BS: Gardening, 2009

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 17 Jun 09 - 08:53 AM

Holes, ya' say???

Yup, sounds like snails to me...

Rain here today... Looks as if it will be with us all day, too... Not complaining, mind you... I can't remember so much rain over a two month period...

The P-Vine is getting interviewed today for an article for the local newspaper about here work at the garden center... That's purdy cool and maybe get her some more business...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 17 Jun 09 - 02:21 AM

I've been studying up on earwigs. I apparently have the perfect habitat for them. Shady. Damp (this year anyway.) Mulch.   The conditions that slugs love are also beloved of earwigs. When I go out on the carport to dump water out of the plant saucers, I always find a "herd" of earwigs and slugs under the saucers. It would seem that I am simply going to have to find a way to live with them. (They may help control aphids - one plus.) The organic controls all suggest not mulching, but that is simply not an option here in these hot summers.

Wish they liked beer.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: peregrina
Date: 17 Jun 09 - 02:06 AM

thanks for the answers.
I looked closely and found slug/snail slime; there were earwigs under some old logs I moved near the side that got eaten too. It's going to be free drinks at the slug happy hour tonight. I won't plant the new beans till I've made a fortification with holly leaves and other anti-stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jun 09 - 12:30 AM

My snails were remarkably efficient and very thorough--they literally followed the bean sprouts down into the ground to the roots, devouring the entire tender plant. Took one day to clobber most of them. They had quite a party that night, beer was served; alas, most of the partiers died by self-marination.

;-D

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 17 Jun 09 - 12:17 AM

If it started with holes, I would doubt rabbits - though it could also be rabbits in addition to smaller critters.   Suggest you go out with a flashlight at night to inspect the plants. I suspect slugs - possibly earwigs, though they won't usually end up chomping the entire leaf. (slugs sure can, though.)

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 16 Jun 09 - 07:47 AM

Sounds like Mr. Rabbit to me...

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: peregrina
Date: 16 Jun 09 - 01:58 AM

Janie-answering--the leaves were bitten off, with round holes; it happened over several nights. And then there were no leaves left and it looked as if the top of the stem had been bitten, but I'm not sure if it had. The pest seems to be associated with the honeysuckle bush because only the beans on that side were attacked...

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jun 09 - 11:18 PM

I put several shallow bowls of beer out in the yard to attract all of the snails in the area, when they mowed down all of my beans the first time, and then when I was getting ready to put in more beans, I again put out the beer to keep them away. I have a few I started in little pots and I'll put them in a different part of the garden (I've already put out beer there to clear out the troops).

This morning I put side dressing down; compost from the back yard dropped in around the base of the bush bean plants that are now producing flowers and beans. I have a printout from some state's ag department that suggests this is a good way to keep them making beans. Putting on a fertilizer proper (especially one with high nitrogen) would only inspire leaf growth, not beans. We shall see. This morning I picked my first five beans, and that many will be ready again tomorrow. This means that in a couple more days I'll have enough for a single serving. :)

I made pizza tomoight, a nice dough recipe I found in Martha Stewart Living. I've been making a recipe that was okay, but was a modified bread loaf dough. I tried this one to see if the chemistry of the different amounts of flour/salt/oil would be more restaurant like, and it is. But it's a lot of dough, and after making a small pizza for each of us and making a spare small crust to freeze (we just thaw, add toppings, and bake), I decided the remainder, enough for a couple more personal pizzas, should go into an experimental bread. I've never made focaccia before, but I had a little mozzarella, a little Parmesan, and I went out to the garden and picked some fresh oregano and basil and cut up and sprinkled on top of olive oil and salt and garlic powder.

I haven't tried it, we were full from our pizza. But I may take it in to work tomorrow for a morning snack in the office.

My pizza tonight was topped with peppers and onions from the garden. This is such a great time of year, when we can start eating this stuff!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 15 Jun 09 - 10:48 PM

were the stems bitten off, or did insects destroy the leaves?

