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John Batteen

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #550 on: March 30, 2018, 09:34:26 PM »
That's fascinating about the pumpkin.  I had no idea they could be perennial in an appropriate climate.  Cucurbits (pumpkins/squash, cucumbers, etc) all throw new roots in the ground as the vine grows along, so they are pretty good about rooting as cuttings as long as they don't dry out.

Some places we have to fight the heat and the cold!  In South Dakota 100f/38c happens most summers and sometimes warmer than that.  -30f happens most winters and sometimes colder than that.  With lots of wind.  Our ground is still frozen and there will still be more snow.  I can't wait for it to warm up!  I planted strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, currants, and grapes last year, and I'm curious to see if they all come back.  It was a severe drought all last growing season and I found out too late that my well water was too hard to be using so much of on some of my plants.  Not all of them looked great going into fall and winter.  It's anxiety inducing.  At least we seem to have caught up a bit on moisture over the winter.  I think they will be fine this year if they come back.

I got some regular garden stuff I haven't grown before that I'm looking forward to. Heirloom blue dent corn.  A couple unique pumpkins and squash.  A habanero called Numex Suave that's supposed to be not that hot, still with that citrusy habanero flavor.  I'm really excited about that one.  I love heat but it still sounds fantastic.

sidd

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #551 on: March 31, 2018, 05:30:30 AM »
Re; South Dakota, gardening

How deep is frost line there ? like how many feet down are the water pipes ?

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John Batteen

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #552 on: March 31, 2018, 06:59:55 AM »
Six feet.  The northern Great Plains is one of the most extreme climates in the world as far as summer/winter temperature swings.  Only the east eurasian steppes are more extreme.  And every year is different, you never really know what you're going to get.

sidd

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #553 on: March 31, 2018, 08:30:21 PM »
I don't play too much west of the mississippi, but i have been thru the dakotas several times. Last summer i spent a very educational week or so in the badlands on the Ogallalla Sioux lands. Some of the first nations folk that i met had been part of the pipeline protests, and a couple of those told me a story about their sorta accidental experiments with surface water renewal.

Many years ago, the Ogallala Sioux were experimenting building snow fences with french drains under them to do snow melt harvesting. Water was led to underground cisterns lined with concrete. The project worked for a couple years, but there was no money to maintain the cisterns, so they wound up with leaks eventually. This was initially seen as a failure, but an amazing thing happened. Aroung the leaking cisterns the land suddenly began to bloom and little streams and tiny ponds began appearing. The animals found it first of course, and the ranchers noticed that the cattle were hanging around the cisterns although watering tanks fed from the cisterns had long since run dry.

Now they are discussing renewing the project with deliberately leaky water holding structure ... hopefully some funding will be found.

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John Batteen

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #554 on: April 03, 2018, 07:14:47 AM »
That's quite interesting, thanks for sharing!

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #555 on: April 05, 2018, 05:46:01 AM »
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/urban-farms-in-paris/index.html

Paris to turn a third of its green space into urban farms

Quote
France's famously beautiful capital is not a place you'd expect to find chickens, beehives and rows of neatly planted cabbages -- but urban farming is flourishing in Paris.
It all started when the city's mayor, Anne Hidalgo, who was elected in 2014, declared her intention to make Paris a greener city.

The Paris government responded to her call in 2016 by launching Parisculteurs, a project which aims to cover the city's rooftops and walls with 100 hectares (247 acres) of vegetation by 2020. One third of the green space, according to its plan, should be dedicated to urban farming...
"A force de chercher de bonnes raisons, on en trouve; on les dit; et après on y tient, non pas tant parce qu'elles sont bonnes que pour ne pas se démentir." Choderlos de Laclos "You struggle to come up with some valid reasons, then cling to them, not because they're good, but just to not back down."

etienne

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #556 on: April 29, 2018, 08:25:14 AM »
I just bought a book about combining plants in order to get better results, each plant helping or protecting the other ones around.

The book was average, but I found answers about 2 mysteries of last year’s growing season in my garden.

Brussels sprouts were so big that I was able to provide some to 4 neighbors.They would enjoy very much to be just near the potatoes. According to the book, kale would also like to be near potatoes. I’ll try it again.

Onions wouldn’t like themselves as neighbor, and mine didn’t grow too well. My idea was to put them very close and eat a lot of it as fresh onions. Looks like I missed the right time to eat excessive planting.

