I'm growing my vegetables (what there are of them) in depressions so that when I water I can make little lakes that can soak in over time. The squirrel did in all seedlings so I finally bought some squash plants and they were doing horrible and had squash bugs so I mulched them with some straw and sprayed bug poison (mostly pyrethrin) all over them and they perked up.
So I mulched the peppers so they wouldn't get mud splashed all over them and it would be pretty, and that worked nicely and it keeps the dirt from drying out, though I sort of have to guess how much of a lake I'm making when I water them because it's all straw now.
So I decided, hey, tomatoes and I can use up the straw because I'll just buy more before I clean the chicken coop. So I tucked the lovely yellow straw around my lush looking tomato plants (no tomatoes, and few flowers, but they sure looked nice.)
So, three days later I'm looking at them and the leaves on the inside of the bushes are dying off. The rest of the plant looks great but there are curled up brown leaves all over. It doesn't make sense that it's the straw.
I planted a grape vine 3 years and this year it bore clusters of little fruit for the first time. Unfortunately, most of them are cracking and seem infested with rot. I guess I need to learn a little viticulture as it sure isn't garden variety growing.
@Synova, isn't it normal for some tomato leaves to brown near the bottom in a fast growing plant? I get a little of that every year too. I just pluck them off.
I didn't grow a garden this year. I'm sick of the damned deer eating all the vegetables before I get a chance to harvest. We have raised beds, but we need a big tall at least 7 ft fence around the area. There is no point in attempting anything until we have a fence. And the Dumbplumber is slammed with work until October at least.
All the young fruit trees are protected by circles of wire fencing so at least they can grow up without being eaten to death. The mature trees seem to be able to handle a few deer nibbles. The rose bushes?? Forget it. They are pruned back so hard by the deer that we had no roses this year. The deer decided to make beds for themselves in the Shasta Daisies. So flat flowerbeds.
We had a dead buck on the road in front of our house a week ago. GOOD!!!!. I tied a rope around his antlers and frontal area and hauled him off across the road and out into a field with the tractor. You need to do this before they get "ripe' or they will burst and fall apart. Stink!!! Woooo...eeee. Let the vultures and bald eagles have him. One less damned deer to ruin the yard.
We are getting some wrist rockets and ball bearings so we can shoot the bastards (male and female) and make them leave the yard. I don't want to kill them...necessarily....but just make them go away before they eat all the apples, pears and plums.
Reminds me of when I moved to San Pablo, DBQ. A couple of days after we moved in there was a beautiful buck in the back yard. I took a picture and called my Dad.
It didn't take very long before "beautiful" was replaced by many other adjectives, none of them nice.
In any case... are you rural enough that hunting is an option?
I haven't put in a vegetable garden in years. Except last summer my cousin came over when I was going to put in three Beefmasters next to the chain link fence at my mom's. He very kindly put them in for me.
In any case... are you rural enough that hunting is an option?
Oh. YES. Very rural. But it isn't deer hunting season just yet. Mid August for archery and starting in Sept in some areas.....Nov and Oct. We are mostly the X zones where the big mulies are and which are 'draw' zones...by lottery. Very desirable.
Herbs are doing best. I've picked mint, parsley and cilantro a lot, and used them. The parsley is quite large. Cilantro already formed coriander seeds. I'll plant those just for fun.
Tomatos are growing. I notice a few out there, but not as many tomatoes as tomato flowers. Not enough insects. Whatever tomatoes grow will be small. I already picked one. And I do not like that.
I want big tomatoes, so boo-hoo for me.
But what am I complaining about? The grocery stores do not have heirloom tomatoes yet either. So I'll just shut up and be patient.
Perhaps I can use the sunniest portion of the terrace next year, and leave it at that.
Chile plants look like something is attacking them. The plants started out well then shriveled back. No fruit at all. They stopped blooming. Chiles were all a bust. All varieties. So far, anyway.
I sprayed one pot of them with Neet, but it doesn't look like that helped, and they're not flowering anymore.
