|
garden's an overgrown mess but it's starting to produce! 
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2020 18:49
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 2, 2024 11:19 |
|
|
Star Me Kitten posted:I haven't. But I do know they are relatively easy to grow; however, if you intend to harvest it for the spice, it takes 150 blossoms to make a single gram of saffron and tens of thousands to make an ounce. some quick math says I only need about a hundred individual flowers to eat biryani for a year
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2020 20:54
|
|
i say swears online posted:some quick math says I only need about a hundred individual flowers to eat biryani for a year Go for it then! Your backyard (or wherever) will be filled with those beautiful flowers, too.
|
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2020 22:33
|
|
|
one of my wintersquash bushes seems to have a mold problem i've had to throw away 5 squashes now that looks exactly the same the foliage looks fine  anything i can do? there are alot of healthy fruits on the vines as well, would be a shame if i have to kill the entire bush on a lighter note i have alot of healthy wintersquashes as well  
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2020 09:27
|
|
Qurnah posted:one of my wintersquash bushes seems to have a mold problem It is possible that you are overwatering or that your soil is not draining well. You can try putting a layer of mulch or straw on top of the soil which will prevent mold by keeping soil moisture away from the squash. I cannot tell from your picture but make sure your bushes are about 4 feet apart in order to have good air circulation. Make sure to water deeply yet infrequently, letting the soil dry in between waterings sessions, and avoid getting the water on the plants. You also might want to do some tests to make sure your soil is draining properly. Your squash looks really good! I hope it works out.
|
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2020 14:14
|
|
|
yeah your soil is too wet, thats what causes that. i never grew wintersquash but melons need like real quick draining soil to not rot while they grow, around here people mix in loess (limestone sand) into their melon patch to keep them drained
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2020 17:22
|
|
|
welp, a groundhog has circumvented the garden defense to snack on my glorious tomatoes luckily I have plenty of them so I will leave friend groundhog alone for now
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2020 17:28
|
|
|
thanks for the input, i will be a little stingier with my watering henceforth
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2020 20:39
|
|
|
Would anyone be interested in helping me design a greenhouse? I snagged 140 glass doors from the dumpster at work. Now I’m a huge coward about actually building the thing. I used to buy all my plants from a local high school horticulture program, but, covid.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2020 13:45
|
|
in'
|
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/ask-expert/featured/greenhouse-dream-it-plan-it-build-it
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2020 20:57
|
|
|
I wasn't expecting much yield from the corn did increase my initial seed outlay by 5-10x though so I'm pretty cool with that but et tu sqashe?  did you get pollinated by just the nastiest bee or something? after action survival garden report, observations and closing remarks. 1: make sure your patch is getting more than 4 hours of sunlight a day, cut down all the neighbor's trees if you have to. I dug mine up in late march then dumbass me was all baffled why the 8 hours of exposure dropped to 4 when all the trees got their leaves 2: bush beans seem way more productive than pole beans, both for green and dried beans. the $1.50 1/4lb bag I got from the hardware store is still 3/4 full and I got more out of them than any of the fancier stuff I planted. 3: millet. I had a little trouble getting the seeds to start and getting the sprouts to survive, but for only being planted in a few extra lovely experimental patches I got -way- more seed out than I put in, like orders of magnitude greater return than the corn for the amount of space and resources inputted. like, I'm p' sure you could toss some seed down by a drainage ditch and just inadvertently end up with a ton of storable calories fall/winter experiment is going to be buckwheat
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2020 22:16
|
|
|
35lbs of tomatoes so far (not all pictured), waiting on them to ripen up for processing. The tomato patch is a mess as every plant is dying and just lying sideways full of tomatoes.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2020 21:25
|
|
|
instinctively licked my lips at them maters
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2020 01:46
|
|
|
roma tomato best tomato
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2020 02:28
|
|
|
I can't decide if ridiculously high density gardening was a success or a failure. On one hand, we're up to almost 80 lbs. of tomatoes and some plants are still holding on and going strong. On the other hand, my two 4x4 planters (9 tomato plants each) got some kind of fungal disease and it spread through those guys like COVID through a Georgia high school. They've also been unmanageable and out of control for like a month now, but they aren't dead yet. We planted a ton of different varieties this year, so it's kind of fun for the kitchen counter to constantly be filled with mixes like this:  Eggplants and peppers both seemed to take pretty well to high intensity gardening, but these little fuckers are my favorite this year:  I think the plants are finally dying off, but we've been getting about as many cucamelons are in that bowl nearly every day for the past 5 weeks now. It owns.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2020 02:46
|
|
|
What do the cucamelons taste like?
