[acerbic37]

Originally Posted by NLVgal

My garden is doing okay after a rough start with the wind last month ( I always get started too early). I lost three or four plants because of the wind. Tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, squash, grapes, basil, mint, chives, parsley, lemon trees and peppers are going strong.

My carrots and radishes are doing okay. The asparagus is suffering from neglect, and anything I've tried to start indoors is dead, even though we have a garden window on the east side of the house.

We are getting some baby chicks next month, so fresh veggies and fresh eggs. My SO built an amazing chicken coop. It even has a web-cam.

Anyone else gardening food this spring?


PS.

I mostly use Leslie Doyle's growing methods, but not always.

Sweet Tomato Test Garden | Leslie Doyle

I'm living vicariously through this thread/your garden since I can't have one of my own this year...

[Danknee]

Not so much gardening, but my trees are doing well despite my poor care.

First off, I planted cypress trees along the perimeter of my yard. Bought the 3 foot $16 dollar size from Star, for reference the back wall is 7 feet tall. Only 2 years of growth!


The two slightly yellow cypress have a mite that spins webs to protect themselves and feed on the tree. The advice I'm following is to increase watering time, spray off the webs when they reappear, and release lady bugs at night on them. My lady bugs are in the mail.

My wife and I were considering putting a pool in our backyard, but frugality led us to buying trees instead. We figured the trees were temporary, but not so sure anymore.

$12 buys you a twig with a root from the Arbor Day foundation. I bought 3 apple trees that pollinate with each other: Red Jonathan, Yellow Delicious, and Stayman Winesap. I bought a Belle of Georgia peach the self-pollinates. Lastly I bought two cherry trees that cross pollinate: a Bing and a Black Tartarian. One of the cherry trees isn't meant for our climate (corner tree). I thought it was totally dead and cut it to the ground, but it grew back to about 2 feet this year. Someone here told me the cherry trees will never have fruit because of the lack of cold nights.


The two in the front row are apple trees, two in the back are the cherry trees. You can see a new Japanese blueberry column I just planted (very corner of the block walls) with new 3 foot cypress trees on either side.


This is a far shot of the peach tree, which is gigantic despite being a dwarf (14 feet now). Last year it created hundreds of peaches, but we pulled them all off before they grew based on a tip that it would help the tree become more hardy; trunk is about 6 inches thick now. The front row are the three apple trees, all three have some blossoms this year.

I did not prune the trees at all for 2 years... which was a mistake. After reading some guides on pruning my wife removed some limbs before the trees bloomed this year. Unfortunately the apple in the front corner is a random mess.

Wife and I are both casual gardeners who are interested enough to plant new things. When they die we plant other things.

Feel free to give me constructive feedback. I know that my yard completely ignores all advice for how close to plant things. I fertilize the Cyprus trees, but aside from the initial planting I haven't fertilized any of the fruit trees yet.

[Danknee]

The new Japanese column and Cyprus trees in the corner of the yard this year were a result of me killing a large pineapple palm last year.

The pineapple palm was doing great for the first two years I lived here, then it started browning. Someone at Star Nursery advised me that it wasn't getting enough water, so I added four additional drips around it. After doing that it died 3x faster...lol. I have palm food that I was using, the other two palms are still alive <knocks on wood>.



I have never dealt with a dead palm before so I tried taking an axe to it... I can tell you that the only thing an axe versus a palm does is create blisters on your hands.

Check out what the wife and I did with shovels...

Those sticks/logs were necessary just to get it out of the hole






Have to love Republic trash. This tree was so heavy that we pushed it halfway in the bin and tipped it up on its wheels after. I was 95% sure they wouldn't take this thing, but I still left it just like that on the curb. Empty can when I came home.

[NDJeff]

Nice information. I'm working on greening up my tiny backyard right now so this stuff is helpful. So far I have two dwarf peach trees and two pomegranate trees planted as well as a dwarf bottlebrush, a cape honeysuckle, and a couple agave plants. I don't have room for much else because my backyard has a covered patio. I'm thinking about putting a few plants in pots on the sunny edge of the concrete patio, probably peppers. I will experiment with a couple plants this summer and if it works well maybe a few more next year. I put an extra run of landscaping tubing along the edge of the patio for potted plants so I can set the time separate from the trees.

[winter-rabbit]

Yu have a lot of green grass for a LV backyard

You water like crazy JUN-AUG?

Originally Posted by Danknee

The new Japanese column and Cyprus trees in the corner of the yard this year were a result of me killing a large pineapple palm last year.

The pineapple palm was doing great for the first two years I lived here, then it started browning. Someone at Star Nursery advised me that it wasn't getting enough water, so I added four additional drips around it. After doing that it died 3x faster...lol. I have palm food that I was using, the other two palms are still alive <knocks on wood>.



I have never dealt with a dead palm before so I tried taking an axe to it... I can tell you that the only thing an axe versus a palm does is create blisters on your hands.

Check out what the wife and I did with shovels...

Those sticks/logs were necessary just to get it out of the hole






Have to love Republic trash. This tree was so heavy that we pushed it halfway in the bin and tipped it up on its wheels after. I was 95% sure they wouldn't take this thing, but I still left it just like that on the curb. Empty can when I came home.

[Danknee]

Originally Posted by winter-rabbit

Yu have a lot of green grass for a LV backyard

You water like crazy JUN-AUG?

I water 3-5 times a week during the hottest weeks. My grass stays about that green and my water bills have never fluctuated up much.

[Danknee]

I received 1500 lady bugs yesterday. Per the instructions I released 1/3rd of them last night, the rest are in the fridge. I'll release the rest over the next two nights. I'm hoping they find plenty of mites to eat and stick around to lay eggs.

[HSV2LAS]

Have you tried horticulture oil sprayed on the leaves? It would suffocate the spider eggs, etc. Might want to ask your local nursery. Only if it doesn't get above 90 degrees

[Danknee]

Originally Posted by HSV2LAS

Have you tried horticulture oil sprayed on the leaves? It would suffocate the spider eggs, etc. Might want to ask your local nursery. Only if it doesn't get above 90 degrees

Thanks for the tip! I have not heard that. I'm probably going to wait two weeks and see if the lady bugs make any impact. These mites can spin new webs in a week and half, so that will be my gauge of success. If they come back I'll ask about the oil at the nursury, although I'm afraid consistent 90°+ days are right around the corner.

[Danknee]

Raspberries are coming in strong this year. The back half of that bed was blackberries, all but one of those died. I transplanted a few raspberries that direction and hope to get some of my grandma's superior black berry plants transplanted this fall.


I cut them 1" to the ground each fall so they continue to spread.