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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 johobbit » Aug 01, 2019 6:00 pm

Mmm, tomatoes! ♥

Wowser, your cucumber plants are doing extremely well, Grandmama. Maybe a bit too much? ;)) Still, what a yield. And it's great giving such abundance away, indeed.


Grandmama wrote:And if I grow nasturtiums again, give them LOTS of space to grow.

Totally! They are so pretty, but do they ever take over! :p

I went out to pick peas and beans early last evening, but the mosquitoes were so bad. It seems an entire swarm was hiding in each plant, so that when I moved each one to pick, they flooded out ... and on to me. :-q I think I may have to brave the mid-day heat in order to avoid getting eaten alive.

In watering this evening, I noticed one of my sedum/stonecrop is dying. I have never had this happen to a sedum before. It's quite sad. The others are very healthy, so I have no idea why, which bugs me. :-??

Btw, Happy August, everyone! It's great looking forward to these few months of harvest!
:D
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby johobbit » Aug 03, 2019 11:23 am

So, I had a good water and weed of the upper veggie garden yesterday, and was looking carefully at the broccoli plants. While there are beautiful, large leaves, there is no sign of the broccoli stalk, itself. I know it is a slow-growing plant, but I guess I thought I would see something by now. Yet, maybe it is just too early yet (I did not start the seeds indoors), so patience, Jo! ;))

I harvested a large amount of peas and beans yesterday (in the mid-day heat because I would rather face that than thousands of mosquitoes later in the day :P), and a lovely cucumber, which we shall all add to our lunch tomorrow, which already includes local smoked pork chops and local corn on the BBQ/grill, mmm!

There are a couple of 'volunteer' plants, which look to be pumpkin, I think, as that is where we threw our pumpkins when they started getting soft a couple of weeks after Hallowe'en. We are going to have to guide the long stems around our other plants, as pumpkins can take up a lot of room. It will be fun to see how these fare once the fruit starts growing. :)
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Grandmama » Aug 06, 2019 12:30 pm

Yesterday we had hail here--luckily not much and pretty small at our house. Not far from us, there was much bigger hail. At the time it was hailing, I was at a meeting and a gal there was worried about her car getting hailed on. I was worried about my garden getting hailed on!

johobbit wrote:
I harvested a large amount of peas and beans yesterday (in the mid-day heat because I would rather face that than thousands of mosquitoes later in the day :P), and a lovely cucumber, which we shall all add to our lunch tomorrow, which already includes local smoked pork chops and local corn on the BBQ/grill, mmm!


I'm with you on the heat being the lesser of the two evils!

How was the sweet corn? I'm planning to pick the first batch of ours for supper tonight.

On a different note, last year when we started building our new garden and I knew I would have to move the daylilies, I didn't think that a border around the deck was really that good of a location. However, I'm finding that it gets weeded much more consistently there since I walk by it all the time. And even though you can't see the bed from the house, I do walk by it on my way to the garden, so I do notice the flowers. Next summer the plan is to extend the bed all the way around the deck and back of the house to meet up with an existing perennial bed on the north side.

Edited to say the corn was awesome!
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Grandmama » Aug 28, 2019 1:29 pm

Last week the grandkids were here, so not much got done in the garden. I let my 3 year old granddaughter help me pick cherry tomatoes, but she didn't quite get the difference between ripe one and unripe ones. She wanted to pick anything she could reach! ;;)

Today I realized that I really needed to see what's ready to pick and came in with 11 cucumbers, 4 green peppers, some jalapenos, and a large bowl of red tomatoes. I haven't even started on the beans and cherry tomatoes yet. Looking forward to BLT's for supper and then probably canning tomatoes tomorrow.

There are many cantaloupe out there that aren't quite ready yet. I would love to have one right now! I just hope they don't all get ripe over the weekend when I'm gone to Illinois to help my sister move.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby johobbit » Sep 05, 2019 5:02 am

Grandmama wrote:How was the sweet corn?

Delicious. :) We try to have corn on the BBQ/grill every Sunday for lunch. It is not ours, but from a local farm, sold through the town market. One does not even need butter on it, it's so delectable.

Next summer the plan is to extend the bed all the way around the deck and back of the house to meet up with an existing perennial bed on the north side.

Sounds lovely! Looking forward to seeing this.

What a harvest, Grandmama! :D We had BLTs for supper two nights ago. Oh man, I could consume those every night, I think. Fantastic, so tasty, especially with our Brandywines as the tomatoes, mmm.

