Weekly Gardening Thread – 2010 Vol. 16 May 21

Free Republic | 5-21-2010 | Red_Devil 232

[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. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels from Master Gardener to novice.

If you have a question about gardening or just an observation to share please feel free to stop by and participate. Paraphrasing Freeper fanfan -There are no stupid questions, just honest ones.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"...maybe some ice cream late in the day."

You certainly deserve it after all of your hard work today!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

They dive to the bottom of a lake or river and bury themselves in the mud. Then they hibernate, or ‘brumate.’ Their bodily functions slow down to a heartbeat every few minutes. They do have a spot near their tail which can absorb oxygen from the water around them. They don’t actually ‘breathe’ again until they come up in the spring.

Amazing, ain’t it? ;)

[afraidfortherepublic]

Diana: I’ve never grown stuff from seed before, as you know. I planted about 4 orange cosmos this afternoon that survived my seedling experiments. Each one is about 8 in. tall, single stalk and one bud on top. Should I pinch that back to make them branch out? How far?

What about the tomatoes? I planted 6 today. They are about 9 in. tall, single stem, no side branching yet, but nice sets of leaves. Any pinching required?

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Please post some pictures of your Barn House! I have been in two of them in my life and I would LOVE to live in a converted barn. :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I don’t pinch back the orange cosmos; they are a lot more airy than the other kind. I pinch back the hybrid ones (’Sensation Mix’, Etc.) to make them fuller, though.

Don’t pinch back the tomatoes yet, either. But take off the first set of blooms when they come about. I know. It’s hard. But you don’t want a tomato setting fruit too early in the season; it’s not strong enough to support it yet, and early fruiting is a sign of a ‘stressed out’ tomato plant.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Cute turtle. You may have noticed the pond in the background of my garden photos ... it is full of red-eared sliders, which is largely what the stores used to sell us with a little plastic bowl and the obligatory plastic palm tree that every turtle needs for life to be complete. The females lay eggs all over my yard, and they especially seem to like the damp and shady spots under/behind the shrubs that surround the house. I can't tell you how many little turtles the size of a quarter that I've rescued from inside the garage because they took a premature turn on their way to the pond.

Every time I see a turtle crossing the road, I pull over and carry it to the other side. A very large male snapper was quite rude about the whole thing last Sunday, and all the while I'm trying to tell him that I'm doing him a favor.

[hoosiermama]

I’ll take some this week...or get them ready to post ...in the mean time click on Hoosiermama.... They shrunk, but are still there... (Note to self: fix home page)

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Spooky is a pretty small, slim kitty. She is a garden buddy as well and has learned not to attack and fatally beat the plants, as was her practice early on. Here is a photo I took of her shortly after she arrived last Halloween season, and another picture with her big brother, Bear, whom she loves dearly. Bear was a stray that I found on the side of the road 3 years ago next month.

[hoosiermama]

Watched a tortouse roll a tomatoe across the garden one day...Each time she took a bite it moved. Finally mad it to the fence, pinned it down and ate a good portion...Also caught one eating a strawberry.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Okay, I finally determined that I do not use the bulk uploader on Photobucket ... I just use the Ctrl button to choose multiple pictures for uploading at the same time. It goes fairly quickly, but my computer is new and much faster than my old one. I think I’ll try the bulk uploader and see how that works.

[hoosiermama]

Had a snapper in the big pond a few years ago....Thought he was sticking his head out....BUT when he got into the little gold fish pond realized it was just the “bump” on his snout....He was HUGE! His head was much larger than my hand. Called a neighbor and they had a large pot of soup.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

I always plant my tomato plants very deep ... most of the stem goes underground to grow a strong root system. I also pinch the suckers off until the plant has developed a big, thick and strong stem, then I will let the plant ‘branch out’ a bit.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

I’ve never eaten turtle, which is a real shock considering some of the other critters I’ve cooked. Down here in Louisiana, we joke that if it will crawl up into the yard, we’ll eat it.

[hoosiermama]

Spooky is just a smaller version of Squire Tom. Mine do the mouth thing too...It's a nurturing thing that mama dogs do IIRC. The other evening they were rolling on the carpet, doing the mouthing thing. Tom jumped up, pulled Rascals tail, hid under the couch to look and see if she was following him....They bring such joy!

We keep catnip growing by the front door for Tom...He leaves it alone unless we crush some of it....Then he helps trim it back or rolls in it.

[tubebender]

Let us know when you fix your profile page...

[Nepeta]

What about the tomatoes? I planted 6 today. They are about 9 in. tall, single stem, no side branching yet, but nice sets of leaves. Any pinching required?

There are detailed instructions on tomato pruning online if you want to know how to do it. But I have also found university sites saying that pruning versus no pruning comes out fairly even at the end.

What you should be careful to do is stake or cage your plants so that the fruits are borne off the ground and stay clean. Vigorously, happily growing indeterminant tomato plants will sprawl all over otherwise.

You also need to keep the watering even as possible to reduce cracked fruit.

[Nepeta]

Has anyone here had success in growing culantro from seed?

In wintering over the plants indoors?

[JouleZ]

I use http://www.tinypic.com because it’s free and easy.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Thanks for the pruning tips. I have some kind of twisty new tomato stake (already in) that is supposed to keep them upright. You gently help the tomato to wind its way around the twisted stake. We’ll see how they work, or if I have to quickly add a traditional cage along the way.

[sneakers]

The answer to the mint question is: “Move.”.

And I can handle the “Black Walnut tree” question!

Got two OLD OLD Black Walnuts just 30 feet away from our property line. We’ve had to learn - the hard way - why lots of plants don’t grow around here!