How is your garden this year?

Subject: How is your garden this year?
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 01:07 AM

Last year we had a couple of really neat and long threads on gardens, in May, and then again, in September. They were and, How did your garden grow this summer? The first posting in that one notes that it is the day of the very first Mudcat Radio Show, September 2nd.

Anyway, my son called today to tell me of the over-abundance of his garden this year. They are busy eating all manner of produce and giving it away as fast as they can because there is so much. He was even going to check into how much it would cost to overnight mom some fresh Indiana tomatoes!

As long as I remember to water mine, I have some lovely flowers, a mini-carnation with dozens of blooms. Some special pansies, called Jolly Joker, which are the FedEx colours. Our FedEx man back East took some samples to send to the company as a marketing suggestion. I just think they are pretty. I also have some marigolds and petunias. My pride and joy are a wild geranium, tansy,wild mountain mint, and blue phlox perennials which are acclimated and do not clamour for water so much.

So, how has your garden done this year, veggies and/or flowers?

kat

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Mbo
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 01:09 AM

Dead dead dead.

--Matt

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 01:11 AM

Mbo! Oh well, Favorite Flowers and Yard Decor was the first one I mucked up.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 01:33 AM

Well, the peppers seem stunted, have a few peppers but very small plants. Tomatoes OK, but only the Early Girls are ripe and they are the size of golf balls. Spinach and lettuce both finished and bolted. Moved the aspargus and it seems to be doing well.
Horseradish taking over. Lamb's Quarter, kochia, red-root pigweed (an amaranth fam. weed), and coriander all doing VERY well, thank you, and don't know about the blue potatoes yet, as I haven't dug any up.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Callie
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 02:30 AM

Everything is turning yellow and dying. I water. I stop watering. I prune. I don't prune. I re-pot. I leave them be. I fertilise. I stop. Still they go yellow and die.

Except the parsley. Green, luscious, aromatic.

There's a good country song in that somewhere. (Good year for the parsley ...)

Callie

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Llanfair
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 03:52 AM

Ah, Kat, you always attract my interest with this one!
It has rained and rained this year, and, as soon as it stops, the sun shines with a vengeance. The grass can only be cut when it's dry, so that's about 3 times this year so far. The pretty pink bindweed is in flower, it's going to take years to get rid of it.
Otherwise, I have been harvesting mange-tout peas and soft fruit for a month now, all veg are doing well, the ones that survived the slugs, that is. The chickens and geese have started to moult, so no eggs for a while.
I'm still looking for someone to look after it all whilst we go to Cropready and Whitby! Hwyl, Bron.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 06:10 AM

Lots of grass (lawn varieties), lots of weeds and a few flowers, mostly in pots to keep off the slugs and snails. Lots of slugs and snails. Lots of cats. A couple of sheds and an old caravan.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Gervase
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 06:54 AM

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm getting bored with peas!
We planted early and main crop, and they've just gone bloody mad this year, yielding around half a pound a day.
Onions are looking good, though they're a month or so off lifting, the Jerusalem artichokes are over 6ft and promisng plenty of winter warming flatulence to come and the fennel must be now hitting 7ft and still growing.
The failures include the carrots, all our lettuce varieties and the spinach - all of them gone to fatten the bloody rabbits.
As for the rabbits, anyone got a foolproof and cheap deterrent? I've tried creosote, netting (dug in - but those buggers can dig deeper), cats and shooting, but for every one of the little sods we stop, another three come and gorge themselves.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 06:59 AM

"I never thought I'd say this,
but I'm getting bored with peas!"

That's got a lovely rhythm to it. It cries out to turned into verse.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Jeri
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 08:33 AM

The shade garden I planted in spring seems to be doing well, but I'd like the hostas to grow a bit faster. I found this fertilizer "Cock-a-doodle Poo" (dried, pelletized chicken crap) that I've been dumping on them. The oriental lillies I thought wouldn't bloom this first year have buds on them. Tomatoes and squash in the back yard are doing well, but slugs have stripped my pepper plants. I've launched a full scale war on the crawling snots, along with the Japanese Beetles. The crab grass in my front yard is doing excedingly well. (Wish they'd come up with a flowering variety.) Butterflies have been sighted on the milkweed and ornamental oregano.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: GUEST,Gern (formerly not a GUEST!)
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 09:07 AM

Wow, nobody ever asks me this question! Southern Indiana started the growing season very dry, and we were agressively watering by early June. Mid-June brought torrents of rain (which washed us out of Bean Blossom.) The end result has been mixed. Great beans, good corn, lousy cucumbers, tomatoes all split on the top. Jalapenos never made it, but my cayennes are as big as bananas. As usual, the stuff I don't like grew furiously (rhubarb, zucchini, okra, squash.)

