What Are Some Tips for Successful Gardening?

[dlgoff]

I grew some mint once (and only once). When I whet to till it under, since it was taking over, the tines of the tiller spread it (little root nodules) all over the garden. It took some time to get rid of it all. I never used it for anything, but it smelled good whenever I mowed it.

 

[Proton Soup]

mint is a friggin weed. there has been some running loose in the neighborhood here for a few years now. i assume it was some ornamental variety, because it doesn't smell like anything you'd want to eat.

as for "perennial" flowers, lantana works well here in alabama, but i don't know how it'd winter-over at -40. it's very hardy, tho. forget to water it? don't worry, it'll be fine. but keep it watered well and it'll bloom up a storm. usually sold as a hanging basket plant here, but don't let that stop you.

 

[PhaseShifter]

Not the same thing, but in the same family. There are LOTS of variants in the mint family.

I just noticed the species name was identical.

I have spearmint, peppermint, and catnip groing in my windowsill.

Of course, getting away from mints I have chives, sage, aloe, and strawberries all growing around my apartment. One of these days I need to get a place where i can actually plant stuff in the ground.

 

[rewebster]

Two young doves and a guarding parent

I usually have at least one pair of doves nesting each year---it seems about a week or 10 days earlier this year that they're at this stage

 

[lisab]

Two young doves and a guarding parent

I usually have at least one pair of doves nesting each year---it seems about a week or 10 days earlier this year that they're at this stage

Ah, some of Om's friends!

 

[Evo]

My doves have just started here, no babies yet.

 

[rewebster]

doves have a great soothing/meditative call

 

[Andre]

A typical little Dutch spring garden,

Well considering that -one year ago- this used to a rainforest in which we had to cut ourselves the way to the exit with machetes, it's maybe not too bad.

 

[Evo]

Beautifu Andre.

 

[Evo]

Parasitic birds.

I have several Brown-Headed cowbirds outside. According to my bird book, these birds lay their eggs in other bird's nests and allow the host birds to raise their young, sometimes to the exclusion of their own young since these birds are often much larger.

Bad birds.

 

[Evo]

My doves have just started here, no babies yet.

BTW, Kurdt gave me a very graphic education in bird reproduction. They clap their cloaca's together. I can't look at two birds hovering over one another now without thoughts of <puts hands over her eyes>.

I'm really the kind of person that believes that the mommy bird and the daddy bird fall in love, then eggs appear in a nest and then, voila! baby birds!

Seems I was delusional.

What else, what else will spoil my view of life?

BTW, that nest building impaired squirrel just crashed two more nests. My neighbor and I had just cheered her for what we thought was a completed nest yesterday, only to watch her decide to add "just one more twig". The nest is now on the ravine floor. I was watching her place the branch, then I looked away for a minute then when I looked back up, no nest, no squirrel.

I've seen her working on another one and it's fallen also. She's going to be ready to offload any day and she has no place to put her babies. We're worried. I think one of my neighbors is about to climb a tree and set up a nest for her.

What are the chances that 3 families would move in next to each other that get this involved?

Kurdt puts up with my squirrel afflication. He has about 550 pictures of my squirrels now. Probably all in a folder entitled "that crazy American woman".

 

[turbo]

I'm getting ready to use my mini-greenhouse for something other than annual flowers. I bought a large bale of pro potting mix and 5# of bone-meal and have filled 4 large flats with 8 6-packs each. That should be enough to start all my peppers and tomato plants, assuming a good germination rate.

If my squash and cucumbers fail to germinate like last year, I'll be able to start over, using the flats in the greenhouse to give the plants a head-start. It's tiny, but it's a nice warm, sunny spot and the reflective insulation that I put on the north wall helps redirect light and trap heat.

 

[Evo]

Here's my greenhouse right after it was built.

 

[turbo]

Yours was a nice big one. Mine is really mini, but it works.

 

[turbo]

BTW, my neighbor built it out of salvaged windows from house-trailers, and since most of them have crank-operated openers, I get to vent the greenhouse in hot weather if needed. Pretty neat. It's a bit rough-looking, but very solid. I picked it up in my tractor bucket after we put a strap around it, bounced down the road, and we slid it onto a nice, level pressure-treated base that I had made for it. The little building was tight and square and the door fit nicely. No mean feat for a home-made contraption of heavy glass and light aluminum.

My first improvement was to insulate the north (garage-side) wall with rigid foam-board faced with shiny aluminum to scavenge light as efficiently as possible.

 

[dlgoff]

Here's my greenhouse right after it was built.

Do you have someone to help you move it to your new apartment location? If not, I'll come take it off your hands.

 

[turbo]

Do you have someone to help you move it to your new apartment location? If not, I'll come take it off your hands.

You could come get mine easier, dlg. To get hers, you'd need a deLorean or a time-travel hot-tub.