Regular decorative flowers are all the eh.
Too late, dontchaknow.
Strawberries dies.
I have a large decorative pot in a shaded corner with a fountain inside it running full time. There is electricity outlet out there but no water spigot. I use a siphon from the 50 gal aquarium, then leaving the hose in the aquarium, put the output side onto a water filter inside the kitchen and refill the aquarium, and that takes care of my waterboy duties.
But now I'm thinking refill the fountain bucket and use the pump to cycle hydroponic tomatoes instead of tomatoes in dirt. Set the buckets staged in height and use gravity to drain one to another into a reservoir back to the fountain.
Or something.
To keep the roots wet inside their closed buckets. Regularly and repetitively soaked throughout the day and drained, their roots enclosed inside their buckets but not soaking in water. Their nutrients and their ph draining over their roots kept constant.
The thing is, it must be attractive and not appear like a science project. It will have to be a complete fake out. Maybe 5 gallon buckets inside decorative pots.
They needn't grow upward trained with wire or cords as tomato farmers do. Rather, they can grow up and drape over the balcony railing for all I care. That would be pretty too.
Look at this page and adjust what you see to what I just wrote. LOOK, I said.
This year one of two Earth Boxes is doing the best of all. That one has the parsley in it, and a few flowers creeping over the edge. But it's an ugly box.
Last year I planted grass seed in it as a homage to a lawn. But I neglected acquiring a flamingo with wire legs.
It is a half-hearted affair because the spring stayed cool for so long. The start was very late this year and that took the shine off the whole project. Plus I started seeds way too late. I am a terrible farmer. Always was a terrible farmer. I lack the common sense and commitment required for sound plant husbandry practices.
I was telling a friend that I allowed my plants to dry out and they had difficulty recovering from that neglect, and a couple of those incidents ...
He finished my sentence and cracked up laughing at the stupidity like, well, fucking DUH!
I planted a grape vine 3 years and this year it bore clusters of little fruit for the first time. Unfortunately, most of them are cracking and seem infested with rot. I guess I need to learn a little viticulture as it sure isn't garden variety growing.
That's odd, because I am experiencing the same early rot phenomena here (Michigan) as well. However this grape arbor system of multiple shoots is 60 years old and has never had this happen before...at least not in the 30+ years we've been caring for it. It is the envy of all my Arab neighbors, many now who have built arbors and started their own system.
Routine annual care has involved mostly an initial pruning back, then periodic trimming off "runners & stringers" (non-productive shoots) until ripening time in August. This year there is a larger grape cluster crop than usual and half are dying off as you describe. WTF?
I realize out bounty up to this year has been sheer luck, but something is happening this year that is different that all others. Lacking real knowledge, this week I will be trimming off all slightly weak looking clusters their shoots....and brutally cutting off anything that looks like an unproductive stringer...which I think I have been careless about of late.
Have to do this...what would a late August and early September be without drunken birds shitting purple every where, basking in to windows, and hordes of yellow jackets to make back yard life dicey?
PS: These are "Concord" grapes, which I compare to snot luggies wrapped in handy capsules...however, Judi and a couple friends really like them so I try to save them and drive off the hornets.
@Aridog: We've had that rabbit for about 12 years now. She has the most luxuriant soft fur. She gets to hop around the fenced yard all day and nibble grass. She also has a taste for vegetables, and if you look closely at the first photo, you'll notice that the tomatoes are fenced for protection. She coexists happily with a dog and two cats. She tends to poop in one place (poo corner) which makes it easy to transfer as a fertilizer.
Chicklet...that was Amartel who asked about it. My query was about the rot you see appearing on your grape vines. Same here, firs time ever in 30+ years on a 60+ year old vine system.
