This is just barely over a week since we planted these seeds:



The larger seedlings are zucchini, next smallest is silver queen corn, next is Celebrity tomatoes.

Then on the other side we've got this really leggy looking romaine and brussel sprouts and cauliflower. The unsprouted ones are hot peppers and California green wonder peppers. Not sure if the last two just take a lot longer to sprout?

They haven't been outside yet, and don't have a North-south window at all. They've had a lamp over them all weekend which is when they did their growing. Will getting them some son help the leggy ones? They're starting to fall over because they're too tall.

[Edited on April 2, 2013 at 2:52 AM. Reason : f]

4/2/2013 2:51:26 AM

hopefully gonna till up my space and get some sprouted plants in the ground in the next week or two. With that being said, does anyone have a tiller or want to split the cost to rent one with me? If you have one you will let me use, I'll pick up, drop off and give you $20 cash and fill it with gas when I'm done. If you want to split a rental, I only need it for 30 minutes b/c I am tilling up a 4X8 area. Located convenient to anywhere in Raleigh.

I used to be able to talk the lady at Burke Bros into letting me rent one for 2 hours for $20 as opposed to 4 hours for $45 but if I get one of the old fellas on the phone, they ain't got no time for that.

4/2/2013 2:54:16 AM

Garden/yard will be transformed after this week. Went nuts yesterday at the local nursery. Will post pictures when everything gets nice and grown...but got all of the herbs and some tomatoes and peppers. Also splurged and repurchased a little lemon tree. We had one for two years, but my dumbass stuck a fertilizer stick in a potted plant...it hit a root and killed it within two days. I was on the verge of tears.

Getting two pallets of bermuda in on Thursday to re-sod the entire lawn. Large dog messed it up over the winter.

One of our loquat saplings is producing a crazy amount of fruit. We're digging those suckers up and taking them with us if we ever move.

[Edited on April 2, 2013 at 10:09 AM. Reason : .]

4/2/2013 10:08:40 AM

I stepped up my deer protection substantially over the weekend. Still not done, but you get the idea:

4/2/2013 11:05:14 AM

just tilled our raised beds, and i think i'm gonna make the trek to my nursery to go ahead and get my seedlings. i will probably wait to plant until this weekend since our nights will get cool, but at least i'll have them.

4/2/2013 12:23:49 PM

I've got some collards, choy, and broccoli that I planted last fall that is still going strong. I also planted some more of that, and kale, beets and leeks about a month ago. The new plants are alive and well, but haven't grown much.

Plan to till my other garden this week and hopefully palnts some peppers/tomatoes/okra seedlings next week (still supposed to get in the 30s and 40s through Saturday). I'm also trying to start some seeds indoors but not having too much luck, except with the okra. After reading a post above, I'll probably put a lamp directly on them. Any other tips on getting seeds started?

4/2/2013 1:18:55 PM

my haul today at Tarheel Nursery for $48. the raised beds will get the tomatoes (roma, cherry and better boys), peppers (bell, banana, and jalapeno) and basil. marigolds to keep the pests away.

4/2/2013 6:23:56 PM

Marigolds keep the pests away? Good to know. I looked into that once but never followed through, usually just use beer trap and "organic" pesticide.

4/2/2013 6:31:50 PM

Marigolds are supposed to keep Mosquitos away.

4/2/2013 7:23:18 PM

yep. and aphids and hornworms. marigolds are a great companion plant for veggie gardens. rosemary and lemongrass will also repel mosquitos.

4/2/2013 7:59:49 PM

^ this

4/2/2013 8:45:45 PM

I started planting borage after seeing horn worms destroy my crops one year. 3 years later I have not seen one horn worm. Coincidence or not. Borage is at the top of my list to plants in my garden. Everything else gets planted around borage.

4/2/2013 11:01:46 PM

Does anyone have or have access to a Japanese Maple by chance? I am looking to find some cuttings in order how to learn how to propagate them before I attempt to propagate my grandmother's Japanese Maple.

4/5/2013 11:46:05 AM

does anyone know what the trees are that are blooming right now that have the bright lavender flowers? they are smallish ornamental trees, maybe 12-15' in height, darker colored bark IIRC.

that may not narrow it down enough, but I'm looking for a nice ornamental tree to plant front and center in my front lawn...

4/7/2013 9:59:43 AM

crape myrtle?

4/7/2013 10:08:47 AM

^^I actually asked the same question a week ago up here (VA) and was informed that it is a species of pear tree. I don't know if that's correct, but it might be a place to start looking.

4/7/2013 10:41:11 AM

Bradford pear?

4/7/2013 11:02:53 AM

Bradford pear is white.

