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Post by ganews on May 22, 2017 11:49:05 GMT -5
Tomato plants went in the ground yesterday evening, 31 of them. Now it is days of cloud and rain.
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Post by Incense on May 24, 2017 13:56:44 GMT -5
I finally get to post in this thread! Mom and I went to my favorite nursery in Columbus Saturday and loaded up. I had a $75 gift card from my boss and used it up.
I have a "planter" in the yard created by stacking a bunch of flat rocks in a circle two high. We chose creeping jenny, sweet potato vines, a tall hosta, and a couple of coleus to fill it, and got some other coleus and sweet potato vines to help fill out the yard along with a huge dahlia, a geranium, a fuchsia, a flat of white petunias (those were free!), and a couple of houseplants (2 fiddleleaf figs and a schefflera) as well. I went back last night and picked up a couple of tomato plants. This weekend, I'm going to get them in the ground.
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Baron von Costume
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Post by Baron von Costume on May 29, 2017 10:38:44 GMT -5
I have 7 tomato plants and 5 pepper plants ready to go plus whatever of my seedlings survive transplanting...
Unfortunately my earth finally comes on tuesday, will take all of tuesday night to truck in to raise the height of garden to new wall level. Followed by me being out weds/thurs night, then gone all weekend. Here's hoping I can sneak a lunch hour thursday to plant some of them and get my mom to come over and water them on the weekend.
Still, I'm getting excited that the time of tasty veggies is approaching.
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Post by The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk on May 30, 2017 9:13:03 GMT -5
I HAVE A TOMATO!!!
It is very tiny - although it does appear to have grown by half a centimeter or so in the last 2 days - and very green and it's all by itself amongst the 4 or 5 other blossoms on my plant, but I have a tomato! I'm so excited. I repotted it in a Grow Bag with some coconut coir and potting soil and then moved my jalapeno pepper plant into the old tomato pot - good thing I did, too, because the pepper plant has shot up like crazy and also has a few blossoms on it.
I also planted some new basil - globe, purple, and lemon - because my previous attempt using a seedling plant from the supermarket (the kind you get for cooking but can ostensibly grow for more cooking later) failed miserably. I drilled a couple more holes in the container for drainage, and it'll do for now, but soon I'll need to transfer them into something sturdier.
I used some marjoram and rosemary from my over-the-deck herb garden in cooking this weekend, and what a delight it is to be able to go outside and snip off what I need.
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Post by Incense on May 30, 2017 12:58:01 GMT -5
So lucky! I ended up picking up a black prince tomato plant and three cherry tomato plants and they're still just seedlings. I look forward to seeing blossoms soon.
I got everything in the ground Saturday morning and it all looks so nice. I put my little outdoor Buddha beside the front step on his plinth and popped a solar light next to him for effect. Eventually, I want the whole yard to be full, lush, vining perennials with half-hidden solar lights in where they'll give it a little mystery.
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Post by Lt. Broccoli on Jun 5, 2017 6:01:57 GMT -5
Here's some of our garden, with about 1000 bags of mulch. And then next year the mulch will fade, and then you need to buy more mulch. THAT'S HOW THEY GETCHA. This isn't the part of the garden with the vegetables, but check out those hostas!  |
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Post by Incense on Jun 5, 2017 8:41:36 GMT -5
Here's some of our garden, with about 1000 bags of mulch. And then next year the mulch will fade, and then you need to buy more mulch. THAT'S HOW THEY GETCHA. This isn't the part of the garden with the vegetables, but check out those hostas! That looks great! Those hostas are enormous. |
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Baron von Costume
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Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
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Post by Baron von Costume on Jun 6, 2017 12:55:46 GMT -5
Finally got my tomatoes into the ground and they're all wilting hard. I'm afraid I'm going to lose at least 3 of the plants  |
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Post by Incense on Jun 6, 2017 13:38:32 GMT -5
Finally got my tomatoes into the ground and they're all wilting hard. I'm afraid I'm going to lose at least 3 of the plants Oh, that sucks. Is it maybe a wilt virus or whatever it is in the soil? I always have to do tomatoes in containers because of that. |
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Post by ganews on Jun 6, 2017 15:18:03 GMT -5
I was in the garden for hours Saturday before I left for conference. The tomatoes were looking good, and I put in all the seedling for peppers and eggplants. But I can't see them while I am away and I am worried about them and concerned that Wifemate isn't doing enough mothering.