However, I had a pet rabbit (big sob) when I was a kid, a Belgian Hare whose fence (covering half our city yard) had to have heavy chicken wire buried underground to keep him from digging his way out, which he never ceased trying to do. We, too, used his pellets for fertilizer on various garden plants. My big ass old Tomcat (lived 17 &1/2 years and survived multiple fights, including ground hogs, raccoons, German Shepherds, sundry other foolish lesser dogs...at 22 & 1/2 lbs he was a sight to behold. Only fight loss, other than a skirmish with "Peter", was to a delivery truck that knocked one of his eyes out. He only tried to bully "Peter" once...after than it was respect shown, unless "Peter" was in his kennel cage when "Tommie" could reach down and swat him.
"Peter" also had a habit of bitting down hard on careless humans who reached in to his cage or otherwise irritated him. Damn I loved that Rabbit (or Hare).
I guess I owe my parents praise for their forbearance and their efforts to let me be close to so many animals. I learned the meaning of symbiosis early and I have to be grateful for that...thanks Mom & Dad.
I apologize to amartel - I confused your question with one from Aridog.
@Aridog: I don't know what's wrong with my grapes. I was pleased that nature took her course and gave fruit, but I'm disappointed with my viticultural husbandry. I'll try harder next cycle.
I just checked with a neighbor two doors away and they are seeing the same weird phenomena in their grapes. All I have for now is WTF!? I doubt it is your "husbandry" since our vines are so old their roots likely reach Beijing. I am going to try to learn what is happening this year that has in the previous 64, or 31 under my care. Many of the grapes turn a shade of brown with a mottled surface and are hard pustules rather than normal growing green to purple concord grapes.
Sadly, "Cookie" passed away in her sleep a few days ago. She was over 12 years old (upper limit of a rabbit's lifespan). She had a great life. We buried her about where this photo was taken.
23 comments:
My garden is being really weird.
I'm growing my vegetables (what there are of them) in depressions so that when I water I can make little lakes that can soak in over time. The squirrel did in all seedlings so I finally bought some squash plants and they were doing horrible and had squash bugs so I mulched them with some straw and sprayed bug poison (mostly pyrethrin) all over them and they perked up.
So I mulched the peppers so they wouldn't get mud splashed all over them and it would be pretty, and that worked nicely and it keeps the dirt from drying out, though I sort of have to guess how much of a lake I'm making when I water them because it's all straw now.
So I decided, hey, tomatoes and I can use up the straw because I'll just buy more before I clean the chicken coop. So I tucked the lovely yellow straw around my lush looking tomato plants (no tomatoes, and few flowers, but they sure looked nice.)
So, three days later I'm looking at them and the leaves on the inside of the bushes are dying off. The rest of the plant looks great but there are curled up brown leaves all over. It doesn't make sense that it's the straw.
So... just weird.
I planted a grape vine 3 years and this year it bore clusters of little fruit for the first time. Unfortunately, most of them are cracking and seem infested with rot. I guess I need to learn a little viticulture as it sure isn't garden variety growing.
@Synova, isn't it normal for some tomato leaves to brown near the bottom in a fast growing plant? I get a little of that every year too. I just pluck them off.
I would tell you a "Tale from Amy's Garden" but I haven't heard anything about it for a while so it's just not possible.
I didn't grow a garden this year. I'm sick of the damned deer eating all the vegetables before I get a chance to harvest. We have raised beds, but we need a big tall at least 7 ft fence around the area. There is no point in attempting anything until we have a fence. And the Dumbplumber is slammed with work until October at least.
All the young fruit trees are protected by circles of wire fencing so at least they can grow up without being eaten to death. The mature trees seem to be able to handle a few deer nibbles. The rose bushes?? Forget it. They are pruned back so hard by the deer that we had no roses this year. The deer decided to make beds for themselves in the Shasta Daisies. So flat flowerbeds.
We had a dead buck on the road in front of our house a week ago. GOOD!!!!. I tied a rope around his antlers and frontal area and hauled him off across the road and out into a field with the tractor. You need to do this before they get "ripe' or they will burst and fall apart. Stink!!! Woooo...eeee. Let the vultures and bald eagles have him. One less damned deer to ruin the yard.