Regarding the other mix of plants, there was mainly the usual things (beans with corn and pumpkin, onions or leaks with carrots…)

etienne

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #557 on: May 18, 2018, 01:34:10 PM »
I just found moth eggs on my leeks. First time I recognize it and destroy it before the damage.

Is it enough to put it on the compost ?

Etienne

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #558 on: May 18, 2018, 03:37:36 PM »
I just found moth eggs on my leeks. First time I recognize it and destroy it before the damage.

Is it enough to put it on the compost ?

Etienne

I'd think you could safely wash, boil, and eat.  Or wash, boil, and compost.  But I'd think growing moth larvae in your compost might have adverse agricultural effects. 

etienne

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #559 on: May 18, 2018, 03:48:03 PM »
Well, leeks are still very small, and the choice was more between trash it and compost it. Thanks for the advice, I'll try in the compost. I hope I won't get too many more eggs otherwise I'll have the whole leeks in the compost.

silkman

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #560 on: May 22, 2018, 03:19:18 PM »
Brussels sprouts were so big that I was able to provide some to 4 neighbors.They would enjoy very much to be just near the potatoes.

Etienne, I'm in awe of your Brussels sprouts! We have a club root problem and brassicas in general have become a bit of a challenge.

Nonetheless we're up and running again this year and the weather has been fantastic, so much so that we're now dependent on a hosepipe and praying for rain.

« Last Edit: May 22, 2018, 03:26:53 PM by silkman »

TerryM

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #561 on: May 22, 2018, 08:54:26 PM »
Just looking at your garden makes me hungry - besides it's past time for lunch. ;)
Terry

sidd

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #562 on: May 22, 2018, 09:26:21 PM »
Over the last week in ohio the clematis buds are opening and the columbine blooming. Leaf mites eating columbine leaves ...

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Martin Gisser

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #563 on: May 24, 2018, 09:53:02 PM »
Ba(r)varia, Germany: I'm "breaking" ground for a new garden at the new place I'm moving in. Because of the weeds it is the perhaps most difficult spot of the huge area (30000sqm). But it seems the most fertile of what was once a depleted corn field, abandoned 10-20 years ago. Also, it is hidden from sight, so I can go naked - as I had to in our historic April (!!!!) heatwave. Other parts are almost pure yellow clay, but here it is more greyish. Also there's a spot of pure sand right next to it, which I use in the garden as I have to dig it anyway for the tipi place.

Anybody have any experience with getting rid of and controlling goldenrod (solidago xyz)? Dunno yet which variant of the 3 we have in Europe. (First foto: I left one stand to the right of the pot with yellow flowering dyer's woad. Will abuse them to support beans and peas, and cut the flowers when it is time.)

I don't like to break ground, so one experiment is to just scythe the stuff, lay out potatoes and put hay over them. Seems to work, but I've started only in April.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2018, 01:12:15 AM by Martin Gisser »

Neven

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #564 on: May 24, 2018, 11:55:51 PM »
We're doing potatoes under hay again this year. I'm killing 200-300 slugs every evening on just this patch of 25 m2, although the potato plants weren't bothered by the hordes last year (even though they hardly flowered). That's picture 1.

Because there was no frost, we'll have cherries and apples for the first time this year (fingers crossed). My wife made a guild of chives, rhubarb, Dutch clover and yarrow around one of the apple trees. That's picture 2 and 3.

The garden is coming along nicely, though not great. April was incredibly warm and moist, and May has been quite humid so far. Huge rains last night and today, almost causing the ditch to overflow, as well as our pond. In fact, water from the fields behind our house were overflowing so much that the water came through the stones below the railroad tracks, causing our pond to colour brown. And just a few days ago the farmer sprayed God knows what...

But, anyway, garden is picture 4. We want to double this capacity next year.

It looks like we'll also have more berries and hazelnuts this year. Unfortunately our new apricot was struck with Monilia laxa, so we had to cut it back. Hopefully we can get rid of it next year.

All in all, it looks like we'll improve on last year, but we still need to get our soil health up.
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Neven

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #565 on: May 25, 2018, 12:06:07 AM »
We had some problems with pests, but everything is under control (lots of small white slugs I have to kill every evening). We did have a new visitor, though. It's called a Maulwurfsgrille over here, and it's a cross between a mole and a shrimp. In English it's mole cricket. Big fellow, cute in a weird way (like moles are), but also a bit of a bastard, as it likes to dig long tunnels just below the surface, destroying roots of established plants even. That's picture 1 and 2.

