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The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Kalta79 » Apr 17, 2018 3:46 pm

Botanical Interests and Territorial Seed are good sources, I'll second that!
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Grandmama » Apr 18, 2018 7:14 am

Kalta79 wrote: End of this week I'll be starting seeds for brussel sprouts, beets, salad greens, broccoli, snapdragons, herbs(sage and thyme), and ground cherries.

Are you starting the beets inside? Do you have good success with transplanting them to the garden?

Out of curiosity, what are ground cherries?
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Kalta79 » Apr 18, 2018 1:55 pm

The beet seeds go in the ground outside. Ground cherries are not much different from tomatillos.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby fantasia » Apr 19, 2018 6:51 am

I believe we have finally had our last hard freeze. That means it's time to get some of my billions of tomatoes in the ground! But as I'm planting the majority of them at my in-laws' farm, I'll have to find a good block of time when the weather cooperates to get up there and stick 'em in. :)

No, Grandmama, I do NOT have much room at my house. And last year I had a major issue with blister beetles eating my plants. My husband's solution was to shake the plant to get them to drop off and then mow over them. That helped somewhat, but I'm actually thinking of not planting ANY tomatoes here at all this year as I'd like to break their growth cycle.

My kids have been asking about carrots and green beans, so maybe I'll shoot for those instead and come up with some creative ways to keep the vermin from eating them.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Grandmama » Apr 23, 2018 6:49 am

fantasia_kitty wrote: And last year I had a major issue with blister beetles eating my plants. My husband's solution was to shake the plant to get them to drop off and then mow over them. That helped somewhat, but I'm actually thinking of not planting ANY tomatoes here at all this year as I'd like to break their growth cycle.


I've always rotated where my tomatoes are planted to keep any disease issues from overwintering, but I've never dealt with blister beetles, thankfully. I have had squirrels eat my tomatoes during drought conditions. I wouldn't mind if they just ate one completely, but no, they have to take bites out here and there. :((

The snow is almost all melted now, so I hope to get some yard work done this week. I don't think anything will actually go in the garden until May.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Kalta79 » May 02, 2018 9:27 pm

Started more seeds today(indoors of course). And I thought I had started sage earlier, but it was basil, I started the sage today, oh well. Tomatoes, corn, bell peppers, and a decorative eggplant variety called pumpkin-on-a-stick. Tomorrow is carrots and more lettuce, plus weeding out my strawberries and rhubarb and repotting a cactus and transplanting the aloe(it's got babies that are getting big and need their own pots). Grateful my sister gave me a package of 100 peat pots for Christmas.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby fantasia » May 15, 2018 1:43 pm

This is going to be an interesting gardening year for me. Things are so lopsided with the plants I usually like to grow. As I mentioned before, my tomatoes this year were out of control. I couldn't find anyone to give them to, so most of them ended up at the in-law's farm and my poor m-i-l is trying to find homes for the remaining few. In addition to that, my sister dropped another handful off at my house today as she's also out of room. My mom is also over-tomatoed and trying to get rid of them. :)) I always hate throwing healthy plants out, but this year....

On the flip side (and I may have also mentioned this), my onions were almost completely kerboshed by the constant hard freezes this spring. I think my garden has maybe... 8 that survived? And none of them survived at the farm. :( Onions are probably the number one plant I use throughout the year, so I'm sad that I lost almost all of them.

And then there are sweet potatoes. :)) My box arrived over the weekened and I opened them, and to my complete and surprise, found over 100 plants. Holy moly!! I have room for four at most in my backyard garden. So I posted on FB about it and within 8 hours, they were all spoken for. (I reserved three for myself.)

Anyways, I think I'm still going to attempt to plant a pumpkin plant and throw some carrot seed into the same rows as the onions where the onions died, just to fill in space. Other than that, my vegetable garden is done.

On the flower end of things, I've been slowly filling in my "fairy garden" which is really a potted garden so far ;)) and my front flower bed needs a lot of love. I worked on it a bit over the weekend, but it needs quite a few things put in as it's a lot of blank space right now. I bought two lantana, my very favorite flower now, and I have several columbine flowers and coleus to help fill in. Still needs some more somethings. ;))
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Kalta79 » May 15, 2018 3:02 pm

I'm sure you'll figure it out, fantasia :)

My corn, tomatoes, lettuces, and sage/thyme are sprouting. I'm hoping the snapdragons are as well and it's not a weed from the compost soil I used. Today I'm starting seeds for sunflowers and watermelon and potting one of the walking onions for the women's annual plant exchange and luncheon at our church(it's this Saturday). Neighbor also gave us some baby apple trees. Storm system is moving in, I better go hurry up and get the walking onion potted now before it hits.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Grandmama » May 18, 2018 1:33 pm

Fantasia Kitty, if we lived closer, I would have taken some of your tomato plants off your hands. The first four I started look great. All the rest, that I started just one week later in the same conditions, sprouted, and then just stopped growing. They didn't die, they just didn't get any bigger. Now that I have them setting outside in the sun, they are starting to grow a bit, but they are way smaller than what I want for putting in the garden.

I had lantana in pots on the deck last year and plan to again this year. They are so pretty. I was at a garden center yesterday looking for some, but they weren't in yet. I wasn't the only one looking for them!

I have harvested lettuce and spinach from pots on the deck, but nothing is actually in the garden yet. We are giving the garden an overhaul this year and replacing the fence, which we discovered isn't bunny proof. Since half the fence is down, I don't feel comfortable putting the pepper plants out in the garden, so I keep putting them in bigger containers on the deck. Yesterday they moved into cottage cheese containers. Hopefully the new fence will be up before they outgrow those!
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Kalta79 » May 28, 2018 8:38 am

Well my thyme starts got knocked over by...I'm assuming it was one of the cats, and they were too small for me to find, so I'm buying a fully established plant from a friend, and my bell peppers, sorghum, watermelon, sunflower, and broccoli are sprouting. Feeling rather happy and blessed that I've had such germination success this year, but wasn't too happy to realize a couple days ago that I forgot to plan where I'd have room to plant them...oh well, I'm gonna have a 'creative' garden this year. ;;)
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Puddleglum » Jun 01, 2018 7:21 pm

I have a question, and I hope I can get an answer from someone far more knowledgable than myself.
I have a rose bush. A spindly little thing that I feared I had succeded in killing ( unententionally I assure you all ) but hangs on grimly.
Every spring it is attacked, mercilessly by some insect that chews it to bits. It still bravely sprouts more leaves, and carries on, but every spring it seems to take longer to come back. Possibly dreading to be attacked again.
My question. Is there an insecticide out there that is non-toxic that can kill, or at least drive away the little pests? I have been reading more, and more stories about most store bought, name brands leaving stuff in the soil that I am trying to avoid using them.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby fantasia » Jun 07, 2018 9:43 am

Well that sounds like you don't want anything systemic, which is what I would have recommended. You might look into the organic homemade stuff which usually includes soap and hot peppers. Just a quick google pulled up this page. You might find a recipe on there that might work. :)

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/specia ... ontrol.htm

On my end of things, I keep thinking "oh, I'm done planting!" and then I come up with more things to plant that I've either forgotten about or want to add. I'm determined to get another pot taken care of today by planting some flowers I'm amazed I haven't killed yet. They're still in their store-bought seed starting tray. :ymblushing:
Also on the to-do list is to tie up my tomatoes. They have fallen over.

But other than the rough start with the onions, my garden looks good this year! Hopefully it will stay that way. :)
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Grandmama » Jun 07, 2018 12:19 pm

We are slowly getting our new raised beds constructed. Slowly because we get started and then realize that we need fill-in-the-blank and have to go back to the store. Also, slowly because we aren't so young any more. :) Stargazer helped out today.

I do have 4 tomatoes, peppers, beans and beets planted. Still have to get carrots and cukes in. And, if we get the new beds built and filled with dirt in time, more tomatoes.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Grandmama » Jun 07, 2018 12:20 pm

fantasia_kitty wrote:Also on the to-do list is to tie up my tomatoes. They have fallen over.


Do you cage your tomatoes or just stake them?
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby fantasia » Jun 07, 2018 3:42 pm

We take a 14ft length of hog fence and turn it into an arch. Then we plant tomatoes at the base of both sides.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby johobbit » Jun 07, 2018 7:09 pm

Friend Wiggle wrote:I have a rose bush. A spindly little thing that I feared I had succeded in killing ( unententionally I assure you all ) but hangs on grimly.
Every spring it is attacked, mercilessly by some insect that chews it to bits

Ugh, that is frustrating. We have the same problem. I have not yet tried anything homemade ('though would like to), but we have used " ", which we spray on the bugs, and it gets 'em good! This year we have not seen any critters yet. Keeping a close eye. Thus far, all looks healthy, but that doesn't mean they won't show up.

fantasia wrote:On my end of things, I keep thinking "oh, I'm done planting!" and then I come up with more things to plant that I've either forgotten about or want to add.

Totally! :))

FINALLY, we have finished planting, except ... for the potatoes. They go in the ground tomorrow evening, hopefully.

We dug another veggie garden plot this year. The other one was just too cramped, 'though we have cleaned it up, made it a bit larger, and planted peppers, peas, beans, cucumbers, carrots, and sunflowers (for decoration) there.

In the new garden are tomatoes (beefsteak, sweet 100s, brandywine) and shortly, potatoes.

The flower gardens are really coming along: we have a goodly number of these, most of which we added within the past four years since we have moved to this area. Apparently the lady who lived here two owners ago (her dad built the house) had gorgeous perennial gardens, but the next owners (who we bought from), lovely young couple though they were, tore 95% of the gardens out. :(( At least we've got a clean slate. :P

We have a fair number of perennials, as well as annuals to fill in the spaces.
Some of the perennials:
hydrangeas
clematis
daisies
black-eyed susans
lupines**
bloody cranesbill
bleeding heart
lilies
sedum (stonecrop)**
peonies

Some of the annuals:
geraniums (always red: I find that colour grows the best)
alyssum
fuchsia**
snapdragons
dipladenia**
hostas
sunshine impatiens
ivy
lantanas**
dahlias
coleus**
dianthus
salvia
million bells
portulaca

I love 'em all, but those with stars** are my ultra-favourites. :D

I haven't started an herb garden yet, but do have parsley. I can't live without parsley. ;)) It makes great decoration on so many summery dishes.

We take around a couple of weeks to plant everything, so from the end of May (after the danger of frost is over) until mid-June or so. For one thing, it's too tiring to do it all in one weekend. :P We prefer to space it all out so as to think carefully what we want where and then prep the gardens well. We have rich soil here, being in a more rural agriculture area, which helps, of course.

I dislike summer with a great intensity, so am glad for something to distract me—gardening, which I quite revel in.
B-)
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