Got gardening tips? Post 'em here--

[Grace]

Calling all plant growers.
Let's have a thread all about helpful hints.
What's worked, what hasn't---what you like, don't like, and why---anything and everything about veggies, fruits, herbs, flowers, shrubs, and trees!
And ask questions! I've got a few hints and questions....and plan to add/ask as I continue to learn through trial and error.

[Mycernius]

If you grow corn on the cob put a sardine or other small tinned fish in the hole before planting. It gives it a good start for the plant. The only problem is that if you do it in the garden you might have foxes digging them up to get at the fish.
Got that one from Gardners Question Time on Radio four

[Grace]

Originally Posted by Mycernius

If you grow corn on the cob put a sardine or other small tinned fish in the hole before planting. It gives it a good start for the plant. The only problem is that if you do it in the garden you might have foxes digging them up to get at the fish.
Got that one from Gardners Question Time on Radio four

I do plan to try growing a good-sized patch of corn this year...so I'll try that. There is an organic liquid fertizer called Fish Emulsion, but the smell is very strong and makes me gag.....and the time I used it, every kitty cat within 1/2 mile had to come roll in my dirt.

[Grace]

One thing I'm changing in my garden this year is the kind of green beans I plant. For the last 2 years I planted the bush variety, but I'm going to go with the vine kind this year for several reasons.

One thing is that some of the bush beans I planted started leaning over as they got bigger because their root system stays pretty shallow. Also, I didn't like that dirt would spash on them when I watered them. I did get a good crop of beans...but, (and this is the main reason I'm changing) it kills my back and my knees to have to get down there searching in and under the plants to pick the beans.

This year I want to make a long trellis with some plastic fence that I have and have the vine type beans grow up on both sides. I'm thinking that I can make either a somewhat shallow raised bed for the plants, or plant them in pots since I have lots. I think picking beans off the vines will be much easier at harvest time.

[Grace]

Here in Florida, because of our milder winter months, we probably have more bugs to deal with than places where it gets below freezing.

I've found that planting lots of marigolds around my veggie plants keeps the flying pests away. But, this past year, around late summer, I started finding little green worms that were eating up the leaves on my plants. I think they were what people around here call cabbage worms. I used Sevin Dust to get rid of them, but I had to dust them about every 10 days to keep them away. I really hate using non-organic poisons, but I am clueless about what else to use on those pesky worms.

Anyone have any ideas?

I've heard that you can make a natural liquid pesticide to spray on plants by boiling marigold blooms....but I don't know if that would work on preventing those cabbage worms from coming around.

[One-Lamb-of-God]

Originally Posted by Grace

Calling all plant growers.
Let's have a thread all about helpful hints.
What's worked, what hasn't---what you like, don't like, and why---anything and everything about veggies, fruits, herbs, flowers, shrubs, and trees!
And ask questions! I've got a few hints and questions....and plan to add/ask as I continue to learn through trial and error.

Gardening tips: Plants love beer and dish soap!
Friendly Atheist Forums &bull; View topic - Hi Everyone - we also love a garden! <----more visual and helpful times here:

Grace, nice times but rather than putting Seven Dust on your food in the garden, just go out there every day or every 2-3 days and hunt those critter down - have no pity - utterly destroy them. Just like How Israel was told by God to do with the enemies on the Promised Land - dispossess them from off the land - utterly destroy them (KJV).


Of Course in the New Covenant it's spiritual (deeds of the body - pride, strife, debate, fault finding etc.) in our heart-land. You can also spray a basil spray on the leaves and those yellow butter flies can't stand it and they just fly awayyyyyyyyyyy!

[One-Lamb-of-God]

Originally Posted by Mycernius

If you grow corn on the cob put a sardine or other small tinned fish in the hole before planting. It gives it a good start for the plant. The only problem is that if you do it in the garden you might have foxes digging them up to get at the fish.
Got that one from Gardners Question Time on Radio four

You said it Mycernius!!!

We have raised beds, but this is my in-laws Summer Garden 2007:
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k1...2007-06-23.jpg

This doesn't have to do with planting, but reaping. I called around every where today trying to find a scythe! People didn't even know what it was so I had to describe it as the thing the Grim Reaper uses *L* Guess I'm going to have to use a machete instead!

[Someday]

I've always had a small Garden, just a few vegetables to pick when the mood strikes. But this year I'm considering changing my whole attitude towards gardening.
As optimistic as I am, I am getting more than a little concerned about this recent global food scarcity. I don't doubt we will straighten this mess out, but I suspect it might be later than sooner.
My thought is this: I'm going to relandscape my yard with edible landscaping. Growing up in Pittsburgh, there were many immigrant families in our neighborhood from Italy, Greece, Ireland, and Poland. Many of them grew all kinds of foods for themselves, utilizing a large portion of their yards for everything from tomatoes to berries and small fruit trees. They had very little space, but had more than enough eating, having quite a bit left over for canning and preserving.

So I got all these pretty shrubs and flowers, making everything look appealing to the eye, but do nothing for the belly. What a waste of space! I'm not even mentioning all the ornamental grass that does nothing but beg to be mowed. More wasted space. I think I'm going to do just like those families I remember in Pittsburgh. I have a lot more yard to work with than they did. I don't have the skills they did, but it makes more sense than all these azaleas and other useless ornamentals.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Blessings

[friendly hardline atheist]

Hi Someday,

I like the idea of using the garden for growing food.

Originally Posted by Someday

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I know preciously little of gardening. One idea (you very likely already know) is to put potato peels, banana peels, dinner leftovers etc in a compost bin. And then use that to make the crops grow faster, rather than use chemical fertilizer (if you were planning to use any at all).

The idea would be to put the bin some way away from your house, as it will attract huge numbers of flies.

greets,
Peter