Quote :

"I am actually thinking of putting these plants into the beds and am excited about getting big beautiful rosemary bushes. "

don't waste space in the beds with all that nice compost! dunno about sage but rosemary is a hardy Mediterranean plant and does well in poor soil. In fact, many herbs are tastier when grown in poor soil. it'll grow slower but the leaves will have a more concentrated flavor. of course if you are growing the plant for looks rather than cooking, then do whatever suits your fancy

5/5/2009 5:36:39 PM

I had a rosemarry bush at my last place that lived in red clay with no fertilizer ever. When I sold the place, it was taking up about about a 4 ft diameter space and provided me with all the seasoning (for roasted potatoes that we do at least once a week) I needed. It survived winters no prob. In my current hood, there are multiple homes that are using it as an ornament it seems and the bushes are MASSIVE.

I currently have one in a pot I planted last year that I'll probably move at some point in the near future to a fixed place in the ground.

5/5/2009 5:44:54 PM

I got 3 kinds of tomatoes (Roma, Better Boy, and Mr. Stripey) and yellow and red sweet peppers.

5/5/2009 8:34:21 PM

^ did you plant your tomatoes deep? wondering b/c they look kind of tall. you should bury about 1/3 of the stem when you plant it. the stem will grow roots out to the side that stabilize the plant.

5/5/2009 9:00:36 PM

^^your plants look fine. dont listen to nerdchick.

5/5/2009 9:04:05 PM

when, I get more dirt, I'll put some in.

I've been using my pet's poop for fertilizer. We'll see if it makes these things grow faster.

5/5/2009 9:10:25 PM

if your pet is a rabbit, then good for you! but every gardening book I've read says not to use dog/cat/human poop in a compost pile. these poops carry diseases that are hard to get rid of. definitely don't just mix in poop without composting first. those are small pots and you're planning to eat those tomatoes!!

5/5/2009 9:56:18 PM

oops, yeah its a rabbit. That's kind of an important piece of information. I thought I typed rabbit, but apparently not.

5/5/2009 11:32:25 PM

We set up a hydroponic system in our office. pictures to come.

question though, we have a bean plant that's just starting to produce beans. if we pick them, will it continue to produce, or die?

5/6/2009 1:50:13 PM

ok, I don't have a container garden but I have a really big regular garden. so a question for the gardening experts. My tomato plants are yellowish and I was wondering what was causing this. The entire garden is in the sun all day, and I water it with a drip hose every other evening at dusk. My guess is that it is either too much water or too little water. any suggestions? everything else in my garden (cucumbers, peppers, zuchini, and a few other things that I don't even remember) looks great.

5/6/2009 2:44:20 PM

^ could be nitrogen deficiency. what are you fertilizing with?

5/6/2009 2:47:12 PM

^ 10/10/10 for plants and veggies. 10% nitrogen, I think.

and I just fertilized on Sunday

[Edited on May 6, 2009 at 3:00 PM. Reason : a]

5/6/2009 2:54:37 PM

We're having some trouble with bugs eating our basil. We have tomatoes, peppers and various herbs planted, but the only thing that is being eaten it the basil. Does anyone have any recommendation on what to use to keep them off? If it matters I can go take a picture to show what the damage looks like.

5/6/2009 3:01:24 PM

Deer completely destroyed my first crop of herbs about a week after I planted them. So I put up my "anti-deer enforcement system" and replanted. They are doing well now.

ps: my anti-deer enforcement system consists of sticks with aluminum pie pans attached to them. Also I piss around the garden as often as possible. sounds funny, but the shit works.

pps: I live on 7 acres.

5/6/2009 3:09:05 PM

djeternal, my basil and tomatoes were turning yellow and after fertilizing they improved. Did you use the pellets that you sprinkle around? that kind takes a while to be absorbed. I used the water-soluble kind from Miracle Gro (18-18-21) and the plants improved in just a few days. you may have to wait for the fertilizer to take effect.

unfortunately, yellowing leaves are symptoms of overwatering and underwatering! if the ground is too dry the plant will also wilt. so if the leaves are yellow but not accompanied by wilt in the whole plant, then there's probably enough water. overwatering causes the younger leaves to yellow first, sometimes accompanied by the appearance of rotting.

you could try digging down a few inches to see if the roots are healthy and check the soil moisture. depending on your conditions you may not need to water once a day.

