What Are Some Tips for Successful Gardening?

[turbo]

Speaking of stink, garlic is a good crop. Less land required, high yield and fair prices. People almost use as much garlic as they do beer. Did I say that!?

I've seen companies selling their own grown excellent garlic in the same region as the vineyards of BC. Those land prices are jumping by about 6 percent a year or more so, no great deal in the making.

I just planted my garlic last weekend. Had to chop frozen soil to get it in the ground. I've got a 35+ foot double-row in a raised bed - about 1/3 of it in German garlic and 2/3 of it in Russian garlic. The German garlic yields larger bulbs, but with only 4 cloves per bulb, it will take me longer to propagate into a larger crop. Assuming the garlic comes in well, we'll probably eat and can with mostly Russian garlic next summer and save most of the German so I can plant a wide double-row of each variety next winter.

 

[baywax]

I just planted my garlic last weekend. Had to chop frozen soil to get it in the ground. I've got a 35+ foot double-row in a raised bed - about 1/3 of it in German garlic and 2/3 of it in Russian garlic. The German garlic yields larger bulbs, but with only 4 cloves per bulb, it will take me longer to propagate into a larger crop. Assuming the garlic comes in well, we'll probably eat and can with mostly Russian garlic next summer and save most of the German so I can plant a wide double-row of each variety next winter.

Highly commendable of you to be doing this. I've grown and eaten the elephant garlic from China and I don't like it. It seems similar to the German garlic in that it has large cloves but they're watered down, and the pungent punch is missing. The best garlic I've found was out of the Okanagan, growing in soil that can increase in value by 5% per month in selected areas and has a snow white husk (where the elephant variety has a purplish hue)These cloves are compact and dense with a knock out flavour and an effective medicinal quality for the blood. This garlic is farmed by the Galaxy Garlic Farm near Summerland, BC.

 

[turbo]

Yeah, ditto on elephant garlic. No character at all. The German and Russian have nice flavors. It will be a challenge to save (or most of) the German for planting, but I've got to do it. My neighbor has been supplying me with garlic (including the planting stock), and I've been supplying him with chili relish, hot salsa, etc. In a couple of years, I should have a big enough crop to be self-sufficient and still have some extra for friends.

 

[baywax]

Yeah, ditto on elephant garlic. No character at all. The German and Russian have nice flavors. It will be a challenge to save (or most of) the German for planting, but I've got to do it. My neighbor has been supplying me with garlic (including the planting stock), and I've been supplying him with chili relish, hot salsa, etc. In a couple of years, I should have a big enough crop to be self-sufficient and still have some extra for friends.

Like, self sufficient in terms of garlic or just the whole kit and kaboodle?

Ever grown winter carrots? They get a bit hoary but they're actually very satisfying. Its especially cool digging them up in the middle of winter when there's little else for food. Really kind of a feeling of "self sufficiency" when you don't have to rely on California for carrots in winter.

 

[turbo]

Like, self sufficient in terms of garlic or just the whole kit and kaboodle?

Ever grown winter carrots? They get a bit hoary but they're actually very satisfying. Its especially cool digging them up in the middle of winter when there's little else for food. Really kind of a feeling of "self sufficiency" when you don't have to rely on California for carrots in winter.

We're actually self-sufficient to a great degree already. There are about 40 buttercup squash and a few pie pumpkins in the cold cellar, along with probably 150# of carrots, and there is a 1/2 row of parsnips in the ground to be dug up as needed, though we'll probably leave them in the ground until the spring thaw - they get a lot better flavor that way. We've also got two large chest freezers full of vegetables from our garden, fruits, and wild berries and fiddleheads. We buy potatoes and onions, because they are cheap staples and we use so many of them that growing space and storage become issues. We have several cupboards crammed full of salsas, chili relishes, pickles, etc. I did a LOT of canning last summer, to the extent that our neighbor gave us three additional cases of canning jars to go with our others, and my wife still had to go out and buy two more cases of them. In addition, we still have apples from our apple trees and over-flow from my father's apple tree. Every morning, my wife juices carrots, apples, berries, etc to take for lunch.

We're not entirely self-sufficient, but if we were willing to drop a few items from our diet, we could eat for a LONG time without a trip to the store. Months, at least.

