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Gardening

Christy

Angel Diva
And I'm with you on the Basil. They mark it as full sun, but they must mean full sun somewhere with cooler temps and more humidity or something. It does not like the sun in Utah.

It doesn't even like full sun in WA! I tuck it among my tomatoes, or sometimes behind them.

Now that I think about it, I've never seen a snail or slug in Colorado. Maybe they don't approve of marijuana.

Haha then why do we have so many in WA?
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire

Thanks! But uh ... okay, I'm reading the following. If they're not hardened, how do you harden them? I mean, if you're putting them outside, isn't that the same effect as planting them? Or are they saying to give them a few days outside before putting them through the trauma of planting?

Ideally, buy hardened-off plants shortly before you put them in the ground. If they're not hardened off — meaning not acclimated to the strong light, wind and temperature swings of life in Colorado — allow several days to get them used to life outside at your house.
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
Thanks! But uh ... okay, I'm reading the following. If they're not hardened, how do you harden them? I mean, if you're putting them outside, isn't that the same effect as planting them? Or are they saying to give them a few days outside before putting them through the trauma of planting?

I think that's basically it. Plus, if the weather swings extra cold or hot, you could still easily bring them inside to protect them.
 
Here is a picture of our setup. The two new beds in the back are as yet not filled. We will eventually be putting a few more beds back there and ultimately I'd like to put a fence and garden gate/trellis up over which to grow grapes since they do well out here. In the foreground you can see my soil taster hard at work.



y4iBh1O.jpg

Do you make these beds or buy them? Just curious. Your dirt tester is adorable :smile:
 

artistinsuburbia

Angel Diva
@altagirl @Christy Italian grandmother's advice: Basil loves full sun but requires a TON of water to handle it. But won't take for standing roots in water either. so it must must drain well, so desert climates would have a tough time with it. It also needs a lot of food and/or a compost mulch to retain the moisture within the plant. So if you haven't tried this already, you can get mushroom mulch in bags at lowes/homedepot/acehardware etc. put about 6-8" deep of that about 2' around the plants. yes bury the bottom few limbs of the plant. then you must water daily in the morning.

@bounceswoosh you put them outside from 9-5 every day for 3-5 days, then you gradually increase the amount of time they are out there before you can plant them. If it gets cold don't put them out for more than a few hours as their roots are still uninsulated in the little pots. You will lose about 30% of the plants because they don't adapt and/or they lose moisture more quickly in the little pots. if you are starting from seed, then plant more than you actually want to grow, then it works out. but it's a few weeks process if done correctly. I typically have limited success with this and just buy hardened plants because then I end up with too much of one variety and not enough of the other or it's intensely time consuming and I'm not a full time gardener. :smile:
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@artistinsuburbia - I have no idea if they're hardened, but they probably won't be by the time they spend a few weeks in my dining room, which is what they'll be doing until May 20 when it's considered safe to plant stuff around here.

Regarding basil, I have grown basil right on my deck, aka hell hath no fury like my scorching deck in the summer, and so far it's grown like a weed. But I've probably been watering them plenty, because according to the bottoms of some of my tomatoes in seasons past, I was overwatering (or rather watering the leaves, which they apparently don't like, which I think is crazy because in our climate they dry out more or less instantly ... but that's what I'm told).
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
Yeah, I just buy everything from a local garden center that mostly has local grown plants and are outdoors for sale. I think that helps avoid the issue. I don't usually run into issues with plants dying shortly after planting. My issues come later in the hot and dry weather.
 

snow cat

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Thanks! But uh ... okay, I'm reading the following. If they're not hardened, how do you harden them? I mean, if you're putting them outside, isn't that the same effect as planting them? Or are they saying to give them a few days outside before putting them through the trauma of planting?


I was just reading about this since this year I have a yard and some heirloom tomato seeds, and I wanted to see if I can grow some:

https://www.grow-it-organically.com/starting-tomatoes-from-seed.html#hardening
 

Jenny

Angel Diva
Anyone know if I can relocate daffodils in bloom? I have empty spots where some have disappeared or just grow leaf but never flower. And I have extras in another location, so I was thinking about filling in the empty spots with ones that I know get flowers.
 

geargrrl

Angel Diva
We made my veggie bed out of 2X10 lumber and some old corner brackets. I already have drip in my veggie location.
 

artistinsuburbia

Angel Diva
Anyone know if I can relocate daffodils in bloom? I have empty spots where some have disappeared or just grow leaf but never flower. And I have extras in another location, so I was thinking about filling in the empty spots with ones that I know get flowers.

I've done it. don't know if you are supposed to. I've even bought potted and planted now. they've all survived so far.
 
Someone was just selling vegetable beds on one of the facebook tag sale sites today but I was 4th in line and they were sold; $10 each too. Oh well. We have these troth things that we use so that will due for now I guess. First order of business is to head to the local garden center to buy some starters. We usually do tomatoes and just see what else they have and go from there. DH sabotaged my squash last summer but he hates squash so I tease him that he did it on purpose. I am doing it this year, maybe zuchini and eggplant also.
 

Kimmyt

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
You can use anything for a raised bed, you can just line the edges with free paver brick or downed tree limbs. Hell, my neighbor got a free bookshelf off of craigslist and pulled the back off and took the shelves out and used that (of course it probably won't last more than a handful of years, but it works for the time being!!)
 

geargrrl

Angel Diva
I felt like a little kid yesterday. In one of my "ok buddy you need to go"moments I decided to dig up some iris and some siberian iris that have matured. There was lots of digging and jumping on shovels to get the clumps small enough to handle. In a fit of genius, I decided that if I took the sprayer to the clumps to get the excess soil off of them, I would both lighten them up for disposal and save some soil. By the end of the project, I was covered in mud up to the middle of my thighs and middle of my forearms. It was all over my face. At first I was "oh no, getting wet and muddy" but then I decided I just needed to embrace it. I was basically kneeling in a mud puddle. In the end I had to strip in the garage before coming inside.
 

Jenny

Angel Diva
If the bugle weed you bought is like mine you should have no problem with it! Can't remember for sure what variety, but it's like the Chocolate Chip, only bigger leaves. Stuff seems to grow overnight, I ignore it, it just keeps growing and spreading. If it were somewhere that I wanted other stuff to grow it could be an issue, but it's doing exactly what I bought it for, so I'm good.
 

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