Garden thread
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The one I have is not very high so winds are of no bother to us. Its frame is sturdy though, not tent pole quality but not easy to bend. When I looked this morning I did not notice any guy ropes in the pictures. The skin is tied to the frame. Its possible the poles might be long enough to push into the ground a little. They might have an extension of cover to place something heavy on but I'm not sure of that.
I'd probably make internal guy ropes. I'm thinking something like lengths of washing line secured with tent pegs, you can buy some pegs from camping and outdoor shops, I don't think they are very expensive. Coat hanger wire might do, were it long enough and stiff. Use a 45 degree angle or there about's pulling away from the original corner. My idea is to have lengths long enough to do the height plus making a peg loop twice. I'd put the folded middle loop over the internal top pole at the corner and pull the ends through to secure, then secure them at the next corner, crossing as you go, giving a greater stability. (now tell me you were a girl guide, or cadet or something and automatically knew my intentions, giggle)
Its also possible were you to have a number of house bricks laying about those over the base poles might do but that would depend on the windspeed you regularly contend with. (I once lived in a house from where I could see the sea across roof tops and when the wind was in the right direction it felt as if the roof was lifting off)
All the very best, enjoy your gardening.1 -
We cleaned out our whole compost heap this past spring, just tilled everything right into our garden area. Now we have 7 or 8 rogue tomato plants that are growing where they dang well want to and have almost caught up to our store bought plants. Lol One year we had something growing, couldn't tell what it was until we cut it open at the end of the season. It was a melon that didn't have a chance of getting big enough. .
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The one I have is not very high so winds are of no bother to us. Its frame is sturdy though, not tent pole quality but not easy to bend. When I looked this morning I did not notice any guy ropes in the pictures. The skin is tied to the frame. Its possible the poles might be long enough to push into the ground a little. They might have an extension of cover to place something heavy on but I'm not sure of that.
I'd probably make internal guy ropes. I'm thinking something like lengths of washing line secured with tent pegs, you can buy some pegs from camping and outdoor shops, I don't think they are very expensive. Coat hanger wire might do, were it long enough and stiff. Use a 45 degree angle or there about's pulling away from the original corner. My idea is to have lengths long enough to do the height plus making a peg loop twice. I'd put the folded middle loop over the internal top pole at the corner and pull the ends through to secure, then secure them at the next corner, crossing as you go, giving a greater stability. (now tell me you were a girl guide, or cadet or something and automatically knew my intentions, giggle)
Its also possible were you to have a number of house bricks laying about those over the base poles might do but that would depend on the windspeed you regularly contend with. (I once lived in a house from where I could see the sea across roof tops and when the wind was in the right direction it felt as if the roof was lifting off)
All the very best, enjoy your gardening.
Haha I was a girl guide but not a very good one 🤣
Thanks for the tips ☺️1 -
We cleaned out our whole compost heap this past spring, just tilled everything right into our garden area. Now we have 7 or 8 rogue tomato plants that are growing where they dang well want to and have almost caught up to our store bought plants. Lol One year we had something growing, couldn't tell what it was until we cut it open at the end of the season. It was a melon that didn't have a chance of getting big enough. .
Haha that's cool, like hidden treasures0 -
My gorgeous garden guard...
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Does anyone know why I get these dried crispy bits in my geranium flowers?
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DiscoveringLisa wrote: »Does anyone know why I get these dried crispy bits in my geranium flowers?
Too much water?
Too much fertilizer?
Recently moved to a place with strong sun?
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I wondered if its being a little dry, time specific to the formation of the buds possibly even when opening. My paeonies did very similarly but they are in open ground. Looking back up at the photo, I'm wondering how many plants you have in there. Geraniums are strong hungry plants with many roots. I'm sure, from a distance they look good and only you will notice the damage. I love the blues and whites beyond.0
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DiscoveringLisa wrote: »Does anyone know why I get these dried crispy bits in my geranium flowers?
Too much water?
Too much fertilizer?
Recently moved to a place with strong sun?
They are in strong sun all door as they were on my front door step. I've just moved them to the back patio. I have been watering them alot, maybe that's the problem. I never get the balance right with watering...I tend to think plants are as greedy as me 🤣🤣0 -
I wondered if its being a little dry, time specific to the formation of the buds possibly even when opening. My paeonies did very similarly but they are in open ground. Looking back up at the photo, I'm wondering how many plants you have in there. Geraniums are strong hungry plants with many roots. I'm sure, from a distance they look good and only you will notice the damage. I love the blues and whites beyond.
