2020 gardening thread

I’m turned on now! Never tried that before. My dumb luck I would break off the wrong one

Male flower is on a stem.
Female flower is on the fruit.

You can use a q tip too. Swab male flower then female flower.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
End rot on my Squash? Just the excessive rain, or something more serious.

I got these two (and a few more) small squash/zuchini out of the garden yesterday. Am considering making a "soup" of calcium nitrate along with a heavy helping of powdered milk and a good dose of epsom salts. Never used these except on tomatoes. Any ideas what may be happening?

The soil is a straight topsoil/compost (50/50) mix. Not much amendment otherwise.

ANY input appreciatedrot4.jpg rot3.jpg rot2.jpg rot1.jpg
 
Last edited:
End rot on my Squash? Just the excessive rain, or something more serious.

I got these two (and a few more) small squash/zuchini out of the garden yesterday. Am considering making a "soup" of calcium nitrate along with a heavy helping of powdered milk and a good dose of epsom salts. Never used these except on tomatoes. Any ideas what may be happening?

The soil is a straight topsoil/compost (50/50) mix. Not much amendment otherwise.

ANY input appreciatedView attachment 215810 View attachment 215811 View attachment 215812 View attachment 215813
Not pollinated.
 
You all probably knew this, but I did not, so maybe someone else might profit here. When it comes to cabbages, we all eat the heart, and the big huge flowering leaves are usually something most people throw away.....
So today, my wife goes to the web, researches, and instructs me to bring in five of these MASSIVE leaves (they are beautiful and appear almost leathery). She cut them into strips, sauteed them with a bunch of spices, and they are BETTER than collards.

Eating my first lunch "almost exclusively" from the garden today. It is delish.
 
got a late start, but things are happening. Tilled a ~20x40' patch 2 weeks ago, then planted 9 or so $5 tomato sprouts and they've survived so far. Last weekend I seeded some - A few squash and zucchini seeds between tomatoes, some mixed peas and beans, some cucumbers, some peppers, some habanero and serano peppers, a few other tomato seeds we had somewhere, and some decorative stuff here and there. Most of it is already sprouting only a week later. Starting to worry about the rabbits since the neighbor said she saw them nosing around the patch...
 
Starting to worry about the rabbits since the neighbor said she saw them nosing around the patch...

Squirrels are climbing up into my containers and digging around, like there is actually something for them to eat! Took my pellet gun out yesterday, but he was "gone" (more than 30 yards, which is beyond my range with a pellet) before I got there. I wish I had something to sting him good and not kill him, as I am sure there are kits somewhere.
 
A good ol fashion Red Ryder will put a sting on them. They learn fast to split as soon as they see you.
 
Squirrels are climbing up into my containers and digging around, like there is actually something for them to eat! Took my pellet gun out yesterday, but he was "gone" (more than 30 yards, which is beyond my range with a pellet) before I got there. I wish I had something to sting him good and not kill him, as I am sure there are kits somewhere.
sounds like you could have a 5-for-the-price-of-1 to me.
i hate squirrels and have done plenty of tiny violence in the past to keep them away from my garden.
needless to say, my wife hated being out in the yard with me. But she liked having fresh tomatoes and veggies that hadn't been destroyed by those stupid tree rats.
 
A good ol fashion Red Ryder will put a sting on them. They learn fast to split as soon as they see you.
they sure do. but you can't watch the garden 12hrs a day every day. they learn your schedule just as much as you learn theirs...
 
It just occurred to me...

Am I building a giant lighting attractor?
Faraday cage?
Should I be grounding this thing?

B9EBBE97-7FDC-4347-9F80-0ACA52B7ADC8.jpeg
 
It just occurred to me...

Am I building a giant lighting attractor?
Faraday cage?
Should I be grounding this thing?

View attachment 216246
Nope, no grounding needed. My chicken pen is very similar but built with t-posts. But, why did you put the garden in a cage?
 
It just occurred to me...

Am I building a giant lighting attractor?
Faraday cage?
Should I be grounding this thing?

View attachment 216246
I don’t think so. I think the lightning is more likely to hit something that is taller and also grounded, like a really tall house or tree. From your pictures, I don’t think this structure is close to being as tall as those other items.
 
But, why did you put the garden in a cage?

The Squrrils ...
I shot one and then 6 pallbearers showed up...

Can’t be out there all day everyday. And I’ll be damn if I let them have one more tomato, watermelon, zucchini,

I don’t think this structure is close to being as tall as those other items.

No not that high. 6’ fence and 8’ at the front.
 
The Squrrils ...
I shot one and then 6 pallbearers showed up...

Then you should have gotten the pallbearers! I don't think you could ever get them all.

The birds just got every one of my cherries before they were ripe enough to pick. They will start on the blueberries soon.
 
Turnips and turnips and greens and greens.

Two baskets so far this morning.

Getting so many this year we're gonna can some. Both freezers are already getting "too full" this year.

We don't often can turnips or turnip greens. But there are just so many this time. Good "problem".


