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rantipole
Sep 5th, 2008, 07:20 PM
I have my first cuke and two little tomatoes on the vine! My rosemary and lavender plants are going wild, too. Unfortunately, the squirrels made off with all my corn. Also, the slugs are mounting a resurgance.

Beautiful shot there, Cedar.

Cheers,
rant

cedarblue
Sep 6th, 2008, 02:30 PM
we felt our corn cobs today and were disappointed to feel tiddly cobs under all the covering - they feel like there's no usable crop. we'll see :(
the artichokes growing near them may have been soaking up all the ground moisture.

i think things just haven't liked growing in their new positions this year. we're rather disappointed with the yield for the work put in.

eating the last of the spuds this weekend and harvested lots of chard & spinach to steam for later.

Kitteh
Sep 9th, 2008, 02:37 AM
Hello gardening ppl! Are there plants I can grow with basil to stop them being eaten by caterpillars? The ones I had on my basil were fluro green ones. They ate the basil and the peppermint and now all I have left is parsely. Oh and kale. I wish I had a yard so I could grow more than I can in pots on my balcony.

Cedar, your garden is amazing!

Mystic
Sep 18th, 2008, 09:38 PM
Hi everyone. I am very new to Gardening, but now I have a lot of land to play with I have planted a whole fruit farm lol :)

I have so far:
- 1 grannysmith apple tree
- 1 gala apple tree
- 1 lapins cherry tree
- 1 stella cherry tree
- 1 hass avocado tree
- 1 tahitian lime tree
- 1 navel orange tree
- 1 lisbon lemon tree

I also plan to grow a passionfruit vine or two or three (to climb on the pergola) and maybe some grapes, and I would also like kiwifruits and peach. My dream is to grow a date palm and a mango tree but unfortunately i don't live in the right climate :mad:

The only question I have so far is do avocados need anything to pollinate? I haven't been able to get any info on this?

Thankyou and Happy gardening :)

Risker
Sep 21st, 2008, 07:14 PM
I was a bit disappointed with my chilli plants this year as they've been growing such a long time and failed to really get going but just lately they've flourished. There's no ripe ones in the pics as I picked all them before I took the photo's.

Numex Twilight

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/8532/img2672smallyl1.jpg

Bird Eye

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/8476/img2674smallpf0.jpg

Jalapeno

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/9687/img2680smallmb5.jpg

Bird Eye & Numex Twilight

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/763/img2677smalljg0.jpg

I've got about 5 of each plant so yet again this year I'm going to have more chillies than I can possibly eat, I've got about 100 dried ones from last year still!

Next year as well as these 3 varieties I've got some scotch bonnet, yellow Aji and chocolate habanero's to grow, I'm looking forward to having too many of those aswell! I think I'm going to have to start making my own chilli sauce or something.

Mzee
Sep 21st, 2008, 10:28 PM
The only question I have so far is do avocados need anything to pollinate? I haven't been able to get any info on this?


Hi, Stickydate,
I had avocados growing in my garden when I lived in Tanzania. They were about 20m high, so I couldn't pick them; I just picked up the ripe fruit when they fell off (or perhaps were knocked off by the hornbills). Then they were bruised, of course, so had to be eaten quickly!

Pollination is an interesting question. There are male and female parts in the same flower, but they are not ready at the same time. The flowers open twice, once when the stigma is receptive, but the stamens are not producing pollen, and about 24 hours later they open again, when the stamens produce pollen, but the stigma is no longer receptive. On top of this, the opening of all the flowers on one tree open and close together, so you would think you would need another tree for pollination. However, most cultivated varieties are self-fertile. The explanation is thought to be that bees have learned how to force their way into flowers that are closed.

So the conclusion is: you'll probably be OK without another tree to pollinate (and maybe a neighbour has one within bee commuting distance!). However, if you have room, plant two. If you get too much fruit, you can send some to me in avocado-free Somerset! ;)
We have them in the shops, but I refuse to buy any food that has to travel more than 5000 miles to get here! Perhaps in a month or two we'll get some from Southern Europe, but so far this year they have all been from Chile!

This is not my research, though! Credit is due to "An Introduction to the Botany of Tropical Crops" by Leslie D. Cobley.

Aradia
Sep 23rd, 2008, 05:37 PM
a harvest basket from my vegie garden



http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii254/Vegan_food_porn/DSCN0062-3-1.jpg

rantipole
Sep 23rd, 2008, 08:55 PM
Stickydate,

I am so jealous! I would love to have the land (and climate) to plant all that. Congrats!