Edit: All this talk of food got me thinking about a snack, so I opened a jar of pickled jalapenos with dill and garlic. I made them months ago, but we have so many other jars of pickles and chili relishes open already that I have not tried them until now. Excellent! They have such a wonderful flavor that if I start running low on habanero relish, I will start using these on sandwiches and hot dogs instead.

 

[baywax]

We're actually self-sufficient to a great degree already. There are about 40 buttercup squash a a few pie pumpkins in the cold cellar, along with probably 150# of carrots, and there is a 1/2 row of parsnips in the ground to be dug up as needed, though we'll probably leave them in the ground until the spring thaw - they get a lot better flavor that way. We've also got two large chest freezers full of vegetables from our garden, fruits, and wild berries and fiddleheads. We buy potatoes and onions, because they are cheap staples and we use so many of them that growing space and storage become issues. We have several cupboards crammed full of salsas, chili relishes, pickles, etc. I did a LOT of canning last summer, to the extent that our neighbor gave us three additional cases of canning jars to go with our others, and my wife still had to go out and buy two more cases of them. In addition, we still have apples from our apple trees and over-flow from my father's apple tree. Every morning, my wife juices carrots, apples, berries, etc to take for lunch.

We're not entirely self-sufficient, but if we were willing to drop a few items from our diet, we could eat for a LONG time without a trip to the store. Months, at least.

Edit: All this talk of food got me thinking about a snack, so I opened a jar of pickled jalapenos with dill and garlic. I made them months ago, but we have so many other jars of pickles and chili relishes open already that I have not tried them until now. Excellent! They have such a wonderful flavor that if I start running low on habanero relish, I will start using these on sandwiches and hot dogs instead.

Now I'm hungry too!

Very cool about the preserves and the cold storage veggies. I like Astronuc's hop farm idea. I don't know about you guys but the kind of beer I like to drink is pretty costly... unless you go to my favorite Irish Pub. Its a little better priced than most. Bono and his U2 mates were there while they rehearsed their last world tour. We had the Police here doing their kick off for their tour as well, but Sting and those guys are into foo foo chique stuff rather than Kilkenny, Guiness etc...

I once had so many raspberries I made frozen juice. But it kind of pains me to do so because I so enjoy a raspberry in the raw!

Here's a strawberry patch architecture you might want to try. Its basically a pyramid of soil with cascading boards holding the soil up. The plants get equal light and produce ginormous sized fruit. The draw back is that the soil tends to fall after a few years of rain, freezing etc... its those damn physicists I'm sure of it.

 

[turbo]

I once had so many raspberries I made frozen juice. But it kind of pains me to do so because I so enjoy a raspberry in the raw!

You've got to take them as they come. Last summer was an off-year for wild blackberries so we ate them as they were picked. We've still got some frozen from the previous year, though. That was a bumper crop, and for a couple of months, I could go picking every other day and come back with at least a gallon of berries. We had about 20 gallons in the freezer at the end of the season. They go great in pancakes!

 

[baywax]

You've got to take them as they come. Last summer was an off-year for wild blackberries so we ate them as they were picked. We've still got some frozen from the previous year, though. That was a bumper crop, and for a couple of months, I could go picking every other day and come back with at least a gallon of berries. We had about 20 gallons in the freezer at the end of the season. They go great in pancakes!

Which reminds me... syrup! Summerland has a company that makes these syrups from the many berries they grow there. Every kind of berry imaginable. You can get a six pack of gooseberry, blackberry, raspberry, elderberry, strawberry, boysenberry syrups for around 34 cdn bucks. Thats around 150 bucks usd! (just kidding)

So that is an industry to look at. You'd have to get people used to the idea of berry syrups as opposed to good old maple syrup which really only does well, growing wise, out your way on this huge continent of ours.

I remember this ranch I fenced as a neighbourly deed once. They were close to self-sufficient. The trouble is that it doesn't matter how well you garden your garden or husband your goats, you've got to maintain the human relationship thing and you've got to withstand a lot of pressure from the lure of big bucks for your land.

(edit) I had about 8 walnut trees on my land and this guy told me about a guy who planted around 2000 walnut trees on his. He did this when he was around 25. By the time he was 70 he chopped them all down and made over 500,000 dollars selling the wood which is fairly coveted by cabinet and furniture makers. Think about that one!

