IF WE ALL WROTE A GARDEN BOOK TOGETHER, WHAT CHAPTERS WOULD YOU WRITE?

[catjac1975]

Me too. I hum incessantly and don't even know it. Or it's in my head.... We apparently share genius.

Ha! Swimming around in my head is music from the '60's

Actually, I'm sure I'd need help with my favorite chapters!

Would you like to fly in my beautiful balloon? Stuck in the head song of the hour. My sister Shannon gets stuck in the head songs too. ...runs in the family...

 

[897tgigvib]

I have the heckavadarndest time crossing melon and cucumber flowers, they are so small, and don't come apart as nicely as tomato flowers. Next time I cross melons I'm just going to double plant near each other one plant of each, and keep the male flowers picked off the plant I want to be the female parent and leave all male flowers on the male parent, and let the bugs do it.

And Sunflowers! How the heck do ya cross them properly? I've done rubbing, but that is very inneffective especially when the flower droops downward...This method works for cosmos. about 50% of the seeds get crossed. You know how to do it right?

Tomatoes are easy, well, take a slow careful hand, and sometimes a couple tries.

 

[vfem]

Awesome topic M! So many great things we can all write about. Looks like it would be one HUGE book when we finish. And that would only be volume 1! Hahaha

I would definitely do gardening with chickens, and maybe a chapter on taking on weeds while keeping to organic methods

 

[April Manier]

I'd contribute to:
recipes and canning
OG pest control

Maybe I would do something on planning and thinking from a permacultural perspective?

Maybe I would give a stack of little truisms on gardening we would sprinkle throughout!

 

[Smart Red]

Yer not leaving much for me. . . and I love to write. My first choice would be proof-reader and editor in chief, but

I'd love to add to furthering the different methods of composting. I'd also help with chapters on succession planting, hand pollination, and attracting beneficials to the veggie garden.

I am also relatively adept at propagating plants by rooting cuttings and can provide info for grafting, air-layering, and taking hard or soft wood cuttings to start more woody plants.

Then there is amending the soil to increase or decrease PH for specific plant requirements. One example is that we have been told it is not possible to grow blueberries here in Rock County - something that we have been doing successfully for the past 20 years.

How about a chapter on small fruits? So many people stop at fruit trees when there is a large array of fruits that are more suitable to smaller yards.

Love, Smart Red

 

[ninnymary]

Look at all the input being given! It shows so much talent and expertise among us! That's why I love this site. Everyone has learned so much and is willing to share it.

Mary

 

[journey11]

I am also relatively adept at propagating plants by rooting cuttings and can provide info for grafting, air-layering, and taking hard or soft wood cuttings to start more woody plants.

That would be the chapter you'd find me reading right now. I'm really wanting to get into that and I hear this is a very good time of year to take cuttings.

Then there is amending the soil to increase or decrease PH for specific plant requirements. One example is that we have been told it is not possible to grow blueberries here in Rock County - something that we have been doing successfully for the past 20 years.

I had been told that too, here with our horrible red clay, so pure you could cast pottery from it. But lots of organic matter in a bed prepared a year ahead of time and careful pH checks later have resulted in my new blueberry bushes quadrupling in size this year. The only thing I did well this year and so far the only thing the deer have left alone!

 

[digitS']

. . . willing to share it.

Mary

Well okay, Mary . . .

I've been told that I must know something about starting seed since I've got the greenhouse going at full-bore thru the spring. I'm not sure if it would amount to much - there's just the attention to detail with sowing, then care with transplanting.

. . . I also take shortcuts which are done out of a sense of "industry." Still, I believe I know how to grow high quality plant starts.

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

That would be a very important chapter, starting seeds, growing good starts! Digit's doing that chapter. Then there'd be part 2 of that chapter, some of the more difficult seeds.

A lot of the chapters'd be collaborations, teams!

 

[Collector]

I would contribute to the chapter on garden humor, or the lighter side of gardening. Or maybe add to the chapter on soil building, the first thing everyone should learn about gardening IMHO.