Garden 2025

[pepperhead212]

Yes, I've heard all that stuff, especially about the nasturtiums, and actually tried those, but not really worth it. The reason I grow these is that they attract pollinators. The Mexican sunflowers attracted more butterflies than any other plants I've grown, but they are sort of "messy" plants, in that the flowers only last a week or so, and have to be cleaned off the plants, or they'll stop flowering, like a lot of plants. But they keep growing and flowering, if taken care of, all the way until frost. The zinnias keep the flowers for a long time, and keep flowering, most of them until frost. I keep a few of each of these in my front "flowerbed", which is also a pepper and okra bed, for the most part.

Here's a photo of one of those Mexican Sunflowers, with one of the butterflies on it.
Another Mexican Sunflower, with a butterfly I often see on them, but not on zinnias or other flowers around the garden. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[larry_stewart]

What months do the Mexican sunflowers bloom? Do the plants have multiple flowers? o the blooms last ?

All varieties of my tomatoes are germinating except the Roma's its only been a few days, so im not worried ( Yet). Ive always avoided starting peppers from seed cause I thought they were difficult, but ve had really good success last year and again this year.. Butterly pea flowers up and all varieties of sunflowers up.

Ill probably take the cold Frame off and introduce the greens and carrots to the elements, as its supposed to get a little warmer next week ( and sunny)

 

[caseydog]

I'm probably going to plant some cayenne peppers, and maybe some jalapeño peppers, but I need to wait until early May, because I'm going out of town the last week of April, so I won't be able take care of them.

CD

 

[pepperhead212]

What months do the Mexican sunflowers bloom? Do the plants have multiple flowers? o the blooms last ?

They get a lot of flowers on them; I don't remember when they start, but they don't wait long. I found the photo of the earliest one one year, and it was on 6-3. I couldn't find a photo of a plant from a distance, showing a bunch of flowers - they were all close-ups. Here's one of that first one of one season. The plant isn't very large yet, but it doesn't get stunted at all!
First Mexican Sunflower of the season, 6-3 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[giggler]

diff. subject.
Do Y'all sharpen garden tools?
I mean like shovels and hoes.
Eric, Austin Tx.

 

[pepperhead212]

All but that one Chocolate Cherry pot has a seedling in it, and one of those is just coming up, so probably later today I'll be able to transplant it to that last empty pot. I had a few others that the hulls hadn't split off from, so I got some extras, that the hull was off of, and added another to the pot, and I'll see which one grows best.

The first Fresno pepper came up today, and one of the jalapeño varieties, that was later planted. More of a few of the others that already germinated, and I planted several more of those Sweet Gold, that my friend will get most of, since they are totally heat free.

No more eggplants yet, except where one already came up.

 

[dragnlaw]

Hi giggler, you know I often think about it but never seem to do it. Came close one year when I got a bee in my bonnet, cleaned and oiled almost all of them. Very proud of my self when I put them all away in the barn. But nope, never did sharpen.

 

[caseydog]

diff. subject.
Do Y'all sharpen garden tools?
I mean like shovels and hoes.
Eric, Austin Tx.

Yes. Not often now that I don't use them that much, but I used to take my angle grinder to them often. A sharp shovel is easier to use in our Texas clay soil, especially if you are digging where there are roots.

CD

 

[pepperhead212]

Occasionally I'll sharpen the spade I'm using, if using it in an area with roots, which isn't too often. Usually it's just to loosen the soil, when harvesting garlic, or other root veggies, and it's not really necessary. The stirrup hoe that I use I often sharpen, which makes a big difference, slicing through the weeds.

 

[larry_stewart]

I abuse my tools ( using them for purposes they shouldn't be used for). breaking the handles, splitting the metal parts of the shovels .... The only thing That I should sharpen ( but done) is anything I used for pruning. Im such a jack ass, that I even use some kitchen knives and cleavers outside ( ones that Im not crazy about for kitchen use, or that I abused in the kitchen enough for them to get nicks in the blade. So the answer is , I don't, but. I should.

