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Nice deck. With the size of your back lawn, you could have a small farm. Fruit trees! Corn! Chickens!  Really, all that empty grass and no shade is just begging for it. (Admittedly, I am anti-grass. Can't eat it, doesn't have flowers, does nothing for me. We are working on having as little as possible, and have so far been pretty successful in the back. The front is a more complicated matter...) About to go do yard work now. Patio won't lay itself!
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May 26, 2014 19:51
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AlistairCookie posted:(Admittedly, I am anti-grass. Can't eat it, doesn't have flowers, does nothing for me. We are working on having as little as possible, and have so far been pretty successful in the back.) We should start a club. Or maybe a terrorist organization.
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May 26, 2014 20:16
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Progress: Volunteer sunflower. Somewhere around 7' tall  Butterfly bush, garlic, zinnia  Greasy grits beans, lacinato & russian kales  Red amaranth, crookneck squash, carrots, mexican sunflowers  Japanese snowbells  Friendly lil garden helper 
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May 26, 2014 20:27
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ixo posted:Progress: Is that a solar light? How do you like it?
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May 27, 2014 15:36
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I'm pretty sure that my zucchini and crookneck seed packets were accidentally filled with some Jurassic period variety or something. It is the only explanation.  We got about 3" of rain in heavy downpours yesterday and overnight so everything else is pretty beaten back but it just made the squash angry.
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May 27, 2014 16:37
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jvick posted:Is that a solar light? How do you like it? They all stopped working 3-6 weeks out of the box and have been purely ornamental ever since! I should probably replace them.
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May 27, 2014 17:32
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You may want to just check the batteries with a volt-ohm meter. A bunch of those lights come with really low quality AA NiMH batteries which give out pretty quick and you can just replace them with a quality one. Also I discovered that the godawful skin itchiness I've had this late spring has been due to the little spines on the summer squash plants. Yay.
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May 27, 2014 18:04
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Shifty Pony posted:I'm pretty sure that my zucchini and crookneck seed packets were accidentally filled with some Jurassic period variety or something. It is the only explanation. How many squash plants is that? i only have 1 in the ground right now.
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May 27, 2014 18:19
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Grand Fromage posted:All right, I'll keep at it. That's what I've been doing (water/soap), I just found the nine billion eggs and ugh. Here's hoping! It's probably been mentioned a million times but mint really does work well as an anything-but-dog deterrent in my garden. I'm doing an experiment now growing a few plants outside of my fencing. I have 2 sunflowers and 2 jalepeno plants, 2 of them covered in a THICK square of mint (I've got tons of extra super tall mint that's perfect for "mint fencing") 2 of them are unguarded. The beautiful bastard rabbits ate the 2 unguarded plants literally less than 2 hours after I walked away from it while the minty ones are surviving 4 days and counting.
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May 27, 2014 21:08
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cheese eats mouse posted:How many squash plants is that? i only have 1 in the ground right now. Four: Two zucchini and two yellow crookneck in about 50sqft. Edit: and that is two too many.
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May 27, 2014 21:23
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Some kind of bastard insect has been taking a nibble at my chilli plants. I took them all out of the cloche and saw no evidence of aphids or slug trails, and the damage was all to the top leaves of the plants, so I'm guessing a flying insect. I've misted the area and the plants with a soap water solution, and I was wondering. A) how does soap water kill insects? B) Will it kill many varieties of rear end in a top hat insects? C) Could the plants handle two sprayings per day?
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May 29, 2014 06:56
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Dilettante. posted:Some kind of bastard insect has been taking a nibble at my chilli plants. I took them all out of the cloche and saw no evidence of aphids or slug trails, and the damage was all to the top leaves of the plants, so I'm guessing a flying insect. A) It clogs up their respiratory system (insects breathe through their exoskeletons). They suffocate. B) Probably only the less robust ones like aphids. I've tried killing wasps with soapy water and it didn't work, although people on the Internet purport to have success with that. C) Yeah. But if you're not actually spraying the pests I'm not sure if it will actually help anything. Could you post a pic of the damage?
