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trilobite terror posted:GlyphGryph, why are you growing grass indoors? For grazing
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Mar 14, 2024 20:03
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If it was for my own grazing I'd be growing clover instead, it's much tastier. But alas, clover is poisonous to the felines. (My son actually desperately wants to grow a big pot of lemon hearts indoors, and a patch outdoors, for casual grazing, but I don't have the slightest idea where to even get seeds for that, we might steal some plants and move them inside once they start coming up)
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Mar 14, 2024 20:06
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mischief posted:Seeds at that point are still eating themselves, they don't need food. Better/closer light, make sure the dirt isn't staying soaked, maybe a little fan action like Kaiser said. It's odd to see them pop and then stall like that but if I had to gamble I'd bet light or water. If light was the limiting factor I would think they'd be more likely to look leggy. Those bois are just plain stunted.
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Mar 14, 2024 20:13
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 So these Irises are the direct descendants of the ones my grandmother grew in her garden. She passed in the early 90s and my aunt transplanted them to her house and then transplanted some to mine when we bought our first house. We have just moved to a new house and I'd like to transplant them to our new one and one day pass them on to my kids. What's the proper way to get them moved? Anything I should be aware of? What properties of sunlight etc should I look for in the new spot? I'm in Austin so we have stupid heat in the summer and usually one to two freezes in winter. They survived be icepocalypse we had a few years back and grew back in the spring so I'm not too worried.
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Mar 14, 2024 20:18
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here in north florida irises are unkillable beasts if you stick them in full sun, even when they've got lovely marginal soil have to dig some up every year or two because they expand so quickly
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Mar 14, 2024 20:24
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Last year this happened to all of my Belle of Georgia peaches.  I don't have any later photos, but they all scaled up even more and shriveled up on the tree and died after this. There were no survivors.  This tree just bloomed a few weeks ago and is now covered top to bottom with tiny little baby peaches. What killed my peaches last year, and do I still have any hope left of preventing it from happening again, now that my tree is fruiting again?
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Mar 14, 2024 23:22
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Looks like brown rot? https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/HS1357 https://www.starkbros.com/growing-guide/article/all-about-brown-rot
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Mar 14, 2024 23:34
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D-Pad posted:
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Mar 15, 2024 02:58
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D-Pad posted:
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Mar 15, 2024 15:20
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Schmeichy posted:What a great gift! Looks nice, you should update when it's planted  Three rows of California softneck garlic in that front nub (gets the most sun), a row of danver carrots, and a row of yukon gold potatoes in the back! We'll be adding a second row of carrots in 3-4 weeks.
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Mar 17, 2024 18:51
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My mulberry tree is being weird Any idea what is sticking out of the tree? They were easy to brush off so I think they might be sawdust/bug poop but my googling isn’t coming up with a culprit. I’m in SE Georgia and all the bugs and critters are enjoying spring already. I think the tree might be dead but there’s a sprout coming from below the graft, some dwarf variety that I will probably let grow to see if it does any better. My other mulberry is leafing out and looks great, but I’d like to know if I need to treat it for whatever this is.
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Mar 17, 2024 20:19
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Joburg posted:My mulberry tree is being weird Those are sawdust strings left behind from a new invasive pest: the asian ambrosia beetle. That's probably what killed the tree. https://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=C1160 They just covered this in my latest pest management updates because apparently it's moving north from where it's at now (southeast).
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Mar 17, 2024 20:30
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Motronic posted:Those are sawdust strings left behind from a new invasive pest: the asian ambrosia beetle. That's probably what killed the tree. Thanks, what a bummer!
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Mar 17, 2024 22:13
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Joburg posted:Thanks, what a bummer!
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Mar 18, 2024 02:25
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Turn lemons into lemonade and start farming asian ambrosia beetles instead
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Mar 18, 2024 02:41
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Alterian posted:My neighbors cut down a shitton of trees the other year in their yard making part of our side yard now get enough sun to garden. We did a test last year with growing some vegetables in pots in the area and they did fine so now we want to build some raised beds. I've done plenty of in-ground gardening before, but we want it to look a little nicer and be easier to maintain / keep our cairn terrier out of it. Any suggestions on brands or approaches? Is https://vegogarden.com/collections/garden-beds a waste of money/. Their system looks nice. I cut down a lot of trees last year and have a fantastic stripe of yard between our houses that I think would be perfect for a garden. I am drat near a complete beginner. Do you have a recommended resource for babbys first 5 gallon bucket garden so I can get going this year? A nice hand holder would be fantastic! Then grow (hah!) and learn from there for next year. Southeast Michigan, haven't timed it but area gets sun most of the day. Probably start with just romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions. Appreciate any tips for this rookie.