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: alison
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 09:24 AM

OK Green -thumbs.....

I have daffodils..... the stalks come up.. but they never flower.... why?????? they are up now.. remember it's winter here.. heading for spring.....

I liked daffodils at home... they just don't want to co-operate in Sydney......

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Ringer
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 09:38 AM

"overnight" as a verb?

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 09:48 AM

Yeah, B.E. common over here even if not matching usual standards. To "overnight" a package via FedEx or UPS...thought it was obvious. So...do you have a garden this year?

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Jeri
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 09:52 AM

She could have same-dayed them.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Grab
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 10:29 AM

Garden's got a buddleia which no-one pruned in winter (we bought the house in April). As a result, it now covers a fair proportion of our small garden! I'm loathe to chop it at all, cos it's just started flowering and it looks and smells lovely - it's just that the garden's a bit shady underneath it!

Grab.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: sledge
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 10:59 AM

Away a lot so garden a rule unto itself, Buffalo reported to be returning.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 11:16 AM

...With cockle shells and silver bells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

PS Alison, did you perhaps cut the folliage too soon last year?

PS kat, we have an overabundance of tomatoes. I never have to plant them because so many people give them to us.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Susan from California
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 11:22 AM

Well, since it has been 110 here for the past few days, I have been doing tons of watering! My peach crop is ridiculuosly huge--I have been sharing with all the neighborhood kids, the birds and the beetles( No, Mbo, not ringo, george and Paul....). The flowers peak in May, but those that haven't withered are doing well, luckily I live in great rose growing country and all 50+ have been blooming since April, and will continue until I hard prune them in January. I had a few wonderful heirloom Nicotania this year, but my Loves Lies Bleeding didn't come back. Iknow that they are annuals, but I was hoping for volunteers.

I have something that the nursery called Australian violets that have naturalized beautifully, they're creeping between the stones in the path, creeping under the rose bushes-they are great! My Stargazer lillies are in full bloom, the golden rod and native asters are a couple of weeks away. The tomatoes are delicious--both heirlooms like Brandywine and Rutgers and standard fare like Early Girl and Big Boy. The grapes are ripening and fairly sweet, even though the vines were neglected this year--except for watering.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 11:34 AM

Alison, sometimes bulbs stop flowering because they need to be dug and seperated, then re planted. Try that this coming fall. Plant them about 6" deep. The bulb gets so big that it puts all its energy into growing foliage to keep the bulb alive.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: SINSULL
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 11:47 AM

Alison,
When you separate and replant them, feed them some bulb fertilizer and a shot of manure.
SS

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 11:49 AM

Must clear the "wild patch" at the bottom of our garden, soon, last night a Japanese soldier emerged and asked if the war was over. Actually the garden is looking good at present, veggies (my department) on schedule. Herself, who is to plants and terra cotta pots what I am to CDs, has filled the patio with even more pots this year and an extra hanging basket which are a profusion of colour(don't ask me to name any of them!)and the borders have that cottage garden (ie everything crammed in haphazardly!) look.
RtS

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 11:56 AM

Gardening mystery of the week.

I have a half butt water feature in my garden and siting on the half but on the small ledge about 3 ft off the ground I have a beautiful Hosta -or rather I did because the slugs have now taken to commando style tactics by either crawling up the butt and into the pot or parachuting down into it. either way me poor old hostas had it!I am at a loss as to how they get in there and how to get rid of the pesky litte critters!

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Jeri
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 12:09 PM

Try a little saucer with cheap beer in it - put it in the dirt with the lip at ground level. The little buggers crawl in, get drunk and drown. Spreading diatomaceous earth around the base of the plant will kill them if they crawl in that way. You have to replace it after rain or watering, though. Likewise, a strip of copper - the copper reacts with the slime or something.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: GUEST,Auxiris
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 12:17 PM

Glad someone asked this question. . . I was starting to wonder if the thread I'd started about the dangers of gardening had put anyone off! Obviously not and of course you're all being careful, natch.

