What Are Some Tips for Successful Gardening?

[Ouabache]

What is the yellow one's name ? Is it pumpkin ?

crooknecked summer squash..

 

[Evo]

What is the yellow one's name ? Is it pumpkin ?

It's a yellow crookneck squash

my, my, my, Evo---what big peppers you have!

They're HUGE.

I'm impressed, very pretty vegetables Evo! (good color and shape)

Thanks, I'm having to use yellow squash due to a zucchini shortage. The jalapenos won't be going into the ratatouille, but they filled up empty space.

I have started adding finely diced jalapenos to my potato salad, I never knew how delightful that little bit of a change would turn out.

I'm just amazed that I'm getting anything off of my tiny shaded patio from potted plants. I probably spent $100 on planters, soil, fertilizer, insecticides, fungicides, and plant stands, I will get maybe $30 worth of vegetables this year. Oh well, I enjoy it and next year I might break even.

 

[Moonbear]

I'm just amazed that I'm getting anything off of my tiny shaded patio from potted plants. I probably spent $100 on planters, soil, fertilizer, insecticides, fungicides, and plant stands, I will get maybe $30 worth of vegetables this year. Oh well, I enjoy it and next year I might break even.

Next year you won't have to invest in new planters and plant stands. Even some of the soil will be reusable as long as you have fertilizers to add. But, yeah, for me it's not about saving money so much as getting those really tasty, fresh vegetables, and having a hobby I enjoy. I hope my plants are surviving in my absence though.

 

[throng]

I grow herbs. I only have about 2 sqrm. Adding fresh herbs is aa great way of diversifying diet. They are too expensive to shop for and you'll never need large qty. Herbs like parsley, rosmary, thyme are tough and can be neglected.

to grow a seed and reap the food is more rewarding than eating bought food because you develope a "relatoinship" with what u eat

 

[turbo]

I grow herbs. I only have about 2 sqrm. Adding fresh herbs is aa great way of diversifying diet. They are too expensive to shop for and you'll never need large qty. Herbs like parsley, rosmary, thyme are tough and can be neglected.

to grow a seed and reap the food is more rewarding than eating bought food because you develope a "relatoinship" with what u eat

We have a row in the vegetable garden for annual herbs, and a small herb garden (about 3x10') for perennials, and we also container-garden on the back deck. Fresh herbs in stores are VERY expensive and sometimes none-too-fresh, so it's a real treat to pop out and pick some rosemary, sage, basil, cilantro, dill, etc, etc to spice up a meal. I had to seal a lot of herb seeds in zip-lock bags and freeze them because my wife went to the organic seed sale (Fedco Seeds) and went a little overboard. OK a lot overboard.

Our last place had no space to garden - it was tucked into the trees on a lot with no-tree-cutting covenants so along with the sandy "soil" it was shady all summer. We got spoiled when we bought this place - actually planted and tended the garden-spot over a month before we closed on the place. Luckily, my wife enjoys gardening as much as I do...

 

[rewebster]

another one of my more favorites is the surprise lily (it has a whole bunch of other names) and I think I planted about 400 here and there--but only about 20% bloom----it may be that I need to dig and reset them, nutrients, or something--but there's still quite a few that do come up---they're about 2 weeks late this year

they're called surprise (resurrection) because the leaves that grow up in the spring (about Apr.) die off about June---and there is nothing to show where they were (or sprout up from) except maybe a few dead leaves.

there's one on the ground---the birds try to land on the stalks, but the stalks are so full of just water that they break almost like dry spaghetti when then get bent a little too much

 

[turbo]

Very interesting flowers!

 

[Evo]

Very pretty rew, and interesting information on them!

