Hang in there Evo. Sending warm thoughts your way and hope for warmer weather soon.Evo said:It's still too cold and wet to plant.I'm still having to wear a jacket and the plants that survived the freeze are in shock.
All of my fruit trees lost their fruit in the freeze.
It worked great for catching slugs but unfortunately snails do not appear to be as fond of beerAstronuc said:
Funnily enough I was watching A History of the British Isles recently and it said on there that the common garden snail is not indigenous to the British Isles but was introduced by the Romans as a delicacy.
Evo said:It's still too cold and wet to plant.
I'm still having to wear a jacket and the plants that survived the freeze are in shock.
All of my fruit trees lost their fruit in the freeze.
Might just stick some flowers in planters on the deck and call it a day. Usually by now, we're past the last frost, but I'm not totally sure of that yet this year. Like Turbo mentioned, lettuce like cool, partly sunny weather, and not to dry. I'm not sure how it's grown in Ca, but I think they must spray it constanly with water to cool it.Moonbear said:It's been a bit warmer the past few days, but we've still had very cold nights. Not that I'm planning on planting much this year since local fauna ate it all last year.
Astronuc, how much lettuce do you grow and what do you do with it all? I tried growing lettuce once, and it did very well early in the season while it was still cold and wet, like it is now, but then as soon as the real summer heat came along, it died off. So, I wound up with lots of lettuce early in the season, but it was too soon for anything else, and by the time I had other veggies to mix into salads, I didn't have lettuce anymore. I never tried a fall lettuce crop.
Do you stagger planting it so it's not all ready at once? I can't think of anything to do with lettuce other than fresh eating, and it just isn't worth it for the short growing season and short shelf life.
, which took off an produced a lot of peppers. This year, my son and I will be planting several varieties of hot peppers.Cool! I have coreopsis,cornflower (Centaurea cyanus),yarrow,evening primrose and salvia blooming. My roses have not recovered yet from freeze so they are late this year.Astronuc said:
You have to look at plant vascular systems as a process. If a plant starts to wilt or droop when it's in the sun, then it is losing water at a rate faster than it can keep up with. This could be because the water content of the soil is too low, because the pot is too small (limited reservoir of water), because the root system is not yet well-developed enough to take up the water as fast as the leaves can lose it, or a combination of these. It is important to introduce potted plants to full sun slowly, so that they can cope with the change. Even plants that have been in a hot (usually humid) greenhouse from seed to transplanting can experience shock from sudden exposure to full sun. Part of the reason is that they have not had to develop enough root structure to deal with the rapid water loss entailed in drier air in a full-sun environment. Plants lose water to the humid air in a greenhouse much more slowly than they will outdoors. Sunflowers thrive in full sun, but you've got to get them hardened to it first.NeoDevin said:
turbo-1 said:
The leaves of sunflowers are capable of healing/sealing to prevent water loss from insect damage, etc. They are pretty hardy. I would keep the leaves on, because when the water-loss problem from the damage is minimized by the scarring/sealing process, the leaves will still contribute to the energy-balance of the plant through photosynthesis. The trick is to introduce the plant to dry air/full sun more gradually to allow the plant to develop the amount of root structure necessary to uptake water at a rate that will balance the rate of evaporation from the leaves. Sunflowers are relatively easy, so you're in luck. Sometime, try starting basil from seed, transplanting, and moving the plants outside. My wife and I grow lots of herbs, and that's one of the more touchy ones in regard to sunlight, water requirements, and humidity of the ambient air.NeoDevin said:
turbo-1 said:
I'm sure he would have done the same for me if the situation was reversed. (I edited the "bother-in-law" to "brother-in-law", since he isn't really a bother. ;-) ) Stuff like this is easy and fun to do, and it always results in a nice "payback" that makes you smile when it comes. My sister's boyfriend's tiller died recently, and when things dry out where they are, I will travel the 20+ miles to make sure that their garden spot is properly tilled, too. My wife and I are very fond of making hot salsas from green tomatoes, and I'll bet when the late-fall frosts threaten, we'll get lots of green tomatoes to work with. Of course, we will give them jars of salsa made with our habaneros/jalapenoes, and the cycle will go on.larkspur said:
This weekend, the tomatoes finally started ripening. Not the best tomatoes I've ever had, but better than store bought. They're a little bigger than your standard cherry tomato, but not much, and the plant itself is a dwarf plant...only about a foot high in the pot. Next year I'll get several of these. It's ideal for container gardening since I don't have any luck with an outdoor garden between the shallow soil (there isn't much soil left over the rock from when they built the place) and the rats and birds and bugs. Actually, that was the really nice thing about the ag school sale...there were little notes on many of the tables of plants giving special instructions about how to care for the plants beyond the "part sun" "full sun" type labels you usually find on plants. That's really helpful when you don't know much about the plants that grow well locally, and what type of locations to put them in and how often to water, etc. And we are learning ways to freeze food that preserves their flavor and texture as much as possible, so the food will still be better than store-bought, even in the dead of winter. Our cellar is cold and dry enough to allow us to store winter squash at least until February (when we ran out last year) so we've planted extra this year, and I will trellis them when they start to vine, to try to maximize the yield.Astronuc said: