What Are Some Tips for Successful Gardening?

[Evo]

Everything is still dead.

I'ts remained in the 40's the past few days, and windy, I've never had to wear a coat at the end of april. The trees that didn't have their leaves frozen are still as bare as if it was mid-winter. It's like early February.

 

[turbo]

Sorry to hear that, Evo. Our weather is very odd, too. One day it's in the low 50's and the next day it hits 80. The birds are acting very strangely-especially the goldfinches. They are opportunistic about the weather and want to take the advantage to claim prime breeding sites, but they seem reluctant to move out of this spot and leave the security of the feeders, so we have a lot more goldfinches now than could possibly all nest in this area. I would stop feeding them, but they need the calories to keep warm during the cold rains and wet snows. We are supposed to get fog and rain tonight, running through Saturday, and with the already high flows in the rivers and the saturated snowpack in the woods and on the mountains, the river valleys are under a flood-watch. my wife has scheduled some vacation time around Memorial Day weekend so we can plant our garden, but with this weird weather, we may not be past the danger of frost by then. Last year we got almost no apples because our spring was so cold, and they were wormy because they had been pollinated by flies that laid their eggs in the blossoms, instead of well-behaved bees.

Now, I know that you and power tools are not a good mix, but this is an easy one. Go to a lumber yard and buy an 8' length of UNTREATED 4"x4" and have them cut it into two 4' posts. Pine is fine. Mark off a 3/4" x 3/4" grid on the top half of one face of each post and drill a 5/16" hole at every intersection of the grid lines. Set the drill bit so that it will not drill all the way to the other side of the post. You don't want the holes to go all the way through the post. Now take your posts and set them where the the drilled faces can get the morning sun. You won't have to bury the bases of the posts any deeper than 1' or so. Now you have a couple of nice nesting "apartments" for solitary mason bees. They are the best early pollinators around and are already here before the apple blossoms are ready to come out. They are the best pollinators for fruit trees because they will work when it's still too cool for honeybees to get real active. Mason bees do not live in colonies, but nest individually in cavities. The males do not sting, and the females will only jab you with their ovipositor if you handle them roughly. They are docile and will not even defend their nests, so they are safe around pets and children and you don't have to worry about the location of your nesting posts. Try to take enough time to get the holes smooth and clear of sawdust, so they'll be ready to move into. My father's apple tree did not get properly pollinated last year due to the cold weather and the lack of bees, so I made him a nesting post, too. Hopefully we get some thriving populations of mason bees going. Next, I'm going to build bumblebee nesting boxes.

 

[Mocket]

You and Moon Bear are really good writers,
All ideas are really neat and humorous !

 

[Art]

Anybody any good ideas how to get rid of snails from the garden? I have a broom shrub which seems to be a magnet for them. I pick about 50 snails a time off the thing and within days it is infested again. I thought about pulling the broom up but figure the snails would just move to their next favourite snack

 

[turbo]

Anybody any good ideas how to get rid of snails from the garden? I have a broom shrub which seems to be a magnet for them. I pick about 50 snails a time off the thing and within days it is infested again. I thought about pulling the broom up but figure the snails would just move to their next favourite snack

Probably your best bet is to police your property and remove any boards, deep grass, wet mulch, etc that can provide cool moist shelter for them, and maybe spread sand (or even better, nice sharp crusher dust - fine stuff produced by a rock crusher) in an area around the bush to keep them from sliming their way to the bush. Unless you reduce their habitat, though, they will continue to thrive and will move on to eat other things. Good luck!

 

[Anttech]

Anybody any good ideas how to get rid of snails from the garden? I have a broom shrub which seems to be a magnet for them. I pick about 50 snails a time off the thing and within days it is infested again. I thought about pulling the broom up but figure the snails would just move to their next favourite snack

Start eating them they will get the message after a while

 

[Astronuc]

We were out in the garden pulling weeds. I noted a number of new blackberry canes. This might be a good year. The rhubarb is now a few inches tall. Trees and other plants have budded out this weekend.