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May 29, 2014 15:45
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Are there any plants that deter rabbits? I moved into a new neighborhood about 10 months ago and created my first garden at this location this spring. I was hanging my clothes out to dry and see to my surprise a rabbit is eating the grass in my yard. The disbelief is because I live in a city just outside Boston and have for my entire life and have never had to deal with rabbits before. I would rather not fence in the garden with chicken wire
NiknudStunod fucked around with this message at 21:28 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 21:20
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I ended up chicken wiring the bottoms of all my fences. They do sell a garlic concentrate at our nurseries, and I put those up for good measure but the chicken wire is what really does it, they are lazy animals by nature and will just go elsewhere.
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May 29, 2014 21:23
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Hummingbirds posted:Could you post a pic of the damage? Here's the damage.    Nothing too major really, but I really want to get this under control before it gets any worse. Everything is in a enclosed cloche as pictured below, so something's got in there. but the only thing I've seen is some teeny weeny little black flying things which could not have cause so much damage. (and since which have been splatted.)   (The ones that got munched are in the most rear left, and in the seedling tray on the right) I've given the plants another misting of soap water, and I can see no further damage from yesterday. Hopefully the soap solution won't gently caress my plants up with repeated usage. I'm just trying to think what could have caused it, I'm in South-East England so I'm mostly free from the hell-beasts that roam the American Continent. I'll look up some local sources and have a proper inspection over the weekend, I need to replant some of them in larger pots anyway.
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May 29, 2014 21:36
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Grand Fromage posted:All right, I'll keep at it. That's what I've been doing (water/soap), I just found the nine billion eggs and ugh. Here's hoping! If you're still looking for ideas, Neem Oil is super good. It's a natural oil from the Neem tree that smells loving awful, and bugs hate it. It's also mildly effective against other fungus and diseases. It's usually sold in like 8 or 16 oz bottles which doesn't sound like a lot, but all you do is mix a teaspoon or so together with water in a spray bottle and spray down your leaves, so it is actually pretty cost effective too. Now for some questions of my own. I've got a couple of peppers I started inside (Bolivian Rainbow for decoration, and some variety of a Hungarian pepper traditionally used for Paprika). I started to harden them off, but the wind here battered them pretty good and I went too soon so they got a combination of battered leaves and sun scalded leaves. I brought them back in and paused the hardening, pruned them so they could get bushier / thicker stalks. They are at a point now though where I think they just aren't growing anymore and I need to try hardening them again and get them more warmth / sun. Does anyone have any hardening tips for peppers so I don't almost kill the poor things again?] E: Just remembered another question. I was looking at getting a hybrid pepper variety (Cayennetta) next season, but I'm a little confused on how this works. Everything I've read indicates this is a F1 variety, so why are these sold as seed? Woudln't it need to be a cutting to propegate the hybrid, instead of reverting to parents? Myrmidongs fucked around with this message at 04:13 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 02:20
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Myrmidongs posted:E: Just remembered another question. I was looking at getting a hybrid pepper variety (Cayennetta) next season, but I'm a little confused on how this works. Everything I've read indicates this is a F1 variety, so why are these sold as seed? Woudln't it need to be a cutting to propegate the hybrid, instead of reverting to parents? I think maybe because cuttings don't work as well with peppers? Myrmidongs posted:Now for some questions of my own. I've got a couple of peppers I started inside (Bolivian Rainbow for decoration, and some variety of a Hungarian pepper traditionally used for Paprika). I started to harden them off, but the wind here battered them pretty good and I went too soon so they got a combination of battered leaves and sun scalded leaves. I brought them back in and paused the hardening, pruned them so they could get bushier / thicker stalks. They are at a point now though where I think they just aren't growing anymore and I need to try hardening them again and get them more warmth / sun. Does anyone have any hardening tips for peppers so I don't almost kill the poor things again?
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May 30, 2014 12:48
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TheBigBad posted:I ended up chicken wiring the bottoms of all my fences. I woke up today to 2 less tomato plants. Does anyone know if there is a forum topic about skinning and butchering rabbits?
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May 30, 2014 18:50
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I also have chicken wire around my garden along with various mint stems/leaves scattered around for good measure because why not. The wire works really well, and if you get the good stuff it'll hold it's shape so the next season/year as long as your garden is the same size the "corners" will be 10x easier to do.
