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Pheasant Revolution posted:I just saw a thing about no-dig gardening that suggests keeping the soil matrix intact results in better soil. So, no digging over or killing the grass, you just put your beds right on top, the grass will just go back to enrich the soil. It was this week's Gardener's World with Charles Dowding if anyone is interested (ep7) I'm doing this! It's being done on one of my garden beds and the allotment. I didn't know it was an actual thing people did if I'm honest so It was a major relief to have somone say I'm not going horribly wrong. I just thought that as the earth was full of worms they would be doing the work for me, and there was no point in chopping and shredding dandelion roots I'd missed or aggravating any dormant seeds, as that would just make them angry and fight back. The old men at the allotment keep offering me a rotivator and I keep saying maybe later, but now I've been able to point them to GW and they think I'm slightly less batty. I've had to remove the top layer of weeds to make it usable for this year but other than that I've just raked over for the seeds and dug a trench for the potatoes and back filled them with earth and manure. The allotment has been dormant for about 3 years so the soil structure should be intact. The bed which is part of a larger experiment has a layer of weed membrane over the grass and then bark on top to weigh it down, it was originally cardboard with compost over the top but that wasn't working. It's been left alone for a month now but won't have anything planted in it till spring. I'm going to be comparing it to the beds I've dug out and refilled with new soil, the beds that have had the top layer removed and then weed membrane and bark, and then the traditional bed as a control which has had top layer removed and then the earth dug over with no weed membrane. There are 7 beds so lots of scope for being a total nerd. learnincurve fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Apr 23, 2017 |
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Apr 23, 2017 19:09
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I throw old potting soil full of roots in my hot composer. Which is a bin of vegetable scraps, cat piss, small corpses, and pine dust I leave in a black garbage bin in the sun. It somehow all composts into beautiful hummus a year later.
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Apr 23, 2017 19:45
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snucks posted:Not a troll. My indoor gardening experience is limited to ferns and seedlings I keep continually moist and succulents I water twice a month. I've successfully grown rosemary outdoors two years in a row following a biweekly watering so I didn't realize I was loving up this badly Terracotta allows water to evaporate really quickly. The tiny size of that container won't help either. Rosemary doesn't like wet feet but it does respond to regular watering, and can grow to a couple feet tall and broad in a season if you put them in a container with 3 or 4 gallons. I can tell from the picture alone that the dirt is bone dry, you should probably give it water every couple/few days.. Stick a fingertip into the dirt and see if you can feel any moisture, and if not, go ahead and water. Rosemary is fairly hardy but it responds well enough to good earth and water and light, that you'll have enough to cook all year from it. I usually get rid of my rosemary after it gets 3 or 4 years old because a lot of it gets too woody to use, and a new plant is just a couple dollars.
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Apr 23, 2017 23:11
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Jan posted:Comedy picture of the extra tomato plants I kept indoors due to lack of planters outdoors. Not enough light, you say? Yeah that looks spindly as gently caress, aka not enough light.
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Apr 24, 2017 02:42
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Is there any good way of keeping rabbits out of my garden besides building a fence? The little rodent robbers are eating my strawberry plants.
LLSix fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Apr 24, 2017 |
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Apr 24, 2017 02:51
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Not really no. Would be cheaper to build a wire fence round the strawberries and put net over the top to stop the birds.
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Apr 24, 2017 06:39
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I found the no dig chap's website and there are guides http://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/no-dig-growing/no-dig-growing-preparation/
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Apr 24, 2017 08:23
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coyo7e posted:Rosemary is fairly hardy but it responds well enough to good earth and water and light, that you'll have enough to cook all year from it. I usually get rid of my rosemary after it gets 3 or 4 years old because a lot of it gets too woody to use, and a new plant is just a couple dollars. Nah, what you do is let that rosemary grow huge and woody and then chop the whole thing down and use it to smoke meat with.
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Apr 24, 2017 14:20
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Spookydonut posted:Yeah that looks spindly as gently caress, aka not enough light. Completely agreed. That's exactly how tomato plants look when they lack light and will produce lovely/few tomatoes. They should have far more leaves and far less stem. Random tomato picture from the internet: 
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Apr 24, 2017 15:29
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So I've got a bunch of pepper plants and I know it's too cold to put them outside, but I have so many I put some outside because I don't have anymore room indoors. The ones in bigger pots of dirt just aren't growing much, at least to the ones I've kept inside. However there is one whose leaves are turning white/bleached and falling apart. This one is in the smallest pot, and it has grown a bit. It also gets the most sun and is in a slightly exposed place, in regards to wind. I tried to get a picture, but the bleaching doesn't really show up properly on photo. I imagine it's just some sort of reaction to the cold of the nights? We've had about 10 degrees celsius except for the last two days where it's warmed up substantially.
