The 2019 Gardening Thread.

[NY cat man]

We got some rain yesterday and early this morning, but all it really did was push the humidity through the roof.

 

[rubysmama]

Lovely!!!

Beautiful!

@rubysmama I love the colors and the perfect shaped flowers! Lovely!!!

That's almost all of them. I think there's one or two more to bloom. And, unfortunately, 3 or 4 that never got flower scapes. One is new. A couple I'm hoping is because I divided them this spring. One, however, hasn't bloomed for a few years now.

Next up are the Rudbeckias and Echinaceas.

Here's the first Rudbeckia:

 

[foxxycat]

rubysmama So that's the name of those flowers. R word. One day during a drive down route 11 in Alton, there's this huge hill someone planted wild flowers. I thought these were some kind of Black eye Susan spin offs. Very lovely!! Looks like these tolerant drought. This hill hasn't had rain in a week or more when I took the picture.

Yes the storms rolled through and knocked out power to work but only one building was able to go home. The other had backup generator to keep it going .. we got nothing here. It always rains at the coast then inland here we get nothing. It's very soupy out and sweaty yucky. Supposed to get clear air tomorrow...this HUMIDITY is for the birds

 

[rubysmama]

Oh, wow. Those are gorgeous, foxxycat . And Rudbeckia is, I think, the "formal" name for Black Eyed Susans.

 

[NY cat man]

I was outside this afternoon pruning the tomato plants (again) when I saw this visitor to the butterfly garden.

 

[rubysmama]

Beautiful. And great job getting the photo.

Here's a pic from the other day of bath-time in my garden. As you can probably tell, the water was really low, so I went out to fill it for them. Course I scared them, and they flew away and never came back.

 

[les26]

So glad I found this thread! We don't plant much, 8 tomato plants in the garden in the yard and 8 pepper plants in a planter box next to the patio. The weather has most definitely affected them both this year, and there were two days in a row that we got pounded with rain months ago that left them swimming in a mini pond for a few days so that didn't help but not much I can do about that! I even was thinking if I should replace the peppers as they were wilting and turning brown/yellow months ago after that and talked to the local garden center and they told me many are having the issue from the weather, give it a week or so to see if they rebound and they did, the bottom part of the plants look more bare but the top parts have taken off and we are getting some good looking peppers so we should be okay there. The plants seemed to shed themselves of the bad leaves as well as me plucking some off and I throw the out of the box so they don't drain bad stuff into the soil but they seem like they will really bloom and we will get a late "push" as usual!

The tomatoes, well, they aren't faring so well. They are planted in the yard where we had a tree removed a few years ago, each season I add composted manure and peat moss and last year this same garden center told me about "Tomato tone" which is a very good food for them, and last year we had the best tomatoes we ever had from the yard, I know it takes years to build up the soil so we had high hopes for this year but this crazy weather hampered that, we are getting some forming that are starting to turn color, but two plants hardly grew but they put out a lot of little tomatoes but the plants themselves are just about dead and there is hardly anything left to them! They were Early girls. Two of them are Rutgers and they seem to be holding up the best and have some nice green ones on, but even they have some yellowing leaves and don't look like we wanted them to or expected but this weather is very unusual, but we'll be happy with what we get!

 

[NY cat man]

We got a late start as well, due to the weather, but things have really come along since then. With all of the amendments I have made to the soil in the new raised planting bed, even when we got a heavy rain with ponding, it drains off quickly enough to prevent root rot. Also, aside from bone meal and some starter fertilizer at planting, I haven't had to fertilize further. By the way, the purpose of the bone meal is to stimulate root growth, so I have had no issues with wilting during dry spells.

 

[les26]

We got a late start as well, due to the weather, but things have really come along since then. With all of the amendments I have made to the soil in the new raised planting bed, even when we got a heavy rain with ponding, it drains off quickly enough to prevent root rot. Also, aside from bone meal and some starter fertilizer at planting, I haven't had to fertilize further. By the way, the purpose of the bone meal is to stimulate root growth, so I have had no issues with wilting during dry spells.

I might have to try the raised bed idea, the tomatoes are in a lower spot of the yard that gets "ponded" when we get heavy rains like we had been getting, that seems to have stopped at least for now, and the peppers are in a raised wooden box but they also were swimming in water after those two really rough storms. Very unusually strange weather that hopefully will not become the new "normal"!

