Gardening: 2002-2009 Seasons

[jackal10]

Thanks to FG for uploading!

This is a view from my study window over part of the herb garden to south.

a) I need a better camera

b) The blob on the left is an armillary sundial

c) The foreground is a Perle d'Bourbon rose - good for buttonholes

Behind that are mints, then salad burnet, sweet cicely, box balls, thyme, parsley and some self-sown aqualegia. Behind those are alewort, oregano, lavender, scened geraniums, bay and more ancient roses: Gloria Mundi an Lancaster.

This is about half the herb garden, which is inside the U-shape of the house. It is symmetrical, but diferent herbs in the other half, then a trellis with more roses and loganberies and the jacuzzi.

The trees beyond are greengages and apples.

The main garden surrounds the house and is about 5 acres in all, including ponds, orchard and woods

[caribemj]

Thanks to FG for uploading!

This is a view from my study window over part of the herb garden to south.

The main garden surrounds the house and is about 5 acres in all, including ponds, orchard and woods

Now I'm jealous! That beats 1000 pounds of zuchinni!

[jackal10]

I do deeply sympathise with the 1000lbs of zuchinni problem.

The only way to overcome it that I've found is to pick them as zuchinni blossoms with baby fruit.

However, miss one and turn your back and its a 10lb monster. I now just throw those directly onto the compost heap, rather than have them stare at me from the refrigerator before going moldy.

[Hopleaf]

Try http://profiles.yahoo.com/placeholderpix

J

That worked. It is a little blurry, but you can still make most of it out. Is that your yard behind the garden? Big lot, eh? And the armillary sundial looks, from what I can tell, to be very cool. If you can manage a closer shot of that, I'd like to see it in detail. We're shopping around for a birdbath type thing for our garden.

You must be further south than Chicago cuz all of your stuff looks like it's in mid-season form already. Good job, jackal. I'm sure you've got dirt under your fingernails.

[Hopleaf]

The main garden surrounds the house and is about 5 acres in all, including ponds, orchard and woods

Wow! you live in Eden.

[jackal10]

Not Eden, but just outside Cambridge UK. It is, I must admit, pretty nice even if hard work.

The Sundial was a present, but I think it might be from Courtyard Sundials

The photo is from their website, but I don't think they will mind the advertising.

I plan to get a better camera in the next couple of weeks, then look out...If I can manage to get the hang of uploads, there will be snaps of the vegetable garden, the orchard, the bread oven (with a camomile roof), the wildflowers etc etc etc...I like boasting...

Edited May 29, 2003 by jackal10 (log)

[Hopleaf]

Ok, it's official, I'm at war with a rabbit. Any recomendations would be greatly appreciated (by me, not the rabbit). He's already made a dent in my butter crunch lettuce. I tried planting marigolds around the border of the bed, but it didn't deter the little bastard (don't get me wrong, he's cute as a button, but come on...you just don't fuck with a man's garden, key my car, fine, but not my garden). So, I'm thinking that the unsightly option of chickenwire is my only resort, unless someone has a better option.

[jackal10]

Shotgun or trap. They are a major menace. Much better in the pot.

"See the cute bunnies" argh. They are high grade protein, with no closed season

Chicken wire is the only other solution. Make sure the mesh size is small enough, and bury it 1ft.

We've had to put up a polytunnel frame lined with chicken wire just to keep them off the veg.

Lettuce can only be grown in the greenhouse, and then in growbags on raised staging...

I blame the foxes. They have go so lazy, and discovered its much easier to raid dustbins, which don't run away rather than chase rabbits.

Edited May 29, 2003 by jackal10 (log)

[caribemj]

The other options I am told about (for chickens and iguanas NOT for the wild horses:(, no rabbits - YET) are...live traps so you can redeposit the little critter(s) elsewhere. My friend did this with 24 chickens over a few weeks time, taking them to a very nice Puerto Rican man who exercised option #2...involving....BANG! and a stew pot.

I vote unsightly chicken wire.

