“NOTHING kills creepy charlie..you'd have to nuke your whole yard killing everything and still it will thrive...”

“I just did a google search for "Tile Mosaic" and found quite a few very imromative "how to" sites give that a try.”

“There was an old overgrown and misshapen viburnum shading part of my vegetable garden that I wanted to see flower before I decided what to do with it. The flowers were not all that nice. Plus, they were white and it was crowding a nice kousa dogwood that also has white flowers.

I cut it up last night after work. I was out there with the chain saw until about 9pm. (My wife thinks I’m nuts.)

This morning I found a beautiful “Wine & Roses” Weigela

that is just perfect for that spot. I wanted a pink or red flowering shrub that wouldn’t grow too tall. If it had red/purple leaves, it would really provide a nice contrast. The fact that this shrub also attracts hummingbirds is pure gravy.

I can’t wait to plant this baby!”

“Coolio! :D I dug out a huge shrub this spring... I planted a rose bush there instead :)”

“For some reason the rain from Arlene is making all the Japanese beetles come out. I know I have them but I can never find any plant damage from them. I was sitting out on the porch with one of the outdoor cats and I kept getting divebombed by 4 Japanese beetles. I caught them and took them in to my indoor cats, who love them like mobile cat treats. Nothing but running and jumping until "Smack! Crunch crunch crunch!"”

“Yep, I try to do without pesticides but' beetle-bags' are one item that can be found around my place.

I picked my first ripe 'Blue Lake' bush green beans today and still have very young 'early frosty' sweet peas on the vine.
last edited: 6/11/05 2:19:05 PM”

“I don't have pests in my garden...and i've never used any means of unatural control in my organic garden. Why? Toads. I have billions of em living my my garden. every morning I have to becareful of where I walk so I dont step on em. i have never seen a slug or damage. I don't have aphids on my roses, worms dont touch my cabbage, beatles dont eat my flowers...the toads eat anything that moves.”

“Pulled all the spinach today and put it in freezer bags, replaced with Espada and Early Provider beans. Swiss Chard's finally starting to come around good enough to pick.

A slow start due to unseasonable low temps.”

“Yeah i gotta start eatting my chard...have any good recipies? never really eatten it before.”

“SC, if I can get my s--t in gear, I'll try to post or email some recipes. I've got a really good one for a swiss chard and lentil soup. Very yummy.”

“My basil is not coming up this year. I just got a good deal on organic already grown and packaged basil from my store. It had beautiful perfect big green leaves.

I put some in a freezer bag, and pureed some in olive oil to freeze. I take the frozen one out in chunks to use. The oil is no problem since I use basil in dishes that have oil in them.

I have one artichoke plant that looks like it has not grown 1/18th of an inch since my husband planted it over a month ago. I just don't think I get enough sun.”

“Hey Spirit,

Chard is one of the best veggies to grow IMO. The amazing thing about it is that it doesn't "bolt", or go to seed, leaving the leaves bitter. I believe it's because it's in the mustard family. That's the reason for the seed cluster like a beet. You grow it to about an inch. There will be 2-5 plants. Thin to one.
I use it in fresh salads, or a great mix with spinach and beet tops for boiling. It freezes well, just as good as spinach.
This is a plant you grow from spring until fall. I grow them 4 per square foot.”

“seems like my garden has gone bezerk in the last couple of weeks...I have bird house gourd vines taking over my house, pumpkins ate the dog, sunflowers are reaching for the sky...and so are the tomatoes for that matter....I think my peppers are mutants, and my flower garden...oh my god...a freaking jungle. my foxgloves are out shadowing me...Im afraid to step out there...I might dissapear and never be seen again.”

“I kind of take care of my parents' yard; when they aren't busy killing it I bring it back. Well, some of the roses and the gardenias are blooming, as is a monster parsley plant that would be 4 feet tall if it hadn't conveniently flopped over to rest on a garden bench. That thing is covered in thousands of little flowers with an intriguing scent that blends really well with the other flowers. Very very cool. Funny thing is the smell makes you hungry. :)”

“I try to be a gardener...hehehe. I keep a small forest of houseplants and I'm always looking for a new one to compliment my jungle. Since I live in an apartment, I can't do much outside, but I do have a few planters set up. My favorite right now is a big pot where I put some bulbs for some lilies. I just noticed today that I have my first flower bud! I planted them last spring, so I didn't get any flowers off of them.”

“Picked my first substantial quantityof green beans yesterday and the hybrid blackberries have at least a gallon of ripe ones now.”

“my garden is really shaping up. all the neighbors are comoenting on it all good wtuff :) so we must be doing soething right. it all flowers and veggies now like a jungle but oh so pretty.


hehehe im drunk :0”

“My cucumbers and melons are a total wash thanks to a fungus amongus. Same for the red pontiac potatoes. The sweet potatoes are doimg nicely, and I think next year I'll try growing a tropical variety of squash that's naturally resistant to all this garbage. I am surprised just how much water the swiss chard transpires. It seems like I can't keep them irrigated properly. Fortunately we had some very thorough rain this afternoon.”