Blueberries and raspberry plants have open buds. Next weekend will be more cultivating.

Anybody any good ideas how to get rid of snails from the garden? I have a broom shrub which seems to be a magnet for them. I pick about 50 snails a time off the thing and within days it is infested again. I thought about pulling the broom up but figure the snails would just move to their next favourite snack

I was told to put out a saucer of beer. Apparently they crawl onto to it and die by drowning. Just use a cheap beer like Miller or Budweiser.

Beer-baited traps have been used to trap and drown slugs and snails; however, they are not very effective for the labor involved. Beer traps attract slugs and snails within an area of only a few feet, and must be refilled every few days to keep the level deep enough to drown the mollusks. Traps are buried at ground level, so the mollusks easily fall into them. It is the fermented product that attracts them and a sugar-water and yeast mixture can be used in place of beer. Traps must have deep, vertical sides to keep the snails and slugs from crawling out and a top to reduce evaporation. Snail and slug traps can also be purchased at garden supply stores

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7427.html

 

[turbo]

You don't need to buy traps, though. If you eat hummus, dips, cottage cheese, or anything else that comes in plastic containers with lids, you can cut a hole in the center of the lid, load the container with beer and bury them with the lids at ground level. Instant trap.

 

[Astronuc]

I came home this evening and found 3 good sized rabbits ~4-5 kg each in the backyard - two of which were in my blackberry patch. One was rolling around on his back taking a dust bath.

 

[turbo]

I don't have any garden-eating critters causing problems yet, but there's a lot going on here, beyond the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks. I have a pond in the back yard that is about 30x50 and averages 10 feet deep. When we moved in here, I put a minnow trap in the brook out back and trapped a few chubs (non-game fish) and put them in the pond to see if they would survive. They were about 2" to 3" or so when I put them in the pond. The originals are now over 6" and fat, and they school up with little ones, so they're breeding. The ice went out for good last weekend and the frogs have been having a rippin' orgy out there and the vegetation in the shallows is loaded with frog eggs. The chubs lurk in the weeds and make dashes into eat eggs, but the frogs are usually able to drive them off. We get almost daily visits from some mallards, and when the mallards fly in, the frogs dive for cover. I thought that the frogs were being overly cautious until I saw the mallards rooting out the frogs, flailing them around, smacking them on the water and then:
http://img233.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mallardfrogjm7.jpg

 

[turbo]

The weird weather continues. Today it was supposed to be in the 70's, but the temps went over 90 deg this afternoon. I took my Harley out for a spin this afternoon, but returned home in less than an hour because even riding the main roads at 55-60 mph was not very refreshing. I'm really glad that we moved out into the country! The prospect of getting stuck in the sun at traffic lights in 90+ deg temps would have kept me home for sure.

This weekend, we are forecast to get sun and temps in the low '60's. I'd love that, so I can finish splitting next winter's wood, but I'll believe it when I see it. My apple trees are leafing out, and the buds are showing tiny hints of pink. The problem is that there aren't many bees out yet, and the hummingbirds (males only, so far) seem to be just passing through. Last spring the apple trees blossomed just as it turned off very wet and cold, so they didn't get pollinated properly. (Fingers crossed!)

 

[Astronuc]

I don't have any garden-eating critters causing problems yet,

The rabbits seem interested in grass and other greens, but they have not so far chewed on the berry plants - but something has been eating the rhubarb leaves. I know we have deer, and other critters besides rabbits, but rhubarb leaves - with oxalic acid?

The blueberries and strawberries are flowering.

 

[turbo]

The rabbits seem interested in grass and other greens, but they have not so far chewed on the berry plants - but something has been eating the rhubarb leaves. I know we have deer, and other critters besides rabbits, but rhubarb leaves - with oxalic acid?

