Posted on 01/24/2008 10:53:49 AM PST by Gabz
Howdy folks!!!
I originally planned to wait until tomorrow (Friday) to get this going, but it is such a damp, dreary, plain old yucky day here on Virginia's Eastern Shore I decided to do it now --dreaming of spring, so to speak!
One of the major topics that seemed to arise last week dealt with "zones" and how even people living in the same "zone" will have different growing conditions based upon location. Also because we are all so spread out the different zones do matter when it comes to planting times and plants.
GardenGirl and Diana in Wisconsin are among our resident experts, but I am sure they are not the only ones and so we would all like to hear from others both amateur and professional, food growers and flower gardeners, folks that deal with trees and shrubs, I hope you get the idea!
Exchanging ideas and getting help on garden problems weere among the reasons for starting this thread, and I would like to expand on that and ask you all to help me come up with ideas of specific topics we can delve into.
Let's have fun --- and wish for spring!!!!!!
Pine straw is not very good for compost, at least here. They add a lot of acid to the soil, which we don’t need, and they take a long time to decompose. If you’re soil is not too acidic, try adding some and see what happens.
We carry a product that helps put good bacteria back into your compost. The name escapes me right now. Might try adding some of that. It will also help it breakdown faster.
Also landscape materials centers such as a Sand and Gravel companies...out West its Pioneer Sand Company or try DeWitt fabric or Landmaster polyspun fabric online....
Wow, I didn’t know there was an FR Gardening Thread. Pretty neat. I’ve been a long-time lurker, but just joined FR the beginning of this month, so I’ve got a lot to learn.
I’ve only been gardening for two years, but have really fallen in love with it.
One subject some might find interesting is Winter Sowing, especially if you’ve got the urge to play in the dirt in the middle of winter. It could be a bit of a controversial topic, but I tried it for the first time last year, and it worked for me. This site explains how to make plastic containers into mini greenhouses, and set them outside in the winter:
The containers may not be the most aesthetically pleasing, but it’s a fun winter project for antsy gardeners.
There are also FAQs and a message board on this site:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/wtrsow/
I think I will keep the pine straw out. If you remember the name of that product please let me know.
We got a couple beagle puppies at the end of summer last year. I’ve been having problems with them digging as well. I have a raised garden bed, and planted some fall veggies there. Unfortunately, they ran through the garden playing and dug it up, and nothing survived. They also dug up some of my flowers. It is frustrating.
I may try making them their own dig spot in spring and see if that helps. Supposedly wooden spikes stuck in the ground keep them from messing with things. If nothing else, a fence around my garden might be my best bet. It won’t help with ornamentals, but at least my veggies would make it.
I got the plants from the Amish guy on the farm next to me. He said would kick butt with them.
I got a load of mixture from the local race track and skunked them all. And I have no idea what I was doing. Never did it before. Can't wait to try it again this year but will expand into some new stuff. Not sure what yet.
BTW, that stuff from the race trace is great. I found over a dozen horse shoes in it. I was told that almost all race tracks have someone that makes this mix. It's a matter of finding out who is selling it. Don't even ask me what's in it.
I’ll find out when (if-grin) I go back to work and let you know.
I no longer feel like someone’s using my face for batting practice, but now my chest feels like there’s an elephant sitting on it. I don’t take much of anything and now I’ve got some heavyduty antibiotics, something else and cough syrup with codeine in it.
I have read that Septic tank bacteria supplement will work and is cheaper but I just sprinkle a couple of shovels-full of good garden soil over the pile as JA Rodale wrote in his early Organic Gardening books to add active bacteria.
Fire ants are a problem here also, how much lime do you put on the compost? And thanks for the info on the figs. I do not have any to start from cuttings so will have to get them from a gardening supply. I have been thinking about Celestial or Black Jack or both. I am in East Central Miss. and figs are grown here.
What a nice thread on such a cold blustery day!
Could anyone suggest a place (online or catalog) to get gourd seeds?
I’d like to grow some with the kids - they are always such fun. The “exotic” type of gourds are what I am looking for - the long necks, loofahs, bushels, etc.
Thank you!
Thanks to you both! This is so much better than politics right now!
What a nice break from the debates and politics. Thanks.
This site has a lot of neat heirloom seeds:
http://rareseeds.com/seeds/Gourds
http://rareseeds.com/seeds/Squash-Winter
Thanks! It is chilly here and had been raining all week, but the sun came out late today.
Well, thank you for taking the time to look at them!
"The only thing I would do is cover the plastic with straw."
Great suggestion ... and I intend to this year. The fabric that I used was heavy enough to be used for more than one year but, unfortunately, since I didn't cover it the sun broke it down pretty badly (in addition to the foot traffic). I have access to pine straw which I could collect and we always have hay for livestock. I know that hay is a no-no because of the weed seeds ... but do you think it would be okay since the fabric would keep the seeds from reaching the soil and germinating? (probably not) I could get regular straw with not much expense though.
LOL! Guess I need to run grammar check in addition to spell check. My bad. ;-)
Thanks!
Thank you so much for providing the information on figs. I have wanted to plant some new trees near one of my pastures, but wasn’t sure how to go about it.
Absolutely! I did check locally and the stuff was really expensive. The fabric that I used last year came from Sam's Club ... they had a 250' roll for $35.00 and it was at least twice as thick as the stuff they had at Home Depot. Recently I received a mail order catalog that has large rolls of the fabric, and the prices seemed much more reasonable than the garden center was offering.
"We always lose cukes in the fall here to mildew and blight and pickle worms. I’ve tried everything. Any ideas?"
I had some worms in my cukes 2 years ago, but I don't know what kind. This past year, I sprayed a neem oil mixture every 7-10 days and had zero insect problems. Neem oil is supposed to be a fungicide, miticide and insecticide. I was very pleased with the results and it is not nearly as toxic as other control measures. For some reason I feel that growing them vertically also helped with insect pressure.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.