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Baron von Costume
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Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
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Post by Baron von Costume on Jun 6, 2017 15:51:54 GMT -5
Finally got my tomatoes into the ground and they're all wilting hard. I'm afraid I'm going to lose at least 3 of the plants Oh, that sucks. Is it maybe a wilt virus or whatever it is in the soil? I always have to do tomatoes in containers because of that. hopefully not, they grew just fine last year until the slugs showed up. |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jun 7, 2017 11:39:34 GMT -5
Finally got my tomatoes into the ground and they're all wilting hard. I'm afraid I'm going to lose at least 3 of the plants BOOOO! I've got my fingers crossed that they were just mildly shocked, and will get over it. Ours are sometimes a little touch-and-go at first... |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jun 7, 2017 11:43:59 GMT -5
Our garden update is a bit of a mixed bag. We transplanted almost everything about a month ago, but thanks to the sustained cold spring, most of the seedlings were smaller than we generally like them to be. Of course, there was promptly a three-day scorching heat wave that took out most of the smaller ones -- we lost some cabbage, celery, the tomatillo (  how do you kill a tomatillo?), and most of the marigolds. Then it got cold and rainy again and stayed that way for the last month. The peppers are looking okay, but are practically still the same size they were when they were transplanted. I would really like the sun to come out for more than a few hours at a time, to give everything a chance to grow! Elsewhere in the garden, the direct-sown stuff is starting to show through -- the pickling cucumbers, cosmos, and broom corn are all trying to do their thing. And the things planted prior to the big installation are also fine -- onions are going gangbusters, there are pods now on the peas, and the garlic already has scapes. And all the straggly, awful-looking sunflower seedlings have straightened up and started to kick into gear, so while it's not looking fantastic in the pepper bed, I think we're generally doing okay. And after this week it's looking like the endless dreary April Showers weather we've been having will finally concede to proper June. It's about fucking time! |
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Baron von Costume
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Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
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Post by Baron von Costume on Jun 7, 2017 11:48:45 GMT -5
Yeah I'm pretty sure none of my pepper seedlings will survive transplanting.
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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Jun 12, 2017 0:12:14 GMT -5
I got tired of waiting for my replacement pepper seedlings to get bigger so I just planted them all this morning. I figure some will die (again) but there are enough so that not all of them will?
Also I am going to have hella tomatoes. Unfortunately the Goldie and Paul Robeson aren't looking too good, but most the rest are going bonkers. And some of the original March plantings are hilariously straggly, but I'm planning on yanking those once my cucumber seedlings take off. But yes. Hella tomatoes. Too many? Nah.
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Post by ganews on Jun 12, 2017 8:57:38 GMT -5
Also going to be quite a tomato year. Everyone looks healthy. Instead of the hose-coil tormatoes I've been doing for years, I'm using the same PVC frames with coated copper wire for the coils. That plastic hose breaks after a a couple summers of sunlight, but the wire won't go anywhere and was just $300 for 200 ft. on McMaster.
Bell peppers are looking remarkably strong; I hope the shishito peppers are as strong as last year. The plants are a little shrimpy so far.
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Baron von Costume
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Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
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Post by Baron von Costume on Jun 13, 2017 13:06:55 GMT -5
My bizarrely profilic parking pad rose bush.  |
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Post by ganews on Jun 13, 2017 13:31:26 GMT -5
Also going to be quite a tomato year. Everyone looks healthy. Instead of the hose-coil tormatoes I've been doing for years, I'm using the same PVC frames with coated copper wire for the coils. That plastic hose breaks after a a couple summers of sunlight, but the wire won't go anywhere and was just $300 for 200 ft. on McMaster. Bell peppers are looking remarkably strong; I hope the shishito peppers are as strong as last year. The plants are a little shrimpy so far. Jesus! I meant thirty dollars for 200 feet. I am not the kind of person who drops hundreds of dollars on garden supplies. |
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Baron von Costume
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Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
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Post by Baron von Costume on Jun 13, 2017 14:39:23 GMT -5
Also going to be quite a tomato year. Everyone looks healthy. Instead of the hose-coil tormatoes I've been doing for years, I'm using the same PVC frames with coated copper wire for the coils. That plastic hose breaks after a a couple summers of sunlight, but the wire won't go anywhere and was just $300 for 200 ft. on McMaster. Bell peppers are looking remarkably strong; I hope the shishito peppers are as strong as last year. The plants are a little shrimpy so far. Jesus! I meant thirty dollars for 200 feet. I am not the kind of person who drops hundreds of dollars on garden supplies. Any chance you could post a photo of your setup? I'm thinking of maybe trying something of that ilk next year. |
