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Tildes Gardening Group: Week 30/3/26
Welcome all to our weekly (ish) gardening group discussion!
Feel free to discuss anything related to gardening, beginner or advanced, challenge or success.
‘Seed’ questions?
- How long have you been gardening?
- What’s the best pearl you have learnt?
- What are you worried about happening this year?
- When in the season do you enjoy gardening most?
@nukeman @vord @zenon @crialpaca @Aran @pistos @thecakeisalime @tyrny @pekt @rosco @dustylungs @lackofaname @neonbright @monarda @tanglisha @Esteebestee @mimic @Zenon @lynxy @monarda @gourd @sparksbet
(Let me know if you want me to stop pinging you!)
The new fruit trees are planted! With much thanks to my siblings and dad for helping dig because I very quickly came to the realization that it was beyond my physical capacity at this point (pregnant). Glad they are in the ground because it is a big chore done and good timing since we are supposed to get a lot of rain this week.
I have been gardening for maybe 10 years? Unsure at this point. And I don’t know if this is a pearl but the best thing I have learned gardening is that every year is a new learning opportunity. Some things work, others fail, and we learn from the failings for the next year. My biggest worry this year is that I am really going to be very out of commission and my mom will get overwhelmed. It is humbling that I am not able to be one of the primary workers of the property, and was pretty frustrating. I don’t like watching other people work when I am not. My favorite phase of the garden is when the lettuces are being harvested at the start of summer. I love getting daily lettuce, the growth of the other plants isn’t wild yet, there isn’t the stress of the main harvest and the dreaded processing but I am still enjoying food from the garden.
I’m super jealous of your Granny Smith! How big is it and how long do you think before it starts producing? When we bought this property there were already mature pear trees, but I don’t like pears. I really want to cut them down and grow apple in their place, but they produce so well that I loathe to end their lives.
It is probably about 5 feet tall right now. We will nip the buds for at least the first year, maybe the first 2 years depending on how quickly it establishes before we let it fruit. I feel you though on being sad to cut down a good producing tree. We have a very old sweet cherry that is an amazing producer but is getting to the point where it might need to come down for safety reasons since and I keep delaying.
I haven’t got anything done since last week because life has got in the way, as has the weather.
I’ve been doing some gardening since about 2020 (Covid hobby!), but getting slightly more serious every time. I’m not sure I know any good pearls, I’m still quite basic in my approach to gardening. I guess I care more about making sure I don’t crowd seeds which was a beginners mistake of mine!
I guess this year I’m worried about pests which were a pain last year.
I think I enjoy the early growth or harvesting phase most. I don’t like the very beginning which is often frustrating as I procrastinate doing things…
What kind of pests are you experiencing?
None yet this year, but last year my main foes were:
I've had a lot of luck with beer traps for slugs. Admittedly the resulting slug soup is nasty but yeah, they really like beer.
I might try it this year, I was put off by the idea of attracting more slugs but it’s unlikely, my garden is quite closed off.
Are you opposed to organic pesticides? B.T. (not sure if it's truly a pesticide since it's naturally occuring in the soil) is my savior for tomatoes/beans. You have to be vigilant and spray the undersides of leaves when you find young catepillars or the early signs of them as it won't work on the adult ones, but it has knocked out an entire infestation for both my dad and myself.
No I’m not, I might give that a go!
There are plants you can grow that attract predatory insects! Coneflowers, dill, cilantro, yarrow, and sunflower are just a few. You can search for your area to learn what predators you’re trying to attract and what plants attract them to get a list more tailored to your garden. As far as slugs go, I hate those things with a passion. Every few years during the spring, I lay down sluggo, and then through the summer, hand pick the ones that survive it in the mornings and evenings until they are under control.
We also do sluggo in the spring, and then also have the beds lined with copper tape. One thing that additionally works is setting slug traps, which you can make by setting out small containers of beer (which attracts and then drowns them). We use cat food cans or any other small container like that.
Interesting, makes sense but I hadn’t considered that. I have cilantro (coriander) already and I plan sunflowers, but you’re right it might need some local customisation.
This weekend I started rejuvenating my raised beds. Everything needs to be pulled out and replanted. I started with the bed that the strawberries will be moved to. They are all fairly new 4’x8’x3’ beds, so as expected, the soil has settled quite a bit. I got the first bed cleaned up, topped up, and ready for the strawberries which I’ll transplant next weekend. I also started some work in the perennial bed. Mostly just popping out the larger weeds. It’s still frosty overnight here so I’m not ready to cut things back in case the bugs living in them are still asleep
The rest of the property is begging me to get on top of things before the spring explosion. Besides the unrelenting blackberry, I also have a morning glory and Japanese knotweed problem. It took me 10 years to remove the Japanese knotweed from one side of a small ravine but I don’t have any way to remove it from the other side as the bank is too steep. It sits over there mocking me and laying down seed. I really don’t know what to do.
