Posted on 05/01/2024 6:00:41 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The MONTHLY Gardening Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.
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That does look good. And I agree on egg quality. Cannot WAIT for my girls to get busy! :)
We go out for breakfast/brunch maybe 3x a year. I always order an Omlette because I don’t have to make it myself for a change!
And Hash Browns with cheese and fried onions. :)
Planting Oregano and/or any type of Mint with no boundaries...common Rookie Gardener Mistake. ;)
Borage too, Mom? LOL!
Got my ‘Lieutenant’ Broccoli yesterday; my life is now complete. They had no ‘Shisito’ but many of the ‘Ghost’ peppers. Ugh! You can seriously hurt yourself with those!
When we were in Hawaii my ‘future ex’ was giving me a hard time because I made him stop the car a lot so I could look at Amaryllis growing wild - seemingly everywhere! They were as plentiful as the orange ‘Ditch Lilies’ (Tiger Lilly) that grow all over the Midwest with abandon.
I love that you have ‘volunteer’ Nasturtium. Such a lovely flower. :)
SO jealous of those Yellow Perch! We used to catch them by the bucketful when I was a kid on Big Silver Lake, Waushara County, WI.
We always had a Fish Fry on Summer Friday Nights at my Grandparent’s cabin on the lake. I was so lucky to have had a lake of my own as a kid. So many adventures, so many Leopard Frogs to catch. So many Perch! :)
Yes, He will! :)
The squall that rolled in off the prairie last night brought another .8” of rainfall to the Middle of Misery and put a couple or three inches of new water in the pond.
Lots of lightning and thunder. We had to give the poor dog a tranquilizer.
I’m glad I was able to get the grass cut over the weekend. It’s a muddy mess out there now.
Yes, big pots and their weight is always an issue!
I fill my larger pots with anything from the recycle bin - cans, plastic bottles, etc. About 1/3 of the bottom with the ‘space fillers’ and then the rest with a good potting mix. I like the Miracle Grow brand, or Walmart also sells an ‘Expert’ brand that is just about as good and a lot cheaper. Don’t fill them with garden soil; they need something lighter.
Make sure the pots have good drainage; the pot caddies will help with that. I put mine up on bricks for drainage - they won’t drain properly if they are flat on the ground or the cement patio. I put a coffee filter over any drainage holes and that keeps the dirt in, yet lets the water out. So, coffee filter, ‘space fillers’ then, potting mix.
...and fertilize, fertilize, fertilize anything you’re growing in pots. Plants that are ‘pot bound’ use up all the nutrients in the soil quickly. With pots you’re usually watering once or twice a day (in the Summer heat) so I always add a lesser dose of water soluble fertilizer to my watering can every time I water. You can also add granular fertilizer to the soil when you’re planting - something like Osmocote brand is good. It releases fertilizer slowly over the season.
Here’s a bunch of great ‘pot filling’ ideas, too:
https://singlegirlsdiy.com/how-to-fill-the-bottom-of-a-large-planter/
“It’s a muddy mess out there now.”
I wash my kitchen floor early in the season. Then not again until we dry out in July and are praying for rain.
Sweep? Daily! Mop? Ha!
Thanks! We have plenty of plastic bottles, etc. we could use for pot filler. I have quite a few pieces of landscape fabric scraps I could use over the drain holes or even use between plastic fillers.
I am sure we’ll need to move/rotate the pots around the patio, plus, being able to move them, I can keep the slate washed off under the pots.
My native monarda has taken off - I can’t believe the difference between last year & this year! It’s huge - looking for those first purple blooms! The red one is still very small, but looks healthy. My baby boxwoods I planted February a year ago have grown at least 6 inches. We were thinking of transplanting them around the front porch at the new place, but I do believe they’re too big now for me to move. My brother in VB and SIL next door both have asked for the boxwoods so they’ll probably end up with a new home & avoid a bulldozer fate unless someone wants to dig them up for me.
Oh boy ... just got pics from the great-nieces ... they now have baby goats! No further info like names, bucks/does, breed, etc. yet. I suspect they are in for a LOT of adventures with those goats!
The baby goat ‘scoop’:
Dwarf Nigerians, both doelings. One is particularly mischievous & jumped out of the stall last night, then led everyone a merry chase this morning (girls late for school). She can also get out of the pasture fence so half of the large chicken run/coop (smaller wire fencing) is where the goats will be until they grow up a bit. The mischievous one also headbutts the cat.
I emailed Bonnie to complain about no shishitos in Lowell again. She wrote back a couple of days later and said the greenhouse verified none have been sent to Lowell, they will try and send some. Yeah, right.
I have always filled my big container pots with a couple of flakes of straw, compressed. Soil on top with compost. By the time they are ready to be dumped the straw has rotted nicely.
Rain gauge finally came in. Plugged in the little LCD display and tilted the tipping cup back and forth and had a count displayed so it works.
I'm not using the display and will hook it up to one of my controllers indoors the tip the tipping bucket to make sure that works. Then I'll see if I can find a place to rig it up outdoors temporarily. Supposed to be on a nice level platform so "rigging it" - goat proof?
Screw it down to a piece of plywood, set it on the roof of the car, find highest point of rounded roof, shims corners of plywood until it's level. Gonna have to move the car where the wire reaches but they give plenty, 50 foot I think.
Forgot to order my brackets first thing this morning so I did it first thing this afternoon. Will be a little less apt yo make it here for the weekend but that's ok, I have plenty to do.
I have Horse Thistle in my tunnel and beyond the South end a bit.
Brought some horse manure in several year's ago. Didn't get a lot and thought I had it taken care of but then I quit gardening out there and even visiting so it spread. I did feed the goats hay out there a couple of years ago and got more from that. At any rate, I have it now. It's not real thick but it's spread out and I don't want to broadcast plant killer, RoundUp etc.
Just informed my son that we're going to pull grass and various weeds until there's noting but thistle left and then dig those out, collect them and burn them with the next trash burning.
Forced No Till Gardening.
Beau wants goats. I do NOT want goats!
So we’ll probably be getting fifty goats, LOL!
You know I LOVE my straw!
As I was planting my ‘Lieutenant’ Broccoli today, I was thinking: ‘I have GOT to post pictures of the soil in my raised beds!’
I owe it ALL to ‘Ithaca Grow’ and heavy mulching of straw. I don’t add any other components to the mix. It. Is. Magical!
(And Earthworms like you wouldn’t believe!)
“I have Horse Thistle in my tunnel and beyond the South end a bit.”
‘Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.’ ;)
I know and looked into the different nukes. RoundUp doesn’t have much to say about horse thistle but I found a couple that did. Either way, it’s less than half of 750 sq ft. Hand to Hand combat fits this situation.
The area outside the tunnel, yeah I’ll nuke it.
Do you have a Costco near you? At ours, we can get get PRIME ribeyes, about 2” thick, for $15 or $16 a pound. We can split one of those and have leftovers sometimes. Every now and again we splurge on those for a special meal.
Wow, those all look amazing!!
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