Gardening 2020

MoochNNoodles

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I finally got the sunflower seeds planted. DHs help was very much appreciated because when I picked up the hoe to break up the bagged garden soil we bought and dumped in my shoulders and arms were not happy! 😜 They got it together though and we got it done. The other garden has bunny fencing and bird netting now. I may not need them for long; but it’s up! Next I need to make my supports for the pole beans!
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This was right after watering. I tried to rinse the dirt off DHs paint job. Maybe it’ll be easier when it dries. Oops!
 

WillowMarie

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The swiss chard is growing well and more seeds have sprouted! I've never seen them grow before and it was surprising and puzzling to see 2-3 sprouts from each seed... but after thinking about what the vegetable looks like, it makes sense.

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The outside carrots have sprouted! This morning nothing was visible, but when I left for a walk later in the day a tiny sliver of a leaf was visible! how exciting!

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Two more succulent clippings have sprouted roots. Yea!

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Winchester

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Your pictures are all fantastic! I love watching things grow!

MoochNNoodles MoochNNoodles I really like your area. That butterfly is so pretty. I love sunflowers. We're dealing with pollen here, too. (That and bird poop!)

The green peppers are flowering, the green and wax bean plants are growing like crazy, and the tomatoes are doing well, too. No corn coming up, but it's early yet.

Rick planted more corn in the garden. Now we have strawberries, banana peppers, sweet potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, and some butternuts to plant today (I love butternut squash). If it all grows, we'll have veggies!
 

MoochNNoodles

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I am loving everyones garden progress pictures too. That's one thing my Grandpa (age 98) still talks about with gardening; how you get to go out every day and see whats grown, whats flowered. It's very fulfilling. Hes missing it at his home this year.

My corn is up now and i'm growing a lot of mushrooms in with it. One bag of the composted manure I put down had a bunch of mushrooms in it. I picked them out as I spread it; but I guess there was plenty of fungus still in it. I didn't think it would hurt anything. When I first planted my gardens DH got a load of soil and a load of "mushroom mix" from a garden center and that year my stuff was great. The garden center (a local place) had recommended it when they were out of regular composted stuff.

My tomatoes are growing inches every day. I have to keep checking every evening to be sure they aren't growing outside their cages. In the past I've waited and accidentally broken stems trying to guide them back inside. 😩 They always end up full of extra supports anyway. But still! We found several cherry tomatoes the other day too. :hyper:

I replanted some of my bush beans last night and some pole beans the other day. I ordered seeds from a different company this year and I don't know if that's why; but I've had issues with several types not germinating. Yet others are doing fantastic. :dunno: Next year I might go back to burpee. We will see how things go. I have flowers on my peppers too. Peppers always seem to put out the most toward the end of summer though so I'm not expecting to eat any just yet.

There was a flock of starlings in the yard next to mine a few minutes ago so I'm going to hold off removing my bird netting just yet too. Winchester Winchester ; that bird poop.... you should see the squirrel baffle under my bird feeder. DS said "Mom; you need to clean that..." :flail: The blackbirds have been hanging around a lot too enjoying the birdbath. I don't mind except that they were leaving major deposits in the water every day! :barfgreen: Keeping them out of the main feeder is a problem too. I keep mixing the safflower with a scoop of the regular seed. The little birds seem happy enough with that and the big birds seem less satisfied with what i put out. DS said we had a hummingbird at the door the other day. He was beside himself excited. :lol2: Hopefully that means they've rediscovered all my flowers. They are so fun to watch! I should try a feeder again. I'll just need another place to hang it. :crazy:

Sometimes I can't decide what I enjoy growing more; flowers or veggies.
 

MoochNNoodles

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I just took some pictures while watering. Its time to thin the limas and one kind of bean. That always makes me nervous for some reason; even though I know I get better harvests.

Corn...with mushrooms 🌽 🍄
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My favs! Although I’ve seen one more I really like outside walmart. They look like pink and white peppermints!
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Pole beans, zucchini, summer squash, carrots 🥕
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Peas(starting to flower), limas and peppers in the back

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Front half bush beans, back half Roma bush beans. You can see I had much better germination with the front half. They were planted at the same.
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Tomatoes! 🍅
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My dahlias don’t look so good. Getting ready to move them.
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sunflower
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Petunia heaven! The purple are growing shorter so the red are overtaking them. I planed a pattern but oh well!
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WillowMarie

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I took these outside last night. Every plant out there had a visible coating of pollen! We need a good rain to rinse everything!
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Just beautiful colors!

