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This is the 4th year for the current location of the garden.   ((Helper Dog is Helping  )) 
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Jun 1, 2013 02:47
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So jealous of you guys with normal shaped gardens. All I've got is a planter about a foot wide and pretty long, maybe 20 feet. I guess the one perk I have is living in Southern California so just about year round gardening is possible. Though the heat killed one of my parsley plants that was in the sun all day. Planted another parsley at the bottom of the picture where it only gets sun until about 1pm and it's growing like crazy.
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Jun 1, 2013 03:07
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Are those chives? If so what variety are they? My mom has been looking for those big fuckoff chives since we saw them in a garden at Fort Louisbourg in Nova Scotia.
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Jun 1, 2013 03:57
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Wow those are fuckin' awesome. I've never had great luck with chives, I dunno what I'm doing wrong. Oh well.
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Jun 1, 2013 04:28
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They're just common chive and not garlic chive or something else. It takes a couple years for them to establish and start being bigger like that. I planted mine a few years ago and they're just starting to look like that.
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Jun 1, 2013 12:33
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Marchegiana posted:Are those chives? If so what variety are they? My mom has been looking for those big fuckoff chives since we saw them in a garden at Fort Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. Yes, they are chives. They are a perennial here in Oklahoma. I think I picked them up at the country store here one year.
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Jun 1, 2013 19:40
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See that's the thing is my chives have been established for 4 years now and only get about 12-15 inches tall and their flowers aren't nearly as purple. More of a pale lilac color. That's why I was wondering if you had a different variety- my mom's chives seem to be just like mine (smaller, paler) and we've been trying to find ones that look like yours because they're a lot prettier.
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Jun 1, 2013 20:39
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Marchegiana posted:See that's the thing is my chives have been established for 4 years now and only get about 12-15 inches tall and their flowers aren't nearly as purple. More of a pale lilac color. That's why I was wondering if you had a different variety- my mom's chives seem to be just like mine (smaller, paler) and we've been trying to find ones that look like yours because they're a lot prettier. How is the soil condition? That would be my guess about that. Also, put in my experimental peppers today, hope they turn out to be something. The ones I bought the seed for are going on the deck, where it gets hotter than the back yard, I think they'll like that.
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Jun 1, 2013 20:48
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Soil is fine, slightly acid and gets plenty of well-cooked compost every spring. Cursory poking around on Google though seems to indicate there's a cultivar of chives called "Forescate" that are probably what I'm looking for. If I can just find someplace in the US that actually sells them then I can really surprise my mom next spring.
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Jun 1, 2013 20:57
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My completely loving nuts Chinese mother-in-law said she had some cucumber starts left over from their garden. My wife brought them home today and I swear to god there's at least 90 of them. I'm almost tempted to just plant each bucket around the swing set and grow a gigantic tentacle monster that shits cucumbers.
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Jun 1, 2013 21:12
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mischief posted:My completely loving nuts Chinese mother-in-law said she had some cucumber starts left over from their garden. My wife brought them home today and I swear to god there's at least 90 of them. I'm almost tempted to just plant each bucket around the swing set and grow a gigantic tentacle monster that shits cucumbers. How many did they plant!!!!
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Jun 1, 2013 21:31
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 "Left over" plants. They're extremely prolific gardeners but drat that's a lot of cucumbers. The really annoying part is she refuses to grow market cucumbers, only little Chinese pickling cucumbers, so if you don't pick them the day they grow they just balloon into a yellow ball of water and regret. Dammit Grandma.
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Jun 1, 2013 22:50
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AxeBreaker posted:God drat, I have harvested almost a gallon of small tomatoes this week. Unfortunately, not all of the small tomatoes were supposed to be small, just 95%. The Juliets and Stupices are production monsters. Abu rawan and homestead are producing undersize right now. The black cherry's are the right size and delicious, but the Juliets are crowding them out. Do you have any flowers to attract the bees with? The bees are having their own issues right now due to Monsanto and Bayer's new pesticides. We may have to learn to do their job for them.
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Jun 2, 2013 00:44
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Teka posted:Do you have any flowers to attract the bees with? The bees are having their own issues right now due to Monsanto and Bayer's new pesticides. We may have to learn to do their job for them. Yeah, reading the bee keeping thread recently is not happy. One hive seems to be have been wiped out recently by pesticides, most likely Round-Up.  I'm thinking of getting those bee houses from Lee Valley, This one. Every little bit helps.
