What Are Some Tips for Successful Gardening?

[turbo]

I have worked as a volunteer at my local nature center for twenty years, often feeding raptors thawed-out "mousicles" (control mice frozen at NIH). We have taken care of various nonrehabilitatible Great Horned owls, Barred owls, Screech owls (my indoor buddy "Screech" being one of them), a Kestrel (another good friend, "Estelle"), Red-Tail hawks (one of whom holds our age record at over 22 years). I hear that the Great Horned, with fierce beak and needle-sharp talons, has the ability to break a man's hand by racheting its grip.

In nearby Falls Church is the Raptor Conservancy, run by Kent Knowles, who either rehabilitates and releases raptors, or finds appropriate homes for them. This Sunday they will probably put representive raptors on display at our park's Open House. Not bad for a semi-urban area.

That's great! I would volunteer my time to work at such a center. Maine is pretty rural, and there isn't an equivalent rescue service here - nor may we need something that elaborate. The hawks and owls are doing OK nowadays. Years ago, I went to work for a training company in Columbia MD, and when the VP's very chesty secretery mentioned that she was a bird-watcher, I told her that we had nesting pairs of Golden Eagles in Maine. She immediatley "straightened me out", telling me that the Golden Eagles cannot nest in Maine, since they are Western birds. What a loon! I have seen these birds here for over 40 years, and there is a poorly hidden (by the state) nest site that is visible from the Golden Road (north of Moosehead Lake) that has been public knowledge for some time.

 

[turbo]

Spring is officially here! Yesterday we picked up a 25# bag of Vidalia Onions (annual Rotary Club charity), we got our first spear of asparagus and ate it raw (yum!), the tadpoles have hatched in the little (but deep) pond in the back yard, and the 10-12 Dace that I put in there last year seem to have survived the winter well and are snacking on the tadpoles and bugs. Last but not least, the alpha male ruby-throated hummingbird showed up yesterday and has reclaimed his territory. He is a feisty little thing. Since we still have migratory birds straggling through, I have left a couple of feeders out for them with black-oil sunflower seeds, and two of the hummingbird feeders are a bit close to the seed feeders (we like to have them near windows so we can watch) and a chickadee did something that ticked him off. That little ruby-throat gave a nasty high-pitched snarl and chased the chickadee all over the front yard, attacking him every time he tried to light. He has fed quietly from a feeder near another seed feeder that has had goldfinches, purple finches, and nuthatches. Maybe the chickadee called him a shiny little show-off sissy...

In another week or two, other hummingbirds will show up and he'll have his hands full getting a mate and keeping all the other hummingbirds out of "his" yard. Summer is a never-ending series of dogfights. I'm glad they don't weight 10-20 pounds - I wouldn't dare to go outside. As it is, that little peanut of a bird buzzes me when I'm cleaning/refilling "his" feeders.

I got my Troy-Bilt Horse back from the shop Friday with a totally rebuilt motor. What a dream to till with. 4-5 passes on well-established turf, and I have an herb garden all ready to seed. The guy we bought this place from thought that whenever things weren't doing well in the garden, that he should lime the soil. What a bonehead! Lime and Miracle-Gro...after having soil tests done by the extension service, I have added 400# of composted cow manure, 100# of organic fertilizer, about 20# of elemental sulfur, and another 400# of peat moss. Now, it actually feels like soil, and I should have the pH back down where it ought to be. This year, we are going to space the rows about 30" apart, so I can get the Horse through every couple of days, and we are going to make the rows into wide beds - instead of one skinny single-file row of swiss chard, for instance, we will have 4 or 5 closely spaced rows together, making a nice full bed. We're going to try this with nearly all the row vegetables, leaving more room for the bushy tomatoes, peppers, etc.

NOTE: last year, we tried freezing some Swiss Chard - just blanche the greens, bag 'em and freeze. They were absolutely the best frozen greens we have ever had. This year, we're planting a lot more chard - if you cut and process only the mature leaves, leaving some smaller ones, they will continue to grow and produce greens all season, right up until a hard frost.

 

[Astronuc]

A 7th blackberry cane has emerged.

I planted some garlic which had sprouted.

My blueberries seem to be doing well. I just planted the 7th bush.

And the rhubarb plant, which I divided and transplanted seems to be recovering.