The blueberries and strawberries are flowering.

Strawberries here are just beginning to leaf out - blueberries are dormant still. Luckily, we have broad-winged hawks nesting on the lower center of the property, and they keep the rabbits nervous. No rabbit problem with the garden for the past 2 summers. The biggest problem with the blackberries seems to be the bears. They don't like to cross the road (apparently) so I've got those pretty much to myself, but the blackberries on the back side of the property can be decimated by bears (which may do some fertilizing, but crush and flatten a lot of canes in the process).

 

[Astronuc]

The strawberries have fruited. The blueberries have copious amonts of flowers, some of which have falled, so they have started to fruit. We haven't seen too many bees - even the bumblebees seem fewer.

The blackberry plants are sending up a dozen to two of new canes. I have them surrounded by mesh so that the deer don't mosey in a eat them.

Raspberries won't flower for a few more weeks. The rhubard is doing well, and whatever at the first few hasn't returned.

My son and I will be planting some hot peppers - probably tomorrow. He seems interested in making hot sauces, and I still have the habaneros from last year.

The lettuce is doing very well in the cool weather. We seem to be getting just the right amount of rain and sun at the moment. Thursday and Friday were sunny and mild, although we did have a thunderstorm roll through on Thursday, and there was isolated heavy downpours and perhaps a microburst or two. Some trees and branches came down. South of us, there were scattered power outages.

 

[Evo]

It's still too cold and wet to plant.

I'm still having to wear a jacket and the plants that survived the freeze are in shock.

All of my fruit trees lost their fruit in the freeze.

 

[Astronuc]

It's still too cold and wet to plant. I'm still having to wear a jacket and the plants that survived the freeze are in shock.

All of my fruit trees lost their fruit in the freeze.

Hang in there Evo. Sending warm thoughts your way and hope for warmer weather soon.

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/4223/papaverflowersmallyh3.jpg

Papaver - two views of the same three flowers.

 

[Art]

I was told to put out a saucer of beer. Apparently they crawl onto to it and die by drowning. Just use a cheap beer like Miller or Budweiser.
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7427.html

It worked great for catching slugs but unfortunately snails do not appear to be as fond of beer

Originally Posted by Anttec
Start eating them they will get the message after a while

Funnily enough I was watching A History of the British Isles recently and it said on there that the common garden snail is not indigenous to the British Isles but was introduced by the Romans as a delicacy.

 

[turbo]

I transplanted my spearmint and peppermint today, and have upended some unused flower pots over them because we may get a hard freeze tonight. My wife and I hope to plant our garden over the long Memorial Day weekend, but all last week (including last night) we had rain and my Troy-Bilt Horse and I are destined to spend a lot of time mudding unless the weather turns dry. We are supposed to get some dry/cool weather with warming toward the end of the week, but the water-carrying capacity of cool air isn't that great and I don't know if we can get the garden dry enough to till. We've spent over $80 on seeds, and we'll get the garden in eventually and save probably more than $1000 in grocery costs (very conservative!), but this cold wet spring has got me down. My old apple trees have already blossomed with no pollinators to visit the blossoms. My newer trees (20Y or less) are hybrids that didn't bolt when the 80-90 deg weather showed up, so I may get some apples from them.

 

[Moonbear]

It's still too cold and wet to plant.

I'm still having to wear a jacket and the plants that survived the freeze are in shock.

All of my fruit trees lost their fruit in the freeze.

It's been a bit warmer the past few days, but we've still had very cold nights. Not that I'm planning on planting much this year since local fauna ate it all last year. Might just stick some flowers in planters on the deck and call it a day. Usually by now, we're past the last frost, but I'm not totally sure of that yet this year.

Astronuc, how much lettuce do you grow and what do you do with it all? I tried growing lettuce once, and it did very well early in the season while it was still cold and wet, like it is now, but then as soon as the real summer heat came along, it died off. So, I wound up with lots of lettuce early in the season, but it was too soon for anything else, and by the time I had other veggies to mix into salads, I didn't have lettuce anymore. I never tried a fall lettuce crop.