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Mar 18, 2024 04:01
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TraderStav posted:I cut down a lot of trees last year and have a fantastic stripe of yard between our houses that I think would be perfect for a garden. I am drat near a complete beginner. Do you have a recommended resource for babbys first 5 gallon bucket garden so I can get going this year? A nice hand holder would be fantastic! Then grow (hah!) and learn from there for next year. I started in buckets too! Get food safe buckets. I used the plant spacing from Square Foot gardening this help me figure out how much I could get in each bucket. Tomatoes and cucumbers are one plant per bucket; the others are more flexible. Google around for tomatoes in buckets; that's a very common practice and lots of good guides are around. I don't tomato (yet) so I can't recommend a specific one. What I found worked best for drainage was one 1/2" hole in the bottom of the bucket, with a bit of good landscape fabric over it to keep the dirt in. (You don't want the kind where you can see the weave.) Put the edge of the bucket on a rock or something so that the water can drain away. I used potting soil in them. Miracle Gro always started seeds best but Back to the Roots organic potting mix always performed better once they got started. I used Lowe's cheapest tomato cage for my cucumber and it was fine, but I think I would have liked something taller. I went with Spacemaster 80, a bush type cucumber, so it didn't want to sprawl too much.
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Mar 18, 2024 14:01
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TraderStav posted:I cut down a lot of trees last year and have a fantastic stripe of yard between our houses that I think would be perfect for a garden. I am drat near a complete beginner. Do you have a recommended resource for babbys first 5 gallon bucket garden so I can get going this year? A nice hand holder would be fantastic! Then grow (hah!) and learn from there for next year. Some amateur advice from my first time growing things. Cherry tomatoes tend to be much hardier than full size or even roma tomatoes. I recommend you try those first (and you will definitely need a trellis/cage for them). Of everything I've tried to grow, cherry tomatoes seem to be the most forgiving. Cucumbers also need a trellis. When I grew them in southern Illinois, the came out a lot smaller than when I grew them just a few states South. So make sure you get a good variety for your region and don't be surprised if they're not very big. Also, they taste better if you pick them when ripe. They'll keep growing after reaching "normal" size, but it's mostly just water weight and it makes them taste bland and watery. It's hard to describe, but once you see it once or twice it's really obvious when a cucumber is ripe vs getting too big.
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Mar 18, 2024 14:15
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TraderStav posted:I cut down a lot of trees last year and have a fantastic stripe of yard between our houses that I think would be perfect for a garden. I am drat near a complete beginner. Do you have a recommended resource for babbys first 5 gallon bucket garden so I can get going this year? A nice hand holder would be fantastic! Then grow (hah!) and learn from there for next year. FYI there’s a turbonerd on YouTube, MIGardener, who also runs a seed shop based out of Michigan. I find his personality incredibly grating, but he does have good, beginner-friendly advice and he would be local to you. If his bossy know-it-all schtick bugs you, there are tons of YouTube resources available. For lettuce, you don’t necessarily need a 5 gallon bucket. It’s a shallow-rooting plant so you can use something smaller and grow plenty of food in it still. It’s also going to want less sun/heat than the other crops you’re growing, so stick these somewhere that gets some shade or even better, dappled sunlight throughout the day. Lastly, have fun and recognize gardening is a long-term, year-on-year hobby. You won’t always immediately see results, but you can plan and try new things every year to find out what works for you.
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Mar 18, 2024 14:24
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Consider also growing herbs. Fresh basil, chives, and parsley are really nice. Fresh basil with your garden grown tomatoes on some mozzerella with balsamic vinegar is just great.