I'm also almost done - finally! - building a path from our carport to the house. On the sides of the path I've used concrete building blocks, filled them with a mixture of sand and loam, and Elisabeth has planted all kinds of herbs in there. I thought she'd have a hard time planting herbs in all 78 of them, but there are only a few left. In June we'll visit a large organic garden centre in the area to buy some stuff like sage and rosemary and whatever else appeals to us. That's picture 3.

And on the 1000 m2 field we bought last year, adjacent to our plot, the phacelia and esparsette have returned. The latter - called Onobrychis in English - is quite an awesome nitrogen-fixing plant. The bumblebees absolutely love it! That's picture 4.

That's it for now!
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Martin Gisser

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #566 on: May 25, 2018, 12:26:59 AM »
Wow, Neven, great work. I'm starting all over again, have stopped counting my gardens.
Against slugs I want to plant dyer's woad: It is related to cabbage (Brassicaceae) and the slugs like it much more than the usual human consumed cabbage. Often the great flowering woad won't stand upright and show off its yellow blooming fire because the snails climb it and it bends down under their weight.  Also a deep rooting delight for earth worms after 2nd year (biennial plant). Not sure if my woad seeds will work at this time of year. I got lots of them - could send you some for 100-1000sqm.

sidd

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #567 on: May 25, 2018, 12:39:59 AM »
Two things to watch out for in growing things in concrete blocks.

1)heat: they get surprisingly hot even buried like that, so you want to keep an eye on them especially on hot days. the plants dry out quick, might wanna put a drip in.

2)leachate from concrete will make soil alkaline and up the calcium level. so you might want to soil analysis now and then

sidd

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #568 on: May 25, 2018, 01:10:25 AM »
Re: contaminated soil cleanup

Mr. Gisser has a difficult problem for the soil around the farmhouse. One way might be to use planters or go whole hog, lay down impermeable membrane and clean dirt on top.

One of the solutions i have seen was quite innovative. A neighbour  had a similar problem, with junk in the soil. He scraped off the top 3 feet with a blade, picked it up with a frontloader and piled it half a mile from the nearest stream. Then he made a swale downhill from the pile and put in tallgrass and reed wetland. He let the toxic pile go to woods, but took care of the swale.

Replaced the topsoil he had scraped off with clean dirt from elsewhere, and that formerly poisonous patch is his wife's vegetable area. It's been fifteen year, the toxic pile is completely wooded and impenetrable, he dont even cut tracks thru there. But he keeps a very close eye on the water coming outta that swale, analyses it every six months or so. It's clean enuf to use for irrigation, so hopefully the toxics will stay locked up until some fool goes digging there after he is dead and his works are forgotten.

Re: goldenrod

Extensive discussion at

https://prairieecologist.com/2010/11/09/goldenrod-pretty-flower-or-evil-invader/

One great suggestion in the comments is to make lemonade from lemons: keep bees since goldenrod honey is very good honey.


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Martin Gisser

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #569 on: May 25, 2018, 02:06:28 AM »
https://prairieecologist.com/2010/11/09/goldenrod-pretty-flower-or-evil-invader/

One great suggestion in the comments is to make lemonade from lemons: keep bees since goldenrod honey is very good honey.
Thanks for the link! While this is from the other side of the Atlantic, it confirms my situation here in Germany:

Quote
a staple plant of old fields – cropfields that are allowed to stand idle and be colonized by whatever species can do so.  That’s an ideal situation for goldenrods, and they can quickly become one of the dominant species in an old field. 
... and a staple plant of badly maintained gardens (or overworked gardeners).

We actually have a big bee house (which keeps another person busy maintaining). Also, I love strolling through a blooming goldenrod monoculture... (Not at my place, where they (still) have stinging nettle and blackberry mixed in. Meanwhile (late May) it requires quite some macheting to get into the remote parts of the property...)

But I also want my garden - without getting overworked!

sidd

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #570 on: May 25, 2018, 05:53:27 AM »
There are comments on that site from europe i believe. One of the few blogs where the comments are worth reading.

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #571 on: May 25, 2018, 09:06:05 AM »
Wow, Neven, great work.

Seconded! That's an amazing amount of work to get done in a single season, Neven. Both you and your good lady must have worked extremely hard.

