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Nukelear v.2 posted:My first season gardening not going so great. Spent the couple months growing Brandywine's from seeds and moved them outside last week. Queue a massive storm with 40mph winds and all my little tomato plants were smashed to bits. Was only worried about the cold, didn't even think about storms knocking my garden out. I'm so sorry. I get really attached to my seedlings, and that sucks. e: Nukelear, Growjoy gets excellent reviews on Dave's Garden, and they'll ship you Brandywine plants and lots of other heirlooms. https://www.growjoy.com/store/pc/Heirloom-Tomato-Plants-c150.htm Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Apr 1, 2022 |
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Apr 1, 2022 04:39
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Nukelear v.2 posted:My first season gardening not going so great. Spent the couple months growing Brandywine's from seeds and moved them outside last week. Queue a massive storm with 40mph winds and all my little tomato plants were smashed to bits. Was only worried about the cold, didn't even think about storms knocking my garden out.  I got rabbit hosed the 2nd year in a row. Put out a bunch of nice little melon and cuke plants with their 2nd set of leaves out and everything, checked on all 12 the next day and every single one of them was eaten down to the dirt. Imma make little cages next year I guess. just like tubes of barb wire.
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Apr 1, 2022 05:30
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Nukelear v.2 posted:My first season gardening not going so great. Spent the couple months growing Brandywine's from seeds and moved them outside last week. Queue a massive storm with 40mph winds and all my little tomato plants were smashed to bits. Was only worried about the cold, didn't even think about storms knocking my garden out. Sometimes it feels like simcity and someone is spamming disaster, you never know if its wind or rain, bugs or aliens. I was trying to harden off some tomatoes and stuff the other day and it got super windy on me, broke a bunch of squash babies.
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Apr 1, 2022 06:31
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silicone thrills posted:
I was never really successful with mechanical intervention for rabbits. Even with a big privacy fence with hardware cloth base all the way around the whole backyard at the old house they'd still get in. Especially once there was a little family under the crappy little dutch barn, there was no keeping momma rabbit out. Blood meal, other animal scents, bags of hair, urine, all that old school eldritch stuff was a lot more effective. Violence is not an option for everyone but once a rabbit population gets established, especially somewhere low pressure like a suburb, it's the only real viable solution. I guess you could try live trapping and relocating, I've never tried to catch a wabbit. To everyone having issues, just remember it's all a learning experience. There is plenty of written material to read and absorb but your particular piece of garden is unique and will present it's own set of challenges and rewards. It is extremely easy to just scream at the clouds some days but those days when you grab a beautiful sun warmed tomato out of the chaos are so rewarding. For me it's mostly humbling, growing up partially on a living farm, to think that people used to garden to literally stay alive. If I get wiped out by critters it's just irritating, I can't imagine the pressure of your family depending on your squash to survive.
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Apr 1, 2022 13:36
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Nukelear v.2 posted:My first season gardening not going so great. Spent the couple months growing Brandywine's from seeds and moved them outside last week. Queue a massive storm with 40mph winds and all my little tomato plants were smashed to bits. Was only worried about the cold, didn't even think about storms knocking my garden out. don't panic! Tomatoes propagate extremely well from clippings and root like maniacs! If any of your plants are snapped off, you can try to clip them and plant the clipping! You can also due this with pruned trimmings, too. Last summer just for giggles I jammed a few pruned branches into the ground in blank spots and they rooted almost instantly. Where there's life there's hope. They also produce new growth really well. It's much better for this to have happened early in the season. You might not want to do this with all of them, because they will be a little delayed, but you can probably salvage a couple and then fill in the blank spots with greenhouse seedlings.
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Apr 1, 2022 15:16
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Thanks everyone! I'll keep the plants that still have stems around and see if they can make a come back. But most were completely scoured from the earth, so I'll get to find new stuff to plant in those spots. Rabbits are definitely going to be a problem for me too, most of my planting is in elevated beds to try and avoid that but I have some containers that are ground level that are in danger. That growjoy link looks fantastic! I'm going to stop by my local nursery to see what we have on hand. If nothing looks great there then I will give this a try, I can't even imagine how they package a whole plant for shipping.
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Apr 1, 2022 15:36
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I signed up for my community garden plot today and now I have a 20'x20' plot to play with! This is way more space than I've worked with before (until last year it was all containers and then last year containers plus one 3'x6' raised bed). Since I really struggled last year not to plant too densely in the raised bed I'm trying to be more careful and plan the plot out better this year. Does anyone have any recommended tools other than just grid paper? Also, any good sources on how to plan out a larger plot well? I've noticed when looking at the back of my seed packets they'll recommend spacing plants by like 6" and then rows by 2'-3'. Is this just a way to make the overall spacing work out given a desire for row planting or is it assuming like a North-South row, so the extra space between rows reduces shading of one row from the next?
