The Gardening 2014 Thread - I just spent 2 hours in a garden center.

[pat]

I'm still harvesting tomatoes, jalapenos, green bell peppers, poblanos, a few raspberries and elderberries.  Just hoping our one cantelope finishes ripening up (a second one is just not going to have enough time to).  I am pulling up the green bean bed today.

My bed of leeks I will let go, am picking what I need from there as I need, tons left!  The apple trees ended up with some kind of issue where many of what I've picked have not been useable.  There are a few more left to pick and cut open to see if I can slice and freeze them.

 

[Winchester]

I just went up today and came back with another batch of green peppers and one tomato. The tomato is from the volunteer, which has no blight that we can see. The tomato is gorgeous and we will have it with dinner tonight.

Squash plants are still flowering as are the peppers. 

 

[bbdoll22]

Winchester
You've had quite the bountiful harvest of squash. Wish I could get them to grow for me.

 

[Winchester]

We have indeed. I can't believe the plants are still flowering! We may not get much of anything at this point as it's just too cool now at night, but who knows at this point. 

We were blessed with an abundance of green peppers this year, too. I'll take every one I can get with no complaints. You wouldn't believe how many peppers I can use in one year.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

My peppers are still flowering too.  Things are growing slowly though.  There are several bell peppers that aren't quite ready for picking.  

I'm very excited today.  My mother gave me a potting bench!!  I actually gave it to her when I was in college.  I worked for Hallmark back then and we had a display piece that was actually a potting bench.  It was for sale but no one noticed the tag on it till it was WAY on clearance.  Like better than my employee discount.  i knew my mother would love it and she did. It sat in her kitchen for years as a display hutch and sideboard.  Eventually it got moved around and finally ended up in the garage.  She just bought a chest freezer so they were rearranging things in the garage and she asked me if I wanted the bench. 

I've been wanting one for a while now!  I've been using a collapsible work horse to save my back when potting flowers or things like that in the yard.  It's nice that it's portable; but it's so small!  

The bench is in the garage now.  It's unfinished so once I clean it up (cobwebs and kitty tumbleweeds and such) DH is going to use a waterproofing product on it.  After that I think it will go into the shed.  It's light enough that I think I can pull it out into the yard for some work seasonally.  I won't leave it out year round or longer than necessary.  My son was fascinated with how you can lift planks to see the hidden containers below the work surface.  It has a lower shelf and a small top one too.  It should serve my needs well! 

  I'm toying with the idea of adding casters to it; since we have a ramp from the shed to the yard but I'm afraid that will make it too tall.   My original idea was to find one that would attach to the side of the shed and fold down; but how can you complain about free?  DH already has waterproofing stuff left from our kids swingset too. 

 

[Winchester]

Oh, Mooch how cool to get a potting bench! I'd love to have one!.Congratulations! Love to see pictures when you get it installed at your place.

I went up to the garden last night. Found four little yellow squash and three zucchinis growing. I don't know how far they'll get, but will keep checking on them. I'll find some recipes to use them in, although Rick has said that he doesn't think he can eat any more summer squashes. But we'll see. I can give some to his mom, too, as she hasn't had her fill of them.

Has anybody started to clean-up their garden and flowerbeds yet? I've been steadily working on clearing the garden out. But we need to start clipping the flowers and shrubs for winter now. The cannas and the elephant ears have to be dug out, too. I never clip the peonies until fall; I know they can be clipped at the end of the flowering, but I keep them and feed them a little bit throughout the summer as I think it helps with flowering. Our ferns by the driveway are dying back, so they can be clipped down now, too. 

Rick has been steadily working on the area for the new shed and there's not much I can do with shoveling and using a pick-ax, so these are tasks that I can do that shouldn't kill my back too much. He's using the wheelbarrow....we've often said that there are times when two wheelbarrows would come in very handily! We do have doubles of some garden tools, so that we can both work at the same time....it's easier than waiting to be able to use something. We get a lot of our tools at public auctions; they're old tools, but a lot of times, the old tools will last forever.

The shed will be delivered at the end of the month. Til we got around to actually saying, "Yes, we want a shed!" there wasn't much left in their stock, so we ended up having to order one. It's a standard garden shed with double doors and framed windows. 10 x 16, as anything larger than that requires a huge delivery fee and paying for a wide-load escort for the delivery truck to the house. Our neighbor said that we can access onto his property to get the shed to the location on our lot, so that's good. We will repair any damage to his yard caused by the delivery truck.

So that's my gardening post for a while. Still working on clearing out the vegetable garden and will start on the flower beds tonight.

Are you ready to put your gardens to bed for the winter?

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I haven't started anything; but yes I'm ready!  One of my raised beds is nothing but weeds now.  I'm still getting some tomatoes and I haven't even bothered to harvest peppers...  I've been really busy inside.  I did try my Bread & Butter pickels I made from your recipe; Pam.  Very good!  You really can taste the cinnamon!

