Garden thread
Replies
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Ok, so on the subject of boy and girl flowers.....how does one obtain plants with more girl flowers, is there a way or is it luck of the draw? As I said, I've got maybe 3 pumpkins coming. I checked out all the flowers that were still open and they're all boys.
There tend to be some boy flowers first, for some reason - kind of like the first mosquitos (here) tend to be males, so misleadingly benign; then later the unpleasantly pointy females arrive. 😆 AFAIK, other than that tendency for some male flowers to open first, it's random, though I've never really looked into it. All of the squash that are Winter type (i.e., not zukes, and that sort of thing) tend to be very long season, so planting as early as warm enough is important here (Michigan, zone 5) and the process is slow.
IMO, you maybe don't want a zillion pumpkins on one vine, anyway: It takes a lot of energy and nutrients to grow them. The people who grow pumpkins for size will usually thin to one or two pumpkins per vine. If for eating, or a smaller variety, not a big deal.
Well shoot, I have like 50 boy flowers and no female flowers and it's been 100-110 this last week, I'll probably never get female flowers now! I can grow weird stuff but I'm not getting a single zucchini or cucumber. Any tips or should I wait for next month? I'm 9B.
I hope someone else has suggestions, because I'm sorry to say that I don't. I've never gardened in anywhere as hot as that, so I'm not sure if there's a "too much heat" issue, for example. Apologies!0 -
I liked my white balloon flower so much I bought a blue one this spring. It was a later planting and the plant went into transplant shock so i didn't expect it to bloom this year. Well, it happened. The first photo is it last night, about to pop, and the second is it this morning. These really are fun flowers. Native to Asia and hardy for USDA zones 3-8. Taxonomical name: Platycodon Grandiflorus and it comes in pink, white, and a couple of shades of purple.
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I got the first batch of Bartlett pears in the dehydrator this afternoon. I had a fresh one for dessert, and I am pretty sure that Harry and David has nothing on the pears from my back yard.
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veggies from the garden. i see salsa in my future
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@mbaker566
That looks like a cayenne in front, but is that a bunch of habanero behind? Are they the "new" variety with all the flavor but not all the heat? Because if not, that's going to be some hot salsa!1 -
@mbaker566
That looks like a cayenne in front, but is that a bunch of habanero behind? Are they the "new" variety with all the flavor but not all the heat? Because if not, that's going to be some hot salsa!
cayenne and old school habanero
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@mbaker566
That looks like a cayenne in front, but is that a bunch of habanero behind? Are they the "new" variety with all the flavor but not all the heat? Because if not, that's going to be some hot salsa!
cayenne and old school habanero
If you put it ALL in one batch of salsa (with just a few tomatoes), I think I would use your salsa as an INGREDIENT in salsa, and I like hot!1 -
@mtaratoot i'll probable split it up into halves. though one of the recipe called for all the peppers but no
i've got some tomatoes waiting to ripen1 -
Went out to my garden a couple of weeks ago to find two of my four Bell Pepper plants now nothing but a stem out of the ground, leaves all gone like someone just chopped it off. Two days later, other two were gone. So weird and annoying but over the past couple of weeks, leaves started growing on the sides and it was going to be fine, I thought. Back out this morning and everything is gone again. What the heck?!? I find bird feathers in my garden and I know we have some bunnies and a field mouse, no big animals. Do you think it's birds pecking off the stems? It's weird; there was no fruit on them, just leaves.0
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My guess is Mr. Bunny... they can nibble through a garden leaving little behind! My friend lost a BUNCH of new starts early in the summer... there one day, gone the next.Went out to my garden a couple of weeks ago to find two of my four Bell Pepper plants now nothing but a stem out of the ground, leaves all gone like someone just chopped it off. Two days later, other two were gone. So weird and annoying but over the past couple of weeks, leaves started growing on the sides and it was going to be fine, I thought. Back out this morning and everything is gone again. What the heck?!? I find bird feathers in my garden and I know we have some bunnies and a field mouse, no big animals. Do you think it's birds pecking off the stems? It's weird; there was no fruit on them, just leaves.