“I'm glad you got some rain, we need it very baddly...garden is dry as a bone :(. No fungus here...I spray my squash with milk to prevent it and never have a problem :)”

“If I used milk in the garden, everything would get eaten by possums and raccoons, and probably the outdoor cats. Not to mention the lingering smell of sour milk. Yuck. :P”

“funny...it never smells sour when I do it...
You sprey just the plants that get affected”

“WHAT THE HECK IS EATING MY VEGGIE LEAVES???

:( I noticed today that something that I can not see is eating my leaves. in the garden and my pepper and tomato plants on my porch.



question about my tomato plant, it is growing very tall. does it need to be trimed?
take the flowers off?
it is a grape tomato plant”

“Japanesse Beatles?

You ought to see one of my tomato plants! It has reached mutant status.”

“not beetles. i would have seen them
i feel like camping out next to the garden and waiting for the little buggers to show up and them

WHAM!!!!!”

“I found a little worm on some of mine that were eating them up.

I've also had problems with chipmunks this year.”

“You need to pull off the sucker branches---the little branches that grow right out of the point where a main branch grows from the stalk. It wouldn't hurt to trim a few branches that have no blossoms. The leaf eater could be tomato worms. It's a green caterpillar that can grow HUGE if it eats enough and it will eventually eat the fruit too. Look for their droppings to help locate them because the worm itself can be hard to spot until it's really big.”

“cabbage moths...they love the leaves.

and yep, trim the suckers.”

“Check this baby out :P


”

“What variety of tomato is that monstrosity?!!”

“looks like a pumpkin tomato!”

“It does look like a pumpkin!

I picked twenty pounds of roma tomatoes yesterday. Made ten pints of tomato basil spaghetti sauce. I was up until 1am. I'm not sure what the heck I was thinking.”

“That is a lot of tomatos! I did not grow romas this year. I only grew, cherry, grape and some kind called mountain spring tomatos.”

“I love those grape tomatoes. I grew tiny 100's and some yellow pear shaped tiny tomatoes this year. The yellow ones are super sweet.”

“It's callled Pink Stuffer- It's RARE :)

:)
And very tasty too :)”

“I've had a few Pink Stuffers in my day and not one of them looked like that.”

“The Mutant Ninja Tomato

(Pssst, ... don't let Psycho Squirrel see it or it's gone!)”

“I guess my double entendre was a little subtle.


This is my first year gardening in my new place. It was farmland at one time and I have wonderful sandy loam soil. I planted my 4 tomato plants the same distance apart as I’m used to doing.

Hoo-boy! I’ll leave a little more space next year. I basically have a solid wall of tomato plants about 8 feet high and wide. It’s hard to get at the tomatoes in the center. Very tasty too.”

“Having a degree from Rutgers does have its rewards.”

“I am only a couple of miles from Rutgers primary horticultural farms.”

“I haven't seen anything that nasty looking sense that wood chopping incident with my late brother.”

“

WHOOOO BABY!

Come to pappa!”

“The tomato, not you freaks.”

“i thought about you today SC, they said on the Bob and Tom show today that sept. 10 is world naked gardening day
last edited: 8/12/05 3:16:22 PM”

“The tomatoes do not do great this year. Okra and corn are.”

“amazing tomato SC!

Our jalapeno are out of control the zukse and squash are doing worse than usual.”

“habenaro's are great this year, jalapeno's too.

tomato plants are doing awesome, early girl, better boys, and some cherries.

cucumber's, a little under par.”

“I just finished testing my garden soil. Yikes. The Ph is neutral. Nitrogen and phosphorus are so low they don't even register, and the potassium is very low. I guess it's time to lay out some serious fertilizer. No wonder things didn't grow very well this year, except the sweet potatoes taking over my back yard.”

“I'd like to get my soil tested sometime.

We've got bore's ruining our zucchini plants. =( There're flowers everywhere and I doubt they'll have the chance to grow into anything. We've gotten a few but I haven't yet allowed one to grow to baseball bat proportions to grate and freeze for bread through the winter.”

“treebait...lots of compost...bannana peels are great for the garden :D

Sass, toss em...:( before the borers have a chance to get into the soil:( It sucks but you wont get much of anything anyway. They got my pumpkins and zucs this year. I didnt have a one last year.”

“This was just a soil test kit I got in the gardening section at the hardware store. I'm temoted to pick up a few more and test other areas around the yard. It was 4 little vials with capsules of chemicals in them.

By the way, the compost hasn't helped much yet. That's sad when even the compost is weak. I need to get more of that organic fertilizer blend from "Gardens Alive!" the only problem with that stuff is animals digging around looking for the goodies.
last edited: 8/18/05 8:58:40 AM”