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Dandelion leaves are edible, their flowers can be made into wine, their root can be roasted into a coffee substitute AND they attract beneficial predatory insects. I'd like to start a dandelion fan club
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Apr 11, 2011 04:23
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My backyard is rapidly approaching more dandelion than lawn. If it was just me worrying about having some green ground for the kids to play on I'd call it a day and be glad they were so hardy. My problem is that they are intensely competitive and constantly blow into the garden making weeding a constant pain in the rear end, even more so than it would normally be. I'm perfectly happy with my green smorgasbord of weeds and crabgrass up front, I'm just trying to eliminate another sap of time in the back with the garden. Edit: I'll eat the hell out of some dandelion greens but whoever decided that crap was a coffee substitute was high as hell. We tried all sorts of recipes during my heavy backpacking/survivalism days and it all just tasted like burnt dirt in hot water. I did not realize they attracted beneficial insects.
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Apr 11, 2011 04:24
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mischief posted:Edit: I'll eat the hell out of some dandelion greens but whoever decided that crap was a coffee substitute was high as hell. There was a war on, you jerk! The U-boats sunk all the good coffee.   To be honest, there's really not much reason to wage a war against dandelions- they don't sting or scratch, they're not toxic to people or animals, sure they have big tap-roots but not as big as some other weeds like flax or brambles, they tend not to out compete anything other than grass etc etc. They are one of the least harmless weeds. And fun! *whooosh*
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Apr 11, 2011 11:11
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I keep dandelions out of my garden with fire. Every day when I'm doing my rounds in the garden, ill just flick out a lighter and set fire to any seed heads that I see, which keeps them pretty controlled. Plus its surprisingly pretty and soothing.
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Apr 11, 2011 12:33
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I got my perennial herb garden planted this weekend!  I just have to mulch it and I'll take some pictures. It runs along the front of my house and its also meant to be decorative too instead of just functional. I can't wait for them to grow in more. I got most of the plants for my tea garden, but I didn't have time to plant them yet.
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Apr 11, 2011 18:11
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Marchegiana posted:If you're looking for a small flowering tree that can tolerate moist clay soil I'd recommend either a dogwood (Cornus florida) or a redbud (Cercis canadensis). They both grow like crazy here in our heavy clay Virginia soils, and I know for a fact they will grow in zones as cold as 5a. Downy serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea) is also a beautiful flowering tree with the added bonus of edible fruit, assuming you get it before the birds. They're a lot harder to find however. We planted some dogwood hedge at my parent's place about 7 years ago in the top of a little hill that's exposed to a crazy amount of dry-as-gently caress Canadian Prairie Winter wind in Alberta, and they do just fine. Also yes, saskatoons (serviceberries) are amazing and make the best jam and pies. Plant as many as you can.
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Apr 11, 2011 19:36
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ToastFaceKillah posted:I talked to my husband about it....we're moving one about 10 feet to the left, so we have one on each side of our porch, and he's going to build a new trellis to go all the way across. Nice way to have a semi-private porch. and if it dies, we'll go buy another one Nice. Here is a video the University newspaper shot of our vineyard at WKU. http://youtu.be/UgYH5SHgm3c
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Apr 11, 2011 20:07
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I feel really retarded having to ask this question, but when I'm weeding, do I need to dig them up by the roots or is cutting them off at ground level good enough? I've been using my little hand hoe/cultivator thing and hacking them off at the base, which usually cuts them just below the dirt. Is that good enough? Really, I'm sorry if this is the dumbest question ever.
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Apr 11, 2011 22:57
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Most weeds will grow right back if you leave the root.
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Apr 11, 2011 23:00
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stimpy posted:I feel really retarded having to ask this question, but when I'm weeding, do I need to dig them up by the roots or is cutting them off at ground level good enough? I've been using my little hand hoe/cultivator thing and hacking them off at the base, which usually cuts them just below the dirt. Is that good enough? Most weeds have elaborate root systems that store lots of starch so the weed has the energy to grow back time and time again. The idea of hoeing is that is allows you to keep the weeds down without disturbing established plants. You should dig over your plot at the start of the year, remove as many weeds/roots as you can, plant your vegetables and then hoe in between them to fight back the weeds without the risk of damaging your vegetables. I don't have a hoe so when my veggies are growing and I can see weed seedlings, I pinch them off at ground level. If they're in an area you can dig without upsetting a plant you want, then dig them up! A narrow trowel can help you get in there.