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: peregrina
Date: 15 Jun 09 - 02:14 PM

Alas, five out of nine runner beans have been decimated by unknown pests (I think not slugs), nothing left but stems and they had not had even time to grow up the poles. 3 plants on the far side (farther from the pests) are still okay.

I have a few more bean plants in plastic pots--how large do I have to let them get to withstand attack? Should I set them in separate pots near the bean poles instead of planting them in the ground?

Any advice welcome!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: MMario
Date: 15 Jun 09 - 01:05 PM

I'd call them "pretty"

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jun 09 - 12:48 PM

My daylilies are kind of "Hobson's choice" -- they were given to me by the next door neighbor when she thinned out the lilies in her back yard last year. I had been wanting to fill in a bed in front but didn't have the cash to spend to buy more, so I was working on the soil and placement to let them expand into the place I wanted them. When this bag of plants came my way I poked them in that space so it is a mix of what I had and what she had and it is always a lovely surprise to see what is sprouting each day. The ones I bought look like the kind of flower you would see in a Renaissance Italian painting, very rich and old-fashioned looking. They're kind of sprinkled around and I'll probably move some of them closer together. Don't know what they're called.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: MMario
Date: 15 Jun 09 - 12:10 PM

Had my first daylily blooms over the weekend - more are sending up scapes. I am now wishing I paid more attention to what I planted wehre last summer. I bought some from a local specialty nursery - and was given another (because I was raving about the one I had from the same hybridizer) - but I don't think I even have the "wish list" I went to the nursery with.

The one that is blooming is the sibling of the freebie I was given. It is one of the earliest bloomers I have (THE earliest this year) and usually is one of the longest blooming as well. Have hopes the sib is going to be as good.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Leadfingers
Date: 15 Jun 09 - 12:05 PM

600 from a NON Gardener !

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: MMario
Date: 15 Jun 09 - 09:59 AM

Finished mulching one side of the drive this weekend; planted the wegeilia that I've been using in a floral display on my desk; planted the two azaleas and two rhodies my B-i-l pickecd up at cost from a local grower....

I'm hoping the last couple plants I mail ordered arrive before I leave on my cruise...I got the shipping notice firday so they should.

Going to try some qazalea cuttings myself this year -

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 15 Jun 09 - 01:02 AM

Oh Stilly! Had I known, I would have saved the Avocado Green sink I had taken out to bring down to you some time. The two sinks together would be quite trendily retro;^)   Our houses must be contemporaneous.

Unfortunately, my counter tops and stove are still avocado green.

And coleus seed. I am going to let the late flowers on the Kong coleus go to seed and save them also. I never stay on top of coleus that I root from pinchings well enough through the winter.

I'm gonna have to set my grow-light shelving unit up in the back spare bedroom this winter. That means I need to figure out how to best protect the hardwood floor which I had refinished before I moved in last summer. I know from experience that potting soil and water are gonna get spilled and the area will be somewhat messy.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jun 09 - 11:49 PM

Alice, you can do that. Or make garlic pepper tea for repelling various bugs on plants. The difference between sprinkling the dried garlic and the mess of spraying liquefied garlic is up to each gardener. You yourself will smell like garlic for a while after you handle that much (I learned that the hard way). Pulverizing garlic is messy and when you get around that much it's really "hot" (spicy).

I meant to mention earlier--that today I cleared out an enclosed little yard beside the garage. It had all sorts of gardening things stored in there--including the proverbial kitchen sink! I have a Harvest Gold sink that came of this house when I moved in, it's stored on a dolly to keep it off of the ground and easy to move around. I'm planning to build myself a potting bench one of these years and put that sink in it, built so I can put boards over the top for flat workspace, or to have the sinks and fit drains in so I can mix potting soil or drop trimmings or whatever and when I'm finished, push it through the drain into a bucket. It'll have wheels for moving around, and I'll work in a few hooks or a couple of shelves to make it as versatile as possible. A neighbor had one he built with cedar furring strips that I could duplicate and it would look great.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Alice
Date: 14 Jun 09 - 10:19 PM

I'm trying to upload some photos to my webshots page, but it is slow loading.