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moonangel12 wrote: »
My guess is Mr. Bunny... they can nibble through a garden leaving little behind! My friend lost a BUNCH of new starts early in the summer... there one day, gone the next.Went out to my garden a couple of weeks ago to find two of my four Bell Pepper plants now nothing but a stem out of the ground, leaves all gone like someone just chopped it off. Two days later, other two were gone. So weird and annoying but over the past couple of weeks, leaves started growing on the sides and it was going to be fine, I thought. Back out this morning and everything is gone again. What the heck?!? I find bird feathers in my garden and I know we have some bunnies and a field mouse, no big animals. Do you think it's birds pecking off the stems? It's weird; there was no fruit on them, just leaves.
Uuuhhhh, thank you0 -
moonangel12 wrote: »
My guess is Mr. Bunny... they can nibble through a garden leaving little behind! My friend lost a BUNCH of new starts early in the summer... there one day, gone the next.Went out to my garden a couple of weeks ago to find two of my four Bell Pepper plants now nothing but a stem out of the ground, leaves all gone like someone just chopped it off. Two days later, other two were gone. So weird and annoying but over the past couple of weeks, leaves started growing on the sides and it was going to be fine, I thought. Back out this morning and everything is gone again. What the heck?!? I find bird feathers in my garden and I know we have some bunnies and a field mouse, no big animals. Do you think it's birds pecking off the stems? It's weird; there was no fruit on them, just leaves.
FWIW, I've gotten the "nothing left but a stem" effect from woodchucks (groundhogs) and deer, on pepper and similar plants. Since PP says no big animals, probably not deer (though they're all through the suburbs and even sometimes city here, mostly in the night at my place - but there would be tracks. It takes tall fences to stop them entirely.). Woodchucks would have a burrow someplace, probably not far off, if they're there . . . but they like to put them in subtle spots like under sheds and such.
I used to put the plants into some kind of wire-mesh cylinder, and stake it down (if you have old wire hangers, cutting each into two big "bobby pin" shapes works pretty well for fastening these down in my heavier soil). Something like chicken wire (mid-sized hexagonal holes) will work on deer or woodchucks, but surprisingly big bunnies can get through it easily. For them, critter fence works better (small mesh near ground level, gets larger spaces gradually toward the top). If deer, either the cylinder needs to be too narrow for them to get their head in the top (they might nibble leaves off the outside, still), or one needs to put something on top to restrict that. Obviously, need to think about how you get a hand in there to harvest.0 -
moonangel12 wrote: »
My guess is Mr. Bunny... they can nibble through a garden leaving little behind! My friend lost a BUNCH of new starts early in the summer... there one day, gone the next.Went out to my garden a couple of weeks ago to find two of my four Bell Pepper plants now nothing but a stem out of the ground, leaves all gone like someone just chopped it off. Two days later, other two were gone. So weird and annoying but over the past couple of weeks, leaves started growing on the sides and it was going to be fine, I thought. Back out this morning and everything is gone again. What the heck?!? I find bird feathers in my garden and I know we have some bunnies and a field mouse, no big animals. Do you think it's birds pecking off the stems? It's weird; there was no fruit on them, just leaves.
FWIW, I've gotten the "nothing left but a stem" effect from woodchucks (groundhogs) and deer, on pepper and similar plants. Since PP says no big animals, probably not deer (though they're all through the suburbs and even sometimes city here, mostly in the night at my place - but there would be tracks. It takes tall fences to stop them entirely.). Woodchucks would have a burrow someplace, probably not far off, if they're there . . . but they like to put them in subtle spots like under sheds and such.
I used to put the plants into some kind of wire-mesh cylinder, and stake it down (if you have old wire hangers, cutting each into two big "bobby pin" shapes works pretty well for fastening these down in my heavier soil). Something like chicken wire (mid-sized hexagonal holes) will work on deer or woodchucks, but surprisingly big bunnies can get through it easily. For them, critter fence works better (small mesh near ground level, gets larger spaces gradually toward the top). If deer, either the cylinder needs to be too narrow for them to get their head in the top (they might nibble leaves off the outside, still), or one needs to put something on top to restrict that. Obviously, need to think about how you get a hand in there to harvest.
