Garden thread

lemurcat2

Yeah, IME oregano and mint tend to be the thugs. Sage is not an issue.

Sage is generally good with most things you might like fresh herbs with IMO -- I might use it in a stew or soup or on chicken or eggs. I also quite like it in smoothies, especially if I am also using blueberries. I have also been thinking of trying to make some teas, and it would be good in them.

ReenieHJ

SuzanneC1l9zz wrote: »

Ooh that's what I'm eating right now. I got lazy and didn't check my garden for 3 days. My advice is never to do that.

ReenieHJ

You all are a mountain of gardening wisdom. Passing on the ideas of using sage to my sister.

mtaratoot

I was out cleaning up some storm damage this afternoon. Big branch on one of the fig trees bent over so much it was breaking and totally in the way. It's gone now.

But I noticed a nearly ripe fig on another of of the trees. Well, it would have been nearly ripe if the damn birds didn't get to it first. It looked like a fig with a quarter-sized hole in the side, through which the critter ate out all the flesh and left an empty, hollow skin. I tried to get pictures, but they don't show what I'm seeing.

I may not get figs this year. I should stop trying to grow fruit.

MsCzar

Salsa makin' time!

mtaratoot

Birds and/or raccoons (and/or skunks) ate pretty much all my grapes.

Birds already devastated the blueberries and cherries earlier in the year. Starlings got all the ripe figs.

At least I'm getting tomatoes and raspberries. I should harvest the Bartlet pears and get some of them ripe.

AnnPT77

mtaratoot wrote: »

Birds and/or raccoons (and/or skunks) ate pretty much all my grapes.

Birds already devastated the blueberries and cherries earlier in the year. Starlings got all the ripe figs.

At least I'm getting tomatoes and raspberries. I should harvest the Bartlet pears and get some of them ripe.

Raccoons always eat my Concord grapes, typically 2-4 days before I think they're optimally ripe for human consumption. I don't even much look at them anymore, just let the raccoons have them.

I do miss having Concord grape pie - best pie I've ever eaten, I swear - but it's a ridiculous amount of work, so it's easy to be philosophical about missing out on it. Raccoons gotta eat, too, I guess.

mtaratoot

I don't mind SHARING my harvest with the other critters that live in the area. But I want them to share with me, too, since I go to so much effort to grow things.

My grapes are Interlaken. Very delicious early-season seedless table grapes. I'll eat some raisins from last year as a consolation prize.

nooshi713

Anyone have advice for getting rid of snails? I have the tiny ones, way too numerous and small to handpick and they ruined my lettuce and strawberries. I have tried slug pellets and deadline without success. Please help.

mtaratoot

nooshi713 wrote: »

Anyone have advice for getting rid of snails? I have the tiny ones, way too numerous and small to handpick and they ruined my lettuce and strawberries. I have tried slug pellets and deadline without success. Please help.

I would urge anyone NOT to use the slug bait that contains metaldehyde. The product you mentioned is based on metaldehyde. It's a toxic substance and can harm you, your family, your pets, and wildlife.

There is another product that's based on iron phosphate. It is labeled for use in organic agriculture. When it breaks down, it becomes a plant nutrient. It is safe for humans and other animals. It works by making the slugs and snails stop eating, and they die within a few days.

Another way you can help control them is with traps. Get some cans or plastic tubs. Make a very thin paste of flour and either cheap beer or water and a little sugar. Add a tiny pinch of yeast if you like. The slugs and snails will be attracted to the scent of fermentation, crawl in, and drown. If you just use beer, some will drown, but some may find a way to climb out and stumble home. Adding flour makes a paste that they can't climb out of, and it also means it continues to be attractive as the flour ferments.

You can also include some snake habitat in your garden to encourage garter snakes. They eat slugs.

SuzanneC1l9zz

Aphids nearly killed the plant, so I harvested these off the crispy areas. It has since put out new growth from the base that's starting to flower. And I made my latest batch of breakfast muffins with a mixture of black kale, Swiss chard & butter lettuce in place of the spinach the recipe calls for. All from the garden 😋

nooshi713

Thanks for the advice. The pellets are based on iron but they have not worked. I have reapplied but I think these snails are too small to eat the pellets. I will try the traps.

mtaratoot wrote: »

nooshi713 wrote: »

Anyone have advice for getting rid of snails? I have the tiny ones, way too numerous and small to handpick and they ruined my lettuce and strawberries. I have tried slug pellets and deadline without success. Please help.

