Gardening Q's and A's

[Sunbeam]

Gardening Q's and A's

EvieLou,
This sounds thrilling. I've been away a few days, and missed recent posts.

[IAD]

Gardening Q's and A's

Sunbeam....How do I get my neighbor's cat to stop taking a dump in my garden...IAD ? Ha!

[Delta Moon]

Gardening Q's and A's

IAD- dump the cat! LOL

[southernbelle47]

Gardening Q's and A's

Yikes! We are going to have low temps tomorrow night....again!
This always happends in the south after things start to bud out.
I guess I'll get my frost blankets back out!

Just part of not being patient enought to wait until Good Friday to plant!

:HNancy

[Sunbeam]

Gardening Q's and A's

Iad,
There is a gizmo sold for this purpose, consisting of a mat of soft plastic spikes you lay in your garden bed. Just irritating, doesn't injure the cat:

Cat Scat Mats, Set of 5 | Buy from Gardener's Supply

[Delta Moon]

Gardening Q's and A's

Hi Sunbeam- planted potatoes and garlic at my mom's farm in No.Cal last week and am putting onions in here at home and going to add more lavendar and herbs. I love herb gardens in the spring and here in the desert it is one of the enduring plots of land in my garden during the scorching summer. It was 92 degrees here today so our season is short before things bolt out. I had a great crop of lettuce all winter and some Romas. You should check out the Dervais family who live in So.Cal and have a great video on-line about their home organic garden that feeds their family plus on 1/2 of an acre. Google the name and see what they are doing. Very inspiring!

[Delta Moon]

Gardening Q's and A's

Sun- the correct spelling of their name is Dervaes.

[southernbelle47]

Gardening Q's and A's

Delta
I saw them in a magazine that I get. (Mother Earth News or Organic Gardening. ) What an inspiration they are!

Going to be 32 here tomorrow night.....Frost blankets in place!

[Delta Moon]

Gardening Q's and A's

Where's our Sunbeam? In the garden...........?

[Sunbeam]

Gardening Q's and A's

Delta Moon,
I wish I were in the garden, but we have more snow today, and I'm down with a cold. Good excuses for lying on the sofa with my old dog.

More2life, I can't grow bouganvilla up here, and I'm not familiar with the product you mention. Bacillus Thurengiensis (BT) is an organic substance effective against many caterpillars. It interferes with their digestion, so they die, but is not harmful to humans.

[aprilmoon]

Gardening Q's and A's

Sunbeam I just saw this thread. I think it's great. I agree we need a forum for gardening.

My husband and I have been gardening for about 10 years. It started with a little garden, then we made it a little larger, then we put a fence around it. The deer here sneak up at night and love to munch on whatever is growing. We then made containers with irrigation systems in them. We have water bans alot here and it helps us water quickly and just on the plants.

We grow tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, peas, beans, carrots, herbs, okra etc. I can't wait to get started this season. I freeze and can veggies to use all year long. I make salsa, jelly etc. It does keep me out of trouble. LOL

I do have some questions about roses and crepe murtles (sp).

I always forget to prune my roses. Is it to late to do it? I know they need it.

My hubby and I disagree about the CM. He wants to cut off the lower branches and tie the branches up to cause it to grow up instead of out. I don't think this is the right way to do it. My sister has a CM that she has never pruned and it is huge. I don't want ours to get out of hand like her tree. What do you suggest?

Thanks.

[IAD]

Gardening Q's and A's

Delta.......You planted your potatoes and garlic plants together.....what a great idea, the cross pollination.....wow ! Garlic Potatoes. Ha! IAD.

[Delta Moon]

Gardening Q's and A's

:H:H:H
Love it IAD! If only................

[Sunbeam]

Gardening Q's and A's

AprilMoon,
Crepe myrtle doesn't grow where I live, but here is a link to some advice from GardenWeb. It sounds like people prune it a lot of ways, and it tolerates the abuse. The best time for most pruning of woody plants is before the leaf buds open up. If it is too late for that, wait until leaves are fully open.

Roses should be cut back to about 1 1/2 ft. when the forsythia is in bloom.

[Doggygirl]

Gardening Q's and A's

Just want to thank you Sunbeam and all contributors to this thread! Mr. D is going to till up a plot today about 12' X 16' if he can ever get the equipment going LOL!

Here is a REALLY basic question.

On a freshly tilled up garden plot, is it a good idea to generally fertilize it with something? If so, what? (I have started to buy organic stuff and prefer not to use chemicals...) I don't have any compost of my own, but could get some from my Mom & Dad's house. Should I just get a bunch and put a later of that on top of the dirt? In case this matters as to how and when I do it, I am hoping to plant both seeds (i.e. leaf lettuce, carrots and a few things like that) and also plants already sprouted (like tomatoes, cukes) and maybe some bulb type things like onions.

Any helpful tips for dummies on just prepping the soil for planting will be much appreciated!

DG (DummyGardener)