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Apr 24, 2017 17:33
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I'm not trying to be the dreamcrusher here but the reality is that with your current set up you have either too many plants or not enough of the bigger pots so you can put more of them into one. If you lack the space then one healthy plant you can baby is much better than 5 that won't produce peppers. The ones in bigger pots you currently have are not getting enough wind and natural daylight, put them outside during the day and bring them in at night. A actually constructive solution that will allow you to collect them all is to get a mini growhouse/mini greenhouse - does not have to be glass you can use the cheap poly ones that you put up against a wall. If the sunlight is too strong you can put a towel over the top to create shade. If you like them in your house then get a few really nice pot holders and rotate them 
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Apr 24, 2017 18:22
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I realize I wasn't clear. The ones not growing are the ones, which are outside. All the indoor ones are doing great, particularly the ones I've given individual large pots too. They're fine. The ones outdoors are just to gage when the weather gets warm enough so that the indoor peppers don't monopolize all the space. Of those outdoors ones, the ones that share large planters (3 per planter), are doing fine just not growing. There's one that's in an individual largish pot that isn't really going anywhere, I figure it's the cold since there's plenty of light. The one plant that's bleaching and whose leaves are crumbling gets the most sun and gets hit by the most wind, and it's also in the smallest pot on its own. That said I could probably start putting plants outside in the daytime while it's warm. They're doing fine, but there's no reason why the can't do better!
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Apr 24, 2017 18:29
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Sorry to double post again, forgot that I came to post an update. Potatoes, carrots, beetroots, onions, strawberries, blueberries rhubarb crowns and horseradish planted. Space left over is for cauliflower, and some heritage beetroot and purple carrots. Also I intend to grow a shitload of cooch grass because those fuckers are in deep   Edit: oh! You sounded like my pepper hoarding friend from that post, hundreds of 7inch pots, hundreds. I'd use fleece at night and see if you can't construct some form of awning to create shade, banana tree if you want to go all out.
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Apr 24, 2017 18:34
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Cool ok. So the issue is too much sun. That's no trouble. I can definitely put it in a shadier spot. I actually have a nice large wicker basket with just 6 plants and at least 50 liters of dirt. There's a couple of 5+ (close to 10L) liter pots with a single plant each. The planters are also 5+ liters but I've put 3 plants in them (that's 3 rectangular planters). Then I have a handful of small pots in which I put the last few plants for the heck of it, but I'm not expecting much there, but I wasn't going to throw out my sprouts.
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Apr 24, 2017 18:44
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You should really post a photo. I wonder if the "bleaching" you mention is a result of overwatering – leaves tend to turn yellow and even white when a plant is overwatered because the plant extracts vital nutrients from the leaf and then fills it up with water and drops it off as a way of coping. Are there holes in the bottom of your pots? Did you include rocks or broken pottery shards in the bottom of those pots, or did you just dump dirt in there? Are they sitting in pools of water?
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Apr 24, 2017 20:17
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The pot has a hole and is sitting in another pot that should catch any draining (as in it's elevated). The dirt has clay balls at the bottom to allow for more drainage. I just lifted it out and there was a bit of water collected in the second pot, but it wasn't touching the dirt directly at all. I don't think I overwater it. I water it every other day or so, and it sits in full sun for most of the day. I've gotten it droopy before and if I water when that happens it perks right back up. These are the best photos I can get:   Where it looks like there's too much exposure from a light source is really just the leaves going white. There's no yellow-y in between.
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Apr 24, 2017 20:54
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Ahh, then I agree. That definitely sounds like they're getting too much sun.
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Apr 25, 2017 00:06
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Great! Easily remedied. The days are getting warmer too so I should be able to bring out the rest in a few weeks I hope. I can't help but feel it's a bit cruel to expose a few plants to bad conditions, but since this is the first time for me doing this, it allows me to see first-hand the do's and don't's which is immensely valuable in not failing the totality of my plants.
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Apr 25, 2017 06:50
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Hi Gardening goons! I've finally finished reading this thread and love everyone's various setups, from the balcony pots to family farms. The veggie bug has definitely bit me, and since we have a decently sized balcony, I thought why not, let's grow some veggies! We live in Australia, where it's heading towards winter, but luckily where I live there's no frost ("Temperatures colder than in your fridge" was an actual news headline), so I hope I can harvest some things in the next few weeks/months. This is our balcony! My husband bought a lemon tree and a couple peppers (which in retrospect is probably bad timing. Can we keep the plants over winter?) I've gotten some herbs (thyme, rosemary, coriander, basil) and have planted seeds for radishes, perpetual spinach and Mizuna. There's also a pot which I forgot if I put anything in... The lavender is dying probably from over-watering and we might replace it. Live and learn!       So far the herbs are doing fine, but I've noticed that our coriander and thyme have strange little white spots on the leaves. Any idea what that could be?   Eventually I'd like to get a bigger planter (like Jan just bought) for something like snow peas, and maybe tomatoes when it gets warmer (there might not be enough sun but I want to give it a try at least  ). Are there any easy-ish veggies that you can recommend for a balcony?Edit: I think the white spots might be from spider mites  time to bust out insecticide soap and hope that clears it out I guess.
