Gardening Forum

[Zeal]

Gardening runs in my family for unknown amounts of generations (all the way back to where the family tree can't be found), if anyone needs help with veggies or flowers (both of my parents do it) feel free to send a P.M or something
My father's garden (off the top of my head) has grown: string beans, corn, peppers, cucumber, squash, eggplant, tomato, zucchini, carrot, pumpkin, and at one point strawberries.

My mother goes TO TOWN on flowers. Some of them are over 30 years old! Listing what she has, would take me awhile.

[Raven]

Operation "Over-winter" a complete success !
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I had origiinally ordered 500 African night crawlers for my compost worm
raised them in the basement until they divided by two ten times
then created a 4' x 25' pit to dump them(breeders only) into adding all maple leaves on top in
the fall to a height of 3 1/2 to four feet alternating with grass clippings
to see if they'd survive a New England Winter and sub zero temperatures.

I also wanted to have them create a modified (worm eaten) soil in that bed with Perfect friability for this springs transplanting's out of the green house and the plan worked flawlessly with soil so incredible I was giggling.

I skimmed off all the leaf mats with my hay pitch fork and piled them into a worm pile that's four feet high i'd say close to 3 yards size then in the middle I dumped six months of garbage i'd collected in the compost barrel consisting of 80% egg shells which
encourage them to BREED (calcium) and covered that with 5 gallons of Purina worm chow to attract them and of course feed them covering it with another 2 feet
of wet maple leaf mats and soil in alternate layers.

now all I have to do when I want more fertility anywhere is to shove my shovel
handle deep into the soil wiggle it round and round to make a tunnel
add a handful of worms like grabbing spaghetti throw them in the hole
and top it off with some worm chow and walk away.

[vineyardblues]

I gave up on the sweet taters , huge area with very little harvested
Reg potatoes as well , see ya ........ I love watching plants grown but at the end it was not worth it ....................................
picked up some 10-10-10 at homies $ 17:50 holy crap ....also picked up some unholy crap in a bag !

[Raven]

I set out some broccoli and some peppers yesterday that wanna take off
and today's heat was just to much for them so thinking very QUICKLY
I trimmed off half of my shade cloth covering the HALF hoop house
as it was twice as wide as it needed to be and fashioned a make do
cooling screen and watered it several times to cool everyone down.

now they are all doing just fine again and seem to be saying: thanks Rav

[The Dad Fisherman]

I got some Chinese cabbage going, sweet peas and sugar snaps, green beans, put in eggplant and peppers yesterday and tomatoes going in this weekend. Been mulching with cardboard and newspaper w/ a layer of composted leaves on top keep the weeds down......then everything will get tilled in at the end of the season.....we'll see what happens
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[ProfessorM]

Done eating asparagus for this year. Letting the rest go to seed. Actually tired of it, but soooo good. Very happy I did get the spray on the blueberries in time as they are loaded with flowers and in full bloom.

[Raven]

yesterday we transplanted all the tomatoes and peppers out of the green house
and settled in for the night to watch some tv.... not finding much on we decided to watch Hawaii 5-0
recorded on the DVR ... afterwards seeing the news forecast.
they announced an overnight frost and we went into a panic momentarily forgetting
that this was a pre recorded news program and that the frost already happened.
for a few moments there .... i was thinking we just got schooled by mother nature.

[Nebe]

Originally Posted by Raven

yesterday we transplanted all the tomatoes and peppers out of the green house
and settled in for the night to watch some tv.... not finding much on we decided to watch Hawaii 5-0
recorded on the DVR ... afterwards seeing the news forecast.
they announced an overnight frost and we went into a panic momentarily forgetting
that this was a pre recorded news program and that the frost already happened.
for a few moments there .... i was thinking we just got schooled by mother nature.

LOL~~

[JackK]

Just put my tomatoes in. Two plants is plenty for me for the summer- rocking an Early Girl II and a Better Boy. Let them grow a bit then develop a staking system.

This afternoon I'm going to get my cukes set up... I have a pretty sunny patch on my porch that should work. I couldn't find the seed varieties that I wanted, but I'll make do.