I would urge anyone NOT to use the slug bait that contains metaldehyde. The product you mentioned is based on metaldehyde. It's a toxic substance and can harm you, your family, your pets, and wildlife.

There is another product that's based on iron phosphate. It is labeled for use in organic agriculture. When it breaks down, it becomes a plant nutrient. It is safe for humans and other animals. It works by making the slugs and snails stop eating, and they die within a few days.

Another way you can help control them is with traps. Get some cans or plastic tubs. Make a very thin paste of flour and either cheap beer or water and a little sugar. Add a tiny pinch of yeast if you like. The slugs and snails will be attracted to the scent of fermentation, crawl in, and drown. If you just use beer, some will drown, but some may find a way to climb out and stumble home. Adding flour makes a paste that they can't climb out of, and it also means it continues to be attractive as the flour ferments.

You can also include some snake habitat in your garden to encourage garter snakes. They eat slugs.

Fuzzipeg

My first thought was, garlic water, boil two garlic bulbs in 2 litres of water till soft and slushy, remove skins taking out as much of the cloudy liquid as possible. This is your concentrate, the suggestions are to dilute two table spoons to 5 litres of water, weekly from the spring. Though in wet weather you can use a stronger solution. So possibly do it more often, even daily if that is needed to get the things under control. I'm thinking you, or at least I would rather not kill the pesky things off deterring them to be food for various frogs, toads, and birds. Then don't forget these pesky things clear away so much debris from the garden when "our wanted Plants" are no longer available to them, Good luck

mtaratoot

We have had an unusually warm and dry September and October. Rain comes today. I harvested the last of my tomatoes yesterday. They would split when the rain comes. I have some ripe on window sills and others ripening on others.

When the soil gets softer from the rain, I have a bunch of bulbs I'll be planting. I wish I had picked up some cover crop for the garden. It might be too late to seed now with cooler darker days ahead. Maybe I'll just leave the plastic out there, but it looks like some deer have tromped on it making some holes.

MsCzar

Garden is officially OVER. Blanched and froze the last of the Swiss chard today, gathered some seeds and baked a big dish of aubergine parm. Going to try and over-winter some peppers this year. Anybody here ever done that successfully?

Fuzzipeg

I hope you are able to achieve good light levels and warmth. A friend of mine uses special "day light" halogen lights on a timer to provide good quality lights to her inside plants, she is in Idaho. Please let us know how you get on. Very sorry winter has come in so very hard already.

MsCzar

Thanks! It was just a one week freeze/frost snap - but it was enough. Of course, sun and warmth have returned now. 😡

The room where I'd planned to winter the peppers gets lots of winter light through windows and but will be around 10°C/50°F for most of the winter. OR - a can set up an artificial timed light in the boiler room where it will be dryer and warmer. Not sure which is better.

mtaratoot

@MsCzar

It might be a really good idea to use some artificial light. I don't know if capsicum plants react to the amount of daylight to enter senescence. If they do, you'll want to keep the daylight length a little longer than what's going on outside so they think it's still summer. I don't think the lower temperature will be the trigger; they might just grow more slowly. They will get SOME natural light, but you really might need to add some.

That said, I have been able to overwinter small TREES by just bringing them in. In my case, I have dug up tiny seedlings from my Mimosa tree. Sometimes I let them fend for themselves outside, but a couple times I've brought them in, put them in the kitchen window, and took them back out in the spring. They never went into leaf loss mode; I think they germinated at the wrong time and thought it was spring for six months.

MsCzar

Thanks. I am not so much interested in growing as not dying. Alive and dormant would be fine. I've pruned the peppers back hard and am keeping them out of direct sun while they recover from pruning and transplant. Since they are now potted in new pots with sterile fertilised soil, I don't want to place them back outside and thus expose them to insects and mold even if the weather is currently warm and sunny.

MsCzar

What's in the oven today?

Garden soil! Just harvested the last of my container potatoes. The soil is rough sifted and in the oven. I ran out of potting soil but want to try and over-winter two more pepper plants from the garden. Will add some nutrients to the soil before transplanting.