Victory Garden

[diane o'thirst]

Got the planting bed!

Zero hour is this Friday. We're having a garden party sometime soon, but I'm not gonna wait. Here's a list of what I'll be planting in my new 4x8' raised bed:

- Squash
- Blueberries
- Lots 'n lots of herbs, mostly sage, thyme and parsley
- Rainbow bell peppers (five different colours on one plant)
- Miniature peach tree in its own pot, not in the ground

As well as the obligatory marigolds and Queen Anne geraniums for natural pest control. And burying Brillo pads around the plants to discourage cats and squirrels from digging. We shan't be using pesticides on our herbs 'n veggies, no indeed!

I was helping a friend dig up some cement blocks behind her townhouse yesterday and we discovered something rather alarming under a few of them: a termite nest! She has to dig up the nest and nail the little bastards with orange oil.

Thanks for the word on mantises, Monkeypoo! I was considering getting a mantis for pest control. Still might, but I won't be so cavalier with the handling.

[unjonharley]

Got the planting bed!

Zero hour is this Friday. We're having a garden party sometime soon, but I'm not gonna wait. Here's a list of what I'll be planting in my new 4x8' raised bed:

- Squash
- Blueberries
- Lots 'n lots of herbs, mostly sage, thyme and parsley
- Rainbow bell peppers (five different colours on one plant)
- Miniature peach tree in its own pot, not in the ground

As well as the obligatory marigolds and Queen Anne geraniums for natural pest control. And burying Brillo pads around the plants to discourage cats and squirrels from digging. We shan't be using pesticides on our herbs 'n veggies, no indeed!

I was helping a friend dig up some cement blocks behind her townhouse yesterday and we discovered something rather alarming under a few of them: a termite nest! She has to dig up the nest and nail the little bastards with orange oil.

Thanks for the word on mantises, Monkeypoo! I was considering getting a mantis for pest control. Still might, but I won't be so cavalier with the handling.

No pest der sides for my place eather..

[ygmir]

I've been doing research into pest and fungicides.......it seems, borax, and boric acid, are very good for dry rot, fungus, and insects.......and, very low toxicity......but, they are water soluble, so, won't stay forever. And, they kill plants if in direct contact, as I read it. But, for treating wood and stuff.....seem a good alternative. And, mixed with sugar, the ants will take it back to the nest and kill the rest...........BBWWWHAHAHAAH


I've created a gopher/mole/vole repellent, all natural, not toxic, that seems to be working quite well. 5 years of testing on my lawn, and, minor intrusions, but, no full scale immigration.......and, all around, they are everywhere........

[unjonharley]

I've been doing research into pest and fungicides.......it seems, borax, and boric acid, are very good for dry rot, fungus, and insects.......and, very low toxicity......but, they are water soluble, so, won't stay forever. And, they kill plants if in direct contact, as I read it. But, for treating wood and stuff.....seem a good alternative. And, mixed with sugar, the ants will take it back to the nest and kill the rest...........BBWWWHAHAHAAH


I've created a gopher/mole/vole repellent, all natural, not toxic, that seems to be working quite well. 5 years of testing on my lawn, and, minor intrusions, but, no full scale immigration.......and, all around, they are everywhere........

A bit of soap water keeps the leaf eaters at bay.. My Grandmother applyed it with a wiskbroom by dipping the broom into the soapy water and shaking it over the plants leaves.

I use wirlygigs in conduit to drive the moles nuts.. Also they don't like climbing over 6 inch tall fence.. Keeps em out of the flowers in the rockry

[can't sit still]

ygmir, they make a lot of gopher blasters that appear to be more fun than repellents;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrGnW0KLFZk
Kinda like an underground "spud gun"

[diane o'thirst]

The community gardening plot is officially mine. I'm moving my squash seedlings in this evening.

Unfortunately, management has issued a few rules.

- No perennials
- No bushes
- No mints
- NO BERRIES!!! (What's the fucking point, then???)
- No statuary, ornaments, whirlygigs, etc. (Crap, these guys are just NO FUN at all!)

