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Walnut trees are very hard on gardeners because of the juglone they emit, it kills many of the plants around the tree (especially tomatoes). Juglone doesn't move very far away from the tree though, so anything planted outside the drip line of the tree should have a decent chance of being unaffected (and obviously the farther away the better). Also make sure you don't compost any of the leaves from the tree unless you want your compost to also function as an herbicide. This year I used old plastic cups for my seed starting, I always have a bunch of them just laying around it seems so why not put them to use? In the past I've also used old yogurt cups, milk cartons, and empty juice boxes. Generally when I start seeds I'll put anywhere between 2 and 4 seeds per cup, less for fresh seeds and more for seeds that have been in my fridge more than a year. Once the seedlings have their first set of true leaves I then thin out the weaker sprouts.
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Mar 23, 2010 18:16
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Marchegiana posted:juglone LOL, our stupid tree is an ICP fan. Thanks for the seed-starting tips; that's really helpful. 
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Mar 23, 2010 19:03
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The Young Marge posted:LOL, our stupid tree is an ICP fan. Make sure that there aren't any squirrels burying walnuts in your planters, you don't want any leftover walnut juice to leech into them.
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Mar 23, 2010 19:28
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I never thought about that. I have neighbors with walnut trees, and it's pretty irritating the way the squirrels seem to sit above my yard on another, non-walnut tree leaving husks for me to walk on with bare feet. They definitely bury walnuts in our planters, too. I am thinking of putting up some netting this year to keep birds off but I assume this will help keep squirrels out as well.
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Mar 23, 2010 20:13
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Yeah, my husband has been talking about the dangers of squirrels getting walnut poo poo in everything. I found an informative article about black walnut toxicity, but it doesn't go into the squirrel issue: http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/hortcult/fruits/blkwalnt.htm And now I'm extra confused because it says blueberries are sensitive to juglone.  Anyway, based on that article, I plan to construct raised beds away from the tree, use light soil that drains well, and be as vigilant as I can about the walnut material. I'm not sure where we'll put the vegetables; the spot I had in mind is probably too close to the tree. Edit: now that I think about it, I believe the overgrown bushes were actually BLACKberries, not blueberries. So never mind about that. Edit2: ok, article says blackberries are sensitive to it too. gently caress it, still doesn't add up. Whatever. The Young Marge fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Mar 23, 2010 |
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Mar 23, 2010 20:39
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coyo7e posted:Walnuts are no kind of tree to not take seriously if you want to grow anything resembling plants, the poo poo in walnut husks is so powerful it can burn your skin with prolonged contact. Any idea how long the juglones persist in the soil? I have a walnut tree in the corner of my yard, the neighbors don't like it either and it shades my vegetables in the afternoon. There is only one tree and it doesn't self pollinate, so there aren't even any nuts to eat, just mess. I would like to plant a small orchard, like a couple semi-dwarf apple trees, a peach, plum, or cherry tree, maybe a persimmon.
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Mar 23, 2010 20:45
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The Young Marge posted:That's also apparently the reason we won't be able to grow tomatoes on our property, boo. It doesn't have to be that way, you know. If your pH is so low that you can't grow tomatoes, have you looked into liming your garden? Do a proper pH test first and do the math to figure out how much lime you need to add, you don't want to go too far with that stuff. And walnuts are awful. There was one tree near where I grew up that had walnuts so big you could twist your ankle on one.