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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Jun 13, 2017 16:58:57 GMT -5
I got tired of waiting for my replacement pepper seedlings to get bigger so I just planted them all this morning. I figure some will die (again) but there are enough so that not all of them will? Also I am going to have hella tomatoes. Unfortunately the Goldie and Paul Robeson aren't looking too good, but most the rest are going bonkers. And some of the original March plantings are hilariously straggly, but I'm planning on yanking those once my cucumber seedlings take off. But yes. Hella tomatoes. Too many? Nah. And already some did die. Thankfully the habaneros were only a 25 cent packet. |
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Post by ganews on Jun 13, 2017 19:18:36 GMT -5
Jesus! I meant thirty dollars for 200 feet. I am not the kind of person who drops hundreds of dollars on garden supplies. Any chance you could post a photo of your setup? I'm thinking of maybe trying something of that ilk next year. Here's from last year:  Most is plastic hose, some is old coax cable I had for whatever reason. Unlike the hose, the cable never breaks, hence the switch to wire. Twine hols the loops so the weight is supported by the central PVC on one side and from above on the other side. This year we also bought some regular cages for the paste tomatoes, so we'll see how it compares. On thing about the tormato design, I think the plants really grow faster once they have a little support under their leaves, and that's more difficult with the regular 3-level cage. |
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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Jun 17, 2017 16:34:32 GMT -5
 FIRST TOMATO OF THE YEAR! This is a Berkeley Tie-Dye. It's from a start, not a seed I planted. Those are currently bearing fruit, but they'll be a while before any of it is ripe. |
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Post by ganews on Jun 17, 2017 17:51:38 GMT -5
Four hours of work this afternoon; an hour mowing the lawn and doing dishes and house stuff, and three hours cultivating and putting mulch down in the garden. Hm, just yesterday I was thinking about those outdoor summer jobs in Georgia. Everybody still looks healthy. Friggin' volunteer tomato plant everywhere.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jun 19, 2017 11:56:19 GMT -5
We were away for two days and came back to a garden that looks like a complete stranger. How did the onions get so big in just two days?? Would they have gotten that big in the same 48 hours if we'd been home? I doubt it. The garlic all got scapes while we were gone, so I spent about 45 minutes on Sunday afternoon cutting those. Also, we got our first peas! About a dozen pods, so Boomer and I enjoyed little tiny finger bowls of fresh peas with our dinner. Here's something I need you all to do for me next January when I'm ordering seeds -- remind me not to be tempted or swayed by the various seed catalogs' descriptions of pea varieties. Lincoln is the type I like best, and every time I try a different type (like whichever one it is we grew this year), they disappoint. Our current peas are good, but not Lincoln good.
Let's see... in other garden news, the cucumbers are starting to look like nascent vines, the volunteer dill (which I only let grow to get the flowers for making pickles) is coming in right on schedule, the one tomato started from a volunteer's seeds from last year seems to have gotten over the hump and is turning into a real plant, and the sunflowers (at least the ones the deer haven't eaten through the fence) are knee-high. It's fun out there!
In bad news, our lawn guys are doing a bunch of area mulching for us, and mistook one of our pumpkins in the foundation planting for a weed. So now we're down a pumpkin vine, but I'm not sure whether I even have any expectations for those this year. Some years we've had luck, others none. So that's not a huge loss. A much bigger loss is the cherry tree next to our driveway, which, after a couple of years of looking like it would forever be stunted at "newly-purchased sapling" size, had finally doubled in size and filled out fairly impressively. It also had three fruits on it. Somehow, when the lawn guys took down the deer netting to prep around that tree for its mulching, they failed to put the netting back up properly. And a deer got in. And basically skeletonized the tree. Boomer reported that she came home at one point to find the deer in the act and nearly drove her car straight into the little fucker. The tree might still have enough leaves at its top to be able to keep growing, but it's a sad, sad sight now. And very disappointing, considering how triumphant it had finally become this summer. (Similarly, the Black Limbertwig apple in the front of the yard, which I planted last year and have been fighting some mysterious apple-branch-eater, has been mysteriously re-eaten again. It keeps getting about 85% razed, despite being safely enfenced, then limps back to life only to get 85% razed again. The razing happened again this weekend. I'd really like for whatever is eating it to just finish the job so I can replace the tree, or leave it alone and let it grow up. I don't want to spend forever with a waist-high apple sapling that never gets a chance to get bigger.)