The chard went in this weekend, and the next step is to get my lettuce mixes and arugula in. Figure I'll plant a row every week so I can have a consistent harvest throughout the summer.

Fun stuff!

[The Dad Fisherman]

I still got that chive plant for you/Olivia here whenever you want it....already potted it for ya.

Zucchini and Summer Squash going in this week
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[Raven]

today it was 82 and the newly transplanted veggies
were not happy it was summer ALREADY !

Luckily i had the half curtain of 40% shade cloth ready to go
and with a quickie jury rig i got them cooled off fairly quick.

i'm planning on building a permanent set-up for quick deployment.

here's what i mean... in pics

[Raven]

Originally Posted by JackK

The chard went in this weekend, and the next step is to get my lettuce mixes and arugula in. Figure I'll plant a row every week so I can have a consistent harvest throughout the summer.

Fun stuff!

i grew lettuce commercially harvesting 100 heads every morning for market and thought i knew the best way....based on that experience.
but we stumbled upon an even better way quite by accident. you know those wooden apple crates that produce vendors use to display their produce? Well we had picked up a wooden antique apple picking box about the same size at a free sale so i grabbed it. it has 6 inch deep sides and it had some straps on each end for carrying it. We used it to start some lettuce with some bib and other loose leaf varieties fully intending to transplant them out of there into the garden. It grew the most perfect lettuce imaginable . Being in close proximity the leaves went up then out . Now i am going to build 6 more of these (18" x 24") 6 inch deep boxes.

[Rockfish9]

Originally Posted by ProfessorM

Done eating asparagus for this year. Letting the rest go to seed. Actually tired of it, but soooo good. Very happy I did get the spray on the blueberries in time as they are loaded with flowers and in full bloom.

Hear ya on the asparagas... I'll probably pick once more before letting them go to seed...

Tomatoes ( sauce tomatoes) are in... as are the egg plants and herbs( only the basil did not make it through the winter)... Zuc's occupy the copost pile because I dont want them taking over my small truck patch...

[cheferson]

What are all you guys doing for winter moth caterpillars ? Theres so many in my yard , if your quiet you can hear them chew ! My daughter also gets pissed when all the turds rain down on her from the trees. They tore up my blueberries for a few days . I sprayed with spinosad and then bt . Is there anything else I can do?

I planted a huge garden this year in raised beds . Also more berries and fruit then I can even remember ! I will get some pix up soon ! ALready been chowing on rabe , greens , and radishes .

[Raven]

when i compare the two 4' x 25' beds soil
side by side .....they look completely different

one side over wintered with 20,000 or more compost worms
under 4 feet of maple (only) leaves that flattened down via the snow load
to around 12" inches

the other one i didn't "put to bed " for the winter at all
but now that's going to change!

[Rockfish9]

Originally Posted by cheferson

What are all you guys doing for winter moth caterpillars ? Theres so many in my yard , if your quiet you can hear them chew ! My daughter also gets pissed when all the turds rain down on her from the trees. They tore up my blueberries for a few days . I sprayed with spinosad and then bt . Is there anything else I can do?

I planted a huge garden this year in raised beds . Also more berries and fruit then I can even remember ! I will get some pix up soon ! ALready been chowing on rabe , greens , and radishes .

We are blessed only varmits are chipmonks... and Ihave a soluton for them...

[cheferson]

Originally Posted by Rockfish9

We are blessed only varmits are chipmonks... and Ihave a soluton for them...

For now... Guess these are new to the area and spreading fast . I figured I'd be all set as my parents 25 min away have no pests on theirs,not the case here . They've already almost completely stripped some oaks, maples and flowering cherries.
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[Swimmer]

[QUOTE=Raven;998986]Operation "Over-winter" a complete success !
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I had origiinally ordered 500 African night crawlers for my compost worm
raised them in the basement until they divided by two ten times
then created a 4' x 25' pit to du them(breeders only) into adding all maple leaves on top in
the fall to a height of 3 1/2 to four feet alternating with grass clippings
to see if they'd survive a New England Winter and sub zero temperatures.

