Gardeners: how's it looking?

[AmLitHist]

Do you have starlings, Clean?  Those are the bully birds who pluck things out of the garden here.

Let's see; since last report:
--planted 4 tomatoes and 4 sweet pepper plants
--planted squash seeds: 2 hills of zucchini and 2 hills of yellow summer
--planted 3 hills of bush cucumber seeds (anyone had these before? Do they produce? I've never done the bush variety)
--filled one planter with white petunias and purple salvia
--filled two barrel planters on the front porch with red diplidenia and white impatients
--sowed dill seed and parsley seed in herb bed

The kale is coming up already! The tomatoes and peppers have perked up and actually grown since I set them out, with a couple of warm days and off and on showers.

Still to do:  I have white geraniums and red begonias to put into hanging baskets for the front porch; a couple of clearanced perennials from Lowes to set into the front beds; and when my raised bed gets here Monday, we'll fill it and put in a couple of clearanced braided hibiscus and divide my cannas and put some in there.  ALHS is making the rounds this morning to pick up a couple of big echinacea ($4 for each huge plant); I'm also waiting to hear back from FB Marketplace about some elephant ear bulbs, a couple of black eyed Susans; and some various pots. 

My next obsession seems to be houseplants.  I used to have a jungle of houseplants when I was in college, all the way through the time the girls were born; then I kind of got out of them, for various reasons.  All of a sudden I've decided I need to replenish the jungle. So that's the project for the summer---more houseplants!

I've always been the one to scrounge the clearance/half-dead/50-cent racks at WalMart and the hardware stores for the puniest plants.  If they've got any sign of green to them, I've always been able to bring them back, so it's sort of a scavenger hunt for me!

[Parasaurolophus]

Something mysterious has popped up, along with what I think is corn, empress kale, and lavender.

[mamselle]

Giant moss and ferns, in honor of your most saurian self?

;--}

M.

[Parasaurolophus]

Giant moss and ferns, in honor of your most saurian self?

;--}

M.

There's certainly no shortage of them around, so it's entirely possible they've decided to colonize the back garden!

[clean]

Im not sure what is raiding my garden, but today, the top leaves of my cantaloupe were plucked.  They stalk is all that remains!

Ive just planted 4 more seeds inside to get them started, where I can keep an eye on them!

[Puget]

Today I planted arugula, spinach and some other greens in the garden. The kale and lettuce I planted earlier have come up, and the peas are starting to climb their trellis. There are lots of tiny seedlings in the flower beds where I liberally spread a bulk wildflower mix, so I'm hoping at least a significant portion of those are flowers and not weeds.
In the inside nursery, cucumbers, basil and cosmos have started sprouting, and the tomatoes and other earlier starts are coming along nicely.

I also mowed the grass for the first time this season.

Im not sure what is raiding my garden, but today, the top leaves of my cantaloupe were plucked.  They stalk is all that remains!

Ive just planted 4 more seeds inside to get them started, where I can keep an eye on them!

Sounds like you need some netting, or wire over your beds!

[lightning]

This is a really dumb question, but I'm getting desperate.

I can't seem to rehab the bare spots in my lawn, which are mostly near the street. Puget suggested growing food like tomatoes. But, what if I go buy some (a bunch of) fully grown tulips and just plant them into the bare spots? I think rows of tulips between the sidewalk and the street would look kind of cool.

[bacardiandlime]

Are the bare spots bare because local dogs pee on them and kill the grass?
Tulips are lovely, but they only look good for ca.3 months of the year. Could you put small evergreen shrubs?

[Puget]

This is a really dumb question, but I'm getting desperate.

I can't seem to rehab the bare spots in my lawn, which are mostly near the street. Puget suggested growing food like tomatoes. But, what if I go buy some (a bunch of) fully grown tulips and just plant them into the bare spots? I think rows of tulips between the sidewalk and the street would look kind of cool.

This is the strip between the sidewalk and street? If so the grass is probably being killed by dog pee and/or winter salt (if you are someplace that is used). You may need to dig out the soil and replace with fresh soil, or whatever you plant there may likewise fail.

Also, most places the homeowner doesn't actually own that strip, the city does. It's sort of an interesting arrangement because, at least by social agreement, homeowners are expected to maintain it. But there may be rules about what you can plant there, so check first.

[mamselle]

Moss might work, too.

It likes acidic soil, even that which the dogs have so bountifully irrigated.

M.

[clean]

This is a really dumb question, but I'm getting desperate.

I can't seem to rehab the bare spots in my lawn, which are mostly near the street. Puget suggested growing food like tomatoes. But, what if I go buy some (a bunch of) fully grown tulips and just plant them into the bare spots? I think rows of tulips between the sidewalk and the street would look kind of cool.

I have had issues at the 2 houses that I have owned where there were large areas where there were problems.

In the first case, I had a large area in the back where there was no topsoil so really nothing was growing. I bought several bags of top soil and miracle grow potting mix and mixed them in a wheel barrow.  I then put down a few inches of it down and then used a mix of grass seeds and grass runners I collected when I edged, or when neighbors edged. (Runners sometimes already have roots and are eager to grow!).  Water regularly and soon, you will have a full area of good grass.

At this house, my grass was eaten by bugs, and the clay was just too hard, so I bought top soil and sod.  Spread a few inches of top soil down, wet, and then put the sod down, and water every day for about 2 weeks. 


The bottom line is that if nothing is growing in an area, then the soil is not conducive.  Replace the soil. You dont have to go deep as the grass wont need a lot of depth

I hope that this helps! 

[clean]

one tiny green tomato (maybe a single cherry tomato?  time will tell!

Squash have a lot of blooms and a single eggplant is in bloom! 

I will need to leave the raised garden beds for about 8 days soon, so I am trying to get the soil wet enough to sustain the garden as I m sure that there wont be sufficient rain while gone.  Hopefully the increased moisture in the ramp up period will not upset the plants! 

I may need to aim a game camera at the garden to see if/what may be stomping some of the plants (or plucking the seedlings, just to leave their plucked corpses to sit there! 

[mamselle]

Can you pay a reliable teenager to come in and soak the beds a couple of times while you're away?

I used to do that when a kid...it was kinda fun.

M.

[Puget]

one tiny green tomato (maybe a single cherry tomato?  time will tell!

Squash have a lot of blooms and a single eggplant is in bloom! 

I will need to leave the raised garden beds for about 8 days soon, so I am trying to get the soil wet enough to sustain the garden as I m sure that there wont be sufficient rain while gone.  Hopefully the increased moisture in the ramp up period will not upset the plants! 

I may need to aim a game camera at the garden to see if/what may be stomping some of the plants (or plucking the seedlings, just to leave their plucked corpses to sit there!

Set up a soaker hose on a timer. Your plants are unlikely to survive 8 days without watering even if you soak them beforehand (which may indeed cause problems-- plants generally do not like soggy soil).

[mamselle]

+1^

That (the 8 days thing) was behind my idea as well.

M.