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May 30, 2014 18:59
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I've been pretty busy in the garden the last week but forgot to take many pictures. My cape gooseberries (physalis peruviana) are looking pretty happy:  These probably won't overwinter here but I'm going to plant a few of them in different places to see how they do. The rest will get potted up to bigger containers and brought indoors over the winter. Second year black currant loaded with berries:  All but one of the new hop rhizomes I planted have come up. This one is the only survivor from last years new rhizomes. I decided not to cut the first flush of sprouts since it didn't grow much last year and may not have had much stored energy.  Some of the leaves look messed up and I'm not sure if it was from a late frost/cold damage or my neighbor spraying something that drifted over.
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May 30, 2014 19:01
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The core of my carrots are extremely hard and not very edible. Does anyone have tips as to what I should do?
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May 30, 2014 21:16
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Veskit posted:The core of my carrots are extremely hard and not very edible. Does anyone have tips as to what I should do? Sorry if I missed if you said it, but are you eating them raw I assume? I ask because I've had some carrots that I didn't care for raw (and I LOVE raw carrots) that cooked up perfectly fine.
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May 30, 2014 21:28
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Tyson Tomko posted:Sorry if I missed if you said it, but are you eating them raw I assume? I ask because I've had some carrots that I didn't care for raw (and I LOVE raw carrots) that cooked up perfectly fine. I couldn't get my knife through the center of it. I was trying to mince them before cooking them but I couldn't even cut them to fit them in the cuisinart.
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May 30, 2014 21:36
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First harvest shot of the season - radishes of course!  A lot of them look a bit fugly on top (I may've planted them a bit too shallow?) however they're divinely sweet, not overly spicy, and none of them split or got woody. Also there's some tarragon in a little pot in the top-right corner, and a pair of lemon balms just behind the bench but mostly obscured.
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May 31, 2014 00:52
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My tarragon's been in its windowbox for about a month now, but it doesn't seem to have grown any...it doesn't seem wilty or otherwise of ill health, it's just not getting bigger.
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May 31, 2014 01:11
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Trebuchet King posted:My tarragon's been in its windowbox for about a month now, but it doesn't seem to have grown any...it doesn't seem wilty or otherwise of ill health, it's just not getting bigger.
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May 31, 2014 01:24
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As much sun as possible? The boxes are attached to the deck of the boat and there aren't any obstructors around, other than clouds, which we've had a good bit of lately. Not abnormally heavy levels of cloud cover/rain, AFAIK.
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May 31, 2014 02:06
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Trebuchet King posted:As much sun as possible? The boxes are attached to the deck of the boat and there aren't any obstructors around, other than clouds, which we've had a good bit of lately. Not abnormally heavy levels of cloud cover/rain, AFAIK. If it's not sun or water and it's not root bound you need to be looking at nutrients, or a plant that was stunted earlier from lack of water or cold (sometimes they recover, sometimes they don't).
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May 31, 2014 02:18
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Nutrient-wise, anything in particular I should try with regards to products? Probably going to the gardening store tomorrow since it's supposed to be nice all weekend.
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May 31, 2014 02:34
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Trebuchet King posted:Nutrient-wise, anything in particular I should try with regards to products? Probably going to the gardening store tomorrow since it's supposed to be nice all weekend. My general purpose is fish emulsion. Follow the instructions for dilution and use it evert 2-3 weeks. Full disclosure: it stinks when you mix and water. Even the stuff that says it's been "de-scented".
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May 31, 2014 02:37
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Myrmidongs posted:If you're still looking for ideas, Neem Oil is super good. It's a natural oil from the Neem tree that smells loving awful, and bugs hate it. It's also mildly effective against other fungus and diseases. It's usually sold in like 8 or 16 oz bottles which doesn't sound like a lot, but all you do is mix a teaspoon or so together with water in a spray bottle and spray down your leaves, so it is actually pretty cost effective too. Dish soap seems to have done the trick, I haven't seen an aphid all week. Victory.  A couple little spiders seem to have moved in as well, I'm trying not to scare them off. Last year I had a mantis chilling out in my herbs for weeks, it'd be nice if another one of those showed up.
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May 31, 2014 07:30
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Grand Fromage posted:A couple little spiders seem to have moved in as well, I'm trying not to scare them off. Last year I had a mantis chilling out in my herbs for weeks, it'd be nice if another one of those showed up.  There are a lot of Oxyopidae and Salticidae around, which are pretty aggressive visual hunters that hop around the leaves, so they're presumably killing garden pests. There are also a fair number of small Araneidae, which are orb weavers and so presumably are mostly catching flying insects.
