garden thread

I want to plant garlic but I've never even seen a garlic plant before. I settled on the purple striped, chesnok red variety. Best I can tell amongst all the disagreeing sites is that we have a 50% frost date around oct 7. Some sites say plant garlic in oct in northern climates and many say to plant before frost. How much before frost is not agreed on though. Everything from 2-8weeks. Anyone have more solid info? <br /><br /> __________ Sat Jul 26, 2014 9:58 pm __________ <br /><br /> Why is my chesnok red from a very popular company that promises to ship at the right times of the year for planting on back order? I am not going to be here in a week and in a little over a month I want to plant it. They have ignored my emails about when it might arrive and potential shipping address changes. :chair:

Anyway I have 20 organic waltham butternut squash, 25 moon and stars watermelon, 200 organic carrot nantes, and 200 of a super sweet hybrid corn. Trading about half of each off. There was another variety of corn I wanted but then I couldn't find the page again so I just got these hybrids for my first solo attempt at growing corn. My aunt kills corn every year but she's tilled her garden so much and with so much mulch turned in each year that it's all hardpack. I tried to get manure compost in to it but she tries to maintain this huge garden every year and the only reason it works is because even the weeds don't want to grow there anymore. :lol: All she gets is purslane which she calls "redroot" and throws away not realizing it is edible. Is there any one that knows purslane is edible?

How do you grow carrots? I remember my mom digging up sad little carrots year after year before giving it up and that's all I know about carrots. It is probably my most hated common food. I don't mind little well cooked chunks in soup or stews but I can't stand fresh carrot after taste. I've had no reason to try to grow any but Josh loves throwing carrots in things almost as much as he loves throwing garlic in things (and then some more garlic) so I'm going to try it.

akane":op4d1kmv said:

I'm wondering if instead of weeding a ton around my melons and squash I could use a ground cover. Even better if I can plant it this fall to get started. Something that will suppress the weeds but not the vines. Phlox? Clover? Creeping thyme? A thickly seeded short flower?

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Use a layer of hay ... It'll keep the weeds down and not take nutrients from the plants it is protecting. I just use what my rabbits waste.

Ramjet":wwvpgkvr said:

akane":wwvpgkvr said:

I'm wondering if instead of weeding a ton around my melons and squash I could use a ground cover. Even better if I can plant it this fall to get started. Something that will suppress the weeds but not the vines. Phlox? Clover? Creeping thyme? A thickly seeded short flower?

Click to expand...

Use a layer of hay ... It'll keep the weeds down and not take nutrients from the plants it is protecting. I just use what my rabbits waste.

Click to expand...

Do you get grass coming in from the hay? My hay has lots of seeds.

Miss M":266nsb9v said:

Ramjet":266nsb9v said:

akane":266nsb9v said:

I'm wondering if instead of weeding a ton around my melons and squash I could use a ground cover. Even better if I can plant it this fall to get started. Something that will suppress the weeds but not the vines. Phlox? Clover? Creeping thyme? A thickly seeded short flower?

Click to expand...

Use a layer of hay ... It'll keep the weeds down and not take nutrients from the plants it is protecting. I just use what my rabbits waste.

Click to expand...

Do you get grass coming in from the hay? My hay has lots of seeds.

Click to expand...

Nope , not a bit. I guess most of the seed is has fallen away by the time it ends up in my garden as its just waste hay that's fallen from the rabbit cages. Might be the type of hay too .... Its cheap timothy , not the high dollar bermuda since they seem to waste so much.

I'm hoping to someday have room for a garden. Living in the city on a postage stamp size lot with 2 kids and a dog doesn't leave room for one ( had a little one before kids) Thinking next year I might get a few bales of hay and try 2 grow some stuff that way.

I keep repeating in my head "I will have a farm I will have a farm" lol :lol:

Hattie":56fvtok5 said:

I'm hoping to someday have room for a garden. Living in the city on a postage stamp size lot with 2 kids and a dog doesn't leave room for one ( had a little one before kids) Thinking next year I might get a few bales of hay and try 2 grow some stuff that way.

