Weekly Gardening Thread – 2010 (Vol. 41) November 12

Free Republic | 11-12-2010 | Red_Devil 232

[Red_Devil 232]

Good morning gardeners. Hope all of you and your winter gardens are doing well. Nothing but perfect Autumn weather here in Mississippi. We may be getting some needed rain the first part of this coming week.

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.

[DollyCali]

good morning everyone. It has been great here for fall clean up (and there is plenty here on the homestead)

I have a question. This year I bought my first solar landscaping lights. About 18. I live in NE Ohio. Rough winters, lots of snow from Lake Effect.

Should I bring those inside for winter? What do you do with them? take apart? remove batteries etc.

I want to have them last as long as possible so want to winterize the correct way

thanks..

d

[DollyCali]

BTW.. that is a clever & attractive opening graphic

[stefanbatory]

I’ll need to find some more buckets, then...thanks for the tip! Where I grew up, we only had to worry about iron and sulphur in the water...

[cornelis]

Cat litter in the compost. Did I read that right?

[Melian]

SoCal has had a few days of warm winds. I love the wind, so I am happy, but most people here dread the “Santa Ana winds.” We had one casualty: a small potted ficus tree blew over and the pot broke.

I read an article about a gardener who advocates not getting too attached to your plants. Rather than nursing the sickly, poor-performers along; she advocated pulling them up immediately and trying something else. She is constantly plugging in new plants in areas that need it and it forces her to try plants she normally would not have tried.

My first thoughts were that this is an expensive idea and it seemed wasteful to throw away a living plant. But as I look around my yard and see the poor-performers, I wonder. It IS very frustrating every time I look at the plants to see the ones that aren’t doing well. Perhaps I would enjoy my yard even more if I just yanked those out and started over.

[Red_Devil 232]

Thanks I like it too.

[tubebender]

Reporting from the sunny beaches mud flats of Humboldt Bay Cal I fell that I have morphed into a Banana Slug as the weather has been lovely but nothing is getting done. The compost piles are still cooking at a 100 - 120 degrees but I had to put some Decon under the plywood covers to eliminate the rats and mice that had setup house keeping. The Oats and Bell Beans look beautiful and my Domestic Engineer says the Gardening Threads have reinvigorated me.

Our Ten day forecast...

[Thermalseeker]

Where I grew up, we only had to worry about iron and sulphur in the water...

A close friend of mine grew up south of Charleston, SC. He tells a story of when he was in grade school and the teacher was discussing basic molecules. The subject of water came up. She described water as a colorless, odorless liquid. My buddy raised his hand and said "Not where I live!"......

[who knows what evil?]

Sooooo...who will be the FIRST on the ‘garden list’ to receive a 2011 Seed Catalog..? That ‘first sighting’ will help me get thru the cruel northern winter. :-)

[LomanBill]

I moved one of my potted squash plants indoors before the freeze... just to, well, see what happens.

The plant is healthy and producing flowers; but the flowers just shrivel up and fall off.

Anybody have ideas for indoor pollination of winter squash?

[Red_Devil 232]

You could leave your lights out all winter but they may not provide the lighting times you are used to during the summer. Winter - shorter (Charging time) days and longer (lamp on time) nights. Are they LED lamps and are the batteries NI Cads? LED lamps and NiCad batteries are typically what are used in the newer models.

Nothing wrong with storing them over the winter - good time to check for corrosion on connectors and such.

[tubebender]

Are there there any little squash visible between the vine and the blossom? If there is you need to hand pollinate that blossom with a male? blossom with a artist paint brush or just cut a fruitless blossom off and rub it lightly into the blossom with the fruit...

[Red_Devil 232]

I have used a small artists round china # 0 brush in the past to help my watermelons along. Q-tip will work but I prefer the brush.

[RnMomof7]

Why I need a water barrow !

thanks

[tubebender]

Here is a excellent youtube video... Geterdone

[Black Agnes]

Already got my T&M catalog. Couple weeks ago, in fact. Got Gurneys this past week.

[tubebender]

Fridays Fish Dinner for the entire town of Crescent City Ca...

[Free Vulcan]

Put the garden to bed this week and greased and sharpened the tools.

We’ve had 70’s all week here in Iowa. Record low is -2.

[greeneyes]

Good morning RD, thanks for the thread. Nice day here in Missouri. Current temp is 57 degrees on the way to 74 and expected low of 52. Not as sunny as it has been. Still no rain. Forecast is for scattered showers today. Perennials are very thirsty, and the rain barrels are empty.

Winter wheat is beautiful and green as Spring. Carrots, onions, and lettuce planted in mid fall in bed #1, are doing well. Bed #2 is almost totally finished. I picked the last Iroquois melon yesterday.

One Sugar baby melon is left and it looks like it might be done too, but I am waiting for Hubby to check it out and give his opinion. It is only a little larger than a softball, so it may not even be very good.

I have pulled most of the plantings and added to the compost heap. There are still 3 Cherry tomato plants with almost ripe tomatoes to go.

So far, the indoor garden is doing well. Tiny Tim tomato has several flowers and 2 green tomatoes, and getting bigger than I anticipated. Herbs and citrus tree still looking good.

Have a great weekend everyone. God Bless.

[MtnClimber]

Harvested 4 tomatoes yesterday from the plants I have indoors in containers. Low last night was 16F.