Posted on 05/23/2014 12:40:08 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. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks.
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WOW! Even tho not directed at me, thanks for answering my question about potato hilling with such a lovely picture, tubebender!
We had those in Lower Alabama, too. Not seen one in my backyard here.
Seen 3 different woodpeckers, one quite large, others regular size, like red headed WP. I have an oak tree that the WP’s are killing, pecking a band all the way around it about 3” wide.
My dad was a birder back when they were called bird watchers, but I never learned much about them, but I do have his books, and, strangely enough, he had one on E Texas birds! Since moving to the edge of a huge national forest, and a swamp/creek system, we seen and hear all sorts of birds, especially in spring and migration season.
“Driving skills in Texas are water soluble”.
LOL!
:-D thanks again!
My mom was one of them too, and knew a lot of birds. I only paid passing attention, which I now regret! Have some of her books too!
I sometimes glimpse woodpeckers, but usually I only get to hear them!
Red—I never did buy an inline fertilizer like I told you 3-4yrs ago that I was going to. How’s that for procrastinating? Or is it just being cheep? lol
All—We have Lemon Drop tomatos coming along, a yellow grape tomater that grows in clusters. We have 10 maters on the Early Goliath, a few on Early Girl, which is running late, and nothing yet from 2 varieties of potato leaf tomaters, and I think we have some Brandiwines, too
Sarajevo—I have 3 banana peppers almost ripe, prob a dozen Jalapenos and a load of small hot peppers that I can’t remember the name, prob 25-30 on 1 plant, the peppers are at the top of the plant. When I go back out after break, I will get the name and a picture.
-—Chiltepins-—
Video review here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIvqdKvaAqg
When they get about 8-12 inches I just dump dirt on them. I’ll do this again when they grow another 8-12 inches. I just hill twice. I’m no master gardener, just the granddaughter and daughter of hillbillies lol!
Hello everyone!
The weather here is amazing! We have had a period of lovely cool rain, interspersed with good sunshine. Most of the green babies are doing pretty well, with a few exceptions. Only light watering is required. We had a bumper crop of MAPLE and ELM seeds dropped on every available space this year. Have had to do mega baby tree sprout pulling...with more showing up every day! I found a PECAN sprout in some loose dirt at the edge of the sunflower bed. We surmise that it was planted by a squirrel. Darlin had me put it into a pot for placement elsewhere. So far it is surviving.
FLOWERS
The CREPEMYRTLE which Darlin bought last year has only been a stick. We’ve been concerned that it had died, but within the past few days, it has started budding out. We planted some lily bulbs quite a number of years ago which have NEVER done anything. This year we have several which have some buds and we expect them to bloom soon. The CLEMATIS vines which we established many years ago are gorgeous. The DAY LILLIES which were established when we moved in are growing well. The ROSES are amazing, although we do seem indeed to have lost one bush to the winter. The sprouts of what I hope are more ECHINACEA (purple cone flowers) are getting a little larger. The established Echinacea plants are putting on heads.
LEGUMES
The BUSH BEANS are actually producing! Not sure how big the pods should get before picking. I guess I’ll wait a bit to see how big they do get! The SNOWPEAS are under a tree in the shade, and seem quite happy, with lots of blossoms, and this morning I counted at least 4-5 growing pods. The ASIAN TRELLIS BEANS are a puzzle to me. They have grown well, and are leafing out beautifully, but no blossoms yet, nor are they starting to climb. My markers for the CRANBERRY and BLACK BEANS have disappeared, and I’ve forgotten which is which, but they both seem to be holding on with leaves and a few blossoms.
SQUASH
The T-Squash are growing well, as is the WHITE BUSH SQUASH. I had started several of the white bush squash, but only the one has made it to the garden pot. I mentioned in an earlier thread that I had purchased a couple of those Burpee pre-planted peat cups, one of which was a ZUCCHINI. I had not planned to do any of the conventional squashes because I had such a bad time last year with them, but these were cheap, and I thought they might be a fun experiment. Well, the ZUCCHINI sprouted! I’ll be interested to see if any of these survive!
CUCUMBER
My lone CUCUMBER pot has a small green leafy plant, with already two or three blossoms on it! They were good producers for me last year, so I hope they do well again this year. I was surprised at the early bloom. So we’ll see.
SUNFLOWER/OKRA/WHITE POTATO/AMARANTH bed
The SUNFLOWERS are over a foot tall, and seem to be thriving. Something was chewing on them, and I saw a lot of ants on inspection. I sprayed them with the Garden Safe insecticidal soap solution. I am thinking that the ants were tending their aphid farm. Could that be?
The OKRA are not very big, but still growing slowly. I imagine after it gets really warm here in a bit they will begin to take off. Everyone I planted is still surviving.
The red AMARANTH has been thinned by someone, but still have a good crop remaining. Not sure what got them, but oh well.
The WHITE POTATOES are very happy. There was some discussion upthread about hilling them. Based on comments from goodwithagun and pictures by tubebender, my startlement about the need to hill them were answered. LOL!
SWEET POTATOES
The vines are getting quite happy and winding about in their pot and need dirt. I am concerned that I might need to go into an overflow pot! This morning I was tending the sweet potatoes that I was unable to extricate from their window setting and noticed that they each have put out new runners from the generational bulb. I think that means that if need be, I can cut back the part that has already grown and go with the new vines.
TOMATOES
The three store bought pots all have tomatoes. The CHEROKEE PURPLE has more blossoms along with some new tomatoes on it. The one hybrid and the other heirloom (name escapes me) are also doing well, but no blossoms right now. The grown-from-seed ATKINS are growing well, and about 4-5 inches tall. I had an ATKINS volunteer (misplaced seed in my potting area, most likely!) with one of the squashes which I have not thinned out. I just thought I’d let them grow together for a while. Darlin is not fond of CHERRY tomatoes, so did not plant any this season.
