What Are Some Tips for Successful Gardening?

[turbo]

Excellent green thumb Evo!

Really beautiful stuff you guys. Do you realize the amount of physics involved in
all this growing a garden activity!? I guess its "biophysics" but... really, come on
now... its physics and its amazing, too!

Actually, it's biochemistry. I admit that I am a chemistry geek when it comes to my vegetable garden. If plants are doing poorly, I'll take soil samples and test for pH, Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium. They are all interlocked. For instance, the N, P, K levels can all be optimum, and a too-acidic or too-basic pH can restrict uptake of those nutrients and lots of hard work can go down the drain.

 

[rewebster]

That's nasty!

nasty?---

nasty in what way?

it's just an eggplant!

 

[hypatia]

I ate my first garden tomato last night! A giant juicy beefsteak! it was soooo good.

 

[Evo]

I ate my first garden tomato last night! A giant juicy beefsteak! it was soooo good.

Not fair! How early did you start your tomatoes?

 

[turbo]

We have ripe cherry tomatoes right now. My sister-in-law started them in her daylight basement in March. The larger tomatoes are growing fast, but it will be another month before we're in the thick of them. Zucchini and cucumbers are setting on, though the cucumbers got a late start due to being flooded out (had to replant). The buttercup squash plants are climbing the fence and seem to grow at least 8" a day.

A tip for people who grow squash and cucumbers. Using grade stakes and 3' high plastic mesh, make a fence along the sunny side of your rows. The plants will vine toward the sun and that will train them to the fence with little or no effort on your part.

 

[rewebster]

I ate my first garden tomato last night! A giant juicy beefsteak! it was soooo good.

mmmm--mmmmmm!---and one of the big varieties, too----

the first one is just about always the best----photos of the garden?

 

[Evo]

We've had another cold front sweep in, it's only 64F outside with a 20 MPH wind. It's like fall, I'm outside tending to my garden in a sweater! It's the middle of July! I have to say I love it. I don't know what the plants are thinking though.

 

[turbo]

Here is the squash climbing the fence. I put up a fence for the squash last year, but I put it on the side of the row away from the strongest sun, and had to re-train the squash to the fence every few days as the vines developed. Smartened up a bit this year and put the fence on the sunny side of the row, so the squash vines would hunt for sun and train themselves.

Here are some clusters of round tomatoes deep within the plant. The tomato plants are flowering heavily, so we should get a good crop.

Can't leave without a shot of some hot stuff. There is a nice bunch of jalapenos growing in the shade of the plant. Again, the plants are blossoming steadily and I'm hoping for a good crop. We are dangerously low on dill-pickled jalapeno rings.

 

[hypatia]

Not fair! How early did you start your tomatoes?

I cheated this year and got the plant from a greenhouse, already well grown with little tomato's on it. Cherry tomato's re-seeded them selfs, and will have them soon. Green peppers are still not doing well, but they are green plants again{not yellow}.
Herb plants are doing great!

 

[turbo]

Now that the common yellowthroats have chicks to feed they are spending a lot more time on the open part of my property where bugs (esp Japanese beetles) are plentiful. Here is a female hunting for bugs. I watched her for over 20 minutes as she patrolled the pepper plants and tomato plants. She was quite thorough and as she went up and down the rows, she hunted from the ground level to the tops of the plants. Eat all the beetles you can stuff in, friends.

 

[baywax]

If and when small dogs or rats are ruining the garden we are lucky enough to have
the wide-mouthed wood ducks to eliminate the problem.

 

[rewebster]

your garden has really taken off, it looks like, turbo

 

[turbo]

your garden has really taken off, it looks like, turbo

Yeah, it has! It was in a death spiral what with all the cold weather, the torrential rains, and the lack of sun. I've got the soil built up as well as can be, though, and all it took was a week or two of heat and sun to perk things up. I'm worried about the habanero plants because they started out really small and seemed to have stalled even though the other peppers are thriving. Habanero relish is my favorite condiment for hot dogs, cheeseburgers, etc, and it's really going to stink if the crop comes up short.

 

[turbo]

If and when small dogs or rats are ruining the garden we are lucky enough to have
the wide-mouthed wood ducks to eliminate the problem.

I'll have to start raising those to keep the rabbit-foraging to a minimum.

 

[baywax]

I'll have to start raising those to keep the rabbit-foraging to a minimum.

Your garden is the best Turbo...

What do you do about the "Tomato Horn Worm"... I found one huge one that had taken 2 tomato plants out... it was almost transparent with leaf juice... very fat and about the size of this one... with a big black horn on its backside..

 

[turbo]

I have lost a tomato plant and two nice chili pepper plants to those rascals. I don't use chemical insecticides, so I go out at night to see if I can find any of them and squash them. There has been no more damage in the past week, so maybe I'm out of the woods. I've got some caterpillar-specific BT spore concentrate, but during the weeks of rain, the stuff got washed off as soon as I applied it, and the caterpillars had free rein.

 

[Evo]

If and when small dogs or rats are ruining the garden we are lucky enough to have
the wide-mouthed wood ducks to eliminate the problem.