 

[pepperhead212]

I have a couple of "kitchen" knives that I have out there, that were not worth using in the kitchen, so I use them out there. I do sharpen them, and have worn a lot of the edge from them, though that doesn't really matter much with those.

On my last look today (I think), I got that last tomato in the pot - the Chocolate Cherry - so all those are in the pots now. Two of the Pea Eggplants are peaking through, which I was expecting to be last. And 2 of the 3 jalapeños have at least one, and one Superchili - 4 of the late planted varieties. Saw another White Habanero, which had one germinate early, so I might plant this backup, and watch the first one to make sure the leaves look like a habanero, and it isn't something else that got in with them. Also, if that chocolate habanero doesn't have any germinate, I'll have two of those for outside.

 

[pepperhead212]

I wanted to put in some of those greens today, but it was too windy, so instead, I put in those scallions, that I started from seeds - the usual Evergreen Bunching Onion, and a new one (to me), White Lisbon. The Lisbon didn't germinate nearly as well, only getting 23 sprouts with about the same amount of seeds in the same type of pot - one of those containers I get 8 oz of mushrooms in. From the Evergreen Bunching Onions I got over 70, though the sprouts are mostly smaller. I just poked holes about 2" on both sides of one of the drip lines, about 3" apart, and dropped the sprouts into them, them squeezed the soil around them. Don't know how long they take to grow, but I have a lot of others, from fall planting, and some onion sets, I planted about a month ago.
Scallions doing great in first row, the second row is from onion sets, planted about a month ago. 4-13 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The garlic is doing great, due to the rain, as well as the shallots, finally taking off. And you can't imagine those garlic chives! The alliums have all benefited from the rain, and not bothered by the cold I've been having.
Garlic doing great, with all this rain I've been getting. 4-13 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Dutch Red Shallots, starting to get some growth on them. 4-13 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Regular chives, 4-13 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Some of those garlic chives, behind the shed. 4-13 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Volunteer flower, that popped up in my garlic chive patch. 4-13 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[pepperhead212]

Today is National Gardening Day, not that I need an excuse to be doing that.

 

[caseydog]

Today is National Gardening Day, not that I need an excuse to be doing that.

Puffins and gardening have the same day.

CD

 

[FrankZ]

It is also "World Quantum Day". Schrödinger's cat is ever hopeful.

 

[rodentraiser]

Weeell, after moving the pots so the deer wouldn't jump in, they proceeded to crawl in under the fence and chomped my blueberries and my rose. So now netting is covering everything again.

I've been trying to get estimates for 8ft poles and wire fencing, thinking it would cost about $500. The estimates have run from $900 all the way to $1750. And I can't seem to get through to these guys. One wants to use string to make a straight line. One flat out told me that $500 would only cover the poles and wire (not true - I've priced both at Wilco). One wants extra strong poles, one wants to put in pretty fencing. One wants to cement the poles in.

There's a disconnect here. The fence I want doesn't need to be pretty, permanent, or fancy. We're not fencing the White House here, people. So now I have some guy coming out Tuesday to just put in the poles and he's charging $400. I'll put the netting up myself.

Meantime, I've gotten bags and bags of potting mix and topped off all the containers and the rock garden. I straightened all the rocks out and threatened the raccoons with death if they started turning them over looking for bugs again. I left out the bone meal (in an unopened bag) for the irises and the raccoons thought they'd already died and gone to heaven. At least they left me some.

I got the tomatoes planted (and netted) and likewise the snap dragons. I put all the (cherry) tomato plants together in a bucket and was told they each like their own bucket. They'll have to tough it out. I'm not running a nursery here.

I pulled the two blue mist plants I had left and planted those in the rock garden so they'd get some extra sun. One of them has little leaves on it and the other one looks dead, but I scraped the bark and it's still green underneath. I moved the chives so the daisies wouldn't run over them again this year. And I ordered 3 wintergreen plants and now I'm wondering where to put them. They need shade and I suppose I'll have to drag a large tub in under the canopy.

