What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Dirtmechanic]

fecoration lol!
Not sure if that was a typo but its hilarious and goes well with the subject.

Or freudian? Poo seems both interesting and overrated.

 

[Zeedman]

The birdwatcher will want to pay conscientious attention to when the seeds are ripe or the birds will leave none for winter. Even if that is the sunflowers only purpose, the feathered neighbors will be happy to find them during the time when Old Man Winter is making life difficult for them.

Here squirrels will completely harvest them, in a relatively short period of time. A friend of ours planted a lot of sunflowers in their front yard this year... 30-40 of them. They were really beautiful, but every time we visited, multiple squirrels were climbing the plants and chewing into the heads. The ground was covered with debris.

 

[Zeedman]

big leaves...

So apparently they had TP shortages back then too...

 

[Dirtmechanic]

So apparently they had TP shortages back then too...

And now, because of somebodys' big mouth, everyone knows why I hate holly bushes!

 

[Trish Stretton]

The University of New Hampshire has been a blessing for many, especially during the tenure of Professor Elwyn M. Meader. His breeding efforts were wide ranging, especially in the development of short-season vegetables. And notably, he did not patent any of his developments, stating "I was working for the taxpayer and the results on my work belonged to them.". I still grow a short-season pepper, "Sweet Chocolate", developed by him.

Thats so cool, my DIL is from New Hampshire.
I'm going to have to check out that pepper now. Capsicuns are one thing I have always had difficulty getting to grow. Chillis...no prob, so I dont really understand why.

It usually takes me three goes at getting something new to grow. With these melons (Sweet Granite), its taken a bit longer, but that may well have been cos I just didnt have the time to really make sure things were growing well, or maybe trying to get them started too early when its just a tad too cold for them..or sowing to shallow/deep.....
Everything has pretty much been sown/planted late, but at least this year they sprouted.

I do have the shop bought ones, which is probably a Hales best... and one plant actually has a fruit that is looking quite good. the other type I sowed is the Charantais, which is finally strting to do something and least I forget, my golden midget watermelons.
last year I direct sowed a couple and nothing....this year, I got 2 seedlings to sprout and then realised that one of the seeds I sowed last year had sprouted and was pretty much on a par with mine from this year....I planted this years ones somewhere else just in case they were different types-tend to suffer from CRS(cant remember sh....)

 

[flowerbug]

Or freudian? Poo seems both interesting and overrated.

when you're constipated poo is very much on your mind even if your head is above your butt gravitationally speaking... i always enjoy new and interesting words or variations.

 

[flowerbug]

Thats so cool, my DIL is from New Hampshire.
I'm going to have to check out that pepper now. Capsicuns are one thing I have always had difficulty getting to grow. Chillis...no prob, so I dont really understand why.

It usually takes me three goes at getting something new to grow. With these melons (Sweet Granite), its taken a bit longer, but that may well have been cos I just didnt have the time to really make sure things were growing well, or maybe trying to get them started too early when its just a tad too cold for them..or sowing to shallow/deep.....
Everything has pretty much been sown/planted late, but at least this year they sprouted.

I do have the shop bought ones, which is probably a Hales best... and one plant actually has a fruit that is looking quite good. the other type I sowed is the Charantais, which is finally strting to do something and least I forget, my golden midget watermelons.
last year I direct sowed a couple and nothing....this year, I got 2 seedlings to sprout and then realised that one of the seeds I sowed last year had sprouted and was pretty much on a par with mine from this year....I planted this years ones somewhere else just in case they were different types-tend to suffer from CRS(cant remember sh....)

i hope they all manage to do something for you. i was so happy last year to have any melons at all that finally worked in our soil and season. how many different kinds of melons are you trying to grow there this season? that can take up a lot of space!

 

[Trish Stretton]

I have the two shop bought ones, which so far, are not wanting to climb so I removed the trellis. One has two fruit but on the other they just seem to go yellow and drop off.

Then there is the Sweet granite. good thing I kept most of the seedlings cos the first pair I planted out have been munted by slugs/snails.

Got a pair of Charantais rock melons- old seed so I wasnt surprised that only two sprouted.
I only have the golden midget watermelon, cos it is supposed to be good for area with a short season. But surprised to see the one sprout from last years direct sowing.
Oddly, all three of them sprouted in the same week and still are on par. Yesterday, I planted my two from this year out.

Luffas- I managed to get 3 pairs to sprout and then just before I planted mine out, out popped another one. My Daughter/in law both wanted some so there was just enough for all of us.

Not one single bitter melon sprouted, not any of my butternuts which is really disappointing cos they are a favorite.

 

[Niele da Kine]

The new Baker Creek seed catalog showed up last week and it has a white bittermelon in it, what color of bittermelons do you have in New Zealand? I don't intentionally grow them, but occasionally they show up as sort of a volunteer, not sure how, I'm guessing from birds?

The only thing garden that has happened lately is relocating roosters. The chooks have figured out how to get into the second raised bed garden and they've pretty much destroyed it. They're fenced out of the third garden, but it's hard to weed through the fence so the weeds choked out the corn. Sigh! The first raised bed garden has sort of become trees now, since it's got sea island white cotton, a grapevine, a bay laurel, a papaya and a mulberry in it. The cotton was intentional, but the grapevine, bay laurel and mulberry cuttings were just put there temporarily so they could root before being transplanted somewhere else.

There's got to be some sort of raised bed garden fencing that will keep out chickens and still open easily enough to make weeding happen more frequently.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Catnip mouse report: very potent batch this year, kitty gifts were well received. I convinced DW to pull for drying in the summer instead of waiting for the fall and it seems to have improved her game of cat and mouse. From my view, getting the catnip out of my way in the garden is a plus as they get pretty big.