I read the Dirt Dr. site.... looks like I could just put some garlic in the blender then spray the liquid with the hose applicator. I did that years ago, hoping it would deter some other stuff.

If I can get these photos to upload, I'll post a link.

It is raining right now, so I took a couple of shots from the front door looking down at the newly cleaned up entry flower bed.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jun 09 - 09:36 PM

Alice, get yourself as big a container of granulated garlic as you can find and sprinkle it around the outside of the house to repel mosquitoes. Right now on the front page of the Dirt Doctor site he is in a little video clip from a demo he did on a local TV station showing his method. I haven't found that size container yet, but I get inexpensive garlic from the Big Lots and Dollar store and sprinkle it and it does help.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 14 Jun 09 - 08:51 PM

Alice, got pictures?

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Alice
Date: 14 Jun 09 - 08:40 PM

Finally got a flower bed patch by the front door that had gone mostly to weeds into top shape again, weed mat down with cedar chips over it (should have done that years ago) and the iris, day lilies and columbines all neat and tidy without the weeds covering them.

I also planted bush green beans and put up another hummingbird feeder in a new location, just outside the bay window. The mosquitoes are so bad when I try to work in the garden, I installed a citronella torch in the flower bed where I was working. The native perennial sweet peas are coming up nicely.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 14 Jun 09 - 08:33 PM

I had a bad case of the "Well, I ought toos" this weekend, and didn't do much of anything. Also didn't enjoy not doing much of anything.

Some weekends are just like that, I guess.   

Took two days to get an already neat house dusted and swept. (and the kitchen sink still isn't scoured, nor the kitchen floor mopped, but I will do that-well, probably-, just before I go to bed tonight. Some of the trees that have been cut down here are still coppicing. I thought about going out and cutting them back to the trunk. It's the thought that counts. Right?

I did get the birdfeeders topped off and the pots watered. Both of the potted tomatoes are doing well. One is a "Better Girl" and the other a "Sweet 100" cherry tomato. None of the fruits are starting to lighten yet, so it will be a while before I have tomatoes also. They are apparently getting enough sun to make it worth planting in a raised bed next year, which is good to know. And if they are getting enough sun, bush beans should also. The kale is doing much better in pots than I thought it would. I notice it is doing extremely well in the deeper pots.

The big oak on the northwest corner of the property is, as it happens, the power company's responsibility and they are sending someone out to evaluate it. If they don't take it down, my neighbor and I will. When it comes down, I think that might open up another spot with enough sun to plant summer veggies on the opposite side of the yard.

I might eventually end up with a decent 2 person veggie garden after all!

I think I am going to gather heuchera and daylily seeds this year, and probably Japanese anemone seeds too.

Bobert, those two azalea seedlings are just in 4 inch pots. Aside from the fact that I still don't know where I want them, I'm much more likely to tend to them, and the local loose dog is much less likely to burn them up if I grow them on in pots until fall, or even next spring. Should they be rootbound before I move them up? Can I go to a gallon pot, or should I move them to a six inch, and gradually increase the pot size?





I spotted several baby toads (1 1/2 inch long) concentrated around my garden shed in the back yard. Do toads eat slugs?

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 14 Jun 09 - 07:28 PM

Hey, what can ya' say, Magz???

Fine lookin' tomaters ya' got there... We won't get any until August 'cause we have been late gettin' everyhting in... Still have yellow squash seed to plant and that's it... Not too good to get them in too early here 'cause of the life cycle of the squash bugs... They are generally done by mid June...

The P-Vine planted around 15 palnts in her new raised bed shady garden... Looks real good

All I did today was mow and then it was time for band rehersal...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jun 09 - 06:52 PM

Mudcat fashion statement: The Home Depot apron worn backwards, draped low off of hips.