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Mar 23, 2010 21:32
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Zeta Taskforce posted:Any idea how long the juglones persist in the soil? I have a walnut tree in the corner of my yard, the neighbors don't like it either and it shades my vegetables in the afternoon. There is only one tree and it doesn't self pollinate, so there aren't even any nuts to eat, just mess. I would like to plant a small orchard, like a couple semi-dwarf apple trees, a peach, plum, or cherry tree, maybe a persimmon. I'd say that the best and most efficient way to do things would be to do raised beds with quality compost and soil that you bring in for the express purpose of gardening, just like it's probably the easiest way to deal with any kind of difficult soil. If you can start with clean dirt and keep it above the "water line" (so to speak) of the contaminated soil, gravity and rainfall will eventually clean the soil over time. Otherwise the only thing I can think of would be to strip the soil and replace it like you might for soil that contained lead or other nasty chemicals, I doubt you could cut the soil with good soil and have any success for at least a couple years after the tree is gone, but at least there's no worry of getting lead poisoning from walnut-saturated soil..  Also, I'd strongly recommend not growing tubers at ground level, as they're pretty much the most likely plant to suck up chemicals and store it in edible parts of the plant (I know you don't want potatoes and poo poo in soil with lead in it for this reason, although I doubt juglone would be harmful it'd probably kill the taters quick and make them taste lousy if they didn't die, I'd assume). Finally for the bigger nerds who're into gardening, there're a few pretty good garden-related podcasts available online, one of my favorite is "WHYY's You Bet Your Garden," (long professionally produced episodes, call-in questions, great host who knows EVERYTHING) as well as coopette.com's "Alternative Kitchen Garden" (short, wide variety of small-scale garden subjects and tips and ideas.)
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Mar 23, 2010 23:10
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There are many juglone tolerant plants which can act as "buffers." Many of these plants are also nitrogen fixing, as well. Among these are Hackberries, Wolfberries, Mulberry, Elderberry, and most members of the Eleaegnus family. Many of these plants are also good understory plants, as well, so plant as close to the tree as you'd like. If you buffer your garden by planting these things near the dripline of the tree, you should be able to use the space immediately past the buffer for a garden without much issue. Provided you live anywhere that gets decent rain, you'll probably only suffer a couple of season of reduced harvest.
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Mar 24, 2010 01:55
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The Young Marge posted:- I think I need to start the seeds indoors now (zone 6, last frost March 30 - April 30). I have the space and stuff for this. I was going to use labeled red plastic keg cups; is that cool? Do I just put one seed per cup, or should I put a bunch of them in there to increase the chances of something sprouting? quote:- herbgardening.com says that everything can be started inside about 6 weeks before last frost; the seed packets generally say more like 3-4 weeks. I figured I'd start 'em all now and put them in the ground after like 4-6 weeks (after last frost). Sound good? Also, how big will they get in that time? I don't know how much room I need or how long the cups will cut it. quote:- How many actual plants do I need per type of herb? I really don't know anything about plant yield. I have a two-person household and like to cook. I don't mind having a bunch and then drying some or giving some away, but I don't want to be overrun. I especially want lots of basil for pesto and stuff. quote:- For raised bed gardening, do I still need to follow the guidelines for how far apart to space my plants? Or do I plant them closer-spaced? (I thought part of the reason for raised bed is so you get more stuff per square inch.) It gets easier as you go Good luck
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Mar 24, 2010 02:09
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This is fantastic, thanks for all the advice! I went out and looked at/measured the intended space for my little herb garden, and I have more room than I thought - 9.5 feet along the back steps (which I plan to use as the back of the raised bed). 
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Mar 24, 2010 05:04
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coyo7e posted:useful I think I have a few things working in my favor. First, the soil is not packed and dry. Actually at this moment it is sopping wet and squishy, but we have had more than 10 inches of rain in the last week and a half. Second, it is rich soil, so whatever biological process that removes the juglones should go pretty good. That said, I will probably take your advice and move the soil. Since I want to put in fruit trees there, it wouldn't be that hard to swap out the soil with soil from another part of the yard and plant the trees in that; by the time the roots grow out and the trees get bigger, the stuff should be more dilute. Not sure when I will remove it though. Not looking forward to paying for it, and it might be a delicate job. The tree is about 5 feet away from a train station on Boston's MBTA red line and I don't want to be "that guy" on Channel 7 Action News who did something stupid to shut down train service.