Meanwhile, this morning I saw the little hawk which has been hanging around our neighborhood. I think it's a Cooper's hawk although it is similar to a Short-shinned Hawk, but Cooper's are supposed to be more common in our area.

Haven't seen any hummers. I used to get up to Rocky Mountain National Park occasionally, and we camped at one spot where there were dozens of ruby throated hummingbirds. One male used to hover at tree top and swoop down on any trespassers. Those little guys were fast.

 

[turbo]

Today, my wife and I gathered at least a bushel of fiddleheads. They are the penultimate spring greens here, and if you blanche and freeze them, you can get through the winter on them, too. It's nice to walk through the woods in the spring to harvest them. You are surrounded by violets, dog-tooth violets, Stinking Benjamins (Trilliums), skunk cabbage, and lots of other pretty spring growth, including black cherry blosssoms. The smells and sights on the way to the traditional picking areas is an important part of the experience. I sat outside on the deck for hours tonight cleaning the fiddleheads while my wife took them inside, rinsed, blanched, and froze them. We're all set for the next year. (I wish I could pick a bushel of wild blackberries, raspberries, or blueberries in a day and accomplish the same!) Those take a bit more perseverence.

The apple trees have budded, and the hummingbirds are perching in them, waiting for the action to begin. We have a good contingent of bumblebees in place, and with the hummingbirds, it will not matter if we have a weak showing of honey-bees this year. The bumblebees and hummingbirds are hard workers, and we will have a nice crop of fruit this year, if I can manage the water and nutrients properly. I joined the arbor day society this year and have bought several varieties of cherry, pear, apple, plum, and peach trees, and I have taken out a diseased oak, and a blue spruce in preparation for their arrival. Our front lawn will not be a lawn, but a nice orchard, providing benefits to the insects, birds, deer, and ourselves. I can't imagine spending tons of money to grow a pretty lawn, when you can raise fruit trees (with some grass in between) and have shade, food, sound isolation from the traffic, and improve the local habitat for birds and animals.

 

[Astronuc]

Take pictures of those hummers!

 

[turbo]

Take pictures of those hummers!

It's hard, since I have a digital camera with a slow shutter response and those guys can stop in and "fill up" in a matter of seconds, then fly off to attack an enemy (real or perceived). These little rascals are mean and they are busy. I might be able to get you a picture of the alpha female at the feeder, because the male protects her and let's her load up on the sugar. One of the old apple trees on the edge of our property has already blossomed, so the dynamic may shift for a while until blossoms on the the trees on the front lawn open up.

 

[Astronuc]

I have a similar problem with hummingbird moths. They hover and flitter.

But I zoom in and use a feature on the digital camera which enables a high shutter speed for moving targets, which I think is about 1/350 or 1/500. Sunlight helps too. I don't think I have tried a flash, but even the flash might be too long. The wings are blurred.

We are planning to add flowering plants which are supposed to be attractive to hummingbirds.

 

[turbo]

We are adding several kinds of bee-balm and bergamot to encourage the hummingbirds and bees to stay around and pollinate our fruits and vegetables. Mom and I gardened like this 40+ years ago and it works.

 

[Astronuc]

We are going to plant bee balm, and I'll have to look into bergamot. We have a variety of buddleia davidii, which were very successful in attracting butterflies and bumblebees, and the odd honey bee, as well as the hummingbird moths.

 

[turbo]

One of my wife's sisters has some red bee balm that we will divide and transplant. I have joined the Arbor Day Foundation and have a couple dozen ornamental and fruit trees on the way. I am hoping that the fruit trees (with a few ornamentals) will keep the hummingbirds, bumblebees, and honeybees concentrated on our place, and that will in turn keep them focussed on our vegetable garden. Some of the blossoms on the older apple tree on the eastern edge of our lawn have already opened, making the hummers and bumbles happy - it should get fun here in the next week or so.

