Here is a link i have had for a long time--
It gives a lot of do-it-yourself critter repellents.
maybe I have already posted this--but we have new people visiting here..
Gita
http://www.ghorganics.com/page6.html#Rabbits
Vegetable 2013, Mid-At and Friends
Hi, all!
I've already met a few of you on my "What's Mid-Atlantic?" thread and am anxious to get to know more of you.
Here's my current vegetable garden:
I have only a 6X12-ft raised bed that the last owner built here, whereas I used to have 16 raised beds 6X6 !
Not really much room to expand where there would be enough sun, so ... Another exercise in downscaling!
Last week's 100-degree days left me with lots of baked lettuce. Next year, I may build a brush arbor to protect them.
I have a few Yukon Gold and a few Russet potato plants that are already blooming. They'll be finished and dug in time to put in bok choy for Fall.
Still finding lots of volunteer onions from the previous owner's planting. Have 16 hardstem garlic doing OK.
A few Rainbow chard; it didn't germinate very well.
Lots of French breakfast radishes. Carrots once again failed for me. I just can never seem to grow them.
2 rows of peas; growing well but not yet blooming.
Will be putting in New Jersey, Lime Green Salad, Black & Boar, Golden Egg and Silvery Fir Tree tomatoes (although the Golden Egg seedlings are not looking very good!)
Also 1@ Viserba and Ping Tung aubergines.
Orange Habanero, CGN 22155 and Ancho ciles and New Ace sweet pepper.
1 small watermelon plant; 4 Little Leaf cukes.
Planting marigolds, parsley and basil around the edges.
That's it! I'm anxious to see what works!
Hey, Ric: I'll take any mint plants you have left! Can we work some kind of swap?
ssgardener: I never know fennel was "alleopathic"! Silly me, I've just mixed the bulbs in anywhere I could fit them in the garden for years! Lately, I've stuck to growing "Orion". It's a hybrid (and i know lots of DGers aren't keen on hybrids), but it's the ONLY fennel I've ever grown from seed and successfully produced bulbs from: no more buying someone else's expensive starts!
Welcome JB.
Like yourself I don't have a lot of space for vegetables primarily because I'm limited on full space real estate. I am growing near a dozen tomatoes this year in 3 gallon nursery pots. They are scattered through out the landscape and even reside on footpaths. Other then the tomatoes, I have three peppers growing in a 5 gallon pot in the driveway. I'd love to grow zucchini and cucumbers but the space required for them just isn't feasible.
I even considered going back to a local shared garden plot in Columbia. The issues there were primarily deer and poorly engineered plots which led to drainage problems. Perhaps they have improved their conditions there is a wait list this year!!! Oh well...
That is my vegetable garden, not much but plenty still.
I did construct a vertical garden off the deck for my herbs this year. I believe it was Coleup that posted the pictures that motivated me to do that. I will post pictures of it along with my tomato pot land.
JB, I've found that MidAtlantic folks are totally ok with hybrids, especially when they improve upon the origina! :)
I'd love to see photos of the vertical herb garden, UMD!
If you're OK with hybrids, ss, I encourage you to try Orion Fennel. I think Johnny's Seeds has it. If not, I have extra.
Hi jb
interesting garden update thanks for sharing and look forward to more!
For those in my area I wanted to share my favorite spot for annuals. Franks nursery, behind the Costco in ellicott city. It is a family favorite for vegetables, annuals, and fresh veggies. Prices are fair and reasonable, it is the spot come fall for apples. Not much to this place but if you're in the area might as well stop by and see it. Definitely come in the fall for apples.
Is this it: Frank's Produce, 6686 Old Waterloo Rd, Elkridge, MD 21075, (410) 799-4566?
That's good to know -- we get Thanksgiving turkeys at Maple Leaf Farm, http://www.maplelawn.com/index.htm -- and I always need apples for pies - I just Mapquested it and it is another 15 minutes closer to Baltimore (i.e., farther from me). Well, if things are slow in November I might make it out there!
Terp, I'm often at that Costco/Lowe's, but never knew there was a nursery there.
I get my apples at Takoma Park farmer's market, but like everything else at TP, they're not cheap! I'll check out Frank's next time I'm in that area.
JB, I'll get you some mint started and send it to you. Dmail me your address.
Holly says she has to weed her sunshine bed cause my veggie garden is looking too good! LOL
1st strawberries today.
It is looking great!
OMG, I'm green with envy. If we just had some sun over here!
My strawberries are tart rather than sweet, being new at raising them I looked them up and found that I'm supposed to cut off all the flowers and fruits the first year. They are doing so well I can hardly do it, but I guess I must to improve them in the long run.
So are mine, Ric. makes me pucker....
I think they need more heat and sun to be sweet. I am new at this too....
Picking a few now...G.
I didn't know that either, thanks for the info Ric
Good to know. I didn't have to do it myself. SOMETHING ate off the berries and the top of one of the little new plants. I was watching one of the berries turning red and getting excited, then BAM!!! They were gone.
My 'potatos in bags of leaves' experiment was a bust. The tops grew a foot, then last week got bugeaten and yellowed quickly. The two I have dumped out had just a couple tiny new potatoes.
