I am brand spanking new to outdoor gardening but I have always dreamed of having a house and gardens ..lots of visions I have... so since we are in a house now I figured I'd start fixin it up ..with the help of my landlord /neighbor and my husband I now have a quite big beautiful 2 level flower bed along my walkway and I even got 3 cucumber plants growing in it ! hehe ( I think they are doing ok?) sometimes I go out to look and they look good and sometimes they look a little bleh .. I'm trying to remember to water them often and in the morning and all that but its hard to get out the same time everyday with my 2 year old lol I don't have alot of knowledge yet or "tools" but I think I'm doing pretty good ! and I lost 8 pounds making it ! haha I did not realize how much work making a flower bed was :| and the sad part is I want LOTS more
I'm enjoying this thread (and want to get resubscribed since the crash deleted my post). Our garden is looking pretty well. Two rows (about 16 plants) of tomatoes. Two rows of beans, a row of crookneck squash, another of zucchini and another of butternut. Also a row of canteloupes. We set out a tiny little area of radish seeds and a couple of pepper plants, and eggplants. So far most of the seeds have come up and the tomato and pepper plants appear to be thriving. I've got a couple of bare spots that I may replant this weekend. I had some blooms on two of my tomato plants yesterday.
Our garden is in our back yard, and sits less than 30 feet away from my neighbor's garden. I definitely look at his garden and have garden envy. He is much more experienced and it shows. Loads of little green tomatos already and his squash are already pouring in. If we have half the crop that he has, we will be very lucky.
Great ideas for saving water. We are not going through a drought right now, but it seems like the smart thing to do anyway.
tammy - i think even if we get out of this drought, i will probably still incooperate my watering techniques...makes me feel better about my part for the planet.
My plants are doing great. I have two very large green tomaotes...hopefully soon they will turn red on one bush. The other tomato bush has a few small ones starting. Then the jalepeno has four small peppers growing. And my cuke plant has 2 flowers starting and its really taking off...i need to get a trellece to help my cuke plant grow and flourish. Im really enjoying gardening. I already have some ideas of what to add for next years garden.
Last edited by GatorgalstuckinGA; 06-13-2008 at 09:53 PM.
its been gardeners world live here in the uk this weekend (check out the bbc website!) and i watched the 1 hour show last night, given me some ideas
i wanted to ask you guys for help figuring out a plant that my next door neighbours had on their front garden when i was a kid.
it had dark green waxy leaves and it was pretty big... and it flowered with very large dark hot pink flowers with lots of petals. they were tight flowers but still large... i just want one!! so badly!!
Picked the first tomato today. It's red but not completely ripe yet. However, it's developing a small split, and my unfortunate experience with tomatoes has been that bugs get to them before I do. I didn't want to take the chance. Picked another cucumber yesterday and used some of the basil with grocery vine tomatoes and low-fat shredded mozarella. Also picked a bunch of flowers and made an arrangement of small blooms for the dinner table.
Hey webrover...i found a trick to help tomatos against the worms (not other bugs). those sem to be the ones that always got my tomatoes first...Get either some old yogart containers...or a plastic cup, and cut out the bottom. Then cut up the side so you can slip it around the base of the plant. Push it into the soil about an inch or two. The cutter worms cant climb the plastic. Usually those seem to be the ones that get them the worse. But that's just my experience.
I got some stuff for my trellis making for the cukes...but didn't have time as i got out of work too late.
Paula - no clue what it might be...it could honestly be a bunch of things...one thing that comes to mind is a bird of paradise..however, i don't think it would do well in the UK outdoors since its a tropical plant from hawaii.
Morning all...well last night i spent about an hr working on my garden. I got the cukes hooked up to a trellis to help them grow better. In addition, I added some more compost to the ground. I don't think i put enough potting soil this season. I have figured out a few things I want to change next year...but for now...i just wanted to make my plants happy. They have been really slowing down in grow, so i am assuming they needed nutrition...so i'm trying the compost (as opposed to fertilizer).
I've got a question for anyone who does compost piles...i found these grub like worms about 1 - 2 inch long and 1/4 inch in diameteer. They were greyish in color. I went thr the compost well ensuring none of these got mixed with my veggies...but does anyone know if these grubs will eat the veggies. I don't know how they got in the compost pile since all i've added is veggie and grass waste. I don't think any are in my garden since i really shifted thr my compost but was just wondering.
I'll have to take a second round of pics soon. My garden is really starting to take off.
