Garden Club V: Herbs, Vegetables, and Blooms

[RJDiogenes]

Pictures! We want Garden Club pictures!

[Madeliaette]

cropped the shallots gooseberries and garlic completely now for this year.strawbs almost done. rasps still going.

[RJDiogenes]

I should bring in pictures of my Mother's garden. She's fixed it up a bit. Also it now has the turtles I gave her.

[Elara]

Welp, the raised beds have to go. If drought conditions are going to be the new norm, they just aren't a good idea. So, I am revamping the entire garden this winter. I'm going to design just how and where I will plant stuff, allowing for shade from taller plants (corn) to protect sensitive plants, but not too much shade. The potato planters have to be moved this winter, too. The blister beetles need to go far away from my hay. So, we will move the potato planters across the yard, close to the ditch. Speaking of potatoes, compared to last year, they did great. I've dug up all 17 hills and have way more potatoes than I got last year. Last year, about 4 pounds, this year, about 16 pounds.
I also manged to find 7 (I planted 13) garlic "bulbs". Most were pea sized, and a couple were so much smaller, but I got some. Next year...

I also planted baby corn, zucchini, cucumbers, beans (green, yellow and purple), which did not do well this year, yellow squash, scalloped squash and a couple little sweet melons. In the other garden I have peppers (red, orange, purple, green and golden), and strawberries, which have died off even more. I'm down to 6 plants. In the smallest garden, I have sweet potatoes and tomatoes, both are doing well. I placed rolls of wire by the sweet potatoes to keep them off the ground. That worked, but if it helped, remains to be seen:

Raised beds earlier in July:

The stuff on the fence is to deter the deer, since I didn't get the fence all up. Glad I didn't since I will be changing it again.

And a picture of my Pink Morning Glory:

It keeps trying to spread, and I keep pulling the new plants out.

[RJDiogenes]

Welp, the raised beds have to go. If drought conditions are going to be the new norm, they just aren't a good idea.

Is that what they're predicting? That's not good.

Speaking of potatoes, compared to last year, they did great. I've dug up all 17 hills and have way more potatoes than I got last year. Last year, about 4 pounds, this year, about 16 pounds.

That's good.

I also planted baby corn, zucchini, cucumbers, beans (green, yellow and purple), which did not do well this year, yellow squash, scalloped squash and a couple little sweet melons. In the other garden I have peppers (red, orange, purple, green and golden), and strawberries, which have died off even more. I'm down to 6 plants. In the smallest garden, I have sweet potatoes and tomatoes, both are doing well.

Wow, that's some pretty extensive farming.

[Elara]

Is that what they're predicting? That's not good.

Not predicting, but it seems that way. The last drought we had lasted two years, so I am just planning on it happening.

Wow, that's some pretty extensive farming.

It was a lot, but also a lot of failed plants.

You all might be interested in this? Had a pepper plant orgy back in October. Nope, I am serious. I brought the pepper plants in before the first frost, saw all the flowers, grabbed one and had "sex" with all the other flowers. Got a few "pregnancies" out of the orgy. No condoms in a pepper orgy.
So, 4 pepper plants, 1 eggplant, 1 strawberry, 10 garlic cloves, 6 onions, and 1 sweet potato. I'm just testing this year. So far, the strawberry has recovered and died off 3 times, 2 of the onions are growing, as well as 5 of the garlic. Had blooms on the eggplant, had a small orgy with them, but nothing has come of it (1 started, but fell off). Now there are 3 new buds, so I'm hopeful.

[RJDiogenes]

Hmm. If you've got videos of all this, you could probably start a Vegan OnlyFans channel.

[Elara]

Nope, no video. Do you think I am nuts? I suffer my failures in private.

[RJDiogenes]

But failure videos are the most popular.

[Elara]

Well, my peppers,strawberry, etc... and likely the eggplant, which was really blooming, are done. Apparently, at some point when it was still warmish, I brought in on me, somewhere, a winged, black aphid. Turned into hundreds and obliterated my plants the last week of December. So, I will be starting with all new plants next summer.

[RJDiogenes]

Oh, no, that's terrible. Is there anything you can put on the plants to repel them?

[huggle]

it often helps to spray the plants with a dishwashing detergent solution or plain soap water. Aphids are covered in a wax-like substance and when that gets removed they dry out. Some add white spirit to the solution but I advise against it, at least with plants that have very tender leaves: the spirit could damage them.
Potted plants are easier to treat: cover the soil with plastic foil or clingfilm, put them in the bathtub and give them a vigourous shower, particularly on the underside of the leaves.

As for the orgies: I frequently assist the bumble bees impollinating my tomatos A very soft brush works well.

Don't give up on your plants yet. Some might regrow from the ruins once the aphids are under control. Frankly, in extremely bad cases I occasionally use pyrethrum or similar poisons.
Atm I have a problem with mealy bugs on my cacti. Difficult to get at them between all these spines.

[Elara]

Oh, no, that's terrible. Is there anything you can put on the plants to repel them?

Well, I killed a lot of them with a dish washing soap/water mix. I think that counts as repel.

it often helps to spray the plants with a dishwashing detergent solution or plain soap water. Aphids are covered in a wax-like substance and when that gets removed they dry out. Some add white spirit to the solution but I advise against it, at least with plants that have very tender leaves: the spirit could damage them.
Potted plants are easier to treat: cover the soil with plastic foil or clingfilm, put them in the bathtub and give them a vigourous shower, particularly on the underside of the leaves.

Yep, that's what I hit them with, for days.
The tub wasn't quite ready for use, so I wasn't able to use it, but I misted/doused the plants daily.

As for the orgies: I frequently assist the bumble bees impollinating my tomatos A very soft brush works well.

Best kind of orgies. Okay, only kind I have experience with, but I still say best kind. A small brush? Like a make-up brush? I tried a q-tip years ago, but the results weren't the best. That's when I just sacrificed one blossom and used it on all the others. That worked perfectly. Even this time, before the aphid attack.

Don't give up on your plants yet. Some might regrow from the ruins once the aphids are under control. Frankly, in extremely bad cases I occasionally use pyrethrum or similar poisons.

I'm still watering the plants, so no, haven't given up entirely, even though it looks quite barren right now. Plus, very little sunlight to encourage sprouts.
I can't use any insecticides. Well, I could, if I want to spend days curled up in a ball with a really bad migraine. I probably could on outside plants, but I don't like to take the chance. Which means attacking blister beetles with leather gloved hands and soapy water, same for Japanese beetles, though I don't need the gloves with them.

Atm I have a problem with mealy bugs on my cacti. Difficult to get at them between all these spines.

I had no idea cacti could have problems. Would long tweezers work? The only cactus we ever had was Flip Off Cactus (FOC for short), and he never had any problems, other than sprouting like mad so as to no longer look like what he was named for. We had him for 20+ years, then one day I noticed he was falling apart, and that was the end.

[RJDiogenes]

Well, I killed a lot of them with a dish washing soap/water mix. I think that counts as repel.

There's a new sheriff in town.

[scottydog]

Even though we're in Northern California, we're on the coast and the marine influence means it almost never gets below freezing here. As we're walking around town, we're seeing lots of flowers in bloom