I hate it when that happens - we had a Virginia Creeper that seemed to be finally getting somewhere in our last yard, and the guys who came in and mowed for us accidentally chopped it off.
Well, we got another ten cotoneasters in today - I have to get some mulch to mulch up the wells for them. I planted my sweet peas, too - I’ve got my morning glories soaking to go in tomorrow.
I dug up a rose that we had transplanted from our other house last summer because it seemed to be dead - looking at the root, it looks like it is putting out some new roots, so I moved it to a better place, gave it some root stimulator, and watered the bejeebers out of it. Fingers crossed that it comes up again - it was an amazing rose. It was tough as nails and bloomed from mid-spring until fall, with lovely, double, pink, fragrant flowers.
Last week Mig and I planted jalapenos, cowhorn and several bell pepper varieties, 16 tomato plants (some early girls and cherry varieties, beefmasters and a few I forget the name of) summer squash, cucumbers and pumpkins. We’ll have a few corn stalks and sunflowers later, plus another round of squash and tomatoes. I’m thinking potatoes for later. Oh and sugar snaps! They’re like crack to me.
I’m so excited because this year I have a freezer! Good stuff all year long! Because my fridge has such a small freezer I was only able to freeze a few bags of tomatoes last year but they sure were a treat late in winter. Mig is an amazing gardener. Our first year we didn’t use any sort of fertilizer or special soil mix. He just dug some holes and threw in seeds. He didn’t even pull all the grass out that year and we had bumper crops. Me, I’ll tend a plant like a baby and get half the yield. So mostly I just let him do the work and I do the harvesting.
As noted in my blog - see sig - I’m working on a pansy garden. Or actually two, since I’ve planted either side of the driveway. I’m going to be doing some wildflowers elsewhere too (I’m really hoping that some of the seeds for echinacea come up because I find them facinating despite being pink), but for now I’ve been tending to the pansies that somehow survived the winter, and the new ones I’ve put in this week. One of my neighbors, a middle-age guy even, really digs them too so it’s kind of nice to know that I’m not only making myself happy with this project
I couldn’t believe how many comments I got from neighbours when I had my last yard looking all spiffy - neighbours really do notice, and if you’re out there on your knees up to your elbows in dirt, they’re usually glad to stop and compliment you.
In other news, I’m up for a part-time gardening gig in a nearby neighbourhood - fingers crossed that a. I get it, and b. it doesn’t turn something I love into something that’s just another chore.
Thanks - I’m starting to discover that (I’m in Seattle, and it’s only just started to get nice and sunny out).
How do I know if I’m overwatering something? I’ve done that in the past (can’t remember now what kind of plant it was), but I’m hoping to keep these plants alive so I can eat their bounty. How can I tell the difference between too much water and not enough?
Also: my mint has aphids! Yuck. And Grrr! Those mint leaves are for ME to eat, bugs, not you! I sprayed the leaves with hot soapy water the other day; anything else I can do that will be safe for human consumption?
Oh I love pansies too! Such wonderful colours. One of my neighbours has such lovely flowers, planted outside their fence, I feel privileged to drive by.
It’s been raining and overcast which is just perfect. I’m off to town to get some pest spray in anticipation of things going well … I put the tomatoe seeds in today, not holding out much hope though - for some reason they don’t seem to be my thing. I’ll probably end up buying some seedlings if this set won’t burst.
I judge the water of my containers by eyeball first, and by finger next - if it feels dry to the touch and dry a little ways down, it’s time to water again. That rule of finger seems to work for all plants - water when they get dry to the touch. You don’t want to overwater - there seems to be a kind of rhythm to watering that you’ll probably develop.
I wish I could send you some of my ladybugs, stargazer - I have tons of them in my back yard for some reason. They’d take care of those aphids for you. My raspberries had aphids, I recall - what worked was washing each individual leaf with insecticide soap (yeah, “time-consuming” doesn’t even cover it).
I got the rest of the garden in yesterday - potatoes, cucumbers, carrots, peas, lettuce, and zucchini. I have a strawberry plant, a saskatoon berry, and a nanking cherry that we brought over from our last house, and I plan to pick up a raspberry plant and some tomatoes.
My annuals are pretty much in, too - sweet peas, morning glories, and nasturtiums, to tide me over until next year when I’ll really go to work on getting my large flower beds done. My task today is getting my small front bed and back bed prepared - turning them over and composting the holy hell out of them. The dirt is nice and black, but it’s so dry from not being used properly.
I went with a planter/patio garden this year, which is fairly lucky because we just had what is likely our last frost on Mother’s Day and some seriously damaging thunderstorms with high winds and small hail within the last couple of weeks. I was able to conveniently move them to the garage and keep the transplanted seedlings warm and undamaged as need be.