What's left after all that? Well, actually, quite a bit. I'm expecting my neighbours to do a lot of lettuce-, garlic- and corn-growing, which could work out nicely. We're definitely gonna need to do a community garden potluck later this summer, with dishes made from whatever we grow

So the revised list:
- Squash
- Rainbow peppers
- Parsley
- Sage
- Thyme
- Green onions
- Marigolds
- Echinacea
- Lotus if I can convince my manager to let me haul a barrel planter or 3' kiddie pool over there and set it in the bed.

<.<

>.>

Hey, what're you thinking? You can eat the roots and the leaves are great for steaming fish!

[unjonharley]

I have compost coming out the ears.. A 20x20x 18-24 deep .. One of the neighbors gave me all there clippings.. As it rots down I'm putting it into 4x8 garden boxes.. I uncovered it to turn yesterday.. The snake crop is in full swing.. Have to chase the little guys so I wont hurt them with the rake..


We have two oak trees 20 and 24 feet around.. They will need some heavy limbs removed before winter.. Instead of paying an arborest I put them up for bid to artist.. Wood worker are coming from over a100 miles away to check the out..

The year is slipping away.. Have already put blue bells and tulips beds to bed for next spring.. The ires need dug up and bulb separated then put to bed for the year.. The mock orange flowers are wilting away.. That means it needs trimed of dead wood for this winter..

The roses (30 different kinds) jump up to 6 feet high.. They will bloom until the frost...

Food is coming in weekly.. I planted weekly.. So there will be no huge harvest..

[diane o'thirst]

Unfortunately, lost the watermelon. Something chomped on the vine and ate it down to the ground. Not sure what: if it was a raccoon, they'd have gone through the whole garden, but all I lost was the watermelon and one of the sages.

Couldn't have been snails because they'd have left trails and I didn't see any.

It wasn't birds: no poop, and they left the pepper seeds alone. My guess is that one of the community gardeners has a little dog and took it out with them when they were working on their plot. The dog went to have a snack and their owner caught them before they could do more damage.

In good news, I expect to have six squashes by next week. There's one already growing with a big, beautiful blossom on it, and five more on two other plants just starting up. The one with the blossom is two and a half inches long by an inch in diameter.

The pepper seedlings are starting to come up and have four leaves on them.

The parsley, sage and thyme are flourishing. This past week, I harvested some for my Scarboro Faire focaccia and it was a hit at Saturday Market. You can't imagine how stoked I am when I tell my customers, "These herbs are from my own farm plot!"

Hey, Unjon — do you use spray on those roses? I'm thinking of offering a Millefiori flavour for my focaccia and I need a pound of non-spray flower petals.

[AntiM]

I have lettuce which self-seeded from last year. Dill looks good, and I have basil sprouts. My oregano survived the transplant. I have lemon balm, it took over the old herb bed, now it is under the maple tree and in a container where it won't go wild. The raspberries look good. I put in blueberries on a container, we shall see what happens. The rhubarb needs harvesting. Chives are running wild. Peppers beginning to show blossoms. Strawberries are visible, a few are pink, but I think the ravens are picking them! Sweet peas are late, but should produce. I even have a stevia trying in a pot.

Mint and berries are so invasive, no wonder you can't have them. Dad's blackberries have surrounded his back yard, it will take forever to cut them back. Some are 20 feet up in the trees! Even our raspberries run away into the neighbor's yard.

[unjonharley]

Blackberries are the Or. state weed..

We are into a bumper crop of apples, prunes and cherries this year. Will have to cul the apples this year.. Otherwise they will break limbs.. The birds are standing by .. Nothing I can do but share with them.. Razzberries are looking a little weak this year..

[FIGJAM]

I only put in 3 tomato plants this year, but the bounty is almost too much. After salsa and spagetti sauce, iv been just throwing the rest in a blender whole for very thick tomato juice.

[LeChatNoir]

WOW!!

Been lots of activity since I last looked in this thread. I love to read about all the good times and stuff growing.

We got about 5 gallons of sour cherries this year. The beets came out of the ground yesterday along with one row of onions. And the garlic was pulled today. Karine and her daughter did a neato garlic braid and it’s hanging in the barn to dry. The beets were cooked up and the beet leaves were blanched and frozen. I did not know until this year that you can eat beet roughage like spinach.

