23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

After reading this post, and taking my walk around the block (2 miles in the country), I did see some great gardens in ground that had some wandering paths through them.
Most appeared to be 4-6' wide, still. I also saw a LOT of gopher damage!
My beds are 4x8 raised with hardware cloth under each bed. Unfortunately, we have such a bad gopher problem for a home garden we HAVE to have raised beds! The cats can only do so much above ground! Nancy

I haven't had much predator damage here. Last year voles/mice were bad in the sweetpotatoes though. This week I have caught 5 in traps.

OP is probably in Montana or Wyoming. Alberta (Canada) got dumped with up to a foot of snow in some places, with lows down to the mid-teens in a few areas.

The weather has been crazy for some of us! Northern WA/ID hit hard frosts. We just got low to mid 30s. Going to be in the 80s/50s in a few days.

Thank you all!

Something in the Rubiaceae, anyway. Mollugo verticillata would fit as would Galium aparine, Cleavers. Just pull it up.

Lady peas are really small. If you want to try small peas White Acre is small but large enough to shell.

Thanks, FarmerDill! If these are indeed lady peas, they certainly are hard to shell. But the seeds are so small I bet they cook real quick even when dried.

Apple and peanut butter has worked some. Peanuts or alfalfa pellets (the horse ones that are made with molasses) are also worth trying if you have some around. I have not found netting to work well, even in relatively small areas; the rabbits are inclined to cause even more damage by digging to get into areas they are interested in. Even though you will not get rid of all the rabbits, you can make a big dent by trapping for a few weeks; the effort is worth it.
Renais

Stick apple slices into the peanutbutter jar?

I have one row where I transplanted lettuce after the spinach had drowned. I noticed a stray surviving spinach plant had been nipped off at the base today. There's also been gnawing on the zukes.

I planted my Broccoli Transplants (Premium Crop) yesterday evening. Put them under Tulle to keep the bugs out and put a shade cloth on the south side of the bed. It will get morning sun and very shaded shade in the afternoon. Just after I spread the wheat straw mulch we got a thunderstorm with 1 inch of rain. The soil temp this morning in that bed is 80*.

I have carrots sown, rutabagas and turnips up, lettuces sown, and broccoli transplants set out. Hopefully can get the bed ready for the greens this weekend. I consider Farmerdill my personal mentor on fall gardening. I have used his dates for about four years now with consistent success.

It is in the low nineties daily right now, with lows in the low to mid seventies. Still hot. I am watering everything daily for the time being. So far, so good. Of course, my garden is small and I can give it this kind of attention.

edie j what variety of cocumber did you use?

thak you mark

I started one Marketmore cucumber in a 20" diameter pot about a month ago. This is my first go at cucs in pots. That plant is climbing a 6 foot tomato cage and is looking good. Lots of blooms this week. Hopefully there will be fruit soon.

Growing melons in z5a? That's no easy trick..

pnbrown, I have been growing various melons since 2006. the first few years I merely started indoors and planted out then depending on the season would have varying degree's of success dependant on variety. The last few years I get boat loads even with our very strange short and cool year we had this year. I fabricated a bunch of 4x8 mini green houses which go over top of either garbage bags or black weed barrier. I must pay close attention to the weather forecasts as it can get so hot inside it totally fries everything if I don't open the ends on a 70-75F day it can get well into the hundreds.
I have gone a little melon crazy and this fall/winter I will be fabbing up even more bigger homes for some of the more rampant growers who love heat. I haven't even finished harvesting this years crop and I am already getting a whole acre dedicated to growing melons prepped.

Glenn

I have more than 10 bags of old sunflower seeds, even the Russian Mammoth. All of them are smaller than the seeds I can buy from a supermarket.

Yes, I'll test plant some seeds in the winter inside to see if they germinate. I do not see the reason for the farmer to spray any chemicals. The only problem if the seeds are too old. But I think sunflower seeds can be good for a couple of years.

Because the black oil birdseed sunflower seeds are so inexpensive just buy another 25 or 50 lb. bag for next year and don't give it all to the birds. I plant it wit a 2-row tractor drawn corn planter (bean plates) and I'm cutting on my third planting for this year. Most people comment on how mich nicer the flowers are than the ones they are growing when I take to market. When I had mixed varieties on first planting (auction seed purchase) the majority of the customers preferred the generic birdseed sunflowers. So by all means plant them and expect about 50% of the flowers to be attractive enough to cut, same as for the expensive seeds. For each planting expect a 2-3 week cutting period before outer petals begin to drop; always best to cut flowers within a few days of first opening. Other flowers give you a slightly longer cutting window.

Thank you so much

I agree with Rodney "somewhat." The somewhat part is I think it IS a Jalapeno, just with some pod shape variation. Not to mention that there are oodles of Japapeno varieties that are short and squatty.

Agree about the corking also. One other reason why I think Jap. Japs are notorious for corking.

Kevin

Back when I was growing shiitake, I had to do the dunk tank thing also to get fruiting flushes going. Truth is, it's too long ago to remember much about time intervals and such. But it sure was a fun hobby for a while.

I eventually tired of that very step-soaking and then restacking water-logged, uh, logs. But it sure did work. Back in those days, I found that in addition to oak, shellbark hickory also fruited well, which of course means nothing to a Floridian.

+o

We're also in MI, and some friends got us interested in doing shitake logs 10 years or so ago. Our first logs we used boxelder and walnut because that's what we've got here on the property. We got zip - nada - for 9 years, though we could see the characteristic white threads growing on the logs. Then last year they surprised us and gave us about 7 beautiful mushrooms. That got us jazzed again, and we started more logs, this time with oak we got from a friend. A month or so back during one of the strange cool rainy periods we've been having this year, they started to fruit. I could see at least 7 buttons, and then - the slugs ate them all!
We were also told this year that we should be soaking them in drums or troughs - we picked up a used plastic drum, but haven't used it yet. But it's raining today - will have to check later to see if anything new is happening.
So, anyway - Bob, if you can find a way to dunk them, do so. But you still might not see any results till next year - patience.

You might find turning it over with a fork or spade easier than a shovel.

Digging is hard work, but you will get to know the site and soil that way. BTW, I love tiered beds.

This early in the fall, I would throw cover crop seeds over the cultivated soil. Oats are great because they winterkill by January and become a winter-to-spring mulch. In spring you can rake away the oat debris and start planting.

I grew Moon and Stars yellow because I was worried the red wouldn't be ready in time and the yellow is less DTM. They were actually about the first watermelon ripe. So I have no clue why you got none.

I have 2 new female buds that have not opened yet, but my leaves are tiny compared to yours. And they're being attacked by aphids and squash bugs. I killed like 15 or so squash bugs this morning. I've got a few ladybugs there eating away the aphids and a couple of them made love on one of my leaves this morning and there was another one laying eggs, so I think the aphid problem will be under control. Hate those squash bugs! If those 2 little female flower buds do pollinate, is it too late now for them to go to maturity? I think our first frost is expected to be like the first or second week of November.