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2020 03:57
|
|
|
those things look like cartoon alien eggs.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2020 04:01
|
|
|
Platystemon posted:What do the cucamelons taste like? Citrus-y cucumbers is a pretty good description. The small ones are kind of sweet, larger ones more sour. When they get big they taste like a cucumber dipped in lime juice. They make a really nice snack in the garden but I’m liking them dumped in salads too. “big” is relative though because they only get to be about the size of a grape Paradoxish has issued a correction as of 04:19 on Aug 27, 2020 |
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2020 04:16
|
|
|
My wife wants to turn as much of our backyard into garden as possible. My limiting factor is going to be soil, however. I can make the beds easily enough but to fill them seems like it will get expensive. Are there any hacks to cheap but good soil? I know it's late in the season (Denver, CO) so I'm not expecting to get anything up and going right away that will produce this year, but I'd like to at least be well prepared for next year. Can I just troll Craigslist for free manure and then mix that with some free fill dirt? Is there some magical time of year to look for and hop on soil sales? Obviously I don't have a lot of money for this off the bat - I'll just be able to trickle some funds here and there over to this project. Probably one of the first things I should do is set up a compost bin. I played with square foot gardening for one season about a decade ago, is that still a decent method for planning things out?
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2020 05:15
|
|
|
Organic Lube User posted:My wife wants to turn as much of our backyard into garden as possible. My limiting factor is going to be soil, however. I can make the beds easily enough but to fill them seems like it will get expensive. Are there any hacks to cheap but good soil? what square footage? 20 or 30 dollars in chicken manure was enough to properly nitrogenate like 150-180 sq ft for me. it's work, but digging up and turning over soil is way cheaper than filling beds.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2020 06:46
|
|
|
if you're planting for next spring, mulch is cheap and now's a good time to start it decomposing
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2020 07:00
|
|
|
Organic Lube User posted:My wife wants to turn as much of our backyard into garden as possible. My limiting factor is going to be soil, however. I can make the beds easily enough but to fill them seems like it will get expensive. Are there any hacks to cheap but good soil? There's a lot that goes into good soil and it's hard to kickstart raised beds in one season without really breaking the bank. The problem with cheap fill is that it's going to be effectively "dead" soil, so you're going to need to amend it a ton and for raised beds you may have drainage issues if the texture isn't right. If you're starting now (like right now in the fall), then a good mix of fill and manure might be okay. I'd amend the beds with compost in the spring and then use a good organic fertilizer throughout the season. Good soil really needs to be grown, though. So starting cheap is fine if you're okay with potentially having less-than-stellar results in your first season. If you keep amending with compost and take care of your beds (cover crop in winter and keep them mulched in spring/summer) then you can eventually turn subpar soil into a great growing medium. Also, square foot gardening is fine, but you need to take some things with a grain of salt. You can grow a tomato plant in one square foot, but you need to single stem it and that takes a lot of pruning. I think the guidance for zucchini is like two squares and that's just madness. Making square foot gardening work typically requires really good soil and going aggressively vertical.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2020 12:31
|
|
|
The Voice of Labor posted:what square footage? 20 or 30 dollars in chicken manure was enough to properly nitrogenate like 150-180 sq ft for me. it's work, but digging up and turning over soil is way cheaper than filling beds. That's probably about the square footage I'd be looking to start with. We've got a fairly large back yard but it's on about a 5% grade, so I'm primarily looking to do raised beds because I'll need to have some level ground. The other reason is because dogs and cats have been pooping and peeing all over this yard for years, and I have no idea what pesticides and fertilizers have been used on this yard over the years. Am I just being overly cautious and should just rent a tiller and buy a load of manure to work into it, and then just add compost over the winter? Do I need to eliminate the slope if I do that?
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2020 19:12
|
|
|
My garden is partially on a slope that is probably more than 5% and its fine. Just put your rows so they channel water away rather than over them. People garden on slopes all the time, it doesn't really matter other than in extreme conditions. And figure out the exact bed area you want, then you can determine the fertilizer cost, its probably not that much unless your budget is zero. And with sleuthing probably you can corner some compost/waste/manure for free. If you have a means to transports it. Also raising beds is just extra work unless you want to put them in wood borders or whatever to look nice. Beds can be level with the ground and its fine.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2020 19:25
|
|
|
Well the next major factor aside from the slope would be using soil that has pet waste and unknown ferts and -icides. Would tilling in compost and manure be enough to remediate that?
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2020 23:28
|
|
|
is petpoop bad??