20200525_121600 (2).jpg


20200525_121621 (2).jpg


20200525_121615 (2).jpg
 
Finally got around to repairing the Mantis Tillers that have been sitting in the shed for a while. I have 5, got two running, two are waiting for new tanks to replace cracked tanks. One is an older model that has a cracked tank and the tank is no longer available. Shane since the engine and all else is still good.

I have two listed in for sale thread if anyone is interested.

upload_2020-5-30_12-41-12.jpeg
 
I swear they've grown a foot in a week!
c031763abe456a8a4bf56c3ecddb9435.jpg
 
What do y'all recommend for killing grubs in my raised beds? We treat with the plants with Seven dust but what about the soil at this stage of the game?
 
rabbits took out all my peas that were sprouting. some of the squahcchini are still hanging around, cucumbers and beans still seem to be growing without depredation. peppers are 3 weeks in without sprouting.
I'm abut to order 4x300' of 2" chicken wire, which should take care of most of the critters
 
rabbits took out all my peas that were sprouting. some of the squahcchini are still hanging around, cucumbers and beans still seem to be growing without depredation. peppers are 3 weeks in without sprouting.
I'm abut to order 4x300' of 2" chicken wire, which should take care of most of the critters

Peppers are hard to grow from seed. I recommend you buy plants. The soil has to be very warm to plant seeds. Which means a late harvest around here. I can’t seem to even get mine to sprout inside.

Decided to stake the zucchini this go around and see how that works.

90fc941301ef42ba59c6f5793f0cbeb1.jpg

08fb25fafffbc80c01120668685c121a.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Had a fellow forum member stop by for some business. The wife pulled a cabbage for him and had it sittin on the bench beside some backyard eggs she was sending as well.

I swear that thing called me Seymour and it was looking at me all hungry like.

I thought it was right purty.

20200531_192354 (2).jpg


20200531_192346 (2).jpg


20200531_192320 (2).jpg
 
Last edited:
Thoughts from the garden this morning:

There is something positively GLORIOUS about getting up early and checking the plants when the sun is first up. Bees are frenetically hitting the squash flowers, the plants are standing in rapt praise, the fruits are showing up from their "BOOM" overnight, and the vines are running wild. It is a non musical symphony that celebrates life, and pulls me into that same celebration. The birds (especially the mockingbirds) seem compelled to add a side chorus of audible accompaniment.... and I just stand there sometimes, lost in the wonder of being a little man in this vast expanse of mystery and awe and goodness and pregnant life delivering my food to me. I have been told I am a wordsmith, but there there are no words to capture the sense of awe, and peace, and contentment.... and raw WONDER at the created order. I had immense feelings of joy at the birth of my children, and these are like smaller aftershocks, delivered fresh every morning. It is a feeling of ........"happiness"... which is silly to attribute to an inanimate creation...., or is it really? Do the pagans have something... perverted and twisted into a monstrous lie...., but underneath all the falsehood, is there a deeper sort of throbbing pulse of LIFE that is sort of protopersonal? What if our techno, plastic and circuitry neon light sterile, air conditioned and digital lives have choked out a more raw, basic and fundamental element of who we are designed (yes, I am a Christian, you should expect such ideas!) to be. When I bring that awareness to the bible, I find (surprisingly, though it should not be) there is a grid, or organizing rubric, series of channels where all this riot of stuff I would sneer at as romantic delusion can find organization, synthesis, and a rational explanation. It is who we are, and who we are designed to be. It is a wildness and a perspective on life we had a bit of as children (and I had a glimpse of, frankly,when taking drugs... which is -I imagine why they have such a fascination for some).
"Growing up" should never mean we choke out, shrivel up, stunt, and kill this. It makes us pathetic, dry, and dessicated souls.

just random speculations... fwiw
 
Last edited:
BROCCOLI QUESTION. Do I have a problem here?

This is plant #1
It is in a mix of 50% peat and 50% compost/topsoil. This is my current fave recipe for growing, and MOST of the plants do well in it.

Two plants in a 5 gallon bucket:

broccoli1.jpg

These, otoh, are our other broccoli. They have brownish purplish leaves, and we don't know if they are a different "strain" or if the soil composition (pure 50/50 compost topsoil mix) is responsible.

Any ideas?

broccoli2.jpg
 
When your beans get drowned and the ground has gotten too hard to make a furrow by hand without killing yourself, remove one side of the cultivators on a mantis tiller...

33727569-61F2-4CD9-B999-2EE71327857A.jpeg
 
I like seeing how you guys have your gardens set up and pictures of how things are progressing. Here are a couple pics of ours after finishing up this evening.

Fyi no one lives on the old farm house. We just use it for shade when we’re taking a break and to keep tools and such out of the rain.

3B21FDC7-D8D9-40B9-A49D-079BA3669183.jpeg 8237E1DF-D28B-4026-918D-AA338C906025.jpeg A990C611-5439-400D-BD1D-81B27AF3F585.jpeg 3112EC93-39AE-4C08-BD1E-CEFE37D4B68F.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom