Posted on 05/07/2010 6:30:17 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners! If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. There are many Freepers from all over the Good Ol’ USA that are willing and eager to help.
I thought a little primer on fertilizers might come in handy this time of year especially to those of you just starting out.
What do the numbers mean?
Every bag or container of commercial fertilizer has a three number code that tells you the percentage that that particular fertilizer has of the "Big Three" nutrients used by plants.
The big three nutrients are, in the order listed on the container:
A bag of fertilizer labeled as 13-13-13 will have equal percentages of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium for a total of 39%; the rest is filler.
Ideally a soil test is needed to determine how much of these nutriments your soil needs.
Also the type of vegetables or plants you are growing may require different percentages of these nutriments to grow or produce successfully. Know your plants needs.
And remember small amounts will go a long way. Don't over fertilize. Too much at one time or too often can overwhelm plant systems and cause problems.
My second night in this old wooden barracks - I was assigned to a top bunk and the guy in the lower bunk decided he could not take the USMC any more. He crawled out one of the big old sash windows and went AWOL. Some how he actually made it off of Paris Island (something that everybody will tell you is impossible to do). At 3am in the morning he is hitch hiking down a country road. Guess who picks him up on his way to work?
Our platoon's Sr. Drill Instructor! Gees what bad luck eh?
We were shocked awake at about 3:30 am! Full lights on, loud banging on the metal trash cans and shouts of Get Up! Get Up! The idiot was standing in the middle of the squad bay in his skivies and shaking like a rat! We never saw him again after that.
That day was a very very bad day for the rest of us!
Snakes can’t eat much because they are so small >; (
Heeeeee Heeeeeee! I got a real chuckle out of that!
Pretty!
Wow, SWAMPSNIPER has absolutely gorgeous photos!
Thank you so much for the warm welcome! Anyone else notice that FReep is very addictive?! :)
I love all these different threads, and am looking forward to learning more about gardening (I’ve got my first victory garden, about 6 weeks old). I love cooking, and while I have not trained at a culinary school, people love what I dish up, and are always asking me for my recipes. Thus, my cooking blog, Hot Cookin’ was born. I’d love for you to stop by—let me know what you think! :)
Thank you! It’s so nice to be amongst friends.
I’m not a professional chef; I’m a home chef. I love trying out new variations on classics, new recipes etc. Variety is key when you cook at home a lot. Friends and family are always asking for recipes of dishes I’ve cooked. One thing led to another, and I launched my food blog in January of this year.
Thank you for the ping.
I think that would be a perfect solution to the amount of water you need to grow good melons!
I was picking spinach the other morning and a garter snake scared the bejeebers out of me. I don’t mind snakes, I love how they feel; I just like to know where they ARE at all times, LOL!
Up here, you run across snakes that will bite you once in a great while, but they’re not poisonous.
I don’t miss the swamps of LA, that’s for sure! I was stationed at Camp Beauregard for what felt like a decade, and there were enough big bugs and snakes down there to creep anyone out, outside of the most ardent swamp rat, LOL! I sure did learn to love to eat ‘gator, though. :)
That’s the only part I didn’t like; one screws up, you ALL pay for it.
But, that’s part of the deal. You certainly learn TEAMWORK in a hurry, LOL!
The other part I didn’t like was having to drag the MEN along with me on field marches; they sure did slow me down, LOL!
I’ll second that. Those other fibers all tend to collect (shudder) unwanted ODOR where cotton could be warn (fill in the blank) who knows how long before the dreaded...
Nice deer on your FR page.
Are your chickens in a hen house without being able to roam? If not, they are probably laying “out” somewhere in preparation for setting an hatching. Could just be a coincidence with bringing in new girls. Could be you have a snake eating the eggs. If you suspect that, get glass eggs. The snake will eat the glass eggs and die when he breaks them up in his stomach. Nothing worse than reaching in a dark nest and grabbing a smooth snake skin. been there - freaked out LOL
Well, the rain finally stopped, but it is cold, cold, cold. I guess the clerk at the Garden store gave good advice to wait for the peonies to bloom before planting my tomatoes. Perhaps I’ll just move them to larger pots.
Plan for today (always subject to change on a whim) is to check to see if the rain washed out all the squares that were freshly planted with seed early last week. Then, get my husband to pull his tractor around and yank out the stumps of the arborvitae that bit the dust in the first ice storm last November. That and some work with the tiller will prepare planting space for the 8 blueberries I purchased mail order from Jung’s. Got to get those IN.
Then, if we haven’t frozen to death with that task, it will be time to install the landscape timbers around the bottom of my fence inside and outside keeping grass away from the base of the fence and providing me with extra planting space for flowers and veggies that won’t fit in my major raised beds.
My 12 year old printer at the office blew up on me at 5:30 PM last night and I had to spend $500 for a new one with all the peripherals. The printer was only $300, but I had to buy ink and cables and warranties and toner for another office printer, etc., etc., etc.
I will say that the manager of Office Max took pity on me and gave me every discount — including credit for some out of date discount coupons — that he was able. He even took back the ink that I had recently bought for the now dead printer. I suppose it could have been repaired (ha ha) but it was leaking ink all over the place and I just didn’t want to deal with it anymore. He was very helpful, which they generally are not at Office Max. He was a former member of the Geek Squad from Best Buy and lost his job when they closed their big Milwaukee store where he formerly.
Now back to the stuff I want to deal with — my garden. My, my there were a lot of good tips yesterday. I’ve copied all of them into my Garden Notes. THank you all.
Thank you ... my best buck to date. I drew a combination elk/deer tag in Montana this year and I hope to have a real trophy by the end of September.
But the cottonmouths and copperheads both have nasty dispositions and you don't get much warning or leeway if you encounter those. Rattlers are plentiful too, but you really have to aggravate them for awhile before you're in trouble and I don't do much aggravating.
I have a large oxbow pond that resulted when the Corps of Engineers straightened the bayou back in the 60's. It's proximity to the bayou makes it a natural gator hole, plus it has everything a gator wants in a home. There is a good 14' guy in there and I have duly sworn to put his tail in the freezer one of these years. I'll remember to send you some meat.
They are in a hen house with a fenced yard for them to roam.. It did suddenly dawn on us that we might have a snake, so hubby is in town now getting the glass eggs to put out. Freeper “Alice in Wonderland”, also had mentioned this. Thanks so much.
Yeah it probably is a snake. Amazing how they can clean the eggs up and you never see them.
You are welcome. We had problems with snakes before. The glass eggs do very well.
You have a 14’ gator in your pond? Good thing wildebeest don’t migrate through your property. I know, it’s crocs that normally eat them but... Keep the family pets on a short leash.
Good luck on that elk hunt. Elk and buffalo are some of the best wild game eating IMHO.
My chuck roast will not fit flat on the bottom of the 6 qt. crock but I told her we should keep it. All kinds of possible uses with the three sizes of crocks.
It has a chuck roast in it right now on its way to an seven pm finish. I put four thick slices of onion on the bottom of the crock so the roast would not sag to much. Used your recipe and directions except I had to use a little extra Cabernet Sauvignon (1 cup Heeee Heeeee) and beef stock instead of water. I cut down on the salt as the beef stock is slightly salty.
Will report on how it came out tomorrow!
I have been wondering why Crockpots are now only refered to as Slow Cookers now days?
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