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Jun 2, 2013 00:55
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mischief posted:
Just so you know, cucumbers don't transplant easily. They don't like their roots disturbed so you can't really break them off and plant them around. Normally when you start cucumbers from seeds you do it in a pot that you can plant directly into the ground or that can easily be pulled away without disturbing the roots.
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Jun 2, 2013 02:48
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SpannerX posted:Yeah, reading the bee keeping thread recently is not happy. One hive seems to be have been wiped out recently by pesticides, most likely Round-Up. What matters is what the bees pollinate, not where they live. If they visit an area that has been sprayed with the pesticide, they will die.
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Jun 2, 2013 06:06
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Well, yeah, that's true. What I've been hearing is that Monsanto plants are an issue as well. With a 3+ mile range for honey bees, that's a big area. Luckily around here all pesticides are banned. I was watching the Nature of Things a few years back about bees, and what they've found is that in the cities they've been doing better, more diversity of flowers, and pesticide bans have helped them.
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Jun 2, 2013 14:03
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My cucumbers and squash aren't growing. I planted cucumbers, squash, and pole beans from seed, and two tomato transplants on 5/12. I planted an asparagus bed on 5/19 The pole beans have taken off, I've had to prune them to prevent overcrowding, one or two have even started climbing the tomato cage trellis The tomatoes have both grown quite a bit and have taken root, and I've seen a flower or two. The asparagus have sprouted, some have started to fern out, they just need a lil more topsoil and compost and they are done for the year. However, both the cukes and squash haven't seemed to do anything. I'm not sure if I've done something wrong, or if with all the rain we've gotten that they have been flooded or rotted out. I am in the midwest and have been dealing with way above average rainfall this year, if that helps.
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Jun 2, 2013 16:30
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Alterian posted:Just so you know, cucumbers don't transplant easily. They don't like their roots disturbed so you can't really break them off and plant them around. Normally when you start cucumbers from seeds you do it in a pot that you can plant directly into the ground or that can easily be pulled away without disturbing the roots. I usually sow them directly with no problem, she was just loving adamantly determined that I do something with these things. I ended up just plunking the contents of one of the pots into a vacant row of the garden and tying up a fan shaped kind of trellis over it. We'll see what happens I guess. Now I just need to give away the other two pots. mischief fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Jun 2, 2013 |
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Jun 2, 2013 22:40
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Polish_Persuasion posted:Where do you live and/or how long has your plant been alive? Sometimes i destest living in the midwest due to our short growing season The very oldest ones, which are also the earliest varieties (52 days or so), were planted during the second and third weeks of March. I live in Las Vegas, but planting that early was still a bit of a gamble, about a month later is a safer bet. Luckily, we had a very warm March forecast so I planted instead of potting up. I mostly got done planting tomatoes in April, but I planted one straggler a couple weeks ago. Re: Bees, Round-up is an herbicide, does it really kill bees?
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Jun 3, 2013 02:24
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I seriously doubt that Round-up kills bees. There's definitely been a decline in bee populations over the past decade, though. But it seems like the culprit is neonicotinoid insecticides, which were recently banned in the EU, but I believe are still allowed in the US and Canada. SpannerX, do you have any links to the claims that GE plants themselves are harmful to bees?
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Jun 3, 2013 06:01
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Here's one: http://www.globalresearch.ca/death-of-the-bees-genetically-modified-crops-and-the-decline-of-bee-colonies-in-north-america/25950 Here's another one, from Der Spiegel: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/collapsing-colonies-are-gm-crops-killing-bees-a-473166.html
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Jun 3, 2013 10:41
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dangittj posted:My cucumbers and squash aren't growing. I've had no luck transplanting squash, zucchini or cucumbers. Even when they don't die they never get very big. I just direct sow them because they grow so quickly anyway.
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Jun 3, 2013 17:05
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SpannerX posted:Here's one: http://www.globalresearch.ca/death-of-the-bees-genetically-modified-crops-and-the-decline-of-bee-colonies-in-north-america/25950 Hmm ... that first article is a barely readable word salad of misquotes and obviously misunderstood terms taken badly out of context. It seems to be trying to argue that terminator gene technology is responsible, which, apart from being unlikely due to the absence of a mechanism by which it might affect bees, is also basically impossible, since the technology was never deployed commercially. The pictures of sick bees they show are taken from this preliminary and since unpublished report, but seem to have been taken completely out of context. Interestingly, that study actually points at neonicotinoids, and says nothing about GE crops. The study mentioned that second (Der Spiegel) article suggesting that pollen from Bt corn might increase bee susceptibility to some bacterial diseases at least sounds vaguely plausible. But I couldn't find any peer-reviewed publication actually reporting those results, just a whole lot of press releases. In fact, the only original publication on the study seems to be a self-published final project report, in German. So, I remain sceptical on that one. Personally I'm willing to entertain the notion that GE crops might be partly responsible for the bee deaths, if someone can come up with some solid science to demonstrate that, but I think there are plenty of more likely factors in conventional agriculture (like pesticides known to affect bees or the use of monocultures).
