Posted on 09/20/2013 12:16:53 PM PDT by greeneyes
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly 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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Springtime, I plant basil and cilantro in full sun. If I think of more, I'll add to the list.
/johnny
Woo hoo!! Makes sense they would like a richer soil, ours has good drainage but has been heavily composted and is very rich. Now that you have them going I would leave them grow until they have their own seed heads. The seed heads will just get bigger over time and I like to peel the bigger ones and use like shallots. Nummers!
Well, there are several methods.
1. Hubby sets up chicken wire forming a circle toward the back of the property on the utility easement area of the lot.
He piles it full of leaves and what ever else happens to be available-like stalks of wheat after he harvests them for the wheat seeds. We have a big patch of volunteer polk greens that he tosses in at the end of summer.
2. There’s a garbage bag method. Where you put a bunch of leaves in a garbage bag, and poke a lot of holes in it, and then let it sit from fall till the next spring for leaf mulch.
3. I have a plastic composter that looks like a garbage can with a swinging lid. It has lots of air circulation though. I put all the kitchen stuff in there along with leaves and shredded paper. It is a pain to turn though.
You have to take the bottomless can off, and seperate the compost from the decomposing. It does have a sliding door at the bottom which allows access to the completed compost in an easier fashion.
4. I have some drain tiles about 1x1 and 2 feet tall. I dug a little trench and set the tiles a few inches into the ground, threw in some twigs, and then added some kitchen stuff peels etc. covered with leaves and topped off with the dirt I removed before setting the tile.
These can be placed side by side, and you can plant some flowers on top, so they are neat, and kinda look like planters grouped together.
5. When I was a kid, people used to just dig a hole in the ground, put some stuff in it, and then cover it over. Kinda like a garbage grave. They were careful to remove the top sod to add on top, so that there wasn’t a bare spot.
Next week, they would dig another little patch next to it. This also was usually in the back yard next to the property line.
6. It is possible to use a raised bed, just incorporate the leftover crop like corn stalks, toss on some coffee grounds and leaves even cover it with some cardboard to keep it looking neat. Till it under in the spring.
7. There are several worm composting methods that can be used in the house. They have several stackable boxes that are used and as the worms digest the stuff on top, in falls through into the bottom, and you get worm castings and liquid nutrient.
Several of these models claim they are ok for having in the kitchen-I would relegate them to an unused corner of the basement if I had one. IIRC, Gardens Alive sells a worm composter.
If you do a web search, there is all kinds of stuff about how to do compost. You can make it as complicated as you want.LOL
Chives and Basil have done well for me in very shaded areas. I haven’t really tried much else in the shade.
Google Images is what I use for things I don’t recognize. Putting in the right descriptors can be tricky or frustrating. Been at this for decades, so have had many gardening books, magazines, & pamphlets; and seen many fair or forum collections, displays that show the common pests and some of the good guys for so many years that they are embedded in memory.
Same with weeds, some of which I know are alternate hosts to pest bugs i.e. buffalo burr, a horrid pest itself, is an alternate host to potato beetles.
Compare several photos, and check the source, as some are misidentified i.e. one “ladybug pupa” that was “attached” to a leaf was really a potato beetle larva exuding clear waste while eating. If the photo comes from an Extension or an ag school, or from a recognized nature group you know it’s right.
When I see something new, unless it is clearly doing damage, I let it be until I get back to the computer.
When all else fails, off to County Weed & Pest office with a sample. If they don’t know, they send it to a state entomologist in Rapid City to ID.
Another GOOD source is the huge Ortho problem-solver book (don’t recall what it’s called, except Ortho is prominent on the cover) that is often chained to a shelf in garden centers. Bug problems; weed problems; disease problems, etc, all with lots of photos; it’s naturally aimed at selling an Ortho product to ‘solve’ the problem. It’s almost the size of an unabridged dictionary.
Thank you for telling us about the Triple Sweet Corn. We love corn, so I’ll be planting my Kandy Korn and Triple Sweets in the pasture.
I agree.
Is the Boot Camp sort of a prep for the extensions’ Master Gardener cert? I know what you mean—baby ladybugs are scary-looking.
Even if there is a media blackout, the truckers’ absence will be felt.
4. I have some drain tiles about 1x1 and 2 feet tall. I dug a little trench and set the tiles a few inches into the ground, threw in some twigs, and then added some kitchen stuff peels etc. covered with leaves and topped off with the dirt I removed before setting the tile.I like these ideas; the one I quoted made me smile... Thanks a lot. Right now, I just have a dug hole with the garbage in it and it's starting to mound, but I hadn't placed anything on top except an upside down rubbermaid container with holes in it. I wasn't sure how to be non-offensive to the neighbors (they are just a few feet away), and still be able to compost without spending a small fortune (on those plastic turning composters). Your commentary answers this!
These can be placed side by side, and you can plant some flowers on top, so they are neat, and kinda look like planters grouped together.
Oops—just read further. Please excuse.
Oregano, cilantro grow in full sun.
Rosemary, thyme, oregano are perennial or not? Any others that are perennial?
Do any of you grow any more in shade or grow any more in sun?
Do you know more that are perennial than I listed?
Here’s my problem - I didn’t know about growing so I’ve had to learn from scratch and I’ve gone through veggies fairly well but I don’t know yet about herbs. I have a book coming to tell me how they work for health conditions, but I need to know where and how to grow them.
I appreciate any answers you can give me about the above questions.
OH horrors of horrors, you murderer you. Those poor little
larvae. I’ve done the same thing. Now if I can find a way
to rid the squash bugs, during squash season.
I LOVE daikon!...I have the daikon seeds, but have not had the courage to try planting them yet.We purchased daikon seeds (because all others were sold out). I'm happy to hear they are tasty; our seeds were planted some seven days ago, and are peaking out of the soil.... They look healthy but I'm wondering if we dug deeply enough for their fruit. We'll see... :)
Yes, and they are darn hard to start from seed, in my experience. It may be worthwhile to find some potted and transplant them.
/johnny
I have a plastic garbage can that I use for composting kitchen scraps, coffee/tea grounds, straw and another place in the back yard for leaves, tree trimmings, etc.
A friend is using red wigglers in her keyhole garden. I give her our watermelon trimmings and she says her wigglers “just love watermelon”. She’s so funny.
You be real careful, now, ya hear? I have a friend who is also accident prone, and I keep her at the top of my prayer
list.
Daikons are great with a little salt and a martini in the evening. There are other ways to eat them...but raw is my fave.
So far, there are no squash moths/bugs on the Tromboncino Squash in the container and it’s over 5 ft. tall. Not one insect has been near it. It is supposed to be not popular with bugs/insects/months. Greeneyes told me she thought the moths would find the plant on the deck but none did and that’s either because it wasn’t in the ground or because the months/insects don’t like it or a combination of both.
The two regular squash I planted in the ground were killed by the moth/borers. I could see that method won’t work. I’m not going to fight a losing battle with bugs on and in the ground - that is their battlefield. I changed the battlefield to my deck and the enemies are still in the ground. I can move stuff but they are stuck in the ground.
If I had a large amount of ground then I would have to do battle to take that land for myself but I would have help if I had that much land.
Regardless of anything, if I planted in the ground, I would plant the Tromboncino Squash and probably have actual squash growing rather than dead plants by the insects.
What are onion pods?
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