This, after the guy behind me at the returns register leaned forward and said "M'am, your trousers are ripped."

Big long rip, not just a little "L" shaped tear, whatever. I've been in the yard pulling sticks out of the compost and must have snagged at some point and not realized it. And stubborn enough to want to finish what I was there for, I draped by pack over my butt until I found a spare nail apron as part of a display at the service desk. Tied it on, found the hose clamp I'd come in for, and headed home.

I'll have to find another pair of ratty long pants for the weed eater days (I end up with too many dings and cuts if I don't wear long pants).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jun 09 - 01:51 PM

In the house to cool off. Finished mowing the front. Neighbor came by with daughter-in-law and asked if I was still giving away chard--yes! I sent with two good-sized (greens) plastic bags, and also a little sprout and a couple of the pods of seeds from a datura. They are prolific--I hope she knows what she's getting into! I pull them up all over the yard now, but the ones I let grow are so beautiful.

This is the time of year when I can really appreciate the planning that has gone into this yard. I haven't had great luck getting the tree in the back to grow, but those in the front have flourished and provide nice shade for the house without being right up against it. Today they offered a nice place to pause during mowing.

Fished a toad out of a stacked collection of nursery pots. Seems to have gotten in and couldn't get back out. The ground is pretty hot out there so I turned on the soaker hose for a little so he/she has a little time to find someplace dark and cool.

Lace bugs started up on the eggplant today. I rolled them off with my masking tape, and when it is cooler I'll spray with some orange oil and garlic pepper tea.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jun 09 - 11:43 AM

My basil is coming along. Any good recipes?

I will be picking some onions soon, they're getting to a good size now. I'll plan to put more onions and some carrots in the same spot. Tomatoes are coming along like gangbusters, I'm keeping my eye out for that tinge of red on the bottom of the globe; after that the birds and squirrels will try to beat me to them. My window sill fills up when the tomatoes are nearly ready. I bought bacon the other day and I'll keep a good head of romaine handy for the first BLT of the season. This is my summer ceremony--to have the kids gather round and we all have BLTs. :)

Here is my old broken spade fork back at work.

This is part of my much better tomato crop this year.
SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jun 09 - 05:51 PM

I have some beautiful bush beans out there, too small yet, but soon. Tomatoes all over, onions all looking about big enough, and I've picked and dried a lot of oregano. I think I'll be making some pizza crusts this summer and putting on homemade tomato sauce and lots of onions and peppers as toppings. I love that kind of pizza! (A little Italian sausage sprinkled on makes them just about perfect). And the basil, it's looking good--a friend took me out for a pesto pizza last month--it was wonderful! Topped with cheese and chicken. Mmmmmmm!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 13 Jun 09 - 08:18 AM

Well, well, well...

I got paroled from Mudcat purgatory...

No, Janie, don't repot the azaleas... Just plant them where ever you want them to grow old... If you don't have a spot then, yeah, you can graduate them to larger pots but they really would rather be planted in the ground... If you have "Pine Fines" or can get a bag, 1/3 Pine Fines and 2/3s of what ever comes out of the hole is the best planting medium for them... I little Holly Tone in the fall sprinkled around the base of the plant will also make them happy... Not alot, mind you... Half a cup is plenty for them at this stage...

I finally got my lima beans in but couldn't find the romas... So the P-Vine remembered giving them to Mr. Clifford last year and, sho nuff, he still has some 20 beans left... Guess I'll round them up and get them in later today...

