WEEKLY GARDEN THREAD VOLUME 42, OCTOBER 18, 2013

Free Republic | October 18, 2013 | greeneyes

[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!

NOTE: This is a once a week ping list. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest are welcomed, so feel free to post them at any time.

[cripplecreek]

The word my grandmother uses for that kind of fruit is “Peculiar”.

[Marcella]

“I feel like I've been to a museum.”

It isn't a museum, the museum is inside the house - I've often said my downstairs is a cultural museum. I've been to many countries and collected pieces and after a time, they got to be a lot.

I have a townhouse - the only way to the garden, is through the house and out the front door. I had to buy smaller bags of potting soil mix so I could carry them through the house to the garden.

The squash has a number of flowers to still open and then, hopefully, there will be squash.

The composter does roll around on rollers under it.

I need more containers before spring.

[Marcella]

“Looks great Johnny. In a couple of years they will be busting the sides off that bed. :))”

Johnny posted pictures of my walking onions. You can’t see them, but the back section of that planter has walking onions in it, too. If you could tell, there is green netting over all that area as the squirrels were after those onions and did hurt the ones in the back part of the planter but they are still alive.

[Marcella]

“My walking onions look MUCH better than that.”

I’m lucky mine are still alive. That is the first place a squirrel jumps into the garden. He (or they) was/were breaking down the green tops.

[Ladysforest]

Upstate NY - so yes, we get cold. We’ve had a very moderate fall so far, that is supposed to change next week. We usually have our first snow at the end of Oct.

We have these yucky roof overhangs on the house that prevent real light from getting in. I have only been able to keep three plants alive in here - and those look sickly. I may try the pepper plant under a grow light system my hubby wants to set up in the basement. Couldn’t hurt!

I actually had a dream last week that I went out to the garden and found all of the pepper plants had grown nice peppers overnight. :)

[MomwithHope]

With a good start like that you’ll be able to afford to let the squirrels have some. I have a patch that has been going at least 15 years. Some get almost as big as a leek. Nice garden and love the doggie. I have a 9 year old 3/4 maltese 1/4 yorkie. Yogi. He has great hearing too. Good watchdog and eats only 2/3 cup of food a day.

[tubebender]

What GREAT idea for the old umbrella!!!

[Marcella]

Since I had the old umbrella, the total cost for the net room was $25 dollars for the net with the zipper opening. I don’t have to worry about what the squirrels are destroying now. The rest of the plants not in the net room have net over them, too, but it’s hard to keep the net from touching the plants. I’ll move more of them into the net room to prevent that.

I have to get some deck cleaner and clean that deck.

[Free Vulcan]

Wow, what a busy year! It's been months since I've been able to make a garden thread, and after fighting wet and cold till late June, was able to get finally get everything planted. Then the rounds of weeding, staking fencing, etc., then everything started coming on. Been putting stuff up since mid-August.

Not going to post any more photos till I get a camera as I don't like the NSA getting my GPS metadata as to where the garden is and what is planted in it, in the event of food confiscation in a collapse. But I do have one pic I want to share of my ripe Datil peppers.

This is the rarest pepper in the world, hard to get seed, takes alot of heat and long growing season for them to get ripe. Supposedly only able to be grown in the Ft. Lauderdale Florida area. It is however, not wise to tell an Iowa country boy what he can and cannot grow. Started these in early Februrary and took the pic October 1. Have to admit I'm pretty leased with the results.

[ApplegateRanch]

The last 5, or maybe six--so many stems and side shoots, it was hard to tell--German Butterball potatoes came out yesterday: 35 pounds, including some true whoppers.

Today, 2 Brussels sprouts that had been lodged by last week's storm had to come out, as the tops were starting to yellow. Look pretty decent, both to size & number of sprouts on the ~30" stems.

Also today, I finally got my garlic planted. It's only about 30, but until I get the knack of actually growing some bulbs worth harvesting, that's all I sacrificing to Mother Gaea.

Leeks are still going strong; we're only taking out what we need for immediate use...such as today, when I used one, plus a bunch of Egyptian walking onion bulblets and some of our coriander seeds, to make a chicken rabbit korma for dinner.

