Gardeners of AW, unite

s6--you should have posted a coffee alert. Now I have to clean off my keyboard. Too funny!

Hey, I'm back. I've dug the manure out from under my fingernails and I am the proud mother of 4 raised beds full of potatoes, broccoli, onions- red & yellow, lettuces of all kinds...and I'm waiting for the peas, carrots and beets to make an appearance.

Building a 5th bed for the tomatoes...and so far the organic deer repellent made from peppermint oil is working great.....I'f still putting up fencing around the beds.

7 blueberry bushes. 3 of them are those new 'Pink Lemonade' blueberries.

I want to post some pics but I am still figuring out how to.

I'm honestly not following you, Stormie!

mrsmig, how many hours of sunlight does that location get? Do you only want shrubs or tall perennials?

We've finally got our garden in. Sunday we'll be putting in the corn and squash. We're doing double this year since next year is the year of release and the land needs to lay fallow.

I'm not sure how dry your soil is, but I consulted my mother who works in the garden department at Home Depot for options. She says the ground probably isn't that dry even if the location is beneath the eaves, but perhaps it is. For shady locations she says Hostas are good or Astilbes; Ferns, Bleeding Heart; Lilly of the Valley; Tiger Lilly; Ivy; Vinca Vine; Creeping Myrtle; Forsythia; Lilac; Azalea; Rhododendron; Hydrangeas; Honeysuckle Vine; Ground Phlox; Helleborus; and Corabells.

-- That's all we got right now.

Went to the garden yesterday after work, since it was the first break in the rain we've been getting. Mushrooms everywhere. Everywhere.

My radishes are about the size of dimes (I snuck a peek). The loose leaf lettuce is coming in strongly at last, and at last I can declare the cherry tomato plant survived the frost damage. This past night was only 40, but it looks like warmer nights for the rest of the week. I'm going to be brave and put the seedlings from the window sill out, and hope for the best.

Ran into a fellow gardener while I was out there, told him about the offer of last-chance plants from one of the nurseries, the leak in the rain barrel, and all the rest. Thankfully, he thought spending this afternoon helping me with cleanup was a good way to pass the day. We'll put some work in together this afternoon and hopefully make a dent.

Has anyone tried the vinegar/salt/dishsoap weed killer? Our garden is chemical-free by agreement with the neighbor in the next lot (we use his fence for grapes, so I'd rather not anger him) but the weeds are coming up like crazy through the mulch in the walks between the beds.

Went to the garden yesterday to find half of my onions pulled from the ground and missing, the others damaged and crooked. At first, I thought it was some sort of animal, but none of the other plants had been touched.

I began to find bits of onion greens torn off, lying scattered, and eventually the onions themselves, little things, barely big shallot-sized, thrown in the gravel on the edge of the garden.

The pack of girls from across Ferry street came running over. There's about six of them, between five and ten maybe, lots of cousins, or little sisters. They like to "help" - and by that, they like to shove trowels in the dirt and scream at one another.

They saw me with the onions, and asked if they could help with the gardening. I told them someone had hurt the onion plants, and I was sad, and asked if they knew anything about it. Lots of guilty faces. Not really a surprise.

"Kayla came over and started pulling them up and throwing them." Then they started fighting about which ones of them were friends with her. I asked if they could tell her not to do that again, because it made me sad to see my plants like that. "We told her to stop before she could pull up the other half."

So, I went from being upset I'd lost half my onions to child destruction, to grateful I had half my onions thanks to the Ferry St. Girls.

What can I give them to do that will keep the Ferry St. Girls' curious trowels out of my bed, but give them a chance to "garden"? Does anyone have any experience with building a side "children's garden"?

Worked brutally in the garden all weekend, both vegetables in the back garden, and flowers in the front-of-the-house beds. I'm maybe 80% done with getting stuff in the ground.