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Post by Incense on Jun 26, 2017 18:40:26 GMT -5
I am heartsick. I have been working on my garden for three years and I've put so much work and money into it and had such plans for it as the summer went on. I had a cute little rock border separating the yard, and large rocks scattered throughout for a "rock garden" and my daylilies were really filling out nicely.
Tonight, when I got home, there were red and orange spray paint lines all through my plants along the side and a letter on the door saying that they'll be tearing up every area with spray paint lines with heavy equipment and replacing the underground cables. I'm going to lose everything along the longest side of the garden. My daylilies, a hosta, three quarters of my annuals, my rock planter and the plants in it, everything, if I can't move them myself in time - and there's no date given on the letter as to when they're going to start.
I fired off emails to the complex property manager and the project manager of the dig, but of course, everyone's home for the night. I've moved all the big rocks except for half of the ones that make up the planter (I'm exhausted) and all the little ones. Tomorrow, if it's not too late, I'll finish moving the planter rocks and all the plants I can.
I am just crushed.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jun 26, 2017 22:17:22 GMT -5
I am heartsick. I have been working on my garden for three years and I've put so much work and money into it and had such plans for it as the summer went on. I had a cute little rock border separating the yard, and large rocks scattered throughout for a "rock garden" and my daylilies were really filling out nicely. Tonight, when I got home, there were red and orange spray paint lines all through my plants along the side and a letter on the door saying that they'll be tearing up every area with spray paint lines with heavy equipment and replacing the underground cables. I'm going to lose everything along the longest side of the garden. My daylilies, a hosta, three quarters of my annuals, my rock planter and the plants in it, everything, if I can't move them myself in time - and there's no date given on the letter as to when they're going to start. I fired off emails to the complex property manager and the project manager of the dig, but of course, everyone's home for the night. I've moved all the big rocks except for half of the ones that make up the planter (I'm exhausted) and all the little ones. Tomorrow, if it's not too late, I'll finish moving the planter rocks and all the plants I can. I am just crushed. Oh no! That sounds awful. I just had a lovely gravel path and an expensive peony ruined by construction (laying electrical wiring for solar panels on my garage, so it's for the greater good). On the bright side, hostas are incredibly resilient, so whatever you manage to salvage will probably grow back just fine after a season or two. Daylilies are also pretty vigorous, and the annuals were going to die anyway, right? |
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Post by Incense on Jun 27, 2017 8:08:29 GMT -5
Augh, I hate hearing peonies were ruined, they're my favorite flowers. But at least you got solar panels out of it. I'm getting nothing out of this. Hostas are resilient, true, so maybe that will get salvaged. The daylilies though, are so large, I'm not entirely sure that I can get any of them dug up on my own to save. The annuals ... yeah, they were going to die anyway, but at the end of the season, not the beginning! I'm just so bummed. So much hard work and so much money spent, so many plans thrown out the window, because some random utility decides it wants to rip up my yard and I have no recourse.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jun 27, 2017 9:25:24 GMT -5
I am heartsick. I have been working on my garden for three years and I've put so much work and money into it and had such plans for it as the summer went on. I had a cute little rock border separating the yard, and large rocks scattered throughout for a "rock garden" and my daylilies were really filling out nicely. Tonight, when I got home, there were red and orange spray paint lines all through my plants along the side and a letter on the door saying that they'll be tearing up every area with spray paint lines with heavy equipment and replacing the underground cables. I'm going to lose everything along the longest side of the garden. My daylilies, a hosta, three quarters of my annuals, my rock planter and the plants in it, everything, if I can't move them myself in time - and there's no date given on the letter as to when they're going to start. I fired off emails to the complex property manager and the project manager of the dig, but of course, everyone's home for the night. I've moved all the big rocks except for half of the ones that make up the planter (I'm exhausted) and all the little ones. Tomorrow, if it's not too late, I'll finish moving the planter rocks and all the plants I can. I am just crushed. Oh no!!! That is AWFUL! I'm so, so sorry. That's literally one of my worst nightmares -- how dreadful that it's happening to you for real.  We had two really well-established blackberry bushes (well, clusters of canes, since they don't grow on bushes, but still) next to our garage, and they were destroyed by all the construction we did on it over the last year. They're not gone, but it's going to be a few years before they get re-established, and we won't be getting any blackberries for quite a while. Which I guess is okay, because I don't actually like blackberries all that much, but it's kind of the principle of the thing. (I do like the giant pink blossoms they get and how zen it is to pick the berries in our quiet backyard on a warm summer evening after work. Hurry back, blackberries!) Actually, this reminds me of when we had to have our well pump replaced. The crew looked at the location in our front yard and reassured my mother, who was the only one home at the time, "No problem. We'll just cut down a couple of these fruit trees and then we'll have plenty of space." She was ready to chain herself to the trees to stop them before their manager swung by to check on the job, heard what they were planning, and was like, "You idiots! Just use a smaller digger! GAWD!" |