My garlic is falling over- I fear that that big rain and the soggy soil is NOT what the doctor ordered right now.
My veggie garden is largely unplanted except for potatoes which were planted very late but look ok so far. The rest is in shambles!
New Garlic Lovers Harvest thread over here
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1317821/
Jan, birds love berries and leave nothing behind.
So, do you use netting? Don't remember my dad doing that. But, then we did have a couple reeaallyyy long rows. Maybe he just let the birds have some.
In my former, big garden, I planted strawberries (which I don't much care for) as a lure for the birds to eat instead of other things I love! Worked great! We had several BIG U-pick strawberry farms nearby, however, and they never seemed to have a serious bird problem. Really big crops, maybe (or cats!?!).
Sorry to hear about your potato and garlic problems, Sally! I planted my potatoes in the garden very early, and they have come thru both the drought (when I was gone) and the recent rains looking pretty good. Last year I grew enough potatoes in a 5 gallon pot on the balcony of our Midtown Manhattan apartment to make two meals for 2! Do you have a compost bin or pile? For years in my old garden, I got the BEST potatoes from the "no good" ones we had pitched in the compost (and their descendants!). Garlic shouldn't fall over until it's ready to harvest. Could it be? MD is warmer than where I used to garden, and mine was always ready in July. Check it out. Especially if it's really wet, because I think that will destroy anything you may have! Better to have small and wonderful garlic for a short period than nothing or rely on the grocery!
Both newer and experienced vegetable gardeners (I've been growing vegetables for over 50 years) may be interested in a new book I just bought:
Jo Robinson, Eating on the Wild Side.
Based on an extensive analysis of a vast array of nutritional studies from around the world, she talks about the nutritional content of most vegetables and fruits and gives lists of the most nutritious varieties. I'm learning a lot I never knew while reading this, finding some of my favorites included, and already making plans for next year's garden!
JB in R- the compost will be the next try. I'm thinking that my bags of leaves got too soggy and caused rot, not enough drainage from th holes poked. I have grown potatos in ground but running out of good sunny space. That book sounds interesting.
Sally, I use a mix of straw, compost, and the used window box/ container soil in my drums and it seems to do fine. I have in the past had too much straw to get good drainage and had mushy spots.
here's something to try
http://www.sowanddipity.com/potato-growing/
I think I'm almost done planting 'cause I'm almost out of space in the garden, although I have stuff to go in when something comes out. LOL
I just can't seem to get excited about adding more veggies right now. I have yet to clean out the bolted spinach. and its June 18th already!! just too busy.
I had a bowl of yummy strawberries for breakfast this morning they seem to be getting sweeter as the season goes on. Some of the smaller ones are a bit tart but the larger ones are really good. Might have to see about freezing some of them they are stacking up in the fridge.
I could not bring myself to cut off all those berries. I think I've picked 3-4 1/2 qts. so far. The birds, maybe 1/2 qt. Any they damage I move to the edge of the bed and leave for them, it seems to keep them happy.
Sounds good. I'd be making strawberry smoothies!
My cucumber plant has lots of blooms, should I pinch off some of them? Have never grown cukes before.
Male or female flowers, Catbird?
It's important you know the difference!
Check this out: http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b-online/library/webb/BOT410/410Labs/LabsHTML-99/Secretion/Image221.jpg
I think this is probably zucchini, but all cucurbits are the same. One on the left is male; one on the right is female.
Only the female will become a cucumber, but, of course, it needs the male to do so.
There's a theory that you should remove all early flowers (and even the first fruits) until your plants are big enough to sustain growth and produce great fruit.
I just removed some early pepper and eggplant sets. Fine for stir-fry, and the plants will do more later.
All those plants Holly declared as cauliflower are rendering very tasty broccoli about now. ROTFL
Blush Blush. LOL
hee hee, well it IS very had to tell them apart.!
Just replanted okra and beans, so the rain is just right for that for me.
Does anyone else have trouble getting red beets started? or is something so fond of them they disappear as soon as they sprout? Third attempt coming right up. When I have a good year I can enough for probably 2 years, but I'm almost out.
Seems a bad year for seedlings here so with all the rain I wonder if slugs are in epic numbers . I find a lot around- earwigs too. Do both of them sound like seedling eaters?
I have a small patch of beets going that were seeded way early. I don't know how good they'll be.
Second sowing of okra looks super but the second sowing of green beans, two weeks ago, looks like a total failure. We had plenty of soil moisture the whole time, not a single bean? Watch me check them today and find a bean forest.
Watching green tomatos grow.
First green beans have some ready to pick.
I know it says 'veggies' but I am enjoying a great crop of Wineberries!
Ooohhh,, YUMMMMM!!!!!
Those look wonderful!
The first year I lived here, the man mowing for me that first year took me to pick wineberries up a steep hillside. I made several pints of jelly from them. Unfortunately, he no longer has access to that property. :(
Yeah, Ric,
I have trouble getting beets started, too. Only about 1/2 of my brand-new seed germinated.
However, once they do come up, they usually do great. Hope this year will be the same.
I'm also going to fill in the gaps with more seed!
(Overnight soaking sometimes helps)