GREEN GIANT

Tuesday: Annoyed this year, I bought tomato plants, rather than grow from seed. Not as big and slow growing. Won't make the same mistake next year.
I know it's not the compost, I use the same each year. Everything else I grow using it gets big quick.

Plus the bags of compost are very big, cheap compared to brand names. But will be buying a composter. Local council to encourage using them, have a deal with a company to supply them at cut price compared to buying them in the shops.

Tuesday: such is planting new this year. Cherry tree and a nice smeller can't remember name of. But know a guy who does when time to order it. Had to keep toms and salad in greenhouse. Not now :)

Finally Sun!
After the wettest April/May had in several years.
Had to replant some flowers, snails ate previous lot I planted!

snowing here

Carnie: yea thats messed up I wanted something that was plant friendly but kept the dam bugs from eating on the leaves

Carnie: i think

BadBoy7:
For tomato try a table spoon of baking soda a teaspoon of mild dish water soap and a couple of table spoons of olive oil in about 5 lites of water ..put it in a spray bottle and use twice a day for the first week.

Don't know about pepper plants

Check the dish water soap as most are a petroleum derivatives or at least biogradable

Carnie: i did that and it seemed to kill my pepper plants

does anyone know what home type remedy you can spray on tomato and pepper plants to keep bugs from eating holes in the leaves etc???

Grow grow grow your plants...gently by the stream...merrily merrily merrily...life is but a dream

<>Crosseyed Mary: they are awful to eradicate! Best to cut them to ground level which is tedious. Weed killers will do it but they are resistant. I had five that I cut to the ground, then tried herbicides. They started to return so on advice from a friend I poured petrol on them, let it soak in, lit it then to make sure a few days later poured more petrol on them but didn't light it. That worked. The white parts covering your plants are the seeds too. Best of luck !Crosseyed Mary: they are awful to eradicate! Best to cut them to ground level which is tedious. Weed killers will do it but they are resistant. I had five that I cut to the ground, then tried herbicides. They started to return so on advice from a friend I poured petrol on them, let it soak in, lit it then to make sure a few days later poured more petrol on them but didn't light it. That worked. The white parts covering your plants are the seeds too. Best of luck !

has arrived :)

We have snow again.

Doris: No we don't get much snow where I live. Up north and Scotland get snow more often.
Like you it is a big deal here too. The country just does not cope when we get snow.

crosseyed: Do you get a lot of snow there?  We had snow Friday...about 3 inches...It's almost completely gone now.  It's always a big deal here because it rarely snows.

We have snow here in the UK. Nice to look at but that is all.

Carnie:

Dates don't lie

ketchuplover: Thank you for that. It is in next door's garden that is empty and it is very annoying as in winter all the white feathery bits gets into all my plants.

Cut it as close to the ground as possible then apply herbicide treatments as necessary. No guarantees expressed or implied.
Wishing ye great success.

Does anyone know how to get rid of Pampas grass?

Marshmud: no Marshmud there has never been anything growing in that spot ever and about 6 feet or more away is a meyer lemon thata is laden with fruit :(

does anbody know what sort of orchid this is???...is it a Cooktown orchid?

Marshmud: I have liberally spreead citrus fertiliser all around the darn tree about a week ago and cannot see an ounce of difference....the fruit is still dropping off :(

ScarletRose: If it is a true "navel" orange it is self pollinating. Many fruit trues are.

Bernice:  I know how frustrating it is.. one year Dan was having to get out in the mornings and pollenate the squash plants.. I learned a lot that year.. 

ScarletRose: thanks Cathy :)........Im really baffled :)

Bernice:  They aren't being pollenated.. if you don't have enough bees and other flying insects that would pollenate you would need to get a can of polenater usually found at your Nurseries and Farming stores.. it is usually in spray bottles.. if that isn't the case then you might not have enough male orange trees around.. funny as it sounds that might be another solution.. I know plum trees need the male tree around to produce.. 

can anyone help.


I have a Navel orange tree..it would be about 5 years old...It has never had any fruit only a few flowers than never amounted to anything.

This year it is absolutely smothered in flowers and fruit are setting BUT after about a week or so they all fall off :(...any advice please?

skipinnz: Damn.. I have to sacrifice some good of the good stuff!!

I can handle it *sniff*

(V): I've found the darker bees(malt) are more to the slugs taste but they'll go after a good european lager. :-)

skipinnz: Beer I'll use, making it 'investigation safe' is easy enough. Yet I am finding (after finding various articles on the net) foil and copper are not to slugs taste! As a point blank deterrent it's discouraged all but one little salad muncher. Though that could have been through proximity to a low wall.

Google

(V): I make home brew and I find the tailings in a small pot are excellent, and to make them child proff you can place it under a pot as long as there is acess for the slugs.

Just a quick question on slug and snail control...

I'm trying out using aluminium foil as a deterrent rather than using slug pellets. Can anyone advise on the effectiveness of aluminium foil v copper, as I've heard good things about it as well.

Or, if you've not found them effective as a deterrent, can someone recommend a good animal and children safe alternative?

Cheers :)

Dan and I finally got the garden in today.. What a chore this year has been.. lots of good stuff.. we still need to pick up a few more things to put in.. jalapenos and green peppers.. along with yellow onions and some cherry toms'..

If you buy a whole celery and cut the base off it, put it into a bowl of shallow water and leave it for about a week. ...it will grow....there will be a couple of new stems sprouting from the middle and there will be roots growing from the bottom....can be planted in the garden and kept moist until it really gets away :)

Vikings:Hosta is so hardy you can hardly kill them....they can be split up at almost any time as long as they don't get tpp dry after transplanting.  Water them well and they should be fine

skipinnz: I've talked to enough people now that the plan is to split them up in another month, that way the 90 degree heat would have broke and there would be enough time for the roots to establish before hard frost

Vikings: If it's any use I split my when the flowers have died back.