What Are Some Tips for Successful Gardening?

[Evo]

My eggplants are budding - YAY!

I have baby tomatoes

My bell peppers are doing great

 

[Evo]

My squash have survived getting squashed.

and here are tiny cucumbers

I also bought a gypsy pepper plant. I'll post pictures of those after they produce, they look very pretty. I did not know that they were sought after by frou frou restaurants, I might not have bought them, but too late.

 

[~christina~]

Still got tulips in your garden, Christina? Right here the season is long past.

I'd like to say yes but this was taken somewhere within the past 2 months. (I never got around to posting the pic)
Right now, only the roses and lillies are in bloom.

Christina and Borek, those are just beautiful!

Thanks Evo
Wow that's a lot of vegetable plants. You look like you could have a vegetable sale

Very nice gardens Christina and Borek. Beautiful flowers.

Thanks Astronuc

 

[Borek]

Thank's to everybody who wrote my garden is beautiful.

Long live the art of picture cropping

 

[Evo]

Anyone considering buying Schultz's "Garden Safe" Fungicide for "Organic Gardening", do not buy it, save yourself $6. You might as well just spit on the plant for all the good it does.

I have been following the directions religiously for about a month and the powdery mildew seems to be feeding on the stuff and has spread like wildfire.

Unfortunately it was the ONLY fungicide sold at the store I was at.

I just bought some real fungicide and hope it's not too late to save my plant.

I hope this saves someone else the anguish this product has caused me.

 

[Andre]

Did you identify the kind of mildew? Evo. Right here we have false mildew (most on the back of the leafs) and the normal mildew (on top of the leafs) with several different features. There are probably more. Each may require different cures.

Best to inspect plants daily and remove infected parts immediately.

 

[hypatia]

Made 5 jars of strawberry jam today. This is the first year the critters left me enough to do something with.

Nice photos everyone.

 

[Moonbear]

I need to get out and get some photos of my plants. My deck is lined with tomato plants in pots (all have flowers on them now, my mouth is already watering in anticipation), some basil and oregano, a few annual flowers, my hibiscus which is finally recovering from a rough winter indoors (white fly and cat attacks), and a small plot of zucchini on the ground (with all the rain we've been getting, those plants are noticeably bigger every day...no buds yet, but the seed was only planted about a month ago, and at the rate they're growing, I hope to find them budding any day).

I like Borek's and Christina's gardens. I think there's something very nice and charming about a small backyard that's entirely a garden. It was something I really liked when I visited New Orleans (pre-Katrina). Every building had a tiny backyard, and they would be filled with flowers and a small sitting area, and the fences covered with flowering vines made it feel very private in spite of there being another building so close. It was kind of cozy...if you wanted your own quiet retreat, you sit in the backyard, if you want to be social and friendly with the neighbors, you sit on the front porch. I'm considering a neighborhood like that here as a place to move (I was originally thinking of living further out in the country, but with rising gas prices, am reconsidering adding more commuting time...we have a neighborhood close to campus where a lot of faculty live that's very quaint like that and the yards are just big enough for a small vegetable garden and some flowers and some guests for a backyard bbq, which is all I really need in a yard).

 

[turbo]

Application of powdered elemental sulfur takes care of every type of powdery mildew that my garden has been hit with, including a really nasty infestation that showed up during wet weather in string beans that had been planted a bit too thick. It also knocked down an infestation in my Black-Seeded Simpson leaf lettuce and another one that started invading my tomato plants. I made the mistake of planting things too densely last season, and when we got weather that impeded air-drying during the day, the mildews hit.

I just weeded the entire garden - the sun came out this morning finally. While out there, I noticed some insect damage to leaves of beans and peppers, as well as the previously-known rhubarb leaf damage, so I mixed up a watering can with BT (baccilus thuringiensis) to give those bugs belly-aches. The active ingredient is a natural non-toxic spore that paralyzes the guts of many leaf-eating insects. Since the rains have stopped, I intend to mix a little BT with my canola-oil tree spray to protect my fruit trees. I just killed my first Japanese beetle of the season, and I am NOT too happy to see any of those around. They attacked my raspberry bushes, peach tree, and others last year. Hopefully, I can get ahead of them this year and kill them off with BT before they have a chance to breed.

