fall seeds... Hot here... Pushin' 90... Wore me out tillin'... Think I'll chill fir awhile... Oh yeah, we have scale and lace bugs problems on some of the plants at the garden center so we quarenteened all the affected plants and sprayed them with insectica; soap today and ended up with several customers and had a purdy big sales day... Who would have thunk that??? B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 Aug 09 - 04:40 PM Who cares what they look like, how do they taste? I'm in the stage of pulling, transplanting, replanting. I'll put some chard in this week, for over the fall and winter. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 24 Aug 09 - 08:05 AM We took out our Roma Beans yesterday... If it doesn't rain today, I'll till up the space for fall crops this evening... Also dug a srtay potato from last year... Ugliest white taters I think I've ever seen... Look like Three Mile Island taters... lol... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: maeve Date: 24 Aug 09 - 06:23 AM Late Blight has shown up in our area, including some of our plants. We'll be pulling and bagging the plants, then burning them to reduce the spread. maeve |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 23 Aug 09 - 08:14 PM There is a reason that that we don't have bug farms... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Aug 09 - 03:08 PM Learn something new every day! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Maryrrf Date: 23 Aug 09 - 01:35 PM By the way is there anything that more defines the taste of summer than red ripe watermelon. I had a lot of melon this year and I still haven't gotten tired of it. Munching on some now! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Maryrrf Date: 23 Aug 09 - 01:12 PM Maggie don't be afraid to give cuitlacoche a try. It tastes kind of like a smoky mushroom. It is indeed considered a delicacy in Mexico and I had it several times when I used to travel there on business. I also had a couple of other Aztec delicacies, such as escamoles which are basically ant eggs, and fried maguey worms . The ant eggs and worms didn't taste too bad (we made tacos out of them) but that evening I became violently ill, so I don't think I'd eat them again. I did not try fried or chocolate covered grasshoppers, which are also available in Mexico. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Alice Date: 23 Aug 09 - 11:54 AM The raspberries were loaded this year, a very abundant crop. Not so much the bush green beans. But, a surprising volunteer from the bird feeder seeds that came up in a container of dirt that was on the deck, a very big millet plant with huge seed heads... just waiting to see how well it ripens and when the birds find it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Aug 09 - 10:20 AM I have to run to the feed store and get a syringe today to inject BT into my squash stems. See if that will knock out the worms. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Aug 09 - 02:04 AM I don't have as many sweet banana peppers as last year. They seem to perk up in autumn and I get a lot more then. The plants are quite large. I slice and freeze them. We did a birthday lunch today, then we all ended up in the driveway and into the gardens. Poking around in the corn I found another ear with "corn smut," ugly large fungus-filled kernel's. Moonglow tells me (after researching via Wikipedia) that this is a delicacy in Mexico. Eww. Like eating cancer. . . SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Bobert Date: 22 Aug 09 - 08:03 AM We have a bumper crop of banana peppers... Anyone have a decent recipe for canning them??? Be nice to have some picklin outta the process, too... Maybe some heat??? B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 21 Aug 09 - 11:43 PM I'll look, Maggie, probably tomorrow. We have a second generation of cicadas singing now. This group sings loudest late afternoon and early evening. The first batch started in earnest at dusk and continued until the wee hours of morning, when the volume faded a bit. I assume they are different species or subspecies. There was a bit of a lull in the action for 2-3 weeks, or at least a decrease in volume. The current chorus is as loud as the late night singers at their peak, but start earlier, and begin to fade a bit by late night. Not certain, but katydids may be just beginning to join in the nocturnal chorus. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Aug 09 - 12:09 PM I woke at about 6:30 this morning to the thunder in the distance, and by 7 we had a downpour. I wish I'd thought to go pick up my newspaper when I first heard the thunder. I'm sure a lot washed off, but a lot soaked in. My garden is very happy this morning! I picked a few cherry tomatoes and peppers and three beautiful eggplants. Those plants are starting to look better as they put out new leaves and drop the earlier ones. I had let the tomatoes spread into the eggplants, and when the tomatoes got mites, they spread. I always try to give space between plants, but they always grow beyond where I expect them to. Next year I'll try to space them more. Have you seen any of the information about "keyhole" gardens? Maybe this is something you could manage if you have one sunny spot, Janie. I'm running out the door, but I'll post what I found if you don't come up with the Newsweek article that published last week. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Alice Date: 20 Aug 09 - 11:33 PM Well, as I said a looong time ago here, harvest is very late in our zone. That means I've just started seeing green bush beans forming. Only one bean has grown large enough to pick. It was delish. alice |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 20 Aug 09 - 11:15 PM We were the recipients a series of quick and furious showers this afternoon and early this evening. Came down too fast to have lasting effect, but welcomed in the short term. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 20 Aug 09 - 11:13 PM It has been hot and humid and rain is predicted for east of here. I expect to water tomorrow. My front lawn needed mowing and the back will get it tomorrow. Normally this time of year the grass has stopped growing with the extreme heat. Right now the rain has passed, the heat is here, and we have to go out in it to mow. No fun. Fall tomatoes are looking good, cherry tomatoes plugging along. I took a bag of tomatoes and eggplant to work today. They never refuse free produce! SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 20 Aug 09 - 01:01 AM Got some great photos of bugs in the garden this morning. Then realized the memory card wasn't in the darned camera. . . I got a few more shots in the sunset light, and maybe something tomorrow, but I have a lot to do. Darn! SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Janie Date: 19 Aug 09 - 09:46 PM Dry, dry, dry. Been moving the hose around at 1/2 hour intervals ever since I got home tonight. We are poised on the edge of official drought again here. Haven't been watering the daylilies and they are showing it. Hoping Hurricane Bill will pass close enough to the coast to bring some showers, but it is doubtful. Hope you New Englanders and folks in the Canadian Maritimes are keeping a weather eye out. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 Aug 09 - 10:39 PM Mudcat's own potter Guy Wolff is featured in Martha Stewart's blog today. I've been waiting all day for Mudcat to come back up to post this, but I think it will still be available at her blog. April 18, 2009. Here's the album first page--she posted 43 photos of his place and his work! Even more exciting than that, she says that his pottery is featured in the September issue of Martha Stewart Living! I'll start a new thread for this. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 Aug 09 - 11:03 AM I've seen corn stalks bundled together and used as Halloween ornaments. I don't have any cattle to feed (they're still green). I'll try leaving the roots in, that's a good idea. Brought in a half-dozen eggplant this morning and photographed some interesting bugs on a plant leaf. The plants aren't as healthy in this spot; it's a new garden area, so I need to really work on the soil amendments and drainage for next year. I'll build it up this fall. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009 From: maeve Date: 18 Aug 09 - 08:43 AM SRS Corn stalks may be cut and used as ornaments. I prefer to grind them up as soil amendment/compost material. They are also used as feed for cattle when they're still green. I leave the roots in the soil. They decompose over time, and help hold the soil in place. Plant around them when you replant the area. m |
