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.
  • #2,001
turbo-1 said:
I have heard the same thing, but I have a hard time coughing up $35 for one male and one female vine. So many "cold-hardy" vines and trees just don't survive here. We are supposedly Zone 4, but I find that claims of cold-hardiness on the part of commercial nurseries are just hype, and can lead one into some very costly mistakes.

Ok---it may just be cheaper to buy them then--thanks both
 
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  • #2,002
rewebster said:
yeah--tomatoes can grow in a swamp, but peppers seem to like to be treated like a drier weather weed-----

that's one reason I had separated raised beds to keep the tomatoes apart---soak the tomatoes day and night, then give the peppers a 'rinsing'
If you can, water the tomato plants in the morning, so that the water will run off/evaporate during the day. Leaving your plants damp at night can lead to late blight, powdery mildew, and other problems. Normally, that's not a problem here, but our cool wet summer caused a LOT of tomato and potato crops to fail due to blight, and lots of folks had to pull their green bean and tomato plants and burn them to prevent the spread of powdery mildew. If you'd prefer, you can lay perforated hoses on the soil right next to the tomato plants and water them without wetting the leaves.

One vector for blight was a large nursery (Bonnie Plants) that sold tomato seedlings to WalMart, Agway, garden supply shops, etc. They were contaminated with late blight spores, and in the damp summer, that spread to vast potato fields in Aroostook county, causing tremendous damage. Potato is the king crop up there. The public schools close for a couple of weeks during the harvest because sorting potatoes segregating diseased/damaged ones is labor intensive and they need all the kids they can get to help get the harvest in.
 
  • #2,003
Last week, we had three or four nights where the low temperature was about 2 +/- 2°F. My kale plants did not freeze. Not only have they survived, they seem to be growing still. There seems to be some peripheral growth along the stalks.

Interesting plant.
 
  • #2,004
My wife and I planted a wisteria vine in our backyard last summer. We are also using a trellis so that it won't fall in love with the nearby fence and rip it apart. Currently, there are no signs that it has survived the winter; it is completely brown. :frown: How hardy are they? We've gotten mixed responses from "professionals." Is it supposed to stay green through the winter?

We have a dwarf nectarine tree which has survived two winters here. It's a tough little bugger! :approve:
 
  • #2,005
Dembadon said:
My wife and I planted a wisteria vine in our backyard last summer. We are also using a trellis so that it won't fall in love with the nearby fence and rip it apart. Currently, there are no signs that it has survived the winter; it is completely brown. :frown: How hardy are they? We've gotten mixed responses from "professionals." Is it supposed to stay green through the winter?
My parents have a wisteria vine that's been doing well for probably 40 years now. Here in Kansas we get sub-zero temperatures, so they are very hardy (once established I guess). However they don't stay green in the winter, but loose their leaves and appear to be dead until spring.
 
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  • #2,006
My garden grows quite well, thank you for asking.
 
  • #2,007
MotoH said:
My garden grows quite well, thank you for asking.
Do you actually grow anything? If so, here is the place to share tips.
 
  • #2,008
dlgoff said:
My parents have a wisteria vine that's been doing well for probably 40 years now. Here in Kansas we get sub-zero temperatures, so they are very hardy (once established I guess). However they don't stay green in the winter, but loose their leaves and appear to be dead until spring.
My mother and I both grew wisteria in Houston, TX and even there they lose their leaves and go dormant in the winter. I'm amazed that they grow here dl, but I did see a magnolia tree here and was shocked, it was huge.
 
  • #2,009
There is a very pretty magnolia tree in back of the greenhouse on the campus of the University of Maine at Orono. They are tough trees with wonderful blooms. The organist in my old band was a horticulture major, and he lived in an apartment at the greenhouse, and kept an eye on things.

My wife and I are planning our garden now and will order seeds soon. If the economy stays in the tank, it's going to be very tough finding popular seeds later in the year, so we'll order early and store the seeds in one of the freezers until we're ready to start our seedlings in the greenhouse and/or direct-seed into the garden. Last year, the germination rate for pickling cucumbers was very poor and I had a hell of a time finding more seeds. Lots of people planted gardens last year, and many of them lost their seeds to poor germination in the cold wet soil.
 