4/7/2013 11:34:31 AM

Crab apple?
Royal paulownia?

Crepe myrtles bloom in the summer.

Got all of my veggie seedlings in the ground yesterday and potted my containers. Had a soaker hose crack over winter, so I had to get a new one. That one had a leak so I took it back, annnnnd bought elephant ear bulbs for our back patio.

I really shouldn't go to lowes alone during spring

[Edited on April 7, 2013 at 12:57 PM. Reason : ]

4/7/2013 12:47:39 PM

thanks, believe it or not, i googled "purple pear tree" and ended up finding out that it's the Eastern Redbud tree

4/7/2013 8:54:50 PM

BrickTop, If you're shopping for redbuds this fall (ahem!), make sure to go for an improved variety or hybrid. Wild-variety trees are very fragile and slow-growing, and don't tolerate full sun. There are nice oriental/hybrid specimens on the NCSU campus of more robust varieties, especially around the old physics building and another kind planted around Gorman St. around E.S. King village.

Other nice small trees to consider would be Magnolia × soulangeana (saucer magnolia) and star magnolia (M. stellata). Saucer magnolia cultivars come in various sizes, the larger, fast-growing varieties can reach up to 30 feet or so. Star magnolia grows much more slowly and stays smaller as a general rule.


Another slow-er grower is Kousa dogwood. It blooms about a month later than the indigenous dogwood species, and it is arguably more showier and the bracts are longer lasting. I'm also a fan of deciduous pink dogwoods, especially if you have shade.

One more lovely large shrub/small tree to consider is Smoketree, especially the purple variety. There is a native species you can look for, but the european species is more ornamental (and comes in a purple-leaved variety). These trees are great because they specifically tolerate dry, poor soil. They get covered with out-of-this world fluffy-looking flowers that really look like clouds of smoke, varying between pink-grey to dark burgundy to red in color, in late/spring early summer.


The last tree I'll mention is one of my favorite native trees, Red buckeye, Aesculus pavia. It's a slow-growing tree that stays quite small, with very interesting leaves and beautiful red flowers. The fruits can be a bit annoying to deal with, though improved varieties do not set much fruit. If a 12-15 foot tree sounds too small, you can opt for the horse chestnut hybrid, Aesculus × carnea "Briotii"


For HockeyRoman: here's a tutorial on t-bud grafting. you can practice with lots of shrubs, but it doesn't take but one or two branches from the tree to make several attempts. typically these projects take a couple years to set up due to growing out some rootstocks, unless you are going to buy some that are ready to go. http://courses.nres.uiuc.edu/hort100/tutorials/t-bud_grafting/08.htm

4/8/2013 10:46:33 AM

Goddamn, some brisk wind wiped out half or more of my seedlings. They were kind of leggy from not having a great start.

Oh well, might be visiting a nursery soon.

4/8/2013 2:48:59 PM

^^ yeah i was probably going to wait for fall, thanks for that info.

isn't there a type of ornamental plum tree, has dark leaves, pinkish/purplish flowers? if so, I like that one. they stay kind of medium sized IIRC

I'm trying to put ALOT of thought into this tree selection. my front yard had three really ugly oak trees that I had cut down for several reasons that I won't go into. but now my front lawn is just ballin out, and (IMO) is the best on the block. so I want a tree that will help fill that void left by the former oak trees, but not one that will go crazy and be a challenge for my grass (too much shade and/or water requirements, etc).

4/9/2013 6:49:28 AM

my current house has some purple plums, and they are kinda big and ugly and need a lot more pruning than they received before i bought the place. would not recommend lol

4/10/2013 8:30:42 PM

I already have tomato blossoms and buds on some of my plants (the cherry and Roma), which is far earlier than I'm used to, especially when they're all still 8" to 1' tall. Do you pinch buds that show this early or let them be? I'm seeing different opinions with a brief search on gardening boards.

4/15/2013 12:20:43 PM

I went away for 5 days and my spring garden exploded everywhere (as well as my yard). Arugula grew like 6 inches, onions up, kale, radishes and lord knows what else also up.

I gave up on my seedlings, so I'll be sucking it up and buying transplants in 3 weeks.

4/17/2013 9:01:27 AM

Got a lot of transplants in the ground. Couople types of tomatoes, several types of bell peppers, jalapeno, chili and pimentos peppers, squash. I've got some seeds going to transplant soon: cucumbers, okra, banana peppers, sweet peppers... I'm getting excited.

4/17/2013 9:34:01 AM

Can anyone identify this? It's small sesame seed looking objects on some plants. They were also all over my rain barrel until the rain washed most of them off. I've tried googling "sesame seed eggs on plants" and all I'm getting is how to plant sesame seed plants.