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Mar 18, 2024 14:38
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Lawnie posted:For lettuce, you don’t necessarily need a 5 gallon bucket. It’s a shallow-rooting plant so you can use something smaller and grow plenty of food in it still. It’s also going to want less sun/heat than the other crops you’re growing, so stick these somewhere that gets some shade or even better, dappled sunlight throughout the day. You can grow lettuce in old thrown away gutters with just the tiniest bit of soil. Like Lawnie is saying, shade and temp management is the key to lettuce, it will up and ruin itself setting seeds for sometimes no apparent reason at all. A bucket is super overkill. Also very sage advice on the last part of the post. This is usually a pretty frustrating hobby and I know that more than once I've just completely lost my temper and swore I'd never plant another dang thing, etc, etc (with much more profanity). Be patient and celebrate the little victories, you'll get your rear end handed to you more often than not at the start.
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Mar 18, 2024 14:45
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How many of you are thinking more long term about some of the larger things you plant outside? I've always made sure to plant things that are comfortable in my current growing zone and higher because of climate change. My area just got bumped from a 7b to an 8a officially. I had my suspicions. I used to just barely be able to grow bay laurel. It would get a little too cold and die back every coule of years. I've had this current one going for about 5 years now and its a small tree. My figs are also doing amazing. Edit: I also have mature tulip poplars in my yard which should be able to sustain the heat. I'd hate to see them die (and it would be expensive. they are massive) Alterian fucked around with this message at 14:57 on Mar 18, 2024 |
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Mar 18, 2024 14:54
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Thanks! I'll dive into all these resources. I'm excited to get started and wholly expect the first year to be a disaster, anything above that will be a fantastic victory. The buckets are enticing to me so I can dial in what works for location in my yard/shade/etc. Seems like I just need to go to the store, get some buckets, soil and other things needed for them, and some seeds and just get started and bumble through issues as I encounter them. Watering, protection from animals, etc. This is the area that I'm looking to use. The farther toward the street I go the more sunlight throughout the day and the farther back toward the backyard the more shade. Think This long strip will allow for the right flexibility but no idea on the precise number of hours of sun I'll have per area so something I'll need to track throughout the year. Also have to account for how I water the grass and not overwater the foliage on the plants which I've read can lead to burning in the sun. All lessons that'll be sorted through. 
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Mar 18, 2024 14:58
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Alterian posted:How many of you are thinking more long term about some of the larger things you plant outside? I've always made sure to plant things that are comfortable in my current growing zone and higher because of climate change. My area just got bumped from a 7b to an 8a officially. I had my suspicions. I used to just barely be able to grow bay laurel. It would get a little too cold and die back every coule of years. I've had this current one going for about 5 years now and its a small tree. My figs are also doing amazing. Minneapolis moved from 4b to 5a with the recent zone change. I talked to an arborist about my needs and concerns as I plan to live at my current residence for a long time. I was really bummed to find out that the changing climate would make my site unsuitable for larch or paper birch. We decided on a swamp white oak and a hackberry for my front yard because they are both hardy trees with lower risk for future diseases and pests.
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Mar 18, 2024 15:27
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I’m not an expert at this whole thing; I just like growing plants. But one thing I’ve found and loved is composting all of my dry leaves, some vegetal kitchen scraps, etc for the next year. I have prepped my whole garden this year with my own compost with more leftover, plus mulch from my own yard. Mulch is super important. Having my own compost makes it very cheap to add organic nutrients to my soil and revitalize my garden every year. Of course, I also have the benefit of having my own chickens, giving me chicken manure and egg shells for my compost, which seems to really supercharge it. My garden took off after I got chickens. Like others said, just enjoy it and try to be zen about it even when things don’t work out. Lessons learned for next time. You’ll probably be completely hooked once you start getting some good harvests.
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Mar 18, 2024 15:29
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TraderStav posted:Thanks! I'll dive into all these resources. I'm excited to get started and wholly expect the first year to be a disaster, anything above that will be a fantastic victory. The buckets are enticing to me so I can dial in what works for location in my yard/shade/etc. This looks like a north-facing view? If so, this looks like a great spot to set up. Up against the structure on the right will get shade until about noon, the rest will get what’s considered full sunlight for growing plants (IMO that’s 8+ hours of nearly uninterrupted direct sun exposure). You don’t really need to calculate the amount of time in the sun, just keep an eye out on the yard throughout the day and seasons. Expect some slight fluctuations as the earth does its orbital mechanics things.