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Apr 11, 2011 23:45
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Got a tomato plant from the school green house, my professor helps us make some beast tomato plants. These were transplanted 3 times from 64 count flats to 32 to gallon pots. Each time they were buried as far down as they could go. Hit with nitrogen from fish emulsion and the green house was allowed to go down to 45*f at night. 
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Apr 12, 2011 04:21
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Good looking plant! Its outgrown that 1 gallon though; warm enough in your area to go in the ground yet?
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Apr 12, 2011 05:50
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dwoloz posted:Good looking plant! Yeah,unless I want to be paranoid. I might be getting a earthbox in a couple of days for my birthday. So I'm kind of waiting to see if I get it. I'd like to try it in there. If not my plot will be tilled by Wednesday and it will go out there. Hopefully I will be getting a lot more next Monday. My teachers sees me at the farmers market every week and pretty much every ag event on campus so he tries to hook me up.
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Apr 12, 2011 06:03
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Hi folks. I'm about to take advantage of the spring to make my own foray into gardening with my otherwise barren yard and I have some questions: What's the advantage to transplanting store-bought plants versus sprouting your own from seed? There's the obvious time advantage I suppose since you don't have to wait as long for viable plants, but is there a better success rate with the store-bought versions than seedlings, are they heartier and more resistant to strain and shocks, do they produce as well? I'm just really not understanding the appeal beyond not having to start seedlings, but it's apparently quite popular judging by the brisk business the nurseries around here are doing. I'm not really clear on how to improve the soil on my property, either. My dirt is lousy with clay and rocks, doesn't even grow grass or weeds, and was probably fouled by the last owner's dogs. I'm planning on starting with containers anyway, but assuming I want to actually improve the soil quality, how do I go about it? I assume it means mixing in organic matter over time, like mulch or compost. But how long will it take to get something I can use for planting veggies and herbs, how can I tell if it's ready to use? Is there a certain ratio of compost I can mix with the dirt and have it ready to use for *this* season? Thanks!
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Apr 13, 2011 05:04
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A Fistful of Dicks posted:Hi folks. I'm about to take advantage of the spring to make my own foray into gardening with my otherwise barren yard and I have some questions: There are pros and cons to growing from seed or buying plug plants, so I'll try and address some of them. -Instant results with plants. You don't have to wait and hope that your seeds germinate, you know you've got a plant right there. You don't have to worry about your seeds getting eaten by rodents, or tiny seedlings being annihilated by slugs or birds. -Time. You can pick up later in the season if you buy plants and will still get success planting straight in the ground. -Makes sense in smaller gardens. Let's say I'm a newbie, this is my first year and want to grow some courgettes. I can either buy a packet of seeds with about 12 seeds in there and will probably end up growing way too many courgette plants and drown in courgettes. Or for about the same price I can buy a ready to go plant. -Space. Some people don't want lots of little pots and seed trays hanging around, or don't have the windowsill space to germinate seeds. Plants can go straight in the ground. So, there are some species that make sense to buy as plants- some of the more tropical plants like chillies or aubergines can be hard to germinate, or others like peas tend to be very vulnerable as seedlings (mine got brutally attacked by birds and mice last year). If it's a cropping plant, something that will grow more than one vegetable above ground based partially on the care you give it, then it's perfectly okay to buy it as a plant. However, many nurseries sell plants that are a complete rip off. If you're buying carrot plants for $1 a plant, you are being ripped off. Each plant will only make 1 carrot, so you're paying $1 a carrot which cuts out one of the benefits of growing your own foods. There is absolutely no point in buying root vegetables as plants. The same goes for cut and come again salad- leaves like rocket and perpetual spinach are super easy to grow from seed straight in the ground. Hope that gave you a clearer idea. A Fistful of Dicks posted:I'm not really clear on how to improve the soil on my property, either. My dirt is lousy with clay and rocks, doesn't even grow grass or weeds, and was probably fouled by the last owner's dogs. I'm planning on starting with containers anyway, but assuming I want to actually improve the soil quality, how do I go about it? I assume it means mixing in organic matter over time, like mulch or compost. But how long will it take to get something I can use for planting veggies and herbs, how can I tell if it's ready to use? Is there a certain ratio of compost I can mix with the dirt and have it ready to use for *this* season? The first thing I would recommend you do is test your soil. You can get soil testing kits from a garden centre or somewhere like Home Depot and they will tell you the pH of your soil so you can rebalance it. You can also get kits that assess what nutrients the soil is lacking in. It's a bit worrying that your soil doesn't even grow grass or weeds, whereabouts do you live? My parent's garden also has very heavy clay with lots of rocks. The way I got my soil up to scratch was to start with a small area and add a plot each year. You don't have to make raised beds (it's a good idea if a bed is going to be under a tree though so you don't have to struggle as much with roots). -Mark out your bed. It should be a size that's easy to access without stepping on it. My beds are about 1.5m by 1m. -Get in there with a garden fork, dig everything over, break up large clumps of soil. Throw any roots you find into a bucket to go in the bin (or green bin if your local council provides one. Don't put them in the compost heap, they won't break down and could contaminate compost with weeds), throw any rocks you find in a pile outside of your bed. -dig in a generous amount of organic matter such as compost or rotted manure. -sow something hardy in the bed. You might want to start with a green manure to improve the soil quality, like red clover, or try growing sunflowers as they can help to remove anything toxic from the soil. -Next year dig it over again, add some compost again, grow something you really want to grow. -keep a garden diary so you remember what you planted where. This is so you can practice crop rotation as you go on. Don't get your hopes up too high for the first year. I made my first bed when I was 15 and managed to grow 3 tomato plants, none of which produced very many tomatoes. Such is life. If you go hog wild with store bought compost in the bed, you will get results this year, but I personally like the slow and steady approach.
