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Gardening


Gracii Guns

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Use this thread to discuss anything you're growing… whether that is a houseplant, cress for your sandwiches, a garden, or substances of variable licitness depending on your jurisdiction.

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We moved into a house with a garden a year ago. The first garden I have to look after. I spent last year managing to keep on top of the weeds and mowing the lawn, but this year I want to make it look good. I'm going to try to commit an afternoon a week to this, though that sounds like a vain hope.

Here is my garden in October. Would love to get that lawn a more vibrant colour, but the apple tree overshadows it. 

Would like to discuss gardening with someone who knows what they're talking about. I figured a Guns N' Roses forum would be the best place on the internet to find that person. :lol:

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What a gorgeous garden and back yard!  Are these compost bins or rain water collection, something else maybe?

I keep some house plants, grow herbs indoors and I start seedlings indoors too (with random attempts at greens and veggies indoors sometimes).  And I have some food gardens out doors. Id like to grow a few flowering plants strictly for their beauty but havent yet.  I'm dependant on my smart phone and a radio program for directions.

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12 minutes ago, soon said:

What a gorgeous garden and back yard!  Are these compost bins or rain water collection, something else maybe?

I keep some house plants, grow herbs indoors and I start seedlings indoors too (with random attempts at greens and veggies indoors sometimes).  And I have some food gardens out doors. Id like to grow a few flowering plants strictly for their beauty but havent yet.  I'm dependant on my smart phone and a radio program for directions.

Compost bin at the back, water butt at the front. Both overly large for my needs. 

I want to start some cauliflower seedlings indoors, and haven't done anything like that yet. Any general advice? Can they be kept in a fairly cold room?

Thanks for your kind words. Sadly we just rent the house, so I can't make any massive changes to the garden. I'd love a more formal lawn, so I can mow stripes into it. 

 

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I grew things in pots. At a minimum I have the major herbs growing but a few years ago experimented with broccoli, lettuce and certain other things. My grandma is a gardening (flowers) expert. I had a semi-successful attempt at weed a few years ago haha. 

If you want to know my best advice from the experience of herbal gardens/vegetables, our summers are sometimes rubbish and sun is at a premium so use clear plastic/glass panels a lot as propagaters. This probably doesn't apply to your regular domestic English flower garden. With my pots, I'd be moving them around a lot also to 'follow the sun'.

I do remember one tip from my grandma. Buy some slug repellent if you ever plant hostas! Slugs/snails love hostas and will eat them to shreds. If you have hostas in a tub, coat the tub in lubricant.

Oh yes, never plant mint in a garden. It spreads all over. Always plant mint in a tub even if you've a garden. 

PS

Seedlings in a window which gets the most sunlight.

Get propagaters, or make your own with a tray and some glass or cling film over.

Set them going on your best window.

Edited by DieselDaisy
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28 minutes ago, Gracii Guns said:

Compost bin at the back, water butt at the front. Both overly large for my needs. 

I want to start some cauliflower seedlings indoors, and haven't done anything like that yet. Any general advice? Can they be kept in a fairly cold room?

Thanks for your kind words. Sadly we just rent the house, so I can't make any massive changes to the garden. I'd love a more formal lawn, so I can mow stripes into it. 

 

With those two bins Im fully in love with that garden.  Sorry to hear you cant do much to customize it.  I bet you'll get the grass to your liking though.

I dont believe Ive grown cauliflower, but I want to assume broccoli is similar?  Ive grown broccoli. The room I started them in was actually fairly drafty.  Ideally many types of vegetable plants don't want to be cold, but some do.  Theres also the notion that in cold is how they'd germinate in nature, although we dont garden heirlooms or indigenous species often so the comparison doest always hold true.  In my case indoor was straight forward but I had to really give those broccoli some love once out doors. They were 1/4 size of store bought at harvest.

My advice would be to use grow lights to start your seedlings - some simple T5's are plenty and are incredibly energy efficient.  They wont bring most garden vegetables to maturity but are perfect for starting seedlings.  For a busy person, possibly requiring some heat boost, I would suggest a dome.  Ideally grow lights are set 2 inches above trays and then moved up as plants grow always maintaining 2 inches.  But thats not always reasonable to be so involved.  These domes are as close to set and forget as possible.  Retains moisture lessening watering demands even.  Plug them into a timer.  Easy.

Where I live there is separate rates for hydro/electricity after the business day, so I run them from 7pm-7am when its a 3rd of the rate.  The ambient light from the day time will make up the remaining ideal grow hours (14-18 depending on plant).  I notice a minimal bump in the bill, if any since by spring Im spending less time at home consuming energy.

