What Are Some Tips for Successful Gardening?

[Andre]

Definitely invest in grow-lamps.

Absolutely, if you want to have a good harvest. The question is though, is it worthwhile? Grow-lamps = energy = cost. Are you better off than buying veggies in the mall? If the answer is irrelevant, would it have been more fun to do other things with patios and grow-lamps?

 

[turbo]

Absolutely, if you want to have a good harvest. The question is though, is it worthwhile? Grow-lamps = energy = cost. Are you better off than buying veggies in the mall? If the answer is irrelevant, would it have been more fun to do other things with patios and grow-lamps?

The grow-lamps will be usable for years to come, and will only be needed when the outside temperatures/light availability are hostile to the plants. The rest of the season, they will be unused. If you're a fresh-food fanatic like me, the up-front expense and the additional energy costs are well worth the pay-back in fresh taste and availability. There is nothing like going out to the garden and picking a couple of fresh tomatoes, a cucumber, some greens, and some scallions/green onions to throw together a salad. You can't buy that flavor in a store or restaurant.

 

[Andre]

The grow-lamps will be usable for years to come, and will only be needed when the outside temperatures/light availability are hostile to the plants. The rest of the season, they will be unused. If you're a fresh-food fanatic like me, the up-front expense and the additional energy costs are well worth the pay-back in fresh taste and availability. There is nothing like going out to the garden and picking a couple of fresh tomatoes, a cucumber, some greens, and some scallions/green onions to throw together a salad. You can't buy that flavor in a store or restaurant.

Been there, done that. Only to discover that I could not compete with professional greeneries around the corner. Mind that in Holland, the veggies are just about as fresh as you'd harvest them from your own garden. The only competition you could give the commercial providers for freshness and value for money were cherry tomatoes, strawberries and sugar snaps.

 

[turbo]

Been there, done that. Only to discover that I could not compete with professional greeneries around the corner. Mind that in Holland, the veggies are just about as fresh as you'd havest them from your own garden. The only competition you could give the commercial providers for freshness and value for money were cherry tomatoes, strawberries and sugar snaps.

Understood. Here in the northeast US, most of the produce in the markets comes from Florida, California, Mexico, etc, etc, so the stuff has been grown, warehoused, trucked, and displayed for sale before you ever get a chance at getting it. For some vegetables, this is tolerable. For others (especially delicate vegetables and herbs) these delays and variables in handling/storage can kill the flavor. I love walking out on the back deck to cut some basil for a sauce or strolling down to the garden to cut some fresh dill florets for salsas and chili relishes. There are stores that carry dill seed and dill weed, but there are no stores that carry the fresh florets - the most wonderful product of that herb.

 

[Astronuc]

Well, spring is close at hand in the Northern Hemisphere. Time to start thinking about spring planting and perhaps even start some plants in trays.

Here's an idea - http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&mainPage=gatepage&gate=CompanionPlanting&cid=pem000898 "is the Native American technique of direct sowing Corn, Beans, and Squash together as the Three Sisters. Corn acts as a support for climbing bean vines, beans fix nitrogen in the soil, and squash provides mulch and root protection!" Now I just have to figure out what to do about squash vine borers.

I'm going to try companion planting this year.


I'll be planting more hot peppers.

 

[turbo]

I'll be planting more hot peppers.

Fence them tightly and consider investing in some sprinklers with IR motion detectors (getting MUCH cheaper) to scare off the deer. I lost a huge habanero plant that my sister-in-law gave me to deer a couple of years ago and have relied on these "deer-chaser" gizmos ever since. You need decent water pressure to the hoses and one 9-volt battery per unit. Two of them protect a 35x50' garden quite effectively. We have also not had any problems with the wild turkeys, despite flocks often numbering 20-30 birds.

 

[ZapperZ]

I'm having amaryllis coming out of my ears!

First, and update on the Daddy. Daddy amaryllis is doing dandy! Last time I showed that he had 2 flower buds. Well guess what, folks. He now has FOUR flower buds, with 2 of them just about to open or already opened!

Now, Mommy amaryllis lost a lot of her leaves over the winter, but she has grown quite a few and decided that she too would like to flower. So she has now put out TWO flower buds as of now.

But wait, that's not all! One of the baby amaryllis decided to join the the fun. This one was taken off the mommy amaryllis about a year ago. And he decided to also send out a flowering bud.