[Hopleaf]

And he has a greenhouse!!!! man, you're livin' large.

Rabbit Stew. Mmmmm...

You're right about the foxes, except I don't think we have any foxes around here.

And someone I work with mentioned the thing about making sure the mesh size on the chicken wire is small enough. She said she walked out to her garden early one morning only to find a mother rabbit pushing one of her babies through her chicken wire (at first she had the kind with larger openings) through the wire to get to her lettuce. Can you believe that...it's almost like something out of a Far Side cartoon.

At any rate, since I don't own a shotgun, I'm going with the wire. Maybe I'll hook it up to a 220 outlet, nice little zap and that critter will get what's his!

[maggiethecat]

At any rate, since I don't own a shotgun, I'm going with the wire. Maybe I'll hook it up to a 220 outlet, nice little zap and that critter will get what's his!

Rabbits! Yes, Hop, amazing how quickly those cuties can morph into evil destroyers!

Wire helps. The old classic...bloodmeal sprinkled around the edges of beds helps. The best solution is a resident dog or cat who has gardern privileges.

[torakris]

I was doing some weeding yesterday and discovered I have lost my first zucchini to blossom rot!

[sparrowgrass]

This is very terrible, and I am only telling you this because none of you are likely to drop by my humble abode and personally witness my lousy housekeeping.

I hurt my back this week, and the physical therapist gave me some exercises (well, I call them exercises, but there is no sweat involved, more like positions, but that is neither here nor there) to do to straighten myself out. I have to put a mat down on the floor, and while in this position, I noticed a bit of greenery behind the china cabinet.

I pried around with a ruler behind the back leg of the cabinet, and what came out but a tiny, wizened potato, with about a foot of sprout (which is what I saw creeping out from behind the back leg) complete with TINY POTATOES. I WAS GROWING POTATOES IN THE DOG HAIR BEHIND THE CHINA CABINET!

Martha would not approve. And how the tater got behind the cabinet I do not know, but I have my money on the kid or the dog. Or both.

[torakris]

sparrowgrass thanks for the laugh!

No I have another problem, I have been so busy with egullet that I have neglected to pay attention as to what is going on in the world (Ok Japan) and I just found out we are supposed to get smacked with a typhoon either tonight or tomorrow. Any suggestions for helping the garden survive?

It is protected on 3 sides by bushes and a wall, but i have the zucchini and beans in the ground this year last year they were in planters and I could pull them to a more sheltered area.

We were pretty lucky last year, but this year they seem to be starting early, typhoon season runs June to September here.

Earthquakes are year round!

[snowangel]

I WAS GROWING POTATOES IN THE DOG HAIR BEHIND THE CHINA CABINET!

As any 7 year old boy would say "this is way cool," and I agree. Doesn't take much, does it? Depending on age of kid, my money is on said child.

On another note. I stink. There is serious dirt under my fingernails and toenails, and my feet are dirty. I have scratched dirt out of my hair. The rest of me doesn't look much better, but it is all in.

After several years of no veggie garden (playground stuff for the kids, no time because of breastfeeding and diapers), the folks that live behind me on the other side of the alley offered me their garden space in exchange for a few tomatoes. Ed and Donna are "getting up there," and Ed has been having multiple health problems, and as they saw the weeds abound, Donna suggested that they offer the space to me. Best part of all is that they will water and pick when we escape to the cabin. Win-win deal, in my book.

In the midst of the most glorious spring in Minnesota in years -- days upon days of clear, bright, sunny days in the upper 60's and lower 70's, with rain only at night, it was a pleasure to work the compost in, dig the holes and set the plants in just the right spots. Peter did a masterful job planting the bean seeds, and sprinkling basil seeds here and there. Plants included tomatoes (several varieties), beans (harcourts), brussels sprouts, pumpkins, greens.

We added a mess of herbs and greens to the holes in my flower gardens.

It is supposed to rain late tonight and part of tomorrow morning, so the timing is perfect. In fact, I think I hear the first raindrops on the awning over the front door.