Do you stagger planting it so it's not all ready at once? I can't think of anything to do with lettuce other than fresh eating, and it just isn't worth it for the short growing season and short shelf life.

 

[turbo]

Moonie, lettuce does really well with cool, damp soils. My wife and I are planting lettuce in the garden early, and re-planting in large windowboxes that we can place in partial shad on the deck, to keep the temps down. High soil temperatures and sun can cause greens to toughen and/or bolt, so we are trying this to see if we can have crispy tasty leaf lettuces all through the summer. We are also thinking of planting some 2nd-crop lettuce between our pepper and tomato plants so they can benefit from the shading.

 

[Astronuc]

It's been a bit warmer the past few days, but we've still had very cold nights. Not that I'm planning on planting much this year since local fauna ate it all last year. Might just stick some flowers in planters on the deck and call it a day. Usually by now, we're past the last frost, but I'm not totally sure of that yet this year.

Astronuc, how much lettuce do you grow and what do you do with it all? I tried growing lettuce once, and it did very well early in the season while it was still cold and wet, like it is now, but then as soon as the real summer heat came along, it died off. So, I wound up with lots of lettuce early in the season, but it was too soon for anything else, and by the time I had other veggies to mix into salads, I didn't have lettuce anymore. I never tried a fall lettuce crop.

Do you stagger planting it so it's not all ready at once? I can't think of anything to do with lettuce other than fresh eating, and it just isn't worth it for the short growing season and short shelf life.

Like Turbo mentioned, lettuce like cool, partly sunny weather, and not to dry. I'm not sure how it's grown in Ca, but I think they must spray it constanly with water to cool it.

I think Turbo's idea of shading the lettuce is one that many people try. Last year we had sugar peas and tomato plants in the same area, and that provided some shade. And so did my habanero pepper plants , which took off an produced a lot of peppers. This year, my son and I will be planting several varieties of hot peppers.

People sell little shade structure for lettuce. I think I posted something in this thread about them.

We have about 20 lettuce plants of two varieties. We started them as seedlings indoors while we still had potential for frost, but one can buy seedling from some shops. Some of ours will probably be ready for harvest soon. Unfortunately, we don't have any tomato plants - we just started them.

Right now we have cool weather. Tonight it's suppose to get down into the 30's, and some places have frost warnings!

Our experience is that once the weather get into 70's with lots of sun, the lettuce bolts, and it doesn't taste particular good either.

Here is some advice from University of Illinois.
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/veggies/lettuce1.html

And from Ohio State - http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1610.html

This is kind of interesting - Lettuce That Can Stand the Heat

Oh and this year our oak tree flowered, and in fact the blossoms just blew of the tree (it was like snowflakes), and so it will be packed with acorns this year. Last year with the drought and late cold weather, we didn't get any acorns.

 

[Astronuc]

One of our garden buddies and neighbor.

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/2723/rabbit1005772jz8.jpg

We have at least three mature rabbits who visit our back yard. Two were in the blackberry patch the other day. I have since reset the mesh.

 

[Astronuc]

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/9186/oenothera1005805hp7.jpg​

[/URL]
Oenothera - just as the bloom started to open.

I saw a sliver of yellow about 45 minutes before I took this shot. I came back and it had opened a little more.

 

[larkspur]

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/9186/oenothera1005805hp7.jpg​

[/URL]
Oenothera - just as the bloom started to open.

I saw a sliver of yellow about 45 minutes before I took this shot. I came back and it had opened a little more.

Cool! I have coreopsis,cornflower (Centaurea cyanus),yarrow,evening primrose and salvia blooming. My roses have not recovered yet from freeze so they are late this year.

 

[Astronuc]

OK - here is the images of Alium at different stages of blooming.