I'm going to have each one flower one after the other at this rate. I'm keeping an eye out for the other two amaryllis that haven't shown any interest so far in joining this flower party. And all of this is going on while Freckles the orchid still having all of her flowers, and the last bud at the end is still deciding if it is going to open or not. The other orchid looks like to have prepared herself for a really full bloom. I see about 8 buds so far. I'm guessing that it'll be another 2 to 3 weeks before the first flower opens.

It is blooming all over the place over here!

Zz.

 

[Evo]

Good lord Zz! What is happening there? Beautiful flowers! Daddy is the most gorgeous amarylis I've ever seen!

 

[Evo]

No flowers here, but these are the little houseplants I bought at that sale, $1-2 each. Unfortunately I have to crowd them all in front of my bedroom window since it's the only place that gets at least moderate light. Luckily, these all are ok with moderate light.

 

[ZapperZ]

No flowers here, but these are the little houseplants I bought at that sale, $1-2 each. Unfortunately I have to crowd them all in front of my bedroom window since it's the only place that gets at least moderate light. Luckily, these all are ok with moderate light.

A respectable collection, Evo. But that's how I started and look at me now! My front bay window is a flowering jungle right now. Everything is just sprouting like mad all of the sudden.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Amaryllis Gone Wild

The Daddy is in full bloom now. I've been taking lots of pictures of the flowers because they do not last for very long. So here are a few shots of the flower. I think they are even more vibrant this year than what I remember in the past.

I don't remember ever seeing another amaryllis having flowers that is that deep red. That's why, even when the flowers don't last very long, they certainly make a very lasting impression when one sees it.

Zz.

 

[turbo]

Beautiful blooms, ZZ! I'm not a decorative gardener, but I can't wait until spring, so I can plan my vegetable garden. When I see bees working my squash and cucumber blossoms, I think they are every bit as beautiful as these shots, because of the interplay and the fruits. It is March, and the buttercup squashes in our cold cellar are still rock-hard and tasty. I cooked one tonight for supper - you can't get that quality in a store.

 

[turbo]

To anybody that intends to grow string beans this summer - you must freeze your beans this way! Place metal pans/trays in your freezer to pre-cool them, and when you pick the string beans, do not wash or process them in any way. Just transfer them to the metal trays in thin layers, so they freeze very quickly, and pack them away in freezer bags. When you want to cook beans, get them from the freezer bags in the quantity you need (since you froze them dry, they will be loose, not frozen in blocks) put them in a colander, and rinse them, snap off the stems (and tips, if you want) and put them in a steaming rack in a covered pan to cook. They taste almost as good as fresh beans out of the garden with a lovely dark color and good texture. They are 10x better than the best frozen beans you can buy in a store. If you pick and chop green peppers and/or chilies and flash-freeze them on metal trays like this, the results are comparable. I don't want to spend a lot of money to buy peppers out-of-season up here, and I don't have to. Freezers have made us self-sufficient in out-of-season foods and are saving us a ton of money in groceries.

 

[Evo]

Zz, those are absolutely BREATH TAKING! I've never seen such deep, true reds, So gorgeous!

That first picture could win a prize.

 

[baywax]

Fuschias

Does anyone know if fuschias are perennial?
If they're annual I've managed to get this one to sprout new sprouts in its following year. If their perennial I guess its normal.

 

[Andre]

Yes Fuschias are perennial but have a winter hardiness of 0.0. A few hours of freezing and it's all over. So they have to hibernate frost free. I used to dig a three feet deep hole in November, strip all leaves and twigs and just burried them there.

 

[baywax]

Yes Fuschias are perennial but have a winter hardiness of 0.0. A few hours of freezing and it's all over. So they have to hibernate frost free. I used to dig a three feet deep hole in November, strip all leaves and twigs and just burried them there.

Thanks Andre, these ones were under a cover outside so I guess they were never frozen... hard to imagine in the great white north! Thanks again.

 

[ZapperZ]

So this "spring" is rather unusual around my household in the sense that almost everything is growing rather well, and they all are blooming almost at the same time. You've heard from my previous reports of my amaryllis blooming like mad. All 4 of them are now either have finished blooming, in the middle of a bloom, or about to bloom. And from my inspection of the 5th one, I think I notice the beginning of the flowering stalk just about to come out from the bulb. So that will be 5 out of 5 amaryllis all blooming this year in around the same time. Never happened before.

