dontwantaname wrote:We got one really good tomato this weekend.
That was it for the big tomatoes. The cherry and grape tomatoes were good.

my garden is about gone now. it's raining so will be too muddy and dirty to go in tomorrow and you know i hate rain with a passion!

dontwantaname wrote:We got one really good tomato this weekend.
That was it for the big tomatoes. The cherry and grape tomatoes were good.

Really? That sucks. That sounds like my pumpkin and squash crops. One pumpkin, one squash (that I can see).

The tomato and pepper crops made up for it though. My celery is still alive, but hardly big enough to eat. It just never did much.

There's always next year. Or the grocery store.

The 2007 garden is now officially history. Spent this past weekend ripping out the pepper plants (and harvested another bushel of Bell and Banana peppers in the process...) and tomato plants, and storing all of the cages for the winter.

'Harvested' two or three cubic yards of weeds, tomato & pepper plants and cornstalks.

While moving all of that crap, I got to see the little animals that have been tunneling all over my garden all year. They might not all be moles. I saw scores of what appear to be voles, hopping out of the wheelbarrow as I would drop a pitchfork load of plants, or scurrying out from under a pile as I would rake. Generally they'd run to the edge of the garden and dig furiously til they were hidden. Little black buggers, most of them very tiny. There were a couple of larger guys, light brown or grey, larger than a mouse but smaller than a rat. (And I don't know if we even have rats out here...) They might have been moles. I didn't see the face. All I saw were mole asses. (rim shot please...)

Swung over to the Dark Side briefly and sprayed the whole garden plot with Round-Up, hoping to kill off whatever scourge overtook the garden this year. I'd have loved to take a flamethrower to it, but alas, that is one tool I do not own... :|

This year, I snapped this photo of a young robin looking at one of my tomatoes.

Last year, I snapped this photo of a baby robin in my back yard. I submitted this in a local photo contest, and it appeared in our Chamber of Commerce calendar. I call it Bad Hair Day.

Tsk, tsk ... poor little thread, drifting all the way to page 6 ...

Anyway, Spring is coming this week, and in anticipation of the snow melting and sun returning to the sky, I started my seeds this weekend.





Yesterday's toil yielded:

36 Early Giant Tomatoes
36 Beefsteak Tomatoes
18 Crimson Sweet Watermelon
18 (something else) Watermelon
24 Bell Pepper
24 Green Sweet Pepper
24 Yellow Banana Pepper
36 Cayenne Pepper
36 Jalapeño Peppers
36 Iceberg Lettuce
36 Boston White Lettuce
72 Celery

Now I just need to wait for the little buggers to sprout, and the world to thaw.

gwp wrote:Tsk, tsk ... and the world to thaw.

Cool, I like your setup!

gwp wrote:Tsk, tsk ... poor little thread, drifting all the way to page 6 ...

Anyway, Spring is coming this week, and in anticipation of the snow melting and sun returning to the sky, I started my seeds this weekend.





Yesterday's toil yielded:

36 Early Giant Tomatoes
36 Beefsteak Tomatoes
18 Crimson Sweet Watermelon
18 (something else) Watermelon
24 Bell Pepper
24 Green Sweet Pepper
24 Yellow Banana Pepper
36 Cayenne Pepper
36 Jalapeño Peppers
36 Iceberg Lettuce
36 Boston White Lettuce
72 Celery

Now I just need to wait for the little buggers to sprout, and the world to thaw.

Let's hope you have better luck than last year.

pooflady wrote:Let's hope you have better luck than last year.

You said it! No more mutant corn and Weeds From Outer Space, please.

I'm going to give it a very shallow tilling this year, wait for the first few weeds to sprout, and nuke the whole plot with broad spectrum weed killer. They claim you can do that before planting and have no residuals left over. Kind of violates my back-to-earth, hippie gardening thing, but I can't do another year like last year.

FenStar wrote:Cool, I like your setup!