Eggplant is in the ground and blooming. Melons and squash are doing good and half the cabbage is sitting in the house ready to become kraut.

Lots of tomatoes and peppers are coming on. Apples looking good and Pears are too. Oh, and the beans are climbing the bean poles! And there's Cherry wine and Beet wine in crocks on top of the fridge fermenting as we speak. Should be ready about time to toast the trip west!

Lots of joy from this garden.

[littleflower]

5 gallons of sour cherries!!!!!!! OMG they are the yummiest things, and unavailable here! you must be un chat content! wow.

i have only a container garden, but my cherry tomato is busy making lots of little yummy jewels, and i also have thyme, rosemary, sage, mint, chives, and tarragon ... yum yum yum! also lemon verbena and a rose scented geranium, i love the sweet smelling stuff! and orchids. my sherry baby oncidium is blooming ... that's the sweetest of them all ...

in fact, i'ma gonna go smell something right now!

[AntiM]

I need to start my plants indoors earlier. I never have anything to harvest until much later in summer.

[pinemom]

Ahhhh~ The garden...yup she's finally IN!

Ol' man winter took its toll on when would be safe for this wacky weather yr.

Saturday last, planted:

8 different strains of tomatoes
6 strains of squashes
Green beans
snow peas
Cantalope
honeydew
sunflowers
Green, red, white onions
Cilantro
dill
basil
oregano
italian parsley
rosemary
chives
lettuce mix(endives)
Spinach
eggplant
brussel sprouts
Habenero
Jalepeno
fancy heirloom bells
red,orange,green,yellow bells
fresno peppers
wax peppers


I think....thats it.....so far....
and actually not all he herbs I listed are planted yet, as we have one more window on that side of the "NEW" green house, to go in so we dont thrash the herb plantings...TODAY! that window goes in hopefully we have time....

And I need to paint at least the front and that side of green house so I can flip the switch on the sprinkler system, now thats styling...


Although I still find it very therapeutic to go hand water....its a morning ritual...quiet (well cept with the chickens yelling at me)...ma feeeeeed me!~


I havent actually turned my compost pile yet,I cheated and just added 5 bags of organic garden soil,when we rotor tilled it. Figure when everyone has gotten past the tender seedling stage Ill add the, 2 yr old now, yumminess.
I did check the heat on it down deep, very cool 55 degree's so that should be scrumptious for the garden.

Chicken pooop, its whats for dinner this year!!!!!!

[shroom]

I have 4 raised beds for my veggie garden. We built them out of cinder blocks and made them 3 blocks high so you don't have to bend over so far.

This year I have tomatoes, bell peppers, peas, cucumbers, squash, watermelon, potatoes, red onions and strawberries. I also have a grape vine, 2 apples trees, a pear tree and a crab apple tree.

I;m looking forward to making jelly later in the season.

[Bounce530]

I'm bummed this year...after doing battle with all the deer that thought my garden was their buffet last year, I moved the vegi's to a fenced area of my property, that doesn't get near the amount of sun that I thought it would...plus, the weather out here has been so crazy, so almost everything I put in has either hail damage, or hasn't got enough sunlight. So doesn't look good for the tomatoes, peppers, beans, or herbs...carrots might be doing ok, spinach is ok, and only three of the five cherry trees produced, and only one strawberry so far, and no lemons.

[Oldguy]

Howdy Pards, Apricots are done. Split, pitted, and dried.
Strawberries are on, I ate a mess with sugar on shortcake yesterday.
Tomatoes the size of apricots but still greeen.
I got 4 varieties of 'maters, a bell pepper putting on green bells, and the berries. Those strawberries are HUGE. Putting out runners/vines. Them is tasty...

It looks like my ticket didn't come thru yet so I guess I'll miss you all in 2 months. I,m happy to see so many folks are getting their veggies this year.

Got my foodstamps/EBT card interview yesterday, still getting canned goods from the local gleaners. Cal. Dept. Of Vocational Rehab. is holding transportation passes untill state budget is passed so no gas money or bus rides for awhile. Still getting health care thru the county on the CMSP card. Got my tax refund in the mail, it pays to work program.(I paid my water bill and phone bill with it.) I wrote some condolance letters out to my relatives. Still looking for work, and a little bridge building can't hurt. Maybe some relative can take me in. ($300.00 for a miracle ticket now.)

