DU Gardeners -- PROGRESS REPORT?

[K8-EEE]

I was pleasantly surprised last this came up that there were LOTS of fellow gardeners out there at DU!

The sunflower seeds I planted in March are over five feet tall now but no flowers yet -- hopefully next week! Lots of tomatoes, but still green. Corn and beans still babies, I was late with it, hope they don't get burned out. Already hot here in So CA.

Lots of limes, we made margaritas this weekend!

Off to do the weeding, one question: has anybody ever tried work castings to ward off ashflies? I have heard of it as an ammendment but somebody told me ashflies stay away from it, huge SoCA tree & shrub pest, grrrr! Those and the grasshoppers have been giving me fits. No gophers so far, knoc on wood.

[ewagner]

1. Wet, wet, wet!!!!

We got over 8 inches of rain in May. Temps averaged about 54 degrees for the month. It dried out enough yesterday to start my wife's new flower bed. It was a bitch because of the clay-like soils AND the fact that she wanted to place it in the same area where there is a lot of construction waste from our remodeling project two years ago.

I hate rocks!

I hate mud!

I hope she enjoys her Iris' and Gloriouso (sp) Daiseys.

[K8-EEE]

4. dry, dry dry!!

I have the opposite problem...trying to make my garden not need tons of watering, I do have to water every day for most of the year but I put in lots of inert areas (rock gardens.)

One thing that amazed me is I started keeping a bucket by the kitchen door and emptying all the melted ice, half cups of coffee, and cooking water (use a basket for pasta, corn and cool the water down) and found that alone waters my entire back herb garden...just the water I used to pour down the drain!

[ewagner]

7. Beleive me

I'd be happy to send you some if I could. My back yard still looks like the Okeefenokee swamp!

Congrats on your resoursefulness for recycling liquids.

btw: just looked out the window...IT'S RAINING AGAIN!

[K8-EEE]

9. whereabouts are you?

My husband is from Buffalo NY area -- every time I go there it is raining or snowing!

One thing I love is the showers there, we are so used to the water-saving type shower heads, there you can take a SHOWER like Niagra Falls type shower for 20 minutes and not even feel guilty, I loved that!

[ewagner]

24. Central Wisconsin n/t

[Teddy_Salad]

2. Roses finally bloomed yesterday! Deer ate them all last night.

:(

Fucking bastards!

I was so pissed off this morning when I saw the damage they had done.
Geez, it's not as if they don't have anything else to eat at this time of the year.
Why can't they just leave my roses alone? :mad:

[indigobusiness]

5. Hang a bar of Dial soap in or near your rose bush...

deer won't go near it.

[Teddy_Salad]

11. Is that right, IB?

I tried that with Irish Spring two summers ago and I think the deer were bathing with it after they'd eaten all my roses.

I'll try Dial.

Thanks! :yourock:

[indigobusiness]

15. Deer like Irish Spring with their Guinness...

no guarantees with Dial...but it is supposed to work.

Also, you can grow rosemary at the base of your roses. Or as a border to your garden. They HATE rosemary.

[Teddy_Salad]

42. Hmmmmmmm

I just might give the Rosemary a try.

Thanks for the tip! :yourock:

[indigobusiness]

3. The sun seems weird to me...

It appears to be scalding my Cypress trees---Bald and Italian.

My tomatoes are ok, but my peppers not so hot.

It was a perfect Spring, things should be rampaging, but they aren't.

[K8-EEE]

6. Hmmm...

Yeah my roses had one good week and then kind of petered out...usually they go from March to the hottest part of August.

[slackmaster]

8. Spring came about a month early to San Diego

Normally I have a magnificent display of Flanders Field poppies for Memorial Day. This year they're all but shot, mostly dry straw.

I tried planting tomato seeds in February. Brown snails got most of them on the few foggy nights we've had. The Japanese tomato 'Momotaro' a.k.a. "Tough Boy" is the only real bright spot. I grew them from seeds from last year's modest production. Looks like I'll have more of those than I can use in about a month. I planted some more (Roma, Celebrity, Lemon Boy) and those should be ready for planting about the time Papaver somniferum is done drying. Those all matured at once as usual, but about a month early and only chest-high. Normally they top out at 6 feet.

Spinach and lettuce were almost complete disasters, also nailed by brown snails. I got about six good salads out of the spinach and zero lettuce.

Onions and garlic have been doing well. I planted a lot of them in November and haven't had to buy any at all this year.

Strawberry production has been spotty. With the demise of my hunting cat a year ago there's nobody around to stop the rabbits and other rodents.

[K8-EEE]

12. Coco Mulch

Have you ever tried this stuff, Coco Mulch? It smells delish...like chocolate, and it has kept the snails at bay for me. They don't like walking on it, when you water it, it produces some sticky stuff they don't like. But it's clean, looks pretty, smells great.