PEPPER
The one hot pepper pot which we bought from a sidewalk vendor has put on two peppers and lots of blossoms. I may be sorry I didn’t try more peppers this year, but oh well.
FLAX/PLANTAIN
I put my FLAX and PLANTAIN seedlings together in one large part. Many of my flax did not survive seedling stage. I have three survivors. I have two plantain survivors, and all of these are doing very well.
BERRIES
The store-bought STRAWBERRIES have been producing. I was able to harvest (and eat!) 4 small berries! YUM! I took some of Darlin’s mulched clippings from some brush and put them around them so the berries would not be in the dirt.
The BLACKBERRIES are still blossoming, but also now forming fruit.
HERBS
Established THYME and OREGANO doing well. The crop of CILANTRO and PARSLEY are also doing well. I had grown a STRAWBERRY SPINACH, and it is NOT thriving. I may lose it, and I’m thinking it may not like the cool wet as much as everyone else. But I could be wrong. If I get energetic, I might try to sprout some more seeds. This was an experiment, and I chose the plant because I thought it would be hardy in drought/heat conditions!
ONIONS/GARLIC
Some of the GARLIC cloves I planted are sprouting. The one WALKING ONION is still surviving, as is the large store-bought GARLIC plant.
YUCCA/ASPARAGUS
Both are out of the way of my usual foot traffic, and so do not get daily attention. Several days ago, I was pleased to see the 3 YUCCA plants which I planted last year are survivors. Out of the 6 ASPARAGUS I planted, I counted at least two ferns have come back.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Darlin has been building an extension of our privacy fence, as the new neighbors chose to cut back the PRIVET HEDGE between the properties.
There is a big thick HOLLY BUSH next to the SUNFLOWER bed. When I have been weeding, I’ve been hearing these strange clicking/beeping sounds. I realized several days ago that it is the nest of a BROWN THRASHER!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_thrasher
I try to limit my time weeding there, but the maple sprouts would take over if I didn’t do it each day. So far the mama sticks around and has not abandoned her baby. I get scolded, but have been careful to keep my back to the bush when I’m the closest to it. It is very endearing. I was reading the article in the link above, and was glad to learn that these will attack humans if they are seriously threatened! I’m glad I’ve been behaving respectfully!
Sorry for the length! I hope all is well with all of you!
LOL! Thanks for that. I had not known to do it twice! You come from good stock!
My okra are making a comeback. I planted a final batch in an old window pot and they are growing fast. I should be able to transplant them in the hoophouse by the end of the month.
FREE SLAVE LABOR! I now have two huge Miracle Grow Potting Soil bags, each weighing 70 lbs., under the outside roof. Now, I can transplant all those many tomato plants. While we were dealing with those bags, he got a text from someone asking how it was going. He wrote back, “Slave labor with benefits.” He now knows what an Egyptian Walking Onion is and tasted a Stevia leaf, saw the T squash, and the Deck Corn.
We had a very nice time. I can't say much here as I found out he has two male friends who read on FR and I don't know if they post and/or read posts. I told him if they identify me as the person he came to see, there are two possibilities:
1. They will have read some of my posts and tell him he is a lucky man to know me. Or,
2. They will have read some of my posts and tell him to stay away from that witch.
I checked the garden a short while ago, and have a pepper growing on the Fooled Me Pepper and the pepper growing on the Hot Pepper Mix is getting large quickly. I have numerous tomatoes now on all four different type tomato plants. More cucumbers have started to grow. Of the three blackberry plants in containers, one has grown really large red blackberries. Another one has small berries that I hope keep getting bigger.
FOUR MANDARIN ORANGES ARE GROWING ON THE DWARF ORANGE TREE. Those four little green balls are now bigger than they were so they are actual oranges.
/johnny
I might plant more later. 5 was the number I was at when my watch alarm went off, saying it was time to go pick up my mother :)
Well, I am much relieved that you have checked in, and are okay.
I had a big seven item slave labor list for my gunsmith, and he completed all of them but one which I just completed myself...That was fixing the leaky spigot on my rain barrel.
He also cheated on putting air in the tires on my garden cart. He just went and bought me a new garden cart.
I have picked five T squash this week, btw. They are really going to town.
Oh, dear Lord! Good to see you, M!
Ants are becoming a problem with the potatoes in the ground.
I'm pretty sure I'll be doing the compost cage potatoes next year 100%.
/johnny
When did you plant your potatoes? Something is eating the foliage on my potatoes, but I never see anything on them. Whatever it is, it's not eating my tomato foliage or my asparagus, just the potatoes. I put out sluggo as whatever is eating them must be eating the foliage at night.Sluggo didn't stop whatever is eating them.
I planted my potatoes in late February, IIRC, and last week when I peeked. I saw one red potato the size of a bb. argggh.
I dug up some of my ginger root the other day, and got a hadful of ants..not little black ants. These looked more like fire ants, but they didn't bite me..They had a ginormous ant nursery I disturbed.
We had over an inch of rain today. It looks like it's raining up your way right now.
Welcome back!
I had problems with the foliage looking bad and yellowing. I'm going to blame some of that on the ants. There were ants everywhere. I'm going to open that entire row up and disturb them so they move somewhere else.
/johnny
Please post a picture of the ring that the free slave labor gave you, he did give you a ring didn’t he? A minimum of 2kt is required.
If he didn’t I had better examine his checkbook and financial portfolio before this gains any more traction.
Does he possess any mechanical ability, I mean, does he know which end of a screwdriver to hold? Can he operate a Skil saw? Does he know how to load a truck so the load doesn’t fall out into the road? He does have a fine truck, right?
Just looking out for my FReeping sister.
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