2017 gardening thread.

[GAnthony]

Ok so my garlic IS growing cuz that's what it looks like.

you are lucky your garlic is growing. i have several planted bulbs of various spring time flowers, and nothing, but the crocuses came up.

i don't plant/grow garlic anymore, i can use the space for other things. plus, i never had any good luck with my garlic.

 

[Rigjockey]

you are lucky your garlic is growing. i have several planted bulbs of various spring time flowers, and nothing, but the crocuses came up.

i don't plant/grow garlic anymore, i can use the space for other things. plus, i never had any good luck with my garlic.

I thought Garlic grew better in colder temps Like in the fall. I am no farmer so i really don't know.

 

[GAnthony]

I thought Garlic grew better in colder temps Like in the fall. I am no farmer so i really don't know.

you plant the garlic in late fall. it'll grow a bit in the winter, but not by much. you should keep it covered to prevent the frost from killing it.

in the spring, you remove the covering, it'll grow till about july, and the stalks will brown and fall down, then it's time to dig'em up....

i never liked the prep for them,. nor the space they took up.

 

[Injun]

I cook a mean box of mac & cheese.

You know you have to take it out of the box, Right?

I just cook the box itself.

Probably tastes about the same either way.

 

[Blood]

Squash in one of the wicking beds.
It started coming on strong just before the spinach and kale started to bolt from the heat in the greenhouse.
Good timing!

 

[Blood]

Carolina White strawberries in another wicking bed.
Ripe when they turn pink.
I haven't had any yet but the wife says they taste the same as other strawberries...
they're suppose to taste like pineapple.

 

[Blood]

The wicking bed on the left was suppose to be a temporary parking place for starts that needed more room before it was warm enough to plant outdoors. We've cut back about as much as remains. They're going crazy in the greenhouse.

The bed on the right has 6 or 8 Rutgers growing.

 

[Blood]

Grow bed of expanded shale with a pond pump flooding the lower part for 15 minutes every other hour.
Great for strawberries since they hate wet feet and the surface stays dry.
We can literally count on one hand the number of berries lost to mold/mildew last year.
The other plants are parsley from last year that's going to seed.

 

[GAnthony]

Grow bed of expanded shale with a pond pump flooding the lower part for 15 minutes every other hour.
Great for strawberries since they hate wet feet and the surface stays dry.
We can literally count on one hand the number of berries lost to mold/mildew last year.
The other plants are parsley from last year that's going to seed.

i cannot grow strawberries to save my life.

 

[Blood]

i cannot grow strawberries to save my life.

We never had much luck either until we started using this setup.
It's not going crazy but we get a handful once or twice per week which is really about enough for us.
It's the second year they've been in there.
Strawberries are supposedly one of the most heavily treated produce items you buy...
lots of herbicides between plantings and lots of pesticide while growing.
We don't use any of that stuff.

 

[GAnthony]

We never had much luck either until we started using this setup.
It's not going crazy but we get a handful once or twice per week which is really about enough for us.
It's the second year they've been in there.
Strawberries are supposedly one of the most heavily treated produce items you buy...
lots of herbicides between plantings and lots of pesticide while growing.
We don't use any of that stuff.

i was lucky to "get a few" then they would die out......

i'd buy about 6 plants, gave them a nice area to grow in, gave them organic fertilizer and no pesticides.....

i gave up on them about 5-6 years ago.

 

[Injun]

My strawberries got big this year, with a ton of flowers. I put red lava rock around them to keep the weeds down and to keep the berries off the dirt. They produced well last year, but bugs got most of them before we did. I moved a stone the other day and found a sugar ant nest. Se7in dusted the crap out of it. See if that helps.

 

[Duck]

Probably tastes about the same either way.

Kraft mac'n'cheese

Add 4-6 shakes of garlic salt, and an amount of parmesan about equal to the amount of orange powder in the cheese packet.

And most of a can of tuna. (I always give about a tablespoon of tuna to the cat so it'll stop meowing at me.)


Excellante.

 

[GAnthony]

hey, what do some of you people use as a deterrent for your garden, to keep cats out of there, as they like the large litter box you've made for them?

i have "chicken wire" fencing around the perimeter, but they still get in.

now my garden is drenched from all this insipid rain, but i just used up my last huge jar of paprika powder all over the place.

later i have to go to the warehouse club anyway's so i'll get another large one and cayenne pepper as well.

i read in a gardening article, that broken egg shells work, as cats do not like the noise, only there will never be enough of those for me, unless i start in the fall to collect them.

(bubble wrap will not work, cats ain't heavy enough to pop them)

there is an orange smelling granular powder that can be used in FLOWER gardens, not vegetable gardens.

i can no longer get wolf or coyote pee (expensive SMALL bottles) as the farm store near me closed up.

what do any of you use..??????

thanks in advance

 

[mndriver]

Lead

 

[Injun]

I buy a spray that contains garlic oil, cinnamon and ...some other thing they don't like the smell of.. and spray it on the rocks and blocking around the garden. Works like a charm. I'll get a picture of it later. There aren't any harmful chemicals in it.



Then, there's this...

 

[Blood]

Cats haven't been an issue for me.
There are a couple of feral cats around that usually scatter when they see me but I've never seen them around the raised beds or wicking beds, nor any evidence that they've been around.

 

[Duck]

Motion detector controlling automatic sprinkler system. I like that.

 

[Blood]

Image didn't load (for me) in your original post but appeared when I quoted you ( to see if that's what Duck was talking about...
weird.
Other images that don't appear in the original post will appear in a pop-up when you click 'view image' in quoted posts.
Also weird.

I buy a spray that contains garlic oil, cinnamon and ...some other thing they don't like the smell of.. and spray it on the rocks and blocking around the garden. Works like a charm. I'll get a picture of it later. There aren't any harmful chemicals in it.



Then, there's this...

 

[Blood]

I did a couple of small jars of horseradish today in the new juicer we bought a few weeks ago.
It was better than last time (which was my first time).

I added water this time which made it less gritty with less of a woody texture...
which wasn't bad last time but like I said this was much better.

Nothing to it, just pulp, grate, grind or whatever and when you're no longer able to see for the tears add a little white vinegar to stop the reaction so it doesn't get any hotter...
I forget the term for it.