  • #2,010
It is a family garden, but our carrots and cucumbers grow excellently. Must be the soil and the weather since we just water them.
to keep deer out of garden: Use irish spring soap. deer absolutely hate it.
 
  • #2,011
Evo said:
My mother and I both grew wisteria in Houston, TX and even there they lose their leaves and go dormant in the winter. I'm amazed that they grow here dl, but I did see a magnolia tree here and was shocked, it was huge.
Probably not as shocking, but Mimosa Trees also grow here in Kansas.

BTW Did you move? Haven't seen you around much lately. You okay?
 
  • #2,012
dlgoff said:
Probably not as shocking, but Mimosa Trees also grow here in Kansas.

BTW Did you move? Haven't seen you around much lately. You okay?
Haven't moved, but I've been sick.
 
  • #2,013
Evo said:
Haven't moved, but I've been sick.
Sorry to hear that. I hope you are feeling better. Maybe we can chat a little tomorrow.
 
  • #2,014
dlgoff said:
Sorry to hear that. I hope you are feeling better. Maybe we can chat a little tomorrow.
I'm looking forward to chat.
 
  • #2,015
My head is swimming after spending much of the afternoon buried in seed catalogs. Too many choices. Since my garden was torn up during the time when I should have been planting garlic, my neighbor gave me the use of his garden-spot for my garlic. He's putting an addition on his house next year, and won't have time to do gardening. I'm planning on planting extras of everything to supply him and the family with vegetables during the next season. Now, if we can only get a "normal" summer. When the septic work was all done, I tilled 14 yards of coarse sand and 14 yards of rotted cow manure into my garden spot to improve drainage and add nutrients back to the soil. I haven't used any chemical fertilizers or pesticides on my garden spot, just manure, compost, etc, so the soil is nice and black and rich.

The previous owner knew NOTHING about proper gardening, and he added lime every year, and dowsed everything with Miracle Gro. I did a soil test the first year and found that the garden spot was so alkaline that I had to pay $$$ for powdered elemental sulfur just to get the pH down into a reasonable range.

Another old fellow up the road has been doing the same foolishness, and his wife asked me to test their soil. Once again, too alkaline. Some people have no understanding of how pH can affect the availability and uptake of nutrients, and you can't teach them if they are set in their ways.
 
  • #2,016
Evo said:
Haven't moved, but I've been sick.

my, oh boy (girl), not good!----hope you're feeling better soon----is it the flu?
 
  • #2,017
rewebster said:
my, oh boy (girl), not good!----hope you're feeling better soon----is it the flu?
No, I'm falling apart.
 
  • #2,018
Ok, I promised to post some pictures a week or two ago, here they are.

I thought the way the snow was melting was interesting, so I got my camera, and luckily just when I went to snap the picture, a bird ran over and looked down, just in time to give the photo some interest, look at those cute toes!

005we.jpg


This is the one I mentioned in chat. I was taking pictures of the snow and snapped these two one after the other. Oddly there appears to be a fog in the first shot which is gone a few seconds later in the second shot. Could the fog be a camera glitch, it seems to be thicker in some areas, I just thought it was strange.

007lx.jpg


009tg.jpg
 
  • #2,019
its the ghost of your pepper plant

007lx.jpg

(probably the furnace venting)



are you getting some help or do you need it right now?
 
  • #2,020
rewebster said:
its the ghost of your pepper plant

007lx.jpg

(probably the furnace venting)
No, that's a post on the outside of my patio, there is nothing else there.
 
  • #2,021
it may have been snow falling from the bird leaving the plant---the bird is flying away, its in the upper right hand corner, in front of one of the trees near the snow line


are you getting some help or do you need it right now?
 
  • #2,022
rewebster said:
it may have been snow falling from the bird leaving the plant---the bird is flying away, its in the upper right hand corner, in front of one of the trees near the snow line


are you getting some help or do you need it right now?
The bird flew off from another point on the patio.

Help with what, the picture?
 
  • #2,023
Evo said:
Haven't moved, but I've been sick.

Evo said:
No, I'm falling apart.

are you OK?
 
  • #2,024
rewebster said:
are you OK?
I'm getting old.
 
  • #2,025
Evo said:
I'm getting old.

meaning? what?---you don't want to be a grandmother someday?
 