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Jun 3, 2013 18:10
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They've done some research at my university regarding the bee deaths (press release + abstract): http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2012/120111KrupkeBees.html It would seem that the talc off of the treated seeds (containing the pesticides) is at least a factor in the hive decline. You can also check out some of the department's other bee related academic & extension service publications at http://extension.entm.purdue.edu/beehive/publications.html
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Jun 3, 2013 19:23
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ChaoticSeven posted:I've had no luck transplanting squash, zucchini or cucumbers. Even when they don't die they never get very big. I just direct sow them because they grow so quickly anyway. I've had luck with it, but you can't start them too far in advance. Two weeks seems good enough to give them a jump start. Plant them in a deep pot though (3-4"), not one of those small seedling trays.
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Jun 3, 2013 19:46
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I'm not saying that I 100% blame GE GMO G whatever for bee deaths, and I know Monoculture is a huge factor in their deaths (like I said in my previous post about how bees are thriving in cities, hell there are apiaries all over Paris). But it wouldn't surprise me one bit that we find out that it is a major factor in it down the road. Hell, I'm just a layman that likes to plant things in his backyard that is concerned with the state of bees. Is that so wrong? 
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Jun 3, 2013 20:08
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My allotment doesn't seem to be going very well yet The beans are being absolutely RUINED by slugs as soon as they spring up. There are half a dozen sad stalk remnants and about one that still has two tiny ragged leaves. I don't want to use chemical pesticides and I've heard beer traps aren't that effective. I have a fairly large site and only about 15% is dug over so I have a TON of wild plants growing providing food and places for fuckers to hide. The parsnips, carrots and onions don't even seem to have sprouted, or if they have are coming so slowly and sparsely that I can't tell them apart from the weeds. The only things that seem to be going well are the potatoes, which are now showing leaves, and the caliuflowers which are about an inch or so high and coming up nice and dense. I'll thin those soon, perhaps add in another bed to take some of the thinnings so I get a nice big crop. The weather is warm and sunny currently so I'm hoping for fast growth until the spell breaks. My solace is I did start quite late, only got the site in early April and wasn't able to really start till a bit later even than that as I had to dig in completely new beds and had a lot of work on so mot much time for gardening. Next year I want to try starting off a lot of things indoors and only planting them out once they're big enough to be able to cope with the attentions of hungry gastropods. Maybe try to get the soil fertility up once the compost heap from this years clearing is more mature. Also the TON of weeds I'm getting are mostly sprouting from root fragments left over from the initial clearing so as I get those out the job should get easier, right? Hopefully next season we should have more bees, I'm in the UK so the neonic ban will be in effect by then and we had a MONSTROUSLY wet spring last year which apparently hurt hive establishment in a big way for wild bees, as well as a very late spring this year which I imagine means colonies are still small. Fortunately my site seems reasonably attractive to the few bees that ARE around as it's a riot of wildflowers in the uncultivated areas so I'm hoping the peas, fruit bushes and strawberries I want to get in will be OK and will set good fruit. Anyway I have some time off at the moment so I'll be aiming for a new bed every day or two for the next week and get some of my salad veg in (gotta give the slugs some variety after all) quote:Hell, I'm just a layman that likes to plant things in his backyard that is concerned with the state of bees. Is that so wrong? Not wrong, but frustrating when people trust gut feeling and poorly written and improperly sourced press articles over and above the best research available. The EU ban will act as a large experiment to see if the neonics are a major factor, and there is good reason to think they are indeed having a serious effect in even sublethal doses. GM COULD well be a factor, but so far there's no particular reason to think that it is at this point other than general discomfort with GM and distrust of biotech companies. Further research and all that, we certainly shouldn't ignore it as a possibility but there are so many more convincing targets at the moment based on the best science available. Fatkraken fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Jun 3, 2013 |
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Jun 3, 2013 20:22
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Fatkraken posted:My allotment doesn't seem to be going very well yet Slugs. My nemesis. I hate them. At first I was sad to hurt them, but they ate enough tomatoes that I got very angry. A mix of ammonia and water sprayed directly on the jerks is the only thing that works for me. I do about a 1:9 mix of ammonia to water. I go out at dusk and spray them to death. It doesn't take much and it is gross, but I was able to eat tomatoes without surprise slug holes in them last year. Good luck.
