GROWING THINGS

[del]

Not many bees around here yet this year.  Are cucumbers like pumpkins and you get male and female flowers?  (I've grown cucumbers but can't remember). I know I've had the problem with pumpkins getting either all male flowers or females flowers.  With pumpkins I usually have had to pollenate them myself when I have gotten a male and female flower. Just break off the little piece in the male flower and put it on the female flower (make them have sex  )

[annabanana]

ahhh...maybe THAT'S why I love gardening so much! All that sex!   

[flip]

Tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and peas are the most commonly grown self pollinating vegetables. They will also cross with other varieties if they are too close together. One years I planted 7 different varieties of tomatoes without enough separation. I had a bumper crop of tomatoes but they were all identical.

[del]

Here are some picturs of my white and yellow roses that are just starting to bloom.  The last picture is a gardenia that one of my students gave me at the end of the year.

[flip]

The white one looks especially good. I keep forgetting how far north you are. My roses have already bloomed several times but I still don't have a white one that compares to yours. Maybe we can work out a trade.

[monrein]

Those are very nice Del.  I hope you'll forgive me for correcting you on the "gardenia" picture but I'm pretty sure that it's actually a gazania.  They're great plants, tough, tolerate drought fairly well and are bright and cheerful.  They come in several different shades, all "hot" colours like yellow, orange and rust.

[del]

You're right monrein it is!!  I made a mistake.  I even looked up gazania on the internet to see if it was a perenial or annual!!
Flip I don't even know the name of that white rose.  A friend gave me the tree.  It has white roses, yellow roses and roses that are mixed white and yellow.  The picture of the yellow roses is from a different tree.

[pelagia]

We had the first real tomatoes from our garden for dinner tonight   

[flip]

I used to love to take a salt shaker to the garden with me and chow down on a big juicy ripe tomato.

[twirl]

also good in the watermelon patch

[Bill Peckham]

Bill - I'm curious as to how viney the canteloupe plant is?  I don't want it to take over my backyard, but I would love to grow them, yum!

I grew it from seed, it has taken a while to get going. So far there isn't a vine or fruit. It is growing up - about 8 inches tall so far. This is the first time I've tried cantaloupe so I'll let you know what happens. At this rate it'll be the end of summer before I get anything. Next year I'll start it sooner - I think it is about a month and a half behind where it should be. I bought a cantaloupe from Safeway last week - it was perfectly ripe - oh so good.

[Bill Peckham]

I'm fighting aphids - there was some aphidcide, mass aphidcide, going on last weekend. I sprayed a mixture of dish soap and vegetable oil on them. I'm repeating the application daily. I hope that will do the trick. They started out on my artichoke plants and have moved onto one of my tomato plants. Here is a picture of one of the artichoke leaves.

[flip]

Add some tobacco juice. Just get a little smokeless tobacco and let it soak in water. Nicotine is a natural insecticide and it won't harm you or the plants.

[twirl]

Bill          wow

[flip]

Jerry Baker was on PBS for years with his concoction of dishwashing liquid, tobacco juice and water for pest control. I think his books and videos are still available online.

[okarol]

Aphid Antidote Tonic
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 med cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp liquid dish soap
2 c water
Blend ingredients on high. Strain out pulp through pantyhose and pour the liquid into a hand held mist sprayer. Douse flowers at the first sign of trouble.

more here http://groups.msn.com/GabriellesGarden/jerrybakergardening.msnw (Jerry Baker gardening tips)

[Bill Peckham]

Aphid Antidote Tonic
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 med cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp liquid dish soap
2 c water
Blend ingredients on high. Strain out pulp through pantyhose and pour the liquid into a hand held mist sprayer. Douse flowers at the first sign of trouble.

more here http://groups.msn.com/GabriellesGarden/jerrybakergardening.msnw (Jerry Baker gardening tips)

Jerry Baker was on PBS for years with his concoction of dishwashing liquid, tobacco juice and water for pest control. I think his books and videos are still available online.

 

I suppose I could ask my neighbor, who has been getting a lot of lettuce, for a pair of pantyhose but I'd have to write to a friend back in the town I went to college - in Ellensburg - for chewing tobacco. The aphids seem to find soap and oil incompatible with life but if some hang on I'll keep adding things to the mix. I hearing that I shouldn't expect any artichokes this year - that you have to wait for the second year.

[Bill Peckham]

Does anyone have a trick for pulling carrots? I pulled a few today and a couple snapped off on the way out. After the first one snapped half way I watered which seemed to help but I still lost one or two. The carrots were very good - sweet.

[del]

Bill, catch some ladybugs and put in your garden!!! 

[Bajanne]

Just got  back to this thread (internet problems). I also use Miracle Gro.  I am so jealous of those pictures where you guys have real gardens.  But i am taking pleasure in my pot gardening (!!) as well.
Seasoning peppers look Scotch bonnet peppers (very hot, used in jerk seasoning), but they have no heat at all.
But as someone said earlier, you have to be very careful.  If you grow seasoning peppers along with hot ones, cross fertilization can occur and they can become hot.
I brought 6 spinach plants to dialysis for a patient who is starting some growing as well.
I will be posting some picts soon.
I am very happy that they don't seem to be many pests here, but some time ago, i saw some slugs.  They were a menace to gardening in my home country.  i remember my father going out at night  to deal with them.  i was told that tobacco is very effective.  I must get some.  don't want them getting to my spinach which is growing nicely on the fence.

[del]

Don't go chewing tobacco to keep the slugs from your "pot" plants!!

[annabanana]

Bajanne, to get rid of slugs get a beer can, pour out half the beer, bury the can almost flush to the ground around the garden, and the slugs flock to the beer and get trapped in the can and drown. It really works!

[del]

They also won't crawl over ashes from wood or sawdust. They don't like stuff sticking to them.  the beer really works too!!  You can also buy stuff called slug bait at the store. It looks like pellets and really gets rid of the slugs.

[monrein]

This is a great site for all sorts of gardening information and lots of lovely photos.  I used to live here until I found and needed IHD.


http://davesgarden.com/

[skyedogrocks]

I finally have 2 cucumbers growing, yeah!!!

Big problem with my tomatoes though.  I had to throw more than half of the ones growing away due to the bottoms rotting out.  I have no idea why this is happening.  Any ideas??  I was so bummed, this didn't happen to me last year.