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Alterian posted:I mulch with grass clippings in my vegetable gardens. Its free! Yeah, I've heard of that. We use a bagless push reel mower and we always heard it was better to just leave the grass clippings on the grass?
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Jun 20, 2014 17:39
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Rurutia posted:Yeah, I've heard of that. We use a bagless push reel mower and we always heard it was better to just leave the grass clippings on the grass? Eventually I hope to kill my front lawn with fire (from the sun) and black plastic sheeting, and then use round river gravel and ground cloth to make a nice clean space I can walk around barefoot in, and if I spot a weed in between my beds it won't be able to take good root and will be easy to pull.
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Jun 20, 2014 19:22
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coyo7e posted:...and if I spot a weed in between my beds it won't be able to take good root and will be easy to pull. I've got areas of my yard that are 100% rock and inhospitable as all hell and maple seedlings still manage to find a way to try and grow there. I'm trying out using grass clippings for mulch this year for the first time and I admit it's working really well! It's been so hot lately I just mow, wait a few hours, then go out and collect a few big handfuls and go to town. At the very least it's helped the soil not crack up in the blistering sun.
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Jun 20, 2014 19:33
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Rurutia posted:So, I always get confused when people say this. Because then, some people say, compost makes a great mulch! So what type of mulch does this actually refer to? Amendments are mixed into the soil while mulch goes on top and doesn't get mixed in. Compost is the best mulch but most people aren't generating enough of it to use as mulch or aren't willing to buy that much bagged compost. So typically mulch is any layer of organic material on top of the soil. Grass clippings, wood chips/sawdust/shavings, shredded leaves, straw, etc. All that stuff will serve the purpose of retaining moisture in the soil, moderating temperatures and reducing weeds but compost would also add nutrients and other good stuff to the soil as it's watered. Then at the end of the season you can mix it in to the soil as an amendment too. Non-compost mulches that are high in carbon like wood fibers shouldn't be mixed in but instead scraped off and reapplied for a few years until they start to break down. Then they can go into the compost pile.
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Jun 20, 2014 19:56
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 They're delicious 
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Jun 20, 2014 20:09
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Does anyone have any suggestions on soil composition for dwarf blue berries in containers? I got some nice organic soil (it's store bought though so 'organic-ish is probably more accurate) for it and will have rocks for drainage. I bought some blood meal but I'm paranoid it might burn the plants in bought soil. I also bought some peat moss. I have some coffee grounds saved although I don't know if I've saved enough. Does anyone else know of other things that might be good to add? Should I get bone meal too? I'll definitely test my soil.
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Jun 20, 2014 21:31
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I need to stop trying to take pictures in the afternoon because the glare filter on my phone is garbage.. I will start trying to get pics at daybreak when I'm up and doing important poo poo such as going fishing.Tyson Tomko posted:I've got areas of my yard that are 100% rock and inhospitable as all hell and maple seedlings still manage to find a way to try and grow there.  Another bonus of covering everything in nice, smooth, round, river gravel is that it's dead-easy to do amateur irrigation One thing to keep an eye on is that clipped grass mulch can get really HOT, and I mean actually high temperatures - I've occasionally seen a couple-feet-high pile of grass clipping spontaneously catch fire (I assumed as a kid there was gas or diesel in there too but can't be positive), and definitely be hot enough to burn skin to the touch. Don't pile it more than a couple/few inches thick in your beds until ou literally know what it feels like to put your fingers deep into it after a long+cool evening though, imho. It's not hard but once you know what it feels like to put a hand into a pile of decomposing mulch, you'll have a lot more appreciation for the stress it may be putting onto your plants.. ashez2ashes posted:Does anyone have any suggestions on soil composition for dwarf blue berries in containers? I got some nice organic soil (it's store bought though so 'organic-ish is probably more accurate) for it and will have rocks for drainage. I bought some blood meal but I'm paranoid it might burn the plants in bought soil. I also bought some peat moss. I have some coffee grounds saved although I don't know if I've saved enough. Does anyone else know of other things that might be good to add? Should I get bone meal too? I'll definitely test my soil. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Jun 21, 2014 |
