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2018 thread of gardening like a boss


Walden Ponderer

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Finished up the pickles, then went out to the garden to put on extensions to my homemade large tomato cages. This will allow them to grow 8'+ to keep the production going. While trimming up some overgrowth on the cucumbers I came across one that had been hiding. Glad I got to it before it got bigger and spoiled.
Has anyone ever grown or seen purple bell peppers? I swear the tag on them said green bell peppers, but these are purple as all get out. They are pretty and kids think they are something special.
Also found 2 more black swallowtail caterpillars on the fennel. Kids will bring them inside in a couple of days to make their cocoons and then release them after they become butterflies. 11e137714ece856ea7a87dc1426ce022.jpgeb1ea189f9319ddff48f5cce3ab3ec8d.jpg6ac54f7b329d7388b4cbffbd4223e4c8.jpg5b2c871806a3bb76321275c6a0fa1b77.jpgcb28a07559f6af16972ab4ee3c21850a.jpg398fa22f13ca265eae73106627bb511b.jpg

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On 6/29/2018 at 12:04 PM, kevwun said:

Anyone used atrazine to kill Bahia grass in St. Augustine?  Sounds like it is my best bet on the googles.  The Bahia is going nuts in my front yard this year.  Wish I would have done something about it last year when I first noticed it.

You might have better luck with this in the lawn and landscape thread

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Crazy how my garden has continued to produce since I installed the shade covers.  I'm still getting tomatoes daily.  Just harvested all of my sweet potatoes.  Eggplant, melons, bell pepper still producing pretty regularly, and okra is going crazy.  I planted spaghetti squash and pumpkins two weeks ago, and they're starting to take off.  Irrigation + shade cover have literally given me year-round gardening in Central Texas.  This was one harvest last Friday.  

IMG_6922.jpg

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On ‎8‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 3:31 PM, Spaulding Smails said:

Crazy how my garden has continued to produce since I installed the shade covers.  I'm still getting tomatoes daily.  Just harvested all of my sweet potatoes.  Eggplant, melons, bell pepper still producing pretty regularly, and okra is going crazy.  I planted spaghetti squash and pumpkins two weeks ago, and they're starting to take off.  Irrigation + shade cover have literally given me year-round gardening in Central Texas.  This was one harvest last Friday.  

IMG_6922.jpg

Nice harvest. Yes, shading to keep it just a little cooler on the plants and good watering can get you through a hot summer. Good sweet potato bunch you have there. I plan on doing sweet potato next year. 

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6 hours ago, Both Tacos said:

Nice harvest. Yes, shading to keep it just a little cooler on the plants and good watering can get you through a hot summer. Good sweet potato bunch you have there. I plan on doing sweet potato next year. 

This was the first year I did them, and I learned a bunch.  I waited too long to harvest them and didn't understand how deep they grow.  I harvested at about 125 days instead of 75 and ended up with a bunch of huge, rock hard taters.  Those were the keepers.  Next year, I'll harvest at 75 days and we'll get a much better yield.

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26 minutes ago, Hanrahan said:

I’ve tried the garden the last three years with no experience, talent or advice. Think I’ve grown three deformed carrots from seed to table. This year nothing grew. They sprouted, stunted and died. Another few decades and I’ll get it down.

Soil

Water

Seeds

In my opinion, that is the order of importance.  Buy good soil.  Water frequently.  Buy good seeds (or seedlings).  It's not rocket science, but it takes consistency.  You need to be out there every other day at a minimum, making adjustments along the way.  

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Yep, your soil is key. There are home test kids for soil to let you know what you may be deficient in. I hardly ever start from seed and do transplants from a nursery. I know you can't do that with carrots and maybe why I haven't tried them in my garden. However, I did just plant a row of green beans and a row of snap peas seeds for our fall garden.

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1 hour ago, Hanrahan said:

I’ve tried the garden the last three years with no experience, talent or advice. Think I’ve grown three deformed carrots from seed to table. This year nothing grew. They sprouted, stunted and died. Another few decades and I’ll get it down.

There's a few millennia of information available. 

Seedling stage is the most vulnerable. If they get too dry it's church. Or too wet. You can regrow the tops. The top half inch plugged into a well prepared bed will regrow.

Used to do this as a kid. Leafy top of the carrot set in a saucer of water. Look! The leaves are growing! There! I see roots!

Bean in a cup. The roots go down. The leaves go up.

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Lil' help....