Thanks. Next incarnation of it will be if/when I see anyone discarding old aluminum storm windows at the curb. I'd like to enclose the whole thing in sliding storm windows to hold moisture in but make access easy. It has a polyethylene cover now that I close and seal once the seeds sprout and the clear dome lids come off the trays. Works great, but is a pain to open and close for watering or to rotate the trays.

gwp wrote:Thanks. Next incarnation of it will be if/when I see anyone discarding old aluminum storm windows at the curb. I'd like to enclose the whole thing in sliding storm windows to hold moisture in but make access easy. It has a polyethylene cover now that I close and seal once the seeds sprout and the clear dome lids come off the trays. Works great, but is a pain to open and close for watering or to rotate the trays.

How are storm windows different from regular windows?

Edit: what happened to your site?

FenStar wrote:How are storm windows different from regular windows?

Hmmm ... maybe storm windows are a northern thing. They are an extra set of windows, usually mounted on the outside of the house, often also containing the window screens, and are used to provide an extra layer of protection/insulation for the windows in cold climates.

People discard old ones frequently, so they can upgrade to more modern versions, or to get rid of ones that are operating badly. They'd still work just fine for my greenhouse though.

FenStar wrote:Edit: what happened to your site?

What do you mean? It's still there (as far as I know ... I'd better go look ...) Yep, still there.

gwp wrote:What do you mean? It's still there (as far as I know ... I'd better go look ...) Yep, still there.

Guess I forgot the name then...

I like this thread.....just posting to bump it.
But.....I just put in the first order for our greenhouse this year, hope they can fill everything I ordered.
Plus.....I plan to put out more plants in pots this year on my deck. Maybe till up that little bed beside the house and put in some extra tomato plants.
YUM.
This winter has been hanging on way too long!

acemom wrote:I like this thread.....just posting to bump it.
But.....I just put in the first order for our greenhouse this year, hope they can fill everything I ordered.
Plus.....I plan to put out more plants in pots this year on my deck. Maybe till up that little bed beside the house and put in some extra tomato plants.
YUM.
This winter has been hanging on way too long!

Heya Ace! Yes, it has! In fact, it's supposed to snow again here today, 1-4".

The first lettuce sprouts have appeared in the starter trays though. Those were a gimme as they were leftover seed from last year and I just threw them in as a 'what the heck' thing at the last minute. Kind of glad I did now. Maybe I'll end up with viable lettuce this year. Heh, maybe I'll learn that I can grow it year round under the lights -- that'd be nice for next Winter.

I've got some landscaping to do this year as well. Have to rip out the 45-year old juniper, yew, cedar and ivy planted across the foundation in the front of the house and put in new ones. Probably dig it all out, work the soil and put in a border while I'm at it. That ought to keep me busy on a weekend or two.

dontwantaname wrote:That sounds like something to hire out for sure!

Nah. Playin' in the dirt isn't something to pay somebody else to do! I have all the tools and everything. (And I have a pickup truck for pulling the old ones out by the roots! Lots of fun!)

Now the housepainting -- that's something to hire out. But, sadly, I'm not. That one I'll be doing myself too. I did buy a sprayer last year though. Playing with the toys makes up for some of the aggravation.

gwp wrote:I've got some landscaping to do this year as well. Have to rip out the 45-year old juniper, yew, cedar and ivy planted across the foundation in the front of the house and put in new ones. Probably dig it all out, work the soil and put in a border while I'm at it. That ought to keep me busy on a weekend or two.

NOOOOOOOOOOO! Don't hurt the trees! Why are you going to take out the trees?

FenStar wrote:NOOOOOOOOOOO! Don't hurt the trees! Why are you going to take out the trees?

Because the cedar has grown well past the roofline and rubs against the gutters and provides a potential place for a burglar to climb; the junipers and yew have become overgrown over the years and have a lot of dead areas on them, and the holly (sorry, not ivy) is old and 'leggy' -- not many leaves, and they're all at the ends of the branches.