 

[rewebster]

I have some lilies blooming

Ants seem to find something sweet, like the sap on the buds of peonies.

The hollyhocks are starting to bloom too

Hollyhocks are perennial. They live for about 5 years.

 

[Ouabache]

While out there, I noticed some insect damage to leaves of beans and peppers, as well as the previously-known rhubarb leaf damage, so I mixed up a watering can with BT (baccilus thuringiensis) to give those bugs belly-aches. The active ingredient is a natural non-toxic spore that paralyzes the guts of many leaf-eating insects. Since the rains have stopped, I intend to mix a little BT with my canola-oil tree spray to protect my fruit trees. I just killed my first Japanese beetle of the season, and I am NOT too happy to see any of those around. They attacked my raspberry bushes, peach tree, and others last year. Hopefully, I can get ahead of them this year and kill them off with BT before they have a chance to breed.

Do you know which variety(s) of BT are you using?

Here are some examples and what they target. (http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/pathogens/bacteria.html )
Bacillus thuringiensis
var. tenebrionis - Colorado potato beetle and elm leaf beetle larvae
var. kurstaki - caterpillars
var. israelensis - mosquito, black fly, and fungus gnat larvae
var. aizawai - wax moth larvae and various caterpillars, especially the diamondback moth caterpillar

I would probably go with some BT tenebrionis to go after the coleopterans on your vegetables.

 

[Ouabache]

Made 5 jars of strawberry jam today.
Nice photos everyone.

Yummm, I love strawberries
I wonder, have you had any success making jam that is low in sugar?

 

[Borek]

I have some lilies blooming

Nice ones

Too early for lilies here, they need some more time. But once they start to bloom I will post pictures as well.

 

[turbo]

Do you know which variety(s) of BT are you using?

Here are some examples and what they target. (http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/pathogens/bacteria.html )
Bacillus thuringiensis
var. tenebrionis - Colorado potato beetle and elm leaf beetle larvae
var. kurstaki - caterpillars
var. israelensis - mosquito, black fly, and fungus gnat larvae
var. aizawai - wax moth larvae and various caterpillars, especially the diamondback moth caterpillar

I would probably go with some BT tenebrionis to go after the coleopterans on your vegetables.

I'm using kurstaki, since most of the damage seems to be done by caterpillars. It may have no real effect on the Japanese beetles, but they are easy to smother with soapy water, anyway.

 

[Evo]

Beautiful lillies rew!

I was reading the "stupidest gardening mistakes" on the GardenWeb site and thought I would share it. This is the funniest I've read so far, lots more stories at the link.

* Posted by: MrsBeasley 4a Northern Ont on Wed, Feb 20, 02 at 21:56

My MIL had a big, beautiful garden on the side of a hill, and as her family was getting smaller, she offered me all the space I wanted. I planted a lot of vegetables, but the mistake I made was that I planted the whole packet of turnip (rutabaga) seeds. I had a row of turnip 50 feet long. I had the nicest crop of turnip you could imagine. There was only my husband and myself to eat them, but I know lots of people that like them, I could give some away.

When it came time to harvest them, I worked my heart out. I'd cut off the root and leaves, and fill the wheelbarrow, trot the wheelbarrow down the row and pile the turnips on the grass. I worked for hours!

Finally, I was done, I took the knife into the house and washed it off, and went back out to the garden to admire my turnips. I had a pile of turnips as tall as I am. I was almost up to this great pile when a few turnips at the bottom of the pile moved, the whole lot of them started rolling down the hill. I was chasing after them, I'd gather a few in my arms and when I'd reach for another the ones in my arms would get away and continue down the hill. I must have made quite a sight, because my brother-in-law was laughing at me. "You'd better catch them," he called, "They're going to wipe out the neighbor's house"!