The green peppers are flowering, the green and wax bean plants are growing like crazy, and the tomatoes are doing well, too. No corn coming up, but it's early yet.

Rick planted more corn in the garden. Now we have strawberries, banana peppers, sweet potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, and some butternuts to plant today (I love butternut squash). If it all grows, we'll have veggies!
Nice! I just planted from strawberry seeds, too.

Banana peppers sound so yummy. In the past year, I've tried them for the first time and always include when ordering sandwiches, when the place has them. I should include that in my next planting season, if they are appropriate for my area and can be grow in containers.

How big is your garden? Sounds like you have a good amount of space for all of that.

I am loving everyones garden progress pictures too. That's one thing my Grandpa (age 98) still talks about with gardening; how you get to go out every day and see whats grown, whats flowered. It's very fulfilling. Hes missing it at his home this year.

My corn is up now and i'm growing a lot of mushrooms in with it. One bag of the composted manure I put down had a bunch of mushrooms in it. I picked them out as I spread it; but I guess there was plenty of fungus still in it. I didn't think it would hurt anything. When I first planted my gardens DH got a load of soil and a load of "mushroom mix" from a garden center and that year my stuff was great. The garden center (a local place) had recommended it when they were out of regular composted stuff.

My tomatoes are growing inches every day. I have to keep checking every evening to be sure they aren't growing outside their cages. In the past I've waited and accidentally broken stems trying to guide them back inside. 😩 They always end up full of extra supports anyway. But still! We found several cherry tomatoes the other day too. :hyper:

I replanted some of my bush beans last night and some pole beans the other day. I ordered seeds from a different company this year and I don't know if that's why; but I've had issues with several types not germinating. Yet others are doing fantastic. :dunno: Next year I might go back to burpee. We will see how things go. I have flowers on my peppers too. Peppers always seem to put out the most toward the end of summer though so I'm not expecting to eat any just yet.
That's very exciting! My plants seem to be growing slowly. Wondering if the heat or maybe soil stayed wet for too long? I'll post pictures soon of updates. Although, my indoor small tomato kit is also growing slowly it seems. Maybe they are supposed to grow slow when seedlings?

That's a bummer about the seeds. Some of my seeds from the first batch bought are doing well and had good germination rates, although the tomatoes I bought haven't done anything. They were started inside. I fixed the outdoor pot for tomatoes and sowed seeds in a couple days ago since the indoor ones haven't done anything. We'll see!
 

WillowMarie

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Some of my seedlings are flopping over, especially this morning. The soil I bought is supposed to retain water without being too wet: Miracle-Gro Nature's Care 32 qt. Organic Potting Soil Mix-71683120 - The Home Depot

A little nervous because I read that overwatering can make seedling have trouble standing up. The first and second real set of leaves are close together, so the plants should be getting enough sun. I was letting the soil dry out a little to see if it helps, but it rained last night, oops. The plants are now in the enclosed deck to prevent more rain from entering the containers.

The soil also states the plants should be fed enough for 2 months. Although the plant book I read said to fertilize every month. It will be a couple more weeks until I was planning to do the first fertilizer dose.

Here they were yesterday:
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Here they were this morning... more droopy... although carrots are tough little buggers and look the best. They were also the last to germinate, too.
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My indoor tomatoes are looking good. New leaves growing close together, and I am supposed to thin them out once they get 4 inches tall. May replant the one in another pot and see if I can continue growing.

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Some succulent updates! One of my box succulents is growing! Think I had 6 I tried to save, and 3 look alive and are growing. It felt flimsy yesterday, and some of my rooting cuttings that had shriveling leaves were watered yesterday. This guy was nice and firm this morning!

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Also trying to save this guy. He had root rot. I clipped half the tuber root off and most of the smaller roots. Leaving him to dry/callous over a couple of days before replanting. We'll see what happens to him:

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Also, bonus plant I had absolutely nothing to do with... flowering plant in the yard. Thought it was a rose at first, but it is not, upon closer inspection. The leaves remind me of some Rudbeckia's, but now quite sure what it is. But here it is:

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MoochNNoodles

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W WillowMarie I think thats a peony! So pretty!! :loveeyes:

DH didn't have time to use the weed trimmer last weekend. (You can see in my pictures. Which I need to photograph different next time so they don't upload sideways!) It's hot this week so the grass growing may slow down. I need to do some weeding; especially around the hydrangeas. DH and I put mulch around them and a row of bushes we planted last year but it's getting covered in weeds. Neither of us feel like battling them right now. I guess we should have let it stay grass! We could use rain here. It's windy today so I'm glad most of my stuff is getting big enough to be less bothered. The tomatoes are wired to the fence so they won't tip.
 

