What Are Some Tips for Successful Gardening?

[turbo]

If you grow a vegetable garden, consider planting some nasturtiums in it. They attract aphids and that's one way to keep the pests off other plants. If you buy some lady-bugs, they will have a more concentrated supply of aphids to keep them happy.

Plus, nasturtiums are edible. The flowers make an attractive garnish on desserts and salads, and the leaves have a mild peppery flavor, kind of like watercress. Both were in tonight's tossed salad. Simple supper tonight with sweet/hot BBQ'd chicken legs and salad.

 

[Evo]

Cucumbers are coming in strong. We plant only northern pickling cucumbers because they are very crisp and a bit tart.

Nice cukes turbo!

 

[turbo]

Nice cukes turbo!

I'll have to make a batch of bread-and-butter pickles next week (I'm the pickle-maker around here) and transplant my dill to the garden. When the dill starts to flower, it will be time to make kosher dill pickles with the florets, as well as salsas and chili relishes.

 

[turbo]

My wife and I have decided to buy a large pressure-cooker. We have beans coming in like gang-busters and freezing them in our chest freezers is less than satisfactory. Canning non-acidic vegetables like beans and beets requires high-temperature treatment, and canning will save us freezer-space since we can store the canned goods about anywhere that's above freezing. We'll probably can fiddleheads too, starting next spring. They are free and they are delicious. I plan to can applesauce, too. My father eats toast and applesauce for breakfast every morning and if I can save him the cost of buying that, good. We both have apple trees, so the only extra expense will be for a bit of sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

 

[Evo]

I was going through old pictures and found these of my first raised bed garden back in Houston.

 

[turbo]

My neighbor has leveled a spot in his back yard, with the intention of building fairly narrow raised beds for easy access. Like me, he has spent too many years on paper machines in the heat with concrete floors. His knees and feet are shot, as are mine. My wife does the weeding between plants and on the tops of the raised rows. I do all the other other weeding and tilling, and some of the between-the-plants weeding as long as I can do it by bending over. Kneeling is out.

 

[Astronuc]

Gee Whiz: Human Urine Is Shown to Be an Effective Agricultural Fertilizer
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=human-urine-is-an-effective-fertilizer

. . . .
Pradhan and Heinonen-Tanski, environmental scientists at the University of Kuopio in Finland, grew the beets as an experiment in sustainable fertilization. They nourished the root vegetables with a combination of urine and wood ash, which they found worked as well as traditional mineral fertilizer.

"It is totally possible to use human urine as a fertilizer instead of industrial fertilizer," says Heinonen-Tanski, whose research group has also used urine to cultivate cucumbers, cabbage and tomatoes. Recycling urine as fertilizer could not only make agriculture and wastewater treatment more sustainable in industrialized countries, the researchers say, but also bolster food production and improve sanitation in developing countries.
. . . .

[URL]https://www.physicsforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=22464&stc=1&d=1260728326[/URL] I don't think so, at least not on root crops. [URL]https://www.physicsforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=22465&stc=1&d=1260728326[/URL]

 

[Astronuc]

I was going through old pictures and found these of my first raised bed garden back in Houston.

Now that's a nice little place. Doesn't seem to be too many trees though. I like a little shade - especially in Houston.

 

[Evo]

Gee Whiz: Human Urine Is Shown to Be an Effective Agricultural Fertilizer
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=human-urine-is-an-effective-fertilizer

[URL]https://www.physicsforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=22464&stc=1&d=1260728326[/URL] I don't think so, at least not on root crops. [URL]https://www.physicsforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=22465&stc=1&d=1260728326[/URL]

Is there not enough animal poop on this planet? Are they suggesting we go pee on our plants or would this be broken down first as in animal poop and pee?

 

[turbo]

Garden is coming along well. The buttercup squash have over-topped the cattle-panel fence and are setting on lots of fruit. We're canning lots of beans and pickling lots of cukes.

 

[Proton Soup]

Gee Whiz: Human Urine Is Shown to Be an Effective Agricultural Fertilizer
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=human-urine-is-an-effective-fertilizer

[URL]https://www.physicsforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=22464&stc=1&d=1260728326[/URL] I don't think so, at least not on root crops. [URL]https://www.physicsforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=22465&stc=1&d=1260728326[/URL]

urea seems like an obvious choice for fertilizer. not so sure about things like sodium, tho. maybe on asparagus. I've also heard people talk about collecting it and pouring over their mulch piles, which might be a suitable compromise.

 

[lisab]

urea seems like an obvious choice for fertilizer. not so sure about things like sodium, tho. maybe on asparagus. I've also heard people talk about collecting it and pouring over their mulch piles, which might be a suitable compromise.

Because mulch and compost don't smell bad enough already .

 

[Evo]

Your garden is looking good turbo.

 

[turbo]

Your garden is looking good turbo.

Thanks. If the weather-gods cooperate, and my dug well has enough water in it to let me irrigate through the dry stretches, the garden should do fine. I can valve my drilled well to the sill-cocks, too, but I am not real excited about doing that. I'd rather use the dug well, or bucket-brigade from my backyard pond.