My one surviving yellow tomato plant has four little tomatoes on it! Now I have to hope the neither the squirrels nor the slugs get them.

I can't wait until next year; I think I have finally figured out how to garden in this yard.

Cheers,
rant

cedarblue
Sep 24th, 2008, 09:04 AM
sounds good stickydate!

Mystic
Sep 25th, 2008, 08:33 PM
Someone STOLE my orange tree from the front yard? Someone actually dug it out of place! Who the hell does that? It is a $20 tree and no where near ready to fruit!

snivelingchild
Sep 26th, 2008, 01:47 AM
Sounds like my neighborhood. :( Sorry to hear sticky.

cedarblue
Sep 26th, 2008, 08:42 AM
absolutely no respect! bad news sticky....

Mzee
Sep 28th, 2008, 07:49 PM
Have you seen this?
http://www.rhs.org.uk/news/Weedkiller-manure.asp
It was mentioned on Gardeners' Question Time on Radio 4 today. It was the first I'd heard of the problem - of course it wouldn't be a problem with Vegan Organic gardening..
:satisfied: (Is that the right emoticon for "smug"?) :p

It's been a serious problem for many 'conventionally organic' gardeners, though and I feel for them, having been one myself before I became a vegan. Perhaps it would be a good time for some publicity for Stock-free growing - I wonder if VON are planning anything?

whalespace
Sep 30th, 2008, 10:29 PM
I'm definitely interested in scoring some of Risker's home grown chillis.

Some old turnip seeds which I gathered from my allotment, years ago, spilled from a tinder bag recently. Just a few weeks later, and there are turnip leaves galore ... not much hope of turnips, but I find the leaves as good as spinach, a bit spicey, and very quick if you're feeling opportunistic.

Risker
Sep 30th, 2008, 10:35 PM
^ PM me your address, I'll post you a batch

Aradia
Oct 6th, 2008, 06:00 PM
I harvested the first of the parsnips today :D :D :D :D

Roll on a big plate of roasted vegie chunks :D :D :D

flying plum
Oct 10th, 2008, 12:29 PM
risker - your numex twilight look a lot like something i grew this year called bolivian rainbow. have you tried your numex yet? according to my OH, who has tried ours in my absence here, they are unbelieveably hot!

amanda

Risker
Oct 10th, 2008, 06:18 PM
They are very hot, I read that they were 50,000 - 100,000 scoville units but I think they are much hotter. I made some chilli powder out of the ones I grew last year, we cooked a dish a couple of weeks ago that called for 2 tsp chilli powder, we used 1/4tsp of my chilli powder and even after adding extra ingredients to dilute it I still got complained at for making it too hot.

whalespace
Oct 11th, 2008, 03:52 PM
:eek:! I'm glad you mentioned that.
Thanks for the chillis Risker; I've been staring at bricks for days , so these neat little colourful fruits [?] seem extra pretty... in addition to their having been sent by you :p. I will be planting some of the seeds for sure.

veganbikerboy
Jan 3rd, 2009, 12:50 PM
It has been a beautiful morning, frosty but sunny so I decided to go and do a bit of tidying up

I cleared all the tops of the asparagus and jerusalam artichoke plants and then raked up all the leaves from around the garden.

I have loads of leaf mould/mulch now (a seperate pile from each of the last 4yrs) and I am not sure what to do with it?

I was thinking of using it as a mulch around the base of my fruit trees for both nutrition and keeping weeds down, is this a waste? I know its good stuff so could it be better used elsewhere?

also, do frogs hibernate? I have just seen one hoping about on my compost?

cedarblue
Jan 3rd, 2009, 02:47 PM
you are right indeed, a beautiful day.

we tidied up the garden today too, stocked pots, swept around etc. we are going to try and force some early carrots indoors after reading about it and finding some seeds for early forcing.

i have no idea about frogs hibernating - and i certainly don't think using the leaf stuff would be a waste, maybe just be selective of where you mulch with it.

Mzee
Jan 3rd, 2009, 07:06 PM
Hi VBB & Cedarblue,
I'm not so sure - I tend to leave "tidying up" until Spring. What might look untidy to us might be 'home sweet home' for all sorts of small animals seeking shelter from the Winter weather and hungry predators.
Yes, frogs hibernate as a rule. Some will spend the Winter under water, others under stones or logs. However, in the warmth of a compost heap, with plenty of food available, why sleep? :) I used to have a greenhouse with my previous house and it had a resident frog who was active in there all year.

whalespace
Mar 24th, 2009, 06:13 PM
Rinsing a sack of sunchokes in the starship enterprise:
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r274/whalespace/BILD0218.jpg?t=1237914748