I uses some of these as part of my set up:

 

m7OZsRgl.jpg

https://www.sunblasterlighting.com/our-products/propagation-accessories/humidity-domes/

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We bought our house 8 years ago and it has a pretty large garden. One part of the garden is constantly in a state of overgrown mess. We fix that and another gets out of control. We have done so much work. Planted grass, various forms of composting, felled down about 30 trees, built walls and fences, put up two sheds, a garage, planted bushes for berries and trees for fruits, removed bushes for berries and trees for fruits, covered parts of the garden with plastic to kill off weeds, seen the weed grow through the plastic, remove the plastic and physically harried the earth to kill off the weeds, put up glass shed for herbs and vegetables that need more warmth than your typical Norwegian summer can provide, built a large deck to have less grass to mow, built a strawberry patch to have less grass to mow, put up crates for herbs but had to remove them to a more sunnier area, fought creeping wild raspberry bushes with any means available... Just so much work. This summer we need to plant lots of bushes to cover a fence, and plant some evergreens to cover a large patch before the weeds take over (again).

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8 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

We bought our house 8 years ago and it has a pretty large garden. One part of the garden is constantly in a state of overgrown mess. We fix that and another gets out of control. We have done so much work. Planted grass, various forms of composting, felled down about 30 trees, built walls and fences, put up two sheds, a garage, planted bushes for berries and trees for fruits, removed bushes for berries and trees for fruits, covered parts of the garden with plastic to kill off weeds, seen the weed grow through the plastic, remove the plastic and physically harried the earth to kill off the weeds, put up glass shed for herbs and vegetables that need more warmth than your typical Norwegian summer can provide, built a large deck to have less grass to mow, built a strawberry patch to have less grass to mow, put up crates for herbs but had to remove them to a more sunnier area, fought creeping wild raspberry bushes with any means available... Just so much work. This summer we need to plant lots of bushes to cover a fence, and plant some evergreens to cover a large patch before the weeds take over (again).

That doesnt sound like much fun.  Must make it all the more fulfilling when you harvest some food?  My largest garden is similarity an ongoing challenge.  I first acquired it as basically a junk yard for the neighbouring gardens for many years. The junk was all buried, so there was a thick forest of weeds and then multiple layers of junk going down about 5 ft.  I cleared that on my own and had a tractor till it.  The weeds fought back hard, beating any seeds Id planted.  Minimal yields.  Next year I fought hard and had a huge bumper crop of every thing I planted.  Still have some of it. Last season I had the same thing happen as you with landscaping fabric where weeds grow through them.  In my case it's because they are root system weeds that don't require light at every point that they grow.  Also, the city moved my plot to a place where I adopted a tree and soil that hadn't been developed again.  Big job to get the weeds tree out and organic matter in.  And then we had record rains and the entire new plot was submerged.  I wait till it dries, plant my seeds and seedlings.  Another flood. A few feet of water for 2-3 weeks.  I tried once more and then called it a season for that garden.  With out warning or consent they rent me lend that the neighbouring gardens run off into.   The neighbouring garden that I amended the soil for them!  Punks!  I have mad scientists designs in my head for flooding and weed prevention this coming season.   

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When you till, you bring up all the weed seeds and they grow, try not to till.  Instead lay down a layer of cardboard and cover with your mulch.  You can dig right through it when you put in your plant.  The cardboard won't smoother your soil and it deteriorates over time.  I use 4 inches of leaf mulch.  Weeds that grow in that practically jump into my hand when I walk by.  Research your no till methods.  I don't weed because I don't have to.

I'm growing in the house this year but next year I have a whole green house!  And thanks to those pot growing busts, we have all the equipment we need.  Sorry about that but thanks.

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1 hour ago, cineater said:

When you till, you bring up all the weed seeds and they grow, try not to till.  Instead lay down a layer of cardboard and cover with your mulch.  You can dig right through it when you put in your plant.  The cardboard won't smoother your soil and it deteriorates over time.  I use 4 inches of leaf mulch.  Weeds that grow in that practically jump into my hand when I walk by.  Research your no till methods.  I don't weed because I don't have to.

 

I also like no till gardening.  In my case the soil was already broken as I had to get the trash out.  So I tilled to blend in the soil amendments that were also needed.  Didnt till since then and wont be.  If I were the only gardener the weeds would be gone.  The root systems live under the neighbours gardens and try to establish in mine too.  This from three sides plus 2 kitty corner. 

Given the glues, solvents and possibly ink that cardboard has I choose not to use it (I know Im picky that way), but I am intending to use a very similar method as you suggest, and there is wood chip mulch for free and on site so it should be good!

