Sat rained most of the day...bought a rake (my birthday presssie!!) and checked out prices of sand and cement.
Sun afternoon we re-layed the upper part of the path. That's probably right, now. I uplifted some baby leeks and some dismal purple sprouting broccoli which were likely to get squashed by the uplifted pavers.
Today friend assaulted the lower path which has some steps that are steep and appear to be some sort remnant staircase. He has spent nearly all day hacking out an area about 3' square and 6" deep. Ideally the staircase needs reducing some more...the hire shop has equipment which will be enjoying a trip to my garden (!). Like most tasks, this fairly simple path re-laying is turning into a major exercise.
So while he was chiselling out the breeze blocks and old cement...I turned my compost heap and pulled up some beginning weeds. Much more enjoyable. The soil is lovely - the cold in the winter has done good.
It's rather a pity that all along the path, the rubble from under the path is piled up, including scraping off some of the clay bed. Just when the garden looked like it was going to flourish, this year.
What a very beautiful garden you have, Leafy. Where is it you live? Photos look quite like an English cottage garden, except that everything is further on - your snapdragons, for example.
What a very beautiful garden you have, Leafy. Where is it you live? Photos look quite like an English cottage garden, except that everything is further on - your snapdragons, for example.
Hi Twinky Thanks I live In California About 30 miles inland from the monterey bay.
IT has taken me a long time to get it looking this nice and then it will look all scraggly for the summer LOL maybe not this year since I put in lots of the painted daisies. Gophers don't eat those.
you should see it today it is even fluffier with flowers than those pictures.
Am very behind with my gardening this year. Today I finally set to soak overnight my runner bean seeds. Well. If they grow, they'll catch up.
It hasn't rained in about 2 months here, except for a brief spell one day a couple of weeks ago. So nothing much is growing, hardly any weeds. Except for forget-me-nots, which have sprung from nowhere and taken over a border.
I have been very involved with path re-laying. A friend is helping me (read, doing the work). We took up the top pavers, which had settled a little, and then there was a flight of steps that must have been erected a long time ago and the reason for them being there has disappeared. Okay, there is a slope, but nothing like the angle on these stairs. Friend has decided to remove the steps, so much later, thanks to a mighty powerful hammer chisel, we now have 3 TONS of broken up concrete in bags on what should be the vege garden. These sit on small mounds of earth that were once the path before it was dug out and proper foundations made.
(Like there aren't enough rocks just under the surface of the soil ... huh.)
Below is a pic which shows the "flying staircase" before destruction. No, the work wasn't done with the little geological hammer in my friend's hand. That was just a first attempt before he realized how hard it was and before he borrowed a hammer chisel.
Lower down the path are 2 more steps that need to be reduced and extra ones built - that means more concrete rubble in the bags.
My vege garden is only about 12 x 25' anyway so everything gets crammed in all together. At the moment only half is potentially useable; and half of that is occupied by my leeks from last year which are still in the ground!
I have a small salsa garden this year. My daughter bought for Mother's Day tomato plants, a bell pepper plant, onion sets, an eggplant, romaine lettuce seeds and cilantro seeds and then planted them all. It's rained most every day since then so we haven't been out to weed at all.
We're also planting tons of old flower seeds: black-eyed-susans, shasta daisies, poppies of all colors, all sorts of flowers that I'd gotten seeds over the past few years and just never got around to planting. I don't know if the old ones will come up or not, but its worth trying.
Then I got another ton of new seeds this year that I selected off ebay that I'm sure will come up: lavendar poppies, red poppies, bachelor buttons, rose campion, painted daisies, bluebonnets, hollyhocks and missouri primrose. Once I get things to blooming I'll post pictures. My fantasy is to have something similar to what you've got there, leafy. I have big and old peonies, a rosebush and lots of rose of sharon around here already so far.
I should have taken pictures of my lilac bushes I planted 5 years ago. This spring was the first time they really bloomed big - 2 purple ones with a white one in between and oh man, it was so good to see them perform this year. We'd had late frosts the past couple years so anything they tried to do got beaten up by the freeeze.
Finally got some plants in the garden. The path project has occupied all my time and unfortunately a lot of the garden space. Now the surplus soil is residing in two huge 1/2 ton bags near the house, and the soil underneath is now useable. And I can get to the other side of the garden to plant, too.
So I fetched a load of well-rotted hoss muck and dug my bean trench, and my beans (grown from seed) went in last night. It has rained overnight (first time for a couple of months) so the soil is going to be nicely moistened and get them off to a good start.