As you know I'm an old fashioned and committed digger of the soil so my seed potatoes are 15 cm below the surface, surrounded by manure from a nearby farm and being earthed up as they grow. And the good news here in the NW is that we now have some rain which is most welcome.

Martin, I've no experience with goldenrod but for similar problems, including invasive couch grass and rosebay willow herb, the standard approach on my allotment site is to cover the affected area with thick opaque sheeting for a season which will stop all above the surface growth, followed by a thorough deep dig. It's very labour intensive but it works, at least for small areas. The plot we now treasure was essentially a field a decade ago and took three years to turn around - but it's very small.

The wild species keep trying to invade but the raised beds help to keep them at bay. It's entropy, time's arrow, at work but we do our best to maintain order.

Keep us posted on progress.

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #572 on: May 25, 2018, 12:05:54 PM »
the standard approach on my allotment site is to cover the affected area with thick opaque sheeting for a season which will stop all above the surface growth, followed by a thorough deep dig. It's very labour intensive but it works, at least for small areas.
Yeah. I don't like using plastic or cardboard, as many do, so I use scythed grass from the meadow, add sand on top and seed some legumes and flowers (dunno if they will grow through the grass mulch).

But the goldenrod army is still waiting at the periphery to invade again - it's a huge area and it is too much work to get rid of all of them. There is a young forest growing and they are hardened by intermixed blackberry, so I need to use a machete resp. my small hand scythe to cut them down.

Maybe there's another army of plants I can set up against them.

Neven

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #573 on: May 25, 2018, 12:23:01 PM »
Two things to watch out for in growing things in concrete blocks.

1)heat: they get surprisingly hot even buried like that, so you want to keep an eye on them especially on hot days. the plants dry out quick, might wanna put a drip in.

We're mostly planting Mediterranean herbs that like it dry, like thyme, lavender and rosemary.

Another disadvantage is that when it rains heavily (like it did yesterday), the water ends up in the blocks, with the poor plants swimming in them. Luckily there's 20-30 cm of gravel and sand below the blocks, and I've put in a drain pipe as well. The pipe ends up in a hole I plan on making bigger (when in a hole, continue digging, right). I'll fill the hole up with stones, with a big concrete pipe in the middle. This should function as a reservoir of sorts.

Quote
2)leachate from concrete will make soil alkaline and up the calcium level. so you might want to soil analysis now and then

I'll keep an eye on how the plants react. I'll add vinegar if necessary.  ;)

As you know I'm an old fashioned and committed digger of the soil so my seed potatoes are 15 cm below the surface, surrounded by manure from a nearby farm and being earthed up as they grow.

I'd probably do it that way too if the soil wasn't so loamy and compact.
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etienne

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #574 on: May 26, 2018, 02:07:35 AM »
It was not on purpose, but hyacinth, marigold and mallow helped a lot to control slugs this year. They grow early and are located between the vegetables and the hedge. For a long time, I was able to catch most of the slugs on the flowers.

Neven, I have a question about hazelnut, I never get any on my hazels. Is it possible that hazel should not be pruned?

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #575 on: May 26, 2018, 08:08:14 AM »
I'm loving seeing all your gardens! Neven, your's(Elisabeth's?!) looks soooo orderly, neat. And Silkman's & Mrs S is a delight to behold as always. I think you have quite a challenge on your hands with yours, Martin.
Here winter is near but I can grow all year round, just currently cool weather things.
But today we did some different 'gardening', joining a tree planting effort at a park just south of our town. I thought you might enjoy these photos. There were approx 200 people & we planted 4200 trees. I think hubby & I did about 150. Good because we recently travelled to Holland for a month to see my elderly MIL so needed to offset our large CO2 emissions. (Well I did pay for the C offsets as well.)
& Afterwards we had a 'sausage sizzle'!
This park has a celestial compass to explain how Maori voyaged across the Pacific & now the knowledge has been leanrt again, our local voyaging waka uses this means of navigation, travelling to San Francisco & recently to Easter Is/Rapanui.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=12059172
« Last Edit: May 28, 2018, 04:32:18 AM by Clare »