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Apr 13, 2011 10:49
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You could plant something in the ground this year if you use the lasagna gardening technique (also called sheet composting). Basically you just build a big flat compost heap where you want your bed to be and plant stuff right onto the top of it. Works best with hardy plants like tomatoes and squash. They'll grow there this year, then next year you till it in and you'll have a decent bed. I've done this for the past 3 years, adding a new bed onto my existing with the lasagna technique, and I now have 4 awesome 4' by 8' veggie beds. The most recent one is still a bit rough, but by next year it'll be perfect.
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Apr 13, 2011 13:50
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So the quail got underneath one of my nets, ate one of my 18 inch bell pepper plants to the ground. I really wish it was quail season: I'd buy a shotgun. Oh well, I have a couple seedlings that I got started late that are doing just dandy. They'll be runts next to the big boys out in the earthboxes, but meh. I have a spot, so we'll see what happenes. In other news my san marzanos are going freaking crazy. I can't get over how well these guys have grown. I remember when they were wee little seeds in a packet. Their success is inevitable at this point. As for the rest of the peppers, the hungarian waxes are already fruiting, the rest of the bells are still bushing out a bit before they get rolling. Oh and the CSA gave us a killer, super-healthy eggplant start last night as part of our share. That guy's getting a home this weekend.
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Apr 13, 2011 15:32
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A Fistful of Dicks posted:What's the advantage to transplanting store-bought plants versus sprouting your own from seed? To add to the very good information madlilnerd already posted: - For most climates you need to start certain vegetables inside to get a real growing season out of them. They are for warmer climates, but it is common to "cheat" by starting them inside and putting them out as a seedling as soon as you weather is good enough. Tomatoes in most parts of the US are a perfect example of this. - Starting seeds indoors is a completely different discipline from gardening. Doing things wrong (and you can do it wrong in non obvious ways, where you think everything is fine and merrily go about using the seedlings you started) can be confusing later in the season to a new gardener. Was is your seed starts? Was it something that happened later once it was in the garden? - Plenty of things aren't worth buying. Anything that should be direct seeded in the ground in your climate should simply be direct seeded. madlilnerd pretty well covered that part. Save yourself some time and buy seedlings for non-root stuff this year. Make sure you get the gardening part down and that you are successful before you try indoor seed starting (it's a bit late for that now anyway depending on where you are).
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Apr 13, 2011 21:22
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What is going on with my tomato plant? I have some plants that are a couple of weeks old, and on one, I noticed while watering, some silvery spots on the leaves. My first suspicion, after research on the internet, was that it's powdery mildew. The plant is fairly young so I clipped one of the affected leaves and upon closer inspection, found that these white spots are not powdery in the least. In fact, the white specks are more silvery than white, and it's like they're the beginning of holes. The silvery spots go through the leaves and are almost translucent. So, goons, what the heck is going on with my plant? It's only affected one of the three plants I have planted and here is what the leaves look like. (Also, the black specks are just dirt) Also, you can see that the edge seems to be curling, and there seems to be a chunk out of the bottom of it... I did find some ants around my porch recently with the rise in temperature around these parts - and while the bottom "eaten" portion could possibly be ants, I don't think the silvery spots are.   Any suggestions?
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Apr 14, 2011 20:14
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Looks like the early stages of leafminer damage. The leafminer in its larval form burrows between the outer layers of the leaves, eating all the soft green goodness in the middle and leaving just the tough outer layer of the leaf. Eventually as those suckers get bigger they'll leave bigger and bigger trails through the leaf. Because they're literally inside the leaf there's no real way to get rid of them other than removing and disposing of the affected foliage.