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Also, our 'Winky' Aquilegia are starting to bloom. We just planted them last year, and they look to be taking hold.
We call them Granny’s Bonnet around here. I like the flower tendrils that protrude from the back of the flower head. Very elegant.

Lithops seeds are also sprouting!
From seed! Brilliant. I have a little cluster planted with cacti. They shed their skins when they grow. Like a snake!

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My sweet corn, french beans and courgettes are coming up nicely. I’ll plant these out in the allotment soon enough. The chard, radishes and beetroot are starting to show themselves also.

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I have a small city garden that’s a bit of a mess. I have just been in the house for a year or so. I did plant some lavender, cordylines and osteospermum to take the bare look off the shed roof. The house garden is the project this Summer.
 

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Also trying to save this guy. He had root rot. I clipped half the tuber root off and most of the smaller roots. Leaving him to dry/callous over a couple of days before replanting
I heard if you leave them to dry out properly you can replant them. I hope your little guy makes it.
:vibes:
I have a succulent that I was thinking of cutting the top off of, then drying out the top and replanting. It's got a long bare stem, but the top couple of centimetres look pretty healthy. All the leaves that dropped off the stem took root in the pot and now I have a garden of mini succulents.

I'll try and get a picture to show you.
 

WillowMarie

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From seed! Brilliant. I have a little cluster planted with cacti. They shed their skins when they grow. Like a snake!

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How wonderful! I love all the different colors and patterns on the top of your lithops <3 How long have you had them? Have you kept them with the cacti long? Your cacti are very neat, too. Very different looking, like the one that looks covered in a spider web! Which is your favorite, if you had to choose, and why?

Yes, I've read about their interesting shedding! Cannot wait to see it in person. Have you had any that have provided you an extra lithops after splitting? If the seedlings stay alive until 6 months, I believe that is when they do their first split.

Here's my little cactus, which was one of the plants that was accidentally in a box for 3 months. Believe it is alive and doing well though as there seem to be sharper and newer spikes in the past couple of weeks.

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I also repotted my adult lithops as I found a new facebook group dedicated to their care and learned even though they have long taproots and my previous research said minimum 6 inch pot, when they are smaller, like mine, they need to be kept in a smaller pot to prevent root rot, etc. I also added some old aquarium gravel to the succulent soil and perlite mix to make it grittier. Really happy with the result of the gravel color (picked out orangy colors just for the top layer!!!), pot, and lithops color! I know putting rocks on top can make it more challenging to overwater succulents and similar plants, but I really like the look and may play around with some of my other plants.

Can everyone find the lithops? It's kinda like playing where's waldo!
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I did water him the other day, but may give a little more water because he is still a tiny bit wrinkly. Although, almost wondering if there is a small split starting?? If so, I shouldn't water. :) Need to keep an eye on him.


I heard if you leave them to dry out properly you can replant them. I hope your little guy makes it.
:vibes:
Thank you! Hope so, too. He was out for a couple days, and I repotted him yesterday with the two youngsters he made but have been separate from him for a while. I added a touch of gravel to the mix, too, to cut down the organic matter that holds moisture. Still researching what signs of needing to water for this type as I'm not sure if he gets wrinkly like other succulents and I've been working to learn the signs instead of watering every week regardless, even though most of my succulents did well in the past.

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I have a succulent that I was thinking of cutting the top off of, then drying out the top and replanting. It's got a long bare stem, but the top couple of centimetres look pretty healthy. All the leaves that dropped off the stem took root in the pot and now I have a garden of mini succulents.
Nice! Yes, that is a way to propagate them! They can naturally lose the bottom leaves as they grow. Love how the leaves propagated naturally and made many babies for you <3 That's the best when they do it all by themselves and you get a nice surprise. :heartshape:

I'll try and get a picture to show you.
Yes, please! Cannot wait to see :)











A few other plant updates. My vegetables look better than yesterday, so maybe letting them dry out a little has helped. One of my swiss chard has a fourth stem coming up, and the last seed actually sprouted with one tiny stem peeking out this morning! I did pull one bundle that was floppy, but there are 5 growing still with the newly sprouted one.
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Carrots doing well and some are starting with their first real leaves!
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Lettuce has some lettuce looking leaves giving me hope, despite being a little floppy still.
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More succulent updates, too!