Bruce Steele

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #576 on: May 28, 2018, 09:25:32 PM »
January through end of March my wife and I ate from crops I grew without fossil fuels. I planted Yukon gold potatoes about March 15 and used a cloth cover to protect them in the spring's minor frosts. Conditions have remained mild and I have dug up and cured 150lbs so far . I have another 150lbs. to prepare for storage . Chioga beets are also ready and I plan on pickling them for storage. The spelt is starting to form seed heads. My piggy-bio tractor is still going strong and the work to provide garden produce is really fairly easy. The common garden weeds, lambs quarter and amaranths have provided greens that I mix with beet greens and broccoli raab.
 The orchard is stressed by so many years of drought. No apricots this year ... bummer. Will get mirabelles ,Santa Rosa plums, peaches , and pears later in the season.
 I still have lots of beans and dent corn from last year. I planted more limas and some sweet corn.
I still need to put in the bulk of my garden for winter stores and it is getting kinda late but summer is taking it's time to heat up this year, good for potatoes but bad for corn.

Neven

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #577 on: May 29, 2018, 08:19:09 AM »
Here winter is near but I can grow all year round, just currently cool weather things.
But today we did some different 'gardening', joining a tree planting effort at a park just south of our town. I thought you might enjoy these photos.

Very nice, Claire. That place should look beautiful once the trees start growing.

We hope to plant some trees this fall on the plot of land we bought last year, but not as many as 150. I wish we could. Maybe we need to buy more land. ;)
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Hyperion

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #578 on: June 07, 2018, 07:25:44 AM »
Regarding your slug issues Neven. I was recently told that leopard/tiger slugs are very popular sellers as predators for small herbivore slugs, and also voracious biological controls for caterpillars, eggs of many pests. Though research suggests they may attack seedlings as well. This could be vicious slander due to them being above ground in the morning when the small slugs they are hunting have burrowed. Hedgehogs, frogs, toads and ducks have good reps for slug and bug control. A pet hedgehog or two would probably be better than ducks as they are nocturnal. Likewise frogs, toad's, lizards.
If you want an easy solution you can order some nematodes. Widely available eg:
https://www.defenders.co.uk/pest-solutions/slug-control.html
That mole cricket could be burrowing to hunt your slugs. Some species are carnies, or omnivores.
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etienne

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #579 on: June 14, 2018, 07:27:33 AM »
I have now a mix of flowers in the garden, I thought that it was worth a picture. I let the flowers grow because I feel that it helps to catch the slugs before they eat everything.

silkman

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #580 on: June 14, 2018, 08:11:55 AM »
Looking really good Etienne. The onions seem to be thriving this year!

etienne

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #581 on: June 14, 2018, 05:28:34 PM »
Onions are unbelievable this year. Potatoes also, but looks like mildew is starting. There were so many thunderstorms, maybe I should have done  a treatment, but I don't have enough square meters and never need more than a half dosis. I read somewhere that once the potatoes had flowers, you can just remove the parts of the plants that is contaminated by mildew, I think I'll try that this year.

etienne

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #582 on: June 15, 2018, 08:02:41 PM »
Well, I changed my mind. I have a copper based product that is allowed for organic farming. I had too much problems with mildew last year. I didn't get one tomato.

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #583 on: June 15, 2018, 10:22:34 PM »
Our general rule for early potatoes is to start to dig them as soon as they've flowered. We eat them new and small and leave the main crop to the commercial growers..

Mildew isn't a problem for us up in the NW this year. It's too dry. We've had just one modest shower in about six weeks and our two water butts have been empty for weeks. We've had to use mains water to water the younger plants every day to keep things going but it's no substitute for the real thing. The only positive is the lack of slugs which is a real bonus.

That said it doesn't look bad and the strawberries have been both early and plentiful.

ivica

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #584 on: June 20, 2018, 12:17:39 PM »
Grafting skill is invaluable for many growers. If grafting is something new for you - amazing Joe Real can help you start:

Citrus Bark Grafting Tutorial - the Real deal! ( it's not for citrus only, mind you ;) )

That's how i started. (Thanks Joe, wherever you are now.)

etienne

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #585 on: July 07, 2018, 11:06:15 AM »
Last year, I had too many Brussels sprouts, looks like this year it will be pumpkins.
It is this one https://www.semaille.com/fr/potiron/697-potiron-galleux-d-eysines.html
« Last Edit: July 07, 2018, 11:13:17 AM by etienne »

Ned W

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #586 on: July 07, 2018, 05:51:13 PM »
Last year, I had too many Brussels sprouts, looks like this year it will be pumpkins.

This pattern of unpredictable superabundance is what makes gardening so interesting.

Today I harvested two large buckets full of watercress.  What am I supposed to do with it all?  It just keeps growing and growing. 