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it's always a thing when you need to decide when and what to prune

i've always heard, you can't do wrong with cutting off dead wood. and never cut in living material, when it's going to freeze

also, @DieselDaisy; i've gotten rid of every plant in pots. too much hassle making sure the roots don't freeze during winter. and in summer, too much work watering them.

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I have my grandmother's lilac bush.  Not a good choice for an entrance as they get really bushy and big.  Although, you might find a dwarf variety.  They don't bloom that long and after they bloom they aren't real attractive.  I would look for something with an interesting shape or cool looking foliage if you want to make a statement at an entrance.

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^^ Ah right, thanks for this; I would want something that blooms longer.  Im always prioritizing food production so my first thought was a trellis with summer squash, hops and grape vines climbing it.  But I do like a good looking flower and am trying to resist the urge to make everything food stuffs.  Beauty is its own nourishment.

Thanks for the point about the look of the foliage too!

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I know marigolds are good for that, so i grow their cousin Calendula which does the same trick while also being useful for skin health, I make an oil infusion with them.  I think my nasturtiums seem to protect tomatoes but thats just based on observation.  I also grow chamomile, feverfew, st johns wort, roses, borage and I let some of my sage go to flower.  Do any of those help with pests? I tend to grow all the flooring herbs together but I could mix them into the food gardens, like the nasturtium.  What else can I use?

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I have no skills in gardening. I wish I did. My great grandfather had a beautiful garden when my mom was little. He even had a fig tree. He had roses of all colors and other beautiful flowers.

My grandfather would plant tomatoes, corn and peppers in the summer when we lived in New York. They were so good.

I never got that gene. lol

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1 hour ago, dontdamnmeuyi2015 said:

I have no skills in gardening. I wish I did. My great grandfather had a beautiful garden when my mom was little. He even had a fig tree. He had roses of all colors and other beautiful flowers.

My grandfather would plant tomatoes, corn and peppers in the summer when we lived in New York. They were so good.

I never got that gene. lol

I dont really know how to garden either, I just google everything.  Its one of the few places in life were audacity and foolishness can produce something good, lol

Isnt fresh picked corn the best?!

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21 hours ago, cineater said:

I have my grandmother's lilac bush.  Not a good choice for an entrance as they get really bushy and big.  Although, you might find a dwarf variety.  They don't bloom that long and after they bloom they aren't real attractive.  I would look for something with an interesting shape or cool looking foliage if you want to make a statement at an entrance.

After @Oldest Goat's contribution earlier in the thread, I can only view this post as pure innuendo.

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5 hours ago, soon said:

^^ Ah right, thanks for this; I would want something that blooms longer.  Im always prioritizing food production so my first thought was a trellis with summer squash, hops and grape vines climbing it.  But I do like a good looking flower and am trying to resist the urge to make everything food stuffs.  Beauty is its own nourishment.

Thanks for the point about the look of the foliage too!

Hyacinth beans are cool for a vine, bloom all summer and you can eat the seed pods that come on at the start of fall.  The pod is a purple color.  They like full sun, all day long.  They will grow together if you don't keep them trained to their own spot.  The deer will eat the leaves but leave the vines alone.  It's good in the early life of your vegetable garden as the deer fill up on them allowing to your veggies to grow and eventually the deer move off to natural food sources in the woods and the hyacinth comes back really well.  Collect beans for next year after they have dried on the vine but before the first frost.  The beans look like oreo cookies.  All your neighbors will want it.  It's an annual so you're replanting every year.  Easy to grow.

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19 hours ago, cineater said:

Hyacinth beans are cool for a vine, bloom all summer and you can eat the seed pods that come on at the start of fall.  The pod is a purple color.  They like full sun, all day long.  They will grow together if you don't keep them trained to their own spot.  The deer will eat the leaves but leave the vines alone.  It's good in the early life of your vegetable garden as the deer fill up on them allowing to your veggies to grow and eventually the deer move off to natural food sources in the woods and the hyacinth comes back really well.  Collect beans for next year after they have dried on the vine but before the first frost.  The beans look like oreo cookies.  All your neighbors will want it.  It's an annual so you're replanting every year.  Easy to grow.

Thanks!  They are beautiful.  And food - right up my alley.  Those beans really are cool looking too.  They're perfect for me.  Are all bean plants nitrogen fixing?

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23 hours ago, Oldest Goat said:

Do any of you have experience with peace lilies? How long will it take to re-bloom? Should I cut them off or does that hurt it?

Fucking peace lilies. :)  If you kill yours I've got them.  I don't know about the blooms.  It might be a light related thing.  Please do not give plants for funerals, they all end up at my place.

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