What Are Some Tips for Successful Gardening?

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    Evo garden
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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around personal experiences and aspirations related to gardening, encompassing various approaches, challenges, and preferences. Participants share their gardening backgrounds, current practices, and future gardening dreams, touching on both ornamental and edible plants.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant describes a lifelong passion for gardening, emphasizing organic methods and the joy of cultivating fruits and vegetables.
  • Another expresses a desire to garden despite living in an apartment, sharing plans for a "salsa garden" with various herbs and vegetables.
  • Some participants express skepticism about gardening in urban settings, suggesting alternatives like concrete or Astroturf.
  • A participant recounts frustrations with deer damaging their garden, discussing efforts to protect plants with fencing.
  • Water restrictions are mentioned as a challenge for maintaining grass and gardens, leading to the use of colored rocks to minimize watering needs.
  • One participant shares their struggle to maintain a vegetable garden due to travel, opting instead to focus on flower gardening and specific flower varieties.
  • Another participant discusses the challenges of managing overgrown plants and the desire to create a diverse flower garden with various colors and types.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of gardening experiences and preferences, with no clear consensus on the best approach. Some favor traditional gardening, while others advocate for alternative methods or express disinterest in gardening altogether.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include varying gardening conditions based on location, personal circumstances, and differing definitions of successful gardening. Some participants face challenges such as wildlife interference and water restrictions, which influence their gardening practices.

Who May Find This Useful

Individuals interested in gardening, whether for food production or ornamental purposes, as well as those navigating urban gardening challenges or seeking inspiration for their own gardening projects.

  • #2,221
Today, I planted my cucumber and winter squash seeds in flats and set them in my mini-greenhouse. In Maine springs, direct-seeding can be problematic because a stretch of cool, wet days can destroy your planned germination-rate and leave you with no (or few) viable plants. Here, we can't rely on frost-free nights until Memorial Day, but all I want to do is to get the cukes and squash sprouted, so I can identify the viable seeds, and transplant the tiny plants into the soil.

Tip: Squash and Cucumbers do NOT like to have their roots disturbed. Start from seeds late in small-volume flats, and plant the entire contents of each recess directly into the soil in the rows. It is not advisable to to "pot up" from flats to pots and then transplant to the garden. Disturb the seedlings as little as possible.
 
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  • #2,222
turbo-1 said:
Holes in leaves with well-defined edges is generally due to caterpillars. Discolored (usually pale) blotches on leaves are generally due to molds and mildews.

I've also gotten blotches like that from those little spider mites. Instead of munching holes into the leaves, they just suck them dry, I think.
 
  • #2,223
Cross-posted to the Baby it's cold thread. Regarding the use of feedlot cattle panels as trellises.

I needed a better solution to the trellis problem for vining plants and indeterminate tomatoes, and the cattle panels and T-posts stuck out as a very long-term, easily configurable solution. Indeterminate varieties flower and fruit all season, and can provide fresh, ripe tomatoes for much longer than the bushy determinate varieties.

For anybody thinking of trying this type of trellis, hit Tractor Supply during a sale, buy the cattle panels, and cut them on-site with bolt cutters before loading them. For every T-post you buy, you'll get 5 clips, so that's taken care of. Buy a post-driver. You'll need it!
 
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  • #2,224
Mr & Mrs Mallard stopped by today. The came onto my patio and I went out, and they just stood there as if to say "Hey, we're ducks, what are you got to eat?"

All I had was flour tortillas. They spit them out and walked off. :cry:

013jx.jpg


If they had let me know they were coming I could have been better prepared.
 
  • #2,225
Duck walks into a store and asks "Where's the duck food?" The clerk says "We got no duck food, just dog food and cat food. Get out." The next day, the duck walks into the store and asks "Where is the duck food?" The clerk says "I already told you we've got no duck food, just dog food and cat food. If you bother me again, I'm going to nail your flat feet to that floor." The next day, the duck comes into the store and asks "Where are the nails?" The clerk says "We don't have nails." so the duck asks "Where is the duck food?"
 
  • #2,226
Aha, they're back, this time they're eating the squirrel food.
 
  • #2,227
The ducks have been to my place twice this morning and I had no food, so i made some pancakes. If they come back, I'll have something they might like.
 
  • #2,228
There is a lady that feeds the ducks at the local mill-pond every spring while they are waiting for ice-out on their breeding grounds. She mixes cracked corn and oatmeal (IIR) with shredded lettuce, cubed tomatoes and other vegetables in a 5-gallon pail and the ducks flock to her for the handouts. It would be expensive to do this as often as she does, so I suspect that she has a relative culling vegetables from a salad bar at the local supermarket or from Subway, etc.
 
  • #2,229
Evo said:
Mr & Mrs Mallard stopped by today. The came onto my patio and I went out, and they just stood there as if to say "Hey, we're ducks, what are you got to eat?"