 :o

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watercress

SteveMDFP

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #587 on: July 07, 2018, 06:47:15 PM »
Last year, I had too many Brussels sprouts, looks like this year it will be pumpkins.

This pattern of unpredictable superabundance is what makes gardening so interesting.

Today I harvested two large buckets full of watercress.  What am I supposed to do with it all?  It just keeps growing and growing. 

 :o

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watercress

Well, you could pickle it.   Pickled watercress is used in greek salad recipes:
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/food/a19982698/mediterranean-recipes-from-ikaria/


Clare

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #588 on: July 08, 2018, 08:23:50 AM »
re. Etienne's superabundance of watercress (lucky you!!):
In NZ the classic (Maori) way to use it is in a 'Boilup'! The unit of watercress is usually given as 'supermarket bags full'.
Recipe here:
https://www.maoritelevision.com/tv/shows/tradition-on-plate/recipes/episode-2-ko-iwi-poaka
You can leave out the Doughboys (dumplings) if you want.  ;D

etienne

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #589 on: July 15, 2018, 08:27:30 AM »
It is Steve that had too much watercress. Same name, other language.

Here are this year's onions drying in the sun.

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #590 on: July 15, 2018, 01:42:00 PM »
That's a great crop Etienne. Plenty of sun to dry onions here too but it's been too dry to match your beauties.

That said we're not doing too badly. Our harvests are good quality (no slugs to speak of!) and the fruit and vegetables are clean but quite small as a result of  the relative lack of water.

Here's yesterday's crop:

Ned W

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #591 on: July 15, 2018, 01:48:59 PM »
re. Etienne's superabundance of watercress (lucky you!!):

It is Steve that had too much watercress. Same name, other language.

No, it was me!  And the stuff is still growing faster than I can mow it down.  At this point I could probably cover the Arctic Ocean with it, like azolla in the Middle Eocene:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azolla_event

etienne

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #592 on: August 02, 2018, 05:16:05 PM »
I visited a comunity garden near my office and decided to invest in netting. Here the leek moth protection net. It’s much easier than I thought, but the net was not cheap. The flexible pipes where.

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #593 on: August 02, 2018, 05:38:01 PM »
Quote
etienne:  the net was not cheap
Here we found a fabric store with a good sale on Tulle (maybe wedding veils and trains are out of style?). It seems to work very well both as moth protection and partial shading for plants suffering under too strong sun.

Clare

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #594 on: August 03, 2018, 04:40:56 AM »

I thought some of you gardeners here might be amused at my use of old frost cloth{
I make art textiles inspired by climate change in the Arctic that's why I (mostly) lurk here. With this piece ("Retreated")  I was wanting to convey the idea of glacial retreat & what better to use for a dying glacier than old = it has been used  in the garden for a winter or 2 so is no longer clean white. I stitched it down then melted areas back with my heat gun to convey the melting...

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #595 on: August 03, 2018, 10:39:09 AM »
Heat gun, very symbolic.  :)

Very nice piece of art, Clare.
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etienne

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #596 on: August 17, 2018, 10:19:14 AM »
I have a new resident in my garden. A mole. Don't know if I should be happy about it or not. No experience with these.

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #597 on: September 23, 2018, 06:03:58 PM »
The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is upon us in NW England with the remnants of Hurricane Helene bringing high  summer to a close.

It's been a challenging one for the garden as a long period of lower than average rainfall (I hesitate to call it a drought in the context of the conditions suffered by others) has made constant watering necessary but the sunshine and warmth have helped to deliver some excellent results, especially at the more exotic end of the range.

We like to grow a range of pumpkins and squashes to store for use throughout the winter and have harvested a couple of weeks early this year. We'll be well set to ride out Brexit with this lot carefully squirrelled away!

etienne

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #598 on: September 25, 2018, 09:58:00 PM »
Congratulation, looks beautiful. I just harvested 20 kg of pumpkins, I'm scared that it might freeze tonight. The only problem is that I've got one of 10 kg and 2 of 5 kg. The biggest one will probably be eaten for the 18th birthday of a nephew.
September was so warm that we already ate some of the winter spinach.
I'm always hoping that the Brexit could be stopped. I wonder what will happen, I always have to think at 1989 when Europe was finally open.

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #599 on: October 10, 2018, 08:29:21 PM »
This Crazy Tree Grows 40 Kinds of Fruit | National Geographic




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