Weekly Gardening Thread – 2009 Vol.23 – October 23

Free Republic | 10-23-2009 | Red_Devil 232

[afraidfortherepublic]

My daughter’s yard grows like gangbusters while the same plants poke along here. She looked at my raised rose garden and pointed at a little piece of ivy that I had planted to trail over the edge of the wall and said, “You didn’t plant that there ON PUROSE, did you?”

I have an Oak Leaf Hydrangea that I have been nursing along for 15 years. It’s about 2 feet high. She has an Oak Leaf Hydrangea that she planted 3 years ago and it covers a whole wall of her house!

Warm weather, rain, and a long growing season will do a lot for a garden!

I get the first to, but not the third. And I’m keeping an eye on that ivy, just in case. ;)

[Red_Devil 232]

Check my home page for pictures of my garden this year and last year.

Do a search using the key word - weekly - it will bring up all the thread posted this year. There have been a bunch of pictures post over the past 22 weeks.

[rightly_dividing]

can I have your share of the collards and cabbage, please? I dont get enough of either.

[TNdandelion]

I’ve done that with my irises. My zone is fairly temperate and I’ve even had some to bloom the same year that I replantd them but there may be a chance that you don’t get blooms until the following year.

[TNdandelion]

That is beautiful.

[afraidfortherepublic]

That sounds like a wonderful idea. I might try that myself starting in March and see what happens. Since I have no way to recycle my milk jugs anyway, this will be a good use of them.

I’m in Zone 5B. Just a little west (1-2 miles) of Lake Michigan.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Your photo is breathtaking! Thanks.

[gardengirl]

Sorry! We’ve got a few late plants outside at the garden center. Decided not ot cover them—they were fine.

[Neoliberalnot]

I once lived in a house, or rather shack, for a summer and every time it rained we had to put a 1/2 dozen pans and buckets down to catch the drips. The rodents loved it and would occasionally get in bed with me. I have been poor and don’t want to go back.

Salsa goes with chips, tacos, other mexican dishes, and on eggs, but not toast. Are you Kenyan or kiddin?

[Neoliberalnot]

A food processors saves having to hand-cut and dice the tomatoes, green peppers, onions, halapenos, hot banana peppers, and cilantro. Nevertheless, it is a laborious task that no liberal could ever accomplish—too much work.

[who knows what evil?]

Salsa/hot sauce on pizza...

[Neoliberalnot]

I spent 5 days in Jackson a couple of months ago at a meeting. We had lunch every day at the Two Sisters restaurant—the food was very addictive, which is why 3 of us opted to eat there every day. The restaurant is near downtown in an antebellum house. What a great place you live in. Missouri is not bad either. I envy your growing season.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Here is the start of my Square Foot Garden (veggies) that I am starting out fromt. There are 2 boxes -- one 4 x 8 feet, 3 timbers high, and one 2 x 8 feet, 4 timbers high. I need a compost pile, although it is a little late to start one.

The planting mix will be 1/3 Peat, 1/3 Compost, and 1/3 Vermiculite. Both boxes will be divided into 1 ft. squares and planted with various vegetables and edible flowers, herbs, etc. The crops will be rotated as they are havested, although I don't expect to get a full rotation with our short growing season. But it should yield enough to feed my husband and me and some to give away next summer.

These boxes are in an old pasture that I keep mowed. There will be a fence to keep the deer out, eventually. I'm going to rely on other means to fend off the deer (like I do in my rose garden) in the beginning because I really want to make this garden larger, and my husband is not co-operating right now. No sense in blocking my expansion plans with a fence too soon. LOL.

What do you all think? Has anyone here tried Square Foot Gardening?

[Gabz]

Nevertheless, it is a laborious task that no liberal could ever accomplish—too much work.

ROFLMSS!!!!!!

You're right, though about using the food processor. I'll never forget the look on my husband's face (we were just dating then) the first time I made salsa using his recipe. He lived across town and I already had it finished when he got to my place. He expected to show up and help with the chopping. I just laughed and pointed at the food processor. He had never used one.

[Red_Devil 232]

My compost pile is just a free standing pile of grass clippings and leaves. I don't do anything special other than making sure it is damp and turn it regularly.

The cold will slow down the action of your pile and once the weather warms up it will revive. You may need to help it get started in the spring. I use composted manure, about two 40 lb bags, to help it along in the spring.

When you add grass clippings you need to watch it closely becuase the grass will get very hot. I usually mow my lawn and leave about half of the grass clippings on the lawn to dry out for about two days and then pick up the brown grass.

[afraidfortherepublic]

What happened to my picture?

[Happyinmygarden]

I would post a picture of our pumpkins, of which we are very proud, but alas posting pictures is a mystery to me...

This is our first year as serious organic gardeners (my daughter and I) so we are extremely proud of all the veges we enjoyed, particularly our six pumpkins that son-in-law will carve.

Happy autumn to all. (I love this thread, BTW)

And a big thank you to neefer for the tomato seeds which arrived in the mail today! Can’t wait to get them started for spring.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Thanks for the tip. I mow about 6 acres, so I don’t expect to gather all those clippings. But, a few couldn’t hurt.

Are you saying that the hot clippings would catch fire spontaneously?

[Red Badger]

Eat all you want. Just stay downwind...............................

[TNdandelion]

You should try it! The only thing that's hard is the planting part. I had to get used to the idea that not every sprout could be planted and I get attached to the babies. That's mostly the case with things like Foxgloves that have small seeds that I sow pretty heavily. I can end up with hundreds of plants in one container. I just have to cut a chunk of seedlings out and plant them en masse and the strongest will overcome. It just goes against all my instincts not to save every little plant. lol Tomatoes and peppers, etc, I can plant more sparingly and keep all of them.