5/6/2009 5:16:10 PM

oops double post

[Edited on May 6, 2009 at 5:20 PM. Reason : oops]

5/6/2009 5:19:55 PM

Mine are healthy otherwise, just yellow. I used the pellets. My girl's dad has a farm so he brought us a big bag of the industrial shit. I will just hang in there and see what happens. Thanks for the help.

We turned the garden before we planted so the soil was pretty moist, but we have been watering every other night since it has been so dry. Now that we have gotten all this rain the past couple days we probably won't water for a while.

[Edited on May 6, 2009 at 5:44 PM. Reason : a]

5/6/2009 5:43:35 PM

I don't need any yellow squash- but thanks for the offer, Green Jay. I'm choosing not to grow it because 1)I don't like yellow squash that much and 2) for some reason the borers that ate my squash last year left my zucchini and canteloupe alone.

Anyone have any experience with berries? I might put some black and blueberry bushes in this fall.

5/6/2009 8:13:23 PM

canteloupe! Dammit, what a great idea. Is it too late for me to plant that?

5/6/2009 8:33:35 PM

I always heard it was better to water in the morning, before the sun gets high so the plant has all that moisture available during the day to do its thing. Watering at night I've heard can cause mold type issues and other nasty things. But GREEN JAY is definitely the authority here, so defer to them.

5/6/2009 8:34:09 PM

You can plant canteloupe right now still from established plants- just remember they are a
vining melon and will grow obnoxiously. You need to provide them with an A-frame or some sort of trellis, so they can grow unimpeded and the melons won't be damaged. My melons were roughly 6-7 inches in diameter- small but very sweet.

5/6/2009 8:36:50 PM

^^ and see, I heard the opposite. I heard that watering in the morning is a waste of water, because when the sun comes out it evaporates a great portion of the water from the soil. that's coming from my girlfriend's dad, who has been farming all his life

^ I have he a-frames, so I will get some established plants from the Farmer's Market tomorrow.

5/6/2009 8:42:37 PM

^^ and see, I heard the opposite. I heard that watering in the morning is a waste of water, because when the sun comes out it evaporates a great portion of the water from the soil. that's coming from my girlfriend's dad, who has been farming all his life

^ I have he a-frames, so I will get some established plants from the Farmer's Market tomorrow.

5/6/2009 8:42:37 PM

I'm by no means an expert

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/hortihints/0108a.html

Quote :

"The best time of day to water is early morning before the temperatures begin to rise. This gives the plants a good supply of water to face the heat of the day. Early morning also tends to be a time of lower winds and thus reduced evaporation. If watering cannot be done in the early morning, very late afternoon is also satisfactory. It is important to water early enough so that the leaves have time to dry before nightfall to avoid development of fungal diseases. If possible, choose watering methods that will not wet the leaves (such as soaker hoses) and thus allow for late evening watering. "

5/6/2009 8:51:40 PM

hmmmmmmmmm, very interesting.

5/6/2009 8:52:51 PM

eh, i have found that it doesnt really matter when you water that much, especially for container gardens. they dry out so fast will probably have to water almost daily (maybe 2x a day if it gets above 95) so the most important thing is that they are sufficiently moist constantly. it doesnt matter what time it is if they are wilted, just water them immediately. i know with a lot of our containers it is difficult to keep the leaves from getting wet, but use a regular hose with a low flow and poke it down through the plants to the soil before you turn it on. this will make sure you are actually watering the plant and it isnt just rolling off the foliage. actually, at one of my former apartments i had a bad earwig problem, so i took to watering at night to knock them off and kill them. I`m still waiting on my camera, but i have a lot of great pics coming soon!


djeternal, if you could post a pic that would help me diagnose it a lot. there are several different types of yellowing and all of them are indicative of different problems.

[Edited on May 6, 2009 at 9:40 PM. Reason : ]

5/6/2009 9:38:23 PM

I will get a pic tomorrow when the sun comes up. They were perfect last year and we did them the same way, so I have no clue wtf is up this year

5/6/2009 9:49:51 PM

^^^seriously?

