What Are Some Tips for Successful Gardening?

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Gardening is a cherished activity for many participants, with roots tracing back to childhood experiences and family traditions. Organic gardening methods are favored, emphasizing the use of natural techniques over chemicals. Current gardening efforts include cultivating perennials like blueberries and raspberries, alongside plans for vegetable and herb gardens. Participants express a desire for more space to garden, reflecting on the challenges of apartment living and the joy of nurturing plants. The discussion highlights cultural differences in gardening practices, particularly contrasting American and Spanish lifestyles regarding home and garden ownership.
  • #511
Eh. Sorry, I couldn't find my camera yesterday. I'll try this weekend.

One more question. How long does it usually take a seed to sprout? I need to know how long I should wait until I deem a seed as bad (seeing as I've had my seeds for a while and that is a possibility). If the seed is bad, would it be logical to plant a different type of plant? How good are tabasco peppers? Am I starting to get annoying?
 
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  • #512
Habanero seeds germinate in about 1-2 weeks, and will germinate better and grow faster if the soil is kept warm. That's why I get my plants from the greenhouse in town instead of starting mine from seed. I don't have any place near windows (for light) that can be kept around 80, and the greenhouse is perfect for that.
 
  • #513
turbo-1 said:
Habanero seeds germinate in about 1-2 weeks, and will germinate better and grow faster if the soil is kept warm. That's why I get my plants from the greenhouse in town instead of starting mine from seed. I don't have any place near windows (for light) that can be kept around 80, and the greenhouse is perfect for that.

Ya. I planted my seed in a cup, and then put the cup in my gecko's cage under his heat lamp. I think it should be fine.
 
  • #514
The honeysuckles are still flowering and its Dec 7. We've got about the same weather as Turbo. I credit this phenomenally extended blooming to the nutrients from the banana peel I stuck in the soil with the honeysuckle plants this fall. I also added to the plant's longevity by "pinching" old flowers and adding them to the potting soil.
 
  • #515
While most gardening activities have been suspended for the winter, we still collect fallen leaves and mulch/compost them for use in the spring, and non-meat kitchen scraps still get added to the compost pile.

We have occasional guests looking for food. Last night it was an opposum scrounging around the bird feeders.

FYI -
Whether rural, residential or in the wilderness, opossums are a benefit to any area they inhabit. Their diet includes all types of bugs and insects including cockroaches, crickets and beetles. They love snails. They also eat mice and rats. The nocturnal opossum is attracted to our neighborhoods by the availability of water, pet food left out at night and overripe, rotting fruit that has fallen from trees. The opossum in turn helps keep our neighborhoods clean and free of unwanted, harmful garden pests and rodents, which may carry diseases. The opossum has earned the title of "Nature's Little Sanitation Engineer."
http://www.opossumsocietyus.org/opossum.html
 
  • #516
We are a bit far north for possums, but one summer when we were living in Skowhegan, one regularly visited our bird-feeder. He never showed up alone, either. He was always in the company of a cat, a skunk, or a raccoon. Very sociable little fellow.
 
  • #517
We got another foot of snow yesterday with a bit of sleet mixed in. I need to go out and clean that up, but the wind is howling away about 30mph with higher gusts, and that makes it pretty tough to run a snowblower without getting a lot of it right back in your face. My wife juiced a bunch of fruits yesterday to combine with the carrot juice that I made a while back. That meant that we had pulp to add to our (now frozen) compost bins, and she slipped on her tall rubber boots to make the trek to the bins. Those boots are no longer tall enough to keep out the snow. The ski areas and snowmobilers should have a good winter, if this weather holds, and my garlic and parsnips will be protected from extreme cold by a thick blanket of snow.
 
  • #518
One interesting aspect of opossums -

Question: Do opossums carry rabies?

Answer: Any mammal can get rabies. However, the chance of rabies in an opossum is EXTREMELY RARE. This may have something to do with the opossum’s low body temperature (94-97º F) making it difficult for the virus to survive in an opossum’s body.
from the FAQ page of the opposum site.

So presumably, people with low body temperature may have some resistance to rabies? Actually, the apparent treatment for rabies in humans, assuming that it's too late for the shot, is to put the person in a drug-induced coma for about a week. This shuts down the brain activity and prevents the damage (apparently uncontrolled electrical activity) associated with the viral activity.
 
