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I have a love/hate relationship with mint myself. I don't eat/drink mint in very many things at all so it mainly goes unused, but it rocks HARD at deterring pretty much anything alive whether it's a plant, animal, or insect. I never personally planted any as 2-5 little plants were already in an otherwise dead flowerbed when we bought our house in 2010. Since then it's spread into an area about 10 feet wide taking up pretty much the entire bricked in bed. This works out perfectly though, because try as it may to grow out of that bed, the second it hops over that brick it gets mowed or weed-eated into oblivion...and then you get the awesome side effect of mint smell in the air! We have so much and it grows so tall I'll take sprigs and throw them near entrances or obvious places bugs would travel and it does a hell of a job and deterring the bastards.
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Apr 29, 2014 16:37
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Cimber posted:How do they smell when growing? I like the smell of hops when I homebrew, so i can imagine growing them would smell nice. I haven't noticed any particular smells. The good smelly stuff is buried deep in the flower cones that don't even appear until later in the season. PS - I have the worst time keeping mint alive. I put it in a pot outside where it gets rained on and ignore it. And it dies. The chocolate mint is pretty much gone. The persian mint is hanging on somehow. I've failed at peppermint and spearmint in the past.
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Apr 29, 2014 16:45
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Rodent breeder/gardener here, mice and rats actually love fresh mint and might not even really be repelled by stiff concentrates so good luck with that and enjoy your forest of mint in a few months. Peppermint is a particular favorite for the mice. Also, dude with lots of plants in three tiny pots, upgrade for sure; your plants are going to be really stunted and not produce at all, especially those strawberries. I snapped a few photos of a couple of things going on in my yard. My own few mints: chocolate mint, pineapple mint, lemon balm, all making a comeback from last year. I think the spearmint and apple mint might be sprouting, too, but no pics of those.  My first red strawberry! Should be pickable real soon with many more to follow judging by the blossoms. I think they are happy to be out of the tiny boxes I grew them in last year. The blueberry bush in the center is in full bloom, very fragrant, and attracts bees and hummingbirds in droves.  I've started my herb garden but still have lots to put in. So far French tarragon, sage, a dead rosemary, flowering horseradish, ginger that may not grow, calendula, colossal garlic, rhubarb, garlic chives, golden oregano, dill, thyme, cilantro, parsley, and a bunch I am forgetting.  Two tiny lonely sprouting tendergreen improved green bean bushes. There is a tiny broccoli sprout in the back corner of the photo.  I'm not very good at weeding. These are mesclun mix greens (baby lettuces/kales) that I use as salads. Behind them are beans but they got eaten up by something so I will try peas instead soon. Moon and Stars watermelon will spring out on the far side of the bed.  Onion sets and broccoli are coming up nice.  Sweet peas on the fence, lots of weeds, and watermelon radishes.  Bonus shot of some cuttings I got from one of my jobs that I am sending out to some goons. Orchid cactus, passion flower, lots of aloes, succulents, maternity plants, hoya, ric rac orchid cactus, apropo? cactus, and lots of others. 
Pardalis fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Apr 29, 2014 |
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Apr 29, 2014 18:23
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Lacrosse posted:No, but that's not a bad idea for the extra pot I'm going to have very soon. That fencing is about 4.5 feet high, is that enough? I also have an entire backyard full of 3' tall chainlink I wanted to grow some hummingbird-attracting vines on. Bush vs. pole just refers to the way the plant grows - i.e. whether it's a small, self-contained bush or a long vine that will take over the lattice. The type of bean is a separate issue, at least for green beans, and many varieties (Blue Lake, Kentucky Wonder, etc.) come in both pole and bush habits. I grew those two varieties last year, and they grew up my 6 foot poles, and started working on the mulberry tree next to them. I'm not sure what happens if you try to train them to 4 or 5 feet, but it can't hurt to try. You can check the back of the seed packets to see if they have recommendations for a minimum height of the supports (or look around online, and see if they can be pruned or something). I'm not sure why you'd want to put them in pots - can't you just plant them in the ground at the base of the lattice? You might want to add some compost or something, but beans have grown pretty well for me even in mediocre soil. One benefit of pole beans over bush beans is that, over the course of the season, you'll probably get more beans per seed planted than with bush beans. So, if you can only put a few plants in that corner spot, the pole bean plants will grow bigger (vertically), and probably give you more beans total. They also are supposed to produce more consistently over the season, whereas bush beans produce a lot for a few weeks, then peter out. In either case, the challenge is to keep them picked. They are copious and can be hard (but fun) to find among the leaves. The ones you lose track of and don't pick until the seeds really start to bulge don't taste as good. Two comments on the varieties: 1) If you don't like green beans, that's fine, but if all you've ever had is frozen or canned beans, you might be surprised at how much better fresh beans taste. It's almost as remarkable of a difference as store bought tomatoes vs homegrown. 2) I don't know much about kidney beans, chick peas, or the like, but the information on how to grow them shouldn't be hard to find, and maybe one of those will only grow a few feet high. You may need to dry those when you pick them (or let them dry on the vine before picking?) - is that something you want to bother with?