I eventually got them rounded up, but it turns out everyone doesn't like turnip the way I do! :-) I wound up serving turnip at least once a week in every way you can imagine. I served them boiled, fried, in stew, I cooked them up and added pumpkin pie spice and made fake pumpkin pie! I thought it was rather inventive of me, but it was the turnip fritters that finally did me in. My husband took one bite and gasped. He had thought that he was biting into an apple fritter. He said he didn't care if he NEVER ate another turnip! I was NOT to grow them ever again! I guess he just doesn't have a sense of humor! LOL

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/peren/2002092316009274.html

 

[turbo]

It's that time of year, again! Garlic-growers eagerly anticipate this season. This is when the curved central seed-stalk (called a scape) emerges from the garlic. Scapes must be removed to encourage more robust growth in the bulbs, but that's not the good part. The good part is that they taste kind of like onion tops, with a wonderful mild garlic flavor. You can use them in salads and stir-fries, and I found a recipe for scape pesto on the 'net, and I think we're going to try that, too.

 

[rewebster]

thanks, borekevo----


hey, turbo,-- 'scape'--hmm---I hadn't heard that term before, interesting term--do they have a recipe with goat?

 

[Andre]

Meanwhile, I visited my... errm ...remote island garden to find this beautiful darkest red rose.

the picture doesn't begin to express it's very delicate velvet apperance. Well it's the best I could do.

 

[turbo]

Here's the recipe that I thought sounded good. If you'll Google around, you'll find that a lot of people love these rascals.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/2006/06/my_friend_the_garlic_scape_1.html

And one with pictures:
http://cc-calendula.blogspot.com/2007/06/garlic-scape-pesto.html

Scape-goats:
http://madeater.blogspot.com/2008/06/scape-goats.html

 

[turbo]

Today, my wife and I ripped out the first crop of spinach, which had bolted (you can see a bit of it in the garlic picture) and hoed up that row and planted several more flats of habanero plants and tomatoes. I also re-planted buttercup squash for the 2nd time - this darned rain is rotting the seeds and germination is poor. We had torrential rains again last night, lightning, and severe winds that broke one of my neighbor's lilacs. The greenhouse planted LOTS of vegetable seeds this year in anticipation of the high demand, and we got some pretty good deals on seedlings yesterday. If we're swamped with tomatoes and chilies - well, I'll just make more salsas and freeze the vegetables for soups and sauces over the winter. The salsas in the store are just nasty compared to mine, and my nieces and nephews love to butter me up when they visit for cookouts, etc, so I'll send a jar home with them. I'm trying to encourage them to make their own, but it seems that people in their 20s are just not "hooked in" to gardening, cooking and food preservation.

 

[Evo]

Meanwhile, I visited my... errm ...remote island garden to find this beautiful darkest red rose.

the picture doesn't begin to express it's very delicate velvet apperance. Well it's the best I could do.

Andre, it's gorgeous, do you know the name?

 

[rewebster]

Meanwhile, I visited my... errm ...remote island garden to find this beautiful darkest red rose.

the picture doesn't begin to express it's very delicate velvet apperance. Well it's the best I could do.

that IS a really attractive variety



(I don't exactly know why, but I thought of one woman's cheek that I used to go with (the woman, not just the 'cheek') when I saw that rose---(the 'cheek' between the nose and the ear))

 

[Andre]

Andre, it's gorgeous, do you know the name?

Most certainly, Evo

 

[rewebster]

ahh-hemm---you're pretty thorough about you putting labels for your flowers at your garden--(it's still one of the nicest varieties I've seen)

 

[rewebster]

here's another color of lily that opened:

 

[Andre]

ahh-hemm---you're pretty thorough about you putting labels for your flowers at your garden--(it's still one of the nicest varieties I've seen)

Please try to figure out what this introduction seems to be telling:

Meanwhile, I visited my... errm ...remote island garden to find this beautiful darkest red rose.

Hey I paid for visiting the place many times, so I consider it a little bit 'mine'

Anyway to make up, here are little crops of all the pics I took of "black magic" today

 

[rewebster]

those are great, absolutely great--I'm going to have to look for that variety locally

(I did get the '... errm ...' part)

got any more photos?

 

[Andre]

Shiploads, yes, but not of Black magic (Tantau 1997)

This for instance:

 

[OmCheeto]

It's that time of year, again! Garlic-growers eagerly anticipate this season. This is when the curved central seed-stalk (called a scape) emerges from the garlic. Scapes must be removed to encourage more robust growth in the bulbs, but that's not the good part. The good part is that they taste kind of like onion tops, with a wonderful mild garlic flavor. You can use them in salads and stir-fries, and I found a recipe for scape pesto on the 'net, and I think we're going to try that, too.