Here in France, we've been having a rather strange summer: hotter than hell in May (+ 30°C) and then cold enough (6°C in the evening) to make a fire in the chimney in mid-July! We are presently back to hot and thundery. All this climatic nonsense hasn't kept the garden from doing well. We started harvesting some of our potatoes last week, the green beans and pinto beans have done well beyond all expectation and the salads and tomatoes are splendid.

As far as flowers go, all my '97 iris germanica hybrids bloomed magnificently (three of them were good enough to register, I thought and will have names later on this year) and some of the '98 ones offered flowers as well. I will be planting the '99 bunch in two weeks. . . are any of the rest of you iris fans? I did put in lots of plants late this year, but they've seen fit to come along nicely anyway. The rosebushes have already offered us a few flowers and the dahlias might get tall enough to bloom after all.

Cheers,

Aux

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Jeri
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 12:25 PM

Aux, I planted a couple of irises last year to see how well they'd do and they seemed to disappear. Are you saying it can take 2 or 3 years? Maybe there's still hope...

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Kim C
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 12:26 PM

What garden?

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 12:31 PM

Slugs: the bane of my garden, since I mulch with a lotta leaves, and they love 'em. I use a totally organic iron sulfate compound which kills 'em pretty good. Chances, are, guest, there are slug eggs in your hosta pot. (Little, pearly things.) You gotta moosh every one.

My front yard is real shady from the 2 big birch trees; I put down several inches of compost to smother out the grass (to which I am allergic) and planted wildflower seeds -- shady mix. Looks great. Lots of cosmos, pot marigold, cornflowers, other stuff.

I have been nursing along a delphinium/foxglove spot which bloomed gloriously this year.

I can send seeds for harebell, bellflower, grape hyacinth, and bluebells to anyone. Warning: they are prolific once established.

My early girl tomatoes are just pinking up; I planted them to tide me over until the brandywines come in. Once you have harvested them, you cannot do without. My basil didn't do diddly, so I finally broke down and put in some boughten plants, and had my first pesto last week.

I was outta town for 2 weeks, and the quack grass, buttercups, etc. had taken over by the time I got back and had time to deal with it. Today is my first all-free day since I have been back; guess what I will be doing?

My roses are terribly neglected; I will be pruning them up, too. I planted all the splashy, scented pink and purple ones I could find after I bought my house and dug up the back yard. Othello, Prince, Blue Girl, Royal Amethystm Eglantyne, Mr. Lincoln, Fragrant Cloud, Fragrant Memory, and more.

Whew! A favorite topic. My garden is a mess, it's a beautiful mess I love.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 12:38 PM

The second wave of oriental lillies is just coming to an end. The passion flower vine around the rustic bench is blooming and the roses are in full show.

I need to cut the grass and I keep waiting for the Irishmen (dere's dese tree fellers....)to come round and dig up the dead ash trees. Wow someone else with lost people in the rough bit beyond the fence. You could hide half a division in mine!

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Peg
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 01:30 PM

last month the roses were absolutely insane!!! The man who lived in the house before me (landlady's widow) planted them many years ago: one white just touched with pale pink, two deep pink (Bulgarian I think), both fragrant vintage varieties...the smell is heavenly. I gave them a bit of rose fertilizer last year and have been pruning them for several seasons' now (they were neglected for seven years before I moved in); this summer they grew so abundantly they were weighing down the rose canes! Good thing we had so much rain or they would have withered...

As it was, there were so many, I dried a number of petals for potpourri, and also, I tried to make rosewater... which seemed successful at first, but then it all went moldy in the jar...what did I do wrong I wonder?

Now, the lavender is growing beautifully, as are the hollyhocks, black and pale yellow...the phlox are getting there, and the daylilies going bananas as always; need to thin them this fall!

the stupid lawncare guys hired by my landlord have destroyed more flowers than I care to mention; and pulled out all my sweet woodruff, catnip, thyme and oregano...I refuse to buy any more plants so those guys can tear them up...now I grow my herbs in pots on the back porch...

My friends have vegetable gardens and I hope to get some freebies there...

Also, I have a huge quince tree in my yard that is bearing fruit..small fuzzy yellow things that will be big and ripe by fall. I will offer them to a friend who brews mead and see if she can come up with a good recipe. I also like to put them in a bowl in the kitchen; they keep for weeks and impart a rich, mellow aroma to the air...

peg

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Susie
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 02:17 PM

I seem to be on Cloud Nine - I join a music "group" and get to read about gardening as well! So here's my contribution.