Had a buddy come up here with his back hoe the last couple days... He worked on a section of my long driveway where the rain couldn't get to the ditches... More importantly, he dug out 8 locust stumps which were growing hundreds of nasty, spiny locust sprouts... Now they are in a big pile waiting for a nice winter bon fire...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 13 Jun 09 - 07:09 AM

I meant to say lace bug.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jun 09 - 12:45 AM

My pest isn't a lace wing (here, those are considered beneficial, and their eggs are recognizable because they are stuck to the underside of leaves by a little stem of sorts). It is the lace bug. My source of information is the Texas Bug Book by Howard Garrett, but there are some good web sources for insect information around the country. Try this one, the BugGuide.net.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 13 Jun 09 - 12:17 AM

I'm just not sure, Maggie. The black spots and curled leaf tips are consistent with your photos and what I have read and seen on the web, so I am fairly confident there are lace bugs involved However, there may another insect, and I do not know if it is damaging or not. It does not look like the photos of adult azalea lace wings that I have looked at. It is about 1/8th inch. red head, black wings. At rest fanned more than a beetle type insect, but not fly or moth-like either. Haven't seen one with wings spread, but with wings folded does not look lacy or lace-patterned. Still, I suspect a lace wing, even if not an azalea lace wing..

Also seeing some interesting looking insects on the native hydrangeas. don't know that they are causing any damage. Most of the leaf damage I see is consistent with earwigs (with which I have big problems), and slugs.

When I went out to my car this morning the windshield had a plethora of earwigs. When I lift pots and saucers to empty run-off from the saucers, I find clusters of earwigs.

I haven't really tried to do anything about either the earwigs or the slugs, but am going to have to do something. The slugs have found their way into the post of kale and basil, and I keep stepping on them barefoot (yuck!) on my carport after rains.

I'm generally pretty successful at keying out insects and figuring out the major culprits with insect damage. I don;t have that much time to observe and to research, right now. I also don't have the diverse plantings (don't have much planted at all) that tend to keep nature in balance among predators and prey in the insect world.

Balance.

We wants balance.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jun 09 - 11:27 PM

Janie, if these are the same lace bugs, then you might want to look at my entry in a local organic gardening blog. You can look at the photos and see if it is the same bug.

Scroll down to the photos with the tape and bugs circled on the leaf. Simply physically removing them is sometimes easiest.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 12 Jun 09 - 09:09 PM

Bobert,

The azalea seedlings P-vine and you brought me are doing right well.   I'm wondering when I should pot them up to a bigger pot. Should they be root-bound, or simply have a nice network of roots that lifts the rootball fairly intact from the pot? Also, when I do pot them up to a bigger pot, should I take it slow and do graduated pots, or go ahead and put them in a standard azalea pot?

Insecticidal soap is controlling the lace bugs well enough on the Kohmo Shekebu, tho' that azalea appears to be a little sensitive to the insecticidal soap. The lace bugs had also just started on the two seedlings. I treated them also, at the first sign of trouble. Neither of them seem to be as sensitive to leaf burn from the soap as the KS.

I may go ahead and use pyrethrum (spelling?) on the KS, and try to eliminate them all together.

I also bought some "all-season" organic dormant oil spray, as I read somewhere that a combination of insecticidal soap and summer dormant oil is an effective control.   However, I find myself uncertain about using it. I've only used dormant oil in late winter on roses.    Any one have any thoughts or experience with the use of dormant oil once shrubs are fully leafed?

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jun 09 - 07:45 PM

I was going to mow at least the front yard this evening after work, but like clockwork, it is heavily overcast, 120% humidity, and I can hear thunder in the distance.

My tomatoes are so big and there are so many fruits that one toppled over onto a little patch of carrots. I decided after examining several loose but sundry objects in my garage that it is a good thing after all that I didn't take that old broken spade fork with three tines down to the curb. I just massaged the handle up through a gap in the tomato cage and between some branches and then was able to sink the fork into the soil to hold this cage and plant up. I wouldn't have minded just the carrots, but there are also some really beautiful green tomatoes that were resting on the ground.

It's feast or famine gardening around here. No tomatoes last year. This year, nothing but tomatoes. . .