I found a couple of volunteer potato plants in the area where the beans should be so I've left them. Let them do their thing, why not, they must be the best and pretty vigorous. Had some nice volunteer spuds last year. Very tasty.
Getting a bit late in the season for planting a lot of things (like onions) but at least I should be able to get some quick-growing salad crops and then later put in some things that will mature over winter (brassicas and such like).
The path project is not finished, and will not be finished for at least a month (maybe longer, depending on Mr Muscle's work commitments; a big work project is likely to be coming up so it might mean 3 months).
About a week before moving from Princeton New Jersey back to Florida all the cherry tomatoes on my store-bought bush ripened, or began to ripen. I started picking them. There were about 150 red ones all ripe at the same time, and many still green. There are just not enough salads. I can see why people that grow food can or jar it. Everyone that lived near my flat got tomatoes! As for the plant itself, well one nice older woman that lives alone was the recipient. The last time I counted, there were still about seventy-five green tomatoes on it. I moved the thing (which had grown to inhabit a five gallon pickle bucket from the local Burger King -free of charge) via a two wheeled dolly.
Over coffee, the older woman showed me her Mason Jars. Let me tell you that if all the stores ran out of food, she wouldn't go hungry for a long time.
I am encouraged now, that I can grow something without killing it, and am actually quite happy with the results I got. Soon, I'll set an area aside in my yard and plant a garden. I've always wanted to do that. I'll give it a go, and learn what I can about this "food" stuff!
Well done, Gen-2. It's very satisfying growing your own food. You know what goes into it (and what [chemicals] doesn't) and the taste is generally so much better than store-bought food.
Well done with the tomatoes. I've never had anything worthwhile of any of my tomatoes.
We got our garden put in this weekend. We've had a very cold spring.
We gave a friend our Baker Creek Heirloom seed catalog and he bought some unusual seeds and gave us some seedlings--snake melon, white pumpkin shaped eggplant, another white squash, several types of red and purple amaranth. The rest of the garden is in herbs and veggies, peas, green beans tomatoes, peppers. We've already picked some asparagus and should get more of that since it self seeds all over the yard.
So far so good. Peas and beans are up and thriving. Lost a couple tomatoes in a cold snap but the others are all right. We had a week of rain but no hail! June is a crazy weather month here in the Rockies.
My garden is finally getting going...sort of. I've been rebuilding the path, and the soil from under the new aggregate has been in heaps all over the growing area. It's now bagged into huuuge bags and will be spread on the lawn to raise the level a little, when the new path is laid.
So I have managed to plant my runner beans, which are looking lovely, very sturdy, and well rooted. They all took this year, not so many as other years, but doing much better.
I have planted peas (not doing too well); these are underplanted with strawberries which are swelling up nicely (must net them soon to keep the woodpigeons away). The autumn raspberries are producing so much stem/plant that they are in danger of swamping that bit of garden - this is their 2nd year, so I should get a reasonable crop (I hope). I started brassicas from seed and they are now pricked out and have started to grow. I have sown lettuce, rocket and beetroot seeds but nothing showing yet. There are some self-set potatoes and they seem to be thriving. They're right where the beans are but hey, they can fight it out between themselves.
Meanwhile, last year's leeks are still in the ground and have grown flower stalks - the flowers will be out soon. Should I dig 'em out now, or let 'em seed and use the seed next year? (Might depend on the available space!!)
I have been given loads of tomatoes, which will go into gro-bags or planters, not the garden.
No swetcorn this year; disappointing last year.
No courgettes (yet) this year. Might try and get some plants on Sat from the Farmers Market.
My hanging baskets are still not set up. Tomorrow, perhaps. The plants are shrivelling through neglect.
All you lovely gardeners, could I ask you a question?
I have a racoon who has been helping himself to my hummingbird feeder and occassional plant in my deck container garden. Last year the little bugger ate my cantalopes from right off the deck the night before I was going to pick them.
All you lovely gardeners, could I ask you a question?
I have a racoon who has been helping himself to my hummingbird feeder and occassional plant in my deck container garden. Last year the little bugger ate my cantalopes from right off the deck the night before I was going to pick them.
Any ideas how to keep him off the deck?
Trapping is your best bet.
Be advised, though, that some places prohibit the relocation of raccoons. In these instances, it's required, by law, that the animal be destroyed. This is because they are well known as rabies carriers. They are very dangerous. It might be best to enlist the help of a professional.
Thanks, waysider. Racoon knocked over a pot and broke it last night.... I think I will call a professional. This is getting ridiculous. He ate the heads off of some of my marigolds, too. Why the marigolds, I don't know...