Those are scary!

Your garden is the best Turbo...

What do you do about the "Tomato Horn Worm"... I found one huge one that had taken 2 tomato plants out... it was almost transparent with leaf juice... very fat and about the size of this one... with a big black horn on its backside..

My assasin bug killed most of them and I picked off the others. Those things are voracious eaters.

turbo, wish I had some birds in my plants, that's a pretty one.

 

[turbo]

turbo, wish I had some birds in my plants, that's a pretty one.

The phoebes generally catch their food "on the fly" and I have seen them catch Japanese beetles in mid-air. The yellowthroats are pretty content to patrol my vegetable plants, and I'm glad to have their help. They are very efficient, and they can find caterpillars and beetles in places that I would have a hard time searching. I'd pay them if I could. Actually, I have two ponds near the garden so they have water available, and the garden is a pretty good "bug magnet" - kind of an insectivore diner. They have a safe place to eat nice bugs that are not laced with insecticide, so in a sense, they are getting "paid".

There are more yellowthroat pictures in the Wildlife Photos thread, including a shot of a female with a Japanese beetle in her beak, calling softly to a chick.

 

[rewebster]

at least we have almost the same types of weeds--except for that five (approx.) leafed one on the middle right, I have never seen that variety around here---what is it?

 

[turbo]

at least we have almost the same types of weeds--except for that five (approx.) leafed one on the middle right, I have never seen that variety around here---what is it?

I've got to 'fess up... Except for common weeds like plantain, mustard, etc, I'm pretty much ignorant. My rule is "If they ain't vegetables, they's weeds."

 

[baywax]

Your's is the nobler solution. I only found one but it did major damage, prize plants down its gullet. I think I sicked it on the neighbouring red-neck orchardist.

 

[Evo]

I picked these from my garden yesterday.

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/4753/cucumber1dg9.jpg

 

[turbo]

Woohoo! I'd like to have a few rows of bell peppers like that. They're coming along nicely, but we need a lot of heat and sun to grow peppers, and getting them to fully mature requires a long and cooperative (no frosts) season.

 

[Evo]

Woohoo! I'd like to have a few rows of bell peppers like that. They're coming along nicely, but we need a lot of heat and sun to grow peppers, and getting them to fully mature requires a long and cooperative (no frosts) season.

That bell pepper is bigger than my hand. It's a Keystone Giant. The down side is that's the only bell pepper that plant has produced, Perhaps now it will set more.

 

[rewebster]

That bell pepper is bigger than my hand. It's a Keystone Giant. The down side is that's the only bell pepper that plant has produced, Perhaps now it will set more.

you've paid for the plant, now, at least--and home grown!

 

[turbo]

you've paid for the plant, now, at least--and home grown!

Produce prices add up quickly, and you can't buy home-grown quality in a store. If this year's Bell peppers can match last years, I expect at least 6-8 full-sized peppers per plant, with at least half of them ripening or fully ripe. There is nothing like a garden-ripened red Bell pepper chopped into a cold salad!

The Hungarian Wax peppers are getting quite large and are developing rapidly. We had one tonight in a stir fry of summer squash, onion, parsley, garlic-scape pesto, etc. Mmm! The Hungarians are quite mild but tasty. The heat is about on a par with jalpenos, and they are quite large - maybe 5-6" long even this early in the season. I expect that they will join the jalapenos in my dill-pickled chili recipe.

 

[baywax]

Nice pepper etc... Evo... that would be near impossible to grow outside here. I'm amazed that some people pull off cauliflower and brussel sprouts up here... in the land of the Igloo.

Here's a coincidental story about how deadly those caterpillars can be... scarier than the wide-mouthed dingle duck...

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080714/health/health_killer_caterpillars

 

[Evo]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080714/health/health_killer_caterpillars

She was barefoot in a Peruvian jungle? Or at the least wearing sandles that allowed her feet to touch the ground?

 

[turbo]

We should have a good crop of grapes this year as long as the weather cooperates. The season is short, so I have to let them endure a few light frosts before they're ripe enough to pick. The vines are growing all through the trees on the north side of my garden.

baywax, your state has some advantages for cold-tolerant crops like cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, etc. These plants can be transplanted quite early in the year, and your latitude allows much more sunlight/day than we can get.

 

[Evo]

I miss my grape vines!

 

[turbo]

I miss my grape vines!

You can't miss mine! The rascals climb 20-30 feet into the trees, so if you want those nice ripe purple grapes, you have to use a ladder for a lot of them. Once the bunches start ripening, they stick out like a sore thumb. Often, the branches of the trees are bent or broken from the weight of all the grapes. Aspen, birch, etc, just aren't built to handle that load.

 

[rewebster]

I miss my grape vines!

if you're going to be there where you live (and if you can find a 'safe' route down), plant some down in the 'The Evo Canyon'--they take off pretty well after two years

 

[Evo]

if you're going to be there where you live (and if you can find a 'safe' route down), plant some down in the 'The Evo Canyon'--they take off pretty well after two years

They have a guy that goes down there with a weed eater to keep things neat.