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Apr 14, 2011 21:02
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OK did a little bit more research and now I think it might be thrips. The pictures that I'm finding online seem to correlate with what I'm seeing... fortunately, I still have my container of nematodes in the fridge. It might not get rid of all of them, but I'm thinking it'll hopefully get rid of future generations of them. Possibly will try neem oil as well. Took a better look at the plants today and am finding these white spots on my pepper plants as well as my other tomatoes. Also, this website "diagnosed" my plants with thrips. Although my plants weren't African Violets, I'm guessing a lot of the diagnoses apply to other plants as well and some other people might find this of use. http://www.optimara.com/doctoroptimara/10000-10006/10001.html
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Apr 14, 2011 23:29
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Flying insect pests are so annoying because they can spread so quickly. I got a bad whitefly infestation in my house from a Home Depot house plant, and it was a many months long, losing battle. They just kept coming back, and eventually everything was too far gone and I had to toss everything except my orchids, which were too tough to be a target.
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Apr 15, 2011 04:08
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Arghhh I hate squirrels! Little bastards eat all the food out of my mum's bird feeder and then still trash my sunflowers! I'm tempted to start "harvesting" them from the garden
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Apr 15, 2011 15:45
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Out here in AZ it's the moths. I've lost so many herb plants to the drat moths. We had the same thing happen at work relative to your whitefly infestation. Someone brought in a new plant that was just loaded and it pretty much wrecked all the plants in the building. Sucked. 
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Apr 15, 2011 15:46
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I started a container garden about a month ago. I'd like to have a raised garden, or an in-ground one, but since I rent where I live and space is at a premium I decided to go with container. Everything's already planted, but when I was buying pots it was hard to find out how big a pot a specific plant needed, since the instructions I could find were for planting them in a conventional garden. So I had to pretty much make educated guesses at what sized pot, and sometimes it just went in whatever spare ones I had lying around or could get off of relatives. Is there a guide anywhere to what size pots to use to certain vegetables? Most of what I planted are peppers, two tomatoes, two okra, and some collard greens. Also some herbs, but they seem to be doing pretty good in the smaller pots I had.
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Apr 15, 2011 20:27
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madlilnerd posted:Arghhh I hate squirrels! Squirrels are assholes. If they don't knock over your seed trays they'll dig through them causing equal devastation. I've heard the meat is actually good. There's stigma around it but I say cook some up
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Apr 15, 2011 21:47
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No real stigma in the UK, grey squirrels are an invasive species and they've started appearing in gourmet butchers all over the place in the last few years. Was reading up on the laws today, the forestry commission recommend bashing them over the head or shooting with a shotgun or air rifle if experienced. It's actually an offence to release them, so if I did put our humane trap out (we had a problem with them in our loft a few years ago) I'd have to kill them. It makes me a little uncomfortable, but they're really becoming vermin in our area because people like my mum put out food for the birds and get it raided. They haven't really got any natural predators and all they do is dig up and eat bulbs and freshly planted things and swarm all over the place. There have got to be some redneck goons who know how to prepare squirrel. Maybe it's time I started hanging round Goons With Spoons outside of the cake thread.
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Apr 15, 2011 23:50
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madlilnerd posted:There have got to be some redneck goons who know how to prepare squirrel. Maybe it's time I started hanging round Goons With Spoons outside of the cake thread. I'm a pretty big redneck and I don't know anybody who eats squirrel around here. That said, I am risking the garden with county made compost this year. I just drove just shy of 2000 lbs of it home for $21 + gas. That is criminally inexpensive and I hope I don't come to regret the decision. 
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Apr 16, 2011 00:53
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madlilnerd posted:There have got to be some redneck goons who know how to prepare squirrel. Maybe it's time I started hanging round Goons With Spoons outside of the cake thread. Plenty of ways! Squirrel gumbo, cook it much like you would with chicken in gumbo. Pretty much the same for squirrel stew. Unless you like a more gamey flavor though, I'd recommend doing it in a gumbo or stew or something similar where the other flavors can help cover the gamey taste. Otherwise, you could just grill/roast it like any other meat. I'd imagine if you skin, gut, and clean it up real could you could just stuff it with some onions and maybe an apple or something and roast it up in the oven or smoke it. Squirrel is still eaten down here in Mississippi.