I think the bench will be in the garage for a while.  We probably won't take our patio furniture in for another month and I think we are going to try to put that in the shed instead of the garage.  The glass top table takes up the most room but I usually leave a few things on top of it.  And under it of course. 

  I told DH it's a low priority job for now.

We just had our tress fertilized.  One of the tree companies was doing free inspectons.  Since our main trees are silver maples and multi-trunked; DH wants to be sure they stay healthy.  We had a large pruning done on them 5 years ago.  The tree expert said they look good; but some areas where they removed large branches before haven't closed over yet and that can leave them more ssusceptiblefor things.  So they reccomended a deep root fertilization.  It was interesting to watch them do it this week.  They tool reminded me of one of those things you use to inject marinade into meat; but much bigger.  My kids were fascinated!  

I had a scare yesterday.  We have a mosquito control company come around now too. They use a more natural treatment to deter them and it really has helped.  It's also safe for kids and pets.  I always think of the neighbor's cats that come over and our birds!  It's not so bad when I'm the one suffering with multiple bites; but when your little one is having bad reactions; well it was time to try something.  I have friends who've tried planting things that are suppose to deter them and they still get bit up.  But this service has helped a lot!  Anyway; they send an e-mail before they come out but I never checked my husband's e-mail.  I had given the kids baths early in the afternoon and then gave them a snack in the kitchen.  That was when my 4 year old said "Mom! There's a man in the backyard!"  I almost panicked.  The guy was wearing a neon yellow shirt; and who would prowl in something like that?  He took a walk around my shed and was looking at the garden and things.  I first thought he might have been going to get something that had gone over the fence since our neighbor had been having her yard work done earlier (elderly; people come do it for her).  Then I ran to the front; sure enough, their truck was in the driveway.  And the guy was strapping on the machine they use to spread the treatment.  It mostly treats the bushes, trees and certain areas of the ground.  It looks like a jet pack and sounds like a leaf blower. 

 

In other homeowner funnies; my cousin text me that their offer on their first house had been accepted.  She was over the moon excited and I am sooo happy for them.  They've done well in not rushing this; saving for it and getting established in careers, etc.  Well my amusement; they are going from apartment living to over 5 acres of land!  They better get one heckuva lawn mower!! 

  She already told me it's her husband's job!  I wonder how long it's going to take him to mow all that in the peak of summer?  Maybe they'll plant a meadow. 

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I ended up buying 4 pots of mums today at walmart.  I was suprised how nice they were!!  I had a hard time finding flowers in good condition there this summer; but I was able to get some very nice, full pots today.  I bought colorful pots on clearance and just slipped them inside.  I already had 2 small pumpkins the kids picked at my mother's friend's house a few weeks back.  So they are all outside now.  2 pots in front and 2 in back.  I hope to take the kids apple and pumpkin picking soon; so we should have those to add to our display.  Fall fun time!!

 

[cocheezie]

We are ridding our property of black hawthorn. It was taking over everything. That, and grape vines. Countless trips to the green waste container at the dump have been made. Countless dollars paid for the work. Now I have the winter to figure out what to put in these spaces. It has to be something that thrives in very little sun. We have woods on one side of the property and old maples, catalpas, and a chestnut covering a lot of the rest. I put two tomato plants in one of the sunniest spots in my backyard this year, albeit late because most of the backyard floods every spring. Good soil. Hasn't been sprayed with toxic stuff since at least 1983. Lots of compost. Got one tomato. Just not enough sun. Purslane for ground cover has worked well in one spot for many years. And we'll plant more purslane to cover a hill that is too dangerous to be mowed, but what else?

 

[furmonster mom]

Well, we got the expected reply from the HoA... nix on the bark.  Not only that, but they want me to submit paperwork AGAIN for the rock that they are insisting I put in. 

Also, we had a monsoon last week, and it tore up some of the tiles on our roof.  So, I've been getting repair quotes all week.  Apparently, it was worse than we anticipated, the gorram pigeons have made a terrible mess of it all.  Besides all the bird crap, there are several broken tiles, and even some large holes!   I can't even imagine the water damage done to the underlayment.

 

So, in the meantime we've had the monstrous tree thinned out, and it looks much better. 

Now time to thin out the shrubs before the cold weather hits.

 

[Winchester]

We need some mums; my sister gave us a beautiful white mum and Rick planted it in the front bed next to Rupert (the gargoyle). We could use a few more clusters though. Maybe another white one and then a couple yellow ones. Or some of those gorgeous blue ones; I think they're so pretty.

What's black hawthorne? Is it some kind of shrub or vine? You don't like grapes? Do they produce at all? I'm always very interested in things like this. Can you plant lily-of-the-valley in your area? It loves shadier areas. Many hostas do well in shady spots, too, and there are some gorgeous hostas on the market. What about some astilbe? And some bleeding heart? We have bleeding heart in the back of the house, so it only gets late afternoon sun....it does well there and flowers every year. Oh, how about some ferns as they tend to like to be under some trees.