Anyway, I also mentioned earlier of the 2nd orchid plant that was putting out flowering buds. Well, the flowers are starting to just open. The first one opened just yesterday, and I counted at least 13 flowering buds on the stem. So if all of them open, this is going to be the largest number of flowers on a single stem that I've ever gotten from any of my orchids. Here is the plant.

http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/6882/img0950tu9.jpg

It should continue to bloom for the next couple of months. Freckles, the first one that bloomed this year, is still going strong. She has all of her flowers, and seems to continue putting out flower buds at the end of the stem. She has already been flowering for 2 months already and heading towards a full 3 months.

The third and smallest orchid plant (and also the youngest/newest) seems to also have caught on with the flowering fever. I noticed about 2 weeks ago that there is this flowering stem that shot out from the old stem. It looks like it is going to join in the fun as well. It is still a ways away. Here it is. See if you can spot the small off-shoot of the old flowering stem.

So here is my front bay window area where all of the plants are located. It is a "jungle", but it's a pleasant place to sit, especially when the sun is pouring in.

As you can see, some of the amaryllis are done with their flowering, while others are either fully opened, or have buds that are yet to open. So I will have these bright-red flowers to look at for at least another few weeks from all the different ones that are yet to open. Things just seem to grow quite well by this window, even my jade plant that usually grows rather slowly. I'm seeing a lot of small new leaves on it, so it is growing.

Zz.

 

[turbo]

Holy cow, Zz! Are you spreading some kind of plant hormones around your place?

 

[ZapperZ]

Holy cow, Zz! Are you spreading some kind of plant hormones around your place?

Sounds like your plants are excited. What have you been doing to them?

I walk naked in front of them and give them a dirty look. :)

:)

Zz.

 

[turbo]

They are impressive! Are they prompting one another to bloom or do you have some magical convergence of temperature/humidity/ambient light that made all this happen? The organist in my college band was a horticulture major and the caretaker of the university's greenhouse (U of Maine), so I've seen how tough some of these plants can be to raise. On the other hand, the length-of-day factor plus the warmth and humidity of the greenhouse could stimulate the development of gorgeous tropical blooms early in the spring.

 

[ZapperZ]

They are impressive! Are they prompting one another to bloom or do you have some magical convergence of temperature/humidity/ambient light that made all this happen? The organist in my college band was a horticulture major and the caretaker of the university's greenhouse (U of Maine), so I've seen how tough some of these plants can be to raise. On the other hand, the length-of-day factor plus the warmth and humidity of the greenhouse could stimulate the development of gorgeous tropical blooms early in the spring.

I'm not exactly sure about the amaryllis, because this is the first time all of them are blooming, and blooming at the same time. The Daddy and Mommy have bloomed before (and not at the same time), but the kids haven't bloomed since we separated them out. So this is the first time all of them are doing this at almost the same time of the year.

For the orchids, I know that they have bloomed at different times. So this is the first time that one is following the end of the other. Freckles have been a regular bloomer, while the other two have not. They certainly don't keep the same cycle at the amaryllis, and there's no reason that they should. So I guess it is just a pure coincidence where all the stars are aligned.

Zz.

 

[turbo]

At any rate, the result is beautiful! Congratulations.

 

[Evo]

I also thought it was usual for orchids to have different blooming cycles. That is just amazing and so pretty Zz!

 

[turbo]

The organist in my band (as I mentioned before) took care of the university greenhouse, and the greenhouse was on the walking path from my dorm to almost anyplace on campus, so I stopped in a lot. Some of the tropical plants (and they were growing plenty of orchids) would throw out an inflorescence in just a day or two, and prompt me to visit more frequently so I could watch them bloom. I was a long-haired musician of the '60's/70's who gave up studying Chemical Engineering for a double major in English Lit and Philosophy, but I loved plants (inherited that from my mother, I guess) and treated that greenhouse like my private fantasy garden.

When we would play frat parties, we'd stipulate that the day of the party, the frat had to send brothers to move the organist's Hammond C3 and Leslie to the gig, and the next day (when they were presumably somewhat sobered up) bring them back to the greenhouse. It would take about 5-6 pretty rugged guys to move that C3. The Leslie was not so heavy, but it was bulky and hard to get 'hold of. We'd rehearse in the greenhouse living quarters, sometimes, but it was rough on the guitars to take them in and out out such a humid atmosphere, especially in the winter.

 

[Astronuc]

This looks really useful!

