That's cool that a good hard winter kills spotted wilt. I wish we could have a good hard winter down here in the South!
How exciting Jo! Thanks for sharing the pics. Gardening is totally addicting, IMO. I can't wait to see the pictures of the 'finished product'
I don't have a garden now, but at my old house I did and I literally spent hours at a time out there. I use to run outside every morning before work and look at all of the starts, lol.
My main problem was dealing with the snails/slugs. I don't know if you have that prob up there. Anyway, when I first started gardening, I did everything from seed only. I would get this amazing little start and the next day it would be chomped down to the earth. Or, I would get the plant going and the leaves of almost all the plants would be half eaten.
I never used any snail bait. I put beer in containers and then buried the them partly into the ground. I know it sounds mean, but the snail and slugs would be drawn to that instead of the plants and it was a way to avoid chemicals. It is kind of gross because you have to deal with dead snails, but, it saved my garden.
I am excited to see the progress Jo!!
The best thing for snails and slugs in my experience has been eggshells.
You just save up your eggshells, crush them and sprinkle/throw them in the garden.
I went from hundreds of snails to none at all.
OMG OMG OMG Look who's here and look what he's doing!!
HAHA I snapped it through the sewing room window so he wouldn't see me taking dorky pictures of him! I'm soooooooo excited. I just put an ad on kijiji and paid him $80 to do it, plus in front of the house for the rosebushes.
Look at that dry crappy clay. My god. I have topsoil and triple mix which is going to be a huge job... LOL
EDITED TO ADD, I was just talking to him and he said this is the hardest ground he's ever rototilled in his life. Said he does this a lot and it's NASTY. His shoulders are killing him and he's a big buff guy with an 8 HP tiller!!! Glad I didn't rent one and try to do it myself!!!!!
That is a LOT of soil to amend ( make less clay-like) for a beginner gardener.
Awesome Jo! How exciting!!! Thanks again for sharing pics.
(05-31-2010 01:03 PM)Jo Wrote: [ -> ]............and he's a big buff guy with an 8 HP tiller!!!
Yes, yes he is....
PS Cassia-I NEVER knew that about the eggshells. Incredible. I even worked at a deli when I had my first small garden and I could have had a an endless supply of eggshells.
It's definitely a little overwhelming... but I've always been one to go big or go home. ROFL! I am just going to start by 'amending' each spot where I'm planting, and leave the clay in between. For example, each tomato plant is supposed to have three feet of space, so I'll have a 1'x1' spot of triple mix with a tomato plant, then three feet over, another spot, and so on. For sure it will take a season or two before it's even halfway workable, but I'm glad the spot is bare now, and I can at least start.
There are tons of rocks in there. It's nasty soil, for sure.
I also wanted to leave aisles in between where I can walk. I remember my one and only old garden was very cramped. This one should be a little roomier.
That's awesome! Great that he did it for $80 - that's a good deal. Bummer about the rocks! Do you have earthworms? You'll be fine with the clay in between the plants. They'll put their roots through and aerate the soil - it will get better every year. Scott's 10-10-10 is your friend.
It's really not much to look at, but I'm happy... it's coming along, and like I said, considering I'm injured, I'm pleased I'm able to do as much as I can. Hoisting those bags of soil is a big job!! Never mind digging in that gummy clay. It's like wet cement. Seriously.
So here's what I've got going on so far... out front there are three rosebushes (one of which has bloomed!) and one raspberry bush. I would like to add topsoil around just so it doesn't look so cracked, but I haven't done that yet.
In the garden, I have ten pea plants (including stakes and thread (couldn't find the twine... might have to redo this! LOL), two squash plants and so far, 12 tomato plants, half of which are Roma and really kind of flimsy. Hoping the cages promote sturdiness.
Anyhow, some pics. Again, pardon the crappy soil... this is a HUGE project that will for sure take a few years! LOL --
http://www.flickr.com/photos/montyollie/...096610952/
I will add more pictures to that album as things grow... IF they grow!!! LOL
I was visiting an old friend and current neighbour of mine who is an AVID gardener and she started laughing at the picture of the tomato plant SURROUNDED by crappy clay soil. She said she was laughing in commiseration because she understood... she dealt with it last summer and finally got some success, but it took SO much work. She said not to expect much if it's a wet summer because the plants with drown with no drainage, but to be optimistic. She has a GORGEOUS garden and she lives 15 minutes from here in ClayLand too. LOL
(06-05-2010 09:48 PM)Jo Wrote: [ -> ]I was visiting an old friend and current neighbour of mine who is an AVID gardener and she started laughing at the picture of the tomato plant SURROUNDED by crappy clay soil. She said she was laughing in commiseration because she understood... she dealt with it last summer and finally got some success, but it took SO much work. She said not to expect much if it's a wet summer because the plants with drown with no drainage, but to be optimistic. She has a GORGEOUS garden and she lives 15 minutes from here in ClayLand too. LOL
That's why I was trying to nudge you into the direction of raised beds. It's sooo much easier. Soil perfect from day one and good drainage with minimal work.