 

[turbo]

Even though it's a fairly cool drizzly day here, the hummers have made very few visits to the feeders - the violets and wild black cherry blossoms are mostly open now, and the apple blossoms are opening, so the little guys are getting some more nutritious food, not just a sugar "high". It's nice if you can give the hummingbirds a ready source of high-quality food to keep them around your place - they have huge appetites and they love to eat fruit flies, gnats, and other pests that bother you and your vegetables. I have read suggestions about placing over-ripe fruit near the sugar-water feeders. The fruit will attract pest insects, and the hummers will eat them when they come to slug down an energy drink. I have a couple of plastic-coated wire suet cages that won't be needed for the summer, and I think I'm going to try putting over-ripe fruit, peelings, etc in them and see if the hummers like it.

 

[Astronuc]

Because of our gardening and landscaping - which did ourselves - we just got our property certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a Wildlife Habitat site.

Now I hope to tell our neighbor's obnoxious son-in-law who hopes to get her property, that he has to file an EIS and get our approval for any change to the property. Of course he doesn't, but he won't know that. The guy is a real jerk, and he thinks he can encroach on our property, which he has tried.

On the other hand, there maybe some benefits which we have to yet realize.

 

[turbo]

The people who own the property on either side of me are originally from Massachusetts, and are brothers, retired to the "promised land". One couple is quite nice and is helpful, and the other couple is as pushy and manipulative as hell. The couple on the east keep trying to claim some of my property by intentionally "misunderstanding" the property lines, which include an abandoned 4-rod (32 foot) road, which by Maine law reverts half and half to the abutters upon abandonment. A complicating factor is I'm allowing the local snowmobile club to maintain a trail on my property for 1/2 mile, and the abutters are claiming that some of the trail is on their property.

 

[Astronuc]

We have a survey map (from when we bought the house) showing the boundaries, however we are considering getting another survey done. The last conflict developed when we have our driveway replaced.

The son-in-law complained it was too close to his mother-in-laws property, and so she complained to us. We took out our survey map, and she still did not want to accept the property line, which shows that our property ends right at the edge of her driveway at the southeast corner of her property. She and her son-in-law have assumed all these years that the property line is more or less midway between our driveways, and in fact the son-in-law parks his truck there whenever he visits - as opposed to the driveway.

Now interestingly we found out that if we do not contest their claim, or if we simply allow the son-in-law to use that property, we actually risk losing some of our property, i.e. we forfeit the property if we don't prevent the son-in-law from using it! It doesn't matter that we have an approved survey map! What kind of system is that, where one has to actively prevent encroachment of a neighbor onto one's property??

On the positive side, our strawberries are coming in, I now have 8 new blackberry canes and the plants are doing well. The blueberries have fruited, and I just planted a new variety of rhubard with red stalks as opposed to green or green and faint red. And I planted some zucchini and summer squash - I just hope the squash borers don't get them.

 

[turbo]

Now interestingly we found out that if we do not contest their claim, or if we simply allow the son-in-law to use that property, we actually risk losing some of our property, i.e. we forfeit the property if we don't prevent the son-in-law from using it! It doesn't matter that we have an approved survey map! What kind of system is that, where one has to actively prevent encroachment of a neighbor onto one's property??

Here in Maine, you do not lose the ownership of the property, but by allowing someone to use the property for a certain purpose (like crossing a piece of your property routinely to get to a part of their property), you have allowed the establishment of an easment. This easment allows the person to continue using your property in the same manner, if he wishes. The property is still yours, but you have allowed the other person to establish the right to use it for a certain porpose. Check your state laws - there are probably some limits on the types of usage and some time limits, too.

On the positive side, our strawberries are coming in, I now have 8 new blackberry canes and the plants are doing well. The blueberries have fruited, and I just planted a new variety of rhubard with red stalks as opposed to green or green and faint red. And I planted some zucchini and summer squash - I just hope the squash borers don't get them.

Our garden is all planted, now, including 24 habanero plants, 36 tomato plants, and wide raised beds of cucumbers, squash, peas, beans, spinach, carrots, turnip, beets, mixed greens, and more. Not to mention a huge bed of swiss chard - we blanched and froze some last year and it was delicious. Just cut the mature leaves, and the plants keep producing more, right up until a very hard frost.