Peg - I have only just got hold of some real roses - the ones that smell heavenly. Even better, the two that I have were both quite recent gifts, one from my sister and one from my mother. Don't you know every plant in your garden that someone gave to you? Aren't they special? I've had to move plants every time we move house because I can't bear to leave one that a good friend/relative gave me for my birthday/Christmas/thank-you gift - whatever.

This year both my flower and vegetable seeds were a disaster - absolutely everything died. (My previously green fingers must have either dropped off without me noticing or turned back to the normal colour).

I have resorted to filling the veg. plot with the dregs of an old potato sack that had begun to sprout in the pantry. It should have been filled by now with parsnips and carrots, peas and beans (how I envy Gervase, with too many peas - we love them, straight off the plant and seem never to have too many - this year - nothing!)

The flower garden has had to be filled with plants from a garden centre. Well, it looks O.K. but there's not the same pleasure as having grown them all yourself. Because of that, there's very little that's special and, I regret to say, it looks horribly like I work for the Parks and Garndens, with marigolds and pelargoniums (and that ilk) all over the place. Not my best choice, but all the garden centre had in at the time.

Now, next year . . .

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: JenEllen
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 02:28 PM

Gorgeous. I dug up a wheelbarrow load of potatoes yesterday. Corn did so-so, but it was devoured at the barbeque this weekend anyway. Peas, green beans, cukes, peppers, zuchinni, walla walla sweet onions, grapes, garlic, blackberries, strawberries and raspberries all doing fine. The tomatoes are on late, but they're looking good too.

It's one of my favourite times of the year, either getting up early or staying up late to can everything.

~Elle

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Morticia
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 03:13 PM

mine was sadly neglected as we thought we were moving house but then changed our minds. The roses are blooming, so are the strawberries, and the purple sage, fennel and lobelia have settled for poulating all the spaces left by the things I didn't plant. Two hollyhocks turned up.....I have no idea from where but they seem to like it here and the passion flower ( which we have christened Hitler as it seems intent on conquering next door, the house after that and then on to Poland) thrives. The apple tree is full of apples which delights me, my neighbours and all my friends since they are the best apples ever. All in all, a good year even with neglect.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Jacob B
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 04:20 PM

I'm consumed with envy - you're all eating from your gardens already? Even corn? My tomatoes are just starting to set fruit. The squash is doing as well as ever - which means that the plants are still alive, but only have a couple of small leaves on them. In half a dozen years of trying, I've gotten a total of two zucchini. Does anyone have any idea what would make one particular garden (or gardener) be death for every kind of vine crop?

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 04:27 PM

Grab - my buddlea is now 12 feet tall and heading for outer space!! It's also white, which surprises a few people....

The rest of the garden is now about an inch deep in ashes as the garden next door with the 20 foot privet tree has just been raized and burned. Came home to a house full of smoke and ashes because I'd left the bathroom and back bedroom windows open to try to get rid of the smell of paint.

I've lost several roses, due to the SO not finishing painting the house (ever seen a rose growing in a carrier bag?) and we haven't been able to put the boxes down yet due to the scaffold tower pieces in the way.

Otherwise, all the food crops have died and all the shrubs are taking over....

LTS

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 08:36 PM

Major garden project this year: 10'x15' pond with a 10 foot brook(babbling) and waterfall. Rock garden supporting the downward path of the stream. Have stocked the pond with several koi and waterplants, including a hardy water lilly. Sound of the stream and fall are beautiful in my otherwise weedy and dried-up garden!

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Alice
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 08:38 PM

alison, Maybe you already do this, but the leaves need to grow and store food in the bulb for next year. You can tidy up the garden without cutting the leaves by bending them over and wrapping a rubber band around them. Some people cut the leaves off before they have naturally dried out, and that will deter next year's crop of flowers.

My garden... fighting unusually hot, dry weather. Snails ate the pond lily. The pond rush and arrowleaf are still growing. I have raspberries producing quite well and lots of apricots, flowers doing fine, but it takes too much watering. A large plastic trash can has potatoes growing quite well. The roses bloomed in spite of neglect. I have ONE eggplant that is about to bloom. I hope it makes it.

Alice

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Susan from California
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 09:13 PM

Jacob B--This is probably something you have already ruled out, but night watering can be deadly to all sorts of plants, so if you are a nightime waterer switch to early morning. Good Luck!