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Apr 2, 2022 22:40
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Looking for some help (with a bit of a short window -- need to decide by tomorrow morning) We are having a brick raised garden bed built in our yard. We asked for it to be in the range of 16-18 inches high. The masons just finished their first day of work, and it's 20 inches high. Should we ask for it to be lowered? If we do, it'd come out to 15 inches tall because I guess that's just how the bricks stack. There's only about 3 inches of soil below the bed (that's city backyards for you). We'll be planting a large camellia shrub in the bed (currently in an 18" container, but grow fairly shallow roots). If the soil is too deep, i'm worried about drainage and root rot. If the soil is not deep enough, I'm also worried about drainage, as well as space. Aesthetically, we think about 16" would be perfect (though that exact height isn't possible). What's better for plant health? Slightly taller than we need? Or slightly shorter?
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Apr 3, 2022 00:33
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Taller/deeper is better as long as it will drain. More room for roots makes any plant happy as long as their feet don't stay wet.
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Apr 3, 2022 02:14
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Upgrade posted:Aesthetically, we think about 16" would be perfect (though that exact height isn't possible). What's better for plant health? Slightly taller than we need? Or slightly shorter? So under the bed is concrete or something? Deeper is going to be better. Making it deeper isn't going to make the drainage worse (that's not really how water works) but it will give the plant more room to root. If the bed is sealed in on the bottom and soon to be sealed in on the sides you should definitely provide some pathways for the water to drain out at the bottom which you'll want to do before the wall is fully built (and before the bed is filled with soil). I think they usually use perforated PVC in a french drain when they do it for rain gardens and poo poo. If the people building your brick wall didn't account for drainage they're idiots, though, so hopefully that's already sorted. Besides making sure the water can drain out in general if you're worried about the soil staying too wet for what you want to plant there you should really address that with your fill. Good loam should be suitable for most plants and a landscaping place should be able to provide that easily. The only real downside to a taller bed is that the further you get from the actual ground the less buffer the roots will have when the temperature fluctuates. If you're somewhere it gets cold you should probably make sure whatever you're planting in there is hardy at least a zone colder than you're in (e.g. if you're in 7b I'd stick with plants hardy to 6b).
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Apr 3, 2022 02:18
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Upgrade posted:The masons just finished their first day of work, and it's 20 inches high.  Instead of the ground, pretend that picture is your planter. Upgrade posted:There's only about 3 inches of soil below the bed (that's city backyards for you).
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Apr 3, 2022 02:28
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Fozzy The Bear posted:If the raised bed is 20" high, and the container is 18" high? Then you would put 2 inches of soil down, and then empty the pot on top, so that everything is level. I don't understand how deep soil would be a bad thing. You always plant things that in pots at their current soil dept. Add soil to the bottom of the raised bed before adding the potted plant. Under the planter is 3 inches of good soil, 6-8 inches of loose rock and gravel then a plastic liner. Building the planter is a way to get more soil for things to grow down vertically The question were trying to answer is what is the minimum soil depth we need, I guess We’re basically building a giant pot Upgrade fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Apr 3, 2022 |
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Apr 3, 2022 02:48
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Upgrade posted:Under the planter is 3 inches of good soil, 6-8 inches of loose rock and gravel then a plastic liner. Building the planter is a way to get more soil for things to grow down vertically Ah nice, you won't have to worry about drainage with all that rock. Deeper is better, you will just have to buy more soil to fill the raised bed the deeper you make it. If they already made it 20", I'd just stick with that.
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Apr 3, 2022 03:16
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Fozzy The Bear posted:Ah nice, you won't have to worry about drainage with all that rock. Deeper is better, you will just have to buy more soil to fill the raised bed the deeper you make it. Gotcha. Part of the problem driving this is it was supposed to be 18", they screwed up and its at 20", and now the only options are 20" or 15" because of the brick size. Frustrating. 15" looks a lot better in the space and I'd pick that in an instant, but I also don't want to kill the plant with 15", which would probably be 19" of vertical soil. I guess another way to phrase this is "is 19" of vertical soil height enough for a camellia whose root ball is probably around 17"? I can't find anything about potting recommendations that's definitive -- I did find one video which recommended a pot 2" deeper than the root ball, which would mean 19" would work fine.