 

[turbo]

Well, I don't think walnut trees would stand our climate, but I've got a thing for fruit trees and have recently planted apricot, peach, pear, and plum trees with two varieties of cherry and three varieties of apple, in addition to the other 4 apple trees on the side lawns and old trees that I leave wild to feed the critters. I won't get any valuable lumber, but hopefully the fruit (and the berries on the ornamentals I planted) will keep the birds and us happy.

 

[Astronuc]

We have walnut trees in our area, and we get hard freezes, and sometimes the temp gets down to -20°F (-28.9°C), or a little less.

I think parts of BC and ME have similar climates.

 

[turbo]

We have walnut trees in our area, and we get hard freezes, and sometimes the temp gets down to -20°F (-28.9°C), or a little less.

I think parts of BC and ME have similar climates.

Interesting. With our steadily-warming winters and temperate summers, it may be possible to get walnut trees thriving here. Certainly, butternut trees are all over, and chestnuts used to be fairly common, I understand. I know your wife wants to move to a warmer place, but if you come up here to the Kennebec Valley, it will get warmer eventually and you and I can raise garlic, chilies, hops - whatever and try to cut a swath through the bland crap in the supermarkets. Really, the chilies in the markets are a joke, the garlic is snarly, offensive stuff, and consumers don't know the difference. When I think of this situation, I always flash back on a Guy Clark song "Home Grown Tomatoes" in which he sings the praises of a fruit that simply cannot be bought in a store.


"There's only two things that money can't buy, and that's true love and home-grown tomatoes."

 

[Astronuc]

Vegetables from our garden are SOOOOOOO much better than what we buy in the store!

"There's only two things that money can't buy, and that's true love and home-grown tomatoes."

How true!

 

[baywax]

Vegetables from our garden are SOOOOOOO much better than what we buy in the store!

How true!

Yeah! And the only beer that makes me think I'm indulging in fresh picked produce is Kilkenny from Ireland. Drinking it is like having a mountain stream pouring directly into your mouth. I only know this because I'm a g****** Frostback Canuck!

Tragically my son had never eaten an apple off of a tree. I think he was around 2 at the time when he finally did. We were on a long road trip and its always good to pull into a motel and swim and explore after sitting in the car for too long. This motel we stopped at, up the tip of the Okanagan Valley (which is really all about Orchards and Vineyards) had a big Golden Delicious apple tree on the property. We went into a frenzy of eating these apples and it really was so far removed from the refrigerated produce in the flourescent lit retail experience.

Then the owner had to let us know that those was just "pieing" apples. That's why the skin was so transluscent you could see the appleseeds. And its why they were bursting with juice and sugars. Perfect!

 

[baywax]

We have walnut trees in our area, and we get hard freezes, and sometimes the temp gets down to -20°F (-28.9°C), or a little less.

I think parts of BC and ME have similar climates.

Sorry my acrynomics is rusty. ME = ? is it Middle East? Wintersodae? Marylande?

I think Turbo can grow Sugar Maples... its never too cold for them. Quebec is famous for them and it goes very cold there. The last ice storm that happened there put a lot of tree farms out of bus for a year or two.

 

[turbo]

Sorry my acrynomics is rusty. ME = ? is it Middle East? Wintersodae? Marylande?

I think Turbo can grow Sugar Maples... its never too cold for them. Quebec is famous for them and it goes very cold there. The last ice storm that happened there put a lot of tree farms out of bus for a year or two.

ME is Maine. And yes we do have a thriving maple syrup industry, though the very odd warm winters have screwed up the sap flows and syrup production. There are very few concerns that could be described as "farms" and the big guys are dependent on leased tapping access to huge tracts of timberland.

 

[baywax]

ME is Maine. And yes we do have a thriving maple syrup industry, though the very odd warm winters have screwed up the sap flows and syrup production. There are very few concerns that could be described as "farms" and the big guys are dependent on leased tapping access to huge tracts of timberland.

Leased tapping! Another subtle reference to beer. I know what its like though. We've got scads of timberland and its leased out by the Govt to MacBlo or Fletcher's... mostly foreign companies. That is changing now with the onslaught of the Pine Beetle infestation. Its like there's one more harvest in many regions and then its time to come up with another industry. I'm still drafting a proposal to fight the beetle with coke a cola.