Tomorrow I'm going to the library and picking up my dozen books I ordered, so Thursday I'll probably move the irises. I suppose this is the wrong time of the year to transplant them, but they haven't bloomed in two years anyway so I don't think I have anything to lose.

Of course, now it's not raining at all, so now we're back to watering and on Friday I need to move all my hoses and sprinklers out to the lawn where I scattered (it's hopeless but I did it anyway) a full bag of wildflower seed.

Since I still have some seeds, I'm going to try to grow giant sunflowers again (another hopeless act) and I'm planning on getting one large horse trough sized no-bottom container so I can grow corn this year. If I do, remind me to stake 'em so they won't blow over in the big winds I'm sure we'll have sometime this summer - just because I planted corn, of course.

 

[larry_stewart]

Since I still have some seeds, I'm going to try to grow giant sunflowers again (another hopeless act) and I'm planning on getting one large horse trough sized no-bottom container so I can grow corn this year. If I do, remind me to stake 'em so they won't blow over in the big winds I'm sure we'll have sometime this summer - just because I planted corn, of course.

I actually get cron the past few years in giant containers and they did better than usual which doesnt mean great, but for me, for was usually a lost cause until recently. At first, I used smaller planters, but wound up in the same situation when they got tall. They acted like sails, and big winds knocked them over bending the stalks, and minimizing my harvest. Then I moved to much larger, heavier containers which didnt blow over, but the strong winds bent the stalks , once again, screwing up my harvest. Now, I use the same containers but put a stake at each corner. As they grow, I use som garden twine to wrap around the stakes to help support them and prevent then from bending in the wind, and it worked! The past few years Ive had decent harvests. My only issue is I over plant making it pretty crowded.

I starte usiing containers for 2 reasons. the first is when planted directly in the garden, no matter where I put it, it would shade out a portion of the garden messing up the plants behind it (I already have trellised plants like pole beans, cucumbers .... on the north side, so I cant plant them there, Second, the squirrels love the corn. They chew the stalks down at the base ( like a beaver) and run off with the entire stalk. there have been multiple times where I looked out the window seeing a stalk shaking then falling over ., and making its way across the yard. The containers are on the patio, and the squirrels usually leave them along.

In addition, I got a smaller variety that is made to grow in large containers . The plants are shorter, and the corn is smaller, but torero convenient for containers , and it was probably the sweetest corn Ive ever had.

 

[dragnlaw]

That is small Larry. How thick is the core? Small and soft, enough to eat as well?

 

[larry_stewart]

That is small Larry. How thick is the core? Small and soft, enough to eat as well?

It's actually kinda tough, like its larger counterpart. It was so sweet, and the kernels had a nice 'pop' to them.

 

[KatyCooks]

Last year everything I attempted to grow (even tomatoes, which are usually quite reliable) came to nothing. It was dismal in the UK in terms of sun, so I am blaming the weather rather than my ineptitude.

My edible bay however, is going from strength to strength - this year it is actually flowering. So, from some black sticks a few years ago, which I was going to dig up and throw away, I now have a thriving bay and never have to buy rather tasteless dried bay leaves. So that's something.

As for flowers - the front garden has a pretty decent display of primroses. I didn't plant them, but every year there are more - all sorts of colours too. I will get some pictures tomorrow.

In the back garden, I had planted 100 tulip and daffodil bulbs in pots ready for a gorgeous display. However, a rat made its home in the garden and ate all but 5 of them. The remaining 5 are making a valiant attempt to grow (some were nibbled) and it is a dismal show this spring. (The rat actually got into the house too but that is a whole other story.)

I have now planted another 100 bulbs into the same containers, with six different varieties of summer flowers. And I have a delivery of plug plants for my hanging baskets arriving in the next few days too, so hopefully a garden full of colour to sit out in this summer.

It is too early to plant out any tomato plants, but I will have another go this year after the danger of morning frost is over. Also need to have another go with some herbs - finding the right spot is the issue I think.