I bought them from the garden center and there was only one bud when I bought it but the plant has really flourished. Do you think it needs a bigger pot? Yes, they look beautiful from a distance, it's only up close you can see the dry/wilted bits0 -
DiscoveringLisa wrote: »DiscoveringLisa wrote: »Does anyone know why I get these dried crispy bits in my geranium flowers?
Too much water?
Too much fertilizer?
Recently moved to a place with strong sun?
They are in strong sun all door as they were on my front door step. I've just moved them to the back patio. I have been watering them alot, maybe that's the problem. I never get the balance right with watering...I tend to think plants are as greedy as me 🤣🤣
Fortunately it's a terra cotta pot so it can breathe and lose some water through the pot. One of the most common causes of plant death or disease is too much water. Too little water can do it, too. When it's hot out, I have to water my bonsai every day because there's so little soil there. When it's REALLY hot, I sometimes have to water twice a day. Other times they can go several days, and if I water when they don't need it, they can suffer. We have lots of rain in the winter, so I bring them under cover.
Since there's plenty of new flowers waiting to open, maybe you could just deadhead the old blossoms a little early. The new ones may respond by opening sooner.1 -
DiscoveringLisa wrote: »DiscoveringLisa wrote: »Does anyone know why I get these dried crispy bits in my geranium flowers?
Too much water?
Too much fertilizer?
Recently moved to a place with strong sun?
They are in strong sun all door as they were on my front door step. I've just moved them to the back patio. I have been watering them alot, maybe that's the problem. I never get the balance right with watering...I tend to think plants are as greedy as me 🤣🤣
Fortunately it's a terra cotta pot so it can breathe and lose some water through the pot. One of the most common causes of plant death or disease is too much water. Too little water can do it, too. When it's hot out, I have to water my bonsai every day because there's so little soil there. When it's REALLY hot, I sometimes have to water twice a day. Other times they can go several days, and if I water when they don't need it, they can suffer. We have lots of rain in the winter, so I bring them under cover.
Since there's plenty of new flowers waiting to open, maybe you could just deadhead the old blossoms a little early. The new ones may respond by opening sooner.
I think I may have over done it with the water, on the days I was expecting heat, it ended up being quite cool and the soil stayed damp so I probably shouldn't have watered. I'll dead head the crispy ones and hope that the new blooms take over. Thanks 😊0 -
Have to get back into the garden today and tend to it. I've been extremely lazy about it for a week. I've had more interest in eating junk.
Do you all realize how much a garden changes in a week? Especially during prime growing season? I found cucumbers almost ready to pick, and cherry tomatoes. All my lettuce have become bush size.
So today's the day I get back to weeding and picking.
I have a question, my sister was very thrilled to see baby buttercup squash in her garden. But now they're all getting eaten by something. Aside from installing a fence, what else can she do? She lives in the country so it could be any number of animals, deer, skunks, woodchucks, bear, fisher cats, rabbits, etc. And she does have a beeping thing that goes off if something steps in front of the sensor but it doesn't seem to do much good. 0 -
Have to get back into the garden today and tend to it. I've been extremely lazy about it for a week. I've had more interest in eating junk.
Do you all realize how much a garden changes in a week? Especially during prime growing season? I found cucumbers almost ready to pick, and cherry tomatoes. All my lettuce have become bush size.
So today's the day I get back to weeding and picking.
I have a question, my sister was very thrilled to see baby buttercup squash in her garden. But now they're all getting eaten by something. Aside from installing a fence, what else can she do? She lives in the country so it could be any number of animals, deer, skunks, woodchucks, bear, fisher cats, rabbits, etc. And she does have a beeping thing that goes off if something steps in front of the sensor but it doesn't seem to do much good.
Can she put them under a poly tunnel or something like that?0 -
My first pea pod!
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My Swiss chard is getting huge, we've been incorporating into everyday meals. My Brussel sprouts are also growing nicely although something keeps taking big bitesbout of the leaves
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Have to get back into the garden today and tend to it. I've been extremely lazy about it for a week. I've had more interest in eating junk.
Do you all realize how much a garden changes in a week? Especially during prime growing season? I found cucumbers almost ready to pick, and cherry tomatoes. All my lettuce have become bush size.
So today's the day I get back to weeding and picking.
I have a question, my sister was very thrilled to see baby buttercup squash in her garden. But now they're all getting eaten by something. Aside from installing a fence, what else can she do? She lives in the country so it could be any number of animals, deer, skunks, woodchucks, bear, fisher cats, rabbits, etc. And she does have a beeping thing that goes off if something steps in front of the sensor but it doesn't seem to do much good.
