23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
DTM is much longer in the Fall. I blame my lack of success with Fall gardening partially on the lack of sun, and the huge amounts of pests. Germinating and seedlings in summer heat is also a challenge. I am not sure I will try any major summer plantings this year.
We have a lot of rabbit pressure, but we have had minimal garden losses despite having no fencing whatsoever -- I spray the perimeter of our raised garden as well as plants whose leaves I don't plan to eat for a week or more with a peppermint oil-based, non-toxic spray. It smells good to me, but apparently the rodents aren't thrilled.
There are some other sprays which use "putrescent egg solids" or garlic which seem to be effective. Some of these are tolerable-smelling, others are horrific smelling to humans...but only for about 2 days, then our poorly developed noses fail to detect the residual scent. Other mammals seem to remain grossed out for weeks.
Part of our success is also probably due to the fact that the cats and dog occasionally kill a rabbit. The cats have no interest in squirrels and the dog is too much of a spazz to catch them, but the squirrels don't show a lot of interest in our garden most of the time.
We also have voles which the cats kill ALL THE TIME, but as the cats are getting elderly (and we're DONE with cats after these two), I'm going to sink a foot's worth of wire mesh vertically along the perimeter of the garden box I'm remodeling just as a prophylactic for our eventual cat-free future. The dog thinks dead voles are gross and the live ones are apparently too slow-moving to be of any interest chasing.
Squirrels and birds are difficult to deter...
I have a toy (plastic) snake I bought some years ago to deter birds in the garden. While I am not sure it does deter birds I have seen it deter (on many occasions) a squirrel that comes up on our deck.
IF you know where the squirrels enter the garden a toy snake may work - but then it may not. Tho it is worth a try to have a garden ornament ;)
I have successfully used rose & blackberry trimmings to deter birds and squirrels from damaging seedlings.
I have my peppers in raised beds too with great drainage, but we had 3 weeks of straight rain/clouds and I noticed mine turned a little yellow green too. But after a week of full sun they are now back to normal. It could be this. Have you noticed the color getting back to normal now that we've had a week of no rain?
Planterjeff, I have noticed the bell peppers are beginning to kinda come around. It may have just been all the rain and cloudy weather. Can't say for sure, but I haven't done anything else to them. Keeping my fingers crossed. The New Mexico chili peppers I planted still aren't doing so good, but that could be due to the hot humid weather. It gets hot in New Mexico (where these peppers originate, but not as humid as South Louisana, so that could be the answer to those peppers. Thanks for the input.
I started with bamboo but ended up getting 6' coated steel stakes then tied them up as well. The boxes are 18" tall but buried 6" and I dug another 2' down. I filled them with a garden mix soil I had trucked in. 7 - 4x12' boxes and used 20 yards of soil. I do need to mulch though. It also seems like the big beef are prone to splitting more than the pink cadillacs.
With regard to tomato pruning, I believe that there are some situations that make pruning healthy for the plant. Here in HZ10, life is rough in the summer. When my cherry tomato vines get eight feet long and longer, they have to suck water up a LONG way. The fruit way up at the top is seriously water-stressed. I have found that topping the vines encourages branches lower down on the vine that are closer to the soil. Now, that being said, once the lower vines are very mature, they aren't as likely to sprout new branches, but the new branches at least don't pop out way up at the top.
Not clear that this would be relevant to non-vining full-sized tomatoes. I've never pruned those.
The image sure looks like sun scald to me!
Suzi, I'll make a suggestion that can help you prove your neighbor wrong. 'Surround', a kaolin clay spray can be an enormous help in keeping borers, beetles, and sun/heat at bay.
It's used commercially, but is now available in sensible sizes for backyard growers. I've used it for years on my cucurbits, beans, and tomatoes without fail. It is approved for organic growers (and Certified Organic growers).
fadiver ... That's a UK expression, not an autocorrect issue - slang term for 'a very long time'.
Donkey's Years
Some potato pieces sprout about 8 shoots...too many skinny ones in a crowd for best results unless you like small potatoes. I suggest leaving 4 stalks per piece. I try to plant them a little deeper to start with and don't need to hill so high. They like cooler soil than here in central Indiana and high hilling dries out faster.
You are welcome. Good to know you won't be relying on these transplants to get your cucs! Good luck and stick around. There are some really knowledgeable gardeners on Gardenweb that have helped me a lot the last several years as my gardening went from a minor hobby to a MAJOR obsession.
I'll for sure be sticking around. I've been reading the forums for the last month or two and have found them very helpful so far. I look forward to being a more active part of the community now that I've officially started posting. Everyone here seems great.
This is one of the planters in a large vegetable garden on a private estate in So Cal. The client has major wildlife issues: deer, coyote, squirrel, rabbits, birds, gophers.... Lots of things were tried until the solution pictured above was put into place. Although it is a bit cumbersome- it works and is fairly invisible at a short distance.
The planters are constructed of dry stacked round stones. Beds are lined with 1" wire mesh for gopher prevention that wraps up sides of planters and bends out between the top courses of rock. Above ground critters are are successfully kept out with a metal stakes in edges of beds that have hooks welded onto the outer top edges. 1/2 inch heavy gage bird mesh: ( https://www.birdbgone.com/products/bird-netting/garden-netting-products.html ) hooks onto the stakes via Garden Netting Clips attached to net.. Not all beds have mesh over top- only crops where birds are a problem. Caretakers can easily unhook mesh to care for plants.
I have the same problem. Beets died for me twice this year - first in the ground, second in the deep cells. And not only beets. All root crops this year are terrible - carrots died, turnip, that I NEVER had any problem with wilting few in a day, and it is not a root maggot, as I have it covered. I guess the most problem at least in my area is a huge difference between soil temperature(bellow norm due to the long winter) and very high day temperature(90+F). I heard that cold roots can't pump water fast enough to keep up with what leaves evaporate. Naturally, we try to water already wet soil and create perfect fungus conditions... I seeded beets again in the ground, hopping that the weather finally getting it sense...