I have a humongous English laurel hedge that has naturalized on my property making a freaking laurel forest. Through the years I’ve managed to knock a lot of that back, but it’s one tenacious shrub/tree that keeps popping back up from the roots as well as reseeding. Last year I started laying down paths through the area so it’s easier to get at, and nurturing some western hemlock and cedar saplings I found. I hope to get another 30’ of trail through there. I plant natives and near natives to the sides of the trail as go. I have to do raised trails because so much of that area is wet. If anyone has suggestion for trails through wetlands, I’d love to hear them. Currently, I’ve just been putting in wood chips on top of branches. When I come to an area where water is flowing, I make sure to lay my branches down in the direction of the flow so as not to dam it.
For trails through wetlands depending on if you are willing to build them, we tend to make slightly raised walking paths from pressure treated wood. They aren’t true bridges, except over areas of running water, but keep the path up out of the soggy areas. Link of an example, the ones on our property look much less nice! https://bestofnj.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/SourlandMountainPreserve-29-1-e1497363324960.jpg
I’ve seen things like that in parks and whatnot. I’ve often thought of using pallets because I can get them for free. I wonder how long they would lay in the wet? It sure would be quicker than the way I’m doing it!
Even our super lazy ones where we have just thrown down an old 2x4 over a wet area have lasted decently. You just have to be careful of them getting slippery on the top if they are wet and start to get things growing on them.
That’s good to hear! I’m going to start looking for pallets. I’ve been slowly making my towards some downed trees that have turned into some beautiful moss covered “paths,” and that might be the easiest way for me to get there. I’m excited to give it a go.
The nature preserve i work at uses 4x4s to support the boards, if you wanted to use pallets for the boards then treated 4x4s, youd get a pretty darn cheap board walk to help with wet areas.
We even use 6x6s for the deeper, more notorious spots. Just make sure to measure out how far you need to cross. We generally use 6 or 8 feet boards on top of the 4x4/6x6.
4x4s are an excellent idea, especially around the muckier areas. Thank you!
Good luck! Also pallets are typically treated, sometimes heat treated, sometimes chemically. But you should be able to find them free if you look hard enough.
My Pride of Madeira is blooming!!!! Oh man, this is such an unexpected delight!
I grew the little guy from about a foot tall in a 20 gallon pot. The pot was terracotta and had lost it's bottom, so I chucked one of those big, felt potato bags in to act as support. It's tap root ended up penetrating through and it just exploded! It went from 1 ft tall to about 5 ft tall in about 6 months. And then it blossomed like it was going out of style! Huge shoots everywhere. It proceeded to do that for the next 3 years.
Fast forward to today. We moved and now have a side patio rather than a garden, but I was going to be damned if that plant wasn't coming with me. So breaking my and 2 friends backs we got it wedged into the back of the patio. In moving it we broke the tap root and I wasn't sure it was going to survive. It ended up surviving, be it much diminished, and has kind of entered stasis. No blossoms, no new shoots, nothing. I figured until it was happily above well drained soil again it would just sit like that, sadly in the corner. Well, we've had a crazy amount of unseasonal heat and I have been watering it like a monster and today it's started getting little buds!
I am over the moon about it!
It needs time to regrow those roots, toss it some bonemeal to help.
I'm mostly in wait mode for my SFG and a little future planning.
I'm doing some renovations around the house so my indoor grow lights for starting from seeds are all torn down, but as soon as I get that back together I'll be starting scotch bonnet and jalapeno plants for clay pots. I also 3d printed a full hydro tower for my back deck and I need to get back around to filling that with herbs once the grow lights are back up.
I need to start planning what will go in place of the broccoli once they've run their course, but I have no idea what to plant. I have a pollenator variety pack from Botanical Interests, so maybe I'll just put that in to help with all the tomatoes.
What part of zone 9 are you in? I’m in a part of the Pacific Northwest that just went from zone 8b to zone 9.
I'm in the southeast. I was eyeballing the maps I googled and thought zone 9 looked right, but I just double checked a different zone finder that actually says 10A. I'm fairly new to gardening in general so I honestly wasn't aware they can change, but it makes a lot of sense in hindsight. Is there a website/app that makes tracking this as it changes easier?
I found out through a class, and hadn’t realized that could happen either! I guess it will become more common as our climate changes. The only website I would think to have accurate data would be the USDA.
Just use your zip code - USDA Link
Thank you! This says 9b, so I guess I'm on the border.
Did the zones change again this year, or is that from the change a couple of years ago?