I hit the garden with neem yesterday to try to keep some of the pests away. With all of this rain, and the suggestion that I wait seven days between applications, it may be like I didn't spray at all. (I'm also using the neem to try to slow some early yellow blight that is creeping up a couple of plants. And one is showing signs of a curly leaf problem that I read about for the first time recently).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jun 09 - 01:24 PM

Do you keep your soil on your floor? I tend to keep mine outside in the garden. Try that--the cleanup is a lot easier.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: MMario
Date: 12 Jun 09 - 12:37 PM

Heavy rain last night - woke up to about half the floor flooded....but the soil needed it!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 11 Jun 09 - 09:27 PM

YES!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 11 Jun 09 - 08:51 PM

Just imagine, once that fence is up, what it will be like when you plant and tend things and wake up mornings to find they are still there.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 11 Jun 09 - 08:04 PM

Gardening??? Wahtz that???

Oh yeah, gettin' yer hands in the dirt and groovin' on plants...

Forget it... That may be me latter this year or maybe next year... Right now, it's major construction with the deer fence... Even when I get a few minutes to do what the P-Vine asks me around the garden, I just don't have time to enjoy any of it... Grrrrrrr!!!

Got my umbrella pine planted... Got some tillin' done in the veggie garden where we are going to plant limas and romas...

But...

...back to the construction... Mr. Garnett brought his bulldozer up and put me in a nice road back down the hill behind the P-Vine's 500 foot long ornimental gardens... This will allow me to get into the woods with my tractor to get dead wood out and good stuff in... I picked up the fence today... 1400 feet plus 250 landscape staples (10 inches long) to hold the fence down between posts (or trees)... Man, what have I gotten myself into here????

Happy gardenin' for all my gardenin' buds...

I'll get my better attitude back someday...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jun 09 - 12:52 PM

Heavy rains this week. Fingers crossed that nothing starts to rot in the ground. One tomato plant has a tendency to tip over, but has been propped with an extra tomato cage. I've been picking oregano because it's too big and though it has gone to flower I cut off the flower end of the branch and dry the rest of the leaves. There are onions to be thinned that are plenty big enough to eat like regular onions now. (It's nice to sometimes play lady bountiful, when someone visiting admires the garden, to reach in and pull out a beautiful onion to send them home with. Or something equally fresh and beautiful.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 10 Jun 09 - 10:20 PM

Thank you, Janie. We are looking at things in that very way, though Truelove is better at it than I am. We worked together in the house today, except for a couple of hours I spent in the greenhouse planting hanging baskets, mixing a fresh lot of potting soil, and preparing seed flats.

I walked out to the garden in the rain, smelling lilacs and iris as I walked. The fresh green pea sprouts were rising up into the silver light and soft rain like tendrils of living green silk.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 10 Jun 09 - 08:58 PM

maeve, I wish I could come up and help you.

I hope true-love is mending. Pneumonia takes so long to recover from, but you can not do the work of two, and it sounds like ya'll have more than the work of two laid out for you. Don't forget to try and pace yourself. What gets done, gets done. What doesn't get done, doesn't.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 10 Jun 09 - 08:52 PM

Slow and steady wins the race, Mario....except if you are racing weeds.


Mary,

A second planting of tomatoes or beans, though it might get too hot for the beans to bear well. (sez one who does not like okra, but isn't eating out of your garden, either.) Or a second planting of squash or cukes? You are a bit further north but I don't think your climate is that much different from mine. Down here, tomatoes, cukes and squash tend to succomb to disease long before the growing season is over and a lot of people start a second planting in early summer to harvest later in the season.

Talked to my neighbor about that Oak that straddles the property line. She noticed the holes when mowing last night and is also concerned. We have agreed to split the cost of having it taken down if the power company is not responsible. I e-mailed the power company tonight to ask them to come take a look. Crossing my fingers that they will take care of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: MMario
Date: 10 Jun 09 - 12:14 PM

Without mulch I don't have soil - just a substance remarkably similar to concrete.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Maryrrf
Date: 10 Jun 09 - 09:48 AM

I don't think I'll get time to mulch, but nevermind, the garden has taken off like nobody's business. I'll post pics when I get a chance. I've already harvested some beautiful squash and it looks like there will be a bumper crop. Lots and lots of tomatoes on the vine, cucumbers that will be ready by the weekend probably, some of the okra is still scraggely but coming along. Eggplant and peppers flourising, lots of blooms on the melons and the pumpkins are amazing! We've had plenty of sun alternated by drenching rains and the stuff is growing so fast I think if you sat out and watched it you could almost see it happening.