Have been putting this around my marigolds with great success for a couple of years -- I had seasons where the snails would eat them in one day, like they were completely disappeared!

The only thing is if you have a big yard it can get a bit expensive.

[slackmaster]

13. Cayenne pepper sure as hell didn't work

I found snails munching on it.

I'll give coco mulch a try. Thanks for the tip!

[TX-RAT]

16. Have heard that coco mulch is hazardous to pets if ingested.

[K8-EEE]

17. Really??

Well my dog & cat haven't shown any interest in it at all...kind of keeps them away, but that is good to know!

[TX-RAT]

19. Heard it on Gardening By The Yard.

[TX-RAT]

26. I thought it was always spring time in San Diego.

Been there 30 to 40 times, the weather was always great.

[bearfan454]

27. You wrote:

(Those all matured at once as usual,). I use Early Girls for about half of them. They come in at around 68 days. They make a lot, they are good sized, and they taste really good. They are the best ones for me.

[indigobusiness]

44. Merceds are good for when the nights heat up

and other varieties won't set their blossoms.

[havocmom]

10. Salad greens yummy, bumper crop of cilantro, peas and bok choy

doing very well. Will cut some rhubarb and make rhubarb cake to day. Already made one big batch of spinach souffle and looks like about time for more. Picked cilantro yesterday and made up a batch of 'Havocmom's Southwestern Humus'. MMMMMMMMM good!

Still a bit too risky to set out tomatoes here but I am thinking I will but some pepper plants in their permanent homes (pots in a very sunny, sheltered spot)

The baby apple trees have blossoms and the mint is ready to set out. Basil will get planted in a week or so.

Now, if we can get through the summer without serious hail....

[tjwash]

14. Hell yeah!!

We have plums going like crazy.


Apples too.


My Abraham Lincolns are happy-happy.


Lemons are just starting to come on now.

[K8-EEE]

18. HOW PRETTY!

Your lemon tree looks like my lime tree -- mine is about 5 years old.

Beautiful rose!! Thanks for the pix!

[tjwash]

20. Yeah, it's a miniature lemon. Just got rid of the whitefly infestation...

...that hit it last fall. It was getting pretty dicey there, but we finally got rid of them all.

[indigobusiness]

43. Lemon trees smell sooooo good

I'm surprised the Republicans haven't outlawed them.

How'd you fix the fly prob?

[bearfan454]

30. Very nice.

I like it.

[K8-EEE]

51. never mind!

deleted

[bearfan454]

21. I planted really late this year. We had a shitload of rain.

My tomatoes are taking now. I have pinched off the yellow flowers 4 times now. I don't like to let them bloom until the plants are at least 3 feet tall. My grandfather taught me that trick, you keep pinching off all of the yellow flowers until the plant is good size and you get a bigger yield, way bigger. It works. Check it out:



I got them caged this past weekend. The hot bananas are starting to take off now. Hot banana pepper salsa is the best to me. They do good here.


Kick Ass Salsa - 4 hot banana peppers. a can of tomatoes, 2 garlic cloves, a splash of lemon juice, salt to taste. Pulse it in the blender. Kicks ass.

I hope I do this good this year too. I planted really late for here, so I will see.

[K8-EEE]

22. WOW!!! Thanks For The Tip...

I hope I do as well with my tomatoes!! One tip I tried that seemed to work, is to pinch off all the leaves when you plant them, except for the top 4 inches or so, and bury the whole stem, then you get more roots/more tomatoes.

Too late for the pinching trick, I have tons of green tomatoes, will try it next year though!

[bearfan454]

45. Yes that works very well.

I buy the 1 foot tall plants and bury them 80 percent. I just leave a little tip sticking out. It makes more roots and that is more tomatoes. Of course adding 400 lbs of manure, slow release nitrogen pellets, and hitting them once a week with tomato food doesn't hurt either. Weeding sucks, if you use fertiler you will fertilize weeds too. But I leave enough room in between plants to be able to run the tiller. I still have to get close up by hand.

[indigobusiness]

32. Can of tomatoes?????CAN of tomatoes????????

CAN
OF TOMATOES??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bearfan454]

35. Yes a can of tomatoes.

For .59 I can have a can of peeled, ready to go tomatoes. To boil and peel the skin would take too long. It is worth .59 to me to not have to screw around in the kitchen for 30+ minutes. I try to go the easy route whenever I can.

[indigobusiness]

37. With all due respect...that seems like Limbaugh logic...

I wouldn't go near a canned tomato, with your harvest at hand.

But, that's just me.

Gardening is near nirvana. Almost a redundancy.