I took a walk down back yesterday, and the wild blackberries are as thick as can be. I'm going to give them some organic fertilizer, and feed the wild raspberries, blueberries, etc, too. We were going to transplant some rhubarb, but we use so little of it that we can easily get all we need from friends. Instead, we transplanted some wild elderberry bushes in that little corner space. Elderberry juice is good stuff, but it is ridiculously expensive, so we hope to get a good clump of bushes going so we can make our own. Our front lawn is now an orchard, although all the "trees" are only 3-4 ft tall - we decided to buy our trees as bare-root stock from the Arbor Day Foundation instead of buying them from nurseries and paying more than 10x as much per tree. After figuring in the 10 free ornamental trees that we got for our membership, and the free red maple and forsythias, we have less than $5 each in the trees - a pretty good deal if you are patient and want to grow your own trees.

 

[turbo]

Well, here it is the 10th of June and it has rained every single day. As of the 8th it was the 12th rainiest June on record, with 22 more days to go. Flood watches are in effect through the weekend. Officially (county weather station) we have had just about two hours of sun all month. A friend of mine has a rain gauge, and he told me yesterday afternoon that he had logged almost exactly one foot of rain by that time (8-1/2 days). Of course with the (often torrential) rain last night and today, that total is now much higher.

I am so glad that I hoed up raised beds for all the vegetables - they may have a chance of survival if we can get a couple of dry days with a little sun - maybe sometime next week. If I had done simple row-planting, the poor drainage in the sub-soil would would drowned my plants and seeds - there are pools of standing water between the beds, as it is. Good news on the berry front (if it ever stops raining) - one of my wife's co-workers is dividing her raspberry bushes and she's giving us all the ones she's removing, so we'll have some big cultivated raspberries in addition to the tasty little wild ones growing in the woods.

 

[Astronuc]

Strawberries are ripening, but something has been eating the biggest one's.

I was away all of last week at conference. I got home Saturday, just after midnight. Saturday morning I found that something - I presume deer - have eaten 5 of 9 new blackberry canes GRRRR!. I put a net around them.

The blueberries are starting to ripen, and the raspberries are now fruting.

The zucchini and summer sqaush are so far doing quite well. They are surrounded by netting.

Apparently the deer are now eating plants that are supposedly deer-resistant.

The rhubarb is doing quite well.

And we ate some sugar peas.

I bought my wife a book on edible and medicinal plants. It turns out quite a few native/wild plants are edible. We even have "wood sorrel" which grows like a weed, but it is edible. It looks like clover, but has heart-shaped leaves rather than round in the case of clover.
http://www.way2go4.com/walking/uk_wildflowers/wildflowers_wood_sorrell.htm

 

[turbo]

I bought my wife a book on edible and medicinal plants. It turns out quite a few native/wild plants are edible. We even have "wood sorrel" which grows like a weed, but it is edible. It looks like clover, but has heart-shaped leaves rather than round in the case of clover.
http://www.way2go4.com/walking/uk_wildflowers/wildflowers_wood_sorrell.htm

Wood sorrel is probably what we called "sweet clover" as kids. It is pretty tasty if you like "tart" and "sweet" together. Neighborhood girls used to gather them as "salad greens" for their "tea parties".

 

[Evo]

I have silver nightshade everywhere. Cannot kill the stuff and it's taking over everything.

And stop talking about blueberries, raspberries and blackberries, The JAWS OF DEATH ate every last plant. The only thing I have left is one half chewed grape vine.

 

[Astronuc]

And stop talking about blueberries, raspberries and blackberries, The JAWS OF DEATH ate every last last plant. The only thing I have left is one half chewed grape vine.

*Hugs Evo* I am sorry to hear about your gardening woes. I think you might need to consider a fence (mesh) to keep the dogs and other critters out of your garden.

Seems like Fruit Bat is a bad influence on JAWS OF DEATH. What is with your dogs and fruit?

Our dog just chews on grass and eats bird seed. We keep her on a 25' tether so she is confined to a 25' radius circle (although about 4 ft of it comes into the house at the backdoor), unless we walk her with a leash.

 

[turbo]

Speaking grape vines, I have discovered lots of vines on the perimeter of our cleared lot that may or may not be capable of producing, but they are very bulky - in some cases the vines are over an inch in diameter. ai don't know what to do at this point. Do I cut down trees to give light to the vines - do I take cuttings and try to re-establish the vines in a better place? I'm new at the grape thing!

 

[Evo]

Who wants pears? From the looks of my tree, I'm going to have about 10,000 lbs of them. They are so sweet, juicy and delicious. I probably should look into canning them. Any suggestions?