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: JenEllen
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 09:51 PM

Jacob, what about your dirt? Do you rotate crops or plant things in the same spot year after year? Every fall, usually mid-October, I have folks over to make sauerkraut and press cider. The pulp from the apples, the summer's compost, as well as a generous load of manure, gets tilled into the garden. It gives the soil a boost, as well as turning in great suprises. I had a handful of gladiola turn up in the middle of the potato patch this year. So far as I know, I've never planted glads anywhere, but it made a nice bit of color in the garden!!

You might also look into companion plantings. My squash always seem to do better if I pair them by the corn. It works for the beans and peas too, gives them a place to climb. I had to confine the horseradish a few years back to one of those half-barrels, it was taking the place over, but now I do my tomatoes the same way. You have to water them a bit more often. And also companion planting them in those barrels, surrounded by basil, tends to keep the bugs off of them as well. And it makes it one-stop shopping for making sauce too!

Alice, thanks for the tip on the daffys. I'll have to try it. Did you try setting out beer for the snails? It's a thought.

Anybody have tips on growing lavender? Been having a helluva time getting it started....

~Elle

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Alice
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 10:10 PM

Elle, they are pond snails. They live in the water and eat the water plants. They actually dessimated the lily while it was still wintering over inside in a tub. The best trick I've learned for controlling pond snails is to float lettuce leaves in the water. The snails collect on the bottom of the leaves and you just toss the leaves away, passengers and all. Their population just got ahead of me this time, and the lily was gone before I caught them. My lavender grew huge without care. I bought it as a small potted plant. What conditions have you planted your lavender in?

Alice

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: JenEllen
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 10:17 PM

LOL Alice, maybe fill the pond with beer? Then again, you'll probably end up with a yard full of 'Catters with straws....Could you put fish in there to eat them?

Ideally, the lavender will go on the east side of the house behind the rose bushes and grape arbor. I just can't seem to get the darn things started. I have a batch of seedlings started (the 3rd one this year) but this batch is growing. I'm concerned about transplanting them, should I harden them off? Plant in the garden this year, or just pot them and wait until next spring? What kinds of soil is best? We naturally have dust and not dirt, it's a sagebrush desert here, but I can fix then beds to grow just about anything.

~Elle

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Jeri
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 10:31 PM

Jacob, one suggestion I had for planting squash was to plant peas with them. The peas put nitrogen back into the soil. (I tried - the peas never showed but the squash is doing great.)

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Alice
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 10:37 PM

I would continue growing the lavender until they are as large as you can get them before transplanting, even if that means keeping them going inside through the winter. I can't remember if you are northern clime or south - what zone? Definitely build up the soil with as much as you can yet make sure it is well drained. It's easier to propagate lavender from cuttings than from seed. It grows into a low flowering, woody hedge, so be sure to give it enough room to mature.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Jul 00 - 10:48 PM

Here's a little more I was able find on lavender, but like Alice, I'd say it has a lot to do with how cold it gets there. This info comes from a place in Couer d'Alene, Idaho, so they ought to be able to help you out. From the www.lavenderfrog.com website:

"Lavender likes to grow in a slightly alkaline fast-draining soil. It thrives on neglect and once established requires little irrigation. Some lavenders are very frost sensitive and require a warmer climate. The spanish and some of the french are considered frost sensitive and are usually cultivated in USDA zone 7 - 11. The English and some of the French are generally hardy to zone 4 - 6. Check with your local extension service for information about your climate zone.

"The essential oil contained in the lavender plant can be increased by putting a 1 to 2" mulch of sand around the lavender plant. A light feeding of fertilizer in the spring is all the plants require for the season.

"A good haircut of one-half to one-third in either the spring or fall will keep your lavender plants looking good. The spring haircut is recommended for zone 4-5 winters as pruning too late in the fall can damage the plant. The prunning also stimulates lavender to produce a better flower crop."

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: GUEST,Auxiris
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 03:35 AM

Jeri, most iris germanica rhizomes will offer flowers the spring after they're planted, though some varieties seem to dwindle to nearly nothing in late summer (that's when they're dormant). They hybrids I speak of are ones I've created from crossing different flowers and then planted the seeds and it does require 2-3 years to see the result. Also, now is the time of year to fertilise iris rhizomes (now and in March) in order to have a good bloom from them.

cheers,

Aux

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: alison
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 08:55 AM

Thanks everyone.....

Alice I have been doubling them over and elastic banding them... but maybe I didn't let them die off completely before cutting.. I'll try that this year... sounds easier than digging them up and separating them......

anything for an easy life......