There is very little you can do to discourage them; they are cute but vicious and their droppings carry all kinds of nasty diseases. I second the suggestion of a professional, or at least checking with Fish & Wildlife in your area to determine proper disposal; relocation via a Have-A-Heart trap or something more drastic.
Well, we caught two raccoons in traps provided by a professional. Then bait started being stolen out of the traps without setting them off. The catch-it guy said he thought it was squirrels. He's wrong - it's a small raccoon - about half the size of the ones we caught. I found him last night on the deck with the hummingbird feeder having a great old time. Husband and I both threw stuff at him from the door - he would run off the deck and then just come right back five minutes later. I ended up throwing a glass of water on him and then going out and getting the hummingbird feeder and moving it to the garage.
We live next to a wooded area, and I think the population of raccoons is not even dented by the ones we trapped, and at $130.00 to lay the traps and $70.00 for each raccoon caught, to trap them all will put us in bankruptcy. We are going to try a motion activated sprinkler to keep him off the deck at night.... I'll let you all know how that works!
So far the motion activated sprinkler has proved to be a good deterrant for the raccoon. It's been up for a week, and the feeder hasn't been drained yet!
- grow something very thorny around the base of the hummingbird feeder. Hawthorn, for example (an edible/medicinal).
- or ditch the feeder and simply grow something that attracts hummingbirds instead. Clematis, for example..or something from this list...and an extra bonus if it is also edible/medicinal.
Thanks, Sir Guess... I have also heard that raccoons don't like cucumbers... Next year I will probably plant those at the base of the feeder and let them use the stake as a trellis. I have planted a lot of flowers that the hummingbirds love, and now that they are open they are enjoying those as well as the feeder. I so enjoy my hummingbirds - they have no fear at all... Yesterday I was outside on the deck where the feeder is and they were feeding less than 18 inches away from me... and then they started dueling. Such little warriors!!!
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Pax
Hi, I've returned after years... see "members" for details if u wish. This is only my second year growing veggies... I grow organically. I've got two small gardens and one medium sized joint... 10
Twinky
Leafy, feel free to come over here with a very large water butt. Will give you surplus stocks of water free.
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leafytwiglet
:P I could sure use it...
So I just looked in my raised bed and nothing has sprouted yet :( Maybe it is just still too cold.
I need to go plant some more stuff too.
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Twinky
An active w/e in the garden...
Nothing on Fri.
Sat rained most of the day...bought a rake (my birthday presssie!!) and checked out prices of sand and cement.
Sun afternoon we re-layed the upper part of the path. That's probably right, now. I uplifted some baby leeks and some dismal purple sprouting broccoli which were likely to get squashed by the uplifted pavers.
Today friend assaulted the lower path which has some steps that are steep and appear to be some sort remnant staircase. He has spent nearly all day hacking out an area about 3' square and 6" deep. Ideally the staircase needs reducing some more...the hire shop has equipment which will be enjoying a trip to my garden (!). Like most tasks, this fairly simple path re-laying is turning into a major exercise.
So while he was chiselling out the breeze blocks and old cement...I turned my compost heap and pulled up some beginning weeds. Much more enjoyable. The soil is lovely - the cold in the winter has done good.
It's rather a pity that all along the path, the rubble from under the path is piled up, including scraping off some of the clay bed. Just when the garden looked like it was going to flourish, this year.
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Gen-2
I planted a Marigold
I'm feeling much plantiness today -
>>>does the Snoopy happy dance<<<
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leafytwiglet
Looked out the window to the flower garden saw a multitude of Grass waist high. I then spent all of yesterday pulling the weeds
The flowers look beautiful
Some pictures for all of you.
My Garden this morning
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Twinky
What a very beautiful garden you have, Leafy. Where is it you live? Photos look quite like an English cottage garden, except that everything is further on - your snapdragons, for example.
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leafytwiglet
Hi Twinky Thanks I live In California About 30 miles inland from the monterey bay.
IT has taken me a long time to get it looking this nice and then it will look all scraggly for the summer LOL maybe not this year since I put in lots of the painted daisies. Gophers don't eat those.
you should see it today it is even fluffier with flowers than those pictures.
All my Irises are in bloom.
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Twinky
Am very behind with my gardening this year. Today I finally set to soak overnight my runner bean seeds. Well. If they grow, they'll catch up.
It hasn't rained in about 2 months here, except for a brief spell one day a couple of weeks ago. So nothing much is growing, hardly any weeds. Except for forget-me-nots, which have sprung from nowhere and taken over a border.