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Apr 29, 2014 18:43
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Pardalis posted:Rodent breeder/gardener here, mice and rats actually love fresh mint and might not even really be repelled by stiff concentrates so good luck with that and enjoy your forest of mint in a few months. Peppermint is a particular favorite for the mice. You're the only person I've ever heard say this and it runs contrary to almost everything I've read about it but now I'm all confused 
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Apr 29, 2014 19:35
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So it's raining, raining, raining for the next few days, and I'm worried about my tarragon/cilantro. I secured the windowboxes they're growing in to the deck rails so I can't really bring them in (I'm going to revise my means of securing for the next round, I think). Which is in greater danger, and would putting some sort of tarpy thing over either help any?
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Apr 29, 2014 19:55
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I've killed like a hundred mint plants, I wish I could get it to live. I would love to have a forest of mint.
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Apr 29, 2014 19:59
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Peristalsis posted:They are copious and can be hard (but fun) to find among the leaves. The ones you lose track of and don't pick until the seeds really start to bulge don't taste as good. Peristalsis posted:1) If you don't like green beans, that's fine, but if all you've ever had is frozen or canned beans, you might be surprised at how much better fresh beans taste. It's almost as remarkable of a difference as store bought tomatoes vs homegrown.
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Apr 29, 2014 21:37
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Cimber posted:How do they smell when growing? I like the smell of hops when I homebrew, so i can imagine growing them would smell nice. They don't smell all that much unless you crush up some flowers. But maybe that's just because last year's production was so meager.
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Apr 29, 2014 22:43
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SubG posted:One solution to this is to grow long beans/yardlong beans. They're a different genus than green beans, but their culinary uses are essentially identical (about the only thing you can't do with a long bean that you can with a green bean is serve them whole). The pods are usually harvested when they're between 12" and 18", but they'll keep going until they're over two feet long. The seeds develop fairly slowly, so there's less worry about letting them stay too long on the vine. That's an excellent point. I think the yardlong bean vines I grew a couple of years ago didn't grow as tall as my other pole beans last year, either (though they may have wanted to, and were stunted by the weather or their trellis). And I thought they tasted quite good.
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Apr 29, 2014 23:43
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Peristalsis posted:That's an excellent point. I think the yardlong bean vines I grew a couple of years ago didn't grow as tall as my other pole beans last year, either (though they may have wanted to, and were stunted by the weather or their trellis). And I thought they tasted quite good. I'm growing some yardlong beans on an arbor this year that gives them about 8' of room. I did some last year on a ghetto trellis and they went to 8 to 10' easy, but no further. One author recommends pinching off the leader early so they spread out more. Personally, I've noticed that they really like to vine up vertical elements (poles, strings) and basically ignore horizontal ones. Just some food for thought. That, and I used cheap Ferry Morse seed last year and it didn't perform as well as I'm told long beans do in the desert.
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Apr 30, 2014 00:00
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AxeBreaker posted:I'm growing some yardlong beans on an arbor this year that gives them about 8' of room. I did some last year on a ghetto trellis and they went to 8 to 10' easy, but no further. One author recommends pinching off the leader early so they spread out more. Personally, I've noticed that they really like to vine up vertical elements (poles, strings) and basically ignore horizontal ones. Just some food for thought.
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Apr 30, 2014 00:39
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Hummingbirds posted:I've killed like a hundred mint plants, I wish I could get it to live. I would love to have a forest of mint. You could probably parlay this into a quite profitable business by offering your mint-"care" services to people with mint infestations.
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Apr 30, 2014 00:51
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SubG posted:I'm trying to get my long beans to go up an inclined trellis so they'll shade some lettuces as the get bigger through the season. They're not quite tall enough yet to see if they're going to be happy about that. They'll go up anything they can twine around, they don't care about the angle. My setup is kind of a ghetto string arbor with a 90 degree overhang. That way they get their 8 feet to grow and I don't have to get a ladder when they get tall.