5/6/2009 10:05:09 PM

this is The Lounge, right?

5/6/2009 10:17:06 PM

gonna need that pic djeternal! hehehe.


Anti: for blueberry bushes, you need at least 2 different varieties so they can cross pollinate. Rabbit eye types are more prolific in the south and can take summer heat better, but highbush types are sweeter, bluer and more delicious. dont mess with lowbush, they only thrive in michigan, maine and canada and you have to kneel to pick them anyway. there is a new hybrid called southern highbush you might want to try as well. so, make sure to plant a happy balance there. dont forget, blueberries are bushes of wet, rich woods, but they`ll do better with at least part sun. they can be sensitive to leaf scald, so only 6-8 hours of full sun is optimal. they require acid soils, of ph 4.8-5.5. you should start working on acidifying your soil now with lime and powdered sulphur, and working in lots of organic matter so the soil is uniformly rich and moist but well-drained. take a soil sample and send it off before you plant your bushes. good preparation will really make the difference here, but its worth it since you might not see a crop for 2-3 years otherwise.


i`ll write later about my experiences with blackberries, the thornless varieties are a bit finicky but worth dealing with for the humongous berries. they are also very slow growers.

5/7/2009 11:25:17 AM

yeah, I was running late as shit this morning so I didn't get it. I will try to get one before it gets dark tonight when I get home

5/7/2009 3:45:16 PM

I've been growing some basil and some green peppers and started getting some small holes in the leaves. It started with the basil and now has begun on the green peppers. I did notice some small gnat looking bugs on them, not sure if they are the culprits or not. Any ideas what could be causing these or what I can do? Are the leaves with holes in them a total loss?? Hopefully I can get up some pictures later tonight...

Also, I apologize for the lack of knowledge. This is my first season growing but I have enjoyed it.

5/7/2009 5:25:14 PM

Hey I got a helluva strange quandry. I planted 18 hostas last weekend in some new flowerbeds I made.

Today I came home from work and much to my shock one of the hostas is just gone. It was a quart sized plant, so it was probably a dozen or more leaves on it and wasn't just a little baby. I looked around and found no evidence of the plant whatsoever. When I looked around the spot that it once resided, I felt a hole under it that ran out from where we planted it. It was a small hole though, probably no bigger than 2 fingers, so much too small to pull this plant through. So WTF did this and how did it make the plant disappear? Also how do I protect the rest of my bed??

5/7/2009 7:07:53 PM

rabbits or deer is my guess

5/7/2009 9:54:51 PM

^^^ Did they look like this?

5/7/2009 10:15:41 PM

I'm having the same issue as BJ with 1 of my Bonnie Green Bells. I see some weird gnat/fly combos on them, the wings seem to be a little iridescent. Haven't gotten around to seeing what these guys were.

5/7/2009 10:17:05 PM

^^ Yes, i think there were a few of those buggers on there around lunch time today. Also, there were some gnat things flying around them too. Not sure what exactly is eating away at my leaves but it makes for one....sad.....BJsRumRunner

5/7/2009 11:41:32 PM

Might be aphids. Their adult forms are the gnat looking things. I hate those buggers

If you fill a spray bottle with some soapy water made out of



you can shoot the buggers off and drench the plant with the castile soap and mint to deter them. They also sell chemicals to get rid of them but I'm assuming since you want to eat this basil you'll want to try something less harsh first.

5/7/2009 11:47:14 PM

you might have this guy eating your plants:





earwigs come out at night and chew plants. they can easily snip newly sprouted plantlets off at the ground and cause some pretty serious damage to your plants. they like to hide in small cracks like cockroaches, so look in cracks around your planters and decks are havens for them. the only thing i found that worked is heavily soaking the plant with insecticidal soap regularly and trying to catch and kill as many of them as you can by hunting them at night. you can make traps (google will help you there) but i never had a lot of luck with those. I hate them!

5/8/2009 2:01:00 AM

oh those motherfuckers...

i've killed about 10 so far


what about ants?