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Alice
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 10:28 AM

Elle, if you know anyone in your area who has an established lavender plant, ask them if you can get cuttings. Rooted cuttings will give you something you can plant successfully outside alot faster than trying to grow it from seed.

Alice

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Jeri
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 11:00 AM

Thanks He Of The Iris. I must have killed them. It's good to have an expert or several around!

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: JenEllen
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 12:02 PM

Yeah, I'll have to try the cuttings. I just figured it was some greehouse quirk that I was unaware of. I'm going to take the seedlings and pot them today, keep them in over the winter and let them get a good root-hold before I send them out into the dustbowl! Thanks for your help Alice, and kat, this place is great...

~Elle

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Jacob B
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 12:07 PM

Susan, JenEllen, Jeri - Thanks for the advice.

I usually water in the early morning, but I've sometimes watered at night as well. That's something I can try to avoid. I've avoided watering during the heat of the day, so as not to shock the plants.

I rotate my crops, and dig in compost and some manure every year. The soil probably started in very bad condition, since there was probably never anything there but lawn until I started a garden, but I think that it's slowly improving.

I asked an organic gardening expert about "three sisters" companion planting (corn, squash, beans) once. He said that it worked well if you did it the way the Native Americans did it. They planted hard corn for grinding into corn meal, winter squash, and dry beans. In the fall they collected their winter food supply. But if you plant sweet corn, zucchini, and green beans, then how are you going to get into the field to harvest them without crushing your plants?

Nevertheless, I tried it last year in a small plot. The green beans never came up, and a few zucchini leaves lasted all summer but never flowered let alone fruited. The corn did all right, but since we didn't know how to tell when it was ripe, we waited too long before picking it, and it was pretty tasteless.

This year, I've tried planting winter squash together with popcorn. Those squash plants are small (less than six inches across) but they're doing better than the zucchini plants, which only have a couple of leaves apiece on the two plants which have come up. I put in some pea plants against the fence, but they have shrivelled up for some reason. The bush green beans are doing all right. We've always done better with bush beans than with pole beans. Perhaps it's part of the vine crop curse.

Some people have told me that they get lots of zucchini without any effort, but haven't been able to grow tomatoes. Tomatoes have been the one thing we've been able to grow consistently. Different soil, I guess. I'll have to keep trying to improve mine. More manure!

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 02:19 PM

I've never cut or tied my daffs, the rest of the garden just takes over and they vanish into the general greenness of it all. The grey/green leaves do make a nice foliage contrast too.

Another tip is to cut your daffs if picking for indoors - don't pick or the stems split and don't pull or you take the heart out of the bulb.

LTS

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 02:39 PM

Jacob was asking for "More Manure" and so, at the suggestion of JenEllen, I'd like to contribute this load of GENUINE MUDCAT MANURE to this thread and all you gardeners out there. There's plenty to go around.

Spaw

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 02:50 PM

Alice...re wintering your waterlilly plant. How do you go about it? I was told that you should cut the branches down to the pot, and leave in the pond as long as top of the pot is below freeze level. True? Also, do you keep fish in your pond?

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Morticia
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 03:12 PM

any minute now Charlie Dimmock ( or as Terry Wogan puts it the Dimmock twins) is going to arrive :)

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: katlaughing
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 03:20 PM

Ground Force!!!

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 04:33 PM

As long as it isn't Alan TITchmarsh, we'll be OK.....

Mind you, I could do with a nice water feature....

LTS

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Clinton Hammond2
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 04:40 PM

Larry, a corn farmer, bumps into his neighbour, Donald a wheat farmer in the general store and they fall to talking...
"How grows the corn Larry", Donald asks...
"Oh fine, strong, tall, but ya know... there's a small problem... Late at night the local kids pull up and park beside the corn field... They sneak in and leave a mess of beer bottles, used rubbers, cigarette butts and it's a right pain to clean up after them...."
"But enough of my problems.. How's your wheat?"
"F@cked flat", says Donald...

[~`

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 04:42 PM

I had that problem too, but with cats and lavender....

LTS

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Alice
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 08:07 PM

LEJ, if your pond is deep enough and you have a hardy lily, you could probably leave it in over the winter. My pond is more like a big puddle... I have a pump and waterfall down some rocks, room for a few goldfish (who die regularly and have to be replaced from WalMart) and several plants. It's nice to hear the water, see all the birds gather, and its our dog's favorite drinking bowl. I use a large tub over the winter to save the plants. I put the pump into it, too, and it splashes water like a fountain. Snails keep the tub clean. It sits in my living room from fall until spring. There is a great pond forum that provides good advice. I used the forum alot when I first made my pond a couple of years ago. You can get to the forum from the links on the pond page at my website... Alice's pond page.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 08:19 PM

Anyone who has success with a pond has my greatest admiration. The tale of our attempt is too gruesome to tell.