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Mar 18, 2024 15:34
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Lawnie posted:This looks like a north-facing view? If so, this looks like a great spot to set up. Up against the structure on the right will get shade until about noon, the rest will get what’s considered full sunlight for growing plants (IMO that’s 8+ hours of nearly uninterrupted direct sun exposure). You don’t really need to calculate the amount of time in the sun, just keep an eye out on the yard throughout the day and seasons. Expect some slight fluctuations as the earth does its orbital mechanics things. The home faces SE, so camera is facing NW, not sure if that is what you meant by north facing view and changes your suggestion!
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Mar 18, 2024 15:35
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Hey thread! I've started following this with great interest recently, since I also do a lot of gardening, and love reading about other folks who do. I'm sure my topic has been mentioned before, but since I only just started following this thread I'll go ahead and share my experience, since it might be interesting. I don't know exactly how good my methods would be for total gardening beginners, but as basically a beginner in ability myself, it's been a very interesting and rewarding journey learning and applying the principles of Permaculture to my backyard gardening. I have been doing it for about 3 years now. I am by no means an expert, but I've discovered some things, which might be useful, both to people who want to do actual permaculture gardening, and to people who just want to continue with raised beds, plots, and other standard types, but need advice. One thing is that, at first, it seems to be actually a lot more work and planning than 'regular' gardening. You have to sit down and really take some time to think, not only to observe the natural rhythms of the life that already exists in your yard, but also to plot changes out in your head/on paper, and to actually physically do the work. (The work is, like I said, rewarding, but can be intense and exhausting in the first couple years.) There might also be smaller harvests than you're used to, starting out. But that isn't guaranteed, and plus, I believe that working this closely with nature to grow things has larger rewards to it than only raw yields. Anyway, once you have at least a couple "food forest" or symbiotic links established, the plants, fungi, and animal helpers you have hopefully been cultivating all start working together to maintain themselves, with less and less input from you as the cultivator. Nitrogen fixers and other plants with long roots draw up nutrients from deep in the soil, for themselves and the other things around them. Flowers attract helpful pollinating birds, insects, and other animals where you want them to go (and also flowers can help strategically keep them away from areas where you don't want those things to be). Trees and bushes provide solid climbing foundations and shade to plants who need them, as well as fertilizer for new growth with their falling leaves, and other organic matter they attract/shed. There are a bunch of basic guides, articles, and books you can look up. I don't know if any one is really "definitive", which kinda makes sense given the diverse and adaptive nature of Permaculture. This article is pretty good though, and might get interested folks started- https://foreverfarms.org/how-to-build-a-permaculture-garden/ For emergency pest and weed control, some very helpful and relatively environmentally friendly products I've found to be useful are pretty simple. One is called Neem oil, which helps control fungi, bugs, and other unwanted spreading things. The other is simply a basic mixture of vinegar and water, which can clean lots of different things, including outdoor stuff. These two, combined with the permaculture'd plants protecting each other, solves most of my weed and pest problems. Not all problems admittedly, and unsurprisingly since nobody else in my neighborhood seems to apply these principles, so I'm sometimes basically at war with their versions of nature, lol. The big one is just weeds with deep, hardy structures like nightshade and creeping charlie. Those, I still have to get down with my kneepads and gloves and try to dig out directly. That's a bit back-breaking sometimes, but it's not too bad, and it's still ultimately more enjoyable than maintaining a 'standard' flower/vegetable garden was in the past. I have also found it interesting to study Three Sisters planting methods, native amerikan crop farming knowledge that shares a lot in common with permaculture (and it likely was partially inspired by those older methods). The corn, beans, and squash plants in traditional Three Sisters setups work extremely well together once they get going, and require very little ongoing maintenance. Just planting and harvesting, basically. It might be a good thing to start with for interested people who don't want to commit to redesigning their whole yard right away. https://www.almanac.com/content/three-sisters-corn-bean-and-squash Once I have a little more free time, I plan to share some pictures of my garden. Gotta run for now though, see you all later, and happy gardening! Orbs fucked around with this message at 15:54 on Mar 18, 2024 |
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Mar 18, 2024 15:45
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TraderStav posted:Southeast Michigan, haven't timed it but area gets sun most of the day. Probably start with just romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions. If you want easy mode, you can literally just buy a bunch of green onions from the grocer's and stick them in a couple inches of soil and they'll be happy. Or just a glass of water if you're planning on going through them in a week or two. And I don't know what your long-term plans are, but it's worth pointing out that bunching onions will be happy to self-propagate if you don't pull them all up between growing seasons. And if you're going to treat them as perennials, then it can be worthwhile to look up different cultivars for whatever your intended culinary use is. I've been growing Ishikura Improved bunching onions for a couple years now (propagated I got from seed I originally got from Kitazawa before they became True Leaf Market), and they're really nice if you want a bunch of greens for continuous harvest. They were bred to produce a lot of the white part of the onion (you can keep mounding soil around the base as they grow to get almost two feet of white if you keep at it), but I hardly ever pull them up for that because the greens are so good. I also grow other heirloom alliums (potato onions, grey shallots, replicator, shallots, and so on) but they have different growth habits and I have no idea if you need/want an infodump on them.