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Apr 3, 2022 03:28
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Could also put some kind of creeping ground cover at the top of the brick that would cascade down the side. If the brick sticks out too much now then that might tidy it up
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Apr 3, 2022 04:58
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 I have this little backyard raised bed setup because when I moved into this house I found the entire garden area was gray horrible dust and rocks. The most annoying loving weeds in the world thrive there even though I've covered the ground with the no-weed fabric. I'm tempted to fill in the area around the beds with pretty gravel or rocks or something--right now it's just cheap black mulch. I need for these weeds to not be a problem anymore! What can I do?
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Apr 3, 2022 20:17
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Ghislaine of YOSPOS posted:
Don't put gravel and rocks down. You'll hate yourself later. I kill weeds with cardboard and brown paper. If you put down some kind of brown paper and then throw wood chips on top of that, the weeds will die and you won't have added anything that will cause future problems by becoming bullshit in your soil.
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Apr 3, 2022 20:46
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My strategy is to just pull weeds that come up through my woodchips if they get big enough. Otherwise... just keep adding wood chips every year to cover them up. You could blast them with herbicide, but not worth it so close to edible beds IMO.
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Apr 3, 2022 21:03
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Mulch has to be several inches thick to suppress weeds. Landscape fabric is only ever a temporary solution (every weed solution is temporary tbh) because soil will start to accumulate on top of it, and the weeds will just grow in that.
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Apr 3, 2022 22:02
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Upgrade posted:Gotcha. Part of the problem driving this is it was supposed to be 18", they screwed up and its at 20", and now the only options are 20" or 15" because of the brick size. Frustrating. 15" looks a lot better in the space and I'd pick that in an instant, but I also don't want to kill the plant with 15", which would probably be 19" of vertical soil. I guess another way to phrase this is "is 19" of vertical soil height enough for a camellia whose root ball is probably around 17"? I can't find anything about potting recommendations that's definitive -- I did find one video which recommended a pot 2" deeper than the root ball, which would mean 19" would work fine. Camellia grow to be 20+ feet tall where I am, I would want as much area for their roots as I could afford. But I'm in California, maybe where you are they don't get so big?
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Apr 4, 2022 02:04
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mischief posted:I was never really successful with mechanical intervention for rabbits. Even with a big privacy fence with hardware cloth base all the way around the whole backyard at the old house they'd still get in. Especially once there was a little family under the crappy little dutch barn, there was no keeping momma rabbit out. Blood meal, other animal scents, bags of hair, urine, all that old school eldritch stuff was a lot more effective. Violence is not an option for everyone but once a rabbit population gets established, especially somewhere low pressure like a suburb, it's the only real viable solution. I guess you could try live trapping and relocating, I've never tried to catch a wabbit. the only true way to protect a plant from a determined rabbit is to put it well out of reach of the rabbit. Either in a container/bed up on a balcony/stair or on a bench/bonsai bench of some sort. Ghislaine of YOSPOS posted:
why does this remind me of a favela graveyard?
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Apr 4, 2022 02:38
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poverty goat posted:
I am slightly afraid of mushrooms but these are absolutely beautiful.
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Apr 4, 2022 04:37
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mischief posted:If I get wiped out by critters it's just irritating, I can't imagine the pressure of your family depending on your squash to survive. I feel so ashamed for having poo poo talked squash multiple times in this thread.
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Apr 4, 2022 04:44
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I signed up for every horticulture class my extension offered and there are some good ones. Lucky for y'all they put online presentations up for each as well! It's obviously oriented to bluegrass Kentucky, but there's a ton of good information, and the presenter is easy to listen to. Here are the ones that have happened already: Winter Sowing Low Maintenance Lawn Care Proper Pruning
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Apr 4, 2022 22:05
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Soul Dentist posted:I signed up for every horticulture class my extension offered and there are some good ones. Lucky for y'all they put online presentations up for each as well! Hell yeah, this is great. I just finished a "woods in your backyard" mini-forestry series. I've spent the last week dealing with invasives that I didn't know were invasive before that class.
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Apr 5, 2022 00:04
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Oof I hosed up and somehow left my grow light on 24/7 for three days without noticing. My seedlings' leaves are like, curled up and purple. I potted them up (they were due anyway) and we'll see how it goes, hope I didn't gently caress myself out of any peppers this year...
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Apr 5, 2022 01:13
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If they're not just straight up torched you should be fine, that whole family of plants is pretty impressively resilient (if a little slow to start).
