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Gardening

Kimmyt

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
MY GARDEN IS SO PRETTY RIGHT NOW

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Salad for days! My garlic is not happy though. And my peas are unhappy with the heat and their shells are getting thick so I guess I need to harvest them smaller than I normally would so they aren't so tough.

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I don't want to jinx it, but.... my green beans are doing pretty well! I planted a ton because I seem to struggle with getting them to maturity due to pests. And of course, they are doing great with just a little help from the occasional dusting of DE. I actually have another row that I planted too, we eat a lot of green beans and they just freeze so well! Also, my carrots are doing pretty ok right now!
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I definitely planted these guys too close together.

Pictured: two heirloom tomatoes, one cherry tomato, two tomatillo, misc basil and marigold.

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bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Well, ####.

I just went out and realized that there was a dead robin by my blueberry bush. It looks like its feet got caught in the netting.

This was not what I wanted when I bought the netting.

Not sure I can enjoy blueberries anymore.

Dammit. Is this expected?? I just wanted to keep the blueberries, not kill birds who get near. Maybe I should have known.

Poor little bird.
 

newboots

Angel Diva
Well, ####.

Dammit. Is this expected?? I just wanted to keep the blueberries, not kill birds who get near. Maybe I should have known.

Poor little bird.

I wrapped some veg plant (mine are generally amongst the flowers) that the varmints were eating in black netting, and found a dead squirrel in it. I didn't want that, either.

My friend had blueberries with a whole sort of cage built around them, just pieces of wood forming a sort of box, with the netting draped all over it. Occasionally a bird would get inside and it was hell to get it out again. I don't know if there's a great answer. White netting would show up more (the black is nicely invisible as you look out into the yard), but I don't know if it would make a difference to the birds and other beings.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I tore all the netting down. Then I got punished by swarming biting ants. I give up on the outdoors =/
 

CarverJill

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
My tomatoes are also WAY too close together. Honestly I didn't expect them to even survive since nothing grew 2 years ago when I planted a garden. So not only were the plants I put in too close together but then I got a ton of volunteer plants I was pulling them out constantly. Now its just a crazy jungle out there but I'm getting a decent amount of mature veggies. I have WAY too may cucumbers I'm giving them away to whoever will take them because I'm sick of cucumber salad. My tomatoes are growing at a steady pace and I'm happy to have extras for tomato sauce and giving to my friend who watched my dog on the 4th and is getting her again this weekend. We have gotten enough green beans to use them as a veggie twice in a dinner and I have basil, mint, chives and cilantro whenever I need. For the first time in years I have had success with carrots as well as peppers. Sadly I got a pepper variety pack that didn't include jalapenos, just lots of bell peppers.

So sad to hear about the robin and squirrel. I don't think you need to feel too bad, its nature. Something dug a big hole under one of the cinder blocks of my garden. It also took some bites out of a few larger, low hanging tomatoes. I closed the hole and put gopher bait in it. So far so good, the hole is still closed.
 

diymom

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I went to visit my parents in Munich for 10 days and a perfectly healthy tree snapped in half, and my brother who was taking care of my dogs (and supposedly also my plants) let a lush soon to be ripe strawberry plant shrivel up. Of course nothing he could have done about the tree, but I really thought I had been explicit about watering, especially the strawberries hanging by the front door where they are hard to ignore. And I thought he might actually like to eat them. Gripes aside, my veggie plants aren't dead, just stunted, and neither he or the dogs were hit by the tree, and thorough daily watering seems to be helping the other plants to recover. Hopefully the lawn is just dormant, well, except for the stuff I just planted this spring. Sigh. I did say gripes aside, didn't I? I think I will need another vacation to recover from this one.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
It's just the thought of how it died =/ And that I wonder if I blithely ate berries off the bush, not noticing the corpse at my feet.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I went to visit my parents in Munich for 10 days and a perfectly healthy tree snapped in half, and my brother who was taking care of my dogs (and supposedly also my plants) let a lush soon to be ripe strawberry plant shrivel up. Of course nothing he could have done about the tree, but I really thought I had been explicit about watering, especially the strawberries hanging by the front door where they are hard to ignore. And I thought he might actually like to eat them. Gripes aside, my veggie plants aren't dead, just stunted, and neither he or the dogs were hit by the tree, and thorough daily watering seems to be helping the other plants to recover. Hopefully the lawn is just dormant, well, except for the stuff I just planted this spring. Sigh. I did say gripes aside, didn't I? I think I will need another vacation to recover from this one.

