How does your Garden grow? part 2

[Evo]

I've seen something like that before, but it does look scary. It reminds me of a green casaba melon, it supposedly tastes like a cross between a cantaloupe and a cucumber.

 

[Finny]

Zapper: "So I planted 3 rhododendron about 3 years ago. One died, one did very well (purple flowers), and the last one, I wasn't sure of. "

It is rather crazy how something that happens so often...I can plant six different plants, say cone flowers, all on the same day, all with healthy root systems apparently equally developed, put them in the ground together next to each other, water them equally...and four of five will do great...one or two either die or are laggards for several years. On the positive side, once I got my wife to stop clipping off dying blooms, and let the bees pollinate everything and the birds feed and knock off seeds, voila, they do spread year after year. Had to give a dozen or so clumps to friends this year to make room.

What I want to know is how can weeds grow so fast without water? During dry spells my grass is almost dormant, and that reduces the need to cut so often, but crab grass and other intrusive plants seem to grow even faster. That should be be allowed. Whom do I see to stop this??

 

[OmCheeto]

... Whom do I see to stop this??

Monsanto.
I've been saying it for years. If they'd simply manufacture strawberries with the drought tolerance of weeds, I'd lose all my reservations about their shenanigans.

ps. GMO bashing or non-bashing can go HERE!

 

[edward]

Monsanto.
I've been saying it for years. If they'd simply manufacture strawberries with the drought tolerance of weeds, I'd lose all my reservations about their shenanigans.

ps. GMO bashing or non-bashing can go HERE!

There is big money in weeds. : )

 

[dlgoff]

Compared to my first tomato pick 24 days ago,

today's pick is more like it.

 

[dlgoff]

I'm beginning to think I should make sure the deer get in the garden in the spring and chew the tomato plants down.
I ran out of daylight picking my 6 plants or there would be more to show. I'm going to be up late tonight.

 

[Evo]

I have two plants on my patio and I've been getting on average one small tomato per day. They are in small containers that I can move.

When I had my garden, I would have 6 plants and would be giving away bags of tomatoes, I would let the tomatoes sprawl along the ground, the branches root and every side shoot would produce like a new plant, I'd get hundreds of huge tomatoes each year.

 

[dlgoff]

I have two plants on my patio and I've been getting on average one small tomato per day. They are in small containers that I can move.

When I had my garden, I would have 6 plants and would be giving away bags of tomatoes, I would let the tomatoes sprawl along the ground, the branches root and every side shoot would produce like a new plant, I'd get hundreds of huge tomatoes each year.

I wish you could have a garden like that again Evo. I know exactly what you mean by having them sprawl. You have given me lots of insights over the years. Remember telling me about how tomatoe flowers are hard to get pollinated and bumblebees do the best job when I was trying to get some tomato fruit in the winter?

Wish I could push some of these through my monitor to you.

 

[nsaspook]

Sunflower in early fall bloom. Still plenty of tomatoes on the vine.

 

[Evo]

Well, I had two poblano pepper bushes, with 16-18 peppers and more coming. Yesterday, they squirrels raided the bushes and before I got outside, I was down to 5-6 small peppers left on each plant. I moved them to the front porch from the back, not much sun, but fewer squirrels.

 

[nsaspook]

Well, I had two poblano pepper bushes, with 16-18 peppers and more coming. Yesterday, they squirrels raided the bushes and before I got outside, I was down to 5-6 small peppers left on each plant. I moved them to the front porch from the back, not much sun, but fewer squirrels.

Leave a open beer for them to drink.

 

[Evo]

Leave a open beer for them to drink.

Oh NOES!

 

[Borg]

My neighbor has a persimmon tree. Unfortunately, the tree sits near a cut-through sidewalk that gets a lot of foot traffic for the metro. A couple of years ago, I had to chase away a couple of Asian women who decided it was OK for them to bring a long stick and try to harvest all of the fruit. There wasn't any fruit last year but there is this year. I have a security camera pointed at that area and there's an Asian woman who has been looking very carefully at the tree several times a day.

 

[dlgoff]

I have a security camera pointed at that area and there's an Asian woman who has been looking very carefully at the tree several times a day.

This may be a better alternative.

 

[lisab]

Well, I had two poblano pepper bushes, with 16-18 peppers and more coming. Yesterday, they squirrels raided the bushes and before I got outside, I was down to 5-6 small peppers left on each plant. I moved them to the front porch from the back, not much sun, but fewer squirrels.

Look at the bright side -- you might have no poblanos!

I'll see myself out.

 

[Borg]

I have a security camera pointed at that area and there's an Asian woman who has been looking very carefully at the tree several times a day.

As expected, she and her friend made their move yesterday. I happened to see them arrive and begin to pull down fruit as fast as they could. I walked over to my neighbor's to tell her about it and as soon as they saw me, they quit and started walking away. My neighbor chased after them and gave them a good scolding.

 

[Astronuc]

My neighbor has a persimmon tree. Unfortunately, the tree sits near a cut-through sidewalk that gets a lot of foot traffic for the metro. A couple of years ago, I had to chase away a couple of Asian women who decided it was OK for them to bring a long stick and try to harvest all of the fruit. There wasn't any fruit last year but there is this year. I have a security camera pointed at that area and there's an Asian woman who has been looking very carefully at the tree several times a day.

Whatever happened to folks respectfully requesting something from the owner?

 

[Borg]

Whatever happened to folks respectfully requesting something from the owner?

She is willing to share after she has had a chance to harvest it and even told them that yesterday.

And these aren't the first ones that I've caught raiding the tree. On the first Saturday of the month, an older Chinese man and his wife showed up with a shopping bag and started harvesting everything they could reach. My neighbor wasn't home so I went out and asked if they had asked permission first. When he said no, I asked him "don't you think it would be polite to ask first?". He said "OK, I'll ask.", walked over to the front of the house and, when he thought I wasn't looking anymore, walked off.

Today, two more Asian women stopped to look and point. Same pattern - I expect that I will see them in a few days with a shopping bag in hand...

 

[Evo]

She is willing to share after she has had a chance to harvest it and even told them that yesterday.

And these aren't the first ones that I've caught raiding the tree. On the first Saturday of the month, an older Chinese man and his wife showed up with a shopping bag and started harvesting everything they could reach. My neighbor wasn't home so I went out and asked if they had asked permission first. When he said no, I asked him "don't you think it would be polite to ask first?". He said "OK, I'll ask.", walked over to the front of the house and, when he thought I wasn't looking anymore, walked off.

Today, two more Asian women stopped to look and point. Same pattern - I expect that I will see them in a few days with a shopping bag in hand...

That's just terrible, burns me up.

 

[Borg]

That's just terrible, burns me up.

I compare it to the squirrels that keep raiding your plants - with the main difference being that the squirrels don't know better.

 

[OmCheeto]

Whatever happened to folks respectfully requesting something from the owner?

It's quite possible, that where the two ladies are from, "ownership" is a foreign concept.

I'm having quite the opposite problem with my community gutter garden.
Although I've told my next door neighbor, that all the strawberries on his side of the fence are his, he refuses to pick them!
I purposely built the fence two feet on my side of the property line, as I had the feeling it would be very disrespectful to go walking into his yard, while checking for overly ripe fruit.

Front yard gutter gardens are fun though. A couple of weeks ago, I could see that my neighbors, two houses down, were getting ready to drive away. And having too many acorn squash already, I picked one off the vine, ran up to them as they were backing out of their driveway, and asked if they liked this particular brand of squash. Their eyes lit up, and said; "Yes!"

I've had similar experiences with about 5 different random groups of people.

hmmm... Where am I? Oh good! I thought this was random thoughts for a moment.

I'm quite happy that I started a new project this summer, as it distracted me from watering my gutter garden. As now, all of the baby strawberry plants appear to be dead.
Had I not, as I've determined that gutter gardens expand at a cubic rate, my entire property would be covered in gutters in less than 7 years.

ps. I discovered this summer, that Chuuks have no comprehension of tomatoes as being "food". So Evo was correct in being upset, that I gave those kids that tomato one day.

 

[edward]

I have been experimenting with composting leaves because they are the only thing I have. I have three African sumac trees. They drop dry leaves year round. twice a year they drop about 1/3 of their leaves. The dry leaves are easy to shred, that is good but the dry leaves are the carbon, and I need a carbon nitrogen mix. BTW they are safe to compost and use.

The good news is that those trees grow like weeds. I trim a lot of branches loaded with green leaves. The bad news is that I don't want to spend the money to buy a chipper shredder just for the green leaves. The green leaves are really tough. I loaded up a basket full of them and went at them with a hedge trimmer (yes I really did that) it worked but it took well over half an hour to reduces the basket full of green leaves to 1/4 basket of shredded green leaves. A weed eater turns to fast and tosses the green leaves out of the basket.