You're giving me ideas, thank you! We live in a fenced neighborhood, no woodchucks either. But I just planted two sweet potato slips today and I might put something over them at night to protect them (since this seems to be when the activity takes place) and take it away in the morning.0 -
moonangel12 wrote: »
My guess is Mr. Bunny... they can nibble through a garden leaving little behind! My friend lost a BUNCH of new starts early in the summer... there one day, gone the next.Went out to my garden a couple of weeks ago to find two of my four Bell Pepper plants now nothing but a stem out of the ground, leaves all gone like someone just chopped it off. Two days later, other two were gone. So weird and annoying but over the past couple of weeks, leaves started growing on the sides and it was going to be fine, I thought. Back out this morning and everything is gone again. What the heck?!? I find bird feathers in my garden and I know we have some bunnies and a field mouse, no big animals. Do you think it's birds pecking off the stems? It's weird; there was no fruit on them, just leaves.
FWIW, I've gotten the "nothing left but a stem" effect from woodchucks (groundhogs) and deer, on pepper and similar plants. Since PP says no big animals, probably not deer (though they're all through the suburbs and even sometimes city here, mostly in the night at my place - but there would be tracks. It takes tall fences to stop them entirely.). Woodchucks would have a burrow someplace, probably not far off, if they're there . . . but they like to put them in subtle spots like under sheds and such.
I used to put the plants into some kind of wire-mesh cylinder, and stake it down (if you have old wire hangers, cutting each into two big "bobby pin" shapes works pretty well for fastening these down in my heavier soil). Something like chicken wire (mid-sized hexagonal holes) will work on deer or woodchucks, but surprisingly big bunnies can get through it easily. For them, critter fence works better (small mesh near ground level, gets larger spaces gradually toward the top). If deer, either the cylinder needs to be too narrow for them to get their head in the top (they might nibble leaves off the outside, still), or one needs to put something on top to restrict that. Obviously, need to think about how you get a hand in there to harvest.
You're giving me ideas, thank you! We live in a fenced neighborhood, no woodchucks either. But I just planted two sweet potato slips today and I might put something over them at night to protect them (since this seems to be when the activity takes place) and take it away in the morning.
That's a good plan.
I know you don't have woodchucks, but I can't even have the ornamental sweet potato vines: The woodchucks, even though they look like sofa cushions with tiny legs, can climb. I put ornamental sweet potatoes in pots on a shallow waist-high cart, with only big metal-spoke wheels for them to climb up, and they ate those plants Every. Time. Perhaps the vines are tasty or nutritious.1 -
I liked my white balloon flower so much I bought a blue one this spring. It was a later planting and the plant went into transplant shock so i didn't expect it to bloom this year. Well, it happened. The first photo is it last night, about to pop, and the second is it this morning. These really are fun flowers. Native to Asia and hardy for USDA zones 3-8. Taxonomical name: Platycodon Grandiflorus and it comes in pink, white, and a couple of shades of purple.
wow this is so cool! I dont think I've ever seen one before.0 -
Went out to my garden a couple of weeks ago to find two of my four Bell Pepper plants now nothing but a stem out of the ground, leaves all gone like someone just chopped it off. Two days later, other two were gone. So weird and annoying but over the past couple of weeks, leaves started growing on the sides and it was going to be fine, I thought. Back out this morning and everything is gone again. What the heck?!? I find bird feathers in my garden and I know we have some bunnies and a field mouse, no big animals. Do you think it's birds pecking off the stems? It's weird; there was no fruit on them, just leaves.
Deer.
I live in town, and we've got plenty. They usually just BROWSE, taking a little nibble here and a little nibble there. They like the leaves on my pears and cherry tree. They actually really like a common weed, and that's keen. I found out this year they like hot chile plants. Grrrr. They didn't destroy them all, but they sure took 'em down a few notches. I was watering this evening and found my first ripe (red) jalapeno, so there's that.
@AnnPT77 is right about fences in general. Deer can jump over pretty high fences if they want. But they don't like to jump over if they can't see the other side. You need a much taller wire fence than a wood fence, and if you can hang some shade cloth or something on a four to five foot wire fence, they might decide not to jump over to see what's on the other side.
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Walked out of the house this morning into the back yard and saw a squirrel scurrying away holding something green. I'm pretty sure it was an unripe tomato, as I've been suspecting them as being the culprit for my there and then missing tomatoes for a while. They also seem to interfere with my peppers, although usually I then see the peppers partly torn up on the ground.3
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Bleepin’ squirrels have destroyed my garden this year! They ate all of my sunflower heads (caught one scurrying away with petals sticking out of its mouthWalked out of the house this morning into the back yard and saw a squirrel scurrying away holding something green. I'm pretty sure it was an unripe tomato, as I've been suspecting them as being the culprit for my there and then missing tomatoes for a while. They also seem to interfere with my peppers, although usually I then see the peppers partly torn up on the ground.