All I had was flour tortillas. They spit them out and walked off. :cry:

013jx.jpg


If they had let me know they were coming I could have been better prepared.
Really nice picture Evo.

Is that the ravine of doom I see? Please stay back about 10 feet or so.
 
  • #2,230
Yes, it's a drop off the edge of the rocks, you can see the trees growing up from the bottom. The picture is from my bedroom window.
 
  • #2,231
Did someone ask for more duck pictures? :biggrin:

009xu.jpg


Unfortunately the shot was ruined by the reflection of the flash off the door frame. I had flash selected by default.
 
  • #2,232
I have a puny garden started (no pictures yet...I just found the camera buried in my office a few hours ago...been looking for it for a week). I got some raised bed kits from Walmart. They're almost 4 ft square each, and I got 4 of them made from recycled composite lumber. I figure I can expand it a little each year. The soil here is pretty much clay and rock, so no hope of anything but raised bed gardens. My neighbor is just trying to put in a flower bed next to the sidewalk and has been working on it for the better part of a month. She does have a huge pile of rocks, but not much flower bed yet.

Anyway, I've perhaps over-packed my puny garden. I got carried away on Mother's Day weekend shopping for plants. I have about 16 tomato plants in 4 varieties. Then 6 green bean plants, I think 8 pepper plants...6 green and 2 yellow...and two each of jalapeno, habanero, and Thai chili peppers. The third bed is 9 cabbage plants and 2 eggplant. The last bed has garlic, red onions and shallots. I also have a rosemary plant and a dill plant squeezed in. I wanted to plant basil, but with all the other yard work I was doing, didn't think of it soon enough to get seeds started, and the plants at the stores have looked terrible.

I really need to get some backyard photos now. I love how my flower bed is turning out, though some of the plants aren't thriving...it's trial and error...I get a few of this and that and if it survives, I get more the next year to replace the ones that don't.

Now I'm trying to decide if I really want to terrace the back yard or if I want to extend my deck out further. My neighbors probably think I'm weird, because I'll just stand out in the backyard staring at the house as I try to envision the different options for landscaping/decking/etc.
 
  • #2,233
Yeah, that's why your neighbours think that you're weird, because you stand in your yard staring at your house. :biggrin:

I can't wait to see pictures. Your garden does sound packed. The raised beds are clever, though. What's the drainage like for them?

I've got herbs (hopefully) starting in a little in-door greenhouse set up. Failing the seeds actually doing anything, I'll be buying the huge basil and rosemary plants from our Greenhouse of Doom again this year. I've discovered I can't live without fresh herbs.
 
  • #2,234
I bet we had 3 to 4 inches of rain in the last hour and it looks like its only about half done...
 
  • #2,235
rewebster said:
I bet we had 3 to 4 inches of rain in the last hour and it looks like its only about half done...
You must have gotten hit with the same storm we just had. Also, the temperature dropped from 91F at 1:15p to 65F by 2:15P. The sun is out now, so the temperature is beginning to go back up, along with the humidity. PTL for air conditioning.
 
  • #2,236
Evo said:
You must have gotten hit with the same storm we just had. Also, the temperature dropped from 91F at 1:15p to 65F by 2:15P. The sun is out now, so the temperature is beginning to go back up, along with the humidity. PTL for air conditioning.

this one popped up where there was nothing, and all the clouds within 10 miles in all directions came together directly over head (from the radar images it looked that way)---we're going to get yours a little later
 
  • #2,237
Evo said:
Did someone ask for more duck pictures? :biggrin:

009xu.jpg


Unfortunately the shot was ruined by the reflection of the flash off the door frame. I had flash selected by default.

don't let those ducks get into your oven
 
  • #2,238
rewebster said:
don't let those ducks get into your oven
I'd lay a trail of cracked corn into the kitchen door... QUACK!
 
  • #2,239
My next door neighbor (the wife) and I were watching the ducks and she was saying how pretty they were, and how colorful the male was. And then she says "and they taste good too!". :eek:
 
  • #2,240
Have you ever eaten mallard duck before? When growing up, my dad hunted all sorts of game. Mom would (after boiling it) bake the whole duck in a pan of corn bread dressing. Very tasty.
 
  • #2,241
Mallards are nice ducks. Roast them breast-up on a wire rack, and save the drippings for other dishes. Mallards are VERY fatty critters. It is a talent to get them well-cooked with crispy skin. Our town's lawyer when I was a kid was an avid duck-hunter, and his wife was very adept at cooking the ducks. Luckily, their son and I were close and I got to drop in on some great duck dinners.
 
  • #2,242
dlgoff said:
Have you ever eaten mallard duck before? When growing up, my dad hunted all sorts of game. Mom would (after boiling it) bake the whole duck in a pan of corn bread dressing. Very tasty.

turbo-1 said:
Mallards are nice ducks. Roast them breast-up on a wire rack, and save the drippings for other dishes. Mallards are VERY fatty critters. It is a talent to get them well-cooked with crispy skin. Our town's lawyer when I was a kid was an avid duck-hunter, and his wife was very adept at cooking the ducks. Luckily, their son and I were close and I got to drop in on some great duck dinners.
WHAT?? NOOOO!