Is the same true of elephant garlic? I've got some 5 foot tall scapes right now, and they don't look like they're going to curl. Do you cut them all the way down, or just the tops?

 

[turbo]

Is the same true of elephant garlic? I've got some 5 foot tall scapes right now, and they don't look like they're going to curl. Do you cut them all the way down, or just the tops?

I snap them at the base where they emerge from the leaves. The section from the base until the swelling of the seed-pod is the good part. I remove mine as soon as I start to see a swelling in the scape. Yours are further along, but the base of the stalks may still be tasty. Get them off the plants ASAP, though, so the resources of the plant will go toward building bulbs, not toward producing flowers, seeds, etc. You need to neuter garlic as soon as it looks like it's going reproductive.

 

[Evo]

Shiploads, yes, but not of Black magic (Tantau 1997)

This for instance:

That's awesome.

 

[Evo]

here's another color of lily that opened:

Oh, I love that one!

 

[Evo]

Here's a rosebud on a miniature rose. It's about half the size of my tiny thumb.

 

[Astronuc]

For those interested in raspberries - here is what's happening in NZ:

http://www.hortnet.co.nz/publications/hortfacts/hf057008.htm

Note the soil and fertilizer requirements.


Except for Japanese beetles, our raspberries don't have any pests.



Some information from the US:

http://www.raspberries.us/

http://www.raspberries.us/varieties.htm

 

[turbo]

Here are my cultivated raspberries. The biggest cane is probably 8 feet, and this year for the first time the root system is big enough to start throwing off new growth from rhizomes - some 6' or more from the central planting. This started out a couple of years back as a handful of canes my my wife's co-worker gave her when thinning her patch.

 

[Evo]

Here are my plum tomatoes and a "twin" eggplant blossom.

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/2826/plumtomatoes1jt5.jpg

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/4273/eggplantdoublebloomfa2.jpg

 

[Andre]

Nice pictures, Evo

 

[rewebster]

yeah--lookin' good there evo---gardens on patios take special attention---and you're doing it

those eggplants blooms are nice---especially the two growing together like that---



funny, I was trying to think what other flowers had a texture like that--and then...(in that photo how the two composed)--if they were 'colorized' more toward the gray/black/brown-- they'd almost look like one of those close ups of a bat's face--one of those with a wrinkled face and nose.

your eggplant
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/4273/eggplantdoublebloomfa2.jpg


bat

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15954125

your eggplant (colorized)
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd236/rewebster/eggplantdoublebloomfa2.jpg

 

[turbo]

Here's a shot of my garden from earlier today. Amazingly, given the almost daily drenching that we've been getting for weeks, most of the stuff is doing OK. I've had to replant the cucumbers and green beans, and had to replant the squash twice. Seeds don't germinate well in mud. I have made it a habit to hoe my rows up to help excess water run off, and it has definitely saved the garden this year.

 

[baywax]

Amazingly, after about 11 months of rain, my garden is doing well too... Here's a micrograph of some of very healthy Stachybotrys Mold.

 

[rewebster]

Here's a shot of my garden from earlier today. Amazingly, given the almost daily drenching that we've been getting for weeks, most of the stuff is doing OK. I've had to replant the cucumbers and green beans, and had to replant the squash twice. Seeds don't germinate well in mud. I have made it a habit to hoe my rows up to help excess water run off, and it has definitely saved the garden this year.

my, my...


that really is nice---is that a row of asparagus in back?

 

[rewebster]

Amazingly, after about 11 months of rain, my garden is doing well too... Here's a micrograph of some of very healthy Stachybotrys Mold.

you grow Stachybotrys Mold? ----what?----a 'culture' garden?----not enough room for tomatoes then?





(I guess evo didn't like the reference to eggplant fruitbat)

 

[turbo]

my, my...that really is nice---is that a row of asparagus in back?

There is asparagus along that weed-line. I should expend the time and energy to improve that bed, but asparagus is pretty low-yield, and I try to spend time, money, and labor for high-yield vegetables that we can freeze or can. My wife and I made pesto out of some of the garlic scapes and it is wonderful on fresh pasta! I took the recipe to my neighbor who got me into garlic-production, and he invited me to come harvest all the scapes I want. He has a very large garlic crop, so my wife and I will probably make up lots of pesto and pack it in small air-tight containers and freeze them. It might not be as good as fresh-made, but it feels great in the dead of winter to pull treats like that from the freezer.

