Posted on 03/22/2013 12:30:03 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. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.
It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread ... there is no telling where it will go and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
I hear you about the tomato hornworm. The first time we saw one on one of our tomato plants we all freaked. NO ONE wanted to touch it. Finally, I drew the short straw and had to pick it off and dispose of it. Good old fashioned nightmare fuel, they are.
My chickens luuuurv hornworms. The hornworms not so much with the luv for chickens.
Today I worked more in my strawberry bed. I thinned the strawberry plants on the end that didn’t get worked last weekend. I’ve probably got an ‘extra’ hundred and fifty strawberry plants now. They’re like Amish Friendship bread. I’m trying to find them some good homes. I will probably end up using a hundred or so of those in another strawberry bed. THEN I have to plant out 25 whopper strawberry plants that have been sitting in a container waiting for another bed to be finished. Also planted out 25 Fort Laramie strawberries (from Parks, they sent 26 good looking plants) into large drinking cups while they wait for their own bed. Hopefully next weekend the temporarily moved plants will get back into their own bed and any leftovers will find good homes.
Tomorrow morning hubby and I will put down the cardboard, topsoil from bags and pine straw mulch over where we’re going to put the new beds. Later on, in a few weeks, we’ll get some black edging to mark them clearly. Sometime toward the end of April I’ll put the new plants in their own beds.
Planted some more trays of sweet peppers yesterday too. Tonight I’ll probably plant some trays of herbs and flowers.
Got my Jungs and Gurneys orders in today. Gurneys was an ‘Anne’ raspberry that went into a large pot. Jungs order was some seeds, 3 horseradish roots and a ‘Barbeque’ rosemary and ‘Hot and Spicy’ oregano. Those got their own big pots. One of my to do lists this spring before the garden starts producing is to prepare my own herb garden.
Still unseasonably cool here today. Does NOT feel like the middle/end of March.
I carry a small red bucket to the garden with me when I tend to the tomatoes. Any hornworms go in the bucket. When my chickens see me coming their way with the bucket it’s a veritable chicken riot.
Have to do something to keep the bed from freezing from the edges inward; not just the top, down.
Saw a news story tonight where libraries across the country are recycling their card catalog cabinets into holders for packets of heirloom veggie seeds.
People “check out” seeds to use in their garden; grow their crops; then replace the seeds with fresh seed from what they grew.
Foilar feeding a little ebson salt mixed with water
If they are ripe and still bitter they might not be getting enough water .
They are pretty easy to grow in self watering containers where you can keep them pretty evenly moist .
Oh... interesting. So it's magnesium they need...
I have a little bit of spider mites stuff, a fungicide/insecticide and of course sevin dust but no BT so putting that on the list. Maybe use the non-organic sevin dust now and then the organic when I get to town. I just don’t go to town that often. It looks like a couple of the bare stem tomatoes are putting out tiny little new leaves so crossing fingers. Bell peppers are goners though.
One of my catz put paid to my first set of jalapeno pepper plants here in the house. Mowed 'em down like a billy goat. If it ain't one thing, it's another.
/johnny
/johnny
1 tsp ebson salt per gallon of water
Foilar feed it when you plant them , when they get blossoms and again when the fruit sets .
You’ll have bushier plants and larger peppers :)
I grow tomatoes and peppers in Earth Boxes, and ALWAYS get great results. I have some unusual/hard to find tomatoes that I would NEVER risk in the crap soil of Red Hampshire. I have also had good results growing bell peppers in 3-gallon pots...you can move them inside in case you get a frosty night before they have finished turning color. Watering from below is key.
You need a taller fence. Some people use cattle panels which are easy to put up and take down. They're 16' long and something like 5' tall. Is that tall enough for him? If not, maybe attach two together (Tractor Tire Supply or a feed store will have them). Maybe a deer fence that's a couple feet taller (there's a metal kind and a plastic mesh which runs about a dollar a foot).
Crazy weather in Central Missouri so far this year. The weather guessers are calling for anywhere from 4” to 10” of snow on Sunday down here in CoMO.
My seed order from Jung’s arrived this week, but I am determined not to rush the planting season this time. The miserable weather we’ve been enjoying lately is augmenting my patience in that regard.
As far as the dill goes, don’t plant it. Pick a spot in the garden where you want to grow it, clean it up but don’t go crazy with that - there’s no need to work the soil much at all, just scratch it up a bit - scatter your seed on the ground in the fall. Around the time you’re setting the garlic is perfect. It will come up the spring when the soil temp is right. Leave a few of the seed heads to ripen on the stalk. It will reseed naturally as long as you leave a few of the seed heads to ripen. Do that and you’ll have dill there every year.
But, considering that last fall has come and gone it’s not too late to sow it in a similar manner this spring. The seed won’t have a chance to get frosted in so you’ll want to do something to keep the heavy rains that are inevitable from washing it away. Scratch up the soil with a heavy rake, toss out the seed, scratch again, then cover it up with a light layer of compost, half an inch at most, and hope you don’t get any toad-strangler rains before it comes up.
LOL! I guess it was good I opted for full disclosure!
I have some relatives with a huge patch of mesquite on their several acres and they have found it difficult to eradicate, so now that they know of its more positive aspects, they still try to keep it under control, but aren’t so discouraged at the impossibility of the task of getting rid of it altogether!
AG said, ...”I’ve tried every tip & trick I could find; and none made a bit of noticeable difference.”...
Thanks for the insight. If YOU have trouble with growing peppers, I can relax and not be emotionally invested in my green pepper plants now....I’ll just view them as science lab experiments, with observation and learning being the object rather than any real expectation of harvest. But if there were to be one, that would be yumacious!
I relate also to the excitement! Last year was much the same for my darlin and me! We started a few seeds last year and had the biggest kick watching them grow during the season.
The mammoth sunflowers were very entertaining. I’d never seen any up close before and they were amazing. I’d just look at them and become unreasonably happy.
“People “check out” seeds to use in their garden; grow their crops; then replace the seeds with fresh seed from what they grew.”
How cool is that?! How do you find out where these libraries are, do you know?
The only such library I know about is Richmond, CA, because that’s the one mentioned on the segment. They did say that several cities around the country, mainly (IIRC) back east, also were doing it.
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