Posted on 06/06/2014 12:39:39 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.
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Oh, and as a heads-up to the garden thread - last year I planted my seed potatoes with bone meal sprinkled around them. The next morning, they were all dug up. Seems like bone meal is like doggie crack. Held off this year until the plants were more established.
I always spaded the bonemeal in when I used it?
It’s been raining here. Real Rain, not a fizzly shower. Hope you’re getting some of the wet stuff, too.
Of my two whole cucuzzi plants, one has reached the top of a cattle panel, and it had three flowers today, which I am sure the rain has knocked off by now.
The flowers are delicate white ones. Quite different from the ginormous showy yeloow flowers on the Tromboncino plants.
I can’t wait for blooms on the Trombetta di Albenga and the Cucuzza! The Cucuzza is doing well - the shade cabana worked just great and it’s growing and adding leaves. I flipped the ‘roof’ of the cabana up so it now gets more than morning sun, but left the seed sack up to block the strong afternoon sun. In a couple more days, I think the whole thing can come down, in which case the Cucuzza will have access to the wire and should be big enough to climb.
The Trombettas are growing at least a foot every couple of days - it’s incredible to watch them!
That storm line that you had is just getting close to us. Yesterday, we had 1” in about 15-20 minutes. I’ll take every inch we can get.
I should have known that when I had my truck washed, it would bring rain asap. :)
I won't now but I thought of putting up a partial picket fence on the front corner; I suppose plastic is the way to go now for me even though I much prefer real wood. Anyway, I like the ones that can't think of the word, scalloped, start higher at one post then gently dip and climb again to the next post and so on.
If you are going to be doing seed, you will keep getting new ideas. Look up winter sowing. It is a great way to start seeds to transplant in the spring. The ones that germinate, I just plop in the ground in what they call HOS (hunk of seeds). It works great. I have started in sunroom and hardened off, also have a trick for starting where I want them to grow in very dry ground.
If you post some pictures, please ping me.
I hope it comes true but a man showed up at my front door yesterday who lives on the nicest street around here. He offered to mow everything for me (said the plants will start over) and deal with the last rose that is too much for me. He insisted he won't charge me and it's a one-time thing which is fine with me. I hope it works out. He was going to try to get a helper to bundle rose canes (I've done that, back can't take it for more than a few minutes).
Anyway, I would be happy to pay for somebody to haul it all to the landfill and pay the fee (or if it isn't that much, fill more yard bags and get stickers).
I managed to get one horrible rose all cut up, ended up filling 3 bags full so put stickers on them and set them out. So what do I get as a reward for all my efforts? Poison something. Skin rash. It could be a lot of a tall plant with corn like leaves and tassles and hollow stem I cut tons of that up. Or I had a raspberry volunteer among the mess I worked through yesterday. There was a piece crossing the sidewalk and I whacked it.
Raspberries don't send out flimsy runners like that so maybe it was poison ivy. The raspberry has little thorns but the creeping part didn't seem to so I think it was poison ivy. I was looking for something to put on it. I did wash it well with soap when I came in, but it was too late.
What I said is pokeweed isn't. Similar in height but the seed heads are different. The leaves look like big ruffly corn leaves, have no idea what that stuff is. Don't what to take the time to get a photo and try to get an id as I've cut most of it out now.
Good luck with your garden plans. It gives a little sense of euphoria. A lot of my efforts were rewarded but I do not have what it takes to maintain it all and the weed problem is just too much here.
I'm getting some grass b gone from amazon but do not feel like mixing more Roundup if I don't have to. It's mainly good for bigger jobs. Spot treating with it is too tricky and tedious. And cleaning my sprayer, I need to rinse very well and be careful where I dump the rinse water.
Now, we have the humidity to contend with.
I did that same thing last week to a lady whose yard needed mowing. My mower had worked fine the day before, then when I started mowing hers. it kept dying. Put a new air filter, and spark plug on it, then it worked..But, of course by then it was 93 degrees outside, and her weeds were about 18 inches tall, so I had to finish it the next day.
Her daughter drove by, and asked who I was..blah blah, blah, How did I know her Mom.