 

[Andre]

The highest yield I ever had on any crop was http://home.student.uva.nl/pepijn.uitterhoeve/boerenkool/boerenkool.htm , an excellent winter hardy cabbage, which can be cultivated as second crop in the second half of the growing season. It's also high quality food.

Hint.

 

[rewebster]

do you know about throwing rock salt on your asparagus bed?

I haven't tried to grow garlic yet, but a friend gave me one of his elephant garlics one time.

 

[turbo]

The highest yield I ever had on any crop was "boerenkool" (Curly cabbage), an excellent winter hardy cabbage, which can be cultivated as second crop in the second half of the growing season. It's also high quality food.

Hint.

Thanks, Andre. I may have to try that sometime. I like the tightly-packed heads of conventional cabbage, but it sells so cheaply around here (like potatoes and yellow onions) that I prefer to buy it and save the garden space for high-yield stuff that is expensive, or that keeps really well. Some things (cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, etc) do not store well, but I have struck a reasonable balance of volumes and make lots of sauces, pickles, etc, that I process and put up in sealed jars. We have cupboards and pantry shelves that look like this:

 

[turbo]

do you know about throwing rock salt on your asparagus bed?

I haven't tried to grow garlic yet, but a friend gave me one of his elephant garlics one time.

Rock salt on asparagus? I never heard of that. Have you got a reference for that?

As for garlic, it's really easy. Wait until winter before the ground is frozen, separate the cloves from a bulb and plant them in rich Earth pointy-end up. Mulch heavily with clean straw, and pull the mulch away a bit in the spring when the tops start emerging. When the central stalks (scapes) emerge and start to curl or develop seed-pods, snap them off and chop the tender part below the seed pod to use in salads, soups, stir-fries, etc. Yum!

 

[rewebster]

Rock salt on asparagus? I never heard of that. Have you got a reference for that?

As for garlic, it's really easy. Wait until winter before the ground is frozen, separate the cloves from a bulb and plant them in rich Earth pointy-end up. Mulch heavily with clean straw, and pull the mulch away a bit in the spring when the tops start emerging. When the central stalks (scapes) emerge and start to curl or develop seed-pods, snap them off and chop the tender part below the seed pod to use in salads, soups, stir-fries, etc. Yum!

well, it (the salt) stops all the grass and weeds from growing up around the asparagus, without hurting it. I can't tell you how much salt though, but most around here that I have heard about do it. You can get some info by google (no doubt).

It takes a year and half for garlic, right?

 

[turbo]

well, it (the salt) stops all the grass and weeds from growing up around the asparagus, without hurting it. I can't tell you how much salt though, but most around here that I have heard about do it. You can get some info by google (no doubt).

It takes a year and half for garlic, right?

Garlic takes about 6-7 months. You plant cloves in the winter, snap off the scapes when they emerge in June, and harvest the bulbs when the leaves start dying back. When you dig the bulbs, you wipe the dirt off them and spread them out in a protected place to air-dry. Select the largest, healthiest-looking bulbs for next winter's planting and use the remainder in cooking.

German garlic only has about 4 cloves per bulb, so it's tougher to propagate rapidly. Russian garlic has more cloves per bulb, so fewer bulbs can yield more cloves, which turn into more bulbs next summer.

 

[Evo]

yeah--lookin' good there evo---gardens on patios take special attention---and you're doing it

those eggplants blooms are nice---especially the two growing together like that---



funny, I was trying to think what other flowers had a texture like that--and then...(in that photo how the two composed)--if they were 'colorized' more toward the gray/black/brown-- they'd almost look like one of those close ups of a bat's face--one of those with a wrinkled face and nose.

your eggplant
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/4273/eggplantdoublebloomfa2.jpg


bat

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15954125

your eggplant (colorized)
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd236/rewebster/eggplantdoublebloomfa2.jpg

OMG![/URL] I missed that! I LOVE IT! Thanks Rew!

<except now I am afraid of being alone in the dark with my eggplant>