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Apr 30, 2014 05:50
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Pretty sure the rains/flooding+cold temps DC is getting are going to wash away my carrots and onions and stunt the tomatoes/peppers I transplanted hard. So much for the early planting gamble  Not a huge loss as I have backup seedlings going strong, but still. Blah.
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Apr 30, 2014 14:08
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Fart Car '97 posted:Pretty sure the rains/flooding+cold temps DC is getting are going to wash away my carrots and onions and stunt the tomatoes/peppers I transplanted hard. So much for the early planting gamble You too? This rain is making me nuts, not just because I'm worried about my babby herbs but because I work in a restaurant with patio seating  I discovered Gingko Gardens over near eastern market the other weekend; what a cool store.
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Apr 30, 2014 14:41
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Trebuchet King posted:You too? This rain is making me nuts, not just because I'm worried about my babby herbs but because I work in a restaurant with patio seating D.C. Gardening  That place rules, it's the only proper garden store within city limits. I was there last weekend too  I guess I'll be heading back over there this weekend to pick up some replacement seedlings.What restaurant?
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Apr 30, 2014 15:07
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Fart Car '97 posted:Pretty sure the rains/flooding+cold temps DC is getting are going to wash away my carrots and onions and stunt the tomatoes/peppers I transplanted hard. So much for the early planting gamble Same for Boston. Saw a 10 day forecast well into early may of temps trending from 50 only upwards so decided to plant everything except squash, zuchinni and cucumbers this past sunday. The past 2 days have been colder than the two weeks before them... fuckers.
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Apr 30, 2014 15:21
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Shifty Pony posted:You could probably parlay this into a quite profitable business by offering your mint-"care" services to people with mint infestations. Seriously. We had mint escape our herb garden once. Now the only management for it is mowing. It's taken over an entire side yard, but smells better than grass when mowed, and stays green most of the year so...eh...
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Apr 30, 2014 16:56
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I wouldn't mind having mint instead of a lawn. At least mint is useful and smells nice. Grass requires a lot of maintenance just to turn brown, plus I'm in California with our super mega drought. There's actually a little patch of what looks like mint growing in the grass strip between the curb and sidewalk in front of our house; maybe it will spread and take over. Not sure how it got there, but the roommates and I are rooting for it. Meanwhile, of course, the mint I bought at the hardware store and potted up is looking awful and I can't tell what it needs. 
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Apr 30, 2014 19:19
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Breaky posted:Saw a 10 day forecast well into early may of temps trending from 50 only upwards so decided to plant everything except squash, zuchinni and cucumbers this past sunday. Trebuchet King posted:You too? This rain is making me nuts You guys are so lucky, I'm burning up here in California, 85°F :-( I'm hoping this heat drys the soil out fast, so my tomatoes that I over-watered will recover.
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Apr 30, 2014 20:59
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Breaky posted:Same for Boston. There was snow falling while I was driving to work on Tuesday... 
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Apr 30, 2014 21:34
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Mizufusion posted:I wouldn't mind having mint instead of a lawn. At least mint is useful and smells nice. Grass requires a lot of maintenance just to turn brown, plus I'm in California with our super mega drought. There's actually a little patch of what looks like mint growing in the grass strip between the curb and sidewalk in front of our house; maybe it will spread and take over. Not sure how it got there, but the roommates and I are rooting for it. I had a friend growing up whose entire backyard was different types of mint instead of grass. It smelled great.
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Apr 30, 2014 22:10
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Fart Car '97 posted:D.C. Gardening I'm at Mr. Henry's for a bit. Fozzy The Bear posted:You guys are so lucky, I'm burning up here in California, 85°F :-( Burning up at 85? Jesus, and I thought all the stories I'd heard about California weather were exaggerated. Once mid-summer hits we'll be rocking 95+, not to mention the humidity. That reminds me, I need to bother my yarded cohort about setting up for/getting baby blueberry bushes.