4/20/2013 5:05:57 PM

probably some type of caterpillar/butterfly egg?

4/20/2013 5:14:28 PM

hoverfly (Syrphid) eggs?

4/20/2013 5:22:04 PM

^ that would be awesome if they were!

From GIS they appear to look more like hoverfly eggs than caterpillar eggs.

4/20/2013 5:34:16 PM

I have ants eating the leaves of my zucchini plants. Never used any kind of pesticide... guess I'll have to look into that.

4/20/2013 10:19:48 PM

fill up a spray bottle with water and vinegar to kill the ants you see. won't hurt the foliage, especially if you spray before first thing in the morning

if you locate the ant hill, sprinkle some baking soda on the mound and a little around the base of your plants

4/20/2013 10:47:34 PM

Huh, never heard of either of those solutions, will try immediately. How diluted should the vinegar be?

4/22/2013 12:43:40 AM

We've bought three loquat saplings over the years and we had one that gave us a small bowl of fruit last year, but we have one little tree that is giving us a ton of fruit this year!

Here is a pic of a "bunch" that is on the tree. We probably have about 12-15 of these bunches on this one small tree (I'd say it's about 6-feet tall). We LOVE loquats. They are pretty small and you need a few to get a decent amount of fruit, but they are tasty and their trees look great.



And here are a few we picked and snacked on on Sunday:



[Edited on April 30, 2013 at 5:09 PM. Reason : .]

4/30/2013 4:57:33 PM

What do you use them for? I thought they were bitter?

4/30/2013 5:06:54 PM

Eat them.

I tend to think they are like a pear/apple combo. Wiki says this:

Quote :

" The succulent, tangy flesh is white, yellow or orange and sweet to subacid or acid, depending on the "

4/30/2013 5:08:15 PM

Oh ok. Never had them, and didn't know what they look like inside. I always thought they were in the orange family.

4/30/2013 5:10:44 PM

looks like warm weather is here. about to start getting some veggies!

5/10/2013 1:05:57 PM

All my cucumbers and squash have died


Tomatoes are growing well and it looks like I will have a bunch of volunteer tomatoes coming up.

5/10/2013 1:13:48 PM

how'd they die? were they infested with that caterpillar/worm that bores in the stems of squash/zuchinni/cucumbers (i forogt what they're called)? that's happened to me every year, but i usually get some veggies before it gets them. i'm really gonna try to not let it happen this year.

5/10/2013 1:18:50 PM

Bought all my plants last weekend but the rain kept me from getting them planted. It's supposed to be nice on Sunday, so fingers crossed I will have everything in the ground this weekend.

5/10/2013 1:19:08 PM

Vine Borer (squash and other gourds
http://www.bhg.com/gardening/pests/insects-diseases-weeds/stop-squash-vine-borers-in-your-garden/

[Edited on May 10, 2013 at 1:25 PM. Reason : ]

5/10/2013 1:25:31 PM

^ those hit me pretty hard 2 years ago. One day my plants were huge and thriving, the next day they were dead.

Last year I used lime and it helped tremendously. I am sure they make other chemicals to treat them, but I have bee hives so I have to be very careful with what pesticides I use. Plus I try to keep everything as organic as possible.

[Edited on May 10, 2013 at 1:33 PM. Reason : a]

5/10/2013 1:30:12 PM

Yep...big yard/gardening days coming up this weekend. Kind of looking forward to it.

5/10/2013 2:17:18 PM

The Wedge Garden over behind the YMCA on Hillsborough is looking for volunteers
to help out in the AM time on two projects. You will be
fed Samosas with mimosas if you rsvp. See blog link: http://thewedgegarden.blogspot.com/

[Edited on May 10, 2013 at 3:11 PM. Reason : too long]

5/10/2013 3:10:44 PM

^Haha I was about to come post looking for something like this. Imma RVSP for this.

5/10/2013 7:26:35 PM

Plants in the ground,
Plants in the ground,
Lookin' really cool,
Wit' my plants in the ground.

5/13/2013 10:36:26 AM

GIVING AWAY FOR FREE!!!!

I read that a few folks were curious about worm composting. I have my setup that I won't be able to use for the next two years and would like to gift it to a fellow wolfwebber.

It's two medium rubbermade containers with the holes drilled in. I will even give you the rest of my block of coconut shavings to get started with. The only thing not included are the worms.

I live in Cary and am available everyday until around 2:00. Just hit me up with a PM if interested. Thanks!

5/13/2013 3:20:55 PM

PM SENT!

5/13/2013 3:27:19 PM