Garden thread
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Mmmmm.....
Grapes.
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from the garden after the rain
granny smith
elderberry
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Even though there's still a Marketmore cucumber and what I was told was a delicata out there, I cleaned/prepped part of one of the beds yesterday and planted my fall lettuce/salad greens. I hope it wasn't too soon.
I need to get more beet seeds, but I'm just minimizing my shopping trips.3 -
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So, what does everyone plant for fall? I have never done fall plantings
I want to get some cold frames set up on the south side of the house, against the brick. My husband is worried about bugs (currently surrounded by pea gravel), but our old house had mulch up to the foundation? Really wanting to do garlic again this year, I did it years ago and it was a satisfying harvest. 2 -
Wow, first we were over run by green beans. Now that they're done, we've got cucumbers coming out our ears. Lol
I picked 12 of them just today.3 -
I've never done fall planting either, but maybe this year I will.1
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moonangel12 wrote: »So, what does everyone plant for fall? I have never done fall plantings I want to get some cold frames set up on the south side of the house, against the brick. My husband is worried about bugs (currently surrounded by pea gravel), but our old house had mulch up to the foundation? Really wanting to do garlic again this year, I did it years ago and it was a satisfying harvest.
This year I am planting fall blooming crocus. These are the ones that produce saffron. The closest to fall planting I do is second plantings of spring crops like lettuce and spinach4 -
moonangel12 wrote: »So, what does everyone plant for fall? I have never done fall plantings I want to get some cold frames set up on the south side of the house, against the brick. My husband is worried about bugs (currently surrounded by pea gravel), but our old house had mulch up to the foundation? Really wanting to do garlic again this year, I did it years ago and it was a satisfying harvest.
I cleared out part of a bed a couple days ago and planted greens. I need to get more beet seeds, and then have to figure out what gets torn up to plant them, or what I can plant them under. I don't even bother trying to grow fall carrots anymore.0 -
no fall planting.
got one tomato. i've got a few peppers ripening and a few more tomatoes. i had green beans and blackberries. wildlife got those
not a plant but i do like my birds and refilled my bird feeder and set up a suet feeder
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As of yesterday...
Today...
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no fall planting.
got one tomato. i've got a few peppers ripening and a few more tomatoes. i had green beans and blackberries. wildlife got those
not a plant but i do like my birds and refilled my bird feeder and set up a suet feeder
I have that exact same birdfeeder as the one in front.
I'm mean to my birds though - I only fill it in the winter.1 -
moonangel12 wrote: »So, what does everyone plant for fall? I have never done fall plantings I want to get some cold frames set up on the south side of the house, against the brick. My husband is worried about bugs (currently surrounded by pea gravel), but our old house had mulch up to the foundation? Really wanting to do garlic again this year, I did it years ago and it was a satisfying harvest.
I'll probably plant some short snow peas shortly. The first link says, "Pea seeds germinate best at soil temperatures of 50 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit" and my soil temp is 85 degrees, but I see highs in the 70s and 80s over the next 10 days, so am going to give it a shot. In other years, I've waited too long and the frost killed them before they produced much.
https://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/flowers-and-plants/vegetables/planting-fall-peas#:~:text=ANSWER:,peas is about 80 percent.
http://www.motherofahubbard.com/its-time-to-plant-fall-peas/
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With cold frames in my zone (6B) you can keep crops like miner's lettuce going all winter.
https://honest-food.net/on-miners-lettuce-americas-gift-to-salad/
(Writer is in California but a lot of the comments are from people in Northern states.)
I'd be curious to know how long kale and chard would keep growing in a cold frame. Several of them survived our mild winter last year, but they stop producing when it gets cold. Usually they are good for nothing the next year, but I kept two Swiss chard plants as ornamentals and I had one kale that is making full size leaves despite it being year 2 for it.
Rainbow chard is sold as a fall ornamental here about the same time they put out mums, but you could start from seed now.
Swiss chard is pretty indestructible here - it grows from April - Oct/Nov, pests leave it alone, and it can be used in place of spinach in many recipes. Just don't mistake beet seedlings for chard seedlings >.<0 -
@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).1
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Anyone else struggling with flowers this year? My cucumber doesn't have a single boy flower and zucchini and squash aren't bearing fruit either. Cherry tomatoes are doing fine and strawberries are doing well. We're between 100 and 112 the next week so that's not going to help.0
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kshama2001 wrote: »no fall planting.
got one tomato. i've got a few peppers ripening and a few more tomatoes. i had green beans and blackberries. wildlife got those
not a plant but i do like my birds and refilled my bird feeder and set up a suet feeder
I have that exact same birdfeeder as the one in front.
I'm mean to my birds though - I only fill it in the winter.
We have hummingbird feeders out right now; I love watching those tiny birds. Trouble is we've attracted a fair share of hornets too. We do feed the birds through late fall/winter and are advised to take our feeders away after that, due to bears.
Ate our 1st tomato last night, yum!!! I've been getting tons of cherry tomatoes but dh calls them wannabe tomatoes and refuses to eat them. And our fridge is filled with cucumbers, oh my. I wish I'd learn to space out the planting a little better so they don't all ripen within a week.