Peter and I will spend the next many mornings getting up at first light and running out the back door to see just what has popped up and just how much things have grown.

Yes, the traditions continue, as passed on from generation to generation in my family. The early morning spring to check things out, and then coffee under the pergola (actually, the pergola is a new tradition, started by me, but it is a perfect place to sit and hear things grow).

Dirt (or dog hair). Growing. Life is really good.

[sparrowgrass]

Kids and gardening! When my youngest (the suspect in the potato caper, now 20) was about 2, he and I were in the yard. I was putting in the garden, and he was finishing off the contents of his Easter basket. After a few minutes, I asked if I could have one of his jelly beans.

"Nope, Mom", he said, "can't have one."

"Why not, don't you want to share?"

"Nope, can't eat em, I planted em."

They didn't come up--I think the frost got em.

[jackal10]

Don't know about things coming up but some **@!! has eaten most of the row of my lovingly tended purple podded peas. Possible culprits are

a) Slugs snails or other sliny things. Unlikely given the amount of slugbait, beer traps etc

b) Rabbits. They are surounded by mesh, but it migh be possible for a baby rabbit to squeeze through

c) Pigeons. I think most likely

d) Catepillers or the like. Possible, but the damage is to big (big bites on the leaves), and too sudden, and no sign of them hiding under the leaves.

Something is also nipping out just the growing tips of the pole beans in the next row as well. Fava beans are untouched.

Grr...

[torakris]

I have just discovered potato bugs are eating my zucchini alive!

how do you get rid of potato bugs?

I also have aphids on my shishito (japanese pepper) and my sugar snap peas!

aaarrgghhhh!!

[sparrowgrass]

well, colorado potato beetles don't like rotenone. Or diazinon, but I wouldn't put diazinon on anything I was going to eat. There is also a Bt (bacillus thuringiensis) for potato beetles--I believe it is Bt San Diego. Regular Bt won't work.

Are you sure they are potato beetles, not squash bugs?

[torakris]

well, colorado potato beetles don't like rotenone.  Or diazinon, but I wouldn't put diazinon on anything I was going to eat.  There is also a Bt (bacillus thuringiensis) for potato beetles--I believe it is Bt San Diego.  Regular Bt won't work.

Are you sure they are potato beetles, not squash bugs?

I am pretty sure they are the same potato bugs that are all over my backyard, the ones that roll into a ball when you touch them......

[Nick]

Are they eating the leaves or making the leaves turn brown and dried out?

[torakris]

Are they eating the leaves or making the leaves turn brown and dried out?

YES! and they are eating the zucchini and their flowers as well!

EDIT

just realized thatw as an "or" question!

the leaves are turning brown and it looks like they are eating it.

[Nick]

I don't know what the bugs might be like in Japan, but here in Maine a couple of years ago we had some hard-backed brownish/grey bugs that looked like they'd come in from outer space and, while they didn't seem to eat much, the leaves got all brown, wilty, etc.

They weren't potato bugs or squash bugs. They pretty much were established by the time we noticed them and they were beyond the control of anything. I think we tried Rotenone and probably BT to no avail. Ended up knocking them off the leaves and into a container and dumping into the chicken pen. Most of them were on winter squash and even though the leaves looked terrible, the squash came through okay.

[Hopleaf]

Don't lady bugs get rid of aphids? that's what I thought. And I know that most garden centers sell lady bugs. Try that.

[JSD]

Ladybugs are great in theory, but they don't realize that they live in your garden now, and the grass looks greener down the street, and so they fly away. Also, they're not cheap. We had aphids on our peach trees, and we sprayed with insecticidal soap. It's not poisonous, but we definitely washed the peaches well before eating. I'm not sure if that would be good to use on peppers, but hosing aphids off works pretty well also. For an insect that is large (such as a potato bug), I would use the pick and squish method. If you can't stand that, maybe your husband would do it. If your kids are game, you could pay them so much per bug. I don't like to use poisons anywhere in my garden. I took a gardening class last year and the pesticide class was sobering.