24,795 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

I grew nice dill last summer from seed. But the best herbs in my herb garden are perennial. I have Oregano that is like a weed, a nice Thyme bush, Sage that is good year round, Fennel that comes up every year. I'd recommend these for a long-term haul from the herb garden.

Basil is annual, germinates very quickly and grows quite fast too. It loves heat so I think that one will work well.
Chives are perennial and don't grow particularly fast initially. If it bolts it's irrelevant because it will live for years whether it flowers or not.
Parsley is quite slow to germinate and is biennial.


Most all squash varieties will pollinate each other with no problems and produce whatever the plant is supposed to produce. I have used all sorts of varieties to pollinate each other over the years. It is only an issue if you try to save the seeds for future use.
But your situation is a good example of why I never plant just one of anything. Two plants will quadruple your pollination opportunities whether by hand or insects. :)
Dave

I'm embarrassed to say I only knew of MiracleGro when I started, so I've been using it every few weeks. It seemed to be doing fine until lately. This morning I looked and the yellowing leaves are starting to dry out and turn brown on the end, and it seems that some of the higher up leaves are starting to get slightly yellowish patches. Any recommendations?

Yeah it is either rootbound in the container (very likely) or it is suffering from salt build-up in the soil from all the MG (also quite likely). You can use MG on containers if you wish, your choice and many do, but you have to use it at a very diluted rate (1/4 strength or 1/2 strength max) or you end up with salt damage to the plants.
Just get what fruit you can from it and then let it go. It won't survive transplanting now. And meanwhile start another one. Next time use a bigger container.
Dave

Get the test. This time of year, as you suggest, their turn around time shouldn't be too long (you can call them and ask.) The info on the results should be fairly easy for you to make sense of.
As far as buying anything, well, if the turn around time is fast, and the plants haven't really grown large, and that "etc." in your comments includes soil, then what you have should support the growth at least until you get the results.
Not all compost is created equal. Some has sufficient nutrients, some - well, not so much. The peat basically has nothing. But, even a cheap soil should have enough nutrients for a week.

If it is a new bed that you've never used before, or especially tested before, get it tested ONCE by your university extension. Excellent investment. Don't waste your time with a self test. The reliability of those is suspect. That information from a professional test could be profoundly valuable, if some real deficiency is identified. You could match that deficiency with symptoms that you see in your plants, and amend using those symptoms as an indicator of your success in treating that deficiency. To the extent that test reveals things that you really can't treat well, like soil alkalinity for example, you at least know what you can't grow.
You might talk with your neighbors, who may have had the test done, and probably share the same type of soil.
If you feel like you need to fertilize, then sure, use a general purpose fertilizer. For many people, fertilization is a treatment for the psyche of the gardener more than it is for the plants. But go easy on it until you know the results from your soil test.

Zucchini have both male and female flowers and are polinated by many different kinds of bee and some wasps. Don't worry about pollination if you are in a normal area where there are flying insects; the bees will find the flowers. In the absence of honey bees, you should encourage solitary bees by building a solitary be house in the very early spring. It is easy and need not be fancy like you dind on the internet. Just use a non-treated 6X6 block of wood and drill 3/8th inch holes to a depth of 3-5 inches about an inch between them. Hang the block at least 3 feet high. Birds may eat the bees so it is best to cover the face of the block with hail wire about an inch in front of the holes. Did you know you can eat the male flowers? They are a delicacy. I usually leave one male flower for polination and harvest the rest. Look on the internet for recipes.

We get a lot of mosquitoes here - even if I'm super diligent about eliminating standing water in our yard, we can't control nearby neighbors'; rain gutters, plant saucers, etc. can harbor the little buggers & our yards are rather close together here.
I've had good results w/ this product - it kills on contact & repels:



2" are rather small for transplanting so you might need to add 10 days or so to the 57 DTM, mine are usually planted out at around 6" (5 weeks from seeding) with 5 or 6 leaves. My concern at this point would be the weather turning hot before they head up because you probably have another 3 weeks or so. When they do start heading keep a close eye on them for bolting because they can go south fast when it is hot. You also might try to shade them if possible. I have grown Green magic and like it and still grow it in the fall, but in the spring I always grow Early Dividend because it is only 48 DTM so I can get the harvest before hot weather sets in around here.


If you don't want to saturate your plants with chemicals, you can make a powdery mildew spray from milk and water, or from baking soda and water. There are many versions of this on the internet so it's easy to google and get the proportions. You have to make sure you also spray the undersides of the leaves, and do it fairly often until the problem is under control.



Thinking it may be a wild mustard - check this out...


Dave, thanks so much for your information. I do poke my fingers really deep into the soil to test. I'm going to twist the liners out with some pliers because the holes are plenty big enough to get most of it out. I'll just let it ride and see what happens this year for these buckets.


The clear bet is the sideways pics are from cell phones; some phones have wonky which-way-is-up info. If you are posting one of these, and you run it through pretty much any image application on your computer, that info will get rectified. If you are trying to look at someone else's sideways pic, try right clicking on the pic and choose the option that's something like "open image" or "view image in a new tab/window", whichever way your browser words it.
You could rotate your monitor...






Here are some pictures of the garden. JerseyBoy and BrandyBoy are sure growing!





Is your seed treated? They would be red, probably, if they are. If so the birds will leave it alone. Untreated, I don't know.
How deep are you planting the seed? Never had the problem and have assumed that the normal planting depth of 2 inches would make it difficult for birds to get at it.
Dave