Garden Geeks thread

[leswp1]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Yeah, I know. It's a crapshoot. Is the last frost past? Do I wait and have later tomatoes? i'll cover them as best I can tonight.

Dry cleaner bags (or any big bag) over tomato cages with a gallon of hot water under the bag.

[FreshFish]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

I, m glad I didn't plant any warm weather crops, frost possible this week. My tomato seedlings are getting kind of leggy and need to be transplanted though.

we have a few tomatoes in their starter pots that are nearly two feet hight. Next weekend they may go into the ground. Frost warnings tonight and tomorrow. One hopes the last of the season.

[Bob Gray]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

getting our first green beans on the plants now. hopefully they hang in there for awhile as we start to hit around 100 degrees for highs. peas are basically dead. guess they don't take the heat well, even though the county schedule for planting said to wait until February to plant them. Also getting tomatoes now. And beats, potatoes, and carrots are all looking good.

[DisplacedCornellian]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

More of a "yard" question than garden issue, but maybe the collective wisdom of the group can help me out. My back yard is about 10% grass, 90% clover and wild strawberry weeds. The birds and rabbits love it...but I'd like to have some actual grass back there. Any of you have experience converting your lawn from weeds to grass? What product did you have the best luck with? Thinking about picking up some weed and feed type product to see if that gets me anywhere.

[leswp1]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

More of a "yard" question than garden issue, but maybe the collective wisdom of the group can help me out. My back yard is about 10% grass, 90% clover and wild strawberry weeds. The birds and rabbits love it...but I'd like to have some actual grass back there. Any of you have experience converting your lawn from weeds to grass? What product did you have the best luck with? Thinking about picking up some weed and feed type product to see if that gets me anywhere.

I would just make it one big garden

[FreshFish]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Any of you have experience converting your lawn from weeds to grass? What product did you have the best luck with?

I sat down on the ground and used a spade, shoving it horizontally just below the root line to strip the surface bare. The sitting position really facilitated using both feet on the spade so that I could peel back two or three feet of the surface at a time. If you use any kind of herbicide to clear the area, you might also leave chemicals behind afterward that could stunt the new grass; and if the chemicals you use don't stunt the new grass, then they might not be strong enough to clear the other stuff out of the area first. You can strip a fairly large area pretty quickly once you get into the flow.

Depending upon how soon you want the job done, you might also consider covering the area with a big thick tarpaulin for a year or two to kill everything under it by absence of sunlight. That worked really well for us in one part of the yard.

Then, either we'd put sod over the stripped section, or we'd plant grass seed and water it daily. You also can buy mats with seed embedded in it. and roll that over the area; this product works really well on hillsides: it keeps the bare soil from eroding and it keeps the seeds from washing away in a heavy rainstorm. if you are going to use sod, I'd recommend renting a sod roller; it's basically a giant, really heavy rolling pin whose weight pushes the roots of the grass into the soil.

Depending on the size of the area you want to convert, you might at least get a quote or two from a local landscaper. they have a machine that can come in and strip the surface away quickly and easily, and a quote can at least give you the sense of whether you want to do the labor yourself or hire someone else to do it.

I have a "system" that works really well for me to answer these questions: suppose the quote to strip the area and re-seed it were $xx0: if someone offered you that much money to do that job, would you accept? or would you say, "that's not worth it to me, I'll pass." So if the quote was, say $500, I'd do it myself; if the quote was, say, $150, I'd probably hire the guy to do it for me (depending upon how big the area was and how much work was involved).

We did the work ourselves in sections over the course of two years.

[MadTownSioux]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

I don't know, maybe I'm perpetually late, but the first week in May seems awful early to be putting out tomatoes and peppers. Granted, we've had a few warm days, but overall it's been a long, long winter with a late spring, and I would have thought the soil temps were still pretty low. I've always waited until at least mid-May, and usually a week beyond that. At any rate, I sure hope you escape the frost. There's a warning again for tonight.

I came out pretty good; lost3 tomato plants which weren't totally covered. Already replaced. 85 here today and for a few days.

[Gurtholfin]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Woo hoo! Finally put in a garden at the new house.

Had a huge one at the old place but just had a few tomato plants and pepper plants next to the house here for the past two summers.

This one is modest (compared to the old) 8 x 16 feet, but will allow me to do tomatoes, cuccs, a few hot pepper, carrots, green beans and brussels.

Took me a good part of the day as I had to turn over the grass, add the side walls and fill it with 30 bags of dirt and 10 bags of manure. Whew, I'm bushed, but satisfied.

[Carter]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Yeah, our garden is finally in as well. I got it tilled on Thursday, and my wife was taking Friday off to help plant. Naturally, we woke up to some occasionally heavy rain that was not in the forecast. I was really ticked, but by noon or so it was all workable, and we got it almost all done that afternoon. A little more on Saturday and Sunday with fencing and tomato cages being installed. Really all that's left is to wait for my second set of tomato cages to arrive via UPS on Tuesday, and then it's just water, weed and wait.

[walrus]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

I'm still waiting, too cold but this rain would have been ok if I had planted

[leswp1]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Next weekend for us. Started tomatoes in plugs then tx to solo cups. Ended up with a bit over 120 of them. Saved some for us and sold the rest at the church garden sale/swap that I run every yr. Didn't get the other stuff I usually plant in (cuke, zukes and summer squash) in but God will provide. Other people brought stuff that I didn't. Ended up netting 338$ to help augment the $ already collected to send the kids on a mission trip. Pretty cool stuff.

[jen]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Planting this coming weekend - basil, dill, cucumbers, sweet red peppers, leeks, parsley, jalapenos, maybe some bok choy, and various flowers. Everything else is coming up nicely, and the stuff I planted in April is doing pretty well. Lilacs and purple tulips are just about to bloom, and daffodils, magnolia and red tulips are already done. My lemon tree even has flowers. My blueberry plant has nothing right now - but those are pretty late, I think. Not sure if I left it out too long over the winter, but it doesn't look dead - the branches are still flexible. I put up my strawberry fortress very early, so hopefully I'll actually get berries this year.

[walrus]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Next weekend for us. Started tomatoes in plugs then tx to solo cups. Ended up with a bit over 120 of them. Saved some for us and sold the rest at the church garden sale/swap that I run every yr. Didn't get the other stuff I usually plant in (cuke, zukes and summer squash) in but God will provide. Other people brought stuff that I didn't. Ended up netting 338$ to help augment the $ already collected to send the kids on a mission trip. Pretty cool stuff.

I've given up on starting squashes indoors, they always end up looking like crap for weeks and then dying or being stunted. I now take a spade, take a shovel full of dirt out, fill the hole with compost and then plant seeds. Works well for me, might get cukes and such a little later but at least I get them. BTW fermented cukes into pickles is my new favorite. Garlic, dill, salt water, sliced up cukes in a ball jar with airlock on it, awesome pickle full of probiotics

[leswp1]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

I've given up on starting squashes indoors, they always end up looking like crap for weeks and then dying or being stunted. I now take a spade, take a shovel full of dirt out, fill the hole with compost and then plant seeds. Works well for me, might get cukes and such a little later but at least I get them. BTW fermented cukes into pickles is my new favorite. Garlic, dill, salt water, sliced up cukes in a ball jar with airlock on it, awesome pickle full of probiotics

Yum

[Bob Gray]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

We've had an on-going problem with ants on our citrus, apple, and peach trees. I was thinking of trying some Tanglefoot, which I've read about on some message boards and some people say it works pretty good to create a barrier to keep the ants from coming up the trunk. Anybody used Tanglefoot or some alternative approach?