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Mar 18, 2024 16:44
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SubG posted:Other people have mentioned how a 5 gallon bucket is overkill for lettuce, I'll mention that it's overkill for onions. Like lettuce, almost all alliums (onions, garlic, shallots, chives, and so on) can be grown in very shallow containers. Thinking something like (or actually) this for the lettuce: https://www.costco.com/self-watering-elevated-garden-planter.product.100424059.html Then do buckets for most everything else. I had a green onion infestation at my first home so have committed to never planting those in open soil ever again! As far as the perennial conversation, I'm leaving lots of open slack on the future plans as I don't know a lot in this space and am sure that my opinion will change as I gain experience and knowledge. So going with the slam dunk stuff that doesn't overcommit on things like dedicated space(s) for beds and such at this time.
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Mar 18, 2024 16:59
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Motronic posted:a new invasive pest: the asian ambrosia beetle.
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Mar 18, 2024 18:42
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My neighbor gave us a CSA box she couldn't use and it has a bunch of these delicious greens in it Anyone know what they are? They seem like shoots/baby greens of some kind but idk what. Baby chard? Beet shoots? Is that a thing? Whatever it is i wanna grow some
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Mar 18, 2024 19:34
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The one on the left looks like baby chard maybe.
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Mar 18, 2024 19:37
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alnilam posted:My neighbor gave us a CSA box she couldn't use and it has a bunch of these delicious greens in it Fun fact: Swiss chard IS beet shoots, just a different cultivar
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Mar 18, 2024 20:49
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Lawnie posted:Fun fact: Swiss chard IS beet shoots, just a different cultivar 
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Mar 18, 2024 20:51
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I was setting up my new Wifi hose timer and got a little caught up in the moment and oops, now I've planted english peas and two kinds of beets. We're supposed to get an overnight freeze this week so I might regret leaving the hose out, but the beets must go on.
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Mar 18, 2024 20:55
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Chad Sexington posted:I was setting up my new Wifi hose timer and got a little caught up in the moment and oops, now I've planted english peas and two kinds of beets.
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Mar 18, 2024 22:24
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So damned ready for the soil to warm up. Every year I think “ha, why was I so restless last year” and then I get progressively more jittery with anticipation until new plants start hitting the garden in earnest. It’s like releasing a held breath.
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Mar 19, 2024 00:53
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Chad Sexington posted:Those don't even have true leaves yet though. Can't pot up until they do. Planted mine a week after you OP and I just potted up a bunch in the last few days. diluted? why not just give them the REAL SAUCE (these were seeds on jan 15th)  I had to move the few I intend to grow outdoors into Gallon jugs just so I don't have to keep hydroponic watering them twice a day like the others:  I'm going to give most away to friends and at work once I harden them off. The roots on some of these ghost peppers are crazy  I only grew so many to make sure I had at least one healthy one of each variety I wanted, but all of them are super-mutants.
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Mar 19, 2024 01:32
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are you just going to cut open those cups to release those lol
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Mar 19, 2024 02:12
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