Is it for sure large animals, or could it be slugs and insects? How big are the plants? Sometimes I overplant with the understanding that some won't make it. If I end up with too many plants, I cull some. Slugs and ants have been my bane lately. We for sure have deer. They browse rather than graze, so they take a bite out of this, move on, take a bite out of that, move on, etc. We also have skunks, raccoons, and opossums. They sometimes eat my grapes, but not the plants. Birds take more than their share of my berries, but I still get mostly enough.
I bet rabbits could easily cause an awful lot of damage. Fortunately, they're tasty.
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@mtaratoot Her biggest buttercup was maybe the size of a baseball, it was half eaten. The others were smaller but half eaten as well. The plants look good, healthy nice size. I don't think they're slugs; I've seen what slugs can do to strawberries. She has no idea what's been nibbling things. One year something came and ate the tops off all her plants down one whole row, can't remember what vegetable it was but eating all the tops killed them.
I've talked to her about putting a fence up or protection of some kind but she doesn't want to spend the money.
@DiscoveringLisa, I'll look into poly tunnels and see what they look like and how much they cost.
The only animal that could cause damage to my garden is one of my dogs getting in. 0 -
@mtaratoot Her biggest buttercup was maybe the size of a baseball, it was half eaten. The others were smaller but half eaten as well. The plants look good, healthy nice size. I don't think they're slugs; I've seen what slugs can do to strawberries. She has no idea what's been nibbling things. One year something came and ate the tops off all her plants down one whole row, can't remember what vegetable it was but eating all the tops killed them.
I've talked to her about putting a fence up or protection of some kind but she doesn't want to spend the money.
@DiscoveringLisa, I'll look into poly tunnels and see what they look like and how much they cost.
The only animal that could cause damage to my garden is one of my dogs getting in.
That puts woodchucks in the lineup as potential culprits, I think. I hate woodchucks, though, so may be over-quick to blame them. 😉0 -
On Friday I ate my first home-grown raspberry of the season 😋
Too bad there won't be many this year 😑4 -
@mtaratoot Her biggest buttercup was maybe the size of a baseball, it was half eaten. The others were smaller but half eaten as well. The plants look good, healthy nice size. I don't think they're slugs; I've seen what slugs can do to strawberries. She has no idea what's been nibbling things. One year something came and ate the tops off all her plants down one whole row, can't remember what vegetable it was but eating all the tops killed them.
I've talked to her about putting a fence up or protection of some kind but she doesn't want to spend the money.
@DiscoveringLisa, I'll look into poly tunnels and see what they look like and how much they cost.
The only animal that could cause damage to my garden is one of my dogs getting in.
OK, I misunderstood. I thought the plants were getting eaten. I don't think a deer would go after a squash. I did see a bear try to eat a pumpkin once, but that's a different story. There's a long tradition of people leaving a tiny pumpkin somewhere very difficult to get to in the fall on the Wild & Scenic Rogue River. Trouble is, people being people, the tradition got way out of hand. Rangers now do trips to haul as many back as possible. I don't leave pumpkins anymore. But there was this one year where we watched a bear amble down the bank, and we saw one of those little mini pumpkins not far from where he was heading, so we just drifted slowly and watched. The bear pawed it and bit it, then left. Either he didn't like or he said, "Dang. Another raw pumpkin."
I digress.
Definitely sounds like small mammals. Something that deters deer might help. It's cheap, non-toxic, and can't hurt. Mix an egg with a little water and beat/shake it up. Put it in a spray bottle and spray the plants liberally. You can keep the mixture in the fridge for a few days to reapply if it rains or you do overhead watering. I think the idea is that the sulfur in the eggs deters the deer. My ex tried this after years of never getting blueberries, and now she gets blueberries reliably.
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Have to get back into the garden today and tend to it. I've been extremely lazy about it for a week. I've had more interest in eating junk.
Do you all realize how much a garden changes in a week? Especially during prime growing season? I found cucumbers almost ready to pick, and cherry tomatoes. All my lettuce have become bush size.
So today's the day I get back to weeding and picking.
I have a question, my sister was very thrilled to see baby buttercup squash in her garden. But now they're all getting eaten by something. Aside from installing a fence, what else can she do? She lives in the country so it could be any number of animals, deer, skunks, woodchucks, bear, fisher cats, rabbits, etc. And she does have a beeping thing that goes off if something steps in front of the sensor but it doesn't seem to do much good.