We are getting some wrist rockets and ball bearings so we can shoot the bastards (male and female) and make them leave the yard. I don't want to kill them...necessarily....but just make them go away before they eat all the apples, pears and plums.
So...my garden. Meh. Sorry for the rant :-)
We've had 2 bad years. Got to get the soil tested. We buried one of our dogs in the garden. Toxic?
Reminds me of when I moved to San Pablo, DBQ. A couple of days after we moved in there was a beautiful buck in the back yard. I took a picture and called my Dad.
It didn't take very long before "beautiful" was replaced by many other adjectives, none of them nice.
In any case... are you rural enough that hunting is an option?
I haven't put in a vegetable garden in years. Except last summer my cousin came over when I was going to put in three Beefmasters next to the chain link fence at my mom's. He very kindly put them in for me.
Those are nice plants, chick. Cherry tomatoes are great because they're bite-size.
In any case... are you rural enough that hunting is an option?
Oh. YES. Very rural. But it isn't deer hunting season just yet. Mid August for archery and starting in Sept in some areas.....Nov and Oct. We are mostly the X zones where the big mulies are and which are 'draw' zones...by lottery. Very desirable.
Herbs are doing best. I've picked mint, parsley and cilantro a lot, and used them. The parsley is quite large. Cilantro already formed coriander seeds. I'll plant those just for fun.
Tomatos are growing. I notice a few out there, but not as many tomatoes as tomato flowers. Not enough insects. Whatever tomatoes grow will be small. I already picked one. And I do not like that.
I want big tomatoes, so boo-hoo for me.
But what am I complaining about? The grocery stores do not have heirloom tomatoes yet either. So I'll just shut up and be patient.
Perhaps I can use the sunniest portion of the terrace next year, and leave it at that.
Chile plants look like something is attacking them. The plants started out well then shriveled back. No fruit at all. They stopped blooming. Chiles were all a bust. All varieties. So far, anyway.
I sprayed one pot of them with Neet, but it doesn't look like that helped, and they're not flowering anymore.
Regular decorative flowers are all the eh.
Too late, dontchaknow.
Strawberries dies.
I have a large decorative pot in a shaded corner with a fountain inside it running full time. There is electricity outlet out there but no water spigot. I use a siphon from the 50 gal aquarium, then leaving the hose in the aquarium, put the output side onto a water filter inside the kitchen and refill the aquarium, and that takes care of my waterboy duties.
But now I'm thinking refill the fountain bucket and use the pump to cycle hydroponic tomatoes instead of tomatoes in dirt. Set the buckets staged in height and use gravity to drain one to another into a reservoir back to the fountain.
Or something.
To keep the roots wet inside their closed buckets. Regularly and repetitively soaked throughout the day and drained, their roots enclosed inside their buckets but not soaking in water. Their nutrients and their ph draining over their roots kept constant.
The thing is, it must be attractive and not appear like a science project. It will have to be a complete fake out. Maybe 5 gallon buckets inside decorative pots.
They needn't grow upward trained with wire or cords as tomato farmers do. Rather, they can grow up and drape over the balcony railing for all I care. That would be pretty too.
Look at this page and adjust what you see to what I just wrote. LOOK, I said.
This year one of two Earth Boxes is doing the best of all. That one has the parsley in it, and a few flowers creeping over the edge. But it's an ugly box.
Last year I planted grass seed in it as a homage to a lawn. But I neglected acquiring a flamingo with wire legs.
It is a half-hearted affair because the spring stayed cool for so long. The start was very late this year and that took the shine off the whole project. Plus I started seeds way too late. I am a terrible farmer. Always was a terrible farmer. I lack the common sense and commitment required for sound plant husbandry practices.
I was telling a friend that I allowed my plants to dry out and they had difficulty recovering from that neglect, and a couple of those incidents ...
He finished my sentence and cracked up laughing at the stupidity like, well, fucking DUH!
chickelit said...