These plants all got badly damaged during an ice storm a number of years ago, and have been bent and warped by heavy snowfall as well. They're tired, and ugly. It's time for them to go. It's the humane thing to do.

gwp wrote:Because the cedar has grown well past the roofline and rubs against the gutters and provides a potential place for a burglar to climb; the junipers and yew have become overgrown over the years and have a lot of dead areas on them, and the holly (sorry, not ivy) is old and 'leggy' -- not many leaves, and they're all at the ends of the branches.

These plants all got badly damaged during an ice storm a number of years ago, and have been bent and warped by heavy snowfall as well. They're tired, and ugly. It's time for them to go. It's the humane thing to do.

Mr. GWP,

Be careful, you must be. Strong with the dark side of the force, those trees are.

no1 wrote:Mr. GWP,

Be careful, you must be. Strong with the dark side of the force, those trees are.

I will be piloting the Millennium F-150, and accompanied by a squadron of Troy-Bilt fighters. Obi-wan McCullough will provide backup.

Watermelon has sprouted. Spring is here. *sigh*

The weatherman tells us that it will break 60* every day for the next 5 days. We're also not supposed to have a frost at night during that same period. It doesn't mean the danger of frost has passed though, so no planting yet.

I plan to use the nice weather this weekend to repair and enhance the fence around the garden, and add some height to it to try to prevent the deer from jumping over and eating all of my crops.

Planted 72 forget-me-nots and 72 diasca in the greenhouse two nights ago. Wonder how long before they'll need to be transplanted.

Tomatoes are all growing great in the greenhouse. Watermelon seedlings are getting huge with secondary leaves sprouting. Some peppers have emerged, but the bell and banana peppers haven't yet sprouted.

If it dries out at all outdoors this weekend, I might have to get the tiller out and make a pass around the garden with it.

Really looking forward to it being green outdoors rather than gray.

Wahoo for garden season! I've got some seedlings that are getting ready to go into the ground within the next two weeks or so. We haven't had a frost here in Albuquerque in the last 4 weeks, but the average last frost is April 17th or so, so I'm holding out just a bit. We've got a new house with around 200 sq ft of gardening space, which is enough for lots of tomatoes, peppers, corn, squash, cucumbers, melon, and onions. Can't wait for the next couple months...

Well, who'da thunk you could get sunburned in early April in the 43rd parallel, but I did.

Dug 10 post holes, set pressure-treated timbers, ran 150 feet of top rail, stretched and stapled 125 feet of chain-link fence to posts.

Sure was a lot of work, but I needed to get myself back to moving again after a winter of sitting around doing very little. I'm sure as soon as I can move again, I'll feel better...

Now I have to design a gate for the new fence as it's now 6 feet tall and the old gate was in sad shape anyway. I think I want to hang it from a sliding overhead rail this time as it's 6 foot tall and 8 feet wide -- too big to swing. Need to figure out what to use for a rail.

Oh, and I ran the tiller around the garden one pass, shallow to get it aerated a bit.

Ah, spring!

gwp wrote:Well, who'da thunk you could get sunburned in early April in the 43rd parallel, but I did.

Dug 10 post holes, set pressure-treated timbers, ran 150 feet of top rail, stretched and stapled 125 feet of chain-link fence to posts.

Sure was a lot of work, but I needed to get myself back to moving again after a winter of sitting around doing very little. I'm sure as soon as I can move again, I'll feel better...

Now I have to design a gate for the new fence as it's now 6 feet tall and the old gate was in sad shape anyway. I think I want to hang it from a sliding overhead rail this time as it's 6 foot tall and 8 feet wide -- too big to swing. Need to figure out what to use for a rail.

Oh, and I ran the tiller around the garden one pass, shallow to get it aerated a bit.

Ah, spring!

Let us know how well you get out of bed in the morning.

pooflady wrote:Let us know how well you get out of bed in the morning.

At about 7:30 tonight, I realized I'd better take to trash and recycling bins to the curb then, otherwise I might not be able to later.