 

[rewebster]

the bare stems are about 3 feet long--and then there's this cluster of blooms at the top-----they're also called 'pink ladies'

 

[turbo]

Interesting that they throw up leaves to provide energy for the bulbs, then then the leaves die back, then a blooming stalk emerges. Garlic has an interesting life-cycle, too, though not as extreme as that plant, and it takes some timely intervention to keep the bulbs maximized. Luckily, the scapes are tasty. My neighbor has at least 3x as much are garlic as I do, and he was working a lot of overtime when the scapes started curling, so I snapped them all for him, chopped them and froze most, and took him some garlic-scape butter and scape pesto to enjoy. We get along well.

 

[rewebster]

Interesting that they throw up leaves to provide energy for the bulbs, then then the leaves die back, then a blooming stalk emerges. Garlic has an interesting life-cycle, too, though not as extreme as that plant, and it takes some timely intervention to keep the bulbs maximized. Luckily, the scapes are tasty. My neighbor has at least 3x as much are garlic as I do, and he was working a lot of overtime when the scapes started curling, so I snapped them all for him, chopped them and froze most, and took him some garlic-scape butter and scape pesto to enjoy. We get along well.

yeah--that's one reason they're nice----I can't think of any other flowers that do that sort of cycle----if you do, let me know----I don't have any, right now, that are growing in a more open place, but they really look amazing when the flower shoot comes up in a more open area with no other plants around them---with that 3 ft. semi-transparent stem and that bunch of pink at the top.

 

[turbo]

another one of my more favorites is the surprise lily (it has a whole bunch of other names) and I think I planted about 400 here and there--but only about 20% bloom----it may be that I need to dig and reset them, nutrients, or something--but there's still quite a few that do come up---they're about 2 weeks late this year

You may want to buy a test kit. For less than $20 you can get a kit that let's you test for pH, Phosphorus, Potash, and Nitrogen. The reagents come in little gel-caps, and you'll get enough to do probably 20 tests of each type. The trick is finding out the nutrient requirements of your favorite plants and matching those - then, when you have the nutrients balanced, you need to trim the pH to optimize nutrient uptake. I'm a vegetable gardener and have no experience with flowers, so I can't help you there. Beautiful flowers, though.

 

[Moonbear]

another one of my more favorites is the surprise lily (it has a whole bunch of other names) and I think I planted about 400 here and there--but only about 20% bloom----it may be that I need to dig and reset them, nutrients, or something--but there's still quite a few that do come up---they're about 2 weeks late this year

Those are really pretty flowers. A nifty addition to the garden.

Are they SUPPOSED to all bloom every year? Maybe there are years they don't flower to use the energy to propagate additional bulbs rather than flowering for seeds? And, have you looked to see if the bulbs are still there? I've had bulbs that just rotted when the soil got too moist for too long, or that were dug up and eaten by squirrels, and things like that. For bulbs, I usually fertilize in both fall and spring. Fall provides any nutrients they need to get through winter (for the varieties that are winter hardy) and Spring gives them the nutrients for sprouting leaves/flowering.

 

[wolram]

Is it a bad idea to throw out scrap food onto the garden rather than bin it, i mean things like Irish stew, chili.

 

[turbo]

You should never compost meat, fat, bones, etc, Woolie, and certainly you shouldn't put it on your garden. Compost vegetable scraps, eggshells, paper, grass clippings, weeds etc. If you compost the materials in a bin or slatted container so air can get through the pile, it will rot down nicely and you can put the finished compost on the garden in a few months.

 

[rewebster]

Those are really pretty flowers. A nifty addition to the garden.

Are they SUPPOSED to all bloom every year? Maybe there are years they don't flower to use the energy to propagate additional bulbs rather than flowering for seeds? And, have you looked to see if the bulbs are still there? I've had bulbs that just rotted when the soil got too moist for too long, or that were dug up and eaten by squirrels, and things like that. For bulbs, I usually fertilize in both fall and spring. Fall provides any nutrients they need to get through winter (for the varieties that are winter hardy) and Spring gives them the nutrients for sprouting leaves/flowering.

yeah--that could be part of it---nutrients, the needs of the plant itself, ---they do multiple, so depending on that too, they do sometimes need to be dug up and separated--

the squirrels like the nectarines better---I think there's only about 10 left on the tree and they're still not ripe, but even green, they are still extremely sweet----the mold/fungus/wasps/whatever got most of them and the squirrels are getting the good ones that are left. They're a naked fruit (no fuzz) and about 5 times sweeter than any peach that I've tasted--and sweeter than most nectarines I've had too---there's a lot of "Oh, well" 's in the garden (s) this year everywhere it seems.

