Gardeners of AW, unite

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
my fenced in vegetable garden with the raised beds, the bench and arbor is now complete. i hired handymen (?)--husband and wife team-- and showed them a picture in a magazine and wham bam here it is! all fenced in and with pretty little solar lanterns on the fenceposts and a fountain in the center. i moved in my aluminum lawn chairs, strawberry jars, six potted geraniums and have been having the nicest time sitting out under my arbor, watching the stars, waiting for my baby grapevines to grow, listening to my fountain burble.

AND THEN they delivered the dirt for the beds last night. i had a hell of a time with algebra in school so my brother did the calculations. i think he made a mistake. i swear the dirt pile is growing a snowcap! but what does HE care. he lives thirty miles away!

now i have all this ugly dirt in front of my beautiful garden and i have to move it before the wind starts up and i send the whole damn state back into the dustbowl. did i mention that i turn 60 on monday? ayudame --s6
 
Last edited:

Tepelus

And so...
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 18, 2008
Messages
6,087
Reaction score
413
Location
Michigan
Website
keskedgell.blogspot.com
If you lived closer I'd take some of your dirt. Also, you should post some pictures of this new arbor and garden. I want to see!
 

10trackers

Pollyanna, Shedder of Casual Blood
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 7, 2010
Messages
5,472
Reaction score
2,416
Location
not here, I swear
Uh. How do you guys feel about an image-heavy post of my pre-renovation garden?

There are pretty pics of flowers in there, somewhere :D
 

Fenika

Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 3, 2007
Messages
24,311
Reaction score
5,109
Location
-
I have high speed again. Bring it!
 

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
4,827
Reaction score
336
Location
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Website
home.comcast.net
I so wish I could do this. The food is so much better. We have a Farmer's Market close to where I live but it's expensive.
Vegetables one grows in one's garden often aren't better tasting than those available at a sizeable local grocery store, and a sizeable grocery store will also have organic veggies if that's what you meant by better. It's kind of a dice roll. I've had very tasty and productive green beans, carrots, okra, and raspberries. I've had rather bad-tasting or otherwise inedible lettuce, radishes, and blackberries. And I've had an inability to produce much/any corn, peas, zucchini, watermelons, spinach, or blueberries. So over the past few years I've decided to grow in bulk the 4 or 5 things that actually work well and leave the rest to the pros.
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
Grow bok choi. It is dead easy to grow from seed, produces edible plants in a few weeks, can be used raw or cooked, is great in stir-fries, stews and soups, or sautéed by itself, and is one of the most nutritious greens imaginable. I just returned from a trip to China, and it is the most ubiquitous vegetable served at almost every meal, including breakfast.
 

Fenika

Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 3, 2007
Messages
24,311
Reaction score
5,109
Location
-
Okay folks, I (am going to) have a heavily shaded back yard with a narrow strip that has no trees (strip runs North-South though). The lawn in this strip is stunning, so there's a decent amount of sun, but clearly only around midday.

What kind of berries can I plant in July and still get a harvest this year??? I'm thinking currants and blackberries, but I don't know what type of plant I'd have to buy to get a harvest.

Any other shade suggestions? I know part of it will be experimenting with what takes...
 

Keyboard Hound

Old kid. Tough skin!!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 3, 2007
Messages
674
Reaction score
132
Location
Appalachia
Hi, everyone in the gardening thread. I have a greenhouse and I've been working on getting a facebook page going for it this spring. I share pictures of plants I like around the greenhouse, along with pictures of various bugs and frogs and critters that strikes my fancy, and even an occasional planting tip. The last series of pictures was of a mama robin raising her babies. I'm working on a series of starling pictures now. I'd love it if you flower people would take a look and join the page if you like what you see. We grow vegetable plants, too, but my love is the flowers and the critters. Here's the link. http://www.facebook.com/pages/House-of-Plants/190229444342038

Thanks, Keyboard Hound
 

Fenika

Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 3, 2007
Messages
24,311
Reaction score
5,109
Location
-
Those are gorgeous pictures. It's nice to see folks sharing the nature around them.

Those baby robins won't go far if they are okay. Robins mature a little faster than other songbirds, but they still need their parents to show them the ropes and feed them.

I didn't see pics of your greenhouse. What kind do you have and do you like it?
 

Keyboard Hound

Old kid. Tough skin!!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 3, 2007
Messages
674
Reaction score
132
Location
Appalachia
Those are gorgeous pictures. It's nice to see folks sharing the nature around them.

