This city girl excited about her first garden . .tell me about yours! (HOA, purchase)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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Saluki your garden looks lovely
My tomatoes and Chillies are growing like weeds. Have a few tiny tomatoes already and a lot of flowers. My single squash plant is flowering already though it hardly has any leaves. The cucumber is stunted - it neither grows nor dies - perhaps it doesnot like the new spot I transplanted it to .
The eggplants have lovely purplish green leaves but I do not see any flowers yet. I have never seen such tall growing cilantro in my life.Looks like it is a mutant of some sort but it tastes wonderful - cannot beleive the flavor.Our Gardenia bushes are full of white flowers and they smell heavenly. My Roses have done excpetionally well this year. Just bracing myself for the horrible Japanese beatles to arrive in June I feel terrible to fertilize my roses this time of the year because by the time I have new shoots and they bud and bloom those darn beatles are here.
When did you plant your cukes? Ours are positively frightening -- planted in the 2nd or 3rd week of April and they are growing at a rate of 1" a DAY. They have gone up their 4 foot trellis and are now working at going over the opposite side. There are cukes that one day are 1", and the next day are dragging on the ground and curving up because they have grown that much overnight. I think it's all this rain!
You have mutant cukes! I planted 3 weeks ago. I had them in pots before that for 2 weeks as I bought them as baby plants from Lowes. Some of my tomatoes I grew from seed so they've been in the ground since mid April. What are you feeding yours? Maybe I need to give mine some miracle grow. I have chicken "manure" from my 4 chickens, want to put that on them but my yard is too wet to scrape the manure up.
I KNOW! I said omg, we made a (raised bed) garden that is with soil from 3 Mile Island! We started with a mixture of dirt, compost and chicken poop. Fed everything what I want to say is Miracle Gro tomato and vegetable "food" - just once...and then it started raining. And then it got scorching hot, and then it has been raining ever since, and everything, particularly the squash and cukes, have gone bananas.
To the person looking for organic pesticide, to kill the (flea beetles?) buggers that are eating my eggplant leaves, we just bought this:
Diatomaceous Earth Insect Killer
Diatomaceous earth is an abrasive powder made from the fossils of diatoms (tiny sea creatures). It works by cutting open the exoskeleton of crawling insects. With their exoskeletons damaged, the bugs dehydrate and die, usually within 48 hours. It works on a variety of critters, including slugs, earwigs, millipedes, centipedes, silverfish, cockroaches and ants. You can use it safely both indoors and outdoors. You simply sprinkle the powder where pests are likely to crawl, live, or hide. Another advantage is that as the insecticide works mechanically, pests cannot become resistant to it.
We installed our fence last weekend, as the bambis were going after whatever they could get (not much of a surprise) ... we've had 4 zuchini to eat so far, they were delicious! The tomatoes are coming fast and furious - 4 big green ones on one plant and I haven't seen the others yet. Potatoes look great. Leeks are adorable still, fennel is huge. Carrots look great. Watermelon isn't ginormous yet. Pumpkins are. Something is eating my eggplants. Tried sprinkling sevin on them - hopefully that will work.
As 3 dogNight said, Diatomacous earth is great. I couldn't locate any in the Raleigh area but it's available on line. Maybe someone here can tell you where to buy locally. I needed some for my chicken coop to keep the flies away, so figured I'd try good quality screened play sand, the kind that's like powered sugar and almost white. It actually reduced the flies by 80% at least. Maybe that will work until you find the other stuff?
I really appreciate your postings and it's fun to hear how all my fellow farmers are doing. I'm actually going to find a cart and have a stand for my neighbors to come and enjoy for a very reasonable cost.
I'll look forward to getting lettuce in next year as I got too late a start. My neighbor Ed (who has helped me every step of the way) has some major cabbage heads coming in. I really trust his judgement and he does use Sevin.
We've been lucky to get so much rain this year but it's always amazing to see how things take off once the sun hits again.
We have cuc's, zucc, tomatoes, green beans and at each pole we've planted a sunflower seed so I'm excited about the big stalks that will be coming in. Oh, and tons of peppers. Ed's son in law works for NC State Agric. Depart. so he's always bringing over stuff for us to plant that they were just going to dispose of.
Saluki...I am not sure it's right that you keep Ed to yourself A man like that needs to be shared, ha, ha! Hey, do you think I could plant some green beans & watermelon now or is it too late?
I saw Diatomaceous Earth today at Home Depot or Lowe's (I was at both, can't recall the store where I saw it).
I'm lost about how to control the ants, this is the worst year ever for them. I have a dog so I'm very concerned about how to treat the problem. They're taking over. I am going to have to call the professionals.
I have harvested 3 yellow squash so far! I have two baby green Amish Paste tomatoes growing. The other maters are just flowering. I can't wait for a home grown tomato! Tomato pie, tomato and mozzarella salad, tomato sandwich, tomatoes in salad, salsa....and on and on. But I have to be patient until July
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diatomaceous earth