@ReenieHJ I'm not sure where you live, but I have a plot at our community garden. We are very near a large wooded area and have had to contend with a lame elk (years ago), deer, rabbits, voles, moles, mice, rats and squirrels. Two years ago, I lost my ENTIRE butternut and delicata squash crops to squirrels. My neighbor lost all of her acorn squash. It was a "squash massacre" as my daughter called it-seeds everywhere. I would not have suspected the squirrels, but when I was there quietly weeding in my plot one day, I heard and then saw a squirrel in someone's squash plants. He had picked it up like an apple and was munching away on it (or biting enough off to get to the seeds). I was so discouraged that I haven't grown squash since. I have no idea what the fix is. A garden friend lost her kabocha squash that she typically grows up a trellis. Nobody's squash was safe that year. This year, it was rabbits eating plants, all the way down to the soil
I have wondered if a hard plastic shell around the veg would work. Like a cut out milk carton that you could slide the small, growing fruit into. I have no idea if that would do something negative to the plants or veggies themselves though. I really miss growing my own squash. In the following years, I've added 5 more dahlia plants to my plot. Nobody bothers the flowers except the beetles and I have a pretty good handle on them.
Good luck to your sis! And I totally agree about not getting to the garden in a week. Now's the time to make several trips. It's all growing so fast!!0 -
@girlwithcurls2 Squash seems to be a favorite then huh? Except zucchini it appears. She always has bushels of them. I'm not sure if she has anymore baby buttercup growing but I'll suggest that to her, just in case she does. Thanks.
I picked our first cucumber today, it was amazing and perfect and store bought does not compare. Looks like it'll be a very productive year for cucumbers. 2 -
Walked out to the garden this morning. There's a Sungold that's ~almost~ ripe. The birds have devastated the blueberry bushes. There's still plenty of raspberries, and the grapes are getting fatter.
And there was what I presume was raccoon poop. So maybe I won't get to harvest some of my garden. There's been some other large sign under the cherry tree. I think, as it turns out, it wasn't the birds that ate all my cherries. I think a 'coon was hanging out up there and feasting. This pile of poo is full of cherry pits.
I know slugs, and maybe squirrels, are munching my shiitake. I never get hazelnuts. The squirrels and jays have all they can eat. They get them while they're still green. Since I don't spray the tree, even if there were no squirrels or jays, I probably wouldn't get ripe nuts because of an insect that lays eggs in them.
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Well, the woodchuck has discovered my peppers and tomatoes. 😡 Will net that section of the garden later today.
Gotta say, I am very disappointed with the sweet pea production. Despite more than a dozen pea plants that have grown tall and appear healthy, the pea pod output is rather dismal. I'm lucky if I get 5-8 pods every third day. Don't know why, but I may not bother planting them in future.
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Well, the woodchuck has discovered my peppers and tomatoes. 😡 Will net that section of the garden later today.
Gotta say, I am very disappointed with the sweet pea production. Despite more than a dozen pea plants that have grown tall and appear healthy, the pea pod output is rather dismal. I'm lucky if I get 5-8 pods every third day. Don't know why, but I may not bother planting them in future.
Is it hot? They don't mostly like hot.
(It got very hot fast/suddenly here this year, after staying quite cold for an unusually long time: I'm not veggie gardening any more except for the herbs, mostly - but I recognize that it would've been a terrible year here for the edible podded peas, and some of the other early veggies. Seems like the volume/variety of radishes has been less at the farmers markets, and maybe reductions in the cool-weather greens as well - though there have been some.)
ETA: Now that I think of it, I don't remember seeing much in the way of edible-podded peas at the farmers' markets at all this year, and they're usually pretty standard here in Spring. I noticed one vendor had some, but they looked pretty stressed, TBH, not all that great.1 -
Weather conditions make a great difference to the outcome of peas and beans and the like, dry then hot and dry makes it hard going for them. A different variety might do better. I've not planted veg this year, my plot is moving, and may move again before I get it finally set up has to be nearer to the water butts. I knew I'd have little time for watering this year. I use any run off tap water for edibles and grey water for non edibles when needed. I will make a point of mulching well in the autumn and again after planting next year to keep as much moisture in the ground as possible.
I fear global warming is showing its face strongly in the last 12 months. We had a dryer winter, a dry spring, a later spell with a couple of heavy downpours and now another very hot dry spell. I've not known a year like it and I've been her 24 years.2 -
Yes, it's been terribly hot. Despite watering frequently with early afternoon shade, they are simply not producing. I've even pick them as soon as they are edible whole to spur new production to no avail. Come to think, green beans and cukes have slowed as well. I just failed to notice since production there has gone from 'overwhelming' to merely 'a lot.'2
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I was out watering before the thermometer gets to the three-digit number and I noticed what sure looked like a ripe Sungold tomato.
My first of the season.
I forgot what a ripe on the plant tomato tastes like, even a cherry. Mmmmm.
There's two more that I will eat this afternoon.4
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