I'm really hoping for a good crop of nice ripe habaneros, so I can make a big batch of chili relish. I'm all out of the good stuff - no decent habs for the past two (wet, cool) seasons.

 

[Astronuc]

My habs are finally coming in, along with more jalapeños and Czech black. I'll be away for a few days, so I hope it cools off a bit such that they don't need water. Hopefully it will rain.

 

[turbo]

My habs are finally coming in, along with more jalapeños and Czech black. I'll be away for a few days, so I hope it cools off a bit such that they don't need water. Hopefully it will rain.

Fingers crossed! It can be hard to get some nice hot mature chilies up here. Chili peppers need nitrogen-poor soil, poor rainfall, and lots of sunlight and heat to maximize fruiting.

 

[turbo]

I began pulling garlic today, starting with the red Russian. Russian is the smaller, more pungent variety of hard-neck garlic that I grow. It has many more cloves/bulb than the larger German garlic, though, so it is much easier to propagate starting with a few bulbs, and ending up a couple of years later with a LARGE crop. I have mention many times that when the scapes emerge from the tops, you should snap them off and use them in salads, stir-fries, etc. If you don't like the "garlic-y green onion" taste of the scapes, you still have to snap them off, and here's why. The garlic on the left spent all its extra energy developing the flowering head and seed pod, and robbed the bulb of most of its potential.

How did this scape "escape" my attention? I inadvertently planted the clove upside-down, so that the emerging shoot had to take a lot of time finding the way up to the surface. For this reason, the scape emerged after I had already snapped most of the others, and I missed it.

Really, I know better, but when you plant as much garlic as I do, you are going to screw up here and there. Hard-neck garlics are wonderful in cold climates, and they can take a lot of harsh temperature extremes, but you have to follow the rules. Plant the cloves with the base (root end) down, and snap off the scapes as soon as the bulge in the stalk emerges from the foliage, so the bulbs get all the rest of the nutrients that the vegetative fronds can supply, for best growth.

The garlic is especially good this year, with wonderful flavor, and the cloves have the crispy consistency of water-chestnuts.

 

[turbo]

I have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. If you are gardening organically (no pesticides) it's a good idea to shake individuals and clusters of Japanese beetles into a bucket of soapy water to kill them. Crushing them releases scents including pheromones that can attract even more of the little creeps. However, you must spare all beetles bearing a raised white dot on the carapace. This is the egg of a parasitic fly that eats pollen, nectar etc. They need a source of protein for their young to feed on, so they parasitize beetles. In a couple of days, the little maggot will hatch and burrow down into the Japanese beetle. The beetle will drop to the ground and burrow in, trying to escape the assault, giving the little maggot a nice protected place to eat the host. You definitely want as many of these parasitic flies hatching as possible to help control Japanese beetles, so it's a good idea to scrutinize the beetles closely before killing them. Don't be confused by the white spots on the rear of the beetles - you are looking for tiny raised spots on the carapace.

 

[Evo]

Talk about being marked for death.

 

[turbo]

Today, I finished pulling all the garlic. After high-grading and bunching the garlic for Astro and me to use for next fall's seed bulbs, I loaded much of the rest into the back of my pickup and headed down to the community garden. There were 3 lady volunteers there, weeding, tilling and watering, and I gave them each all the garlic they wanted, so they could start their own garlic plots. I have enough left for neighbors, my wife's co-workers, and one of my aunts, who planted her garlic last year on what she thought was their property, only to find the place next door re-surveyed and sold to somebody that has denied her the privilege of tending and harvesting her garlic. Talk about petty!

My garage is full of curing garlic, so it smells pretty awesome out there right now.

Edit: the little blonde (mid-20s probably) lit up and said "You're the Garlic Man!" I guess word has gotten around. She shook my hand and told me her name (don't remember it now), but she will remember mine as long as it's only Garlic Man.

 

[turbo]

Garden update. I have to water frequently due to the heat-wave/drought, but things are coming along well otherwise. Getting more zuccini than we know what to do with, not to mention string beans, cucumbers, and baby carrots (thinning time!). The cattle-panel fencing works wonderfully! My aunt (the one I gave more garlic to this year) stopped in last night to drop off a loaf of fresh bread (talk about hauling coat to Newcastle!) and asked where I got my fencing. I told here where to buy it, and she immediately put my uncle on notice that he would be putting up fences for her cukes, squash, indeterminate tomatoes, etc.

Anyway, the reason that I was wandering around the garden with a camera is that while I was mowing the lawn, I saw one of the big hairy orange assassin-bugs flying off with a bumblebee in its clutches. No luck finding him again, but this is the second time I have seen this type of assassin bug preying on bumblebees and flying off to eat them somewhere. They are both very beneficial bugs, but there are so many bees working the garden that a few here and there won't be missed. Thanks in part to the flower garden that my wife planted (I assume) we have many honeybees this year. If the vegetable plants can keep setting blossoms, we should get some decent crops this season.

 

[Evo]

Your garden is looking really nice this year turbo!

 

[turbo]

Your garden is looking really nice this year turbo!

