What are you up to today?

[Greg-Florida]

Yesterday I went to the feed store for vegetable plants. I was disappointed to see that my favorite dumpsters had been emptied, but I did get some plants I want. I got a Celebrity tomato, a jalapeno, a squash which I find flavorless, same as eggplant. The BN and mystery snails love the stuff. I still need another Celebrity, 2 Poblano peppers, and a few more herbs and I'll be set.

Y'all would laugh your head of if you saw my garden. I don't think that anyone's red neck gardens can compete with mine, with cardboard covering everything. But if it enables me to grow stuff without having do dig, I'm happy with it. I love sticking stuff in the ground, watching it grow, and present me with really good food.

I'm still mourning the loss of my blueberry crop, but at least the bushes lived. I'm hoping that since it wasn't able to grow the berries to maturity, it might mean that I'll get an even better crop next year.

Would never laugh at a fellow gardeners garden, would stand back and learn! We used cardboard tents too!
My son Nick and I made an 8x5 square foot garden in the back yard where we had full sun and man... the stuff we grew in there was amazing! SO much crammed into a small area, we had trellises managing the growth.
Lettuce, radishes, brussels, corn, tomatoes, beets, BIG cukes and carrots, string beans, BIG tasty peppers, etc. Super fertile soil! Great memories. Then we built a pool in the small yard, no more garden :-(

[LizStreithorst]

I bet you'd way more like the garden back. I guess as hot as it is in south Florida it's nice to have a pool, but I'd never want one. I'd like a big pond with fish and ducks and turtles, but not a swimming pool.

I'll call my garden "unconventional" just like I don't call myself a crazy old lady. I now call myself eccentric.

[brewmaster15]

Liz, somewhere on simply are pics of my fishbox garden.. I finally found a good use for all those large styro fishboxes.. they make awesome planters.

[brewmaster15]

I looked quickly to find those pics.. still looking but if you go here..
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...ghlight=Garden

You will see my 5 gal home depot garden planters and my water storage barrel planter.. I planted potatoes last year in cardboard boxes..lol.

[dagray]

Yesterday finished reconciling a 130,000.00 government purchase card, today processed a. Bunch of purchase packets, and tomorrow I will spend six hours buying stuff for the dam and then burn two hours leave

[Second Hand Pat]

Yesterday I returned from a trip to the west coast of Florida and I will be processing images, catching up on some sleep and returning to my normal routine
Pat

[Greg-Florida]

I looked quickly to find those pics.. still looking but if you go here..
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...ghlight=Garden

You will see my 5 gal home depot garden planters and my water storage barrel planter.. I planted potatoes last year in cardboard boxes..lol.

That's a lot of gardening Al! Wish I had the space for a pond and garden again. Next move will be to a parcel with space to spread out and cultivate.

[Greg-Florida]

I bet you'd way more like the garden back. I guess as hot as it is in south Florida it's nice to have a pool, but I'd never want one. I'd like a big pond with fish and ducks and turtles, but not a swimming pool.

I'll call my garden "unconventional" just like I don't call myself a crazy old lady. I now call myself eccentric.

The pool is more work than pleasure since nobody uses it and guess who gets to do the maintenance? Yes, planting and enjoying the fruits of my labor and the earth are preferred. I'll have one again. For now I have my shrubs, flowers and house plants. :-) We're all eccentric when it comes down to it!

[jeep]

I'm dumping my garden this year so I can start from scratch next year. There's something going on that kills off my vine plants like tomatoes and cucumbers. I've been increasing the number of plants but yielding fewer fruits. I'm using the old dirt for fill around the property. Im preparation, I'm building some compost bins out of 55g barrels so I'll hopefully have lots of fresh organic compost to start with next year...

[brewmaster15]

I'm dumping my garden this year so I can start from scratch next year. There's something going on that kills off my vine plants like tomatoes and cucumbers. I've been increasing the number of plants but yielding fewer fruits. I'm using the old dirt for fill around the property. Im preparation, I'm building some compost bins out of 55g barrels so I'll hopefully have lots of fresh organic compost to start with next year...

Brian, I don't suppose you have any images of the plants? Two common things come to mind ..

For Tomatoes, Theres several really bad pathogens of fungal and bacterial origin.These can persist in the soil for years. I run into issues if I don't apply a bed of mulch on top of the soil... and if we have a wet spring summer its pretty bad. We had a dry summer this year and last which was great for my tomatoes and peppers, but really wrecked havoc on our trees and shrubs, and my well.

https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/t...ses-disorders/

There are pesticides and fungicides you can use, but I refuse to do that here.

For Cucumbers.. Theres a nasty bug called squash bugs. They become a problem when more people in your area are planting squash and Cukes. They can smell the plants for miles and feed under the leaves out of sight..a few bugs are easy to miss and then over night your leaves are wilting from the babies hatching.


https://extension.umn.edu/fruit-and-...ts/squash-bugs

I have a hell of a time with my cucumbers and squash plants when the farm across the street decides to plant squash! I usually wait until they plant to see what they plant. Its kind of funny because I hope they will plant cabbage so I can plant alot of squash, but then I can't plant Kale and ciollard greens because of the huge numbers of cabbage moths the farm attract!

Oh, if you have an ag station near you they usually can test the soil and plants for free.. They can tell you what your soil is lacking and what pathogens you have,,Its a valuable resource that most states offer but under utilized or even known about.
al

[LizStreithorst]

All I did for my garden today was buy a new sprinkler because my old one had sprung a leak and find a large cardboard box beside one of my favorite dumpsters. There were a couple of people outside taking a smoke break I told them what I was doing, and asked if I could go inside the dumpster to get some of the other big cardboard. The girl said that the big bolt latch on the dumpster was hard to open and even harder to get closed. I got the one box they hadn't tossed inside it, though. I'll be slim pickings on my dumpster diving hobby for a while. That and a little grocery shopping was all I've managed to day except for animal care.

Today is a bad back day. Who knows why they happen...Lunch will be easy. I'm warming up a lovey tofu dish I made yesterday, served over Jasmin rice, of course. So all I'll really do today is hang around in the fish room watching my 2 pairs of Discus eating like pigs but not spawning. It's not a bad way to spend the day...As long as it's transitory.

[jeep]

I'll look into this. I've been to the K State extension center a few years ago but they weren't much help. Maybe I got an intern, lol...

Other than that, I'm headed to the airport right now to pick up some new fish from Miranda. They forgot to load my box on the early flight so I hope they don't forget to unload this time around...

[brewmaster15]

i'll look into this. I've been to the k state extension center a few years ago but they weren't much help. Maybe i got an intern, lol...

Other than that, i'm headed to the airport right now to pick up some new fish from miranda. They forgot to load my box on the early flight so i hope they don't forget to unload this time around...

nice!!!!!

[LizStreithorst]

Waiting for pics.

[jeep]

I do know there's a guy about a block from me that grows hundreds of plants and sells the tomatoes off his porch. He said he's been having horrible yields for the past 5+ years. We're thinking some sort of fungus in the area and hoping it's not a virus. I did read that you can cover the garden with 6mil black plastic and it'll kill everything in the soil after about a month of heat. But, I'm preparing to build a deck soon and the garden is in the way of my landscaping ideas so I'm looking to move the garden anyway. Hopefully it won't take me too long to get the energy to do it!