 

[foxxycat]

I might have to try the raised bed idea, the tomatoes are in a lower spot of the yard that gets "ponded" when we get heavy rains like we had been getting, that seems to have stopped at least for now, and the peppers are in a raised wooden box but they also were swimming in water after those two really rough storms. Very unusually strange weather that hopefully will not become the new "normal"!

Next year see if you can order a yard of 50/50 mix compost/loam and make that section almost like a mound. It will almost look like a raised bed and you won't have to amend the dirt but you can add peat moss to it. It will help raise up the plants, make it deeper for better root growth and help the ponding issue. Clay dirt tends to pond and adding organic matter helps it drain better.

 

[les26]

Next year see if you can order a yard of 50/50 mix compost/loam and make that section almost like a mound. It will almost look like a raised bed and you won't have to amend the dirt but you can add peat moss to it. It will help raise up the plants, make it deeper for better root growth and help the ponding issue. Clay dirt tends to pond and adding organic matter helps it drain better.

Thanks for the idea!!

 

[foxxycat]

Thanks for the idea!!

Anytime.

It's still hot as hell out.

Tonight after work, focusing on watering the tire garden. I will take updated pictures of the area/plants. the blooms were open this morning..maybe they will just grow leaves..I don't mind..at least I know I can grow something down there. Next year will put a layer of stones before I lay down the tires and I can reuse the dirt with a drop of compost added.

The tires help heat up the dirt to encourage growth for those wondering why I would use tires...I thought about spray painting them a different color but wasn't sure if it would look stupid...maybe I can figure out a stencil pattern and paint tires to look like flower boxes...what do you guys think? Just a simple vine/tulip type pattern around the tire..
after a quick google search, looks like some great ideas out there...definitely try this next year..maybe they get too hot but never thought about painting them till today..

 

[rubysmama]

The tires help heat up the dirt to encourage growth for those wondering why I would use tires...

I was wondering, since you mention it.

after a quick google search, looks like some great ideas out there

I Googled too. Lots of creative ideas.
decorating tires for planters - Google Search

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I garden in raised beds because my soil is super super sandy. I think it's nicer to work in. I see plenty of other people planting directly in the ground and I'm surrounded by farms; so it would probably be fine. But I like it still. I feel like I'e had more control over my soil.

We had amazing rain today. It felt so gorgeous out when it was done. Everything was clean and fresh. We had a lot of thunder with it. I've never experienced thunder quite like this. It just kept rumbling. It wasn't much for loud claps. We'd hear it and then the rumble part would just keep going and going and we'd hear another start before one ended. My DD thought it was a plane at first. But man the gardens got GOOD drinks today! I'm very happy about it! It was a good soaking rain for close to 2 hours!!

 

[NY cat man]

Just wait until you experience the 'snap-flash-boom' of an extremely close lightning strike. I have- twice- and liked to have jumped out of my skin both times.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Just wait until you experience the 'snap-flash-boom' of an extremely close lightning strike. I have- twice- and liked to have jumped out of my skin both times.

Oh we had an extremely close one a few months ago! EVERYONE jumped. Me, cats, kid! DS and DH slept through it somehow. The lightning app showed it hit +/-75' from where I was standing. I thought the big pine just outside my house was hit but thankfully it wasn't. This time of year we get our rain via thunderstorms it seems. Tornadoes aren't common but have happened. I was leaving the grocery store once with 2 little kids and we ended up going straight to my closet. That storm did produce a tornado but just grazed my neighborhood. Not fun! I was driving with one eye on the sky.

 

[NY cat man]

The closest it ever came was the day Elvis died, and the snap, flash, and boom were simultaneous.

 

[rubysmama]

Just wait until you experience the 'snap-flash-boom' of an extremely close lightning strike. I have- twice- and liked to have jumped out of my skin both times.

Many years ago, my parents next door neighbour's tree was hit by lightning, and it set off my parents alarm system. Another time, a co-worker lost a tv from the power surge caused by lightning.

 

[NY cat man]

Once, lightning hit a pine tree across the driveway from our house. The current jumped to the power lines to the barn where my older brother was milking the cows. It flattened one of the cows and knocked my brother on his can. He said the air turned blue.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

N NY cat man Was it a metal barn?

Just over my neighbor's property line; maybe 20 feet from my house there is a tall old tv antenna and a tall pine tree. There used to be 2 pines but one came down in a storm. They are working on the property next door now; so I hope they will take down the antenna.