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.
  • #2,461
My wife's flower-gardens are growing. Before last weekend, the walkways and small border-beds were just plain lawn. Caution: wide panorama shot.

th_panlawn.jpg
 
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  • #2,462
turbo-1 said:
My wife's flower-gardens are growing. Before last weekend, the walkways and small border-beds were just plain lawn. Caution: wide panorama shot.

th_panlawn.jpg
They turned out great turbo!
 
  • #2,463
We scorched the grass with a propane torch before casting the pavers, so they would "bed-in" more evenly. Now to figure out how to border the walks and fill the spaces between the pavers.
 
  • #2,464
turbo-1 said:
We scorched the grass with a propane torch before casting the pavers, so they would "bed-in" more evenly. Now to figure out how to border the walks and fill the spaces between the pavers.
Under stepping stones I would put down the extra heavy black plastic, then fill in with a dense dirt/gravel. Makes picking any weeds that do manage to spring up very easy to pull.
 
  • #2,465
Evo said:
Under stepping stones I would put down the extra heavy black plastic, then fill in with a dense dirt/gravel. Makes picking any weeds that do manage to spring up very easy to pull.
Currently, the plan is to fill the gaps with coarse sand, and border the walks with small screened stone. That way, there is no need to pull weeds - just a few minutes every couple of weeks to burn out any weeds with the torch. 1M btu/hr flame, and weeds just disappear.
 
  • #2,466
turbo-1 said:
Currently, the plan is to fill the gaps with coarse sand, and border the walks with small screened stone. That way, there is no need to pull weeds - just a few minutes every couple of weeks to burn out any weeds with the torch. 1M btu/hr flame, and weeds just disappear.

Boiling water works too.
 
  • #2,467
I'm going to go to my friend's gravel/sand screening plant this afternoon and pick out some material. I'm thinking pea-stone with coarse sand would work very well. Spread it on the pavers, sweep it to drive it into the cracks, and the stones that are too large to go in the cracks can be swept off the pavers to form borders for the paths. He has so many piles of stuff there from various custom-screening projects that there is bound to be something that will suit my purposes.
 
  • #2,468
The sand/pea-stone mix is perfect. Once the rain settles it, I'll add more to the low spots. Eventually, there will be no grass on the front lawn, just flowering plants, trees, and mulch.

walkandgardens.jpg
 
  • #2,469
turbo-1 said:
The sand/pea-stone mix is perfect. Once the rain settles it, I'll add more to the low spots. Eventually, there will be no grass on the front lawn, just flowering plants, trees, and mulch.

walkandgardens.jpg
Nice job!

Meanwhile, my jalapeño and habanero plants are full of flowers and fruit. The habaneros have clusters of peppers - all green. And there's dozens more flowers!
 
  • #2,470
Astronuc said:
Nice job!

Meanwhile, my jalapeño and habanero plants are full of flowers and fruit. The habaneros have clusters of peppers - all green. And there's dozens more flowers!
Good luck with the chilies! The weather is turning colder here, and I may have to use my chilies green AGAIN!
 
  • #2,471
The garden is beautiful turbo! Really turned out well.
 
  • #2,472
Evo said:
The garden is beautiful turbo! Really turned out well.
Thanks. It's a work in progress. I look forward to never mowing the front lawn ever again.
 
  • #2,473
turbo-1 said:
The sand/pea-stone mix is perfect. Once the rain settles it, I'll add more to the low spots. Eventually, there will be no grass on the front lawn, just flowering plants, trees, and mulch.
turbo,

Nice job, https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=2877379&postcount=2478", after what I am sure was lots of hard work, what is that nice granite stone (it is granite, right ?) to the right ? From a grist mill perhaps ?

It's is hard to believe, but after two years of trying I got a few late season ghost (bhut jolokia) peppers, first image, the second one is of multi-color ornamental peppers (non-edible). I may grow more of these to maturity and give a few to friends as gifts, house-warmings, etc... I have six more ghost pepper plants germinating, funny too, in the winter, they germinate in eight days, in the summer it is more like twelve, same conditions too, heat mat, 85 degrees F, and given time and care they will mature.

No more plants from the grower in Florida I am afraid though, every plant he sold me eventually developed bugs, and/or disease, whereas mine if kept away from his did just fine. His plants took a few of mine with his as well.

15zpp1f.jpg


9hto2v.jpg


Rhody... :wink:
 
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  • #2,475
rhody said:
turbo,

Nice job, https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=2877379&postcount=2478", after what I am sure was lots of hard work, what is that nice granite stone (it is granite, right ?) to the right ? From a grist mill perhaps ?Rhody... :wink:
Thanks! My wife is the one with the vision. It's up to me to execute the ideas. That "stone" is a concrete ball given to us by a friend.

Congrats on your chilies.
 
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  • #2,476
Borek said:
Those ornamental ones look a little bit like what I have here under the name Ecuador purple - but these are edible. See this post: https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=2839212&postcount=2414 - upper picture, pepper on the right.

Borek,

From the pics I have seen of the ones I grew, they always appear to keep their peppers facing up, like in my picture. After they mature, I will take a bite of one and report, but I don't think they are the same species. The little suckers were not easy to find. They look like Christmas lights to me. I think it is cool they express in different colors too.

edit:

I just looked them up in my pepper book, it says they are Capsicum annuum, 'NuMex Twilight', and in the picture, very bushy mature plant they are all small, like the ones in my picture and growing up instead of hanging down.

Rhody...
 