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2020 23:47
|
|
|
I'm just starting out with the assumption that it's at best not great, but I'm open to correction. My general impression is that cat and dog poops are not the same as cow plops.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2020 01:33
|
|
|
Unless your lot is a urban site with previous industry on it, should be fine. Pet poo poo will breakdown by next year. Don't let them poo poo on live veggies though.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2020 01:37
|
|
|
Well I'm not far from some land that got hosed up by a plutonium trigger factory a few decades back, but I doubt that'll be a huge deal, so looks like manure + tiller is gonna be the way to go. Gotta admit, in my mind that's way more what real gardening should be, not so much containers and raised beds.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2020 04:10
|
|
|
Organic Lube User posted:I'm just starting out with the assumption that it's at best not great, but I'm open to correction. My general impression is that cat and dog poops are not the same as cow plops. (poop of the first and third dogs didn't though)
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2020 16:06
|
|
|
Organic Lube User posted:Well I'm not far from some land that got hosed up by a plutonium trigger factory a few decades back, but I doubt that'll be a huge deal, so looks like manure + tiller is gonna be the way to go. You probably won't even have to till honestly, look up no till methods. You can just get a nice fork to losen the soil and pile on fresh compost + fertilizer in the spring. Or just till once to get it all loose if its really compacted.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2020 17:30
|
|
|
Organic Lube User posted:Well I'm not far from some land that got hosed up by a plutonium trigger factory a few decades back, but I doubt that'll be a huge deal, so looks like manure + tiller is gonna be the way to go. Could do some atomic gardening! https://www.atomicgardening.com/
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2020 17:56
|
|
|
just went to my community garden for the first time since brutally and insanely murdering my spine and it’s a total mess. almost everything is lost except a couple scraggly scorpion peppers and an absolutely out of control butternut squash. at least the squash is taking care of itself...
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2020 18:00
|
|
|
it's generally a bad idea to use dog or cat poop directly as fertilizer, and you shouldn't really use cat poop at all if you're going to use dog poop then compost it, but make sure you're doing hot composting and the pile actually gets hot otherwise it's definitely going to be in the realm of not entirely safe (although you probably won't get sick) using an area where a dog pooped once upon a time is fine, though, as long as it's not an active doggy toilet
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2020 02:50
|
|
|
I have picked 150lbs of tomatoes *thus far* I've also ran out of space on tables for ripening, so some spare plastic and the floor it is. Already processed 18 quarts of crushed tomatoes. Tomorrow I'll make some thick sauce that takes forever to simmer. Bonus picture of hillside pumpkins taking over. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2020 01:58
|
|
|
Paradoxish posted:it's generally a bad idea to use dog or cat poop directly as fertilizer, and you shouldn't really use cat poop at all what if i pee on my roses every once in awhile when i'm drunk
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2020 06:17
|
|
|
Sylink posted:I have picked 150lbs of tomatoes *thus far* what is the point of growing pumpkins?
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2020 08:37
|
|
|
LibCrusher posted:what is the point of growing pumpkins? I'm growing pie pumpkins, also called sugar pumpkins. They will be small and round, then you cook them up and eat them. You can make pumpkin chili for example. Basically you can use it as a base for lots of things like tomato sauce, besides pumpkin pies. The decorative pumpkins you see are sometimes called field or carving pumpkins in my experience.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2020 18:14
|
|
|
Organic Lube User posted:Well the next major factor aside from the slope would be using soil that has pet waste and unknown ferts and -icides. Would tilling in compost and manure be enough to remediate that? if you want to be scientific about it, you can get a soil testing kit that will tell you your dirt's ph, and relative nitrogen phosphorus and potassium levels (fancier ones include other elements). the 2nd thing is the dirt's water retention properties, if it's too sandy it won't stay wet if it's too clay it'll be swampy and gross. while it's the thread's joke title, tilling in a bunch of shredded paper or cardboard is a very cheap way to help with that. last is aeration, you want your dirt to be light and fluffy for a number of reasons, other than distributing your soil amendments, that's the reason for tilling or turning. as sylink says, pretty much all of this is optional and you can cover a spot with mulch over a season, throw some seeds down and probably do alright, but the more you work your soil on average the better the results will be.
|
|
#
?
Sep 3, 2020 20:21
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 2, 2024 11:19 |
|
|
thinking about planting poppies. our first weak frost is usually around thanksgiving. can i get a bloom out now before december? if so, would i put them in the freezer for a day or two, then wet in the fridge, then sown outside? i tried planting poppies years and years ago with no takers
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2020 14:48
|
|