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May 31, 2014 07:57
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Motronic posted:My general purpose is fish emulsion. Follow the instructions for dilution and use it evert 2-3 weeks. I'm a few docks down from a fish market, so maybe that'll fit right in, hahah. Thanks!
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May 31, 2014 15:23
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SubG posted:What kind of spider? I've currently got a momma oxyopid sitting on an egg sac in the trellis I built for my Chinese longbeans: A lot of those orb weavers take care of ant problems for me as well. A couple good ones can almost completely wipe out a colony of small sized ants over a couple weeks.
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May 31, 2014 17:00
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Welp, it seems either my improper application of soap solution or some other factor has wrecked the poo poo out of my chilli plants. Perhaps I was too generous with the spraying. Some of my plants have lost a bunch of leaves, mostly minor leaves under the top Main leaves, so a few of them are basically gangly stalks. A few leaves were looking a bit shitey before the spraying, now I have merely exacerbated the terrible condition of the surviving(?) leaves. Some are yellowed, darkened, splotchy, or seem to be wearing away?    This is the 'wearing away', it does not look like it has been eaten so  Here's the overall damage:    and a gangly.Could they pull through from this kind of damage? I suppose losing a bunch of leaves like this seriously hampers development while they have to regrow lost leaves and stuff. I also moved around the pots a bunch so all the non marked ones are mixed up and I can't tell what variations they are. 
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May 31, 2014 23:11
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Dilettante. posted:Welp, it seems either my improper application of soap solution or some other factor has wrecked the poo poo out of my chilli plants. Perhaps I was too generous with the spraying. Did you just use normal dish soap? Or some made specifically for plants? When I used the normal dish soap I burned the leaves on the plants that I sprayed. A few months ago I build 4 new raised beds. Nah, I don't need to sheet mulch, lay down layers of cardboard to kill the grass. I'll just throw down a few cubic yards of compost.  That is watermelon in the front, tomatoes in the back, and bermuda/crab grass all over. I've stopped trying to pull it out. Lesson learned everyone, don't be lazy!
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Jun 1, 2014 00:24
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Many plants' leaves have a waxy coating that protects them from losing water too quickly and damage from UV/etc. Many dish soaps use harsh astringents to cut waxy, greasy buildup on stains. Also possibly citrus in the soap. Citrus is pretty harsh stuff, to the point you don't want to toss orange/lemon/etc into your compost.
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Jun 1, 2014 00:37
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coyo7e posted:Citrus is pretty harsh stuff, to the point you don't want to toss orange/lemon/etc into your compost. Oh shi-  Really? I've got like... thousands of gin and tonics worth of limes dumped into that pile.
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Jun 1, 2014 04:56
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Hey guys, remember my sad container garden? I put in some planter boxes and have a proper garden now! 3'x5'x12" planter boxes filled with 'garden mix' soil from Pacific Topsoil and several bags of composted steer manure mixed in.  Locally grown plant starts:  All my goodies!  Finished! 
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Jun 1, 2014 05:14
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Breaky posted:Oh shi- For what it's worth: http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting/ingredients/citrus-peels-compost.htm Worms don't like to eat them so they take longer to decompose. You could cut them into smaller pieces to speed that up. Personally I don't use much citrus so tossing the occasional bit into the pile is no big deal. Fozzy The Bear posted:A few months ago I build 4 new raised beds. Nah, I don't need to sheet mulch, lay down layers of cardboard to kill the grass. I'll just throw down a few cubic yards of compost. Sheet mulch is great but there are handful of things that don't give a poo poo about your cardboard like rhizome-spreading grasses. Around here we call it quack grass and also have trouble with bindweed/morning glory spreading under the cardboard 5 or more feet and popping up somewhere else. I suggest you keep pulling it and be sure to get the stuff just outside the beds too. Any time it pops up and you see green that means it is gathering more energy to send down into the root system and you'll just have more and more of it. I've got a few spots where I pulled it up anytime I saw it, including as much of the roots as I could get, and it's almost completely under control now. Cpt.Wacky fucked around with this message at 07:21 on Jun 1, 2014 |
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Jun 1, 2014 07:15
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