I have spread some of my plants off of the patio and onto the grass and rocks on the south side. The guy mowing is cool about it. I keep the little bit of grass around them trimmed myself. I just needed more sun.

 

[baywax]

I miss my grape vines!

Yeah... I totally miss my grape vines. By now they've strangled the barn.

 

[Borek]

My wine grows like crazy, something like Turbo described. It strangles my lilac at the moment.

 

[baywax]

My wine grows like crazy, something like Turbo described. It strangles my lilac at the moment.

It looks like they're strangling your head in the photo!

 

[turbo]

One tip for people who have Japanese beetle infestations - plant sunflowers. We planted them at the ends of the rows of the vegetable garden, and I find Japanese beetles eating the sunflower leaves rather than the vegetable leaves. They like these giant sunflowers, leaves of fruit trees, and leaves of our raspberry bushes. I don't know if planting the sunflowers along the garden is the best plan, but they might act as a natural "sacrificial" barrier by giving the Japanese beetles something to eat instead of the vegetables.

I just weeded about 1/2 the garden, and noticed that we have tiny string beans, already about 1" long. Wooh!

 

[Borek]

That's only if you don't like sunflowers

 

[turbo]

That's only if you don't like sunflowers

We're growing the sunflowers for the birds - they'll get plenty of seeds. Actually, they get them year-round at my feeders, but it's nice to give them a more natural food-gathering experience. Instead of killing thistles, I let them grow to attract pollinators and eventually to provide wild thistle seeds for the finches. They love those.

 

[rewebster]

We're growing the sunflowers for the birds - they'll get plenty of seeds. Actually, they get them year-round at my feeders, but it's nice to give them a more natural food-gathering experience. Instead of killing thistles, I let them grow to attract pollinators and eventually to provide wild thistle seeds for the finches. They love those.

I get them even growing in my yard in town---but, sorry young thistles, I like going barefoot too much.

 

[rewebster]

These are some of my favorites:

This one has 8 blooms:

The stamen ends (?) are covered with a dust of rust colored pollen that are barely attached and tremble/wiggle/dance in a slight breeze.

I mentioned how sweet these specific ones smelled to the mailwoman, and she said she could smell them from across the street and wondered where the fragrance was coming from. They're as fragrant or more than hyacyths.

 

[turbo]

Beautiful blooms, rewebster! I spend all my time and effort on the herbs and vegetables, but I appreciate the dedication that goes into producing such nice floral displays. We have a couple of neighbors who landscape with flowering plants and their places look nice.

 

[Evo]

I had those same lilies at my old house. They are very fragrant. What's so nice about lillies is that you plant them once and ignore them, every year they come back bigger and with more plants. The bad part is that they only bloom in spring/early summer. Rew have you tried summer blooming lillies? They bloom all summer.

 

[rewebster]

I had those same lilies at my old house. They are very fragrant. What's so nice about lillies is that you plant them once and ignore them, every year they come back bigger and with more plants. The bad part is that they only bloom in spring/early summer. Rew have you tried summer blooming lillies? They bloom all summer.

no---got some varieties? (names) that could be looked up? or post?

(Homer like and drooling: hmmmm-low maintenance!)--yep, they are great for that, evo--and they are beautiful too

turbo--try lilies --easy and nice to look at

 

[Andre]

Problem with lillies here is a very nasty bug, eating the plant much faster than it can grow.

 

[Evo]

no---got some varieties? (names) that could be looked up? or post?

(Homer like and drooling: hmmmm-low maintenance!)--yep, they are great for that, evo--and they are beautiful too

turbo--try lilies --easy and nice to look at

I have the Stela D'oro lilies. They bloom from june until frost. This sight has them as late season bloomers, but they bloom all summer, as do many others.

http://www.bloomingfieldsfarm.com/frmindxb.html

 

[Ms Music]

Those are lovely, rewebster! I love stargazers.

One of my other favorite lillies is Stella d'Oro. Lovely profuse yellow blooms, but no heady fragrance.

(Evo - you beat me - it took me quite a while to post)

 

[rewebster]

got a couple small patches of stellas--they're in a 'dry' spot and need to be moved to some place a little more damp

(they're in my creeping charlie ground cover bed)

thanks for the link Evo--nice site

 

[turbo]

no---got some varieties? (names) that could be looked up? or post?

(Homer like and drooling: hmmmm-low maintenance!)--yep, they are great for that, evo--and they are beautiful too

turbo--try lilies --easy and nice to look at

I might plant lilies some time. We had tiger lilies and day lilies at our last house a few years back. I have blue-flag irises growing in my shady little frog-pond, and cat-tails and other water weeds growing in the larger pond. The areas bordering the lawn are loaded with wild-flowers like black-eyed Susans, daisies, wild carrot, asters, milkweed, thistle, buttercups, etc, etc. I pretty much let mother nature do the landscaping around here, and we have wildflowers from spring until hard frost.

 

[Evo]

I'm guessing no spider mites?