Have any of you tried planting corn in a circular pattern? A few years ago when we actually had a tiny backyard we could use (pre-kids), Karen and I were into postage stamp gardening and one of the best books we had on the subject brought up planting corn in concentric rings. You get more plants ina smaller space and pollination is supposedly excellent. We had a major rabbit problem that year, so we never found out. Anyone else have any experience with this?

Spaw

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 08:22 PM

Well, for my first vegetable garden ever.....not bad. Got enough lettuce for a thousand salads, peas are startin' to show, tomatoes lookin' round and green, and some peppers.

'Course it's not really MY vegetable garden 'cause Duckboots did all the work. I looked at it everyday though. HER garden is flourishing big time!

Rick

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Duckboots
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 08:39 PM

Thanks to all the rain we've had this year, the garden has been a source of amazement. Everything seems to be double the size it was last year and has been blooming for twice as long. It's been just great!

I'd almost given up on the clematis, but it's taken off and is starting to cover the arch just as I'd hoped it would.

Thanks to advice Alice gave me last year, my traditional rose had a thousand blooms this year and was beautiful.

The wild strawberries are growing wild but not producing a lot of berries, does anyone have any suggestions?

We put in our first vegetable garden this year and an herb garden. It is so much fun to go out and pick the salad.

Duckboots

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Bearheart
Date: 25 Jul 00 - 11:13 PM

I second the Cloud Nine comment...

Well being in massage school ruined me for gardening this year, except for the herb garden (I had to do something to keep from going crazy!). I bought tomato plants, but the beavers came downstream and carried them off (did the same with my two hazel bushes, but they managed to send out new shoots and will probably survive). They also trampled my peppers. But somehow I'm still grateful to have them in the neighborhood. Guess it's the farmer's market and friends for produce this year. I did plant lettuce and cuumbers after I passed my state board exam (hurray!) in June, but mostly because I needed to plant SOMETHING.

Thanks for the tip on mulching the lavender with sand, I have plenty of that nearby...

Bearheart

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Llanfair
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 04:10 AM

Duckboots- Strawberries are like nasturtiums, it doesn't do to feed them too well. I made the mistake of manuring the strawberry patch one year and got masses of leafy growth and no strawberries. If that's what's happened, don't worry, you should get a good crop next year, when all the "goodies" have gone! Hwyl, Bron.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 08:37 AM

Bearheart, welcome to the Mudcat and congratultions on your success with the state boards...wonderful profession you have chosen.

Beavers, huh? In SE Ohio? Wow, must be pretty neat. It has been so dry in Wyoming the past couple of years, the beavers literally left from some parts of the mountain. Haven't seen any in ages. Sounds as though you live in a nice patch. Glad you've joined us.

kat

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Grab
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 08:51 AM

In theory, slug traps (a jar half-full of beer buried up to its neck in the ground) might work, but some slugs round here don't seem to like beer. And some of the cats do...

There's a thought - anyone got any sure-fire anti-cat remedies? I'd like something a little less risky than the guy on an electronics board who's installed a low-current electric wire along the tops of his fences!

Liz - Cambridgeshire seems to be Buddleia Central, it looks like everyone's got one. Maybe all the builders have access to a garden centre that sells them cheap, or something. Anyway, my buddleia's just a standard purple one, but it's enormous. There's nothing until about head-height, just some twisty trunks, then the branches start. They've gone a good 8-10 feet in each direction now (and a fair ways up too) - I'm amazed the trunks are strong enough to support it! Come the winter, it's in for a really good haircut...

Grab.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: GUEST,Auxiris
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 09:57 AM

Hello again, Jeri. . . hope you'll not give up on growing irises entirely; they are really rewarding to cultivate. This is the ideal time to plant them, if you're game to try again. It might be that the ones that gave up the ghost simply didn't have enough sun or were located in a part of your garden that's too humid. If you have lots of clay in your garden soil, you might want to try and plant them on " hills " so they're well drained, as too much humidity tends to rot the rhizomes. Other than fertilising them twice a year (July/March, with an NPK of either 6-8-12, 7-5-12 or 4-6-10, for example strawberry fertiliser) and watering them every 10 –15 days during dry spells, they don't really require too much care. Some of the varieties that I have do seem to nearly disappear after they've bloomed, haven't a clue why. Good luck.