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Apr 5, 2022 01:28
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showbiz_liz posted:Oof I hosed up and somehow left my grow light on 24/7 for three days without noticing. My seedlings' leaves are like, curled up and purple. I potted them up (they were due anyway) and we'll see how it goes, hope I didn't gently caress myself out of any peppers this year... You should invest in a timer if you haven't already since noticing. And then a backup to that one, so if they come in a 2-pack, that's ideal. Too many times I'll have had some piece of equipment die on me and having the backup has been a lifesaver (for the plants). Saying that, peppers are pretty okay with a lot of light, but it'll take them a bit to recover. I'd only worry if they were completely dried out and had crispy leaves. That might be too much for them to recover. It's only April 4 though, so you still have time to start new seeds, they may take a little to catch up, but they will.
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Apr 5, 2022 01:29
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Jhet posted:You should invest in a timer if you haven't already since noticing. And then a backup to that one, so if they come in a 2-pack, that's ideal. Too many times I'll have had some piece of equipment die on me and having the backup has been a lifesaver (for the plants). Oh I already have a timer, I think I hit a switch on the side that stopped it turning on and off. Will make sure I get it working right before I start cucumbers in a couple days.
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Apr 5, 2022 02:02
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I remain firmly in the direct sow cucumber party.
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Apr 5, 2022 02:09
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mischief posted:I remain firmly in the direct sow cucumber party. I was planning to try both and see what happened! Same with the long beans (which I only started inside last year, and cucumbers are new to me).
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Apr 5, 2022 02:38
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mischief posted:I remain firmly in the direct sow cucumber party. My plan this year is to only just germinate them inside and transplant as soon as they pop. Will report.
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Apr 5, 2022 02:48
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showbiz_liz posted:Oh I already have a timer, I think I hit a switch on the side that stopped it turning on and off. Will make sure I get it working right before I start cucumbers in a couple days. if you give them enough water you could run it 24/7 all winter and theyd probably be fine, barring photoperiod/reproductive cycle wonkiness I did it as a mistake with a bunch of cacti/succulents and then turned it into an experiment and AFAIK the worst thing thats happened is that a bunch of plants started flowering early. But once they go outside in a week or two I expect them to just flower again over the summer Unless you've got an industrial-level Vivosun or whatever throwing out massive candelas it's very difficult for your average grow bulb or Barrina grow fixture to compete with the sheer power of the sun, or with the ambient day/night cycle.
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Apr 5, 2022 03:24
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CommonShore posted:My plan this year is to only just germinate them inside and transplant as soon as they pop. Will report. I needed to transplant cucumbers this year. The place they need to go doesn’t get good light all the way to the ground until too late to direct sow, but once they grow up the trellis there’s plenty of light. Same with the yard long beans. Only those won’t go outside until it’s full on 70+.
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Apr 5, 2022 03:35
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Anyone have any success with dwarf feijoa or pineapple guava seed germination? Dried not fresh. I'm seeing anywhere from 1 day to 2 week soak in 70 degree water. Apparently these suckers can handle down to 15 degrees?!
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Apr 6, 2022 16:27
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:Anyone have any success with dwarf feijoa or pineapple guava seed germination? Dried not fresh. I'm seeing anywhere from 1 day to 2 week soak in 70 degree water. Apparently these suckers can handle down to 15 degrees?! I don't think they are true to seed. Like growing an avocado from seed, you won't get exactly the same tree as the parents.
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Apr 6, 2022 22:17
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Fozzy The Bear posted:I don't think they are true to seed. Like growing an avocado from seed, you won't get exactly the same tree as the parents. They don't but they're close enough to the parent plant that seed propagation supposedly works. I have 10 seeds I picked up online as a fun experiment. I just like different plants I don't need it to produce perfect fruit to be "worth it". The flowers look super pretty as well
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Apr 6, 2022 23:16
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Anyone else watching the weather like a hawk rn? Here in D.C., looks like we've got one last cold snap this weekend then we're in the clear. I'm off next Wednesday, which should be the bullseye for planting. I've been trying to harden off my maters this week, but no luck getting any hits of direct sunshine. I also know I'm supposed to direct sow sunflowers closer to May, but I couldn't resist sprouting a mammoth and this little guy is a goddamn unit. 
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Apr 7, 2022 21:44
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Chad Sexington posted:Anyone else watching the weather like a hawk rn? Here in D.C., looks like we've got one last cold snap this weekend then we're in the clear. I'm off next Wednesday, which should be the bullseye for planting. me too
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Apr 7, 2022 22:56
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You're also a goddamn unit?
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Apr 7, 2022 22:59
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