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Mar 24, 2010 05:27
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In the next week or two I'm moving to a new apartment. The balcony, while small, will face NE meaning I just might catch enough sun for veg that doesn't need a tremendous amount of the stuff. (Luckily enough my place has no one across the 'hall' - so to speak - as it is one of the wide openings for the floor's breezeway) I'm thinking a couple of 5 gal. container grows could be set up on the balcony but I have no idea what I could grow in a small space that I don't expect to get very much sun. Furthermore once I get what I can grow sorted out I don't know when I should start. I've read through the posts made in the first 12-13 pages of this thread - covering roughly this time of year (Jan. - May, only in 2009 obv.) but I never saw anyone post a similar scenario of limited space + limited sunlight. By this weekend the move-in shall begin and I might be able to get some pictures of what kind of space and sun I'm working with but until then any help is appreciated.
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Mar 24, 2010 07:53
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I did a purely balcony grow last year, that was fairly successful given the conditions. We were west facing, and high up so there was no shade from other buildings, but even still I doubt we had much more than 6 hours of sun in a given day. Easy stuff:
Moderate success:
Harder:
I had floor to ceiling windows so seed starting worked excellently - much better than my current house which doesn't get quite as much sun.
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Mar 24, 2010 13:54
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Never even thought about overhanging planters! I'm definitely going to try my hand at some herbs. Probably try lettuce and/or spinach since from what I'm reading they grow well in spaces where they won't get a ton of sun. Once I get an idea of what kind of planters I can get and how much more sun I can expect as spring/summer progress I might try tomatoes. I'm really disappointed that I more than likely won't be able to try bell peppers though - that was my main hope.
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Mar 24, 2010 19:05
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Yeah, the overhanging planters are great since you avoid any shade from the screen under the railing (if you have one) and you probably get a couple more hours of sun just because of that. They are unfortunately pretty limited to smaller things though.
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Mar 24, 2010 20:57
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Forgot to mention - for any of you who plant upside-down tomatoes, don't forget to plant something in the top of the bucket too. Hint: basil
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Mar 25, 2010 00:05
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My romas are doing very well, as are my green pepper seedlings. The only herbs that have shown their faces are dill and chive though, and the spinach hasn't done anything too (its probably too moist and/or warm I guess). Still lots of white mold too, even though its out in a dry and warm place in the house. Here's my flickr set 
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Mar 25, 2010 01:59
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Jesus Rocket posted:I believe my uncle might grow veggies and fruits. I know he gardens a lot, but I think he is mainly into succulents. I'll be sure to ask him. Right now my garden area is maybe about 10ftx10ft with only a tangerine tree (that shades most of it). I was already thinking that container gardening might be best for me and I'm glad to hear tomatoes and peppers are easy to grow since they were high on my list. - green beans oh god so many beans - cucumbers - tomatoes - hot peppers - bell peppers (didn't turn out great) - cantaloupes (didn't turn out great) We're trying peas, strawberries, and jalapenos this year, along with cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, and two more cucumber plants. Hope it all turns out okay! They were selling blueberry bushes too but I'm not sure how well blueberry does in this zone, anybody know? Also planted some chives, leeks, and rosemary for the chef. I've never done too well with herbs apart from mint but I guess we'll see! And we put in two guacamole trees (avocado and lime) in our front yard along with a bunch of succulents and lavender. Time to sit on my butt and wait for a couple of years before they're established and producing fruit
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Mar 25, 2010 02:32
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Got a used earthway for 60 bucks. Hot drat.
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Mar 25, 2010 03:27
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moana posted:Honestly, if you just want a few things, you can stick to seedlings and you'll spend about the same amount and with much less hassle (and things dying). All the things I've gotten from Home Depot (seeds and seedlings) were just fine, except for the ones I killed off myself. I'm in San Diego too and so excited to start my garden! Last year the best things we grew were: For blueberries, or for that matter any type of temperate perennial fruit, for where you are you are not so much defined by your zone, but by the chilling hours requirement. These are the hours when the temperature is between 32 and 45F, and if you plant a variety that requires too many, it won't thrive where you are. If in the north we plant a variety that requires too few it will break dormancy way too early in the spring and get killed by late frosts. I was just checking online, and they do have blueberry varieties with low chill requirements. Before you buy them at Home Depot, I would check it out online. I like Home Depot for most things, I just came back from there because I needed more potting soil, but I usually shy away from them for plants. It seems like in the entire store they have shelf after shelf of plants, but they only sell one variety of cheery tomato, a couple kinds of peppers, one variety of melon. Whatever they have they have a thousand of. I'm just not impressed with their selection. I wouldn't put it past them to stock the same couple varieties of blueberries nationwide and not the ones specific for the south. The rest of us are jealous that you can grow your own guacamole.