Those baby robins won't go far if they are okay. Robins mature a little faster than other songbirds, but they still need their parents to show them the ropes and feed them.

I didn't see pics of your greenhouse. What kind do you have and do you like it?

Thanks for checking it out, Fenika. Come to think of it, I have not posted a picture of the greenhouse, except for just a picture of the display tables and hanging baskets out front. It's in the profile pictures I think. The greenhouse has a metal frame with a wood display shed built on the front of it. The birds and lots of little animals show up under the shed.

I love the plants but I get tired of the demands of caring for them. After 32 years, I think I'm beginning to be burned out. Having the facebook page and getting to share the beauty through pictures has been a real boost to me.
 

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
all 4 planters are filled. 5 tomatoes, 9 peppers, 2 eggplants, 2 summer squash. carrots, nasturtiums, bush beans, baby's breath and moss rose planted as edging. still more dirt. ---s6
 

Komnena

In Honor of Peter Tomich,USS Utah
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 5, 2007
Messages
13,917
Reaction score
2,071
Location
King Louie's town
I think something is digging at my new Solomon's Seal. I braced it up with a handy brick. Something is eating on the Jacob's Ladder.

On the positive side the Heuchera already has flowers. That's a very pleasant surprise. I thought perennials never flowered the first year but clearly I was wrong.
 

jamiehall

Bereaved Snarkling
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Messages
5,220
Reaction score
264
Website
www.jamiehall.org
:rant::rant::rant::rant::rant::rant::rant:

My blue banana squash plants are all ill and a third have died.

There's not much information about how to care for them.

I'm great with other squash plants. Does anyone know of resources where I could get help? Blue banana squash are a little too rare, it seems.

:cry:
 

Komnena

In Honor of Peter Tomich,USS Utah
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 5, 2007
Messages
13,917
Reaction score
2,071
Location
King Louie's town
Sorry to hear about the problems with your plants, jamiehall.
 

jamiehall

Bereaved Snarkling
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Messages
5,220
Reaction score
264
Website
www.jamiehall.org
Sorry to hear about the problems with your plants, jamiehall.

It's just those blue banana squash that are doing badly, not all my plants. The few gardening experiences I've been able to locate online talk about 30-foot vines and plants that grow easily.

Mine are only about a foot long and sickly-looking.

I'm hoping to figure out what I'm doing wrong so I can grow them properly next year (I have low hopes that I can get any products out of the sickly specimens I've got now).
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
For the past week I've been eating a big green salad from the garden every night, two or three times nothing else. Two kinds of leaf lettuce, leaves from young red romaine lettuce, spinach, spicy mustard greens, arugula, young radish greens, mizuna greens, a green called mustard spinach, sprigs of chervil and leaves from two "weeds", the introduced thing called lamb's quarters, and leaves from the infamous northern chickweed. And some radishes. With salt and pepper, no other dressing.

I regard chervil, arugula and mustard greens as necessities in a salad. They add flavors you won't find from your salad bar at the local deli. They are all dead easy to grow, work well in pots as well as garden beds, and a packet of seeds for each will last you all growing season. Chervil in particular is a magnificent kitchen herb, also useful in cooking, especially with seafood. And mustard leaves are a terrific alternative to lettuce on any sandwich, including hamburgers.

The two "weeds" I speak of also have great value. Both are botanical relatives of spinach, and highly nutritious, lots of vitamin C, in particular. Lamb's quarters is an introduced weed almost everywhere in the U.S., and actually not much of a problem in the garden. It has spade-shaped leaves that are kind of rough to the feel; I always let some grow, for the purpose of eating.

The northern chickweed is a major garden nuisance, one of evolution's great triumphs. It will absolutely take over a garden if not weeded regularly. But, it has the virtue of edibility, and I've taken to letting a patch of about two square feet grow, and even fertilizing it, so it produces bigger leaves. I live in Alaska, and I don't know how far south this thing ranges, but it's worth knowing about. Both these "weeds" can be used like spinach in cooking, as well as raw.

My snap peas and snow peas are doing well, but won't begin producing for another month, dammit. And my potatoes look fabulous.

