Gardeners

[RAE]

Is your garden fenced?

Yes, but that doesn't necessarily deter woodchucks. They keep searching the perimeter, looking for a way to dig in. It is wooded not far behind my garden, so they have a lot of cover to hide in, before approaching the garden.

 

[street]

I'm not familiar with woodchucks but it sounds like they could be a problem.

We had hail early evening yesterday and did some damage. Broke off a lot of tomatoes plant branches and beat up everything. Still a lot to be thankful for it didn't destroy the garden totally.

We have a beautiful garden this year, but we need more and heat for things to ripen.

 

[Gumby]

Mine is fenced, and like you, they kept digging under the fence. So I dug a trench at the base of the fence and buried more fencing - a 3 foot wide strip of the green wire mesh fence bent in half to an L shape, with 1-1/2 ft down and 1-1/2 ft out. I overlapped it with the existing fence by an inch or two and attached it with zip ties. That has stopped them from digging under the fence.

 

[JoeWras]

At this point, additional defense mechanisms and procedures have been extremely fruitful. No illegal immigration by vegetative consumers detected. Several rushed advances have been repelled by walking the perimeter of said fenced garden, upon observation facilities high above said fenced garden. Women and children are sleeping well, men, with one eye open.

Ditto. I had to build a wall. My hop-over wall was insufficient for hoofed bandits, although it was quite good against the bottom feeders (rabbits and chipmunks - yes there is screen under the dirt too).

 

[Winemaker]

I've had to trap 3 woodchucks so far this year..........all basically trying to dig their way into my garden. One did make it in, and did some damage before I was able to trap him. It's the same thing every year around here with the woodchucks. They den under an old, falling-down garage across the street, then eventually make their way over here to check out my garden, and my neighbor's garden. Gardens are like magnets to woodchucks........

My groundhog problem was temporarily halted after I was able to eliminate 18 of them over 4 years via extremely fast lead poisoning.

 

[YakGrl]

Ditto. I had to build a wall. My hop-over wall was insufficient for hoofed bandits, although it was quite good against the bottom feeders (rabbits and chipmunks - yes there is screen under the dirt too).

How do you get in to work in the garden?

 

[JoeWras]

How do you get in to work in the garden?

On the short ends, which are not movable, the net is stapled.

On the long ends, which have "doors" on the original bottom wall, the net is stretched and captured by 5 screws acting as a kind of hook. When accessing the bed, I simply unhook it.

It is very simple and works due to the stretchy nature of this netting I am reusing from past planting projects. See photos.

 

[RAE]

My groundhog problem was temporarily halted after I was able to eliminate 18 of them over 4 years via extremely fast lead poisoning.

I think I have removed about that many from our yard over the last 4 years also, via trapping. But, every Spring another pair shows up and has a bunch of young ones, so it goes on and on.

 

[SJhawkins]

We got a good crop of banna peppers this year, for whatever reason never planted them before. Had the first one today it was fabulous.

To make a long story longer I was thinking it was so good that I'm going to save some seeds, went to look what we planted and it's a hybrid, dang it.

Anyone have any pointers for a good heirloom seeds and are they easy to start from seed? The internet says peppers are easy to start from seed but......

 

[street]

We got a good crop of banna peppers this year, for whatever reason never planted them before. Had the first one today it was fabulous.

To make a long story longer I was thinking it was so good that I'm going to save some seeds, went to look what we planted and it's a hybrid, dang it.

Anyone have any pointers for a good heirloom seeds and are they easy to start from seed? The internet says peppers are easy to start from seed but......

Yes we do too. We have three sweet banana pepper plants, and we just love them. I have been going out each day grab beet leaves, peppers and dill for a salad. I think by Sunday we will be able to pick a few tomatoes. I love to pick it fresh and eat it.

 

[Gumby]

We got a good crop of banna peppers this year, for whatever reason never planted them before. Had the first one today it was fabulous.

To make a long story longer I was thinking it was so good that I'm going to save some seeds, went to look what we planted and it's a hybrid, dang it.

Anyone have any pointers for a good heirloom seeds and are they easy to start from seed? The internet says peppers are easy to start from seed but......

I start all my peppers from seed under lights in my kitchen. They are easy to grow from seed. I start poblanos in late February, because they have a really long time to harvest. I start all the other types in mid- April. It takes 10- 12 days for them to germinate. After the first set of real leaves appear, I up-pot them from the seed starter coir tray plugs to a 4 inch peat pot, but keep them under the lights. When they get too large for that, I up-pot again to a larger plastic pot of about 8 inch diameter. Those pots I put out in my driveway during the day to cold harden and bring them into my garage at night. I do this for a week or so and then transplant them out to the garden. I cage all of them for support in the garden.

I have had some success in saving seed from one year to start the next year. A key is to leave one or two peppers on the plant until they are overripe(let them turn red). Then collect the seeds. Rinse them and let them dry on a paper plate. Also, keep your pepper varieties separated in the garden, so they don't crossbreed.

In addition to polanos, I grow jalapeños, serŕanos, cherry, cubanelle and Bell peppers. In the past, I've grown cayenne and Anaheims.

 

[CincyDave]

Went out for my morning garden check and have first red tomato. Only a cherry tomato, but it's a start.