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Jun 3, 2013 20:35
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HungryMedusa posted:Slugs. My nemesis. I hate them. Maybe I'll just pick them off by hand and dump them on the other side of the river so they can't find their way back
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Jun 3, 2013 20:45
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Beer traps work pretty well actually. You can also dump coffee grounds all around the beans, and spray regular strength coffee on the ground surrounding them. Caffeine kills slugs right around the same concentration found in coffee. Most plants aren't harmed by it either. Best to test before direct application to a plant though. That's what I've done around my broccoli and cabbage, now caterpillars have moved in on them and the torrential rain drat near killed them too. Ordered some BT for the worms.
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Jun 3, 2013 21:00
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SpannerX posted:Hell, I'm just a layman that likes to plant things in his backyard that is concerned with the state of bees. Is that so wrong? Not at all, at least with the provisio that Fatkraken provided.  Phew, that went over much better than the time I dared to speak out in defence of organic agriculture in the "uneducated pseudoscience" thread. And yes, all of us with gardens should definitely be doing all we can to try and support bees.
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Jun 3, 2013 21:09
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Fatkraken posted:Maybe I'll just pick them off by hand and dump them on the other side of the river so they can't find their way back Good luck with that! You might as well hand drop them into a bottle of Old English, that would be painless and they won't be coming back.
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Jun 3, 2013 21:12
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Just make sure to use Budweiser , apparently slugs like it the best.
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Jun 3, 2013 21:34
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ChaoticSeven posted:I've had no luck transplanting squash, zucchini or cucumbers. Even when they don't die they never get very big. I just direct sow them because they grow so quickly anyway. That's exactly what I read and did. I planted squash and cukes from seed over three weeks ago. The squash sprouted a few tiny leafs and basically stopped, the cucumbers didn't do anything. Planted 3+ weeks ago. Do I need to start over and replant from seed and hope we don't have the monsoon's we've had in the past month, should I try to fertilize and get the seeds to come up, or is it too late for this year and just pack it in for next year?
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Jun 3, 2013 21:37
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SpannerX posted:Here's one: http://www.globalresearch.ca/death-of-the-bees-genetically-modified-crops-and-the-decline-of-bee-colonies-in-north-america/25950 They're cranks. You shouldn't cite them as a source. SpannerX posted:Here's another one, from Der Spiegel: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/collapsing-colonies-are-gm-crops-killing-bees-a-473166.html On the other hand, there have been studies (e.g. this peer-reviewed paper) which find no link.
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Jun 3, 2013 21:58
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Welp, looks like there is no link according to that. Most of the time I'm pretty good about digging deeper into issues like this, but this one seems plausible, so I guess I jumped on it too quick.
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Jun 3, 2013 22:18
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SpannerX posted:Welp, looks like there is no link according to that. Most of the time I'm pretty good about digging deeper into issues like this, but this one seems plausible, so I guess I jumped on it too quick. Anyway, bees are cool. I had a swarm hanging out in a tree in my backyard a couple days ago:  I just moved and I'm still working on setting up a garden and so on, or I would've considered trying to get an apiary and transfer them to it. But I really didn't come here to talk about bees. Just set up the first (hopefully of many) raised bed planters in the backyard:  That's about half peppers, with some basil, Italian parsley, and a couple kinds of cucumber. Not pictured is the okra and is going in the ground soon. I'm planning on leaving some space since it's so late and use it for fall planting. Anyone have experience with potato/multiplier onions? Planning on putting in several, some for immediate consumption and some to keep for subsequent planting. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of information about them out there, and most of it is geared toward `conventional' growing, instead of the high density raised bed growing I'm planning on doing.
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Jun 3, 2013 22:33
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I have never tried it, but a gardening blog I follow posted an article about onion & shallot sets a while back http://www.yougrowgirl.com/2013/04/17/all-about-planting-onion-and-shallot-sets/
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Jun 4, 2013 00:53
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| # ? May 30, 2024 21:11 |
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it starts...   
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Jun 4, 2013 01:15
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