  • #519
We got about 8 inches after all two nights ago. Yesterday morning, I was having coffee thinking I should have replenished the salt/ice melt. Just then, I heard a 'clunk', 'grrack', 'clunk', 'clunk' from the street. It was a city plow waiting for its follow-up plow to catch up. I looked out a minute later, and where the first truck had stopped was a pile of salt--the truck must have had stopped few just a minute or two and kept putting out the salt. The pile was about six inches high. To prevent (uh--hmm) such a large pile 'contaminating' the surrounding area, I went out and scooped it up. It turned out to be about 80 lbs.
 
  • #520
Interesting. We have opossums in the southern part of the state, but I don't remember any of them being implicated in a rabies incident. Raccoons, foxes, skunks, bats and feral cats seem to be the most common carriers.
 
  • #521
rewebster said:
We got about 8 inches after all two nights ago. Yesterday morning, I was having coffee thinking I should have replenished the salt/ice melt. Just then, I heard a 'clunk', 'grrack', 'clunk', 'clunk' from the street. It was a city plow waiting for its follow-up plow to catch up. I looked out a minute later, and where the first truck had stopped was a pile of salt--the truck must have had stopped few just a minute or two and kept putting out the salt. The pile was about six inches high. To prevent (uh--hmm) such a large pile 'contaminating' the surrounding area, I went out and scooped it up. It turned out to be about 80 lbs.
Our town's trucks "sand" the roads with sand that is loaded with stones in the 1/2"-1" range. I suspect that the road commissioner has a brother that owns a sand pit and doesn't want to bother screening the sand, and that he has another brother who owns an auto-glass business.
 
  • #522
The cold is starting to show on my habanero plant. I hope is survives the winter.
 
  • #523
turbo-1 said:
Our town's trucks "sand" the roads with sand that is loaded with stones in the 1/2"-1" range. I suspect that the road commissioner has a brother that owns a sand pit and doesn't want to bother screening the sand, and that he has another brother who owns an auto-glass business.
Or they use the same trucks for sand and stone, and don't bother to clean out the bin.
 
  • #524
Astronuc said:
Or they use the same trucks for sand and stone, and don't bother to clean out the bin.
The dump bodies have motorized sanding inserts slid into them for road-sanding, and the inserts don't get used for hauling gravel. It's just poor-quality unscreened sand with lots of small stones in it.
 
  • #525
Christmas came early for me. The seed that I planted in a cup that I put in my gecko's cage sprouted last night! Woo hoo!
 
  • #526
Math Jeans said:
Christmas came early for me. The seed that I planted in a cup that I put in my gecko's cage sprouted last night! Woo hoo!
Too cool! Remember that chilies like heat, they don't like too much water, and they fruit better when you don't give them lots of nitrogen. If you give them high-nitrogen soils, they will produce lots of leaves and fewer peppers. You have to keep these guys stressed (compared to regular garden vegetables) to get the best out of them. Best of luck!
 
  • #527
One of my orchids is in the middle of its blooming period - in the middle of winter!

img0050nc2.jpg


It has been going on so far for the past month. It is the first time in its flowering cycle that it is doing this in the middle of winter. I'm a bit apprehensive about it because the place is usually kept rather cool in winter (around 70F), and since it is also close to the window for its dose of sun, it is in an even cooler place. Since it normally likes warmer, more humid climate, I am not sure how well this flowering cycle will turn out.

So far, it seems to be doing OK. I try to give it a misty squirt whenever I remember, hoping it'll get the humidity it needs. With the number of buds still left to open, this will definitely go on till the end of the month, at least.

Zz.
 
  • #528
I'll be buying my seeds this week, and start them indoors by march 1.
 
  • #529
The cold was too much and my habanero plant outside died :(. However, the plant in my room is getting bigger. It will probably be big enough to move outside right when the weather gets warmer.
 
  • #530
ZapperZ said:
One of my orchids is in the middle of its blooming period - in the middle of winter!

img0050nc2.jpg


It has been going on so far for the past month. It is the first time in its flowering cycle that it is doing this in the middle of winter. I'm a bit apprehensive about it because the place is usually kept rather cool in winter (around 70F), and since it is also close to the window for its dose of sun, it is in an even cooler place. Since it normally likes warmer, more humid climate, I am not sure how well this flowering cycle will turn out.

So far, it seems to be doing OK. I try to give it a misty squirt whenever I remember, hoping it'll get the humidity it needs. With the number of buds still left to open, this will definitely go on till the end of the month, at least.

Zz.
That's beautiful! I wonder why it decided to bloom?
 