 

[CincyDave]

We got a good crop of banna peppers this year, for whatever reason never planted them before. Had the first one today it was fabulous.

To make a long story longer I was thinking it was so good that I'm going to save some seeds, went to look what we planted and it's a hybrid, dang it.

Anyone have any pointers for a good heirloom seeds and are they easy to start from seed? The internet says peppers are easy to start from seed but......

A seeding starting heat mat and domed plastic cover will do wonders for starting pepper and tomato seeds. And plenty of light, or they will get leggy.

 

[Winemaker]

The new greenhouse has created a new problem/opportunity with rain water. I put a set of gutters on each side to direct the rainfall away from base of greenhouse. I put short lengths of downspout directed into used 6 gallon white grape juice buckets, then use that water to water the garden. WOW! I never realized how much rain one could collect for a 9x12 greenhouse!

So now I've created a rain barrel collector on one side using this year's Chilean Sauv Blanc barrel. It is located on the lower end of garden, so I will hook up a small 12V pump to push the water through a filter then the drip irrigation lines. It is powered by my small 300W greenhouse solar system. It's been fun learning about that, although I'll probably add another panel and battery this winter.

 

[street]

I start all my peppers from seed under lights in my kitchen. They are easy to grow from seed. I start poblanos in late February, because they have a really long time to harvest. I start all the other types in mid- April. It takes 10- 12 days for them to germinate. After the first set of real leaves appear, I up-pot them from the seed starter coir tray plugs to a 4 inch peat pot, but keep them under the lights. When they get too large for that, I up-pot again to a larger plastic pot of about 8 inch diameter. Those pots I put out in my driveway during the day to cold harden and bring them into my garage at night. I do this for a week or so and then transplant them out to the garden. I cage all of them for support in the garden.

I have had some success in saving seed from one year to start the next year. A key is to leave one or two peppers on the plant until they are overripe(let them turn red). Then collect the seeds. Rinse them and let them dry on a paper plate. Also, keep your pepper varieties separated in the garden, so they don't crossbreed.

In addition to polanos, I grow jalapeños, serŕanos, cherry, cubanelle and Bell peppers. In the past, I've grown cayenne and Anaheims.

I might let one at the end of the year over ripen (turn red) and try to use the seeds for my sweet peppers. Great idea!

 

[Flieger]

I have had 4 tomatoes so far that i have pulled off while green (me 4 - squirrels 0), then let ripen in a recycled grapes container. Have about 6 still growing. 2 tomato plants in total.

Neither cucumber nor bell peppers have started to grow anything. I think I am not getting enough sun for those.

 

[wearefinishedworking]

I have harvested 2 cucumbers and a handful of cherry tomatoes that are so sweet! Lots of green tomatoes, and like you will grab at the first hint of turning red. It is an annual battle with our squirrels!

 

[Graybeard]

When spraying the plants with fertilizer this morning I noticed 2 tomato plants have a small tomato on each. There may be more on those 2 plants and the others cuz I really didn't look that closely.

Cuke plants have a lot of flowers so they should be producing shortly. Pole beans have flowers but too early for beans.

 

[Gumby]

We just came back from 2 weeks in Maine and I went out to our garden. I believe that the weeds were lifting weights or something in my absence, because they are certainly robust now. I spent several hours weeding the tomatoes and removing yellow leaves at the bottom. I'll go out tomorrow morning to weed some more in the other growing beds, but it will take a solid week to get things back under control. Right now, I have 1800 sqft of weeds, with a few useful crops poking through them.

 

[street]

We will pick two ripe tomatoes tomorrow. I'm excited for a BLT!

On Wednesday morning 5th of July, we had 38 degrees when I woke up. We need more heat and warm nights for ripening, but I don't like to heat so not complaining.

I read where tomatoes are at the highest price in history this year. A shortage and fast-food companies aren't using them anymore because of the cost. They don't want to raise prices so eliminated the fruit.

 

[SJhawkins]

Thank you all for responding to my pepper question.

 

[Gumby]

A seeding starting heat mat and domed plastic cover will do wonders for starting pepper and tomato seeds. And plenty of light, or they will get leggy.

Oh, definitely. I have rigged my seed starting set up so that the lights can be raised and lowered. I try to keep them as close to the seedlings as I can without actually touching them.

 

[flyingaway]

I have harvested my first tomato this year. It grew out of the ground from the rotten tomatoes on the ground last year. It is very small, seems to be a different variety. We had planted some dark tomatoes, but it seems to have changed.

Travel is a big problem for gardening. We were traveling in Asia from late March to early May, so I missed planting seeds. My main vegetables are tomatoes and pumpkins, a few varieties and many of them. We had a 11 days if travel to central America past week, the tomatoes and pumpkins grow out a lot of new shoots.

For fruit trees, the pears are doing very well this year. The peach tree does not have a single fruit. I missed time to pollinating the pawpaw trees and only see a few fruits.

 

[Time2]

Has anyone ever eaten Blossoms from melons?
My wife found something new to sell from her garden this year.
I see recipes with then stuffed. A spoon is in the picture, just to show how many blossoms in the box.

 

[jfn111]

Some zucchinis, cucumbers, radishes and one lone tomato have been harvested so far. 11 squirrels have been trapped and relocated with a few million more to go.