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Jun 21, 2014 03:01
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coyo7e posted:One thing to keep an eye on is that clipped grass mulch can get really HOT, and I mean actually high temperatures - I've occasionally seen a couple-feet-high pile of grass clipping spontaneously catch fire (I assumed as a kid there was gas or diesel in there too but can't be positive), and definitely be hot enough to burn skin to the touch. Don't pile it more than a couple/few inches thick in your beds until ou literally know what it feels like to put your fingers deep into it after a long+cool evening though, imho. It's not hard but once you know what it feels like to put a hand into a pile of decomposing mulch, you'll have a lot more appreciation for the stress it may be putting onto your plants.. Thanks for the tip, I didn't even think about the "mulching effect" and will check that out tomorrow around 11am or so when it's had a chance to bake for a while. My wife hurt her knee a while back and is just now starting to be able to walk again normally without crutches. We've got a pretty big rear end yard and as much as I've been trying it's just almost too much for one guy to keep up with. Instead of doing a so so job all around, I've been doing stellar jobs in some areas and slacking in some. I've got one hosta on the side of my house that's surrounded by almost the exact same rock as yours, which is on top of a weed barrier, and SON OF A BITCH after literally taking a 2 day break from weeding it it's been taken over by grass to the point where you can barely see the rocks anymore, blew my mind. Anyway moral of the story, stupid rear end weeds. I am drat proud of my garden though and I've been weeding it every single day when I get off work. I'm to the point now where if I see one blade of grass or one maple seedling (my tree has an infinite amount of those spinny maple dealios) I know for a fact it wasn't there the day before. Oh something else random. I've never noticed until this year how drat quickly sunflowers turn toward the sun! I'll grab some pictures tomorrow, but they practically follow the sun in real time as it goes down, so drat cool.
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Jun 21, 2014 04:30
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Anyone know a cultivar of okra that's reasonably tolerant of cool evenings? Past couple of years all I've managed is a bunch of runty and unproductive plants. This is somewhat counter to my experience with okra in south Texas, where it grew like a loving weed and wouldn't break a sweat hitting two metres. I assume the problem is that the temperature can get down in the '50s some nights.
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Jun 21, 2014 12:42
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SubG posted:Anyone know a cultivar of okra that's reasonably tolerant of cool evenings? Past couple of years all I've managed is a bunch of runty and unproductive plants. This is somewhat counter to my experience with okra in south Texas, where it grew like a loving weed and wouldn't break a sweat hitting two metres. I assume the problem is that the temperature can get down in the '50s some nights. From everything I've read, okra just isn't cold tolerant (much like tomatoes or peppers). You could perhaps try some row covers on the nights when it will get below ~65F. It may also be that the plants themselves aren't injured by temperatures in the 50s, but that the roots are cranky when colder. The black plastic mulch might help there, though I assume it would cook the roots if your daytime temperatures are too high. Also, pick a variety that matures more quickly (Emerald at 55 days vs Star of David at 70 days) so that you can theoretically have the plant outside during the warmest part of your summer.
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Jun 21, 2014 18:06
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fine-tune posted:From everything I've read, okra just isn't cold tolerant (much like tomatoes or peppers). loving okra come up fine, but then seem to just stall when they get to be about 40 cm or so, and only ever produce a couple of pods.
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Jun 21, 2014 18:30
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Radishes came due a few days ago, wife and I have been too busy with work and travel to do much in the garden other than weed. I know radishes are 'babbies first vegetable grow', but harvesting anything for the first time from a newly put in garden is always awesome. Got a few storms this week, and just now my wife was out weeding (again, yay what fun in a newly put in garden...it grows grass better than the areas I'm trying to rework), so I head on out to poke around and see they've gone crazy. Radishes so big I just about keeled over hauling them out. I fit five of them, total in my hand. Amazingly, and almost unbelievably, they haven't gotten pithy, hot, or gone to seed. They're bigger than golf balls. They look like the potatoes from the other page.