  • #531
Ok, I need some ideas for this spring. I have a patio with a southwestern exposure. Due to limited space, I am going to have to do tiered planting. I'm going to go for "bush" varieties of tomatoes, squash, etc... I'm not sure I'm going to have enough natural sunlight since the patio has a roof. Does anyone have any experience with patio gardening? Will I need to add artificial lighting?
 
  • #532
Bush tomatoes as in wild -purple flowering- http://www.bushtuckershop.com/prod16.htm

They would definitely need lots of light. I'm not sure if I should recommend http://picasaweb.google.com/Miranda.Whitman/GardenProgression2007/photo#5070719482424536402 . :rolleyes:

Edit: Flower suggestion for shaded areas: Impatiens, many variaties of Buzzy Lizzy available
 
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  • #533
Evo said:
Ok, I need some ideas for this spring. I have a patio with a southwestern exposure. Due to limited space, I am going to have to do tiered planting. I'm going to go for "bush" varieties of tomatoes, squash, etc... I'm not sure I'm going to have enough natural sunlight since the patio has a roof. Does anyone have any experience with patio gardening? Will I need to add artificial lighting?
Fruit-bearing plants need light. Tomatoes need light to ripen.

There are a variety plants that require partial sun (or part/partial shade), which might work.

See the bottom of this page for ideas - http://www.perennialplants.com/partial.htm


On the south side of the patio, one could put the tomato/squash/pepper plant (s), in a large pot (5 gal) with a lattice. Sugar peas or sting beans would work too.

On the north side, put plants that can cope with as little as 4 hrs of sun (in afternoon).

Is this one of those patios with a high (> 6 ft) fence so no one can look into the apartment, or is it a second floor or higher patio with a low wall so that more sunlight is possible?
 
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  • #534
Evo said:
Ok, I need some ideas for this spring. I have a patio with a southwestern exposure. Due to limited space, I am going to have to do tiered planting. I'm going to go for "bush" varieties of tomatoes, squash, etc... I'm not sure I'm going to have enough natural sunlight since the patio has a roof. Does anyone have any experience with patio gardening? Will I need to add artificial lighting?
Some plants can tolerate partial sun pretty well. If you like salads, you could plant a couple of window-boxes with mesclun or a leaf lettuce like black-seeded Simpson. That particular variety of lettuce is very hardy and will keep producing even through early frosts next fall. Just cut it and use it, and it keeps growing back. Swiss chard rebounds from cutting, too. It tends to get tougher in texture in mid-summer. I don't know if that is due to the temperature or to the sunlight, so perhaps a patio with lots of indirect sunlight would be a good place to grow it. Swiss chard is very high in vitamins K, A, and C.
 
  • #535
Astronuc said:
Is this one of those patios with a high (> 6 ft) fence so no one can look into the apartment, or is it a second floor or higher patio with a low wall so that more sunlight is possible?
Ground floor patio, no fence, it opens onto a small backyard and a ravine, lots of privacy. But I can only plant on my patio since the grounds are kept.

Here is a tomato I was thinking of http://www.burpee.com/product/vegetables/tomatoes/beefsteak+tomatoes/tomato+-+bushsteak+hybrid+%281+pkt.+30+seeds%29.do
 
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  • #536
Most tomatoes need lots of full sun to develop large, ripe fruits. Here is a site that lists some varieties that can produce in partial sun. We generally concentrate on Big Boys and Early Girls, with a few Sweet 100 cherry tomato plants for shish kebabs and basket-grilling.

http://www.garden-helper.com/Shop/tomatoes.asp
 
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  • #537
I have a miniature fir tree, it is six months old and still alive, i am going to grow a miniature forest.
 
  • #538
wolram said:
I have a miniature fir tree, it is six months old and still alive, i am going to grow a miniature forest.

Like this?

contest_eddie_levinthol_candle_forest.jpg


or this?

contest_Roberto_Gerpe_FlorestaPtecol.jpg


Also excellent for patio's
 
  • #539
Mine is like a baby Christmas tree, it is the first thing to survive in my garden.

I like the bottom one Andre, may be i will try a mixed forest.
 
  • #540
wolram said:
Mine is like a baby Christmas tree, it is the first thing to survive in my garden.

More like this then?

http://www.bonsai-wbff.org/enclosedbygrace_files/JuniperusSeikechinensis-400w-338h.JPG

The best deciduous tree for outdoors bonsai groups (best survivor on dark patios) is Ulmus parviflora.

arbo_chinese_elm.jpg


But pruning and trimming is a lot of work, you have to recompose the group every year, for trimming the roots, which are growing extremely fast.
 
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