The Indian farmers use pepsi and coke to attract ants which in turn eat the larva of pests that eat their crops. It has so far proven very effective. My suggestion is to use the same technique on the pine beetle. There are ants up to a certain latitude here and I just need to find out if they extend up to Ft St John and Prince George etc...

If you have any knowledge about northern ants and pine trees please let me know.

 

[baywax]

Here's good news about ants in Northern BC.

Ants of Central Interior British Columbia
The insect fauna of Central Interior and Northern British Columbia is very poorly known. It is not surprising then, that very little is known about the ants of this region. Very few collections of ants have been made north of the Chilcotin, so it is difficult to estimate the number of ant species present in this region. Based on collections, Francoeur (1997) estimated a minimum of 25 species of ants in the Yukon. Similar numbers are likely in the Central Interior of British Columbia. To date, we have found 23 species in three subfamilies near Prince George, and an additional number of species near Houston, BC, and Williams Lake, BC.

http://web.unbc.ca/~lindgren/ants_main.html

This bodes well for an experimental spraying of pop on a pine beetle infested area of pine forest. I don't think ants are going to care if they're climbing 100 feet up a tree to get at that sugary smell! This could be the solution to these damn beetles. The reason they've flourished is because winters there, in central BC, have warmed up and the beetles die off only at -40 C.

As for the dead wood, of which there is tons, some of it has made it into cabinetry because of the blue stains the larvae make. But, there's another solution probably taking place right now...

Ants utilizing dead wood
Many ants utilize dead wood for nest construction. The most well-known of these are the carpenter ants, Camponotus spp. These large, but often shy and non-aggressive ants construct their nests in decayed logs or standing trees, including heart-rotted live trees. Many other ants also utilize wood, e.g., species in the genus Formica often nest in stumps or coarse woody debris.

I'll be contacting the BC Forestry ministry about all of this. This is how "our garden grows".

 

[baywax]

Here's what I got back from the professor who wrote the above article about ants. He actually studies Bark Beetle management.

Dear (baywax),

Well, in principle your thinking has merit. There are some major differences between agricultural crops in India and pine forests in BC, however. I have looked at some pine stands with extremely high densities of ants which forage in these trees – all of these stands have been killed. These are the problems:

The sheer area that needs protection. It would simply not be feasible to spray anything except on high value trees at golf courses, city parks, and back yards etc.

The ants forage in the crown of the tree, so they aren’t really all that effective at preventing bark beetles from occupying the bark. In agricultural crops they are mostly after honeydew from aphids, which is why they like the sugary residue from pop (any sugar solution would do).

Many ant species are active in the morning and evening, whereas bark beetles are active in the middle of the day. Furthermore, the bark beetles are only on the bark for an hour or less (once they bore into the bark they are not accessible to the ants any more), whereas the pests you are referring to in India would be on the plants for weeks or months.

Finally, the damage to BC’s forests has pretty much been done.

I don’t mean to come across as overly negative, but because of my interest in ants (and bark beetles – bark beetle management is really my area of expertise rather than ants) I have thought about the potential effects of ants on bark beetles, and unfortunately there has been no effect at all.

Thanks for sharing your idea with me, though. Sooner or later one of these ideas will lead to something, so I do appreciate it.

Staffan

***************************************
B. Staffan Lindgren, Professor
Ecosystem Science and Management
University of Northern British Columbia
Prince George, BC

 

[Math Jeans]

My habanero plant is getting pretty big, and I am starting to fear that its roots might nit the edges of the pot and get burned.

I'm planning on moving it into the ground, however, I do not know how to move it. I imagine it is different than moving little plants.

 

[turbo]

My habanero plant is getting pretty big, and I am starting to fear that its roots might nit the edges of the pot and get burned.

I'm planning on moving it into the ground, however, I do not know how to move it. I imagine it is different than moving little plants.