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May 1, 2014 00:14
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Got some work done yesterday and today, moved my beds back to the spot they were in two years back (even if I cut down the tree covering the other spot, it would still be less sun and a shorter growing season in that spot). 3.5 yards of the same dirt I've purchased the last two years, and then I added in another .5 yards of really nicely aged steer manure compost and mixed it into each bed (on top, I don't have space or man hours available to mix it by hand and then move it into the beds,) This year I finally got wise and left myself 40"-48" between the beds and any obstacles such as other beds, fences, or the future fence line which I plan to lay down to the right of the rightmost bed.  The weed patches are an experiment, they're the dirt from my beds from 2 years back (I just loosened the frames by kicking a pickaxe under each corner and then stepping on the opposite end, then carried them somewhere else to try that location) and I've left them essentially fallow, and my plan is to chop off the weeds and then take some black plastic or silvered tarps, and stake them over the beds and leave them for a season or so. By the time I want to place another raised bed in their way, they should (in theory) be really good dirt which I can use to fill at least one more bed. Plant checklist in progress.. My roommate is super into helping with the garden (he even helped out for 30 minutes moving dirt!) and he claims he's going to go buy a bunch of hot pepper and tomato starts etc. I hashed out a checklist of what we already have accounted for, so he doesn't come home with a bunch of stupid poo poo that I won't want placed in my beds.  Thai basil RULES, by the way. I'm really on the fence about onions/garlic/etc, I got a couple of chive plants (one regular, one garlic chive), some pak choi starts, brussels sprouts, some leeks, and a lemon cuke for now. I didn't trust the tomato starts etc. Ultimate dream goal is to have the entire yard there made of 12 raised beds in parallel, surrounded by 48" inch paths made of 3/4" river rock on top of ground cloth. I dare a weed to grow through a few inches of round gravel, and the secret slickness of it, is that I can bury my hoses and PVC piping etc, a couple inches below the gravel and it's totally safe as long as nobody drives a 3/4 ton or larger vehicle over it. No need to even dig a trench, just push the rocks out of the way, then push them back on top!  I have to head to the coast this weekend for an early Mothers' Day thing, here's to hoping my starts (or my dog) aren't all dead from roommate neglect by the time I'm back on Sunday..! 
coyo7e fucked around with this message at 04:11 on May 1, 2014 |
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May 1, 2014 04:08
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How much should I worry about overwatering if my herb pots are well drained? They have a layer of gravel on the bottom, and holes of course. Water starts dripping out within a minute or so of watering. I've been trying to be more careful about this this year but all my cilantro is droopy as hell and I feel like I'm underwatering now.
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May 1, 2014 04:19
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I have a south-facing window in my apartment with some hooks for hanging plants. I would like to grow some herbs there. Can anyone recommend a hanging basket that won't leak as the area below it is carpeted?
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May 1, 2014 08:35
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Motronic posted:Hells yeah. Just any tips, I am looking to start growing hops - Coming from Tassie, should be able to get my hands on some Cascade hops pretty easily!
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May 1, 2014 13:37
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Grand Fromage posted:How much should I worry about overwatering if my herb pots are well drained? They have a layer of gravel on the bottom, and holes of course. Water starts dripping out within a minute or so of watering. I've been trying to be more careful about this this year but all my cilantro is droopy as hell and I feel like I'm underwatering now. Do you have a bunch of vermiculite or perlite in the soil mix, by chance? Vermiculite retains water, while perlite causes it to evaporate or run off more rapidly.
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May 1, 2014 15:33
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TheMightyHandful posted:Just any tips, I am looking to start growing hops - Coming from Tassie, should be able to get my hands on some Cascade hops pretty easily! Second flush of my Cascade, I cut the first set of sprouts off. It's supposed to be better to do that up to 2-3 times but I'm not sure why, maybe protecting against late frost?  Figure out your trellis system first and get it in place. Make sure the spot you plant them is where they'll be forever because even if you change your mind and dig them up later you'll miss pieces of rhizome and have them sprouting up every year. They like full sun and protection from wind. They also like really rich soil so dumping so manure on them in the fall is good. Cut down the vines to harvest or after harvesting and mulch them over the winter. Pull the mulch back in spring so the soil can warm up. Usually you want to select the 4-6 most vigorous sprouts and cut the rest back. That's the basics that I remember. There are a few different books on growing hops but I prefer Homegrown Hops. It's by an old dude in Oregon that figured it out on his own. e: Forgot to post this... my strawberries are also growing mushrooms: 
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May 1, 2014 16:37
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Cpt.Wacky posted:Second flush of my Cascade, I cut the first set of sprouts off. It's supposed to be better to do that up to 2-3 times but I'm not sure why, maybe protecting against late frost? That is also why you don't want to prune plants in the fall/winter, or during a drought. You force them to expend energy sending out new growth, during a period when they need to be conserving energy. There's a guy a couple blocks away from my house who had a really impressive setup in his backyard for hops - he took a bunch fo 55 gallon plastic drums and halved them, then lined them up along the south side of his fence. He then put up 4"x4" posts on either side with eye bolts and some metal cabling between. Then he ran lines from each "pot" up to the overhead line, and then pulled them across and together as they ran toward the side of his house, where he set another eye bolt under his eaves to secure the lines. Each of his hops plants put on easily 20 feet of growth length, and he ended up with a pretty cool, fan-shaped arbor to lounge under when the sun was high and hot. I wish I'd have taken pictures, he's since taken it down and put a shed in its place.