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/8571/alium1005721es9.jpg​

[/URL]

 

[larkspur]

Do you have any idea what flower this is? I found it on a walk at the wildlife preserve, brought it home and snapped a few photos of it.

 

[NeoDevin]

I have a sunflower in a pot, and every time I put it outside in the sun, the leaves all start drooping. When I bring it back in, within an hour it's looking good and sturdy again... It's a short little sunflower (with no flower yet). Anyone have any idea what might be wrong with it? Not enough water, too small pot, too much sun?

 

[turbo]

I have a sunflower in a pot, and every time I put it outside in the sun, the leaves all start drooping. When I bring it back in, within an hour it's looking good and sturdy again... It's a short little sunflower (with no flower yet). Anyone have any idea what might be wrong with it? Not enough water, too small pot, too much sun?

You have to look at plant vascular systems as a process. If a plant starts to wilt or droop when it's in the sun, then it is losing water at a rate faster than it can keep up with. This could be because the water content of the soil is too low, because the pot is too small (limited reservoir of water), because the root system is not yet well-developed enough to take up the water as fast as the leaves can lose it, or a combination of these. It is important to introduce potted plants to full sun slowly, so that they can cope with the change. Even plants that have been in a hot (usually humid) greenhouse from seed to transplanting can experience shock from sudden exposure to full sun. Part of the reason is that they have not had to develop enough root structure to deal with the rapid water loss entailed in drier air in a full-sun environment. Plants lose water to the humid air in a greenhouse much more slowly than they will outdoors. Sunflowers thrive in full sun, but you've got to get them hardened to it first.

 

[turbo]

Garden report: My wife and I put in our entire +1500 ft² garden yesterday morning. Since we plant everything in wide raised beds, this entailed a hellish amount of hoeing. Thursday, I tilled in the wood ashes from last winter and the truckload of peat that I spread last fall, and Friday, I tilled in hundreds of pounds of composted cow manure. The old Horse threatened to bog down in some damp spots and even stalled out on me once on a big rock (I set the tilling depth very deep), but it came through like a champ.

The wild strawberries are blooming, as are the apple trees, and this spring the bees are here to pollinate the blossoms. We were not so lucky during last year's "spring" that was a dismal extension of winter.

The wild raspberries and blackberries have over-wintered well and should blossom in a few weeks. I transplanted spearmint and peppermint along the tree line on the west edge of the lawn, and the next day, some critter had dug up one of the peat pots of peppermint (probably a skunk looking for grubs/worms). I soaked it in our frog pond and put it back in the ground, and the plants have rebounded. Mint is tough stuff!

 

[NeoDevin]

You have to look at plant vascular systems as a process. If a plant starts to wilt or droop when it's in the sun, then it is losing water at a rate faster than it can keep up with. This could be because the water content of the soil is too low, because the pot is too small (limited reservoir of water), because the root system is not yet well-developed enough to take up the water as fast as the leaves can lose it, or a combination of these. It is important to introduce potted plants to full sun slowly, so that they can cope with the change. Even plants that have been in a hot (usually humid) greenhouse from seed to transplanting can experience shock from sudden exposure to full sun. Part of the reason is that they have not had to develop enough root structure to deal with the rapid water loss entailed in drier air in a full-sun environment. Plants lose water to the humid air in a greenhouse much more slowly than they will outdoors. Sunflowers thrive in full sun, but you've got to get them hardened to it first.

A couple of the leaves are kind of mangled (thanks be to my cat), would this be contributing to the problem, and should I cut them off, or leave them be?

 

[turbo]

A couple of the leaves are kind of mangled (thanks be to my cat), would this be contributing to the problem, and should I cut them off, or leave them be?