Alas, the tomatoes, always a tough thing up here, are struggling. Just don't have the right climate for 'em, but every spring I get seduced by the idea, and some years I get some.
 

backslashbaby

~~~~*~~~~
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
12,635
Reaction score
1,603
Location
NC
The deer have been eating all the leaves off my second cucumber patch. That's fine (eta - as far as those plants go), because I really only planted it because I had too many cucumber plants. I've never seen them eat anything more voraciously.

The real veggie garden hasn't taken much of a hit at all. It smells strongly of basil out there. Maybe a new trick? God, I hope so. We had a doe cause a car crash right in front of my house the other week. Too many deer are bad news :(
 

Fenika

Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 3, 2007
Messages
24,311
Reaction score
5,109
Location
-
My mom's neighbor thinks a possum ate 5 or so of his large tomatoes in one night and set out all these traps. I took one look at the stumps and realized it was a deer. I don't think he's going to have any luck catching deer in a Hav-a-heart! :ROFL: Some people have no sense.

Most of my plants doubled or tripled in size while I was gone. I have no potted zucchini to take with me to the new place (one of the squash I planted is a zucchini). The mystery squash currently has fruit that looks like a watermelon kong- any guesses as to what that might be?

Tomatoes are almost ready and all the peppers have tons of little fruits. I think the peppers are going to have a short harvest season, but I planted more that can go in ground at the new place.

I need a greenhouse!
 

Fenika

Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 3, 2007
Messages
24,311
Reaction score
5,109
Location
-
I have transplanted 13 peppers (red, yellow, banana, and mini banana), some sweet basil, sweetXpurple basil, parsley, and cilantro into larger pots.

Next I have to plan when to start my pumpkins in pots.
 

Fenika

Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 3, 2007
Messages
24,311
Reaction score
5,109
Location
-
How is everyone's garden? Not turning to dust in the heat I hope. I finally 'finished' my garden. I've got young pumpkins, peppers, and broccoli in the raised bed. I will build them a cold frame/tunnel in the fall. I added a little sod around the downhill side for a little insulation and prevent runoff under the board. I planted some herbs and transplanted a butternut squash in hopes that the shock would give me more fruit. It certainly wasnt going to make more squash in the shallow pot it was in. You can see it in the lower left and it is super happy already. It produced a big flower just after transplanting so I think my plan is working. At some point I will pull it out and put in a cold tolerant plant like beets.

ece90c51.jpg
 
Last edited:

Fenika

Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 3, 2007
Messages
24,311
Reaction score
5,109
Location
-
Ps- the potted tomatoes are doing great and the romas are sweeeeeet. The peppers are looking good but wont ripen. Grrr.
 

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
we are having a drought. we are not on water restrictions yet but i'm expecting it. i do manage to keep my raised beds watered but there are no tomatoes. nobody in this small town has any. last year i won two blue ribbons at the county fair for my eggplants. the fair is over and done with and i still don't have a single eggplant. the flowers bloom and then drop off. my peppers blister and drop. the cat sat on my carrot seedlings. guess i can't blame that on the weather--s6
 

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
i am a widowed school teacher. i don't make a lot of money so i have been worried about college for my grand daughters. they've been helping me garden this summer and they started up a cuss jar for old grammy! .25 for every swear word that they recognize--(they're only six and nine). anyway yesterday i was putting the finishing touches on a strawberry pyramid that we are building together. i dropped a good sized piece of stone on my finger--ca-ching! we just about have tuition and fees for the first semester! --s6
 
Last edited:

Fenika

Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 3, 2007
Messages
24,311
Reaction score
5,109
Location
-
Thats a shame your garden is having weather and cat troubles, Six.

Something tiny has nibbled part way through my tiny broccoli. One plant died and the other should pull through. Assuming the hail doent kill everything but I've had good luck with hail and plants so here's hoping.

Now I just need more manure to feed my pumpkins soon. And maybe my peppers so they grow instead of making babies.
 

jamiehall

Bereaved Snarkling
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Messages
5,220
Reaction score
264
Website
www.jamiehall.org
In case anyone was wondering what had happened with my Blue Banana Squash, they finally all died and after digging up the remains, it is now clear what caused this.

The supposedly permeable pots I had first started them in were obviously not permeable. The roots hadn't pierced through the pot sides, and the pots themselves had hardened in the soil so much I could barely pull them apart with my hands.

Obviously, I'm not getting those pots again. (I can't remember the brand name but they were gray, so no more gray permeable pots for me; I'll stick to peat-pots only from now on).

I really want to try with Blue Banana Squash next year.