I don't know if this is a problem where you live, but for the first 3 years I tried to grow tomatoes, the squirrels got almost every one. I finally figured out how to keep them out. So if you have that problem I can help you.
As you all know, my FIL died about three weeks ago. He was an Ag teacher, and a seriously avid vegetable and fruit gardener (he picked up flowers, particularly roses, only in the last three or four years). So, when he died, there were over three dozen tomatos started in little pots down by the shed, in addition to the thirty or so planted in his regular garden. So, Dh and I took some seven of them home, and potted them in 5-gallon buckets with some Miracle Grow potting soil. We are moving soon, and didn't want to put anything in the ground anyway. But we've had amazing success with tomatoes in pots!
We have two "Early Girl"s, one "Parks Whopper", and four "Better Boy"s. Papa was always a fan of Early Girls and Better Boys!
Tomatoes do great in pots/buckets. They are also less likely to get the blight that way since they have more air circulation around them.
Mark - I've never heard of a tomato eating squirrel. What variety of squirrel is this? We have countless squirrels and none have ever shown interest in the garden. The bunny and the voles, OTOH? Forget it! The voles get the beets/carrots and the bunny loves new growth on everything!
The pictures look good. I'm really curious - did your neighbors say you don't need to fence? J. and I want to live where garden fencing isn't needed. Other than NYC roof-tops that is!
Cats -- I've found that some animals can learn!! Our last Golden Retriever, Riki, figured out that the stuff on the vines/plants (grapes, tomatoes, and berries, in particular) and trees (plums and apple) were the same things DH would sometimes give her, so it got to the point where we could not trust her when the fruits were ripe. One day, we let her outside, and she stripped the tomato plants in a few minutes.
(06-06-2010 01:21 PM)catsnotkids Wrote: [ -> ]Mark - I've never heard of a tomato eating squirrel. What variety of squirrel is this? We have countless squirrels and none have ever shown interest in the garden. The bunny and the voles, OTOH? Forget it! The voles get the beets/carrots and the bunny loves new growth on everything!
I dunno. Just little grey squirrels. They get the tomatoes while they're still green so I never got a chance to pick them. I was told they eat them for the water so I tried leaving bowls of water by the plants. Didn't help. So I bought some mesh fencing and wrapped it around the garden. I was planning on building a structure and putting the mesh on the top but it was not necessary. Apparently squirrels won't climb a flimsy fence.
I attached a pic of one of the bastards.
Mark (and Jo, potentially),
I have heard that the animals are too scared of having their paws stuck in the fence mesh, so this is why you don't need it to be really sturdy or high. I have no idea if this is true, but height doesn't seem to be critical so it's a valid possibility.
I am very slow getting this going, as I work full time, plus the hand injury, and it's been raining on and off for days.
I want to get everything in the ground, then worry about fencing. I probably should do it sooner rather than later, but I'm hopelessly optimistic, what can I say. Claudia (the neighbour) did tell me I would need it. Just looked out there today, and those lame Romas are laying on the ground instead of standing upright, but they were like that all along. The heirloom and lemon boys are upright. The peas have all snagged onto that thread-trellis, and the squash looks good. I'm happy so far -- no critters. I'm more worried about the potential flooding than the critters at this point. My white roses are dying after only three days, so I'm thinking the roses might not make it... again, it's early, and I have more soil to build it up. I'm off work sick today and feeling 100 times better than when I woke up, so maybe I can use the day to get the rest of the seedlings into the ground.
I am not expecting miracles from the garden this year, but I'm hopeful some will take. And not be eaten by critters!! LOL
Here's a pic of my critter defense shield. Please ignore the uncut lawn and the stuff growing through my back fence
Oh, your soil might not have a good pH level for roses. Clay soil is usually alkaline and roses prefer an acidic soil.
Mark, that is awesome... that is what I'd like to do eventually. Here's hoping they don't get eaten between now and then.