Oh, and this is a "fruitless tree" I bought 13 years ago, btw.

 

[turbo]

I LOVE pears, especially the quirky types that have to be tree-ripened, and that exncludes the varieties that most people would rush to buy at a grocery store.

BTW, you have never eaten a peach if you have not bough it fresh at a Georgia orchard. Nothing can compare.

 

[Astronuc]

I love pears and peaches. I wish I had several pear trees.

I agree with turbo-1 on peaches - nothing like a fresh juicy peach at the orchard.

Evo, you could can and preserve, or make pies, or have fresh pears and cream, or pears and vanilla ice cream.

Or make pear brandy.

 

[Evo]

BTW, you have never eaten a peach if you have not bough it fresh at a Georgia orchard. Nothing can compare.

Yep, I used to go to a "pick your own" peach orchard. I always picked and bought way too many.

I have a peach tree too, but the birds always seem to get them the day before I do.

I wonder if there is a way to determine what kind of grapevines you have? They must be old varieties.

Astronuc, come by and pick all you want. We're having a wet spring, so these should turn out great.

 

[Astronuc]

Astronuc, come by and pick all you want. We're having a wet spring, so these should turn out great.

How 'bout I do some yard work in exchange for your pears. Have you done anything about that tree you were planning to take down with a chain saw and the remains of the willow? Should take one afternoon.

As for the grapes, perhaps one could find a "viticulturalist", one who specializes in the cultivation or culture of grapes especially for wine making. There are some wild 'grape vines' that do not bear fruit. I used to find them in Texas along river banks.

Evo, do your grape vines bare fruit? If so, what color are the grapes?

 

[Evo]

How 'bout I do some yard work in exchange for your pears. Have you done anything about that tree you were planning to take down with a chain saw and the remains of the willow? Should take one afternoon.

Part of it is still hanging.

Evo, do your grape vines bare fruit? If so, what color are the grapes?

It's a Thompson seedless.

 

[turbo]

Astronuc, I picked up a pesticidal spray that you and others may be interested in. It is a spray concentrate that can be used on fruits, vegetable, flowers, etc, and it is made almost entirely of canola oil. It suffocates mites, aphids, and other plant-eating insects. The incessant rain has left the plants in my garden soft, yellow, and susceptible to insects, and the bugs have been chewing my cucumber, squash, pepper, and string bean plants in particular, and a few of the tomato plants, too. I hope it works well, because it is about the safest way to kill bugs that I have run across. I used paraffin-based dormant oil spray on my apple trees to see if I can get a decent crop of apples this year, but the canola oil seems perfect, and I may go to that until cold weather comes and I need a longer-lasting protection for the trees. The brand is Concern, the same company that puts out a natural neurotoxin pesticide distilled from African chrysanthemum. I got it at an Agway store, but any gardening place that has a good selection of organic-gardening supplies ought to have it. A couple of ounces of concentrate makes about 3 quarts of spray, and the oil emulsifies very readily when you fill the sprayer with a hose. The label warns that if you ingest very much of the oil it may irritate your digestive system - that's the entire warning! I've got a feeling that I may be able to mix regular cheap old canola oil with a mild emulsifier (perhaps just some mild dish detergent) I can get the same effect, but cheaper. If this stuff works, I'll give it a try and let you know how it works. Or maybe you can be the guinea pig.

 

[brewnog]

Evo!

Pear crumble!

Make it as per apple crumble but only use a bit of sugar with the fruit (as much as you want on the topping) and use really ripe fruit and don't cook it down for nearly as long. A bit of lemon/lime juice will help bring back the tartness if the fruit has gone really sweet and squishy.

 

[Astronuc]

Pear crumble!

Make it as per apple crumble but only use a bit of sugar with the fruit (as much as you want on the topping) and use really ripe fruit and don't cook it down for nearly as long. A bit of lemon/lime juice will help bring back the tartness if the fruit has gone really sweet and squishy.

Another goog recipe!

Add vanilla ice cream to hot crumble.

Turbo, thanks for the tip on concern. I might give a try, if the bugs become bad.

So far the insect pests haven't been to bad this year, despite the recent rains. We now have quite a few catepillars, so I have to keep my eyes open. I found one slug in the strawberry patch.