), almost all of the corn (didn’t realize it soon enough because they were eating it while it was still on the stalk), tomatoes, both ripe and unripe... not to mention all the seeds and seedlings I lost early on to them digging in the beds! Finally covered everything in bird netting until the plants outgrew it.
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@kshama2001, FWIW, this may be weird, but I've germinated peas indoors between damp paper towels before, either to deal with the too-hot soil for late ones, or get a jump on planting when it's iffy whether the soil's warm enough for germination (but the overall weather is OK for growth).
Thanks! I will keep that in mind for next year
I did plant them within the last week and they are already a few inches tall - MUCH faster than what happens in the spring.
When you sprout them in the spring, do you have to harden them off at all?0 -
kshama2001 wrote: »@kshama2001, FWIW, this may be weird, but I've germinated peas indoors between damp paper towels before, either to deal with the too-hot soil for late ones, or get a jump on planting when it's iffy whether the soil's warm enough for germination (but the overall weather is OK for growth).
Thanks! I will keep that in mind for next year
I did plant them within the last week and they are already a few inches tall - MUCH faster than what happens in the spring.
When you sprout them in the spring, do you have to harden them off at all?
Man, it's been a long time. Like, decades. (I'm a procrastinator, so I was more likely to get the peas in late, vs. early! 😆)
You should probably look it up online. From memory, I think it was just getting that first growth started in the paper towels, not even all the way to leaf emergence - the actual germination being what needs the higher temp, so any hardening off might be pretty limited. But I don't trust memory on this detail. Apologies!1 -
MeganD1704 wrote: »I liked my white balloon flower so much I bought a blue one this spring. It was a later planting and the plant went into transplant shock so i didn't expect it to bloom this year. Well, it happened. The first photo is it last night, about to pop, and the second is it this morning. These really are fun flowers. Native to Asia and hardy for USDA zones 3-8. Taxonomical name: Platycodon Grandiflorus and it comes in pink, white, and a couple of shades of purple.
wow this is so cool! I dont think I've ever seen one before.
I agree, I need this in my life!0 -
My first attempt at growing potatoes (in a container) and I ended up with 6 lb. Not too bad. It seems early to harvest but everything I read said to harvest about 2 weeks after the plants die back. Not bad, not great but definitely worth trying again next summer with some tweaking.
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As Douglas Adams wrote, "Best laid plans of mice...."
My plan was to do a few chores, get a little food shopping done, and then take the canoe for an upstream workout. I was either going to go from right near home, go upstream two miles to avoid the first crowded, less pleasant, and steep stretch, or go on up maybe 19 miles to a part of the river I don't see that often.
Well.... When I went food shopping, I went to the co-op on the north side of town because they have some things that aren't carried in the south store. I forgot there is there's a garden store next door. Since they're open Sundays, I went in to pick up seed for my fall garden. I've been meaning to make a special trip to a garden center way north of town or one way south. Or out on the west end. Each would be a special trip, and it just wasn't happening. So I took advantage of the windfall and selected two kinds of beets, one spinach, a radish, and some sugar snap peas. I came home and put the groceries away and got busy doing soil prep. I got things filled up. I also went ahead and put in a little more lettuce since I still had seeds. The seeds I planted a couple weeks ago are seedlings now, but why not go ahead and add more? I also picked up another cute basil plant at Trader Joe's for the cost of a bunch of cut basil. Instead of putting it in the ground in the garden, I put it in a big pot and put it on the deck. Maybe this will keep it safer from the giant yard rats (deer) that maraud my yard.
A lot of what I planted is "underplanted," and I hope it does ok. I wasn't ready to rip out the lemon cucumbers or the eggplant. I guess this means I won't plant garlic mid-October unless something else dies back by then.
Since paddling didn't happen, and since I think I have ripe prune plums, I might go pick some and put them in the dehydrator. I should check on the Asian pears. They should be almost ripe. But first - a G&T.5 -
Yesterday's harvest (not including the chard because I picked that after the picture).
Today's lunch was some of the Berkeley Pink Tie Dye tomatoes and fresh basil.