 

[turbo]

BTW, I would love to have walk-in access and potting shelves on both sides like Evo's old greenhouse. There is simply no place to put it here where it can be tended and get requisite heat, light and water. Perhaps after the turf takes hold over the new drain-field, I'll invest in a nice walk-in greenhouse to place on top of it. It would be just 20-40 feet from the south end of the garden spot, and I could certainly run direct-burial power and an insulated water supply down there.

 

[Evo]

Do you have someone to help you move it to your new apartment location? If not, I'll come take it off your hands.

The greenhouse has a louvered roof on the side facing the fence that opened to regulate heat.

Dl I wish I could have given this to you. It disassembled nicely to be moved, but my first-ex threw it away after taking it apart because I didn't have a place to store it immediately. I was in an apartment for a few months before getting another house and couldn't take it right away.

Turbo, it's a kit. HOLY CRAP! They're selling the kits for these size English style greenhouses for close to $8,000!

Damn I would have given it away to someone that would have used it. What a waste. It still makes me sad.

 

[dlgoff]

Dl I wish I could have given this to you. It disassembled nicely to be moved, but my first-ex threw it away after taking it apart because I didn't have a place to store it immediately. I was in an apartment for a few months before getting another house and couldn't take it right away.

Damn I would have given it away to someone that would have used it. What a waste. It still makes me sad.

I think you should look for a new one for your new place. Maybe not so big though.

 

[Evo]

Cold and rainy dl, not gardening weather. I need my polar bear socks.

 

[turbo]

I planted 4 6x8 (sixpack) flats today with 12 habaneros, 30 Hungarian hots, 30 jalapenos, 30 bell peppers, 40 mariana tomatoes and 40 muscovy tomatoes. As soon as they germinate and start sprouting, they'll go right out into the mini-greenhouse where they will get sun and a variety of temperatures to toughen them up.

I don't pot in soil, because that can result in fungal diseases. Instead, I use Pro Mix with an admixture of bone meal. Both peppers and tomatoes need the bone meal (high phosphate) and that's a good organic amendment that avoids nitrogen. High nitrogen encourages bushy growth and suppressed heavy fruiting.

 

[turbo]

Today, I planted a bed for salad-stuff. Black-seeded Simpson lettuce, Salad Bowl lettuce, spinach, ruby chard, scallions, and parsley. All stuff that is pretty cold-tolerant. I'll do succession plantings for some, but black-seeded Simpson just keeps growing back. Cut it as you need it, and before you have cut all the lettuce to the other end of the bed, the stuff you cut first is already ready to cut again. A 6-8 foot bed is plenty for 2 people. If we need more, I can always plant more, too - the stuff germinates and develops very quickly.

BTW, the weather report says up to an inch of rain is coming, with a possibility of snow-showers. Hurry up, Spring!

 

[Astronuc]

Black-seeded Simpson lettuce, Salad Bowl lettuce, spinach, ruby chard, and parsley should do OK with cool weather. I think scallions would do better in warmer weather.

We've planted lettuce and spinach.

The kale is thriving having survived the winter with temps down near 0°F. It has peripheral growth and is flowering, but it still tastes good. Kale, chive and potato soup/stew is a possibility.

We have a bumper crop of chives in the herb garden, and the garlic is doing well. We can probably harvest half or more of it later.

The blueberries are flowering already, so well have berries in late May and into June.

The raspberries and blackberries have green leaves.

It is still rather cool here.

 

[turbo]

Scallions will be fine - they over-winter here with no problem. Chives are jumping out of the ground so we are using them every chance we get. The apple trees have nice fat pink blossoms, and when the current cold wave passes, we should expect early blossoms. The good news is that I have already seen multiple honey-bees ready to pollinate the trees. I hope it stays warm enough to tempt the bees out of their nests day after day.

 

[Evo]

I bought some tomato and pepper seedlings and a man said "isn't it way too early to plant those?". I said yes, they can't be planted outside for another month, but these are going into pots than can be moved inside.

 

[turbo]

I bought some tomato and pepper seedlings and a man said "isn't it way too early to plant those?". I said yes, they can't be planted outside for another month, but these are going into pots than can be moved inside.

Turn them every day to keep them balanced and keep them from getting leggy, looking for optimum light. It's important to keep the nitrogen level low during this phase, but the people who potted the plant think the exact opposite. They want you to see a nice bushy green plant, but that is NOT what you need to produce optimum flowering and fruiting. You need lean tough plants that will root like crazy and keep flowering and fruiting. Bone meal for peppers and tomatoes, and NO easy nitrogen. Manure releases nitrogen slowly and consistently, so that your tomatoes and peppers don't get a big surge and get "foliate" instead of "fruiting".

 

[rewebster]

I usually plant around Apr 15 and cover them if there's a chance of frost

 

[MotoH]

What are your secret tips for keeping deer, rabbits, and others out of the garden?

 

[rewebster]

I live in town (no wild things)---biggest problems are starlings cutting off the plants--they do it and leave the cut off section --who knows why---