Gardening

[soon]

3 hours ago, cineater said:

So exciting when they start popping up out of the ground!  I always forget about the 24 hour seed soak until I'm wondering why they aren't up yet.   I don't think most of what we grow for the gardens need special seed treatment before planting.

So exciting! There are now 12 sprouts spread over all the plants except the pattypans!

. Agreed I dont think we need to soak most of what we grow. Everythings been tailored over generations to grow well for us. I find it fascinating to sometimes think about all the gardeners who have worked with nature over time to bring us these seeds we use. Like a heritage we all share.

3 hours ago, cineater said:

Plant sale is Saturday and we have plants everywhere.

Thats awesome!! Your tomatoes front and centre to obscure the lesser ones the other person grew 

Hope it goes swimmingly!

[cineater]

Good luck finding my tomatoes.  We probably have 800 or more. 

The next few days we go cooler and cloudy.  Thank god, I'm getting my ass kicked out there in 80 degree heat.

[SoulMonster]

I have had a coast sequoia growing in my window sill for a few years now. It started with seeds I picked up in California. It was getting big now so I brought it to my parents' place in the south of Norway. My father just planted the tree in his garden. With some luck, and global warming, it will survive.

[DieselDaisy]

I am semi tempted to order some cannabis seeds considering the summers we now have, but I don't think I'll bother. 

[cineater]

4 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

I have had a coast sequoia growing in my window sill for a few years now. It started with seeds I picked up in California. It was getting big now so I brought it to my parents' place in the south of Norway. My father just planted the tree in his garden. With some luck, and global warming, it will survive.

Wow, that's cool.  I hope it does survive. 

[Gracii Guns]

Feeling accomplished as I cut down a massive bramble type thing in my garden yesterday. 

One of my herbs (I think it was thyme) gave up the ghost over the winter, so now have a space for a new plant. To suit the garden, it has to be a hardy herb or fruit tree. It will be between gooseberries and sage. I'm considering a lemon thyme, but am open to suggestions. 

[Dazey]

11 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

I have had a coast sequoia growing in my window sill for a few years now. It started with seeds I picked up in California. It was getting big now so I brought it to my parents' place in the south of Norway. My father just planted the tree in his garden. With some luck, and global warming, it will survive.

If that thing grows you might need a bigger garden in a couple of decades.  

[SoulMonster]

28 minutes ago, Dazey said:

If that thing grows you might need a bigger garden in a couple of decades.  

My folks will be long dead before it gets to become a nuisance.

[Dazey]

20 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

My folks will be long dead before it gets to become a nuisance.

I'm sure they find that comforting.  

[soon]

On April 23, 2019 at 5:09 AM, DieselDaisy said:

I am semi tempted to order some cannabis seeds considering the summers we now have, but I don't think I'll bother. 

Lets be havin' you!

[DieselDaisy]

Just now, soon said:

Lets be havin' you!

I don't really smoke it though!

When I grew it a couple of years ago it was more a hobby, more a case of, ''just to see if I could'' - and yes, a tad rebellious. But I have never been much of a smoker in toto. More a pint of bitter man. 

[soon]

3 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

I don't really smoke it though!

When I grew it a couple of years ago it was more a hobby, more a case of, ''just to see if I could'' - and yes, a tad rebellious. But I have never been much of a smoker in toto. More a pint of bitter man. 

Ah, but you are a talented home cook! Some cheeky cannabutter in one of your meals?

But yeah, I hear you. And speaking of home cooking, the fresh leaves are edible and healthy. Very nutrient dense and cannot get you high - just like spinach. They work in fresh salads and stews. Fun plant to grow too!

[SoulMonster]

I once grew cannabis, too. Not to smoke the stuff, good lord no. Just to get laid.

[cineater]

Watch the manure produces you are buying at the stores.  Pasture herbicides are now showing up in those products.  http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ag416

[soon]

Thats good to know! I was planning to go manure heavy this season. I ordered a worm farm over a year ago and it hasn't arrived. Had planned to use that for 100% of amendments

[cineater]

Nooo, don't do that.  Manure increases your P which ties up micronutrients such as Iron and Zinc.  I sat in on the lecture on this last night.  We had a soil test on our lasagna garden and it came back high in P.  High P reduces the plants ability to take up nutrients and results in poor growth.  You were probably hoping for the opposite results.  Did you have poor growth last year?  If you've never had a soil test, they're cheap, you should really get one.

You only get to till a garden area once with a machine.  Were you planning on tilling all that in?

[soon]

Oh, okay. I dont understand, so never use manure? I was planning to mix it with the soil when planting seedlings and spreading it over places I seed. I will give my soil a test this year, thanks for the tip! Last year I only added organic soil and a bit of carbon sequesters. And I barely fertilized so I wanted to put in as many nutrients as I can this season. Yeah, I want huge yields!!

No, no tilling. My main garden is basically raised beds. No wooden binding on it, just dug out about 3ft high, due to flooding risk. Some parts of my garden dont look like its raised because theres no walking space between beds. But tilling would be impossible anyways.