Happy Summer everyone and good harvesting...

[diane o'thirst]

By my count, I should have about 15 squashes to harvest shortly. The plants are pushing out blossoms right and left.

Pepper seedlings are coming up nicely. I found my green onion seeds and will be planting those along with some MORE parsley plants I traded for last Market.

Speaking of that, the three existing plants are going bonkers. I feel comfortable harvesting twice as much as I've been for my Scarboro Faire focaccia. It's definitely a plus when I tell my customers that instead of buying from Mexico, I'm growing my own locally.

[littleflower]

my very first bunch of tomatoes is starting to turn red!!!!!

[Oldguy]

My tomatos are coming into red now, berries on second ripe on runners; peppers like it dry and hot, unlike tomatoes who like it wet and warm. I'm allowing yard to brown off to hay. The large pots are much better than the cans I tried last year. I need to deep soak every other day now in this 100 degree spell...

[can't sit still]

Interesting grow system for those who can't have a garden;
http://www.mygroponics.com/

[unjonharley]

Interesting grow system for those who can't have a garden;
http://www.mygroponics.com/

That is the system of the fabaled hanging gardens..

[unjonharley]

Watered some of the late tomateos with a lots of fish poop.. Now I can't eat them.. They put wilts on me.. Maybe cook 'em up for soup..

Most of the time I mix fish poop into the compost.. Then add fish and worm poop tea for bottom watering.. That's going to be the standard from now on..

[geospyder]

Victory Gardens - many years ago I was into electronics. One way to remember the color coding on resisters was the following:

Bad Boys Ravage Our Young Girls Behind Victory Garden Walls But Violet Gives Willing - Get Some Now. Most people remember the first part but not the Get Some Now. Those were the tolerances - Gold, Silver and No color - 5%, 10% and 20%

Strange old memories.

[Bay Bridge Sue]

I learned it as the sexual proclivities of Violet, not as a Study in home-based wartime agronomics...

... and by the way... George Said No! ))grins((

Resistors are Futile.

There was also Proudly Points iN...

[geospyder]

I learned it as the sexual proclivities of Violet, not as a Study in home-based wartime agronomics...

... and by the way... George Said No! ))grins((

Resistors are Futile.

There was also Proudly Points iN...

Think the original used rape instead of ravage. The other was Bad beer rots our young guts but vodka goes well – get some now.

Now days techs probably have no idea what a resistor is. Just replace boards until the unit works. No old fashion troubleshooting. All this from a victory garden

[Bay Bridge Sue]

Think the original used rape instead of ravage. The other was Bad beer rots our young guts but vodka goes well – get some now.

Now days techs probably have no idea what a resistor is. Just replace boards until the unit works. No old fashion troubleshooting. All this from a victory garden :-)

Yes, they did. Guess ya gotta be more politically correct nowdays.

The other one... is only for resistors made in Russia. ;) (I like that one!!)

I honestly don't think most could do the math you had to to figure out where to find the bad component. I used to hate it miserably, but it was the only way you could find what went wonky. Then again, we used slide rules - calculators were too 'spensive for a high school student back then (but oh, how we dreamed of HP's...).

Nowdays so much is done with ICs, that it's tough to figure out what went bad where anymore... plus all that surface mount stuff is a (deleted) to work on. Had to dig into my Yaesu VX5 a few months back - yeesh!!

[geospyder]

I had signed up for a resistor theory class many years ago and the class was cancelled. To fill the spot I chose Intro to Data Processing. Big mistake - I got hooked. I retired a few years ago when Oracle bought us out. I’m not into Amateur radio, I presume that is what you use the Yaesu for, but where I currently “workâ€

[unjonharley]

Now days techs probably have no idea what a resistor is. Just replace boards until the unit works. No old fashion troubleshooting. All this from a victory garden

Back in the day when you were nowhere near a store.... You got some math head to figure how many turns it took for your resistor.. Then use the burned out one for a form and count..

That was before my brain took the big hit.. Now i have rouble tieing my shoes..