Posted on 06/28/2013 1:01:56 PM PDT by greeneyes
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I know nothing about this, and have no experience with saw dust either.
Roses in potatoes - now that is original.
Glad you are home - now get to that garden and GROW.
I have bought some of the oil, and gave it a try with 1/2 to 2 TBS of the oil in my 24 oz water squirt bottle. I'm wondering if that is the correct ratio, or is it too much or too little? Also, I would like to know how often it needs to be applied. I've also been wondering how hard it is to wash off the spinach or lettuce or some of the other veggies. That is some REALLY nasty tasting stuff!
Amaranth continues to grow. The asparagus came up!!! It is really hard to understand how such a dried up thing could actually produce something green like that! I am really surprised about that. I need to put a little dirt over them a bit. The rain has been doing the watering. I haven't done anything other than dig the hole and put them in there with a lite cover of dirt.
Tomato plants which we bought that had some ‘maters on them have been reddening up a bit. I'm seeing flowers on some of the plants which I started from seed. This is encouraging because I was beginning to think that this was not a year for tomatoes. Darlin’ says I need to squirt blossom set on them.
The red bell pepper plant has a pepper. That's kinda fun.
The cucumbers are going crazy. Darlin and I need to get some kind of support for them to climb on! The cucs and squash plants are all blooming. Haven't looked closely enough to see if they are out of the male homosexual stage yet.
Sunflowers are growing.
Okras are growing, but LOTS of little ants are crawling on them. Do they harm okra, or do they need to be warded off? I squirted them with neem oil, but cant tell if it helped or not.
I have 2 dill sprouts.
Some more lettuce seed sprouted in the pot where the caterpillar had its way. We'll see.
My only sour note is, someone last week mentioned that legumes tend to be easy for beginners. Well, I guess I'm the exception to prove the rule. Few of my legumes seem very happy. Only the black turtle beans seem to be green and growing, but they haven't flowered yet. So who knows??? Maybe they are desperately unhappy too.
The favas, snow peas, great white northern, and cranberry beans are all fading. I have a few sparse pods, but I can see they are not happy. Not sure if the unhappiness has to do with location, wrong soil, or bugs. *sigh* It's discouraging.
I guess, though, that in balance, even with the problems with the legumes, I'm learning. Next year, I'll put the legumes somewhere else. I'll use a better mix of dirt. The really unhappy ones, upon reflection are potted in a soil that I started out with in the spring, and isn't as good as the mix I've been using more recently. In all, I'm probably learning a lot. But I had really hoped for some beans!
Darlin’ was joking around about a trip to a cooler part of the country and I confess it sounds very enticing to just leave it all to the bugs and heat waves.
You say it’s 106 where you are - it was 104 here. How can plants live through that? My story sounds a lot like yours - beans plants dying from being cooked by the heat/sun. Tomatoes are almost gone - at least I have been getting tomatoes up to now.
I will have my act together for something to grow in the fall maybe - but I will have it together, knowing what I’m doing, preparing for early spring next year. I didn’t have the right tools and knowledge before now.
I hope you have better luck for fall.
I’m going to get specialty growing bags for potatoes and other root food and a specialty container(s) for strawberries. I keep searching for ways to do this and can see daylight ahead now.
That’s cool, afraidfortherepublic!
WOW! Good haul!
Well thanks for that little education on MDF. Going to have to keep the eyes open to look for where to get it.
Currently on some Friday AM’s I scour the neighborhoods looking for some bags of recently green mowed lawns for mulch and some for the compost—free nearby nitrogen additions.
A fine Friday night in the garden, soil was a good moisture level for weeding. Forecast rain held off.
Got a nice batch of grass clippings to lay down as mulch tomorrow after I side-dress the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant and corn.
Got a funky volunteer squash - it’s small, but it looks like a cross between a butternut and a patty pan. It will be interesting to see what it looks like in a couple of weeks.
Finally I found an article that says that UT/Knoxville did some experimenting with Medium Density Fiberboard dust on corn, with really good results:
www.epa.gov/oswer/docs/iwg/fiberboard.pdf
· Major findings:
So I'm slowly figuring out how to best use the stuff. I've gone through probably 200 pounds of it already --- and Sam my woodworking friend keeps asking me if I want more! LOL!
You just have to remember to treat it as a high-nitrogen. It's great on corn. I wouldn' want to use any more on my tomatoes, which are already foliage-crazy.
I love free composty mulchy stuff.
Great!. I don’t know why, but growing in containers always seems more desirable. I just like to see all kinds of pots and stuff on the patio with stuff growing in them.
Makes me feel good to see them.
Seriously? My goodness I can’t believe this. I have got to try this out. Hmm. Aren’t roses patented or something like that? I can’t imagine David Austen roses appreciating having their roses so easily propagated like that.
Sorry posting while pissed.
I know, I know...today it is 106 here. Went to the community garden, some of the green peppers will be ready for the Market next Saturday, 6 Jul. Hopefully a whole bunch of small tomatoes will be ready. The squash are just about done for and will be pulled and put in the compost heap. I’m going to put some of the 4 mil plastic over it and see how fast it decomposes.
OH, I have a little friend who is raising red wigglers for her keyhole gardens. They will be going on a 2 week trip in mid July and guess who is going to care for the little things while she and hubby are gone? Yep. They really eat a lot of scraps, so I’m going to ask some of our fast food places if they have coffee grounds, egg shells, salad scaps, for me to pick up for the little critters.
I just finished water a few areas that needed it, and weeded on of the raised beds that needed it, now that the temps are down. We just got a few sprinkles here and lots of clouds, then cleared up just before sundown.
Thanks for the info. Sounds like great stuff.
LOL. No problem. Happens to most of us more and more often these days!
Yikes, the 9 o’clock news is saying several places got up to 107.
The dogs enjoy going out when I go out to the garden. All I have to say is, “it’s time to go to the garden” and they can’t get outside fast enough. This evening when I went out to water, hubby came out a few minutes later to say they told him it was too hot and were already back inside. I hate to think what it’ll be like in August!
Try to keep the bean plants going and they’ll produce again in the fall when it gets cooler.
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