Home and Garden Information Center

http://hgic.umd.edu/

Maryland Master Gardeners

http://mastergardener.umd.edu/

Publications - http://www.hgic.umd.edu/content/onlinepublications.cfm

Salad box - http://www.hgic.umd.edu/_media/documents/hg601.pdf

 

[turbo]

I can't wait to start tilling and planting. It'll be a while, though. I can only see about 10% of the garden - the rest is covered by snow. I checked under the mulch yesterday, but the garlic has not yet sprouted.

 

[Evo]

I'm sitting here watching it snow. I don't remember it ever snowing in April in the 15 years that I've lived here. Last year we had a freak freeze in May that killed everything.

 

[turbo]

We had a little snow last night, then rain this morning, and gloomy overcast with snow in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow night. We always get snow in April, and given the sometimes wild spring weather, the storms can result in a lot of accumulation. 30 miles south of here, there is no snow left on the ground and the garlic is already a couple of inches out of the ground. We have some scallions in the herb garden that are making an effort, but that's about the only thing growing here.

I left my parsnips in the ground over the winter so they would sweeten up, and I'd like to start digging them, but I've got almost a foot of snow and still-frozen ground to deal with. I usually try to plant everything by Memorial Day, but if this crazy spring weather keeps up, I don't know if that's do-able.

 

[ZapperZ]

OK, so here's an update on my indoor flowering garden gone wild! :)

The purple orchid (I haven't given it a name yet) is going strong. It is flowering quite nicely and the flowers are rather big (certainly bigger than Freckle's). There are, on last count, a total 13 flowering bud, so this is going to be a big bloom.

The flowers so far are quite gorgeous, even if I may say so myself. I look at it everyday (obsessive?), especially when I do my daily "misting".

Freckles is still doing quite well and going strong with the flowers. Notice that I first mentioned about Freckles about to flower some time in December. This is now April. I am certainly getting my money's worth with this orchid plant. It has flowered for 3 months straight.

Notice that she STILL has at least one flowering bud yet that's still to open!

During all of the brouhaha with the orchids and the amaryllis, my African Violet decided that she too would like to put out some flowers! Can you believe that?

So here's the current picture of the whole "family". The Daddy (front left right by the window) amaryllis is done with his flowering. The Mommy (behind the Daddy) has one stalk down, and one stalk in full bloom. One of the kids (to the right of Daddy) is also in full bloom with 2 stalks of flowers.

Next year is going to be a big disappointment, I would think, since I don't expect this to happen again.

Zz.

 

[turbo]

Spring is here! We have had a string of sunny days with highs in the 50's and it's easily going to creep into the 60's today. The below-freezing nights have prevented the melt-water runoff from coming all at once, and though the rivers are high, the dangers of severe flooding are easing a bit. The snow is melting steadily, and though I cannot see much of my front lawn yet, about 3/4 of my vegetable garden is visible.

A couple of weeks ago, flocks of juncos showed up to join the redpolls, chickadees and other over-wintering birds at my feeders, and this morning for the first time, I heard phoebes and white-throated sparrows singing. Just a little while ago, my sister-in-law called to say that she was re-potting tomato plants and that she had 'way too many, so we've got some free plants for the garden.

 

[Evo]

It warmed up today, but we have 40 MPH winds. I can't put the plants outside because they'd get ripped to shreds.

So here are two cucumber seedlings sitting in my livingroom.

 

[Andre]

5 inch of snow here in the last three hours, and growing, the tulips are no longer visible. Why did I change to summer tyres already,

Nice seedings, Evo I remember after a warm summer I had to clean out the garden with multiple, over 20 feet long cucumber stalks

 

[Evo]

5 inch of snow here in the last three hours, and growing, the tulips are no longer visible. Why did I change to summer tyres already,

Wow, you guys are making up for the mild winter.

Nice seedings, Evo I remember after a warm summer I had to clean out the garden with multiple, over 20 feet long cucumber stalks

Thanks, these are special bush cucumbers, so I'm hoping they don't get out of control.

The squirrels had a party in my squash, so I have re-started them.

 

[turbo]

Now spring is here for sure! I was returning from my recycling/trash run and when I got out of my truck, the first think I heard was male goldfinches jockeying for territory in the tree-tops and singing up a storm. Wild canaries!

Even better singers are the rose-breasted grosbeaks, and I have not yet hear one this year. I haven't seen many red-polls today. The warm weather may have prompted them to move farther north toward the boreal forests. That's just as well - it was costing a lot to feed them.