Still not sure what this one is doing besides a frenzy of some type of growth, but exciting and my favorite to check up on them everyday. I'm pretty sure it may be blooming soon though... and this type would have a death bloom.
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Repotted a cutting in these cute tiny pots! These will be great for all the baby leaf propagates I have once they get a bit older.

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And an update on my leaf propagations.... so many roots and littles ones growing!!! :eek: :loveeyes:

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Winchester

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Here are some pictures I took on Thursday.

Our equipment shed with its windowboxes. Those litter containers are full of walnuts that have to be taken to the landfill when it opens again. We're trying to root a PeeGee hydrangea.
EquipmentShed.jpg


A close-up of one of the windowboxes....Rick chose the flowers. They're really colorful!
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The raised beds up in the garden
Green beans. It took them a while to start coming up, but they're doing well now. I know, I have to thin them, but I never have the heart. We just feed them profusely. Behind the green beans is the box of strawberry plants.
GreenBeans.jpg


And the peppers. They seem to be doing OK. That bushy thing is our horseradish. We also have many tomato plants and quite a few peppers planted in the ground to the right of the box. We did find banana peppers, too, at Lowes, so they're planted. As are the squashes.
Peppers.jpg


I dearly love poppies; I guess they remind me of my dad who had poppies growing in their yard. I took a bunch of poppies from his gardens and it took them years to actually do something. We have orange poppies and we have two pink ones. The pink ones don't come up every year.
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The weigela planted at the fence by the pool. It needs a drastic trim!
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Here is Rohland....he used to live in the side yard, but he has a new home at the she shed.
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The hydrangeas are pink! They're supposed to be blue! I bought stuff to change their color and will have to start feeding them.
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Pawprints. They're in the flowerbed in the back yard. We looked at the greenhouse the other day, but they no longer carry them. I tried to take them (we have two) for the she shed area and Rick caught me. He was not amused.
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The windowboxes at the she shed. Don't mind the mess on the deck. The helicopter thingies are starting to shed off the maple trees and the deck is constantly covered with them. I sweep the deck and stones every morning. And 15 minutes later.....they're back
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Thanks for looking!
 

catapault

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Winchester Winchester It is a losing proposition to try and turn pink hydrangeas to blue by acidifying, or blue ones to pink by liming the soil. You have to repeat the treatment every year, and the color will not be as true as would occur with the appropriate cultivar.
 

WillowMarie

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Here are some pictures I took on Thursday.

Our equipment shed with its windowboxes. Those litter containers are full of walnuts that have to be taken to the landfill when it opens again. We're trying to root a PeeGee hydrangea.
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A close-up of one of the windowboxes....Rick chose the flowers. They're really colorful!
View attachment 337577

The raised beds up in the garden
Green beans. It took them a while to start coming up, but they're doing well now. I know, I have to thin them, but I never have the heart. We just feed them profusely. Behind the green beans is the box of strawberry plants.
View attachment 337579

And the peppers. They seem to be doing OK. That bushy thing is our horseradish. We also have many tomato plants and quite a few peppers planted in the ground to the right of the box. We did find banana peppers, too, at Lowes, so they're planted. As are the squashes.
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I dearly love poppies; I guess they remind me of my dad who had poppies growing in their yard. I took a bunch of poppies from his gardens and it took them years to actually do something. We have orange poppies and we have two pink ones. The pink ones don't come up every year.
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The weigela planted at the fence by the pool. It needs a drastic trim!
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Here is Rohland....he used to live in the side yard, but he has a new home at the she shed.
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The hydrangeas are pink! They're supposed to be blue! I bought stuff to change their color and will have to start feeding them.
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Pawprints. They're in the flowerbed in the back yard. We looked at the greenhouse the other day, but they no longer carry them. I tried to take them (we have two) for the she shed area and Rick caught me. He was not amused.
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The windowboxes at the she shed. Don't mind the mess on the deck. The helicopter thingies are starting to shed off the maple trees and the deck is constantly covered with them. I sweep the deck and stones every morning. And 15 minutes later.....they're back
View attachment 337590

Thanks for looking!
Your shed is so clean and new looking! And love how you have flower boxes off the windows. And look at all those growing vegetables! Very exciting!

For the horseradish, how do you eat it once it is edible? I've only have had horseradish sauce and love it. Does it taste like that?

Where did Rohland come from? I didn't know they made things like that and bet it looks so cool when it is raining and water is coming through her mouth!
 
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