I planted a grape vine 3 years and this year it bore clusters of little fruit for the first time. Unfortunately, most of them are cracking and seem infested with rot. I guess I need to learn a little viticulture as it sure isn't garden variety growing.
That's odd, because I am experiencing the same early rot phenomena here (Michigan) as well. However this grape arbor system of
multiple shoots is 60 years old and has never had this happen before...at least not in the 30+ years we've been caring for it. It is the envy of all my Arab neighbors, many now who have built arbors and started their own system.
Routine annual care has involved mostly an initial pruning back, then periodic trimming off "runners & stringers" (non-productive shoots) until ripening time in August. This year there is a larger grape cluster crop than usual and half are dying off as you describe. WTF?
I realize out bounty up to this year has been sheer luck, but something is happening this year that is different that all others. Lacking real knowledge, this week I will be trimming off all slightly weak looking clusters their shoots....and brutally cutting off anything that looks like an unproductive stringer...which I think I have been careless about of late.
Have to do this...what would a late August and early September be without drunken birds shitting purple every where, basking in to windows, and hordes of yellow jackets to make back yard life dicey?
PS: These are "Concord" grapes, which I compare to snot luggies wrapped in handy capsules...however, Judi and a couple friends really like them so I try to save them and drive off the hornets.
Nice Dalmation rabbit.
Pet or just there to fertilize the plants?
@Aridog: We've had that rabbit for about 12 years now. She has the most luxuriant soft fur. She gets to hop around the fenced yard all day and nibble grass. She also has a taste for vegetables, and if you look closely at the first photo, you'll notice that the tomatoes are fenced for protection. She coexists happily with a dog and two cats. She tends to poop in one place (poo corner) which makes it easy to transfer as a fertilizer.
Sweet :) What is her name?
Sorry for the delay. I had to go change half my internet passwords first. It's "Cookie."
Awww.
A peaceable kingdom.
Chicklet...that was Amartel who asked about it. My query was about the rot you see appearing on your grape vines. Same here, firs time ever in 30+ years on a 60+ year old vine system.
However, I had a pet rabbit (big sob) when I was a kid, a Belgian Hare whose fence (covering half our city yard) had to have heavy chicken wire buried underground to keep him from digging his way out, which he never ceased trying to do. We, too, used his pellets for fertilizer on various garden plants. My big ass old Tomcat (lived 17 &1/2 years and survived multiple fights, including ground hogs, raccoons, German
Shepherds, sundry other foolish lesser dogs...at 22 & 1/2 lbs he was a sight to behold. Only fight loss, other than a skirmish with "Peter", was to a delivery truck that knocked one of his eyes out. He only tried to bully "Peter" once...after than it was respect shown, unless "Peter" was in his kennel cage when "Tommie" could reach down and swat him.
"Peter" also had a habit of bitting down hard on careless humans who reached in to his cage or otherwise irritated him. Damn I loved that Rabbit (or Hare).
I guess I owe my parents praise for their forbearance and their efforts to let me be close to so many animals. I learned the meaning of symbiosis early and I have to be grateful for that...thanks Mom & Dad.
I apologize to amartel - I confused your question with one from Aridog.
@Aridog: I don't know what's wrong with my grapes. I was pleased that nature took her course and gave fruit, but I'm disappointed with my viticultural husbandry. I'll try harder next cycle.
I just checked with a neighbor two doors away and they are seeing the same weird phenomena in their grapes. All I have for now is WTF!? I doubt it is your "husbandry" since our vines are so old their roots likely reach Beijing. I am going to try to learn what is happening this year that has in the previous 64, or 31 under my care. Many of the grapes turn a shade of brown with a mottled surface and are hard pustules rather than normal growing green to purple concord grapes.
Sadly, "Cookie" passed away in her sleep a few days ago. She was over 12 years old (upper limit of a rabbit's lifespan). She had a great life. We buried her about where this photo was taken.
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