It’s kind of new to me, as I’ve never grown vegetables successfully in pots. I did it because I thought I might be able to control the sun conditions and soil quality, as compared to my relatively shady and clay soiled corner plot, Perhaps get some really optimal yields with certain hybrids and also as a matter of convenience- It’s really no more than a salsa garden with a Better Boy and Early Girl tomato in their own large (5 gallon) planters, a Better Belle Green Pepper in a “medium planter”, and then I split 4 Cayenne pepper plants and two Portugal Hot pepper plants between a typical long window planter box and a “small” sized clay pot, planting the four cayennes and one portugal hot in the “window box” and the remaining portugal hot in the small pot.
The planting situation with my hot peppers does worry me a bit. I’m afraid they might be too crowded with 5 plants in the 30 inch window box and the small 4 inch pot seems too small for the relatively larger variety portugal hot, but they seem to be thriving at this point. Anybody with some experience care to weigh in on the situation? Do you think they will work out in the relatively crowded conditions?
I am also using Miracle-Gro Moisture Control Potting Soil, which is supposed to protect against overwatering and underwatering and is of course enriched with miracle gro fertilizer… my question is, can I, and should I supplement the soil with more fertilizer? It said on the package that it “feeds plants up to three months”, I’m wondering if it would hurt if I gave it some more weekly doses of the solute miracle gro in water and perhaps added some fish emulsion and or manure? Or is that overkill?
I have been “Great Gardening” workshops and their strong recommendation for mulch is something so rough that it is uncomfortable to walk on. That, plus it should not retain water (you want that in the soil).
Devilsknew, one of the greatest problems with home gardeners is over fertilising. If you have time release fertiliser (or slow release) you don’t need to keep adding. If you look at your pots and the drainage holes at the bottom have a white crust around them- that is your excess fertiliser being wasted.
In Perth we have a scheme whereby you can register for mulch. Those commercial tree loppers may have a load of mulch that they can’t sell and rather than carry it around they will deliver it to the closest house hold that has registered. Trouble is you can’t detail how much you want so you could end up with a semi trailer load.
I got home and was beat. The plants were all in dire need of water. It was so nice to turn on the timer and all the water everyday plants got watered. Hopefully I’ll have the drip system fixed how I want it, so I don’t have to have a hose run to a section. They all get watered now though. I got told that watering plants for an hour everyday was enjoyable. Hah! right. :rolleyes: I’d rather have live plants.
Yeah, I wouldn’t be fertilizing so much, either. I usually aim for giving my yard a general fertilizer in spring and leave it alone the rest of the year. I could probably stand to learn more about specific fertilizing techniques, but my plants are doing fine with my current techniques.
That’s good to know about the mulch, Cicero - the mini-bark nuggets I use seem to work just fine and fit those criteria.
Didn’t I whoosh myself posting about the mulch? I posted that as my wife was going to work and I was gloating that I could bludge all day as I had nothing I needed to do. Now the mulch people have rung and have a truckload to drop on my front lawn.
So I will be slaving over a hot wheel barrow while she works in the air conditioning. And rain is predicted mumble
Here in the Northwest it’s just getting nice enough to plant. I live in a woodsy area under the forest canopy - no sun, no yard - so I can’t have any kind of vegetable garden. I have some boxes on the deck and have gradually gotten a good selection of shade tolerant flowers and ornamentals going. This year I’ll struggle again trying to get morning glory to grow up a trellis.
But the big news is that I’m sharing a city owned garden plot with a friend, so for the first time since my childhood I’ll have a real vegetable garden to futz in! This morning I fired up the city roto-tiller and tilled up the whole neglected weed and grass overgrown plot. As soon as I got behind that noisy stinking obnoxious recalcitrant brute force and ignorance machine the childhood memories came flooding back - I HATE ROTO-TILLING!!!
But I got it done, in spite of fighting off the flu all morning. Now we’re ready to plant some starts tomorrow. I’m going to try growing edamame. We’ll see how it comes out. I’m excited. I look forward to monthly gardening threads. This should be fun!
I’ll third the don’t worry too much about the fertilizer, devilsknew.
As for the containers, what they’ll probably do is inhibit growth of the plants. You’ll probably still get peppers, but they’ll be smaller. I’ve done quite a bit of gardening in containers and I’ve noticed that some varieties come in smaller, but mostly it’s been fine. You might want to pick up a book called Square Foot Gardening. It talks about maximizing yields in a minimum of space.
Also, when you water, make sure you’re watering enough. Water until there’s water coming out of the bottom of the container. But yeah, then let it dry out a fair amount. Cat Whisperer is right that you’ll eventually get into a watering rhythm that works for you and your plants.
I did lots and lots of planting over the weekend (after participating in a plant exchange). I started digging out a bed for my next-door neighbor, too, and have planted a bunch there. I’ll try to share pictures soon.
I had relatively good luck growing some jalapeños one year in large pots on our front deck, which gets moderate sun. 4 inch pots seem tiny, but I’m not familiar with Portugal hot. 5 plants per 30 inch box seems a bit crowded, but I tend to crowd my plants too.
I was wishing for a roto-tiller this spring, breaking up my garden plot and mixing in the compost with my trusty spade. I have to keep my eye on the used ads and see if I can pick up one on the cheap.