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Jun 21, 2014 19:52
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Hey all, I'm a brand new owner of a raised bed garden. I'm located in Zone 10b, and without much gardening experience. I prepared/made a soil of 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat and 1/3 compost (store bought) per the Mel's method thing I've read about online. It being the middle of June, I understand this might not be the ideal time to plant from seeds or transplant, but since both are fairly cheap (and I'm saving unused seeds), I figured I'd give it a go. So far: Transplanted an 8" Tomato plant (home depot raised) Transplanted a 1' Jalapeno plant (home depot raised) Transplanted a 6" Basil plant (home depot raised) Seeded two different tomato plants (both sprouted) Seeded one basil plant (sprouted) Seeded four coriander/cilantro plants (not sprouted, only been a week) Seeded two rosemary plants (not sprouted, only been a week) My question is, and I really appreciate the help as I'm slowly working through this monster thread, with regard to thinning. Not knowing how many seeds would germinate, I put about around 4-5 seeds per hole. Every single basil seed germinated, and now I have 5 Cinnamon basil seedlings sprouted in a tight cluster. I've read multiple online sources indicating that I can just leave them all there, and multiple sources saying a foot of spacing is required, and somewhat soon I need to probably murder (quatromate?) 4 of the seedlings. If the latter is the case, I was thinking about scrounging some pots to transfer them to. tl;dr Can I leave 5 cinnamon basil seedlings in a tight cluster in a sqft garden?
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Jun 21, 2014 20:22
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Will slugs/snail actively climb up tall plants? I'm asking this cause some of my chillies got absolutely chomped last night, and most of the damage was located on the upper leaves. I've been searching various UK chilli websites to look at pests that commonly attack them, and I could not find anything on flying insects, so it's got to be snails or something. I can't even see any slime trails anywhere, on the pots or the plants. They've navigated up twelve inch pots with curved lips, then decided to haul their slimy assed bodies up to the top of my plants to chow down. They're not even bothering with the lower leaves, some are munched completely to gently caress while some have a finger sized hole in them randomly. Bastards. I've put my outside plants on a table and sprinkled slug pellets into the pots just incase the bastards are sleeping in the soil. Hopefully the slug pellets won't poison my plants or make the chillies inedible or some poo poo.
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Jun 21, 2014 22:05
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Dilettante. posted:I'm asking this cause some of my chillies got absolutely chomped last night, and most of the damage was located on the upper leaves. I've been searching various UK chilli websites to look at pests that commonly attack them, and I could not find anything on flying insects, so it's got to be snails or something.
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Jun 21, 2014 22:10
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Okra is a plant that originates (probably) in West Africa, where it's grown as a late-hot-season-early-harvester. We're talking the season when it barely drops into the high 80s at night, and peaks at 115+ in the sun. It is absolutely intolerant of cold temps.
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Jun 21, 2014 23:34
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Big Beef City posted:Radishes came due a few days ago, wife and I have been too busy with work and travel to do much in the garden other than weed. I would suggest as a fellow 1st time gardener to plant down some arugula just about anywhere. We live in New England and even with the cold, temperature swings, days of rain at 50F followed by sunny days at 80F it's done just great along with romaine lettuce and allowed us to have both on hand for salad every night with almost no special care at all. Now to wait for the tomatoes and cucumbers to start coming in... eventually.
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Jun 21, 2014 23:46
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GordonComstock posted:tl;dr Can I leave 5 cinnamon basil seedlings in a tight cluster in a sqft garden? It's about to storm right now, (  rain!!) or I would take pictures of my basil. Leave them alone. I grow my basil and coriander sort of carpet like. I just throw out a hefty sprinkle of seeds and let them go. Each individual plant will be smaller, but the overall effect will be the same. If you're in 10b, I'd be more worried about keeping your plants alive and not burning to a crisp. Water, water, water, and an afternoon shade break, is your friend.
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Jun 22, 2014 01:40
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Honeysuckle is evil incarnate. I spent the day trying to reclaim an old flower plot from its clutches to plant my excess pepper plants and I feel like keeling over. It's too bad no one lives near me. I'd give away a ton of potted seedlings I have no room for if someone wanted to plant them.
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Jun 22, 2014 01:52
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Got a boss sprayer, and threw down a ton of fungicide Thursday night. Only two of my ten tomato plants had obvious signs of fungus, but I figured what the hell - maybe the other eight have it but are just handling it. Less than 48 hours later my plants are happier than I've ever seen them. New tiny fruits abound... Very excited to see them over the coming weeks. Also I planted some mixed salad greens in the top of a few buckets for my wife about a month ago, clipped off a bunch last night. It was all worth it when she tried a piece and was taken aback by how "spicy" the piece of lettuce was. Not really a salad fan myself, but drat those had some flavour.