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May 1, 2014 17:10
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coyo7e posted:There's a guy a couple blocks away from my house who had a really impressive setup in his backyard for hops - he took a bunch fo 55 gallon plastic drums and halved them, then lined them up along the south side of his fence. He then put up 4"x4" posts on either side with eye bolts and some metal cabling between. Then he ran lines from each "pot" up to the overhead line, and then pulled them across and together as they ran toward the side of his house, where he set another eye bolt under his eaves to secure the lines. Each of his hops plants put on easily 20 feet of growth length, and he ended up with a pretty cool, fan-shaped arbor to lounge under when the sun was high and hot. I wish I'd have taken pictures, he's since taken it down and put a shed in its place. That sounds pretty great. My city is very particular about "structures taller than 6 feet" so they nixed me putting in two 10-12 foot poles with horizontal wires between them to support some vertical twine for the hops to grow up. I've been considering some sort of arbor over my huge, wide driveway to grow vining stuff like grapes or hops though. I really just need to finish my deer fence though so I don't have to keep netting and fencing individual areas.
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May 1, 2014 17:31
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TheMightyHandful posted:Just any tips, I am looking to start growing hops - Coming from Tassie, should be able to get my hands on some Cascade hops pretty easily! As much sun as you can give them, as much height as you can give them. And that crappy manilla raw rope seems to be great for them to get a good grip on. I think I'm going to try to give them a bit to crawl sideways (just tie some crosspieces of rope every few feet) so they have some more room to spread out. I'm still a novice at this, but they grew reasonably well last year and appear to have overwintered very nicely. So far so good.
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May 1, 2014 21:33
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The first year I grew hops I trained them on jute twine. I upgraded to nylon rope last year and unlike the jute, the nylon rope survives the winter and doesn't stretch under the weight of the vines. The vines themselves are super burly and will climb almost anything. After a year, I didn't pay much attention to my hops other than maybe watering them and keeping weeds away from them.   I'm growing Centennial, Chinook, and Williamette. Nice for tossing in American style pale ales. These vines are now four years old, and need to be trimmed back badly. The Chinook in particular yields a lot of flowers. I took my first cuts of the rhizomes this year so they could have potentially been even more out of control. Still have some Centennial in the fridge that I have no room for. Sadly it's getting a bit late in the year and I might need to toss them.
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May 2, 2014 01:26
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I have an indoor planter at work that I'm growing herbs in and I just noticed a shitload of aphids in the box. What's the best work safe solution to get rid of these?
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May 2, 2014 18:12
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Veskit posted:I have an indoor planter at work that I'm growing herbs in and I just noticed a shitload of aphids in the box. What's the best work safe solution to get rid of these? How big is the planter? And I assume ladybugs are out of the question?
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May 2, 2014 18:20
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Tyson Tomko posted:How big is the planter? And I assume ladybugs are out of the question? 16 inch X 8 Inch, and like 8 inches tall. Pfffft well i mean if i could sneak in like 2 or 3 and if they like the planter live in it, but I have a feeling they'll fly off and be office pests. Would be fun to try though.
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May 2, 2014 18:22
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Veskit posted:I have an indoor planter at work that I'm growing herbs in and I just noticed a shitload of aphids in the box. What's the best work safe solution to get rid of these? Insecticidal soap.
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May 2, 2014 18:25
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Took stock of the flood damage. Came out OK! Lost my red rubin basil, the onion/leek bed due to washout, and the Swiss Chard bed has some big divots in it so I think it's going to have to be re-seeded. On the upside, the tomatoes survived (despite probably being stunted hard now), the herb pots look like they did well and may even be sprouting, and the carrot bed appears to be fine. We will rebuild!
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May 2, 2014 18:31
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coyo7e posted:Poke a finger into the dirt. If it's dry, you need to water. If it's damp, then don't. How big are your herb pots? How often are you watering? The size isn't listed but I'm guessing several liters. I was definitely underwatering, everything's perked up since I gave them a good drenching. I have no idea what's in the soil since I can't read Japanese.  The herbs seem to like it though, they all started growing noticeably once I transplanted them to the pots.
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May 2, 2014 19:10
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