I have been very involved with path re-laying. A friend is helping me (read, doing the work). We took up the top pavers, which had settled a little, and then there was a flight of steps that must have been erected a long time ago and the reason for them being there has disappeared. Okay, there is a slope, but nothing like the angle on these stairs. Friend has decided to remove the steps, so much later, thanks to a mighty powerful hammer chisel, we now have 3 TONS of broken up concrete in bags on what should be the vege garden. These sit on small mounds of earth that were once the path before it was dug out and proper foundations made.
(Like there aren't enough rocks just under the surface of the soil ... huh.)
Below is a pic which shows the "flying staircase" before destruction. No, the work wasn't done with the little geological hammer in my friend's hand. That was just a first attempt before he realized how hard it was and before he borrowed a hammer chisel.
Lower down the path are 2 more steps that need to be reduced and extra ones built - that means more concrete rubble in the bags.
My vege garden is only about 12 x 25' anyway so everything gets crammed in all together. At the moment only half is potentially useable; and half of that is occupied by my leeks from last year which are still in the ground!
So-ooo - how does my garden grow?
It sure grows rocks, all right.
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bowtwi
I have a small salsa garden this year. My daughter bought for Mother's Day tomato plants, a bell pepper plant, onion sets, an eggplant, romaine lettuce seeds and cilantro seeds and then planted them all. It's rained most every day since then so we haven't been out to weed at all.
We're also planting tons of old flower seeds: black-eyed-susans, shasta daisies, poppies of all colors, all sorts of flowers that I'd gotten seeds over the past few years and just never got around to planting. I don't know if the old ones will come up or not, but its worth trying.
Then I got another ton of new seeds this year that I selected off ebay that I'm sure will come up: lavendar poppies, red poppies, bachelor buttons, rose campion, painted daisies, bluebonnets, hollyhocks and missouri primrose. Once I get things to blooming I'll post pictures. My fantasy is to have something similar to what you've got there, leafy. I have big and old peonies, a rosebush and lots of rose of sharon around here already so far.
I should have taken pictures of my lilac bushes I planted 5 years ago. This spring was the first time they really bloomed big - 2 purple ones with a white one in between and oh man, it was so good to see them perform this year. We'd had late frosts the past couple years so anything they tried to do got beaten up by the freeeze.
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Twinky
Finally got some plants in the garden. The path project has occupied all my time and unfortunately a lot of the garden space. Now the surplus soil is residing in two huge 1/2 ton bags near the house, and the soil underneath is now useable. And I can get to the other side of the garden to plant, too.
So I fetched a load of well-rotted hoss muck and dug my bean trench, and my beans (grown from seed) went in last night. It has rained overnight (first time for a couple of months) so the soil is going to be nicely moistened and get them off to a good start.
I found a couple of volunteer potato plants in the area where the beans should be so I've left them. Let them do their thing, why not, they must be the best and pretty vigorous. Had some nice volunteer spuds last year. Very tasty.
Getting a bit late in the season for planting a lot of things (like onions) but at least I should be able to get some quick-growing salad crops and then later put in some things that will mature over winter (brassicas and such like).
The path project is not finished, and will not be finished for at least a month (maybe longer, depending on Mr Muscle's work commitments; a big work project is likely to be coming up so it might mean 3 months).
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Gen-2
About a week before moving from Princeton New Jersey back to Florida all the cherry tomatoes on my store-bought bush ripened, or began to ripen. I started picking them. There were about 150 red ones all ripe at the same time, and many still green. There are just not enough salads. I can see why people that grow food can or jar it. Everyone that lived near my flat got tomatoes! As for the plant itself, well one nice older woman that lives alone was the recipient. The last time I counted, there were still about seventy-five green tomatoes on it. I moved the thing (which had grown to inhabit a five gallon pickle bucket from the local Burger King -free of charge) via a two wheeled dolly.
Over coffee, the older woman showed me her Mason Jars. Let me tell you that if all the stores ran out of food, she wouldn't go hungry for a long time.
I am encouraged now, that I can grow something without killing it, and am actually quite happy with the results I got. Soon, I'll set an area aside in my yard and plant a garden. I've always wanted to do that. I'll give it a go, and learn what I can about this "food" stuff!
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Twinky
Well done, Gen-2. It's very satisfying growing your own food. You know what goes into it (and what [chemicals] doesn't) and the taste is generally so much better than store-bought food.
Well done with the tomatoes. I've never had anything worthwhile of any of my tomatoes.
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Bramble
We got our garden put in this weekend. We've had a very cold spring.
We gave a friend our Baker Creek Heirloom seed catalog and he bought some unusual seeds and gave us some seedlings--snake melon, white pumpkin shaped eggplant, another white squash, several types of red and purple amaranth. The rest of the garden is in herbs and veggies, peas, green beans tomatoes, peppers. We've already picked some asparagus and should get more of that since it self seeds all over the yard.