Honestly, I can't get my husband to water anything at all. Last year when I had just had my ACL surgery and temps soared over 100F, I was high on pain killers and I THOUGHT it would be obvious to one of my parents or my husband that the deck umbrella should be moved to protect them and they needed tons of water - but no, and the plants died. The basil basically fried. Now, however, we have a drip system and they're in a large box rather than just pots - so they should do much better. As the photo shows ;-)
 

diymom

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Next time my brother will still be asked to help with Beamish and Q, he is great with the dogs, but I will pay one of my kids friends to come water. I really thought that if he spends so much time outside smoking his pack a day and taking photos of my plants, he might notice if they start looking sad and think to do something about it. Lesson learned. And I am sure one of my kids friends would be glad to help out and earn a little money at the same time, And eat any ripe fruits.
 

CarverJill

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@diymom that's such a bummer. I have never had much lock having someone water plants or a garden. One time years ago, my super weird roommate tried too hard to do a good job he watered fake plants; one of them was just a vase of 4 "cut" calla lillies that had been there for at least 6 months already. lol

I highly recommend an automatic watering system, then you don't need to get out there all the time with the hose and when you are away things are alright.
 

diymom

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Final gardening gripe- of all the trees in our yard, even though it was the farthest away, the tree that fell was apparently the one that made my shade garden shady for a good part of the day. Not sure I can call it a shade garden any more. Hopefully the plants will be accepting of the new sunny conditions.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Final gardening gripe- of all the trees in our yard, even though it was the farthest away, the tree that fell was apparently the one that made my shade garden shady for a good part of the day. Not sure I can call it a shade garden any more. Hopefully the plants will be accepting of the new sunny conditions.

Ugh!!

We had to take down a tree a few years ago that was finally protecting our deck from the brutal afternoon sun. It will be another decade before its replacement shades the deck.
 

liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I've been away from this forum for a while. I just tuned in again. This morning I took some pics of my garden - it's not a food garden but a visual garden. Here are a few. It's mostly a shade garden...

Oh whoops. I copied and pasted lots of pics, but they didn't come through. Oh well. I don't put images online, so can't post images I guess. Darn.
 
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newboots

Angel Diva
Oh whoops. I copied and pasted lots of pics, but they didn't come through. Oh well. I don't put images online, so can't post images I guess. Darn.

Hi! Try using "Upload a file" (next to "Post Reply) at the bottom.
 

Christy

Angel Diva
There's gotta be advice out there somewhere on how to protect fruit in a bird-safe way, doesn't there? I remember reading one of those back-to-the-land books (New Yorkers buy a farm) and they netted some fruit trees and then had like a hundred dead birds. :(

Tomatoes way to close together, check.
 

newboots

Angel Diva
Final gardening gripe- of all the trees in our yard, even though it was the farthest away, the tree that fell was apparently the one that made my shade garden shady for a good part of the day. Not sure I can call it a shade garden any more. Hopefully the plants will be accepting of the new sunny conditions.

I lost some shade plants in this way. Is there room to plant (next spring) something that will grow big quickly? I'm thinking of castor bean or even a tall butterfly bush. It couldn't provide the shade of a mature tree, but by the time the summer got hot there would be some shade. If you have deep shade plants maybe move them.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
My veggie garden is a vast jungle right now. I'm pretty sure I'll miss some tomatoes and cucumbers because they'll be hidden in the thicket. The cucumber plant was supposed to be on a trellis, but it grew right past that possibility while I was out of town for a whole week and a half.

I wasn't sure how my cantaloupe plants would fare - first time - but they've been growing at an amazing pace. I got some tomato cages and some trellis netting (hopefully the not-bird-killing kind) and "helped" the vines crawl up the available stuff. It's really cool to see how the tendrils latch on so quickly - overnight, some had already wrapped tightly on the supports.

I gave up on trying to clear out my flower bed and have asked for a design from the landscaping company that did our back yard. Yes, lazy, but it was so not getting done when it was up to me.
 

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