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.
  • #2,431
Fantastic! Hope you keep getting enough rain to keep the pond level up.
 
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  • #2,432
Evo said:
Fantastic! Hope you keep getting enough rain to keep the pond level up.
It's a pretty big pond. Even at this low level there are many thousands of gallons of water in there, so that should be OK. Today I installed 1" aluminum tubes on two T-posts each about 1/4 way in from their respective ends of the garden, so I could move the sprinkler back and forth between them, and adjusted the sprinkler to water a smaller radius, so that I can spot-water more efficiently. Then I built a "roof" over the pump. It's sitting under the deck, but rain-water can drip between the decking boards and hit the motor if its not protected. I think this project is complete. How many more in the works?
 
  • #2,433
BTW, we are gearing tomorrow's family get-together around the produce from the garden, instead of doing the normal grilling/smoking routine. My father and my younger brother and his little girl are all coming over for the afternoon. My wife is going to stop and buy some nice deli-meats on her way home tonight and we'll bake some fresh bread - French loaves and beer-barrel rye bread (a hearty sandwich bread). We'll have mayo, various mustards, fresh sauerkraut, and lots of fresh garden vegetables to make sandwiches out of. Plus my niece loves raw vegetables as snacks, so there will be fresh green beans, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, cucumber spears, etc for her. Need spicy fresh salsa and corn chips too (for me!).
 
  • #2,434
Where is summer? I have loads of apple-sized green tomatoes in my garden, and it's 60F outside. Forecast calls for temps to *cool* this week, for goodness sake!

Yeah, yeah...fried green tomatoes, I know. Just goes to show you, you can garlic-cheese-and-fry-up just about anything, and it can be sort of edible.

I want fresh, home-grown, ripe, juicy, sweet, *red* tomatoes :cry:!
 
  • #2,435
lisab said:
I want fresh, home-grown, ripe, juicy, sweet, *red* tomatoes :cry:!
I'm eating one right now in a BLT made with still-warm French bread. Marianas are wonderful in sandwiches, though I should have used the home-made rye bread - it's better for sandwiches.
 
  • #2,436
Everything except onions did well this summer, they just didn't stand up to the brutal heat. Tomatoes and peppers are bountiful, and potatoes are ready to dig.

Barley, ready to harvest next week in Michigan's upper.

DSCF0048.jpg
 
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  • #2,437
mmm...barley, matled, then mashed, then fermented.
 
  • #2,438
Insanity said:
mmm...barley, matled, then mashed, then fermented.
John barleycorn must die!
 
  • #2,439
hypatia said:
Everything except onions did well this summer, they just didn't stand up to the brutal heat. Tomatoes and peppers are bountiful, and potatoes are ready to dig.

Barley, ready to harvest next week in Michigan's upper.

DSCF0048.jpg

Beautiful pic :smile:!
 
  • #2,440
Borek said:
Practical witchcraft: to cause rain, buy a pump.
Turbo did more than cause rain, now he has a hurricane headed his way. "Earl".

http://www.weather.com/maps/news/atlstorm7/projectedpath_large.html
 
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  • #2,441
Evo said:
Turbo did more than cause rain, now he has a hurricane headed his way.

He probably overdid with tubes and sprinklers.
 
  • #2,442
Borek said:
He probably overdid with tubes and sprinklers.
Old northeast maritime superstition about "buying the wind"... Ah, well...
 
  • #2,443
Borek said:
He probably overdid with tubes and sprinklers.
:smile:
 
  • #2,444
Evo said:
:smile:
My neighbor wants the heavy rains because he is anxious about his dug well (more reliable than mine!), but heavy winds could knock out power out for a week. People who live in rural areas need to have stored gas, diesel, generators to power their homes, and other resources. I don't think I can efficiently cool this house AND provide water from the drilled well if there is an extended outage. My generator is not industrial-grade.
 
  • #2,445
Hopefully with the rain you might get some relief from the heat.

We got a bit of rain this morning, and depending on the mood of the weather forecaster at weather.com we may be getting more rain tonight and tomorrow, they've been changing the forecast every 30 minutes.

We're supposed to get another break from the heat Friday & Saturday.
 
  • #2,446
Hope the rain brings relief. We are due for ~95 deg weather for the rest of the week.
 
  • #2,447
50 deg F and raining

Well, it is just past midnight, during a day temperature goes up. A little bit. Perhaps even to 60 deg F.
 
  • #2,448
had an absolutely awful season, as did most people around here. weather didn't cooperate, and bugs were a plague. still trying to get some late-planted butternut squash to mature before frost (which is late here near birmingham). first batch only yielded one decent mature fruit. i think if i get half a dozen, it'll be a "success".
 
  • #2,449
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  • #2,450
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  • #2,451
NeoDevin said:
Anyone have any idea what this is? I found it growing in my eaves trough (I know, I should clean it out more often), and thought it looked nice.

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/1295/1003973o.th.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

(Click for larger)
If I don't clean the gutters, I may find maple tree seedlings growing near the down spouts.

It looks like a typical lawn weed.
 
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  • #2,452
NeoDevin said:
Anyone have any idea what this is? I found it growing in my eaves trough (I know, I should clean it out more often), and thought it looked nice.

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/1295/1003973o.th.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

(Click for larger)

I grew up in California, where those grew everywhere. We used to thread one of the needle things through another one, to make "scissors". But I have no idea what the name is, sorry!
 