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Jun 22, 2014 04:52
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AlistairCookie posted:It's about to storm right now, ( Thanks for the response, I'll probably go in that direction then. And yep, 10b has everything in the 90 degree range right now, I'm going to try and install some tiny, make shift umbrellas for midday heat. And since it rains every afternoon, there's plenty of water
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Jun 22, 2014 17:09
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I am hoping for a little assistance in weed identification. In the first image below, the larger of the two plants looks like purslane. There's something smaller growing as well, visible in the first image between the larger plants and then appearing as a sort of ground cover in the second, near a couple tomatoes. First question: Should I pull up the purslane? I have read that it can actually be beneficial as a ground cover and that it's edible. Second question: Is the smaller plant also purslane or something else?  
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Jun 22, 2014 18:23
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I don't know about purslane, but that other plant looks like chickweed. That poo poo is all over the place. It spreads, and spreads, and you think you pulled it all because the roots seem shallow, but then there it is again. It will take over and become a carpet of crap if you don't start pulling/spraying. My general rule is anything that is growing where it doesn't belong is a weed; I don't care what it is. Anything that's growing by my veggies is just something that's using up some of their water and nutrients. If I have a volunteer plant that I like that pops up in the wrong spot, I do my best to move it though.
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Jun 22, 2014 20:21
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That smaller one with the darker spots on the leaves is spotted spurge, which is entirely worthless. In fact the sap can irritate the poo poo out of your skin so I recommend wearing gloves if you're pulling large specimens. That weed is also apparently one of the favorite hiding spots of black widows in my yard. 
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Jun 23, 2014 00:32
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Marchegiana posted:That smaller one with the darker spots on the leaves is spotted spurge, which is entirely worthless. In fact the sap can irritate the poo poo out of your skin so I recommend wearing gloves if you're pulling large specimens. That weed is also apparently one of the favorite hiding spots of black widows in my yard. Ah, thanks. I pulled up a bunch of it. Very sneaky stuff; I don't even remember seeing it a few days ago.
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Jun 23, 2014 01:52
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Flipperwaldt posted:
Are you also gardening on your balcony? We have some tomatoes and peppers. I'd love to grow some carrots.
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Jun 26, 2014 15:32
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Anyone want some squash? I thought I had planted pumpkin, but they turned out to be yellow, straight neck squash :-(
Fozzy The Bear fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Jun 26, 2014 |
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Jun 26, 2014 15:37
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Does anybody have any experience with or knowledge of forest gardening? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_gardening I have this pipe dream of one day owning a small parcel of land with a tiny shack on it somewhere in Italy that I can retreat to for a month or two every year. I'd absolutely love to have a semi-wild vegetable/fruit garden that I can tend while I'm there in the early summer, but that will take care of itself for the other 10 months of the year. Is there a way to manage one that will produce anything at all or would it be taken over by weeds and demolished by local birds/animals before the fruits/veggies ripen? I don't care if it's not some bountiful harvest of forest delights, but it would be cool to have some stuff you can eat. Otherwise I'd be fine just growing a mess of stuff for the local birds and animals to use, I was just wondering if there's an approach to forest gardening that can survive a 10-month absence every year.
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Jun 26, 2014 15:47
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Sulla-Marius 88 posted:Is there a way to manage one that will produce anything at all Yes, of course. But it's not going to be the kind of things that you would expect out of a typical garden. If I were to do something like that in my climate it would be things like blackberries, raspberries, a few grape species, chestnut trees, and (best of all but short harvest season) ramps (wild garlic). I do some of this already, but not at any scale. Production per acre is very low.
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Jun 26, 2014 15:56
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I'm fine with that, I know not to expect fruits that require careful cultivation or that get torn apart by rabbits at any opportunity. Berry bushes are amazing and I was thinking some nut and fruit trees as well. Are there trees that will start fruiting within a few years? Papaya trees are supposed to be crazy productive like that, each year or two you rip down the tree and plant a new one, and by the next summer it's already 20 feet tall and fruiting. Or something like that. I wonder if it'd be ethical/tenable to get a few quails and let them roam free to peck at the local bugs while I'm gone. Probably leaving for 10 months you'd come back to find either zero quails or about a thousand.
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Jun 26, 2014 16:01
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I maybe planted too many cucumbers. I'm not sorry about it.