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Anyone else struggling with flowers this year? My cucumber doesn't have a single boy flower and zucchini and squash aren't bearing fruit either. Cherry tomatoes are doing fine and strawberries are doing well. We're between 100 and 112 the next week so that's not going to help.
How does one tell if they're boy flowers or girl flowers? I'd have no clue about that. I do know everything is coming along okay in my garden except the pumpkins...most of the flowers just dropped off and there are 3 little pumpkins now. Some of the stuff took its sweet old time though or maybe I was too impatient. 
Our sunflowers are just barely forming heads. Hope they have enough time to grow. 0 -
Anyone else struggling with flowers this year? My cucumber doesn't have a single boy flower and zucchini and squash aren't bearing fruit either. Cherry tomatoes are doing fine and strawberries are doing well. We're between 100 and 112 the next week so that's not going to help.
How does one tell if they're boy flowers or girl flowers? I'd have no clue about that.
With the squash family (squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, etc) the male flowers have thin stems and the female flowers have a teeny tiny babies as stems. You can also see the pollen in the males and the receptacle for pollen in the females.
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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).
I have done that too. I also germinate older seeds that way when I suspect a higher than normal failure rate.1 -
My youngest has grown pumpkins for several years now, this year was a bust. Same for zucchini. Pretty sure if was a bug issue. He’s bummed, thankfully I still have a bag in the freezer from last year’s harvest, going to surprise him with pumpkin pie once the weather turns!
ETA: the cutest story is the first year when we talked about growing pumpkins, he was young enough to take it literally (3.5 I think?) and I came out to see him setting whole (small) pumpkins that his granny had gotten him in his 4x4 bed and covering them with dirt
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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).
I have done that too. I also germinate older seeds that way when I suspect a higher than normal failure rate.
I remember doing that in school. i think we did peas and sunflowers0 -
Anyone else struggling with flowers this year? My cucumber doesn't have a single boy flower and zucchini and squash aren't bearing fruit either. Cherry tomatoes are doing fine and strawberries are doing well. We're between 100 and 112 the next week so that's not going to help.
How does one tell if they're boy flowers or girl flowers? I'd have no clue about that.
With the squash family (squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, etc) the male flowers have thin stems and the female flowers have a teeny tiny babies as stems. You can also see the pollen in the males and the receptacle for pollen in the females.
Wow, you learn something new here everyday. Thank you for that!! 0 -
I had them mixed up, I have a bunch of boy flowers then! My SIL recently got me so good on the way home from my parent's house, my nephews are 9 and 11 and I'd started talking about everything I had to do in the garden. I mentioned how I wanted to self-pollinate the cucumbers and being a teacher, she asked me how it's done and what it entails. Well, stupid me started yammering on about taking a skinny paintbrush and brushing the male pollen on the female flower and she kept asking for further details, I basically just gave my nephews their first lesson on the birds and the bees. I was so embarrassed but they were listening to everything I said!4
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I had them mixed up, I have a bunch of boy flowers then! My SIL recently got me so good on the way home from my parent's house, my nephews are 9 and 11 and I'd started talking about everything I had to do in the garden. I mentioned how I wanted to self-pollinate the cucumbers and being a teacher, she asked me how it's done and what it entails. Well, stupid me started yammering on about taking a skinny paintbrush and brushing the male pollen on the female flower and she kept asking for further details, I basically just gave my nephews their first lesson on the birds and the bees. I was so embarrassed but they were listening to everything I said!
Cool. Probably less embarrassing for them to get some additional sex education from an auntie talking about her flowers than getting "the talk" from their parents (and SIL would have put a stop to the conversation if she thought it inappropriate).3 -
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.
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The floracanes on the raspberries are kicking out their late summer/early fall crop. Yay!
I will prune the canes back to eyeball height in late winter and build something to hold them upright. As primacanes next spring, they should really pump out the delicious berries.3 -
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.0 -
It's that time of year.
Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, raspberries, and grapes. I put a Bartlett pear in the picture since they are ripening after about 1.5 weeks or so in a box. This year I refrigerated unripe pears so I can ripen them slowly instead of being overrun. The Chojuro pear (Asian pear) tree will start having ripe fruit in a week or three.
The Italian prune plum tree has a whole crapton of fruit that is just about ripe, too.
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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.0 -
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'm not sure about zone 9. I am in USDA zone 8A and Sunset zone 6. I planted my fall "spring greens" about a week or so ago, and the seedlings have come up. Good timing - we just had a heat wave, so any sooner and it may have been too soon.
I would plant beets, but I have to find some seeds. If I was going to grow carrots, I'd put them in. Maybe I should. I have chard that's kind of a perennial now, so it will go all winter. If I had room for some spinach or kale, I'd be planting that. The trouble is, my "summer" garden still takes up most of the room I have available. I would have to plant the beet seeds underneath the lemon cucumber. That should work, although it's less than ideal. The artichokes take up a LOT of space.
I think down there you have a lot of options to either extend summer gardens or do short rotation things like baby spinach.1
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