The up-side to keeping busy all weekend was, my glucose readings were in the 90's at every reading, no matter what I ate, and that never happens. I'm still learning how to control the diabetes, so this is interesting.

Yeah, morning will be sore probably. The top of my head already is.

dontwantaname wrote:How long have you had it?
Did you catch it here?

About a year, but only been monitoring for a month. Yeah, I think I might have.

Wow, this page has gone down into the abyss!

Anyways I needed some gardening advice so I decided to go to the experts, then I realized I was tired and decided to go to you instead. :P

I dug a big hole for a shade garden a year or two ago under some trees. I planted some cheap plants and most of them died. I bought some new ones this time thinking that name brand ones would do better, but wen I went out to dig holes to plant them I found tree roots all in it. I spent days digging that hole and filling it with good dirt and I'm not going to let the trees stop me, what should I do? Can I block them off with some planks or something?

FenStar wrote:Wow, this page has gone down into the abyss!

Anyways I needed some gardening advice so I decided to go to the experts, then I realized I was tired and decided to go to you instead. :P

I dug a big hole for a shade garden a year or two ago under some trees. I planted some cheap plants and most of them died. I bought some new ones this time thinking that name brand ones would do better, but wen I went out to dig holes to plant them I found tree roots all in it. I spent days digging that hole and filling it with good dirt and I'm not going to let the trees stop me, what should I do? Can I block them off with some planks or something?

You can try blocking it off, if that does not work, maybe you should walk the plank.

FenStar wrote:Wow, this page has gone down into the abyss!

Anyways I needed some gardening advice so I decided to go to the experts, then I realized I was tired and decided to go to you instead. :P

I dug a big hole for a shade garden a year or two ago under some trees. I planted some cheap plants and most of them died. I bought some new ones this time thinking that name brand ones would do better, but wen I went out to dig holes to plant them I found tree roots all in it. I spent days digging that hole and filling it with good dirt and I'm not going to let the trees stop me, what should I do? Can I block them off with some planks or something?

There is nothing you can erect that will be a match for a determined tree root. They will grow through concrete, cast iron sewer pipes ... virtually anything you can throw at them. If they are heavy, you might want to pick a different spot, as the established trees will rob the young ones of water and nutrients. If they are the slender end roots, you may be able to add enough enrichment to the new holes to keep the new guys healthy til they can establish themselves. Being planted can be hard on some plants, so make sure they have rich, somewhat loose (but firmed so there is no air pockets) so they can reach out. Water and fertilizer will help too. (Liquid like RapidGro or Plant Food Spikes will be good for them.)

Don't try to make them compete with something that's been there for 20 years though, as they may not win unless you spend a lot of time keeping them fed.

So, I used to have some shrubs across the front of my living room:



But they're not there anymore, after this past weekend:



They're here:



and a little over here:



The good news is, these guys are moving in soon:

Hoo, boy, that took some work. Husband dug up a bunch like that about ten years ago from the front of our house. Those roots are deep and have to be chopped out. He replaced them with several different kind of low flowering bushes. A few days ago he dug up some ornamental grasses that had gotten way too big. Also a tough job.

gwp wrote:There is nothing you can erect that will be a match for a determined tree root. They will grow through concrete, cast iron sewer pipes ... virtually anything you can throw at them. If they are heavy, you might want to pick a different spot, as the established trees will rob the young ones of water and nutrients. If they are the slender end roots, you may be able to add enough enrichment to the new holes to keep the new guys healthy til they can establish themselves. Being planted can be hard on some plants, so make sure they have rich, somewhat loose (but firmed so there is no air pockets) so they can reach out. Water and fertilizer will help too. (Liquid like RapidGro or Plant Food Spikes will be good for them.)

Don't try to make them compete with something that's been there for 20 years though, as they may not win unless you spend a lot of time keeping them fed.

Is it possible to put something in there that would delay it long enough for the new plants to establish themselves?