They may be composting worms. I do know the shows I've seen on composting mention putting worms in it. They basically eat the dirt and turn it into soil thru digestion. Check with your local or state extension office, an AG college or a gardening center. They should be able to tell you.
Amazing the last two posts are about composting, because as much as I have been keeping up with you all, I have only felt compelled to jump in just now.
Here is my breaking news.....flash, flash...our compost is cooking to the tune of 143.5 degrees...now, for those of you who garden in climates where the temp. can get to 100 in the daytime, please consider that this year, we have only hit 80 degrees twice so far. The average daytime high temp. in June has been below 60 degrees..so a compost cooking at at 140 plus is just amazing. I dug my hand down in there tonight and there was visible heat vapor coming out..so of course we had to use the instant read meat thermometer and check it out..lol
I will have to record it later in the week..we are supposed to reach 80 on Thursday.
Anything over 130 kills weed seeds, plus the compost is broken down and ready so much sooner.
As for the worms..are you sure, Gatorgal, that they are not just night crawlers? I have them underneath in the soil where it is cool enough. Obviously, they can't live in 140 degrees...heehee. I am just PUMPED about this stuff!
HI..im new to this thread. I spend all my time in 300+ but i dont weight that now!!
does anyone know what you can do for blossom end rot on crooked neck squash. From what i have read its caused from inconsitant watering. We had an extremely wet spring and i have been watering every other day. My zuch are doing great. Already have grape tomatoes and big boy plants are loaded. I have a bell pepper ready to pick. I also am having trouble with something eating all the leaves off my sweet bananna pepper plants. they dont touch the jalapono though. I have been using sevin every 3 days. Any ideas??
debi
Debi, Welcome! Sorry no ideas from me. I've been wondering about watering also. I'm concerned about blossom end rot on my tomatoes. Nothing yet, but I've had it before and want to avoid it.
Hi Maryblu, do I remember correctly from an old thread that you have a background in agriculture? You may be able to help us with that question. 143 degrees in your compost pile? Wow, must be lots of activity going on in there!
We also have a compost pile cooking in the backyard. It is DH's baby, although I'm saving my kitchen scraps (no meat products) for it. Now I'm curious about the temperature. Also, should we be adding fertilizer to it to make it breakdown faster?
Gator, You've got me saving my yogurt cups. What a great idea!
Paula, I wish I had some suggestions for what type of plant that may have been. Was it a flowering shrub or a flower?
Our garden is looking very nice. Pretty flowers blooming all over. Our treeswallow babies fledged Sunday -- of course, we weren't home! I miss them; <sigh> have to wait another year for my fix.
I am utterly and totally convinced that mulch used to reduce weed growth is nothing but a marketing ploy -- for cryin' out loud, can we possibly GET any more weeds here?
Hey webrover...i found a trick to help tomatos against the worms
Thanks for the suggestion Gatorgal. I haven't seen worms. My veggie garden is small and planted in two Earthboxes. I've got the Earthboxes on a picnic table. This makes it easy for me to manage them and hard for critters to get to them. We have rabbits, raccoons, opossums & a bunch of other wildlife in our backyard. Anyway, the point of that is that the worms can't get to them. The eathboxes hold the dirt and plants up above a reservoir that I keep filled with water. This way I can't under or over water. I'm sure I'd do both. Unfortunately my garden does not look as lush as the one on their web page. I'm just happy for it to be alive and producing.
The years that my tomatoes were eaten were in our former house where we had a large ground level garden. Maybe I'll be ok with the little raised ones. I'm hoping.
mary....man you got your compost cooking good. I've never taken the temp...but i know smoking is a good sign LOL. and maybe they are night crawlers...but i'll have to do an internet search.
dgram- what i found helps is to keep mulch down (to help prevent over watering) and make sure you water when its dry.
tammy- any info i can pass along that works for me is no worries. I just learned about it this year.
webrover- How about a wire fence to keep the critters away. I actually learned a similar trick for my tomatoes. When i was getting my garden set up, i actually dug out a hole big enough to put a clay pot in. I then filled the pots with rocks. This way you never over water or underwater. Learned that from a friend of mine who's father grows killer tomatoes. So far its seem to go well.
as for my garden..im excited to report 3 flowers on the zucchinni, 2 on the eggplant and lots of green tomatoes. I can't wait until i get to benefit from my garden...i have to be very patient...not something i'm good at LOL
Last edited by GatorgalstuckinGA; 06-17-2008 at 09:50 PM.
143 degrees in your compost pile? Wow, must be lots of activity going on in there!