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  • #2,477
Mine do grow up, unfortunately there are several different peppers on the picture so they can be confusing. They are about an inch long, they have the same colors (purple/yellow/red when ripe), just the shape is slightly different, yours look like they are thinner.
 
  • #2,478
The garden is taking over my life right now. I needed a break from saucing tomatoes, so I took a big bag of nice ripe Moskvich tomatoes to a neighbor who has no garden. He might plant a garden next year - he's been complaining about the cost of tomatoes and other produce in the stores. Once he tastes these tomatoes, he'll really have something to complain about - as Guy Clark sings "There's two things that money can't buy. And that's true love and home-grown tomatoes.:
 
  • #2,479
Did the Garlic Festival today.

I bought some Music garlic and some hot/spicy Riesig garlic.

Four large bulbs are on their way to you, turbo.

The Riesig are from Gillie Brook Farm in Memphis, NY, which is just west of Syracuse.
http://www.gilliefarms.com/index.html

I think I'm going to go buy a truck load of their soil. :biggrin:
 
  • #2,480
Astronuc said:
Did the Garlic Festival today.

I bought some Music garlic and some hot/spicy Riesig garlic.

Four large bulbs are on their way to you, turbo.

The Riesig are from Gillie Brook Farm in Memphis, NY, which is just west of Syracuse.
http://www.gilliefarms.com/index.html

I think I'm going to go buy a truck load of their soil. :biggrin:
I wish I could have gone. We don't have any garlic festivals here.
 
  • #2,481
Evo said:
I wish I could have gone. We don't have any garlic festivals here.
I thought about you while browsing the different vendors of garlic. There were also folks selling various spicy/hot sauces and jellies. We bought some ginger-wasabi sauce. I tried somebody's hottest sauce, but it was too mild and rather salty.

I don't think you would have liked the weather - it was hot, nearly 90F, and sunny, and crowded. Some people looked like they got too much sun, and couple of folks were probably close to heat stroke.

Anyway, they did have a couple of great bands. One band played some blues and rock. They did some stuff that sounded like Jesse Colin Young and one piece sounded like Santana from the 70s. And one guy played a hammered dulcimer! I heard him tune it up, and even that sounded great!

Now there are other festivals that are less crowded, including one in Bennington.
 
  • #2,482
Astronuc said:
Did the Garlic Festival today.

I bought some Music garlic and some hot/spicy Riesig garlic.

Four large bulbs are on their way to you, turbo.

The Riesig are from Gillie Brook Farm in Memphis, NY, which is just west of Syracuse.
http://www.gilliefarms.com/index.html

I think I'm going to go buy a truck load of their soil. :biggrin:
Ooh! thanks, Astro! I'll have to see if I can get a sustainable crop going and "spread the joy". Once you've got enough garlic to save for seed and enough to eat, it's fun to get others on the same path. Al and I each grow Russian and German hard-neck garlic, and dedicate enough space to garlic to propagate extra every year.

My organic-gardening neighbor got me started growing garlic when we moved up here, and as soon as I got sufficient harvests (2nd year for Russian, 3rd for German), I joined him in starting other growers. Fedco Bulbs (organic sources only) charges $12 for 3 bulbs of German white garlic, and $10.50 for 3 bulbs of Russian red garlic. We routinely give other gardeners 20-40 bulbs of each so they can get jump-started into production. He and I each plant enough garlic to get at least 1/2 dozen gardeners started, plus we give extra to the Community Garden project.
 
  • #2,483
I just bought 3 bulbs each of mexican purple and german white garlic to plant. Hopefully I get a good harvest next year, and have enough to keep going.
 
  • #2,484
NeoDevin said:
I just bought 3 bulbs each of mexican purple and german white garlic to plant. Hopefully I get a good harvest next year, and have enough to keep going.
Good luck! Depending on the rate of propagation (the number of cloves in a bulb is the prime limiter) you may have to take a couple of seasons to get going well. Russian reds often have 10-12 cloves or more per bulb while German whites rarely have more than 6. Seperate the cloves, plant them (root end down) at least 6" apart about 1-1/2 inches down when the soil is cold but not frozen. Mulch with straw, and enjoy the magic. They'll be the first plants in your garden next spring. You get two harvests - when the scapes (central stalks) emerge and start curling around. Use the base of the stalk where every you would normally use green onions/scallions. Harvesting the scapes forces the plants to push all the nutrients to the bulbs, so your bulbs will be big and healthy.
 
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  • #2,485
NeoDevin said:
I just bought 3 bulbs each of mexican purple and german white garlic to plant. Hopefully I get a good harvest next year, and have enough to keep going.

Neo will be growing the United Nations Garlic Patch next year :biggrin:.
 
  • #2,486
lisab said:
Neo will be growing the United Nations Garlic Patch next year :biggrin:.
He needs to add some Spanish Rioja and Ukranian Hot. :biggrin:
 
  • #2,487
Got any garlic from Iceland or maybe Patagonia? I might be able to make them grow here if we don't keep getting month-long heat waves. :biggrin:
 
  • #2,488
Hmm, seems that we have escaped the "wider than your walls" influence of a couple of images. Whew.
 
  • #2,489
turbo-1 said:
Hmm, seems that we have escaped the "wider than your walls" influence of a couple of images. Whew.

I haven't yet :cry:. I use the 'backwards' display option.

Edit: This post did it for me! Yay!
 
  • #2,490
Anyone know where to find more varieties in Edmonton? The store I went to only had 4 varieties. I want some varieties that are hot and have a very strong garlic flavour.

(Or if anyone out there has some to spare that fit this bill, you could send a couple bulbs my way)
 

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