 

In the past week or two, something has hammered my jalapenos.  Every single leaf on my plants are gone (eaten), only left with stems.  my anaheim's have some pretty big bites out of the leaves but nothing to the extent of the japs.

 

I have also noticed a pretty good group of fig eater beetles flying around recently (have never had those in my yard before)...do they eat pepper plant leaves?

 

I have sprayed the plants down a couple times with a the garden safe 3-n-1 but not sure its helping.

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We found a buyer; we're not actually leaving B/CS until next June, however, so looks like I'll do a winter garden, after all. Currently all crispy, but I'll go ahead and start prepping for cool weather crops this weekend.

Next summer, I don't think I'll have time to do much, since we'll have just moved. We're looking for land outside of Asheville, NC, though. Gonna be completely different, gardening some place that has seasons.

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On 8/16/2018 at 7:28 AM, chesthair said:

Lil' help....

 

In the past week or two, something has hammered my jalapenos.  Every single leaf on my plants are gone (eaten), only left with stems.  my anaheim's have some pretty big bites out of the leaves but nothing to the extent of the japs.

 

I have also noticed a pretty good group of fig eater beetles flying around recently (have never had those in my yard before)...do they eat pepper plant leaves?

 

I have sprayed the plants down a couple times with a the garden safe 3-n-1 but not sure its helping.

What is your  spray interval? Label says 7-14 days. All plant surfaces. Neem does move into the leaf, hort oil helps with it. It's not totally systemic. Translaminar at best. Bt is even better for lepidopteran/caterpillars. Might have to scout them a few times, night included.

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On 8/17/2018 at 6:40 PM, cactusflinthead said:

What is your  spray interval? Label says 7-14 days. All plant surfaces. Neem does move into the leaf, hort oil helps with it. It's not totally systemic. Translaminar at best. Bt is even better for lepidopteran/caterpillars. Might have to scout them a few times, night included.

7 days is what i did.  i also hit them with sevin dust and the one plant that got hammered is showing some new leafs.  

 

those green june beetles are everywhere now.  played tennis with 40-50 of them yesterday...any spray to get rid of them? 

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45 minutes ago, chesthair said:

7 days is what i did.  i also hit them with sevin dust and the one plant that got hammered is showing some new leafs.  

 

those green june beetles are everywhere now.  played tennis with 40-50 of them yesterday...any spray to get rid of them? 

. Unfortunately, this treatment usually is completed after green June beetle grub damage is noticeable on home lawns, including the presence of tunnels and small mounds of soil located on the surface of the grass. These grubs are relatively easy to control at this time with an application of a contact insecticide; however, it is important to recognize that a late-summer/early fall application can result in dead grubs on the turf surface. Ideally, curative applications should be made late in the day since grubs move to the surface during the evening. These insects die at night on the surface rather than in soil burrows. Thus, you may end up with a large number of dead, smelly grubs on the surface of your grass. In some cases, you may need to remove the decaying dead grubs

Pedo state, green June beetle.

There are also nematodes that will attack them. Those are for the grub stage. 

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Had a batch of late season peppers coming ripe this weekend. Went this evening to pick several and found this guy munching away on them. Biggest caterpillar I have ever seen. Don’t know what type it is.

24f52bc795fd2d00b2bad5b74abba854.jpg
It's a hornworm and you want to get rid of them immediately. They will kill a garden quickly.
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  • 3 weeks later...
I tried planting some broccoli and kale starts. Within days they had been eaten to the ground. Do I pull them out and plant new starts or leave these in place and see if they recover ?
Start with fresh plants. May not have enough time for them to recover to be productive before the first frost.
Also figure out what ate the first ones as any new planting, it will happen again. Ask me how I know this.
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  • 1 month later...

I'm down to just eggplant and habaneros left from the spring / summer garden.  Everything else has played out, although I have some volunteer sweet potatoes popping up, so we'll let that ride for the next few weeks to see what we get. 

I missed my window of opportunity to get the fall garden going between monsoons in early October, so I'm about three weeks behind my schedule.  Finally got out there early last week and got some seeds and seedlings in the ground.  

Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, a few varieties of lettuce, collards, kale, cilantro, carrots, garlic and shallots.

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Grabbed one of bell peppers last night to use in a dish... chopped it up, took a bit of a raw piece and, uh, not a regular bell pepper.  Super spicy.  Maybe because it grew next to a jalapeno and cayenne plant?  Cross pollination or something or other or maybe it was inaccurately labeled when I bought it.

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