Dig a hole slightly larger than the pot, and transplant the entire contents of the pot into that hole, trying not to disturb the roots. Fill any gaps with good potting soil and tamp it in with a stick or some other tool, then give the plant a good drink of water. That's all. Habaneros don't need a lot of nitrogen (that produces VERY leafy plants with fewer blossoms), but they like to have a pH of about 6.5-7 or so and a good mix of nutrients (compost is good because it has a complex mix of organic nutrients, not just simpler chemicals). If your plant seems to look kind of "flat" and doesn't perk up within a few days of transplanting, you might want to make up a weak solution of epsom salts and water and water the plant with that, making sure to wet the leaves. Do that in the evening, not in the bright sun.

 

[Astronuc]

Adding what turbo mentioned, make a hole in the ground about 2 to 3 times the diameter of the pot in which the plant is growing. File the hole around the potted soil with comparable soil, and water it initially. Doing in cool of evening let's the plant get accustomed to the new environment and doesn't stress it by water loss as would be the case in the daytime, especially in direct sunlight. One could even shade the plant for couple of days.

MJ, can you take a digital image?

 

[Evo]

This is a side note, not to do with the habenero, which is a more sensitive little plant. It just reminded me of the following.

Did you ever see Jim transplant plants in the Victory Garden show? My heart would stop at what he'd do to the roots. I was always so careful, but he'd knock those plants out, rip the roots up then stamp them into the ground, next thing you knew it was twice the size of the original.

But I learned that (especially when a plant was root bound) that breaking up the roots (in the right way) actually stimulated new root growth. It is customary to score into the roots about 1/4 to 1/2 inch depending on root ball size, you slice across them in a diamond shape. and gently fan out the bottom of the root ball. The reasoning behind this is that you want the roots to grow into the new dirt, rather than continue in a ball.

 

[Astronuc]

We typically score the sides of the root ball in 8 or more places depending on the size. The first time I did it, I cringed, but it works.

One has to get out the roots which wrap circumferentially around the root ball. One is supposed to do that for trees too.

 

[Ouabache]

Did you ever see Jim transplant plants in the Victory Garden show? My heart would stop at what he'd do to the roots. I was always so careful, but he'd knock those plants out, rip the roots up then stamp them into the ground, next thing you knew it was twice the size of the original.

Are you talking about Jamie Durie who hosted the show this past season, or the original James Underwood Crockett? Crockett gave me inspiration to explore the world of gardening. To this day, I steep a 5 gal bucket of manure tea, that he described. I use for both indoor and outdoor plants. They flower like crazy with that stuff.

 

[Ouabache]

How does my garden grow? Pretty dead, this time of year. Though the harvest preparations are still in full swing. I am putting up apples for pies & sauce, and baking pumpkins for breads, pie & soup.. Do you like pie?

 

[Evo]

Are you talking about Jamie Durie who hosted the show this past season, or the original James Underwood Crockett? Crockett gave me inspiration to explore the world of gardening. To this day, I steep a 5 gal bucket of manure tea, that he described. I use for both indoor and outdoor plants. They flower like crazy with that stuff.

The original Jim Crockett, that guy was amazing.

 

[turbo]

The temperature is not quite up to 20 deg F and the garden is covered with snow, but there's still stuff going on in there. Last sunday, I chopped frozen dirt (frozen quite deeply!) to plant my garlic, and there are parsnips in the ground, being conditioned and sweetened by the cold. Both crops are mulched with oat straw to help protect them from the worst of the cold, and we should get between 1-2 feet of snow Sunday-Monday, which will provide a mediating influence and more insulation.

 

[Math Jeans]

MJ, can you take a digital image?

Sorry for the delay. Yes, I'll try to get an image of the plant.

Yesterday, I planted another Savannah red habanero plant. This time I took a different approach.

I put soil into a cup, planted the seed in the cup, put wrap over the top to retain moisture, and then put the cup under the lamp in my Gecko's cage. Just for a head start on the plant so it isn't overwhelmed when I bring it outside. Although we don't get snow (and only four days of frost a year), the winters in phoenix get into the 30s.

I'll attempt to get a picture of my larger plant later today. I can't make any promises though. The plant just recently started budding again, so I have a few greens on there, but no orange yet (unless it has changed from yesterday). Maybe it has, I gave it Miracle Grow :D.

 

[turbo]

Here's my garden today. All tucked in for the winter.

 

[Math Jeans]

Here's my garden today. All tucked in for the winter.

OMG