23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening



The couple of times I used leaves, I ended up with asparagus beetles. I'm going to try the salt and wood chips this year. I also think I lost some to the drought, so I may have to replant. Nancy

I think the beetles will overwinter in any mulch, possibly even the soil. Although I had cleaned up the beds in autumn and replenished with fresh mulch this spring, I just sent quite a few to a soapy bath today ... They don't seem to have liked it much. Removed eggs and sent them to the bath, too.

Katie, One lady has a lovely idea and it works for her! :-) I hope it can help you too. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/3042886/deer-repellant-that-worked-100

My hair in the garden didn't help me but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try it. I also tried hanging those old AOL Cds to move in the wind - they used to spook me more than the deer when a reflection would shine in the window, lol.
We are gardening in their space (the spiders too) and as more houses get built they get used to people and don't spook as easily. They also seem to know when hunting season begins or when they are too close to homes to worry about gun fire.
I can watch them all day - I just want them to leave me something to eat too.


Your spacing should be fine, and they will grow up your trellis and then spill back down. The flavor is wonderful, and I'd advise picking small as three plants will produce an enormous amount of squash fruits IME. They get a bit woody once they get really big.

I have 4 varieties of peppers. On the first picture is Pizza pepper, it is supposed to have just a zing of heat. On the second is Flavorburst F1, it is probably the earliest and the most prolific. The other two are Antohi Romanian and Sweet pickle. Sweet pickle have very small peppers, but I like the taste, in season they get ripen almost every day, so I always have peppers to eat.



I grew chokes down here a little south of you several years ago and they survived ok for 3-4 years before an extra harsh winter killed them (even with thick mulching). My main complaint about chokes here is that the heads were edible but way smaller than the ones you see in the produce section at stores.


The toadstools won't hurt anything and is actually a sign of healthy soil. But yeah, it is awfully wet here too. I keep having to dump the rainwater out of my self-watering containers so the soil can drain. Can you move them under any shelter at all?
Dave

That's a good idea, to just plant the beans under the sugar snaps, assuming your soil doesn't need to be tilled. But the rhizobium nitrogen fixing bacteria in peas are in the roots, not the foliage, so I think it makes more sense to compost the foliage. Of course, don't pull the peas out by the roots in any case. If you did when there were beans growing tere, you'd just shear off bean roots. When you till the soil, the pea roots and the nitrogen they produced there just get mixed in.

It's a raised square foot garden bed and definitely does not need tilling. I was planning on just cutting off the peas, leaving the roots and then just pulling them off the trellis and then mixing in a little fresh compost and planting the beans. So...I think the idea of planting the bean seeds is a really good one, and I can always top dress with a little compost when I cut off the peas. Thanks for the great idea, I now have a plan for something to do in the morning!







I ended up planting the toms under cover (milk jug). To be removed Thursday. Same for peppers.
After a few days of 85+ (it hit 89 I think yesterday), it is going down to 41 wednesday and thursday nights. Thats even chance of a frost in my garden. The weather is crazy! It has rained less than 1/4 inch over the last 3 weeks. It's practically a drought. Last Spring it didn't let up a day! The weather has just become so unpredictable here. You could say the only thing for sure is the winter is cold, but 2 winters ago that didn't materialize either.
The only thing in my garden actually looking like they are getting ready to produce for me are my peas and broccoli, and I am worried about them in this heat. Broc needs another couple weeks to get full size to start heading. My tomatoes are still just sitting there over 1 week now after transplanting (to be expected I guess), eggplant too had quite a bit of transplant shock. Given the forecast I am glad I kept my peppers and spare eggplants and tomatoes inside! My beets and lettuce look terrible and Idk if I will get anything worth harvesting this year. We didn't really have a spring.