I also wanted to have them create a modified (worm eaten) soil in that bed with Perfect friability for this springs transplanting's out of the green house and the plan worked flawlessly with soil so incredible I was giggling.

I skimmed off all the leaf mats with my hay pitch fork and piled them into a worm pile that's four feet high i'd say close to 3 yards size then in the middle I dumped six months of garbage i'd collected in the compost barrel consisting of 80% egg shells which
encourage them to BREED (calcium) and covered that with 5 gallons of Purina worm chow to attract them and of course feed them covering it with another 2 feet
of wet maple leaf mats and soil in alternate layers.

now all I have to do when I want more fertility anywhere is to shove my shovel
handle deep into the soil wiggle it round and round to make a tunnel
add a handful of worms like grabbing spaghetti throw them in the hole
and top it off with some worm chow and walk away.[/QUOT.
Raven pm me with the worm info. I have all the necessary components but the worms. My compost is relatively wormy but i would love ti buy some and get my compost pile to turn over every year not every other And the worms would do that.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Raven]

roger that

>>>>SENT

[Raven]

last night i went out about midnight in the drizzle to check for slugs
and couldn't find a single one...

i guess last years steady salting of them decimated their population!

but i noticed on the worm bed converted back to a productive broccoli /pepper patch
that many breeder sized African night crawlers were actively seeking mating or food opportunites
so i went and got them a gallon of worm chow
and sprinkled it all around -here and there to keep them from wandering.

[justplugit]

Originally Posted by ProfessorM

Done eating asparagus for this year. Letting the rest go to seed. Actually tired of it, but soooo good. Very happy I did get the spray on the blueberries in time as they are loaded with flowers and in full bloom.

P. how could you ever get tired of eating fresh picked asparagus?
That's like saying you get tired of fresh picked corn.

[justplugit]

Originally Posted by Nebe

LOL~~

X2 , Rav, that's one for the book. Waaay to funnie.

[Raven]

tomatoes are goin gang busters
time to re fertilize .... gotta beat the 7/4
it's a challenge

[justplugit]

Rav, have you ever tried the old plastic 1 gal milk jugs over
your 7/4 tomatoes to get an early jump.
Used to cut out the bottom and put them over
an early planting of Early Girls.
Kept them warm during the day and protected at night.

[Raven]

i like the shape and rigidity of the windshield washer fluid bottles better
than the flimsier milk bottles but chose to build a heated hoop house.
This is my first year with a "Half hoop house" or lean too variety and although
it's smaller (BUILT STRONGER) it's handling our needs and is easier to control the temperature.

Last years freak storm collapsed the full hoop house which had only shade cloth netting and i could have /should have removed
the netting prior to the storm thinking we'd just get some fluff like 3 inches but instead we got the wettest (10 INCHES) heaviest snow imaginable
and it wasn't braced for a snow load being so late in the season. So i got Schooled big time but as a result i have a more PRACTICAL
and manageable sized green house that's easier to heat. the Tomatoes were two feet tall and flowering when we put them in.

[Swimmer]

Originally Posted by cheferson

What are all you guys doing for winter moth caterpillars ? Theres so many in my yard , if your quiet you can hear them chew ! My daughter also gets pissed when all the turds rain down on her from the trees. They tore up my blueberries for a few days . I sprayed with spinosad and then bt . Is there anything else I can do? Liquid sevin
I planted a huge garden this yeain raised beds . Also more berries and fruit then I can even remember ! I will get some pix up soon ! ALready been chowing on rabe , greens , and radishes .

[size=1]Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device[/siz

Liquid sevin

[JackK]

It's great how quickly the radishes, lettuce and arugula are germinating in this damp weather. Can't wait for fresh salads.

Anyone want a pair of tomato plants? I had to buy the plants in a 3 cell pack and have nowhere to put the other two. Just let me know.

[The Dad Fisherman]

What kind are they? might take them off your hands......or just go to home depot and pick up a couple of Plastic pots and pot them....or even 5 gallon buckets

[JackK]

Better boys... If all goes well I should have plenty of tomatoes. We can meet up next week

[The Dad Fisherman]

Sounds good...I got that Chive plant for you still....