 

[OmCheeto]

You should never compost meat, fat, bones,

I've heard that also. But as Woolie does, so do I. I don't understand the reasoning. I threw an entire 3 pound pork roast into the compost pile a few years back after I discovered that I had accidentally pushed a whole lot of English wood hyacinth bulbs, which I thought were elephant garlic bulbs, into the pork. The hallucinations over the next few hours prompted me to research what I had done. I decided I did not want to end up as Audrey Hepburn did; Bowels all tweaked like Evo's.

Anyways, the feral cats that apparently ate the tainted pork did not seem to suffer.

Why are meat, fat, and bones bad in the compost pile?

 

[rewebster]

I've heard that also. But as Woolie does, so do I. I don't understand the reasoning. I threw an entire 3 pound pork roast into the compost pile a few years back after I discovered that I had accidentally pushed a whole lot of English wood hyacinth bulbs, which I thought were elephant garlic bulbs, into the pork. The hallucinations over the next few hours prompted me to research what I had done. I decided I did not want to end up as Audrey Hepburn did; Bowels all tweaked like Evo's.

Anyways, the feral cats that apparently ate the tainted pork did not seem to suffer.

Why are meat, fat, and bones bad in the compost pile?

I don't think it's bad--only to the point that it smells (and attracks animals, can create maggots, etc.)----I think it may be that when there's an 'amount' that takes a while to compost and the time and specifically what type of meats, etc. that are put in is and can be not normal to most composting and the process during the composting can have some unpleasant periods during the composting period. Fat takes a long time to degrade. Actually, hair, if it can be gotten, like from a barber (even if it sounds funny/unusual) is one choice thing that some composters look for---I haven't, but it is used. Bones (ground up), and blood are also used in some composting and fertilizer.

I remember Indians put a fish in the mound when they planted corn--(that 'Thanksgiving story')

 

[turbo]

EPA guidelines on composting.
http://www.epa.gov/compost/basic.htm#nottodo

 

[Evo]

Here are my gypsy peppers. They have gotten bigger than normal and I think I want to pick them at this color as they will get even sweeter when they turn red. If Moonbear likes red bell peppers, apparently this is the pepper for her, the skin is so thin, it does not need to be peeled off if you char it, and can be eaten without the skin coming off in your teeth.

This article

But the Gypsy is so ubiquitous on Bay Area menus that it seems to have become an all-purpose European-style pepper. Green, it creates an Eastern European feel; deep red, it evokes the Mediterranean, such as in a Basque- influenced dish of Gypsy pepper piperade served recently at Bizou restaurant in San Francisco.

Oooh, if it's served at Bizou, I can charge $20 a pound for these things.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/22/FDGAL8PULD1.DTL

I think next year I may focus on growing a wide variety of peppers.

 

[turbo]

Those look beautiful, Evo. Try growing some Hungarian Wax chilies. The flavor is wonderful, and they are great producers. Mine are getting 8-10" long, and I'm going to have to start pickling them so that the plants get some nutrient-relief and keep setting blossoms. The fellow who rebuilt my Evinrude is a great guy, and his father was recently released from the hospital after a pernicious E coli infection. His father loves peppers, so I took him some jalapenos, Hungarians, and a few big Bells. The heavy rains and run-off contaminated his dad's well, and he has had to pay for a cased deep-rock well to be drilled.

By the way, there was an article into today's paper about all the precipitation. The last month was a record-breaker, and the last 10 months have seen us get the greatest total precipitation since weather records were kept here. Maine's biggest agricultural crop is potatoes, and the wet weather prevents many farmers from getting equipment into their fields, so they cannot spray and late blight is wiping out entire fields. We're getting close to harvest-time, too, and unless we get a long string of optimum drying weather, the fields will be too wet to harvest, and those potatoes that can be harvested will have to be monitored carefully, since putting wet potatoes into storage houses runs the risk of losing entire potato-houses to mold and rot.

 

[rewebster]

nice peppers--Evo----how do you get those puppies to be picture perfect? ----you're on schedule to be Ms. Pepper---


Fall is coming! ---only about FIVE weeks away!

...when the ferns throw up these center growths...

they sure are odd looking close-up----I don't know if these are sporophyll (I had to look that one up)--or some vestige of some reproductive cycle (as some flowers seem to be) as these ferns propagate from a runner root.----I could have put this photo in the 'what is it?' thread.

 

[rewebster]

EPA guidelines on composting.
http://www.epa.gov/compost/basic.htm#nottodo

I don't put most of the stuff on the 'good' list in my compost--leaves, grass, flower blossoms off of the magnolia is all I compost---I get more than enough off of those items---and I would never personally put any food scraps or meat in mine---although, I think you can--it depends on how a person wants to compost and/or fertilize.

I remember my dad getting 5 gal. buckets of oxblood one time to fertilize our grass in California----who knows where he got it all, but it turned the grass greener and more healthy than I ever remember seeing for months after that---he watered the yard right after applying it----I don't remember any bugs more than normal, or any smell---but he only did it that once. (he also put it on my mom's flowers, and it killed them all)

 

[Evo]

AAARRRGGHHH!

Those are scary.

That's probably what is growing in the back of my leg.

 

[rewebster]

AAARRRGGHHH!

Those are scary.

That's probably what is growing in the back of my leg.

they DO like some kind of organized grouping of some caterpillar or larvae (maggots) , don't they----(maybe on the back of your tomatoes)

 

[OmCheeto]

EPA guidelines on composting.
http://www.epa.gov/compost/basic.htm#nottodo

Seems like stench and vermin are the two biggies on the list. I smell and see a close example of each every morning in the vicinity of my mirror.

Has anyone tried the following trick:

I throw all my impossible to kill weed vermin(blackberries , morning glories), plus all my household food scraps into a 32 gallon rubbermaid garbage can. I top the mix off in the spring with some moldy food scrap I discover in the back of my fridge(cheese periphery or tainted english muffins). By the end of summer, the entire mix is completely black and quite dead. I then dig a 3 foot deep hole in the garden, dump the wretched refuse, and top it off with soil.

10 minutes of discomfort. But my vermin weeds are all but gone, after only 20 years of continuous plucking...

I think leaving the device in the sun accelerates the mold progression.

 

[Evo]

Seems like stench and vermin are the two biggies on the list. I smell and see a close example of each every morning in the vicinity of my mirror.

Has anyone tried the following trick:

I throw all my impossible to kill weed vermin(blackberries , morning glories), plus all my household food scraps into a 32 gallon rubbermaid garbage can. I top the mix off in the spring with some moldy food scrap I discover in the back of my fridge(cheese periphery or tainted english muffins). By the end of summer, the entire mix is completely black and quite dead. I then dig a 3 foot deep hole in the garden, dump the wretched refuse, and top it off with soil.

10 minutes of discomfort. But my vermin weeds are all but gone, after only 20 years of continuous plucking...

I think leaving the device in the sun accelerates the mold progression.

You bury it in a hole in the ground? Then you aren't using it as compost, you have a toxic waste dump.

 

[rewebster]

Seems like stench and vermin are the two biggies on the list. I smell and see a close example of each every morning in the vicinity of my mirror.

Has anyone tried the following trick:

I throw all my impossible to kill weed vermin(blackberries , morning glories), plus all my household food scraps into a 32 gallon rubbermaid garbage can. I top the mix off in the spring with some moldy food scrap I discover in the back of my fridge(cheese periphery or tainted english muffins). By the end of summer, the entire mix is completely black and quite dead. I then dig a 3 foot deep hole in the garden, dump the wretched refuse, and top it off with soil.

10 minutes of discomfort. But my vermin weeds are all but gone, after only 20 years of continuous plucking...

I think leaving the device in the sun accelerates the mold progression.

well, you may end up with a nice anaerobic culture

 

[OmCheeto]

well, you may end up with a nice anaerobic culture

I don't think so. I've never heard of a rubbermaid that was air tight. And I dump my household bones and polyunsaturated fats in there at least once every 7 days.

Didn't I once say that Woolie and I must be related somewhere at least around 20 generations ago?

You bury it in a hole in the ground? Then you aren't using it as compost, you have a toxic waste dump.

Nope. Every spring, I turn over my toxic waste dump, and it smells like dirt. And my tomatoes just keep growing faster and faster. Last year, there were so many, I couldn't consume them fast enough. One day, you kids will have to teach me how to "can".

 

[Evo]

Nope. Every spring, I turn over my toxic waste dump, and it smells like dirt. And my tomatoes just keep growing faster and faster. Last year, there were so many, I couldn't consume them fast enough. One day, you kids will have to teach me how to "can".

Have you not seen what atomic waste can do to things? Have you never seen the classic horror film "Attack of the Crab Monsters"? Crabs that grew to the size of houses and possesed psychic powers as the result of atomic testing?

 

[rewebster]

hey-turbo--I had eaten about half of those really hot dills--and decide to try putting some fresh green peppers in about two weeks ago or so---I keep the opened dills in the frig (gal. size of hot dills)---the peppers turned out really good and crisp--and hot

 

[OmCheeto]

Have you not seen what atomic waste can do to things? Have you never seen the classic horror film "Attack of the Crab Monsters"? Crabs that grew to the size of houses and possessed psychic powers as the result of atomic testing?

I think you're mixing this up with the https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=1835149#post1835149" thread. I am not putting my spent uranium in my bio-death machine, nor planting garage reactors 100 feet below the garden.

Though speaking of crab monsters, I do put my crab, oyster, and mussel shells in the device. I've heard that tomatoes like calcium. Though I've not noted any decomposition of the shells in the last 5 years. I may have to start pulverizing them first.

 

[turbo]

hey-turbo--I had eaten about half of those really hot dills--and decide to try putting some fresh green peppers in about two weeks ago or so---I keep the opened dills in the frig (gal. size of hot dills)---the peppers turned out really good and crisp--and hot

Good news! For those that do not want to learn how to can, there are a lot of ways to make refrigerated pickles, and once you have a nice brine built up, it's tempting to keep it going. I have to use space in my pantry, cellar, etc, to store canned pickles, pepper relishes, and salsas - there is no room to tinker with this stuff in our refrigerator, in part because we have to refrigerate cucumbers and other vegetables as they ripen and can't spare the space for experiments.

 

[rewebster]

If I'd planted some cherry or grape tomatoes, I'd try those, but I didn't plant them this year, so I think I'll try some tomatoes (green and 'sort of' ripe -just the flesh) in a different jar.

I go through quite a bit of hot giardiniera (I like the Reggano brand)----it's in soybean oil-----(I wonder how it's made?)--its really good for the price

 

[rewebster]

I don't think so. I've never heard of a rubbermaid that was air tight. And I dump my household bones and polyunsaturated fats in there at least once every 7 days.

Didn't I once say that Woolie and I must be related somewhere at least around 20 generations ago?



Nope. Every spring, I turn over my toxic waste dump, and it smells like dirt. And my tomatoes just keep growing faster and faster. Last year, there were so many, I couldn't consume them fast enough. One day, you kids will have to teach me how to "can".

from the first thread, it sounded as if the container that you buried was more of a internment than a composing bin----you probably have a lot better mix of nutrients, plus trace ones than 99% of any fert you can buy---great!-----I bet it does turn out to be good compost