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Bramble
So far so good. Peas and beans are up and thriving. Lost a couple tomatoes in a cold snap but the others are all right. We had a week of rain but no hail! June is a crazy weather month here in the Rockies.
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Twinky
My garden is finally getting going...sort of. I've been rebuilding the path, and the soil from under the new aggregate has been in heaps all over the growing area. It's now bagged into huuuge bags and will be spread on the lawn to raise the level a little, when the new path is laid.
So I have managed to plant my runner beans, which are looking lovely, very sturdy, and well rooted. They all took this year, not so many as other years, but doing much better.
I have planted peas (not doing too well); these are underplanted with strawberries which are swelling up nicely (must net them soon to keep the woodpigeons away). The autumn raspberries are producing so much stem/plant that they are in danger of swamping that bit of garden - this is their 2nd year, so I should get a reasonable crop (I hope). I started brassicas from seed and they are now pricked out and have started to grow. I have sown lettuce, rocket and beetroot seeds but nothing showing yet. There are some self-set potatoes and they seem to be thriving. They're right where the beans are but hey, they can fight it out between themselves.
Meanwhile, last year's leeks are still in the ground and have grown flower stalks - the flowers will be out soon. Should I dig 'em out now, or let 'em seed and use the seed next year? (Might depend on the available space!!)
I have been given loads of tomatoes, which will go into gro-bags or planters, not the garden.
No swetcorn this year; disappointing last year.
No courgettes (yet) this year. Might try and get some plants on Sat from the Farmers Market.
My hanging baskets are still not set up. Tomorrow, perhaps. The plants are shrivelling through neglect.
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JavaJane
All you lovely gardeners, could I ask you a question?
I have a racoon who has been helping himself to my hummingbird feeder and occassional plant in my deck container garden. Last year the little bugger ate my cantalopes from right off the deck the night before I was going to pick them.
Any ideas how to keep him off the deck?
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waysider
Trapping is your best bet.
Be advised, though, that some places prohibit the relocation of raccoons. In these instances, it's required, by law, that the animal be destroyed. This is because they are well known as rabies carriers. They are very dangerous. It might be best to enlist the help of a professional.
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JavaJane
Thanks, waysider. Racoon knocked over a pot and broke it last night.... I think I will call a professional. This is getting ridiculous. He ate the heads off of some of my marigolds, too. Why the marigolds, I don't know...
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Watered Garden
There is very little you can do to discourage them; they are cute but vicious and their droppings carry all kinds of nasty diseases. I second the suggestion of a professional, or at least checking with Fish & Wildlife in your area to determine proper disposal; relocation via a Have-A-Heart trap or something more drastic.
WG
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JavaJane
Well, we caught two raccoons in traps provided by a professional. Then bait started being stolen out of the traps without setting them off. The catch-it guy said he thought it was squirrels. He's wrong - it's a small raccoon - about half the size of the ones we caught. I found him last night on the deck with the hummingbird feeder having a great old time. Husband and I both threw stuff at him from the door - he would run off the deck and then just come right back five minutes later. I ended up throwing a glass of water on him and then going out and getting the hummingbird feeder and moving it to the garage.
We live next to a wooded area, and I think the population of raccoons is not even dented by the ones we trapped, and at $130.00 to lay the traps and $70.00 for each raccoon caught, to trap them all will put us in bankruptcy. We are going to try a motion activated sprinkler to keep him off the deck at night.... I'll let you all know how that works!
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Watered Garden
I wonder if pepper spray on the little guy would help discourage him.
WG
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JavaJane
So far the motion activated sprinkler has proved to be a good deterrant for the raccoon. It's been up for a week, and the feeder hasn't been drained yet!
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sirguessalot
how cool,JJ...a motion activated sprinkler...
some possible long-term solutions to consider...
- grow something very thorny around the base of the hummingbird feeder. Hawthorn, for example (an edible/medicinal).
- or ditch the feeder and simply grow something that attracts hummingbirds instead. Clematis, for example..or something from this list...and an extra bonus if it is also edible/medicinal.
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JavaJane
Thanks, Sir Guess... I have also heard that raccoons don't like cucumbers... Next year I will probably plant those at the base of the feeder and let them use the stake as a trellis. I have planted a lot of flowers that the hummingbirds love, and now that they are open they are enjoying those as well as the feeder. I so enjoy my hummingbirds - they have no fear at all... Yesterday I was outside on the deck where the feeder is and they were feeding less than 18 inches away from me... and then they started dueling. Such little warriors!!!
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