We had an anomalously warm dry spring, but that all changed about three days ago, with one good rainy day which cleared in the afternoon to reveal that the mountain elevations east of the city, down to under 2000 feet, were blanketed with snow. At ~600 feet elevation of my house, it was just cold rain. More of that returned today, along with gusty winds which threatened to ruin some of my plants, but fortunately, failed. Next few days are supposed to be sunny and warm.

We'll see.

caw

mrsmig said:

Came in late the other night, near midnight, and stopped to admire my little bean patch, where about fifteen little plants had grown about four inches high and were putting out their second and sometimes third sets of leaves.

Came out the next morning to find that all but five had been bitten off short. Damn deer.

Click to expand...

If you can't fence 'em out, try this: sprinkle some ground cayenne pepper on your plants. Won't hurt the plants, but I garontee the predators won't like it.

Well . . . unless maybe they are Cajun deer.

caw

If you have a dog or know of someone who does, save the shed fur and place it around the plants. Or if you can get them or yourself to pee around the garden it should help deter the deer.
Another trick I haven't tried is to string fishing line around poles near the garden. The deer walk up to it, feel the line but can't see what it is and spook.

mrsmig said:

blacbird, I tried a commercial deer repellent containing egg solids yesterday, so we'll see what happens. If that doesn't work, I'll try the cayenne. The same deer bit the top off my jalapeno plant, so it may have a taste for hot stuff!

Click to expand...

The leafy parts of the jalapeño plant aren't particularly spicy.

caw

My house is being renovated. The walls, wiring and ceiling are down to the boards. Broken lathes, plaster, nails and dust covering the floor. the porch that was just painted is a dusty mess. I tried to move the porch plants to a safe area but they are covered in dust. The house was built in 1902 so there is a lot of dust. The contractors showed up a week early so nothing was organized, we had about three hours to evacuate.

We are staying with my sister in a much larger town about 30 miles away. I have to drive to water my gardens and to check on the reno work but can't sleep there or even stay long.

The bad news: someone shot the window out of my car while it was parked on the street so I missed a couple of days of watering. The good news: (?) Rain, hail and high wind alert in my town. Not sure what happened. Hope we got a nice heavy rain but not the hail and wind. Tomorrow will see--s6

Gardeners!!! sorry, just wandered in here. I'm currently regulated to pots on the patio, but it's the best looking patio in the complex.

Tell me, how would ya'll describe the smell of "good" soil? My MC in my WIP is a gardener and I find myself thinking about gardening a lot these days. Strange questions float through my head.

I'd say that it smells like the first morning, the first morning that spring has broken. Don't worry about a lawsuit from Cat Stevens--he lifted an old Gaelic poem for his song. You might also add that blacbird has spoken!--s6

(Get it blac? Caw! Caw!)

mrsmig said:

"Good" soil smells rich and dark and moist - like coffee grounds without the coffee smell. If it has just the faintest tang of well-rotted manure, that's the best.

Click to expand...

Coffee grounds are actually very good for your garden, especially for some root vegetables such as carrots. If you do a compost pile, be sure to put your coffee grounds in it.

caw

shakeysix said:

I'd say that it smells like the first morning, the first morning that spring has broken. Don't worry about a lawsuit from Cat Stevens--he lifted an old Gaelic poem for his song. You might also add that blacbird has spoken!--s6

(Get it blac? Caw! Caw!)

Click to expand...

Waaay back in the '70s I performed with a local band, doing a lot of parodical/satirical stuff. We had fun with Cat Stevens' famous song:

Morning has broken,
So we must fix it.
You get the duct tape,
I'll find the glue . . .

caw

blacbird said:

Coffee grounds are actually very good for your garden, especially for some root vegetables such as carrots. If you do a compost pile, be sure to put your coffee grounds in it.

caw

Click to expand...

Very true.

Meanwhile, my garden is in full swing right now. Beans are coming up, potatoes are nearing harvest and I'm eating strawberries by the bucket.

My grapeleaves are turning yellow, however. Anyone know what that is? Disease? Wrong soil?

Mine is covered in dust and barely thriving because its mother is living in the next county! Love the song twist blabird--s6