[K8-EEE]

39. I'm Using Canned While Mine Are Green, But Next Month...

NO CANS TIL OCTOBER, hopefully...

The canned are better than the plastic ones at the store, but not better than home-grown!!

[indigobusiness]

40. I skin a bunch and feeze 'em. in small bags...

avoid cans almost entirely.

[bearfan454]

41. Homegrown taste way better than the ones you buy at the store.

I like homegrown tomato sandwiches in the summer.

[K8-EEE]

46. Backyard Tomatoes, Basil, Olive Oil & Mozerella On...

La Brea bakery baguette!!

Atkins Schmatkins!

[tjwash]

33. You do that with roses too.

I call that "finger pruning". It takes a lot of the plants energy to produce those flowers.

[bearfan454]

36. Exactly.

You want the plant to get at least to a good size so it can hold up the fruit. The tomato cages help a lot.

[Wcross]

23. First timer here-veggie garden- whats up with all the weeds?

I am in southern middle Tennessee. I am growing corn, beans, summer squash, onions, lettuce, bell peppers and cantaloupe. I can not believe the weeds popping up in the plot. I made the mistake of not marking the rows, now I have to weed and take the risk of pulling one of the veggies.
Do any of you guys put down plastic or something to discourage the weeds? I might try it next planting to reduce the weeds.

I have the ultimate in deer repellent-



I have six of the little guys running in the area all the time. Before they came here to stay I would have deer visit everyday. I haven't seen one since.

[K8-EEE]

34. I didn't mark stuff my frist time either!!

Oooh, that makes it hard....but after the plants are big enough and you can recognize them it's really easy to weed, providing you don't let it go more than a week...you can just swipe around the mature plants with a hoe.

If you use landscape fabric in the paths in between the roes (you put mulch on it, looks prettier!) then you won't have to weed those all season.

[bearfan454]

49. Did you till ?

[Wcross]

52. Yes, I tilled.

It was new ground and that turf was tough to break up! It didn't help that the rental tiller was broken (the spike in the back wouldn't stay down). It was quite a workout.

[proud patriot]

25. Well other than the mole , seems to be growing well

I have baby yellow crook neck squash and zucinni
growing . My corn is leaning :shrug: but is growing .

Lots of blossoms on the tomato plants . My Apple tree
has lots of apples :D

[Ripley]

28. Other than the huge Hackberry laying across my front porch...

Wind knocked it down Mon AM....

My hydrangeas are beautiful this year. Snaps were crazy colors...Orange was absolutely neon!

[cmf]

29. This is our first year

We have a little container garden on our porch. We have cilantro coming out of the wazoo. I think I'm going to make some steaks with chimichurri on Friday.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

31. Soap and water in a sprayer handles the ash flies without hurting

your plants...especially the lime tree.

[GreenPartyVoter]

38. Cold and wet here in Maine. Everything is behind schedule

:^(

[BigMcLargehuge]

47. slowly

due mostly to persistant rain

We've had enough of a respite in the last two weeks to plant -

2 Butterfly bushes
3 Mock Orange trees
2 Rose of Sharon brushes
a host of lillies of varying colors, species, an shape

and for vegetables/fruits -

Cantalouple
Green Peppers
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Onion

But the rain better let up or it's all going to drown.

[mkultra]

48. first time gardener

Kicked up the big ass garden here in NE Oklahoma. I think i tilled a bit to much with a 50' x 50' plot. Planted beefsteak and hybrid tomatoes from seedlings, squash from seed, corn, broccoli and cauliflower. Still have bell and jalapeño peppers that seem to be taking a long time to sprout up to a good size.


tomatoes are starting to yellow a bit. maybe the harsh transition to full sunlight. corn and squash are sprouting. broccoli is going good but cauliflower is languishing.

[DemoTex]

50. Late planting season here in the NC mountains ...

But everything is up and looking great. The rain is keeping it too wet to do much work. I'll probably stake tomatoes and weed tomorrow. I've got sweet corn, okra, several varieties of tomatoes, cukes, pole beans, purple-hull cow peas, bell peppers, eggplant, cabbage, parsley, cilantro, Vietnamese coriander, basil, rosemary, Mexican mint marigold, pinta, and zinnias in the fenced garden.

The flower gardens are a mixed bag, but include cannas, sunflowers, knee-high sunflowers, Delphinia, black-eyed Susan's, zinnias, rosemary, bee balm, Shasta daisies, and more.

The herb garden has basil, thyme, rosemary, lemon thyme, sage, lemon grass, Mexican mint marigold, mint, dill, fennel, chives, lavender, oregano, French tarragon and sweet marjoram.

The orchard and arbor have apple, peach, plum, blueberry, and scuppernong grapes.