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.
  • #991
turbo-1 said:
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.
gardenjune.jpg

my, my...


that really is nice---is that a row of asparagus in back?
 
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  • #992
baywax said:
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?:smile:





(I guess evo didn't like the reference to eggplant fruitbat)
 
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  • #993
rewebster said:
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.
 
  • #994
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.
 
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  • #995
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.
 
  • #996
Andre said:
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:

smallcupboard.jpg
 
  • #997
rewebster said:
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!
 
  • #998
turbo-1 said:
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?
 
  • #999
rewebster said:
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.
 
  • #1,000
rewebster said:
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
061129_bat_vmed_10a.widec.jpg

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! :smile:

<except now I am afraid of being alone in the dark with my eggplant> :rolleyes:
 
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  • #1,001
Evo said:
OMG! I missed that! I LOVE IT! Thanks Rew! :smile:

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


(maybe think of your flowers as a pupating vegetarian bat)
 
  • #1,002
rewebster said:
you grow Stachybotrys Mold? ----what?----a 'culture' garden?----not enough room for tomatoes then?:smile:

No, the stuff grows itself! I don't know where all the global warming is but we could use some! Just yesterday a guy broke his leg snow shoeing... in the last days of June.
 
  • #1,003
did the mold growing in the snow cause the accident?
 
  • #1,004
rewebster said:
did the mold growing in the snow cause the accident?

Probably the brewer's yeast.
 
  • #1,005
turbo-1 said:
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.
gardenjune.jpg
Nice garden turbo! Have the squash come up yet?
 
  • #1,006
baywax said:
Probably the brewer's yeast.

funny!


and there's the solution---genetically cross brewer's yeast and that algae


get it produce oil and ETOH on a 'home' level---and we will be assured Canadians will the first country to sign on full scale
 
  • #1,007
Evo said:
Nice garden turbo! Have the squash come up yet?
Thanks. The squash (most of it, anyway) is up. Now we need some really warm days to accelerate the growth. We got some hot days in spring, but most of this month has been cool and rainy, with temps 5-10 deg below normal.

I just got back from my neighbor's place, with at least a peck of the big German garlic scapes, and a couple of gallon's measure of the smaller Russian scapes. My wife is going to flip when she gets home. She raves about the garlic-scape pesto - now we'll have to start making lots more and packing them in freezer-containers for winter. We have some basil that is big enough to start sacrificing leaves, but I doubt that she'll want to tinker with perfection, and we'll end up using the original recipe.
 
  • #1,008
a couple of this color just opened

lilywhite.jpg
 
  • #1,009
The garden is suffering from even more rain the last few days. It is torrential at times. Saturday and Sunday, we got 1.5" of rain, which is typical of the last couple of weeks.

Today is bonus day. The garden was mucky and wet, but I needed to weed it, which I did until the skies opened up. We got 0.8" of rain in about 20 minutes, then the shower let up a bit, only to get heavy again and give us another 0.3" in about 15 minutes. The rain continues and I fully expect that we'll get over 2" for the day. I may have to start building an ark and collecting animals 2-by-2. The chipmunks would probably be happier if I didn't save red squirrels. After I started relocating squirrels, the chipmunks' scars healed up and it got harder to tell them apart - the squirrels were brutal on my 'munks.
squirrels2.jpg
 
  • #1,010
Too much rain is really bad. not only does it leach nutrients from the soil, the diseases constantly wet foilage can contract are bad, not to mention it being too damp for blossom set, if any are at that stage.

I hope it let's up.
 
  • #1,011
My tomatoes and peppers are trying to set blossoms, but cold wet weather is tough on the pollinators, as well as the plants. I'm hoping to salvage the garden this summer - my high-hoed rows and beds are helping keep plants out of the worst of the water, along with the gentle pitch of the garden-spot, but the lack of sunshine and the cool soil temps are stunting some of my highest-value plants. I don't care if the Swiss chard, lettuce, etc is crappy this year, but I'd hate to lose productivity in peppers, tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers.
 
  • #1,012
What is this bug?

I thought it was bad until I saw it catch and suck the juices out of a caterpillar. Within 15 minutes and just caught small catterpillar became a shrunken black husk, and this bug doubled in size.

The Evo child took my camera because she is interviewing kittens with a friend of hers, so i had to use my camera phone.

bug2gr7.jpg


bug1uk1.jpg


bugcs9.jpg
 
  • #1,013
I wish I knew, and I wish I had them. We get assassin bugs, and they can catch, kill, and eat bugs that are twice their size, including bumble bees.
assassin_frontQ.jpg
 
  • #1,014
Evo said:
What is this bug?

I thought it was bad until I saw it catch and suck the juices out of a cat erpillar. Within 15 minutes and just caught small catterpillar became a shrunken black husk, and this bug doubled in size.

The Evo child took my camera because she is interviewing kittens with a friend of hers, so i had to use my camera phone.

I'd call it a cat sucker (until whoever finds out what it is)



(maybe some type of weevil?)
 
  • #1,015
rewebster said:
(maybe some type of weevil?)

According to wikipedia weevils are herbivores. Not that I know what they are, there is no link to Polish wiki which is usually the simplest shortcut to translate name.

I wonder if its adult form or larva. Could be the latter (hence no wings), especially this time of the year.

OK, Googled and wikied some more. Looks like assasin bug Turbo mentioned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin_bug

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/chatham/ag/SustAg/assassinbug.html
 
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  • #1,016
Borek said:
According to wikipedia weevils are herbivores. Not that I know what they are, there is no link to Polish wiki which is usually the simplest shortcut to translate name.

I wonder if its adult form or larva. Could be the latter (hence no wings), especially this time of the year.

OK, Googled and wikied some more. Looks like assasin bug Turbo mentioned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin_bug

Maybe it's a notaweevil.
 
  • #1,017
Right, notaweevil. which is a beetle family. Also very important for paleo climate reconstructions, since the temperature ranges of the species are pretty confined.

Moreover beetles do not increase in size like that. It reminds of a cicade type larve.
 
  • #1,018
Borek said:
According to wikipedia weevils are herbivores. Not that I know what they are, there is no link to Polish wiki which is usually the simplest shortcut to translate name.

I wonder if its adult form or larva. Could be the latter (hence no wings), especially this time of the year.

OK, Googled and wikied some more. Looks like assasin bug Turbo mentioned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin_bug

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/chatham/ag/SustAg/assassinbug.html

it looks like they come in all shapes and sizes (and probably young and old too)

http://images.google.com/images?um=1&q=assassin+bug&btnG=Search+Images

http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/wildthing/images/assassinbug.jpg

http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/wildthing/assassinbug.htm
 
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  • #1,019
As far as I remember cicades are herbivores, and their larvae live underground, with those funny 13 and 17 years live cycles.

From what I read assasin bugs are carnivores and they suck, so at least partially they fit the description. And they are not beetles, but heteroptera (like bedbug) - so they must be anatomically prepared to be able to suck a lot. But that's what I have found in the last 5 minutes.
 
  • #1,020
That's it! They are assasin bugs! One of the pictures Borek posted is an exact match!

Ok, as long as they do not bite me, I am ok.

I didn't even know I had a caterpillar, I don't see any more. The Japanese beetles have disappeared also.
 
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