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Jun 26, 2014 16:10
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Le0 posted:Are you also gardening on your balcony? We have some tomatoes and peppers. I'd love to grow some carrots. Carrots are pretty easy. I've been using Ikea's deeper Trofast bins for a couple of years now. Drill some holes in the bottom, dump in some dirt, sow carrots, wait 2-3 months. That's about it. They're not fussy about soil quality, watering, temperature, anything. Leave an inch or two clear of the top edge and you can put the lid on if it's cold outside while they're sprouting.
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Jun 26, 2014 17:16
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Sulla-Marius 88 posted:Does anybody have any experience with or knowledge of forest gardening? I've been reading about it for a while and trying to develop a plan for my current space. There are a lot of different things you can design for with trade-offs. Something that takes less maintenance isn't going to produce as much. Paradise Lot is a good story version of two guys making a forest garden on a lovely urban lot. They had a lot of previous plant experience and lived on the site year round giving it a lot of attention. One of those guys also co-wrote a huge two volume book on temperate climate forest gardening called Edible Forest Gardening. It's pretty similar to a graduate level textbook (times two) and I've had a hard time getting very deep into it. I think it's possible but with significant challenges. The important thing is choosing the right plants and it's going to be hard to know what works well in a climate that you don't spend a lot of time in. The more practical approach is to plant things you think will work, observe them and then modify as needed. That's going to be tough to do if you aren't there most of the time. Most of these types of design systems actually recommend observing your site in detail like mapping shade/sunlight through the day and season for an entire year before you start designing. Start doing it where you are first to gain some experience, then you'll be better prepared to do it somewhere else under more challenging conditions.
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Jun 26, 2014 17:30
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Cpt.Wacky posted:Most of these types of design systems actually recommend observing your site in detail like mapping shade/sunlight through the day and season for an entire year before you start designing. I think this is a really, really beneficial step at home as well (when you're looking to work over an entire yard especially). I did this for our backyard and it was invaluable. I know about every nook and cranny--light, drainage--in the entire yard for the calendar year. I feel it helped me plan my space and maximize the benefit so much better from the start. I've hardly had to do any modifying (compared to my previous yard).
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Jun 26, 2014 21:19
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Shifty Pony posted:I maybe planted too many cucumbers. Pickle time, duh (I'm really jealous, those look great)
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Jun 26, 2014 21:37
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Shifty Pony posted:I maybe planted too many cucumbers. My dill did horribly last year. It however somehow survived the winter and is pretty much everywhere in my herb section now. Lets trade!
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Jun 27, 2014 01:41
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This is our first year gardening, and everything seems to be going great - our biggest problem is I planted things too close together and some things are starting to crowd each other out, but live and learn. But our pole beans and zucchini, both of which are otherwise huge, have something eating holes in their leaves. The leaves are mostly intact, but there are occasional dime sized holes in them I haven't seen any visible culprits. Do I need to be concerned at all or are passing bugs taking a bite here and there not a big threat to the plants' overall health?
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Jun 28, 2014 15:33
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Ah gently caress it, killed mostly everything again.  I made sure the solution was free of detergents and scents, citrus and other stuff. I made sure it was majorly diluted too. But nope, Imma kill all your poo poo. They were looking really good too, getting over their previous dice with death and starting to bud. Good thing I did not spray my outside plants. Fuckity gently caress it! gently caress you baby caterpillars!
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Jun 28, 2014 17:58
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Just got in from spending a wonderful time laying in my garden while talking to, and pruning my tomato plants. They're going gangbusters out there. Does anyone have specific advice about pruning them? While I was out there, many things seemed very obvious to me in terms of where fruit was setting, what vines/cuttings seemed appropriate. I trimmed what I felt needed trimming and it all looked and 'felt' right. Is there anything specific to watch for that I may have missed? Also, I'm in the Green Bay WI area (Suamico specifically) and my corn is already way higher than knee high by the 4th, I'm looking forward to that come in... However, while pruning my tomatoes my big fat rear end sorta knocked one a little akilter. It didn't snap the stalk, I just kinda pushed it over a bit. I tucked it back in place and wadded up some soil to brace it upright. Think that'll be ok or am I going to lose that one? It's ok if I do, just curious as this is my first 'serious' corn grow.
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Jun 28, 2014 19:17
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Dilettante. posted:Ah gently caress it, killed mostly everything again. Just spray some Bt next time. It's organicish.
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Jun 28, 2014 19:25
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