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I'm in much the same situation , 3 kids , 5 dogs (small) and my 11 hole rabbitry stuffed into a space the size of a postage stamp & a wife who refuses to move from her happy life in the ant pile.
I had a ~10x10 spot for an in ground garden this year which right now is totally over run with watermelon vines. Before it went out of control there was potatoes , corn & squash all of which is done because of the heat. Was the first time I tried growing corn and to my surprise it did pretty well.
I also grow a lot of stuff in containers , tomatoes , various types of peppers , carrots , onions .... top it off with having 8 fruit tree's (1 lemon , 1 orange , 2 peach , 1 pear , 1 plum , 1 apple , 1 olive) and you can pack a small space with an astounding amount of stuff tho 3 of the trees are in the front yard.

I keep repeating in my head "I will have a farm I will have a farm"

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Some day .... when the kids are grown and I can tell her to get packed we're moving .... or not.


In the mean time I'll keep dreaming as I walk in my back yard.

I think it's to late in the season to try anything now. Plus I'd have to re arrange the drive way so I could put a few bales of hay to plant in. This is our first year both of us being completely self employed. So this shack will have to do. Having garden fresh veggies isn't a problem enough family members have gardens that over produce so were good. I would love to figure out how to grow some of the other stuff to feed the bun just not sure how to go about it.

Ramjet":1gica3rp said:

Miss M":1gica3rp said:

Ramjet":1gica3rp said:

Use a layer of hay ... It'll keep the weeds down and not take nutrients from the plants it is protecting. I just use what my rabbits waste.

Click to expand...

Do you get grass coming in from the hay? My hay has lots of seeds.

Click to expand...

Nope , not a bit. I guess most of the seed is has fallen away by the time it ends up in my garden as its just waste hay that's fallen from the rabbit cages. Might be the type of hay too .... Its cheap timothy , not the high dollar bermuda since they seem to waste so much.

Click to expand...

Here, Bermuda and Bahia are cheap, and Timothy is high-dollar! :lol: And.... loaded with seeds. I'm not sure what this new bale is, though... it's different from hay I've had before.

It probably really depends on if it's certified weed free and what age it's cut. Bermuda is a little less sweet and higher fiber so sometimes the animals will be picky. It makes a good portion to a combination grass hay and usually if you just don't give them anything else the animals will adjust to eating it. Mostly we feed organic clover/alfalfa because it's the cheapest thing here. :lol: Good bluegrass and meadow hay(I'm not actually sure what this is) is insanely expensive. $10/bale of organic alfalfa and $30/bale of the bluegrass. The meadow hay I buy by the box which is something like 5 slices for $30. Occasionally I get oat hay or straw (difference depends when it's cut) and use it in the nest boxes. I was thinking of mixing oats in to some of my broadcast seeds like wildflower area and herbs like borage that aren't going to be planted in rows. Then I'd have bits of oats to harvest and help crowd out the weeds.

I can't container grow anything but indoor succulents and I killed my last cactus. I have a sad aloe plant that my husband just squished while hauling stuff out of the condo. Everything else dies.

akane":3qvyhdea said:

I have a sad aloe plant that my husband just squished while hauling stuff out of the condo. Everything else dies.

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I have to show of my aloe plant .... It probably weighs ~350lbs & needs to be repotted , a half whiskey barrel isn't big enough anymore. The plant itself is just short of 4 ft. tall (without the pot).

It had 3 blooms on it this year , first time its had multiples and has bloomed 3 consecutive years.

Need to get those little ones out of the pot ....

I did take this little aloe plant someone had left in their basement for 5 years in front of a little window with no water and it was still alive. Humidity is high here year round in old basements. It turned in to this under lights with some water

Then my husband contributed to it's death by putting his tv stand with flat screen and no top in place of mine that had the light setup and sending my aloe plant to the spare bedroom. Everything else there was only a couple days or weeks until going outside.

akane":1ms2ljl7 said:

I did take this little aloe plant someone had left in their basement for 5 years in front of a little window with no water and it was still alive. Humidity is high here year round in old basements. It turned in to this under lights with some water
.

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Aloe is surprisingly resilient .... I've pulled small ones from around that large plant , tossed them aside in a pile and had them dry out for several months then planted them and they come back from what appears to be .... a dead plant.

I'll post some pics of my potted pepper plants later ... cayenne , serrano & pepperoncini. I get a gallon freezer bag or so a month off of each plant.

What's this?




We had a similar flower to this at the farmhouse but it was a different color. My aunt called it red rocket but she gets names of things wrong all the time so I'm not sure what to call it.




Should I do anything to help these sad tomatos? I have a desire to go chop all the dead stuff off.