Thanks. Amending the soil with both sand and aged manure last fall made weed-pulling very easy, so it's a snap to take care of. In a hot dry summer like this the clay-heavy soil would have hardened, making weeding tough. You can pull the weeds, but the roots remain to plague you. I'll till in another 14 yards of manure this fall - looks like just the right mix of soil, manure (nutrients), and sand (drainage). Keeping the soil a bit on the sandy side has been great for root vegetables, because they can grow with little restraint. Plus, the soil is more permeable for the worms and the worms are really big this year as a result.

 

[Borek]

Pepper here and there...

Actually this is something unknown - I was told these were seeds of ecuador purple, and the small ones in the background (purple/yellow.orange) are what I was expecting, but the large ones in front are completely different:

These are called here purple jalapeno:

Unfortunately, when we were far north, good people that promised to take care of our peppers failed a little bit, so peppers don't look as good as they should. Doesn't mean they would look better if I was looking after them.

 

[turbo]

Borek, if I was going to guess (OK, I am!) I would say that your red peppers may be Itialian corno di toro peppers. Nice bright red color and wide flat shoulders (unlike most serranos). If those are sweet peppers, that's probably close to an ID as you can get. Corno di toros are mild and sweet - no heat.

 

[turbo]

I NEED rain! Can anybody push some this way? We haven't had significant rainfall since early June. I have had to switch from my dug well for watering to the drilled well, and I'm in the twilight zone as to the drought-capacity of my drilled well. I don't want to run short of water, but I don't want to lose my garden either.

 

[lisab]

I NEED rain! Can anybody push some this way? We haven't had significant rainfall since early June. I have had to switch from my dug well for watering to the drilled well, and I'm in the twilight zone as to the drought-capacity of my drilled well. I don't want to run short of water, but I don't want to lose my garden either.

Maybe it's time to consider rain barrels? Not for this year of course, but for future dry seasons.

 

[turbo]

We have two rain barrels. But with no rain... You get the drift!

One of my closest neighbors is the town's fire-chief. I may have to see if I can locate an old tanker/pumper truck so that I can suck up water from ponds or rivers to water gardens...

 

[Astronuc]

I NEED rain! Can anybody push some this way? We haven't had significant rainfall since early June. I have had to switch from my dug well for watering to the drilled well, and I'm in the twilight zone as to the drought-capacity of my drilled well. I don't want to run short of water, but I don't want to lose my garden either.

Well - we just had rain yesterday - about 3 inches (8 cm) in a few hours. One more branch of our maple tree came down in the downpour. Last night it was hanging from a spot about 25 feet or so from the ground. This morning, I found it on the ground. It somehow detached during the night. I suspect we'll start pruning more of the tree which has been damaged due to wind, storm and drought.

turbo - I think the system should be headed your way. It's supposed to be raining in NH this week. Many people in southern VT were without power last night and this morning due to the storm.

This year we've had dry periods (mini-droughts) punctuated with torrential rains or windstorms.

 

[turbo]

I hope. It looks like the system will be steered along the coast toward George, and that we may not get much more than sprinkles. I'd love to have a couple of days of heavy rain. We need it badly.

 

[Evo]

The fruit bat found a tiny baby squirrel yesterday. I scooped it up and put it into a box in the sun to warm up, it was huddled in a dark corner of the house in cold mud. I tried to make it drink from a syringe like it suggested on the rescue site, but although it would let me pick it up and pet it, it absolutely went nuts when I tried to get anything into his mouth. So he'd just suck on his front paws.

I finally turned the box on it's side so hopefully the mother would find it. The last my neighbors and I saw of it, it had walked to the rocks and fallen off. I decided to go inside so the other squirrels would come over. I hope it's mother found it.

 

[turbo]

Well, I broke down and switched the drilled well over to supply the sill-cocks so I could water the garden. The submersible pump was cavitating after just 20 minutes of running a single sprinkler. I later did some spot-watering with water that I dipped out of my backyard pond, though I'm risking life and limb to climb down those steep banks to get the water. Not fun.

 

[Evo]

Well, I broke down and switched the drilled well over to supply the sill-cocks so I could water the garden. The submersible pump was cavitating after just 20 minutes of running a single sprinkler. I later did some spot-watering with water that I dipped out of my backyard pond, though I'm risking life and limb to climb down those steep banks to get the water. Not fun.

How far is the pond to the garden?

 

[turbo]

How far is the pond to the garden?

Only about 75 feet or so. It's the last few feet to the pond that are difficult to navigate. It's not a natural pond, though it is supplied only with ground-water. It was dug out with a large excavator, and has very steep sides.

I'm thinking that I might invest in a pump and a filtered suction-line to transport water to the garden. Never needed it before, but this drought is a killer. Some dairy farmers are certain to go under this winter with the low price of milk and the high price of grain, because their hay, alfalfa, and corn crops are burnt.

 

[Insanity]

Our tomatoes have exploded this year and have almost overtaken the garden and an additional two feet surrounding the garden. A few have toppled the tomato cages.

I can hope to have the same luck next year, might have to expand the garden garden to allow for it.