  • #2,026
Evo said:
I'm getting old.

Hello Evo!

you know you're getting old when you say "I'm getting old" so... stop that!

the fog looks like its on the lens... like a drop or a smudge.
 
  • #2,027
baywax said:
the fog looks like its on the lens... like a drop or a smudge.
But the second clear picture was taken about 10 seconds later, so that's not it either. I was just randomly snapping pictures of the snow that had objects with which to gauge the depth. The picture taken a few seconds before the one with the fog was perfectly clear also.
 
  • #2,028
I just ordered my seeds for next summer's garden. I have about 1/2 of what I'll need already in the freezer, and many of the seeds I needed are for things that we'll be starting in the greenhouse that we would normally buy as seedlings or direct seed. Tomatoes and chilies will get stated from seed, and pickling cukes, and squash will get a head-start in the greenhouse instead of waiting for appropriate soil temperatures for germination after direct-seeding.

I'm pretty psyched about gardening this year, especially after seeing the quality of the soil after amending it with manure and sand and deep-tilling.
tilledgarden.jpg
 
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  • #2,029
Looks like it will be awesome turbo. I hope the weather is more cooperative this year.

Of course the groundhog did predict a late spring.
 
  • #2,030
Evo said:
Looks like it will be awesome turbo. I hope the weather is more cooperative this year.

Of course the groundhog did predict a late spring.
I don't care if it's a late spring, as long as we get an actual summer this year. Chilies need sun and warm temperatures to do their best. I can live with a light crop of tomatoes, etc, but I NEED chilies. I ordered habanero, jalapeno, and Hungarian wax. The Hungarians are fantastic for making stuffed peppers with spiced hamburg and rice, tomato sauce, and melted cheese. Mmm. Also very nice for stir-fries.
 
  • #2,031
The Hungarians are fantastic for making stuffed peppers with spiced hamburg and rice, tomato sauce, and melted cheese. Mmm.
Or just as a side. One bit of this then one bite of a wax. Mmm.
 
  • #2,032
I love stuffing jalapenos. They are small, so that there are few recipes that will work well. The Hungarian Wax chilies are larger (perhaps 8" or so long and 3-4" wide) and they are a bit milder than the jalapenos so they can be easily used as vessels for stuffed peppers when some people don't like really hot foods.
 
  • #2,033
  • #2,034
I helped a friend in high school tap and collect maple sap a few times for the family business just because it was one of those interesting things. The shed where they did the reducing was an olfactory delight. Riding through the forest and throwing the sap in the container didn't seem like work.

I think I'll look around for a local producer this year.


I still have to spray the peach and nectarine trees for peach leaf curl---its one of the two things that make them go bad if I don't--and it has to be done in the dormant (no growth) period.
 
  • #2,035
Evo said:
I got this shot accidently, I was going to take a picture of my dog falling into 3 foot deep snow, but he stopped for a "break". See the snowflake next to the bat? There are 4 more, but this one is the biggest.

snowflakefruitbat.jpg
At first I thought this was an orange skunk. But I soon realized it was Rico doing a 'high five'. :biggrin:

Interesting snowflake. It reminds me of Whoville for some reason.
 
  • #2,036
On the "baby, it's cold" thread, I posted that I can get 14 yards of well-rotted cow manure for $200, delivered. I just crunched a few numbers, and based on a weight of 2000#/yd, one load is 28,000#, which is equivalent to 700 40# bags. Depending on where you buy gardening supplies, you'd go broke trying to add that much organic material to your garden.
 
  • #2,037
I have to check the price, but I was told about $25 for 2 cu yds of manure.
 
  • #2,038
Astronuc said:
I have to check the price, but I was told about $25 for 2 cu yds of manure.
If it's clean and well-rotted, that's a great price. My next-door neighbor was buying directly from an old dairy farmer in the next town. He'd get loads that were contaminated with rope, baling twine, plastic, and even hypodermic needles. Plus, the manure was VERY weedy because it was badly contaminated with feed and bedding. He went back to chemical fertilizers until he saw how clean my load was last fall.

When my wife and I were first married, I agreed to plant and tend a large vegetable garden at her parents' place (her father had lost a leg to diabetes). Unfortunately, he ordered manure from a guy that kept horses. Horses don't chew their food as well as cows, and they don't have multiple stomachs, so weed-seeds pass right through them. I have never seen such a weedy garden in my life. The wild mustard alone would make you cry.
 