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  • #2,453
We got a little over an inch of rain, and the level of my backyard pond jumped a foot. Apparently, my property is the recipient of groundwater from lots of uphill acreage.
 
  • #2,454
NeoDevin said:
Anyone have any idea what this is? I found it growing in my eaves trough (I know, I should clean it out more often), and thought it looked nice.

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/1295/1003973o.th.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

(Click for larger)

Looks a bit like http://www.oregon.gov/ODA/PLANT/WEEDS/profile_herbrobert.shtml". But I may be mistaken. There appear to be about 12 billion variations of wild geranium.

I actually have something almost identical that covered most of my garden this year. This is why I spent the last two hours trying to figure out what it is. Most of it has died off from the heat and lack of moisture in the last month.

I'm tending to lean towards a definite positive identification on mine being Stinky Bob after reading the article.
Herb Robert is a branching, low growing winter and spring annual. It has light green leaves that are deeply dissected and release a pungent odor making this plant easy to recognize. As the plants mature the foliage turns red. This red color is very noticable under bright light conditions. The stems are highly pubescent, have multiple forks, and are brittle at the joints.

ps. My neighbor has it growing in his gutters also. Ah! I think I see a couple of little maple trees too.

:smile:
 
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  • #2,455
OmCheeto said:
Looks a bit like http://www.oregon.gov/ODA/PLANT/WEEDS/profile_herbrobert.shtml". But I may be mistaken. There appear to be about 12 billion variations of wild geranium.

I actually have something almost identical that covered most of my garden this year. This is why I spent the last two hours trying to figure out what it is. Most of it has died off from the heat and lack of moisture in the last month.

I'm tending to lean towards a definite positive identification on mine being Stinky Bob after reading the article.
It definitely looks like a type of wild geranium, possibly Herb Bob (Geranium robertianum) or a variant thereof, is a possibility. It also resembles Geranium carolinianum - http://www.aragriculture.org/horticulture/ornamentals/weed_id/geranium_carolina.htm

See Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum) on http://share3.esd105.wednet.edu/rsandelin/fieldguide/Plantpages/Flowers/Redflwers.htm
 
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  • #2,456
We are inundated with zucchinis. Luckily my wife has a friend that will take LOTS of them to grind up and freeze for making zucchini bread this winter. No matter how few plants I put in, we always seem to get more than we want or need.
 
  • #2,457
The garden is producing very well this year unlike the last two marginal summers. On this end of the basket are Mariana tomatoes, with Moskvich tomatoes at the other end, partially covered by northern pickling cucumbers. I'm making sauce of the Marianas right now and will sauce the Moskviches later (I need to get another good copper-clad stew-pot so I can do two batches at once). This is typical of a day's production. I'll be able to get about the same volume of ripe tomatoes daily from now until the Marianas give up. The Moskviches are indeterminate tomatoes and will continue to provide ripe fruit daily until frost. The plants are loaded with green tomatoes, and they ripen gradually over weeks and weeks, unlike most determinate varieties that tend to swamp you with fruit and then peter out rapidly.

produce9_6.jpg
 
  • #2,458
I have invested $45 with Amazon, to get a copper-clad 8-quart stock-pot made by Revere. The "pro-level" cookware is just ridiculous, and the "celebrity-chef" stuff is at least 2x what you have to pay for good serviceable cookware. Revere's copper-skinned bottoms make their SS pots heat up quite consistently, and they last for decades! I'm not going to pay >$300/pot for All-Clad stuff. Top-quality cutlery is one thing I won't skimp on, but there are pots and pans available to home cooks that are fairly-priced and very effective. My mother and grandmother both swore by copper-bottomed Revere-Ware, and they are my culinary heroes.
 
  • #2,459
turbo-1 said:
I have invested $45 with Amazon, to get a copper-clad 8-quart stock-pot made by Revere. The "pro-level" cookware is just ridiculous, and the "celebrity-chef" stuff is at least 2x what you have to pay for good serviceable cookware. Revere's copper-skinned bottoms make their SS pots heat up quite consistently, and they last for decades! I'm not going to pay >$300/pot for All-Clad stuff. Top-quality cutlery is one thing I won't skimp on, but there are pots and pans available to home cooks that are fairly-priced and very effective. My mother and grandmother both swore by copper-bottomed Revere-Ware, and they are my culinary heroes.
I think we have or had some Revere-Ware with copper bottoms.

My habaneros, jalapeños, Carribean hot and Czech black peppers have numerous flowers and fruit. They got off to a slow start this summer, but they seem to be making up for lost time. Unfortunately, I have about 4 weeks before the weather becomes cool and the plants stop producing.

This summer has been rather dry and the plant growth has been stunted. A nearby crop of corn is half the height it should be. I'm guessing the farmer decided it wasn't worth irrigating.
 
  • #2,460
Astronuc said:
This summer has been rather dry and the plant growth has been stunted. A nearby crop of corn is half the height it should be. I'm guessing the farmer decided it wasn't worth irrigating.
Or didn't have the facilities to irrigate. Some of the corn-fields on bottom-land along the river are producing marginally, but most corn-fields (including those needed for chopped silage for dairy cows) are burnt and dead. The drought this summer will spell big trouble for already-stressed dairy farms, and I'm afraid that some of the locals will have to go out of business. Already, one small operation along Rte. 201 (where my trucker used to pick up all his rotted manure) has folded, and the barn is being torn down. The land is going to be partitioned off for a development. Sad.
 

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