Cheers,

Aux

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: leprechaun
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 10:40 AM

Alison - I still think you should dig them up and separate them. Same with the tulips if you have any.

Our garden has corn just starting to tassel, incipient yellow zucchini, green beans climbing to the sky, explosions of cucumbers and tomatoes, and anaheim peppers will be ready to eat in a week. The habanero peppers and tomatillos won't be ready until the end of August. Chives, cilanto, sage and basil! Flowers and flowers and flowers only my wife knows the names of.

When the asparagus comes back I'll be thinking of Sorcha.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 11:44 AM

For non-electric, enviro-safe cat repellents, check out Drs. Foster and Smith Pet Supply Catalogue. They have several solutions and are a good company to deal with, at least in my experience.

I think my garden and my houseplants, some of which are quite rare, thrive on what I call "benign neglect." I don't do much except water when they droop, prune once every other year or so, and feed when I remember, but never the outside plants.

Anyway, my clump of iris keep coming back up, blooming beautifully, then standing tall and proud, adding a nice green backdrop to the other little bits which come along and bloom. I let them die back and let the leaves mulch in naturally. They are on the west side, in full, high altitude sun, with very poor, bentonite type soil and good drainage. They definitely get dry in between infrequent waterings.

This has turned out to be another wonderful garden thread. Thanks everyone...it's a lot of fun to read about your greenery!

Two of my very favourite spots for buying indoor and outdoor plants are Logees Greenhouse and Caprilands Herb Farm. Jeri, if I remmeber right, Logee's has some increible hybrid irises and they are in eastern Connecticut, as is Caprilands.

Aux, your irises sound lovely. DO you have any pictures of them on the web? OWuld love to see them.

Thanks,

kat

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: GUEST,Chancey Gardener
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 12:08 PM

In the fall, the garden will die. In the spring, the garden will flower again.

I like to watch.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Alice
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 12:12 PM

To keep this in the Mudcat realm, our own Mudcatter Guy Wolff is in the new issue of my favorite interior design and landscape magazine, House & Garden (August 2000). The cover is a great photo of pond lilies. Page 20, "bold and beautiful Guy Wolff's new terra-cotta pots. Connecticut potter Guy Wolff has teamed up with the Seibert & Rice catalog to produce a collection of five large outdoor planters. All the planters are handmade of frostproof Impruneta terra-cotta in the company's workshops in Italy. Different moments in garden history inspired each piece. The Hartford pot ($500) recalls 19th century New England; the Gertrude pot ($530) left [photo], is an homage to the great Jeykll. - Bonnie Bacon" [writer]

hurray for Guy.

Alice

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 12:38 PM

Hey, great thread by the way. The equivalent of neighbors gathering by the back fence to share some information.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 12:49 PM

Kewl, Alice! Way to go, Guy! Yeah, LeeJ, I like that image!

Sorry I didn't get the brackets closed on my first link. Here is the link to Caprilands which was mucked up in my previous posting.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 05:02 PM

Grab - it isn't just Cambs. London is covered in the things, all burgeoning with all forms of insect life except bloody butterflies!!

If you want to use it as a cut flower, cut it in the cool of the evening, and stick it in water immediately. It keeps its leaves then, but if isn't well watered, it will go brown. Great for those quick displays at church where there is a huge vase and no other flowers....!

Nasturtiums - plant 'em once, you'll never need plant 'em again!! I still have some going strong from the seeds shed 2 years ago! One is climbing up the back fence and the other is making a bid for the buddlea.

LTS

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: MMario
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 05:09 PM

I have never successfully grown nasturtiums. the buggers die after one or two blossems every time.

Subject: RE: How is your garden this year?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Jul 00 - 05:16 PM

Keep them in rubbishy soil. I grew mine to cover a spoil heap of rubble, earth and cat poo. They covered it alright, that and the rest of the garden!! They still grow out of it now, regardless of me pulling the wretched things up.

The better the soil, the more leaves you get. The poorer the soil the more the plant thinks 'have to propagate to survive' and produces more flowers.

Personally I've always liked them, but they can get a bit overpowering.

If you want to get rid of them, grow them as a salad plant. They'll all sink without trace!

LTS