  • #2,039
turbo-1 said:
If it's clean and well-rotted, that's a great price. My next-door neighbor was buying directly from an old dairy farmer in the next town. He'd get loads that were contaminated with rope, baling twine, plastic, and even hypodermic needles. Plus, the manure was VERY weedy because it was badly contaminated with feed and bedding. He went back to chemical fertilizers until he saw how clean my load was last fall.
The stuff is clean.

When my wife and I were first married, I agreed to plant and tend a large vegetable garden at her parents' place (her father had lost a leg to diabetes). Unfortunately, he ordered manure from a guy that kept horses. Horses don't chew their food as well as cows, and they don't have multiple stomachs, so weed-seeds pass right through them. I have never seen such a weedy garden in my life. The wild mustard alone would make you cry.
We could get all the horse manure we need - for free - but it needs to be aged and keep under black plastic for 2 years to kill the weeds. Cow manure is much better.

The farmer with whom we talked recommended chickens. He moves his 'portable' yard/coop around the property, the chickens (hens only is an option) poop in a closed area, then once he moves them, he tills.
 
  • #2,040
Astronuc said:
The stuff is clean.

We could get all the horse manure we need - for free - but it needs to be aged and keep under black plastic for 2 years to kill the weeds. Cow manure is much better.
Yep. Well-rotted cow manure is nice and black, and it is relatively weed-free. It releases nutrients quite slowly and steadily, so it is way better for your vegetables than chemical fertilizers. I had to add 14 yards of coarse sand to match the 14 yards of rotted manure, because manure helps retain water, and if we get another wet summer this year, I'll need the extra drainage that the sand will provide, plus the sand will reduce the resistance of the soil to carrots and other root crops. Until I had worked on the soil a bit, it was really hard to dig carrots out of the garden. Too much clay!
 
  • #2,041
Unfortunately I do container gardening, there are a lot of issues with the soil in small containers.
 
  • #2,042
I promised drizzle that I would post a picture from the ice storm we had Sunday. I took this photo this morning from my bedroom window, looks like christmas lights.

021kbe.jpg
 
  • #2,043
I bought a patio tomato plant last year that just produced like crazy. I have seeds from some of the tomatoes. Do you think if I plant those that they will be as good as the original plant?
 
  • #2,044
probably not---

most tomatoes are hybrids, and the seeds aren't hybrid stock.

I leave a couple plants that are from the drops from the year before and they never produce as well
 
  • #2,045
rewebster said:
probably not---

most tomatoes are hybrids, and the seeds aren't hybrid stock.

I leave a couple plants that are from the drops from the year before and they never produce as well
Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. :(
 
  • #2,046
Evo said:
Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. :(
Most of the world's basic crops already cut off the farmers at the ankles. The crops don't propagate or seed. Monsanto is happy. Farmers (many of then 3rd world) starve or die.
 
  • #2,047
Evo said:
Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. :(

most of your last year cost was containers etc---plants aren't very expensive, if you go the same place as last year to get your plants, there's a good chance they will be similar to last year's plants
 
  • #2,048
you can still buy heirloom seed, tho. and even Bonnie has a few sprouted plants that are heirloom or heirloom hybrid. i planted some yellow tomatoes last year that were quite nice. i saved a few seed, even tho they may have crossed with the pink ones, or the red ones. who knows, they might sprout. won't hurt to try.
 
  • #2,049
I'm not crazy about heirloom tomatoes, there is a reason that better varieties gained favor. I'll try some of these patio tomatoes and see what happens.
 
  • #2,050
Evo said:
I bought a patio tomato plant last year that just produced like crazy. I have seeds from some of the tomatoes. Do you think if I plant those that they will be as good as the original plant?
I think it depends on the variety. We've had a few plants come back from drops, and they were pretty productive.

With container growing, especially with tomatoes and similar plants, it's best to empty the soil out and blend in new fresh soil and compost manure (and not composted mushroom stuff). Also, if one suspects blight or other deleterious organisms, it's best to empty soil in a black bag and let it cook over the summer in a black bag. Make sure there are no worms in the soil when placing it into the bag.
 

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