Search results

  1. bills

    Asparagus Questions

    Smart Red's reply was about as good as it gets, in regards to asparagus beds. I can confirm you definitely don't want to use landscape cloth, as a weed preventative. It would hinder the new spears in the spring, that may pop up off to the sides of the main root. This has been happening with my...
  2. bills

    Wrinkled leaves.

    Insecticidal soap is the only thing I would try at this point. It could be a tree disease ,and not insects at all, but at least you won't poison the fruit, that it may still produce.
  3. bills

    Peas

    Peas grow pretty fast, so they may soon be taller than the sunflower..Might want to stake the sunflower, which would also allow the peas to continue to climb. Biggest issue I could see, is the peas will finish and die back well before the sunflower does. You'll have all this dead, dry pea vine...
  4. bills

    Wild blackberries

    Canesisters.. Your picking them before they are ripe if that's the case. They turn black/purple, well before they are ready to be picked. I usually look for a berry that is very easy to pick from the vine. If you need to really tug on it, it's not ready. They are usually very plump as well, and...
  5. bills

    How playing in the dirt makes you happy

    Pigs have always known about this wonder..
  6. bills

    Rhubarb

    Carol that is a picture of Gunnera..Probably should have used one that puts it more in prospective..like this one. My point was that my rhubarb grows huge, with the addition of chicken poop..lol not this huge perhaps, but still pretty big..:D
  7. bills

    Looking for a compost tumbler

    A neighbor gave me his tumbler, and I just started using it a couple months back. It does seem to get extremely heavy to turn, and I can't say I see the rapid breakdown, as I had hoped for. It also doesn't contain much, as it has this large section in the center of it that takes up a lot of...
  8. bills

    Rhubarb

    I generously add chicken poop during the fall and winter, over the roots. By spring it's all composted down, and the stalks grow huge, and produce all spring and into the summer. You'd swear it was Gunnera..lol A popular local garden expert and lecturer, Dez Kennedy, said his secret was to...
  9. bills

    Best way to cage tomatoes

    One summer travelling through Keremeos BC, I stopped by a huge u-pick tomato farm. Thousands of plants, and no staking whatsoever. Plants just sprawled out on the dirt. Plants looked healthy, and had great fruit production. You really had to watch where you walked..
  10. bills

    Charcoal Ash?

    Most BBQ briquets are just compressed charcoal made of burned sawdust, mixed with a binder. Much like regular wood ash after burning. Spuds can suffer from ashes, so keep that in mind in future when/if planting any. Lots of other veggies can use the added potash, phosphate, calcium, and...
  11. bills

    Lettuce Seed Germination

    Could it be the seed is drying out, when just sprinkled on the surface of the soil like that.? I usually cover my lettuce seed about a 1/2" after planting, to help prevent them drying out too rapidly. Is your garden center trying to dump old seed? I often see "specials" on last years...
  12. bills

    Volunteer Tomato Plants

    I found some years, the volunteer tomato's produced better than the seedlings I have purchased. That is a great deal, getting 60lbs of produce for only $10. Do you get to choose what you want or is it a pre-selected box, or ?
  13. bills

    Who will no-till/no-dig garden this year?

    My Grandfather, who had a marvelous garden with great production every year, always tilled. He did this partly to mix in his compost, (much of it from seaweed), but also to aerate the soil and break the compaction that occurred over winter from the heavy rains. Nowadays the thinking leans more...
  14. bills

    Strawberry thinning at young age

    If you can separate the individual plants when transplanting to the garden, I'd be tempted to not thin them. You will get a larger daily pick the more plants you have, during strawberry season. i often soak my seedlings in a bucket of water, to help separate the root systems. The dirt wash's...
  15. bills

    Vermi-compost or worm castings?

    Are moles edible I wonder? Since your breeding them anyway, maybe you could profit from them..lol ..might be alright when deep fried..
  16. bills

    Kale(s)

    Huh!..Never eat cooked lettuce much, other than the rare time I'm looking for some green coloring in a Chinese soup that I whipped up. Have to keep that in mind, as my excess lettuce does get awfully bitter if I leave them to grow. My Hens like it regardless, and that's where much of it ends...
  17. bills

    Companion Planting 2015

    Last year, by accident, volunteer rhubarb chard started sprouting up all over in my Acorn squash bed. They seemed quite happy together, and I rec'd a decent harvest from both.. My Gai-lan (also spelled Kai-lan), seemed to do well next to green onions, and garlic. No aphids, or other pests showed...
  18. bills

    Took a HUGE risk today!

    My experience with planting tomato's slightly earlier than when ideal, has not been good. In my best case scenario, they simply stopped growing, and remained basically stagnant until the weather had warmed up significantly. They were actually smaller than if I had just left them to plant...
  19. bills

    Any One in the North Have Peach Trees?

    Since planting it 5 years ago, I finally had a crop of peaches from my tree this last summer. It is called Northern Gold, and was grown especially for the colder zones. The fruit was quite small, and took forever to ripen, but tasted good. Not a nice juicy peach, like the ones we get from the...
  20. bills

    From your garden

    That question, "How much of your diet comes from your garden?" is highly dependent on the time of year for me. Currently I'd estimate 15% fresh, probably another 15% from frozen or canned. In the spring the percentage climbs, and by mid July I'd estimate the number to be around 65-70%. Now if...
Top