Furmonster Mom, you're really dealing with this and it's terrible. You're trying to make your place look nice and it's like you're running up against a brick wall, no matter what you do. I feel for you. It's ridiculous.

 

[mani]

I've been reading back through the posts.. it's been a long time between garden thread visits! - and I notice Furmonster Mom planting lantana.  It's definitely a gorgeous flower but it is a pest here and must be removed.  It always seemed like such a shame.

My old wheelbarrow finally rusted through so it has now been recycled:

wheelbarrow.jpg

• mani
• Oct 4, 2014

 

[Winchester]

Your wheelbarrow looks very nice in its new place. What did you use for your plantings?

Around here lantana, if it's outside, is treated as an annual; it will die in the fall. I believe that lantana really (REALLY) attracts whitefly, especially if used in the house. When I had my lantana trees, I had to spray them to keep whitefly at bay. But they have such a pretty flower (and a pretty strong smell, too).

 

[cocheezie]

 
What's black hawthorne? Is it some kind of shrub or vine? You don't like grapes? Do they produce at all? I'm always very interested in things like this. Can you plant lily-of-the-valley in your area? It loves shadier areas. Many hostas do well in shady spots, too, and there are some gorgeous hostas on the market. What about some astilbe? And some bleeding heart? We have bleeding heart in the back of the house, so it only gets late afternoon sun....it does well there and flowers every year. Oh, how about some ferns as they tend to like to be under some trees.

It's really buckthorn (which is called black hawthorn in this area). It is an invasive species and takes over everything. Grape vines strangle small bushes and trees and kill them off. Have lots of lily of the valley already. We've been thinking hostas. Lots of people in the area grow them. We've asked a neighbour for some mature ferns the next time he divides them. I've only seen bleeding heart in more sunnier gardens. The library book sale is coming up in a couple of weeks. Along with my 6 months reading material, I'll grab some gardening books. DH wants to use holly to fill in one side of the property but we are adjacent to a major walkway to the downtown core. I can just see everyone out there in December ripping apart the holly bushes. And we are zone 5 (much closer to zone 4 than 6) which makes holly a bit iffy.

 

[mani]

@Winchester, that's a barrow full of organic spinach.  It's the first time I've used one for this and it's fabulous as I can wheel it where I want it.

Lantana definitely isn't an annual here.  We have farms covered in it, I'm afraid.

 

[Winchester]

Your wheelbarrow is way cool, Mani. I like it. You can move it out into the sun, move it back a bit, if needed. Very nice.

I sliced up 12 nice green peppers for the freezer last night. 

I think the zucchini and yellow squash are shot. While we haven't had a frost, we were down into the mid-30s the other night andthe ends do look like they were nipped. Leaves are finally starting to die off, too.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Well I'm growing something new in my yard.... mushrooms!  

  There are some out there at the back of my yard that are so big I can clearly see them from the house!  It's been raining so I'm not taking pictures but WOW!  I didn't think conditions were right for them but I guess so!

 

[mani]

I once bought mushroom compost and kept it in the garage... it kept on shooting up mushrooms!!  There were masses of them.

Has anyone made weed tea.. as in the stuff to feed the garden?  I'm pulling up all the dandelions and am wondering whether to use them in this way.  You put them in a container and fill with water - I did it and then realised I hadn't used my tank water (empty at the moment

) and the chlorine in tap water stops the good bacteria from doing its thing.  Anyway... I'm keen to try it and would love any advice..

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I've heard of compost tea; but I've never tried it.  

I did use "mushroom mix" the first year we started the garden.  The garden center was out of compost at the time and recommended that.  That half of my garden has way nicer soil than the newer section.  I don't think I've had any mushrooms grow up in there though.  

 

[Winchester]

We had some mushrooms growing round in the yard, too. It was pretty moist and the 'shrooms seemed to like it. I mowed quite a few of them down. 

Compost tea - We've not tried it, so I can't offer any advice. I'm sorry. We have a Mantis composter and had been using that, but stopped a couple weeks ago for the winter. We'll start it back up next spring. I've been raking and saving leaves to use a brown material for the composter.

Worked in the garden this afternoon. Picked 20+ peppers, not all of them were really big, but they were all a fairly nice size and I sliced them up for the freezer. I was going to tear out the pepper plants, but Rick said to let them go for now as we're not to get a frost just yet. There are still peppers and flowers on the plants. The only plants left now are the peppers. The strawberries look OK and so do the asparagus plants. I pulled everything else and it's all right in the middle of the garden. Tore out the Brussels sprouts plants, too, and got a couple quarts of sprouts for the freezer as well as some for dinner tonight.

It's just a matter now of having everything nice and dry so that we can burn the stuff and then we'll take the fence and the stakes down for winter. Rick still has to till the garden and we'll plant the rye. I'm afraid, though, that we're rapidly running out of time. It seems that, this year, we've been behind the eight ball all summer long when it comes to the gardening.

I hate to say this, but I'm ready to not have to do any garden work for a while!