Did your cantaloupes last until you returned home from helping your sister (hope the move went well!)?

We have had an overload of green beans this year; they just keep on coming. ;)) (Not complaining!)
Potatoes and carrots should be ready sometime in the next few weeks.
I would love to plant beets next year, as we both really like them.
My broccoli really did not do well. There are bunches, but very sparse and kind of flowery. Not sure what happened there. Too bad.
We are getting a good bowl of cherry tomatoes daily and a few large tomatoes (the Brandywines) most days, as well.
The peas are pretty much done; peppers are still coming.

Whatever we don't have in the gardens, the local, seasonal market has plenty. B-)

The floral gardens this time of year are quite spectacular, as they are at their prime in size, colour, vibrancy. So pretty.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Grandmama » Sep 06, 2019 2:58 pm

johobbit wrote:
Did your cantaloupes last until you returned home from helping your sister (hope the move went well!)?

Yes, they did. A couple of them have now fallen off the vines, but they don't actually look ripe. I may be brave and cut into one tonight to see how close to ripe it is.

johobbit wrote:I would love to plant beets next year, as we both really like them.

Fresh beets are delicious! I have my husband to thank for the introduction. The only kind of beets I had growing up were pickled beets, which are so-so. He convinced me to grow beets and I discovered that I like them much better fresh, cooked with some butter and seasoning.
johobbit wrote:My broccoli really did not do well. There are bunches, but very sparse and kind of flowery. Not sure what happened there. Too bad.
There always seems to be some crop that doesn't do well in a given year.

I think BLT's with the tomatoes and lettuce fresh from the garden may be my very favorite sandwich!
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Lady Arwen » Sep 20, 2019 2:38 pm

* pokes her nose in, but only so far *

Anyone happen to have any advice on roses? I was just gifted a pot of parade roses (some sort of miniature hybrid), and on further inspection discovered there are three of them...in a 4”x2” pot! My instincts are telling me the roots are absolutely crowded out, but it is nearly winter and I’m concerned about shocking and killing them.

I don’t usually do ornamental plants past bulbs, so this is definitely new territory. ;))
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Grandmama » Sep 25, 2019 4:57 pm

I'm sorry that I have no advice to offer about roses. Best of luck with them!

I'm starting to clean up the garden. Friends who want cornstalks for autumn decorations have taken away most of my corn stalks--yay! Now I'm starting to pull up some of the tomato plants because they have some kind of blight or fungus and the leaves are all shriveling and turning brown. And, unfortunately, the tomatoes are dropping off the vines and then rot on the ground. Thankfully I've already canned enough tomatoes to get us thru the year.

The cucumbers are also past their prime and are getting pulled up. We still have 3 watermelon on the vine and quite a few peppers out there. The carrots still need to be harvested as well.

I have lettuce plants ready to go out in the garden! I've found that growing lettuce in the cooler fall weather results in very good lettuce. Sometimes I have to cover the plants if frost threatens, but we have had lettuce from the garden as late as (American) Thanksgiving.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Grandmama » Oct 09, 2019 10:54 am

It is a perfectly glorious day here and I have the day off work, so I've been outside getting the garden cleaned up. Most things are now gone as I keep hearing rumors of snow in the forecast. I still have carrots in the ground as a bit of frost doesn't hurt them. And I transplanted the lettuce plants into the garden today. I will cover them with straw, plastic and/or blankets when the temperatures get too cold.

I also got some tulip bulbs planted today. I planted them where I can see them from the kitchen window while doing dishes. :) Here's hoping that they come up.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby johobbit » Nov 11, 2019 1:10 pm

Grandmama wrote:I may be brave and cut into one tonight to see how close to ripe it is.

And how ripe was it? Hopefully delish!

Fresh beets are delicious! ... I like them much better fresh, cooked with some butter and seasoning.

Mmm, totally salivating here. ;))

I think BLT's with the tomatoes and lettuce fresh from the garden may be my very favorite sandwich!

Hear-hear! :D We are having BLTs tonight, actually, with the last of our garden tomatoes. \:D/

Wren wrote:Anyone happen to have any advice on roses?

I am not really a rose person, so can't help you much. Although whenever I am gifted with a miniature rose plant, I re-plant it in the garden, to reasonable success. That pot does sound way too small, though, Wren, yikes. Google the answer? :P

Grandmama wrote:I've found that growing lettuce in the cooler fall weather results in very good lettuce. ... we have had lettuce from the garden as late as (American) Thanksgiving.