The link below shows the leaves I am working with. They trees are drought resistant and grow like a small willow tree. they are perfect for the desert.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhus_lancea#/media/File:Rhus_lancea,_foliage_detail.jpg

As I mentioned I have been experimenting. During the summer I filled a large plastic container with dry leaves and soaked them. I put the lid on and let the container set out in the sun. It got really hot and not just from the sun. This of course was much like an anaerobic sewage treatment system and when I opened it up after a month it smelled like one. it was a homemade methane generator.

The leaves had really broken down into a mass of smaller pieces. I put the (smelly yuck) them in an old washing machine basket (the part with all of the small holes in it) and let the yuck set for another month. with a regular sprinkle of water and occasional stirring . By the end of the month it wasn't yuck, much to my surprise the composting process was nearly done. It takes a full year for a pile of those leaves to reach that state when lying on the ground.

Now I am wondering what the green leaves would do in an anaerobic situation. Does anyone know if the greens will break down like the browns did? I have a lot of limbs loaded with green leaves that I need to trim. (Most likely I should have just asked this first) :) I know that the nitrogen is not going to make methane like the carbon did. What is it going to make? I don't want to create a mass of bacteria that will cause a plague.

 

[Evo]

So Evo was correct in being upset, that I gave those kids that tomato one day.

Ahahaha! IIRC, that tomato was rotten with large black squishy areas!

 

[OmCheeto]

Ahahaha! IIRC, that tomato was rotten with large black squishy areas!

Being that this is only the second time in my life that I've grown a tomato that large, the last time being the year I tried to drown that mole, I was quite overwhelmed by this years crop.

And I put tomatoes in much worse condition to use this year, than that one.

ps. Have I mentioned that I may be investing in an indoor gutter garden this year? It's been in the "mental" works for years. And given the rapid advancement of technology lately, I'm kind of glad I waited until now. My initial design, involved a full spectrum fluorescent tube. Ha! Amazing how naive I was, just 4 years ago.

 

[lisab]

mmm-hmmm...vegetable porn publications...they arrive in my mailbox daily now...oooh baby...companies I've never heard of--how did they find me, how did they know?!

They tempt me with sassy green beans, velvety potatoes, luscious berries, and tomatoes...oh tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes! My soft white underbelly--how do they know my inner desires?! My dog how can I resist...?

What I mean to say is: seed catalogs for Spring planting are available now.

 

[Evo]

mmm-hmmm...vegetable porn publications...they arrive in my mailbox daily now...oooh baby...companies I've never heard of--how did they find me, how did they know?!

They tempt me with sassy green beans, velvety potatoes, luscious berries, and tomatoes...oh tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes! My soft white underbelly--how do they know my inner desires?! My dog how can I resist...?

What I mean to say is: seed catalogs for Spring planting are available now.

I already ordered my whopper begonias.

I think i am giving up on Vegetables again, between the cold wet springs and cool summer, just not getting out of containers

I am blown away by the meyer lemon tree i bought last year at walmart, it's given me pounds of the largest, sweetest lemons, And the lemons have a very thin sweet rind, you can just cut the entire lemon up, sprinkle it with sugar and eat the entire thing. i absolutely recommend them.

 

[lisab]

I am blown away by the meyer lemon tree i bought last year at walmart, it's given me pounds of the largest, sweetest lemons, And the lemons have a very thin sweet rind, you can just cut the entire lemon up, sprinkle it with sugar and eat the entire thing. i absolutely recommend them.

Wow, reading that actually made my mouth water (that's the closest smiley I could find!).

 

[Sophia]

Has anyone got any idea why my orchid doesn't have flowers anymore? I got this flower as a present and it had beautiful pink flowers, which faded after like 2 months (don't remember exactly). I was told to cut the whole stem so that it would have flowers again. I have done that half a year ago and nothing. It still has got nice big green leaves but no flowers.
It was in the middle of room on the table in half-shade, it's been on window sill for a month now as an experiment (it's winter and cloudy) and still nothing. I water it once a week using general purpose fertilizer for room plants from time to time.

 

[Borek]

Orchids are tricky, but - from what I have seen - as long as they have nice, green, healthy looking leaves, it is just a matter of time. Can be a year though before they decide to try again. I don't think cutting the stem matters much, one of our (or should I write "Marzena's"?) orchids "reused" the stem, the other lost it completely (it dried out) and started growing a new one.

 

[JorisL]

My mom gets them to bloom again by putting them in the bathroom.
The steam from showers makes for a humid environment which seems to do the trick.
She doesn't cut the living stem though. Only the dried out ones get cut off.