plasmoduck fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Apr 25, 2017 |
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Apr 25, 2017 06:53
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Any garden goons have experience with avocado leaf yellowing/popping up with dead, rust coloured patches? I think it miiiiiight be salinity, but if so I have zero idea how to fix it.
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Apr 27, 2017 07:37
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Does anyone use any apps to organize/plan their vegetable patches? Also has anyone ever grown feijoas?
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Apr 27, 2017 22:30
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cakesmith handyman posted:Also has anyone ever grown feijoas? I do, they are super easy to grow. Northern California, the tips of a few leaves got a little burned during last winter. What questions do you have?
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Apr 28, 2017 05:16
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Any advice on soil and germination would be appreciated, I planted 10 seeds last year and 5 germinated, 3 survived longer than a month, I'm down to one 1" plant now and sewed a bunch more to try again this year. E: also how do you pronounce them? 
cakesmith handyman fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Apr 28, 2017 |
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Apr 28, 2017 06:24
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It depends on what you are trying to germinate and if you are putting it right in the ground or not? You can treat them like they are normal flower plants and germinate in seed trays in the house and transplant outside, which is the better option if you only have a few seeds. To get 10 plants I would sow 50 seeds in a tray, start taking them outside during the day when they sprout, and then thin the weaker ones till I get 20, grow them on some more, plant them in final position, and then thin again down to 10 later on.
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Apr 28, 2017 07:06
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cakesmith handyman posted:Does anyone use any apps to organize/plan their vegetable patches? It has a week-long trial. It's got some features I like, like defining when plants are in the ground for (ie it actually recognizes that the date is an inportant part of planning a garden) and it lets you pick your own varieties, blah blah blah. OTOH It's written in flash, which means using it feels like that feeling when you're digging up potatoes and you put your fingers into the seed potato that you planted and its rotten and slimy and disgusting. Also it's not free. cakesmith handyman posted:E: also how do you pronounce them?
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Apr 28, 2017 07:13
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learnincurve posted:It depends on what you are trying to germinate and if you are putting it right in the ground or not? You can treat them like they are normal flower plants and germinate in seed trays in the house and transplant outside, which is the better option if you only have a few seeds. To get 10 plants I would sow 50 seeds in a tray, start taking them outside during the day when they sprout, and then thin the weaker ones till I get 20, grow them on some more, plant them in final position, and then thin again down to 10 later on. This is only the second year I've taken an active interest in growing so I'm still learning a lot, but I planted them indoors in a seed tray, hoping to get 50% viable plants. Sounds like daily acclimating might have prevented some of the die off also. Thanks. I'll keep trying. More questions, currently my 1 raised bed is nearly 2 foot deep, I see a lot that are half that height, so when everything's died back I'll break it down into 2 shorter beds. We've a compost bin with well rotted kitchen waste and one with mostly garden waste (shredded leaves, grass, cuttings and flowers etc) should I bury some of this at the bottom when I make the second bed? Also is garlic okay in little 5" deep troughs?
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Apr 28, 2017 07:48
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Seed tray or propigator? You can use a clear plastic bag round a seed tray if you don't have the lid. The trick is heat and condensation. With layering a bed you go from the top, the water washes the goodness down through your roots and it breaks down the soil underneath.
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Apr 28, 2017 08:55
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Unheated lidded propigator in warmest window.
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Apr 28, 2017 09:01
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Compost type? I know peat is a dirty word, and yet, it really does work better than any peat-free or special seed composts. If it's cheap own brand and not marked as peat-free then it's mostly peat. If you are in the U.K. then Wilcos own brand £3 compost is the one to use. A argument against stuff like miracle-gro and other named brand composts is that they are rammed full of hormones and chemicals that will without question give you big plants fast, but they don't have the time to develop strong roots so you get much weaker adult plants.
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Apr 28, 2017 09:07
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learnincurve posted:Compost type? I think this may only be true in the UK. I've never seen a peat compost in the USA that wasn't advertised as such and drastically more expensive. Our cheapos seem to be mostly wood chips and gravel.