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Apr 16, 2011 03:26
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Reading this got me thinking and I don't think I've seen a single squirrel in our little subdivision since we moved 5 years or so ago. We have a serious rabbit problem, but no squirrels. I suppose it's a habitat issue. Every yard has a deck and a Dutch barn that rabbits love to live under but most of the trees are fairly young Bradford Pears. Still weird to see no squirrels anywhere in NC.
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Apr 16, 2011 04:22
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mischief posted:I'm a pretty big redneck You say this and then post a picture of your pickup that is conspicuously missing dual 3" stacks coming out of the front of the bed? For shame.
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Apr 16, 2011 04:32
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Well there was more than one gun in the truck and the radio stays on an AM bluegrass station. That counts for something, surely.
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Apr 16, 2011 04:46
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mischief posted:
We have a bunch of squirrels around our yard. They usually stay away because one of our dogs wants to murder the poo poo out of them (she's caught one).
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Apr 16, 2011 04:51
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I phrased that poorly. I meant it's weird to see any part of this state not having squirrels all over everything. Tomorrow is going to be extremely frustrating, I can already tell. 60% chance of thunderstorms. I've got a new part of the garden to have checked and flagged for wires, etc. Sod to come up. A ton of compost to unload. A gigantic wooden swing set to move. Some top dressed salt hay to till under in the old part of the garden. And a lawn to mow. Dammit.
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Apr 16, 2011 04:57
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madlilnerd posted:excellent advice thank you! Motronic posted:To add to the very good information madlilnerd already posted: i'm in VA, and oddly enough, we only had our last frost two weeks ago or so (it's been an unusually cold spring). either way thanks for your advice, too!
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Apr 16, 2011 05:47
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PVT Cannonballs posted:Plenty of ways! Squirrel gumbo, cook it much like you would with chicken in gumbo. Pretty much the same for squirrel stew. Like most gamey meats, you can marinade in buttermilk for a while. It'll tenderize as well. Chicken fried squirrel actually doesn't sound so bad. Who knows? Plant update: Bloody hell if we don't have peppers. The chiles have solid .75 to 1 inch fruits going and a couple of bells have started. The tomato plants are still bushing out nicely and starting to show blooms as well. Gonna be a good year methinks. Well, now that I have the nets bolted down tight. 
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Apr 16, 2011 16:22
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PVT Cannonballs posted:Plenty of ways! Squirrel gumbo, cook it much like you would with chicken in gumbo. Pretty much the same for squirrel stew. When I said "prepare squirrel" I meant like I need the stage in between ~fresh dead squirrel~ and ~delicious cooked squirrel~. Do you bleed them out? How do you get the organs out of something so small without rupturing them and getting squirrel innards everywhere? I don't have much experience butchering animals, I dissected a whole lamb at college and I've helped prepare a small dead pig, but squirrels look so small and fiddly. Maybe I should go ask the meat rabbit lady for advice. Oh, also my garden is full of wood pigeons and I know they taste good. A combo squirrel and pigeon pie might be in order...
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Apr 16, 2011 18:43
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madlilnerd posted:When I said "prepare squirrel" I meant like I need the stage in between ~fresh dead squirrel~ and ~delicious cooked squirrel~. Do you bleed them out? How do you get the organs out of something so small without rupturing them and getting squirrel innards everywhere? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66AVwthXgMA edit: topic retitle to homesteading? dwoloz fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Apr 16, 2011 |
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Apr 16, 2011 23:21
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Squirrel dug up part of my planter last night but didn't actually disturb anything I've planted. I guess that answers my question as to the effectiveness of bird netting against squirrels. I didn't have a problem with them last year, he must have hidden something there in the winter. In this strange spring my snow peas are going strong up their trellis, lettuces are booming, but my rainbow chard I planted in January never did anything. Gardening is always a crap shoot for me. I don't even like chard that much, but I figured it was a good January thing to plant.
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Apr 17, 2011 01:50
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hepscat posted:In this strange spring my snow peas are going strong up their trellis, lettuces are booming, but my rainbow chard I planted in January never did anything. Gardening is always a crap shoot for me. I don't even like chard that much, but I figured it was a good January thing to plant. Rainbow chard is so pretty, it looks great in herb or flower boarders. My ultimate goal is to have a traditional English cottage garden with boarders filled with a beautiful mix of vegetables, herbs and pollinators. The first step is to find a rich single man so I can move into a place with a garden before I'm 37 (that is the average age of a first time buyer without financial assistance from relatives). All the gardening I do is at my parent's place and with my chosen degree (ceramic design), chances are I'm going to live a very poor and gardenless life  Do any of you guys live in rental properties? Did you have to ask permission from the landlord before putting in beds for vegetables?
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Apr 17, 2011 11:52
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