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Post by Incense on Jun 27, 2017 10:12:58 GMT -5
I am heartsick. I have been working on my garden for three years and I've put so much work and money into it and had such plans for it as the summer went on. I had a cute little rock border separating the yard, and large rocks scattered throughout for a "rock garden" and my daylilies were really filling out nicely. Tonight, when I got home, there were red and orange spray paint lines all through my plants along the side and a letter on the door saying that they'll be tearing up every area with spray paint lines with heavy equipment and replacing the underground cables. I'm going to lose everything along the longest side of the garden. My daylilies, a hosta, three quarters of my annuals, my rock planter and the plants in it, everything, if I can't move them myself in time - and there's no date given on the letter as to when they're going to start. I fired off emails to the complex property manager and the project manager of the dig, but of course, everyone's home for the night. I've moved all the big rocks except for half of the ones that make up the planter (I'm exhausted) and all the little ones. Tomorrow, if it's not too late, I'll finish moving the planter rocks and all the plants I can. I am just crushed. Oh no!!! That is AWFUL! I'm so, so sorry. That's literally one of my worst nightmares -- how dreadful that it's happening to you for real. We had two really well-established blackberry bushes (well, clusters of canes, since they don't grow on bushes, but still) next to our garage, and they were destroyed by all the construction we did on it over the last year. They're not gone, but it's going to be a few years before they get re-established, and we won't be getting any blackberries for quite a while. Which I guess is okay, because I don't actually like blackberries all that much, but it's kind of the principle of the thing. (I do like the giant pink blossoms they get and how zen it is to pick the berries in our quiet backyard on a warm summer evening after work. Hurry back, blackberries!) Actually, this reminds me of when we had to have our well pump replaced. The crew looked at the location in our front yard and reassured my mother, who was the only one home at the time, "No problem. We'll just cut down a couple of these fruit trees and then we'll have plenty of space." She was ready to chain herself to the trees to stop them before their manager swung by to check on the job, heard what they were planning, and was like, "You idiots! Just use a smaller digger! GAWD!" Thanks! I just got an email from the project manager saying that it will be about 2-3 days before it begins and they're using something called "directional boring" which is apparently not very disruptive at all. I replied asking about how gentle it is. Maybe I won't have to move anything else! I used to have a blackberry cane too. I'm not much on berries in general, but blackberries I will make an exception for. It is enjoyable, picking them - if you can get to them before the birds do. It was always a race with me. And it really was a beautiful plant. I just had one poorly-espaliered plant; I can imagine how attached you might have been to two full grown bushes! I'm sorry the construction got them. Plants always seem to get the shaft. And that was a close call with your fruit trees! Thank God for the supervisor catching them. Trees make such a difference. I live in a condo complex that's not in a great end of town, but I can say a couple of things for it. For one, there's only one street down the middle of the complex, and the trees on either side are almost to the point of canopying the street, which is lovely. Two, the complex pays for the landscaping/mowing of the grass, but we each have mulched planting areas around out homes in which we can do anything we want. Mine is especially large, so I've been really working on it for a few years now. When I moved in years ago, it was a massively overgrown ivy patch. I'm not a great gardener, I kill plants all the time, but I love them and I'm pretty passionate about it. |
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Post by Incense on Jun 27, 2017 21:31:45 GMT -5
Good news! One of my fellow condo board members talked to AEP today and found out that - If they do the project, no one's going near any gardens, they really will do targeted directional boring and it will all be superminimal, no fuss
- They found out today that the upgrades they were supposed to do had already been done at some point, now have no idea why we were scheduled for this, and are probably not even going to come do it now.
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how do you kill a tomatillo?), and most of the marigolds. Then it got cold and rainy again and stayed that way for the last month. The peppers are looking okay, but are practically still the same size they were when they were transplanted. I would really like the sun to come out for more than a few hours at a time, to give everything a chance to grow!