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Apr 28, 2017 14:25
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It's probably Europe in general, peat comes partly from the UK and Ireland with the bulk being now imported from Russia. If you are growing in the cheap then can make your own compost and soil from coffee grounds, I know people who turn up at Starbucks with a sack and are just given them. Used coffee contains huge amounts of slow release nitrogen and is PH neutral so you can just put it down as mulch if you like.
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Apr 28, 2017 14:32
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learnincurve posted:If you are growing in the cheap then can make your own compost and soil from coffee grounds, I know people who turn up at Starbucks with a sack and are just given them. Used coffee contains huge amounts of slow release nitrogen and is PH neutral so you can just put it down as mulch if you like. In the US, many Starbucks have a little bin of bags of used grounds at the front of the store for anyone to take. Late in 2015 and early in 2016, I was stopping in several times per week, and ended up covering an entire planting bed in a couple of inches of coffee grounds. (I don't drink coffee, but did buy a hot chocolate once in a while just so I didn't look like a complete mooch.) Years ago (I think it was before they commonly put the free used grounds out for people), I lived near 3 Starbucks, and occasionally went out behind the stores at night to get big garbage bags of grounds. It was pretty awesome to get that kind of quantity all at once, and you might be able to find other coffee shops that you can do that with. Maybe even Starbucks - I have no idea what proportion of their used grounds make it into their composting program. If you're really interested in getting stuff to compost, you may also be able to get expired produce from grocery stores. We used to get that for our guinea pigs, and we'd end up having to compost a good portion of it. That's a lot more labor intensive, though - you have to unwrap stuff, pull of twist ties, sort the plastic and styrofoam out of the waste stream, etc.
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Apr 28, 2017 16:18
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Despite a very warm winter and an average last frost date falling in the first half of April, we're forecasted to have temperatures hitting 30-31F Saturday night with a possibility of light snow. While I think my onions and garlic and peas can handle it, what steps should I take to protect my tomatoes and peppers? It's been in the 70s most of the week, Saturday will peak in the upper 40s. I unfortunately don't have enough cardboard boxes to cover all my plants. I could probably suspend a tarp 1-2 feet off the ground (just over the tallest plants), would that help? I don't think the tarp is big enough to spread across all the plants *and* reach down to the ground, I fear.
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Apr 28, 2017 16:55
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I've used this garden planner before. Years ago, though, so it may have changed for better or worse: http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com/
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Apr 28, 2017 17:09
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Pham Nuwen posted:Despite a very warm winter and an average last frost date falling in the first half of April, we're forecasted to have temperatures hitting 30-31F Saturday night with a possibility of light snow. While I think my onions and garlic and peas can handle it, what steps should I take to protect my tomatoes and peppers? It's been in the 70s most of the week, Saturday will peak in the upper 40s. The biggest heat loss is straight up into a clear sky at night so anything you can do to cover the top will help. A full covering down the side and ends would be even better. Thermal mass in the form of water is also good. You might have enough time to get them surrounded by gallon jugs of water that will pick up some heat during the day. Burying them in loose dry mulch like straw is another option.
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Apr 28, 2017 18:27
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We drink a lot of coffee so I'll throw all that in. I really against using peat if I can avoid it, ecologically it's absolutely terrible and pretty much irreplaceable.
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Apr 28, 2017 23:48
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cakesmith handyman posted:We drink a lot of coffee so I'll throw all that in. I really against using peat if I can avoid it, ecologically it's absolutely terrible and pretty much irreplaceable. Coco coir is a substitute that works well, but you have to rinse it due to the fact that there can be a ton of salt in it (depending on who the producer is).
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Apr 29, 2017 00:00
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cakesmith handyman posted:Also is garlic okay in little 5" deep troughs? Other alliums with shallower roots, like chives and bunching onions will be happier in super shallow containers than garlic. With onions if you don't give them enough room generally speaking you'll just end up with smaller bulbs. When garlic gets unhappy they'll often not form bulbs at all, so you'll basically end up with a single garlic clove plus whatever scapes/green garlic it produces (sort of like a garlicky green onion/scallion).
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Apr 29, 2017 01:29
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cakesmith handyman posted:Any advice on soil and germination would be appreciated, I planted 10 seeds last year and 5 germinated, 3 survived longer than a month, I'm down to one 1" plant now and sewed a bunch more to try again this year. Oh, I bought mine as 8" seedlings. Fah Hoe Ah
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Apr 29, 2017 05:59
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My cherry tomato is six feet tall and four feet wide. Despite trimming it aggressively every time I go in there I find "new" three foot long vines that I swear were not there a few days earlier. I am running out of cage to tie the growing vines to and having to improvise with a line across the enclosure. The black krims are right behind it in aggressiveness. I'm scared     The eggplants, cucumbers, and peppers are going nuts but I can manage them. 
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Apr 29, 2017 15:17
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