I just told her I saw her Mom picking up sticks in the yard, the day before, and I stopped and told her I was going to mow her lawn because it needed doing, aand I'd give her the name of the lawn guy who does front and back for 20 bucks for the next time it needs mowing.
The Mom was obviously cognitively impaired as she thought she'd just moved in this past January. She moved in January 2012. She also kept asking me the same things over and over.
I planted my Tromboncino because I thought it wasn't affected by Squash Vine Borers. Well, even though the plant stem is solid, and not hollow, the leaf stems are hollow..
Anyway, I saw some frisse, or whatever you call it on one of my Tromboncino squash..and cut the stem open..I stuck a tweezer in there, and pulled out a fat maggoty SVB larvae. He had hollowed out the solid stem, and the plant was suffering Then I noticed other "signs" of the little (insert profanity here) on the plant, Some of them had already exited the stem.. hole on both sides. Well, I mainly managed to mangle the plant.
I know JRandom suggested bacillus therengensis injected into the stem, but I am paranoid about accidentally poking myself with a BT filled syringe.
BTW, I found what I assume are brown eggs not just at the base, but also on some of the leaf stems higher up. I also think one of my cucuzzi might have gotten hit, but it doesn't seem as affected as the one Tromboncino.. I can put sticky tape on them, but i am afraid I will catch a bee, and I love bees.
One of my neighbors has one of those scalloped fences. Last year he had lots of flowers, but this year, it's all grass.
In my Donkey Dreams, I'd have something like this:
Oh no! I’ll have to keep a sharp eye on my plants for borer signs. I planted the TdiA’s & Cucuzza thinking they were not affected (or ‘as’ affected) by squash bugs - so far so good. I was worried about the deer munching on them, but the leaves seem to be a little “fuzzy” and deer don’t like ‘texture’ so maybe they’ll be ok. The neighbor had a predator call going for coyotes the other day - I’m wondering if he saw coyote sign or was just playing with a new toy. If the coyotes are back (last summer we had a pack of ‘em) the deer will be scarce.
One of my Trombettas has been lurking on the ground and this morning when I went out to check on things, I think it had grown about 8 inches more out to the side (in one day!). I grabbed it to see if I could get it on the fence and the whole things sort of unfolded into a very long plant! I got one of my handy dandy bungee cords and bungeed it up and to the fence. It should grab on in a day or so and be a climber - it was loaded with climbing tendrils.
The cucuzza has added yet another leaf plus a couple of tendrils and is looking for something to climb. We’re 90+ today & the rest of the week until Saturday so I’m still leaving up the “shade” bag until the weekend. By that time, the cucuzza should be big enough to grab the fence and “fee fi fo fum” style climbing should begin!
Exactly. The other day I even saw the reddish wings of an SVB moth, but it was flying so fast I didn't know that's what it was. I saw a guy on youtube, with his "had survived borers six weeks" zucchini plant, and he said he just scraped away the friss, and shot insectisidal soap into the hole on the plant.
I have to laugh at myself as the high hopes of Spring make way for the buggy reality of Summer.
I have a flower bed under our side porch with begonias, impatiens and elephant ears and looking so good now. Covered it all in mulch to conserve water. Problem is I have little mushrooms growing around. Easy to pull out but what will keep them from growing other than that. Also have to figure out how to get Mama Boogie (the cat) from pooping there. Soooo many other beds in the sunny areas that have mulch but does she use those? noooo just the one in the shade.
We got about 15 minutes of soft rain Monday morning but that did the trick for the pot of ginger I had replanted. There was a lot of lightening which supposedly helps plants grow. This morning when I went out to re-replant with some newly bought roots, there were happy little sprouts coming up in the container so instead, I’m treating myself to some ginger tea.
I hope you can make your dream come true.
At my Mom and Pop nursery the owner said to mix 2 Tablespoons baking soda with one gallon of water, and spray it on them, or water them with it. I also heard some people just sprinkle baking soda on the ground, and water it in. Good Luck.
We are getting ours yesterday and today. Probably got another 1000 gallons in the swimming pool. Filled up all the empty rain barrels too.
I see that St. Louis had some flash flooding today.
I think I heard on the history channel that there were 12 million serving during the war. After the war was over, there were some 1 million who stayed in service.
It blows the mind to think of it all.
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