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Tildes Gardening Group: Week 18/5/26
Welcome all to our fortnightly (ish) gardening group discussion!
Feel free to discuss anything related to gardening, beginner or advanced, challenge or success.
Ive moved it to a fortnightly thread, as sometimes gardening can be a bit slooooowwww motion
It's finally consistently warm enough here in Midwest America that I can get my plants in the ground.... the only problem is that now I don't have enough time to get them in there! I sense some night-planting in my future.
@nukeman @vord @zenon @crialpaca @Aran @thecakeisalime @tyrny @pekt @rosco @dustylungs @lackofaname @neonbright @monarda @tanglisha @Esteebestee @mimic @Zenon @lynxy @monarda @gourd @sparksbet @patience_limited @arctanh @Zorind @TheInflatableKayak @Akir
(Let me know if you want me to stop pinging you!)
Living with the parents atm and my dad put some tomatoes and peppers (chilis, habaneros, and Hungarian wax) in alongside the lettuce and kale. Since he and my mother are going out of town this weekend, he also showed me how to water them and the herb tower while they're gone. I'm excited to see what comes up!
Some stuff happened that pulled me away for several weeks, so I’m scrambling to catch up. I’ve got corn and tobacco in soil blocks that are way too small, but potting them up feels like about the same amount of effort as filling their beds. So I’ve been lugging sand, topsoil, and my local biosolids fertilizer. At least I’m sore in the right places!
Before all that I discovered a colony of non rhododendrons growing inside a rhododendron canopy. I trimmed it up into a more tree like shape, and it was even worse than I thought. I found:
If it isn’t obvious, this is a very mature rhody. It’s tall enough to partially block a second storey window.
I got an electric reciprocating saw last year and used it for the bulk of the non tiny plant cleanup. Highly recommended, I got a lot more done in one afternoon than I would have expected.
Also quack grass is everywhere, it was even growing up into the previously mentioned canopy. I thought I had a handle on it a month ago. I did not.
Edit: I didn’t find any birds nests, but it’s obvious they hang out in there. No baby birds were harmed in the destruction of these weeds.
Phwew, finally did some work!
I completely refreshed a couple small raised bed planters, and put in a couple tomatoes, couple hot peppers, bunch of herbs, and winter squash. Squash has been my nemesis due to pests (squash borer, beetles, mildew, you name it), but I've never tried in my current location so fingers crossed.
I've additionally potted up a bunch of greens: celery, chard, collards, more herbs. I think that's about all I'm going to do this year for veg. It's the first year I've completely abandonned starting from seed but I needed the convenience to do anything!
I've also been working on fixing up the lawn. I know I know, f* lawns. But we want to use some of our yard. We're in a tick hotspot, so prefer low manicured cover. And, the soil is extremely clayey and sticky after it rains, so ground cover like clover isn't dense enough. I am mixing the grass seed with yarrow and a bit of clover, and am focusing on planting native species in dedicated (and evergrowing) garden space. It's a nice balance for us!
Spent the long weekend tidying/weeding the garden beds and planting vegetables. The local squirrel population didn't dig anything up overnight, which I hope is a good sign.
First strawberry flower!!!
Still too early to move my plants outside, but they are thriving inside. I was impatient so I moved the sunflowers outside and plated some sunflowers seeds. Will be waiting a bit more to plant cucurbitaceae, squatch and beans.