These are my friends! They are NOT dinner. OMG. :cry:
 
  • #2,243
Evo said:
WHAT?? NOOOO!

These are my friends! They are NOT dinner. OMG. :cry:
Shall I post the pictures of mallards slaughtering/dismembering frogs in my back-yard pond? Mallards can be cute, but they have evil agendas.
 
  • #2,244
turbo-1 said:
Shall I post the pictures of mallards slaughtering/dismembering frogs in my back-yard pond? Mallards can be cute, but they have evil agendas.
Did you feed them pancakes? I did, almost choked the poor things to death. Their bills got stuck together by the gooey pancakes and they weren't near water. I was afraid I was going to have to perform the Heimlich manuever on them. :redface:
 
  • #2,245
My roses are in bloom. The fragrance of them fill my bedroom,
den, and kitchen. My front and back yard looks like a dream come true.
It's home to quail, doves, finches, blue birds, ladybugs, bees,
and one well-mannered cat. All the plants and trees are bursting with color
and sway with the breeze. I can hear the wind chimes too.
It's as if there is a dance of sorts going on out there and I am it's guest.
:biggrin: I am content.
 
  • #2,246
Evo said:
Did you feed them pancakes? I did, almost choked the poor things to death. Their bills got stuck together by the gooey pancakes and they weren't near water. I was afraid I was going to have to perform the Heimlich manuever on them. :redface:

They appeared at my pond on several days, and assailed the frogs relentlessly. I wasn't feeding them - they were feeding themselves, using my leopard frogs.
 
  • #2,247
Evo said:
Did you feed them pancakes? I did, almost choked the poor things to death. Their bills got stuck together by the gooey pancakes and they weren't near water. I was afraid I was going to have to perform the Heimlich manuever on them. :redface:
:smile: That's so funny. I have tears in my eyes.
 
  • #2,248
dlgoff said:
:smile: That's so funny. I have tears in my eyes.
Gosh! I couldn't keep those critters fed. I might have given them corn meal, crumbled crackers, etc, but at some point, ex-duck could fill the bill.
 
  • #2,249
Success! The bird netting is keeping the deer out. My neighbor told me he saw some deer in my yard the other day sniffing around the garden, but ultimately left it alone. I also put the onions and garlic on the side closest to the tree line, so I figure that'll be the first thing the deer sniff when they encounter the garden and not like. I put lots of stakes to hold up the bird netting too, so they are something visual to tell the deer not to try jumping over the fence or I'll have deer-kabobs!

When the plants start fruiting, I'll finish covering the top with bird netting too so the birds don't snack on my tomatoes. I don't think there's much hope for squirrels, since they'll just as likely chew through the netting if they decide there's something tasty inside, but I'll just hope the neighbor's bird feeders nearer to ground level than mine are keeping the squirrels distracted.

The town is discussing allowing a bow hunt for deer within city limits this year to get the deer population under control.

So far, they've left my other landscaping alone too. I've been steadily planting deer-resistant plants, and trying to hide the non-deer-resistant ones in the middle, hoping the deer don't quite get that far. I didn't expect the hostas I planted to live this long, but it seems they are far enough off the deer trail that they're still there. I would never buy hostas, since they are like salad for deer, but a friend was thinning them from her gardens, so they were free.

I got my front flower beds planted this year too. Three rose bushes are blooming (I have windows right behind the flower bed, so didn't want to put things in that will obscure the windows and make it easy for someone to break in, so decided nice thorny rose bushes were just the plant for in front of the windows :devil:). The foxglove I planted last year are in full bloom too (those were the first plants I put in after the deer ate everything last year...I figured if they insisted on eating the plants, I'd give them all heart attacks...muwhahahahaha!...for those that don't know, foxglove is the plant digitalis is derived from). The freesias are also starting to bloom and smell so pretty right next to my front porch. The gladioli are sprouting up, so good promise of blooming nicely for the end of summer.

This is my basic goal, to include some plants that provide some height or greenery year round (I have a sand cherry in the front, plus the rose bushes, and in the backyard, some forsythias, two willows, and wintergreen plants, which are an evergreen), and then plant the rest as perennial flowers that have staggered blooming times so I always have something in bloom from early spring through late summer/fall. I have all the basics done now, and can just slowly add a little of this or that as I see things I like.

It's getting too hot now to do much heavy yard work, so any new major projects will need to wait again until fall or next spring. Now it's just maintenance.
 
  • #2,250
We got our hostas free, too, when neighbors were thinning theirs. We got several varieties, including some with giant leaves and some that are variegated. My wife planted a bleeding heart last year. It was modest-sized, but now it's crowding out other plants as are the two varieties of bee-balm and the chocolate mint. The mint is creeping out into lawn, so I smell mint whenever I mow or weed-whack.
 

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