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As Douglas Adams wrote, "Best laid plans of mice...."
Actually it was Robert Burns in his poem "To A Mouse" (one of my favorites. Learned it in grade school and can still quote a lot of it 50 years later) "Wee, sleekit, cowrin, timorous beastie, O, what a panic's in thy breastie! . . . "Yesterday's harvest (not including the chard because I picked that after the picture).
Today's lunch was some of the Berkeley Pink Tie Dye tomatoes and fresh basil.
Yummy! Never heard of that tomato variety but they look a lot like the Cherokee Purple I planted 2 summers ago. Looked funny but man, were they tasty! My bedtime snack last night was a bowl of yellow pear tomatoes drizzled with balsamic glaze (and I hardly made a dent in the tomatoes).1 -
As Douglas Adams wrote, "Best laid plans of mice...."
Actually it was Robert Burns in his poem "To A Mouse" (one of my favorites. Learned it in grade school and can still quote a lot of it 50 years later) "Wee, sleekit, cowrin, timorous beastie, O, what a panic's in thy breastie! . . . "
Robert Burns wrote that the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Douglas Adams was writing about something else. Near the end of Hitchhiker's Guide, Slartibartfast was speaking about the Vogons destroying the Earth and said, "The best laid plans of mice." Arthur said, "and men," referencing Burns. Slartibartfast said, "I don't think men had much to do with it." I haven't read that book in 30 years; funny what sticks in yer head.
Now back to gardening!
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As Douglas Adams wrote, "Best laid plans of mice...."
Actually it was Robert Burns in his poem "To A Mouse" (one of my favorites. Learned it in grade school and can still quote a lot of it 50 years later) "Wee, sleekit, cowrin, timorous beastie, O, what a panic's in thy breastie! . . . "
Robert Burns wrote that the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Douglas Adams was writing about something else. Near the end of Hitchhiker's Guide, Slartibartfast was speaking about the Vogons destroying the Earth and said, "The best laid plans of mice." Arthur said, "and men," referencing Burns. Slartibartfast said, "I don't think men had much to do with it." I haven't read that book in 30 years; funny what sticks in yer head.
Now back to gardening!
Douglas Adams didn't write it, he quoted Burns. "Write it" implies original creation.0 -
Not so happy and happy, not so happy first... so I put sweet potato slips in ground on morning of 8/27. They were shocked and droopy pretty quickly. As soon as night fell on the way back from a walk, I checked on them to see critters ate some of their leaves, but not all so immediately I covered them up. I was so upset, irritated...they weren't so pretty now but I was really worried about their survival. Next morning I took protectors off plants to find them perky and green and well despite less leaves. A week later they're thriving, so despite some critters munching, I'm thrilled over this! This is the before critters munched...
Not so happy...no luck whatsoever with rosemary and basil but I'll keep trying. However, happy this is lovely lavender two months after sprouting up...
Unfortunately my Bell Pepper plants will be uprooted as they are basically dead and haven't had a chance to produce fruit. Five months after planting seeds, critters decided they were delicious after I had already deemed them "safe." Fortunately I have plenty of seeds and I'll do it again and protect them this go around... it just stinks to start over this late in the game when I should be getting ready to pick peppers for stuffed peppers and I'd be getting ready to do that now...oh well l, it's a learning experience.
Only happy here...one month after seeing the first little green tomato, it's filled out so much and is a peachy orange-ish color! There are many tomatoes out there now growing on the vines. I am love love loving this...
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I am so rich in figs just now, it’s fig everything over here. Even the neighbours are getting tubs full.
I planted garlic last weekend for harvest next year, and tomatoes, zucchini and a row of green beans. In a couple of weeks I will be sowing kale, spinach and broccoli. I also found a small amount of Foxglove seeds and had some spare pots, I didn’t get the rest of that pack to grow, so fingers crossed.3 -
MelanieCN77 wrote: »I am so rich in figs just now, it’s fig everything over here. Even the neighbours are getting tubs full.
I planted garlic last weekend for harvest next year, and tomatoes, zucchini and a row of green beans. In a couple of weeks I will be sowing kale, spinach and broccoli. I also found a small amount of Foxglove seeds and had some spare pots, I didn’t get the rest of that pack to grow, so fingers crossed.
Won't you be, won't you be, won't you be my neighbor??? 3
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