5/8/2009 2:05:59 AM

^^I always wondered what those bugs were called

5/8/2009 2:33:37 AM

Howdo people grow up not knowing what an earwig is?

5/8/2009 2:51:50 AM

^

5/8/2009 2:54:39 AM

I had never seen one until a few years ago. Nobody around at the time knew what it was.

5/8/2009 3:49:34 AM

I always called them pincher bugs, so I didn't know what they were called 'til a couple years ago.

5/8/2009 8:52:58 AM

i've lived in the south all my life, and in the country for the better first 18 or so years, and have never seen an earwig. what is the relative scale of the pic?




i sprayed everything down with this stuff and near about killed everything. I bought it at the local garden store, i didn't think it would do any harm. I went back and read the really fine print and it says do not spray on young plants. oops. anyway, just a warning. it all looks like its starting to recover, except for the thyme. i'll probably have to pull that out and plant something else tomorrow.

5/8/2009 8:59:24 PM

i killed a very large earwig a couple days ago that was nomming one of my casablanca lilies. it was about 1.5 inches long. i did try to provoke it to pinch one of my house keys with its pincers, it was surprisingly strong! dont get on the wrong end of one of those things.


while it can be distressing to have insects consuming the fruits of your labors and marring the beauty of your plants, try to take it easy and get some enjoyment from finding out what you have.

small beetles are also a likely candidate for small, irregularly shaped holes. small instar caterpillars can also do a surprising amount of damage, reducing leaves to the few large veins and creating very, very irregularly shaped damaged. if you have dill, fennel, carrot, parsley, queen annes lace, or other related plants, you will undoubtedly get a few swallowtail butterfly catterpillars by summers end. they are very recognizable:






those of you with tomatos or ornamental nicotiana will probably see a few tomato or tobacco hornworms. they are cool little guys, and they can eat a lot of tomato leaves, but i`ve never had them strip a plant so bad it wouldnt make tomatoes anymore.


this guy turns into the five-spotted sphinx moth:

this moth is active at night, but very closely related to the beautiful and enchanting hummingbird hawk moth.







if you see large, very smooth, round or ellipsoid holes like this:





they are made by leaf-cutter bees. these bees are the best pollinators of the insect world and they line their nests with leaf cutouts. they are very beautiful and unique, and some of them parasitize pest species of insects.


except in the case of very, very severe infestations that threaten the life of a prized perennial plant, i am usually loathe to interfere with insects on a chemical level. Beyond my love of plants, i garden because i love the birds and beautiful insects like dragonflies that are attracted to my gardens, and they need healthy and diverse insect populations to really thrive.


a good saying i've come to embrace is "the secret to gardening is to love the weeds." It comes from an overwrought "fable" of dubious origin, but its a cute little read if you're in the right mindset: http://www.uexpress.com/tellmeastory/index.html?uc_full_date=20050717

anyway, its better if you love the weeds because that might be all that you grow! and by extension, the bugs. they make your garden more rich and diverse, and if you arent relying on your garden to live, its worth the sacrifice of a few tomatoes.

5/8/2009 11:32:37 PM

^^at most an inch long

5/8/2009 11:35:32 PM

Checked the temp of my compost bin in a few places today. Temps ranged from 120-130f. The first load I put in there a couple weeks ago is already dark black and beginning to smell like compost. The most recent load I added I don't have enough carbon in there and its a little on the stinky side today. Wish I would have done this last summer.

5/9/2009 5:54:58 PM

The bf and roommate got dirt yesterday- 1/2 topsoil 1/2 compost- It was pretty awesome to take off my shoes and compress it with my feet for the better part of an hour and have people yell at me for doing so as they drove past. I planted everything except for most of the marigolds today. My plan is to intersperse different veggies with herbs, packed in fairly close to cut down on weeds and water loss.

In the two 4' by 8' by 12" beds I planted:

canteloupe, watermelon, bell peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant

petunias and marigolds for pest control

parsley, basil, oregano, cilantro for herbs

I'm leaving mint, onion chives, parsley and pansies in my 4 x4 bed, and sowing some greens into that bed (it is more shaded).

5/9/2009 11:28:49 PM