(Note: I got tubadiva’s advance permission to start this thread.)
As some of you know, IRL I’m a magazine editor, currently working on starting up a gardening magazine. One of the regular features in the magazine will be a Q&A column, with us answering questions that our readers will write in with. Obviously, for the first couple of issues, there won’t be any letters from readers to answer, so we need to find some good questions to get things rolling.
So – what questions about gardening would you like to see us tackle? We’ll be covering both veggie gardening and flower gardening, and the emphasis of the magazine will be very much on practical advice and how-tos, not showing pix of what your garden would look like if you had a staff out of 20 out there removing every fallen leaf.
There was a thread in GQ the other day where panache45 was asking about why his/her tomato crop was so bad this year – that would be a good question, or any kind of “how do I do this” or “why is my plant doing that” question you might have.
If you post a question in this thread, I’ll consider it fair game to use. If you’d like me to sign your real name and town to the letter, email that information to me at twickster47 at yahoo dot com (and if you give me your street address as well, I’ll send you a copy of the magazine your letter appears in when it comes out). If you don’t want to be identified, I’ll make up a name and address for you – but please provide some idea of your actual location, because that often makes a huge difference in the answer.
Mine are endless. So much so that I’ve enrolled in our local university’s extension program (a Master Gardener class–which includes community service, BTW) here in Far Northern Vermont.
Serious questions?
> How much does micro-climate influence planting time? We live on the lee side of Lake Champlain, and have a longer growing season than the mountain areas. How far can I push it? (Understanding this is relative to the location in question…)
> Night bugs–like Asiatic beetles–(not Japanese beetles). They hide during the day and ravage at night. Best way to deal?
> Truly Excellent Compost? 'splain it to me. What to put in/not put in?
What is the best methods of dealing with Ground Hogs digging in flowerbeds and near the house? I have tried Pepper based deterrents to no avail.
**What can we do about an infestation of Bag Worms destroying our pine trees? **
They are already cocooned and in very large numbers.
My wife mechanically cleaned off a small shrub near the house. She and my daughter picked the cocoons of by hand and threw them out. There were probably 500+ bag worms. The Large Pine trees can not be helped by this method and I still hope to rescue them.
How does one distinguish disease, fungus, and insect damage on leaves?
When is a good time to prune trees? Shrubs?
Should one paint prune wounds from large branches or let the sap heal them?
How does one keep a praying mantis that I paid for in my garden when it keeps wanting to go munch on the grasshoppers next door?
Besides begonias and impatiens, what sort of showy flowers are shade tolerant?
What the heck does shade tolerant mean? 1 hour of sunlight? Dappled shade beneath an oak? The cave entrance to the wine cellar?
I can see I have to stay away. I want to answer the questions. I’ve been gardeing since I was about five years old and relized you could plant flowers you liked, they didn’t just grow there.
In case you thought I was implying something with my post, I was not, the "Serious questions: " part was because of a famous SDMB thread about Evil Nazi Groundhogs. I was afraid my post would be dismissed as a joke. I am besieged by groundhogs and I need to remove them from my near my house. I am thinking about Have-a-heart traps, but I was told they might not be legal.
BTW: twickster, you already have my full name and township, if you use either of my questions, please use both my name and town.
Twickster,
I know you know I know some plants, so this isn’t so much a question as a good area to address: Fall blooming perennials to extend the bloom season. You don’t see this addressed as much in garden mags. I’m doing a talk on it this fall, and would be glad to help ya with answers.
Oh, and one I deal with all the time: What exactly does Part-shade mean?
Feel free to e-mail me with ?? for your new mag; hope it sails well!
There was one Spring where everything I transplanted from pot to ground was pulled up. They were turning them up looking for soft soil in which to find dinner.
Dear Twickster:
I can’t grow Devil’s Claw, Proboscidea parviflora. Link One would think that a plant from the dry SouthWest would do well in the hot dry Arkansas Summers, but I can’t even get them to sprout! What can I do?
Thanks,
Wayne
Dear Twickster:
I want to grow Gunnera but need advice. I’m in central Arkansas, Zone 7. I tried G. manicata from a pot, and it was eaten in days by insects unknown.
I’ve gotten seeds to sprout, but they too expire in a matter of days.
Thanks,
Wayne
I was writing an email to twickster when it occurred to me that it sounded like a silly question, then when I came back here my post was followed by two prefacing their questions with “Serious question:” and it seemed as though it was indeed viewed as a joke. My feathers weren’t ruffled, I just wanted to clarify that it was indeed serious.
Those little rascals are a mixed blessing. They are fun to watch - you can sneak right up to them and observe them close-range while they are digging (they are quite hard of hearing) and they run with a stiff-legged hop that is amusing. They eat grubs, which helps control Japanese beetles, and they eat fire ant larvae. But earthworms are a tasty treat for them, and my flowerbeds are loaded with earthworms.
I have tried chemical deterrents, but have had no success. I have tried border fencing, but they dig right under in a matter of minutes. Killing them is futile, another one appears within a day or two (my property consists of five acres of mostly woodlands), and I don’t like killing critters just because they dig in my gardens. It’s really quite frustrating.
Catapillers:
The safest way is to spray Bacillus Thuringiensis. It came as a powder at one time, but now is a liquid sold under the name Thuricide. It’s a bacteria that stops the digestive tract of worms, when ingested, and they starve in about a day. Spray the grass in the drip line so ones that fall to the ground don’t get missed.
Ground Hogs:
This doesn’t stop ground hogs completely. To prevent damage try mesh wire laid on the ground or covered with a mulch. To save bulbs from tunneling animals, make a wire box about 12 inches deep. Burry the wire box so it’s even with the top of the soil and plant all bulbs inside the mesh box. The mesh needs to be smaller than the rodent. Some of the smellier plants like marigolds are a deterrent. The surest method is a trap or poison, but you may not want to go that route, or your state may ban it.
I hope you don’t feel gypped by my answering instead of twickster. He may still use it anyway. I started posting to the Evil Nazi Groundhogs, when the thread started, and it was a serious question then as well.
We have caught many a groundhog with our Have-a-Heart trap - they work great. We’ve caught a bunch of other critters too. The problem is what do you do with a trapped groundhog? We’ve relocated a lot of them to the Pine Barrens, though lately I’m warming up to the idea of just killing them. They’re lucky I don’t ever want to own or handle a gun! Can you tell they’ve devastated our gardens this year? :mad:
I’m not positive about any of this, but…I think it’s not the trapping that’s illegal, but the relocation part. Also, I’ve heard that you’re not doing groundhogs any favors when you relocate them, because they’ll just wind up in some other groundhog’s territory, which can be a problem for them.
I think the only way veggie garden will ever be successful is if I completely enclose it in some sort of wood frame and chicken wire structure.
Problem is, there are burrows scattered all over my five acres of land, and even if I got rid of the ones on my property, my neighbors’ land has them, too. Sometimes it seems as though there are more 'dillers than squirrels around there.
I prune my grapevines and they get a lot of grapes on them, but the grapes never get very big, and then they start rotting and fall off. What should I be doing to make them big and juicy and happy?
We have a lot of Phlox in our gardens. It’s vigorous and beautiful, but the foliage always develops a white/gray powdery coating by Summer. What might that be, and what can we do about it?