Good to know! And wow! :-o

A few weeks ago, we went on a splurge and got a fair bit of winterizing done in the gardens. The veggies have now all been harvested, with even a few cute small-ish pumpkins for the Autumn season, which was far too short, I hasten to add. /:) (~~)

But in early November, the season threw us as surprise, as it became quite cold (below freezing), with flurries and even a slight accumulation of snow at times. However, today, Remembrance Day, beats all: we have a major snowstorm warning, which has descended today in all its beautiful fury. Most of us in the village have not yet fully finished prepping our gardens for winter, and the last of the leaves have yet to fall from the trees. ;)) But the snow will be covering big-time any we have not yet raked up. I wonder if we shall have to wait until spring to take care of those. It's quite something. This is early for us to have such a major snowfall, but it's kind of fun too. :) At least our veggie gardens were pretty much ready for this wintry onslaught.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Lady Arwen » Dec 07, 2019 1:41 pm

johobbit wrote: I am not really a rose person, so can't help you much.... That pot does sound way too small, though, Wren, yikes. Google the answer? :P


lol, a bit too late. :P My niece and I picked up three nice bucket style pots that weekend and replanted them. It was an interesting process; I had determined that trying to pull or cut the plants apart would cause too much shock, so we washed the dirt out in still water, and detangled them underwater, somewhat akin to hair. I thought maybe one of the three would survive past that initial week, but they're actually all still alive and blooming! I sent one home with K (the one she had really worked on) and kept the other two. One is struggling a bit, partially because one of my cats keeps nipping the leaves off it, and partially because it keeps getting this strange white sprinkle stuff on its leaves.

I've had some issues with aphids, but I thought that was pretty much solved...until it stormed this weekend, and a colony of ants thought it would be a great idea to move in to the rose pots! I checked, and found that while the aphids had abandoned the green areas of the plants, they were living in between the petals of the roses. I wouldn't mind them having their own little ecosystem, except ants are notorious for exploring and getting into other stuff, so that will have to stop. We're getting storm doors put on, though, so I think that will seal off their entrance and exit; then all I'll have to do is hunt down the ones that have moved in. ;))

I'm torn right now on if I should continue having them indoors, where I can move them out on sunny days, or drop them in the ground and just rock over the area to try to provide warmth. They've probably quadrupled in size since we re-potted them (well, the healthiest has), but they're still very tiny.

In other news, the ginger that I planted at the wrong time of year because it randomly decided to sprout is still hanging on, despite the cold. It certainly is headstrong. The cats seem to be leaving it alone, though.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby fledge1 » Jan 17, 2020 1:01 pm

Here is a random question for anyone who knows anything about Norfork Pines. I got one of those small christmas trees from walmart. It is potted in my office and there are little gnats flying around it. How do i get rid of those? And it looks like there are a several stems or trunks. Is that normal?
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Grandmama » Feb 11, 2020 11:03 am

Is anyone else thinking about gardening? I have a stack of seed catalogs on the table that I started looking through last night. Now I want to start planting! :D
Last year was a "practice" year with our new garden beds. This year I hope to have a more thought out garden plan, using experience gained. For instance, not as many peppers and tomatoes because they were too close together once they got big. And I may leave out carrots as they didn't taste any better than ones from the grocery store and they are a pain to weed.
I would like to try something new this year, but I haven't figured out what yet. Maybe turnips? Has anyone grown turnips? Does anyone like turnips? I have a feeling certain family members may object to new veggies so I will need some good, tasty ways to prepare them.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Kalta79 » Feb 26, 2020 9:34 am

I've got to go through my current supply of seeds to see what we need for this year. Baker Creek has Job's Tears seeds, that's something I've wanted to try and grow for a while.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Grandmama » Feb 28, 2020 9:52 am

Kalta79 wrote:I've got to go through my current supply of seeds to see what we need for this year. Baker Creek has Job's Tears seeds, that's something I've wanted to try and grow for a while.

I am curious as to what "Job's Tears" are? Flowers?

My seeds have arrived and I have two "Winter Sowing" planters out on the deck, containing spinach, lettuce and green onions. I might start some pansies under lights in the basement soon as they are hardy.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Kalta79 » Feb 29, 2020 9:08 pm

It's actually a cereal grain also known as adlay. The seeds can be used as food, or as beads for rosaries.
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