Still drying & threshing sunflowers. So far, we've got an 18 gallon tote full of dried seeds, and have about 1 1/4 gunny sacks of seed heads to go. Should end up with close to 25 gallons,

The weather this year has really put me behind schedule, and it is still too wet to do the Fall tilling.

[ApplegateRanch]

Photobucket is the easiest of all: there's a "post to the Web" box on the right side of each picture, with 4 choices of format. Just left (no need to right click) click on the "HTML" choice, and it automatically copies the full coding needed into your Clipboard. Then just right click & Paste in the FR message box, and you're good to go. For more than one, hit the , rinse and repeat as necessary.

[ApplegateRanch]

Don’t waste time on seed, since you want to reproduce that fruit; they won’t come true.

Either take hardwood cuttings, and root them; or buy some rootstock; check with your Extension Service for which one(s) are recommended for your area, and the size tree(s) you want, and graft onto them.

If you don’t know how to graft, a Master Gardener in your area can either show you, or point you to someone who can...and may even do it for you.

[ApplegateRanch]

In Oregon, we had an apple tree by our right-of-way fence that had obviously came from a tossed apple core. It had 5 or 6 main stems emerging from a common point, and each of those trunks produced a different type of apple. A couple of them were too sour to use for anything except hog food, so they were sacrificed for the greater good of the remainder.

[greeneyes]

Wow. That’s neat. Where there’s a will, there’s a way is what I always say. You did it!

[greeneyes]

We are having un predicted rain tonight. I actually have 2 sunflower blossums. All the others were chewed up or died. If I get any seeds, I’ll have to plant them next year, in honor of their tenacious ability to survive.LOL

Going to try to get the garlic going this weekend. I have so many bunches this year, I’ll be planting what I bought as well as some of the ones I harvested.

Probably give the kids some braided bunches to go with the pickles and green beans I canned at Christmas.

[greeneyes]

‘ogjid’gjero;gjdo’gjdr’gI”SDoidrpobh’

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That’s how much sense it all makes to me. LOL I am hopelessly techno challenged. And even when I figure some thing out, I can’t remember it long enough to do it.LOL

[ApplegateRanch]

Winter rye is an annual 2’-4’ tall grain; annual rye is a lawn grass that usually winter-kills; but perennial ryegrass, also a lawn grass, is usually a mistake. They are not the same at all.

For a mulch/green manure, winter rye is turned under while still green, in the spring before the seed heads form, having survived & even grown over winter. Or, you can harvest it as grain to keep it from reseeding, but then only the stubble gets tilled in.

The annual is sown late season, and dies over the winter, then is tilled under in the Spring.

Perennial rye grass can be a real nuisance if you don’t want a lawn where the garden used to be, but does have its uses; most gardening books I’ve read advise against it in most circumstances.

This is from Cornell on cover crops, and is specific to New York: http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/factsheets/ecogardening/impsoilcov.html (HIGH “ease of incorporation” means easy; LOW means HARD.)

[ApplegateRanch]

LOL! It took me over a year to figure out why when I cut & pasted image codes they worked; but when I typed them manually, they wouldn’t. I kept typing “img scr” instead of “img src”.

[greeneyes]

LOL. At least you finally figured it out.

[greeneyes]

Well, I took a sheet of plastic and draped it over a metal bar that I have at the back of one of my raised beds. Overlapped the sides. I am hoping that will warm them up enough to make it a while longer.

Cold frame will work for a while, maybe put a 100 watt bulb in there to help keep it warm at night? Might make it last a little longer.

As soon as we get notice of a frost warning, I will cut off all the tomato limbs that still have green tomatoes and/or floweres, and stick them in a big pot of soil, after taking the leaves off the bottom part.

It’ll make roots at every joint, so I try to get as long a stem as I can. If it is flexible enough, I wind it around the pot a couple of times. The fruit continues to mature, and the flowers make fruit with a little help pollinating them.

Some of the stems die off, but some generally make enough roots to keep growing and producing through winter, albeit slow growth. Those peppers can be dug up and brought into the house too.

My indoor winter garden is in front of a patio door that faces southwest. I also have a full spectrum grow light that I use when the days are cloudy and for a few hours when the days are really short.

If you have a window somewhere, you might want to experiment with these and/or some herbs.