[cineater]

Only a little bit in your compost.  But I'm more of a don't fuck with it kind of person.  Mother nature has her process, works fine and unless there is a problem I just let her do her thing.  I do cut my plants off at ground level and leave the roots in.  I do need to study up more on cover crops for the winter months.  I add stuff at the end of the growing season for the next year.  I like my soil to be settled when I put in seedlings.  Settled is not the right word but when you add stuff you get an increase in activity down there while the soil takes it all in.

I do need to tell people when I'm in class they need to stop pulling me out for garden non emergencies!  Missed part of that lecture because people had to tell me just one little thing.  Unless we're being overrun by a herd of deer, it can wait.  My plan for the deer attack is car horns, lol.

[soon]

3 hours ago, cineater said:

Only a little bit in your compost.  But I'm more of a don't fuck with it kind of person.  Mother nature has her process, works fine and unless there is a problem I just let her do her thing.  I do cut my plants off at ground level and leave the roots in.  I do need to study up more on cover crops for the winter months.  I add stuff at the end of the growing season for the next year.  I like my soil to be settled when I put in seedlings.  Settled is not the right word but when you add stuff you get an increase in activity down there while the soil takes it all in.

Thats a sound philosophy. A biodynamic model would say 'but, yes, animals walking about and pooping is part of mother natures process' but we aren't gardening in that reality. I know my bed will need more inputs this year - theyve been rather starved even while serving heavy feeders like corn. Im gonna try replenishing nutrients in autumn, thanks! It mimics the natural cycle!!

I cant do cover crops because the land needs to be 'flat' by November as per the land use agreement. If I could I would do Oats, because you can harvest the green "Milky oat tips" before the end of the season while keeping the majority of the plant intact to do its overwintering job. Dried milky oat tips are incredibly nutritious. Can be used as tea and supports the muskoskeletal system of the body (not the bones or skin, but like all the other stuff lol). 

3 hours ago, cineater said:

I do need to tell people when I'm in class they need to stop pulling me out for garden non emergencies!  Missed part of that lecture because people had to tell me just one little thing.  Unless we're being overrun by a herd of deer, it can wait.  My plan for the deer attack is car horns, lol.

I cant remember which but either Meadowsweet, Angelica or Sweet Cicely repel deer. Ive been reading up on all three lately. Whichever one it is is said to be very successful in repelling deer. Worth a google. 

Car horns should work too 

[cineater]

I was a big fan of poop until the last couple of weeks when we started getting lectured on the high phosphorus content and the pasture herbicides.  I'm not entirely convinced the the high phosphorus and manure is that big of a problem.  That bed has been high since it was built in 2009 and the plants in there do great.  But at that time we were 32% organic matter and now it's down to 11%.  I thought the plants in there looked kind of weak last year but they tell me no.  And the P should have gone down by the 5th year so why is it still high.  Of course I don't know what has been added over the years.  People have used manure for years and I've heard nothing about it being a source of a this kind of problem.

Maybe you could talk to the land use agreement people about the value of a cover crop but they are probably only concerned with how it looks during the winter.  Of course you could tell them the birds like it and people might put up with the mess to bird watch.

[soon]

This is interesting about the manure 'debate.' Ive never used it all that much but carried the understanding that it was common. And I know some people swear by rotted manure. But along the lines of what you were saying earlier; I never needed it before - things do seem to grow no matter what, within reason. 

My fertilizing schedule might make some gardeners laugh or cry. Other then my homemade bone meal I just buy what ever organic fertilizer is on sale and I feed it to whatever plants it applies to. Until the next sale for the other plants/ ratios. Its always worked fine. Except for last years fennel never really took off. Maybe it needed an early boost and some extra TLC.

I might try and talk to the landholder again. I dont have the impression that birds, kittens or babies are their thing. I might speak to the added value a cover crop brings to the soil. If I can present that as $$$$ then maybe.

Cin, your plant sale is tomorrow - y'all must be running around like a chicken with your heads cut off!!?

[cineater]

Took us 6 hours to set up today.  I did get a new interesting plant, Toothache.  The Indians used it for mouth pain but it looks like an eyeball on a stick.  We sold to ourselves, family and friends tonight, doubled last years sales.  But now I have my plants I just want to stay home and garden. 

[soon]

Sounds like it went really well!!!!

I know Toothache as "Spilanthes" and have been growing it too! Just a handful of seeds left over for this year!! Its neat looking and its effects are powerful. I know that some cultures cook with the leaves and I just cant imagine it, because it makes you drool, lol. As a toothache remedy I found that a tincture worked better then the fresh botanicals. Because you drool so much wth the botanicals that you cant hold them up to the pain very easily and eventually they will fall out with the drool . But a dab of tincture on a Qtip cuts the pain without turning on the water works.

Could by a fun prank when hosting people for tea? 

Edited April 27, 2019 by soon

[soon]

On April 24, 2019 at 8:36 AM, SoulMonster said:

I once grew cannabis, too. Not to smoke the stuff, good lord no. Just to get laid.

And it was also a good opportunity to make charts and graphs to monitor its growth, right? 

[SoulMonster]

2 hours ago, soon said:

And it was also a good opportunity to make charts and graphs to monitor its growth, right? 

It would have been, sure. I went through a orchid craze some years and then I did work out stats for each plant, noting down how frequently they blossomed and with how many flowers. Then they all got some parasite and my orchid period ended.