The leaves of sunflowers are capable of healing/sealing to prevent water loss from insect damage, etc. They are pretty hardy. I would keep the leaves on, because when the water-loss problem from the damage is minimized by the scarring/sealing process, the leaves will still contribute to the energy-balance of the plant through photosynthesis. The trick is to introduce the plant to dry air/full sun more gradually to allow the plant to develop the amount of root structure necessary to uptake water at a rate that will balance the rate of evaporation from the leaves. Sunflowers are relatively easy, so you're in luck. Sometime, try starting basil from seed, transplanting, and moving the plants outside. My wife and I grow lots of herbs, and that's one of the more touchy ones in regard to sunlight, water requirements, and humidity of the ambient air.

 

[turbo]

Today, I used my motorcycle ramps to load my Troy-Bilt Horse into the back of my little Nissan pickup, and surprise my brother-in-law. He has a very wet, rocky garden spot that has so much clay and silt that it can turn from a sticky mess to hardpan in less than a week depending on the temperature, wind, and sun exposure. I deep-tilled his ~1200 ft ² garden spot today while he was at work. He has an old front-tine tiller that beats the crap out of him every year when he tries to break up the soil that has been compacted by winter/spring. It was fun to get a phone call from him tonight describing how he felt when he got home and found out that his garden-space had been tilled.

 

[larkspur]

Today, I used my motorcycle ramps to load my Troy-Bilt Horse into the back of my little Nissan pickup, and surprise my bother-in-law. He has a very wet, rocky garden spot that has so much clay and silt that it can turn from a sticky mess to hardpan in less than a week depending on the temperature, wind, and sun exposure. I deep-tilled his ~1200 ft ^{2[garden spot today while he was at work. He has an old front-tine tiller that beats the crap out of him every year when he tries to break up the soil that has been compacted by winter/spring. It was fun to get a phone call from him tonight describing how he felt when he got home and found out that his garden-space had been tilled.}

^{That was so nice of you Turbo!}

 

[turbo]

That was so nice of you Turbo!

I'm sure he would have done the same for me if the situation was reversed. (I edited the "bother-in-law" to "brother-in-law", since he isn't really a bother. ;-) ) Stuff like this is easy and fun to do, and it always results in a nice "payback" that makes you smile when it comes. My sister's boyfriend's tiller died recently, and when things dry out where they are, I will travel the 20+ miles to make sure that their garden spot is properly tilled, too. My wife and I are very fond of making hot salsas from green tomatoes, and I'll bet when the late-fall frosts threaten, we'll get lots of green tomatoes to work with. Of course, we will give them jars of salsa made with our habaneros/jalapenoes, and the cycle will go on.

 

[Moonbear]

That is really nice of you!

My garden this year is my single Tiny Tim Tomato plant in my windowsill. It already had a few tomatoes on it and LOTS of flowers when I bought it about a month ago at a farmer's market sale they were having at the ag school greenhouses. I figured they got it started for me, and all I had to do was not kill it. This weekend, the tomatoes finally started ripening. Not the best tomatoes I've ever had, but better than store bought. They're a little bigger than your standard cherry tomato, but not much, and the plant itself is a dwarf plant...only about a foot high in the pot. Next year I'll get several of these. It's ideal for container gardening since I don't have any luck with an outdoor garden between the shallow soil (there isn't much soil left over the rock from when they built the place) and the rats and birds and bugs.

While at the greenhouses, I also got two little planters containing a variety of "sedum" called a rock garden blend. They're cute and I just need to repot them one of these days. The attraction was that they had a big note with them saying they do best if allowed to dry out some between waterings. I figured that's a plant I might be able to keep alive! Actually, that was the really nice thing about the ag school sale...there were little notes on many of the tables of plants giving special instructions about how to care for the plants beyond the "part sun" "full sun" type labels you usually find on plants. That's really helpful when you don't know much about the plants that grow well locally, and what type of locations to put them in and how often to water, etc.

At least when I get a house with a yard here, I'm pretty sure I can get rhododendrons to grow well...they grow wild around here.