Gardening Thread

[WriterDom]

I just noticed the green beans last night. They should be ready to eat in a week or so.

 

[WriterDom]

A picture for ultramarineblue.

I'm getting garden groupies now.

 

[ultramarineblue]

A picture for ultramarineblue.

I'm getting garden groupies now.

I'm jealous. I definitely need to live somewhere I can have a garden.

 

[WriterDom]

First watermelon sighting today. About the size of a marble. They grow amazingly fast.

 

[WriterDom]

Not quite a "mess" of beans as we call them here but enough for lunch.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

Our garden, pre-planting. It's about 20' x 20' (6.1 x 6.1m) or 400 s.f. (37.16 square meters). The ground hadn't been tilled in *years,* so running the tiller through it was one of the two things that helped put my back in condition for that hospitalization a couple of weeks ago. (The other was carrying two air conditioners up from the basement and installing them.) The round greyish thing in the right forefront of the picture is a hunk of concrete she dug out, by hand and trowel, of the middle of the plot a couple of days ago.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x95/Sir_Winston54/IMG00034.jpg

She actually ended up doing more of the tilling than I did, lol, and has done all the rock-picking and raking since. I *did* help - a little - with the fencing (we have wild rabbits living in the yard) by putting in the stakes and helping a bit with installing the wire. She's going to end up doing most of the planting, too, not "letting" me do the kind of bending and stuff that mucks up my back. I'll mostly supervise. And take periodic pics. (Sorry for the poor quality of this pic. I had to take it with my phone, since my regular camera's batteries are all dead. They should be charged up by this evening.)

After the plants go in (probably this evening), I'll take another picture and list what-all we've got going in there besides approximately six times as many tomatoes as we thought. She didn't realize when she bought tomatoes that when she said "I want one of [that variety]," she was getting a mini-flat of 4 plants (edited from previous 6 when I found out the real number), so instead of three tomato plants (for each of which we bought a tomato cage), we think right now there will be 12... 9 more cages to buy and put in, LOL! That's okay. What she can't eat, turn into soup, tomato preserves (for me), etc., I'm sure friends will be happy to take off our hands.

 

[satindesire]

Did you put the fencing under the dirt a few inches? Bunnies dig under fencing all the time to get to juicy veggies and fruits.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

Did you put the fencing under the dirt a few inches? Bunnies dig under fencing all the time to get to juicy veggies and fruits.

Nooo... I was figuring on just staking it down every couple of feet... are we in trouble here?

 

[satindesire]

Nooo... I was figuring on just staking it down every couple of feet... are we in trouble here?

Yeah, I would suggest you dig up around the perimeter and block off at least 3-4 inches underneath the dirt. 6-7 would be better, but some bunnies get bored easily.

If you have bunnies in your yard, if you don't do something to block their digging, you'll be sharing your harvest whether you like it or not.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

Yeah, I would suggest you dig up around the perimeter and block off at least 3-4 inches underneath the dirt. 6-7 would be better, but some bunnies get bored easily.

If you have bunnies in your yard, if you don't do something to block their digging, you'll be sharing your harvest whether you like it or not.

<Sighhhhhhh>

 

[satindesire]

<Sighhhhhhh>

*wrinkles nose* Sorry. I don't mean to be a buzzkill.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

Soooo... *all* the plants didn't get put in this evening. Just the herbs and spices.

Garlic
Garlic chive
Italian parsley
Sweet marjoram
Holy basil
Garden sage
Catnip
Peppermint
Spearmint
Roman chamomile
Coriander/cilantro
Lavender​

The veggies and fruity things will go in over the weekend. We hope. It might go faster if she'd let me help, but for some reason she thinks the doctor might know more about what will screw my back up than I do.

She's probably right, but that doesn't make it better.

 

[satindesire]

Catnip? Really?! That is SO COOL!!

 

[WriterDom]

A few cucumbers or zucchini popped up overnight. Not sure which and don't like either. My neighbors love me at garden time. Some of the corn is about 6' and looks like it might be getting ears soon.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

Catnip? Really?! That is SO COOL!!

We have 3 cats. Of course, catnip!

 

[WriterDom]

I have a feeling I'll have damn gourds all over the place in a month or two. They came out of the ground looking hardy.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

Everything's finally in! After the herbs and spices planted Friday, we've added:

Spinach (12 plants - she's fond of the stuff )
Slicing cucumber
Burpless cucumber
Head lettuce
Baby pumpkins (they get about 2x3" - decorative, primarily)
Big Moon pumpkin - grows up to 200 lbs (approx. 90 kg)
Ambrosia melons
Watermelons
Butternut squash
Acorn squash
Celery
Bellboy sweet green peppers
Zucchini
Strawberries, 6 plants each of

"June" bearing (probably July, early August up here)
Summerlong​

Tomatoes, 4 plants each of

2 varieties of cherry tomatoes
Celebrity tomatoes​

There might be one or two more that missed jumping onto the list.

The pic shows the garden just after the last tomato plants got put in and caged (upper right), and watered with Miracle-Gro plant food. (That explains the strange pattern of dark and light in the ground... There was quite a bit of spread space left for some of the gourds and squash-type plants. The Big Moon pumpkin is at the upper left and has about 8 feet (2.5 m) clear space on two sides, 2 feet (.6 m) on the left and back. We hope that's enough room for it

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x95/Sir_Winston54/HPIM0565.jpg

 

[WriterDom]

One "arm" of the watermelon, think of it as a big octopus about to take over the whole garden, is climbing up one of the tomato cages and has started a watermelon about 18 inches off the ground. Silly Watermelon. I have about 5 now all around baseball size. Picked 4 tomatoes so far.

 

[the captians wench]

My basil is flowering.

it has pretty white flowers.

 

[WriterDom]

8' sunflower

 

[wynnie]

I am going to try and plant a herb garden this year.... I did a small tomatoe plant and strawberries.... we will see how they fair!

 

[WriterDom]

Now I have two watermelons climbing a cage. And about 7 more on the ground.

 

[WriterDom]

My gravity defying watermelons. I guess I'll have to peel them off of there or support them from below once they get bigger.

 

[panty wearer]

pest

Does anyone know of a way to get rid of rabbits and groundhogs from my garden? I have a 2' fence all around it and they are still eating my beans,cabbage and brocoli. I wish they would eat some of my cucumbers I picked 126 today and have spent all nite making pickles.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

Does anyone know of a way to get rid of rabbits and groundhogs from my garden? I have a 2' fence all around it and they are still eating my beans,cabbage and brocoli. I wish they would eat some of my cucumbers I picked 126 today and have spent all nite making pickles.

How are they getting in? If it's *under* the fence, you'll need to bury some additional fencing in line with the existing fencing... possibly up to two feet deep. Or you could try some of the organic (animal) pest control liquids. I don't know how well they work.