I have no idea. The way i took it in class made me think it was new, but I just looked it up and it happened in late 2023!
Ah, ok. Thanks!
Ok ok, all the news about the knock-on effects of oil prices and whatnot have gotten to me, so I bought a couple bags of potting soil this weekend.
Still keeping things pretty simple with the more easy-growing veg in pots, but I'm going to try to get myself to start a few seeds (I was just going to buy transplants this year). In my growing zone I'm a little late for some plants, but not really for others. I'll have to take a look at what I already have and decide from there. Probably some leafy greens, herbs, and maybe summer squash.
I didn't end up getting the cuttings from my mother-in-law since we had a bunch of other things going on over the weekend. I may get my potting mix set up and start trying to sprout my basil later this week. My wife and I have some life admin stuff to get done (taxes, other government paperwork, etc) so I may not do as much gardening as I'd like to.
Life admin, getting in the way of good hobbies since 10,000 BCE
I started planning this year’s project! I mapped out my dig areas and called 811 and plan on starting my dig in a couple weeks.
I’m going to dig out a 15ft long by 10ft deep or so patch back by my back fence where I’ll start my pollinator and native plant garden. I got some recommendations for native MN plants, so I’ll get those, some soil, some mulch, etc, and get going! That will be just right in the ground without segregation as I eventually want to transform most of my yard.
I also mapped out a couple of potential areas where I’ll be planting trees. I want to plant at least 2-3 trees of a smaller species. I already have a huge oak in the front that gives my house shade.
I also verified, my county will reimburse me up to $400 for my pollinator garden!
I moved into a new house late last year and am slowly bending the garden into what I want. The previous owners were, I think, people who liked plants well enough, but not actual gardening. The front is all succulents surrounded by an ocean of volcanic rock and 1" pebble "mulch" holding down thick layers of weed barrier. I guess for what it is, it looks tidy and decent, just personally not my taste. Also trying to figure out how to weed this rock stuff; fortunately weeds don't root well but they definitely do find enough purchase to sprout. For my part I planted a very tiny Ceanothus (I'm trying to grow more native plants) which is now looking happy and growing rapidly. Also brought over from the old place a tiny succulent that is non-native but endemic in the area of California I grew up -- Drosanthemum floribundum. It does well with little water and lots of sun.
In the backyard is one section that was entirely 2-4" white smooth rocks over more barrier and more succulents (both planted and in pots), one section that is proper dirt and no weed barrier with a bunch of pretty flowering shrubs and a bougainvillea, and in a planter by itself a wildly overgrown fig tree. Oh, and one small section that was nothing but 5" of rubber mulch. I took out that out right away, and put in a long-suffering Ceanothus from my old place.
Took out a couple of the succulents and planted a Meyer lemon, an Italian bay (Laurus nobilis) and a rosemary; the latter two I'd started at the old place. Installed 2 3x3' raised beds and put in them garlic, chives, green onions, thyme, lemongrass, and turmeric from the old place. Recently transplanted in my tomato starts. I need all my culinaries :) For all this had to move a lot of the white rocks around, but just don't really know what to do with them. I don't like them much, but taking them out is going to mean a lot of additional work, so for the moment they're staying.
Raised bed dirt is freakin' expensive, but I must say when I popped those garlic plants in they went from spindly to Schwarzenegger-buff in a matter of weeks. The thyme, which was always struggling, also expanded and is currently flowering, which it had never done in the 3 years I've had it.
The flower bed (the one without the barrier) spontaneously sprouted a California poppy, which delights me. The bougainvillea's trellis had collapsed, and I replaced it; now it's starting to flower.
The fig I pruned hard, taking it from about 7 trunks down to 3 and topping them at a mostly-harvestable height. In a very short time (about
57 weeks?) it has about 15-20 figs started and is leafing out nicely.I took a bunch of the potted succulents and one flowering shrub back to the old place as garden decor for the eventual sale. It was a perfect way to get rid of plants I don't want. Honestly I am very averse throwing plants away even when I don't like them.
How much do people care about where they get their seeds from? Do you notice a difference in seed quality/plant growth from different brands?
I mostly try to source seeds from companies who source seeds from my general area because there is a good chance that seeds grown from plants in Florida won’t perform the same as seeds grown from the Pacific Northwest. Additionally, seed catalogues from companies here will often make note whether a seed performs exceptionally well here compared to their other offerings. For example, dried beans are notoriously difficult to grow in my area because we don’t get enough heat for a long enough time, so more local seed companies will note in their catalogues ones that we can grow.
I'll take a photo and upload tomorrow morning, but I'm seeing my mystery seeds sprout! (Mystery as in, I forgot which seeds I planted in which corner of the planters) Some are very obviously cilantro. I am excited.