The lettuce has mostly bolted with the heat, and will be bitter. Also I'm going to harvest the rest of the peas this weekend. Now, when I remove the lettuce and the peas I'll have some extra space. What kind of hot weather veggies could I plant in order to utilize that space? I was thinking of more okra, because I know it likes hot weather...

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: MMario
Date: 10 Jun 09 - 08:26 AM

I like to take some cooked white beans - saute quickly in either olive oil or bacon grease; with garlic and some italian spices (a little basil, a little rosemary and oregano) then stir in mass factors of arugala - as soon as the arugala wilts down it's ready to serve.

I've managed to mulch about halfway down one side of one drive - my back only lets me cart about 3 wheelbarrow loads in the evening after a day at work....

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 10 Jun 09 - 08:06 AM

TIA- Arugula greens are delicious prepared as Janie suggested, as well as in soups and salads. Chop them and use in quiche or lasagna. You can also lightly steam them, freeze in portions on an oiled pan, then bag and store in the freezer for winter meals.

Dry Maine finally has a few days of rain, so my task is to continue poking seeds in as fast as I can manage, whether in the vegetable gardens between showers or in the greenhouse. We're growing a succession of veggie and flower seedlings to plant as earlier crops are harvested. I'd been thinking the drought would inhibit the earlier plantings from sprouting in the clay, but last year's brutal months of carting compost (horse manure and wood shavings) paid off. My various pea seedlings were breaking ground 4 days after planting the soaked seed.

I ran out of daylight trying to get the 7 potato varieties in, so this year I just forked over the ground and put the spud on the surface, mulching thickly with old hay. I've found a source for seaweed, so I hope to pile that on top at least once; otherwise, more hay as the sprouts grow. The pre-soaked sweet corn and pole beans I didn't manage to plant before dark I've just sprinkled on a flat full of potting mix, covering lightly. I'll plant the sprouted seed in the garden once the soil can be worked again.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 09 Jun 09 - 11:53 PM

Saute them alone, or with other greens and onions in butter, olive oil and lots of garlic. Toss with linguini or angel hair pasta and grated cheese.

bon apetite!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: TIA
Date: 09 Jun 09 - 11:27 PM

Anybody have a good recipe for sumthin to do with arugula greens? They are taking over everything, and really spicey this year for some reason. Way to many for just garnish. Gotta make a meal of 'em somehow.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 09 Jun 09 - 11:11 PM

More rain. We are having April in June.

That really is ok. We haven't had April showers in a number of years.



Even with all the rain, I have no muddy places.   These trees go "Slurrrpppp, slurp, slurp. Yumyumyum."

The "Sweet 100" tomato has set first fruit. Finaly got Epsom Salts and drenched the tomatoes with them. We'll see if that helps the yellowing lower leaves on the "Better Girl." From what I am seeing on these two potted tomatoes, I think there is sufficient sun to supply fresh tomatoes. Gonna start collecting materials for a couple of raised beds out by the road for a small veggie garden.

In the fwiw department, I notice that the kale I planted in pots is all doing ok, but the kale in the tallest pot is doing extremely well.   I planted a curly leafed Siberian green variety that is compact. My favorite kale is Red Russian. it is not compact and I don't know how well it might do in pots. I'll order seeds and try it out this fall. Since the raised bed space is going to be small, I figure I should grow stuff in pots that I can and conserve space in the garden bed for bush beans, zuccini, cukes, tomatoes, etc.

Probably won't have the beds in by Fall to plant them, but I'm starting to daydream about lilies.    Saw a lovely combo of Lady fern and Casa Blanca lilies in the White Flower Farm catalog a couple of years ago that I am wondering about.