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Mar 25, 2010 04:02
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Please don't buy plants from Home Depot. Find a local nursery and support them. The quality will be better, and they won't have Dale from plumbing covering the garden center.
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Mar 25, 2010 12:07
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The big problem I have with places like Home Depot and Lowes is that they don't always mark the plants properly, so unless you're really savvy at identifying plants you're never really sure if what you're buying is what they say you're buying. But, if you're not picky about specific varieties they do have excellent prices (hell, the Lowes by me has 1-gallon azaleas for only $2.50 this week) and I've sometimes found some serious deals in their clearance plants section (like I got a 3' Corylus avellana 'Contorta' last summer that normally sells for $50-70, I paid $15). But if you want something other than the most popular versions of "Big Boy" tomatoes you're best off finding a small local nursery or starting your own seeds.
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Mar 25, 2010 12:07
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Richard Noggin posted:Please don't buy plants from Home Depot. Find a local nursery and support them. The quality will be better, and they won't have Dale from plumbing covering the garden center. 2nd, everything I get from the box box stores is horribly root bound. You'd be surprised how much quicker things take off that aren't a solid ball of white when you take them out of the nursery pack. I found a local nursery that I love because they have good stuff and flats are one price no matter what you put on them.
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Mar 25, 2010 13:51
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What's wrong with rootbound? Just take a utility knife to the boot ball straight down about every inch, fan out as many as you can and plant it.
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Mar 25, 2010 14:06
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There's really nothing wrong with it per se, but it shows that the plant hasn't been cared for.
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Mar 25, 2010 15:33
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Richard Noggin posted:Please don't buy plants from Home Depot. Find a local nursery and support them. The quality will be better, and they won't have Dale from plumbing covering the garden center. If I was a serious gardener, I'm sure I'd need to look for a better store, but I actually prefer not having to choose between seventeen varieties of cherry tomatoes. For a beginner, it's daunting.
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Mar 25, 2010 15:38
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I probably should mention that it's been my experience that the staff at the mom-and-pop nursery are usually just as clueless as the staff at Home Depot is. I've tried asking simple questions at the locally owned nursery (questions like "Where is the Daphne?" and "Do you have any Chionanthus virginicus, or is it all retusus?") and am always, always greeted with blank stares. Obviously this all depends on the nursery in question, there are some nurseries out there (that I mail-order from, they're not close to home) that have fabulous service and all their employees know all the minutiae you could ever want to know about the plants in stock. But by and large most nursery staff is just going to be hose monkeys, regardless of whether you're at Mom-and-Pop or Home Depot.
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Mar 25, 2010 16:22
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Marchegiana posted:I probably should mention that it's been my experience that the staff at the mom-and-pop nursery are usually just as clueless as the staff at Home Depot is. I was going to just buy some seeds and get out when I saw a "Yes on Prop 8 sticker" on the register, so gently caress you nursery. At least Home Depot has a decent HRC rating.
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Mar 25, 2010 19:30
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moana posted:Mine weren't clueless, they just didn't give a poo poo about what I wanted and apparently the owner had a hardon for roses because that's all they wanted to talk to me about. I loving hate roses. Thank you. I don’t understand why businesses do that. There is no upside taking a political stance that is going to piss off a significant part of your customer base. They should have known that and did it anyway. They must really hate the fags. Which is unfortunate because per capita, no one buys more roses.
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Mar 25, 2010 20:17
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kid sinister posted:What's wrong with rootbound? Just take a utility knife to the boot ball straight down about every inch, fan out as many as you can and plant it. Richard Noggin posted:There's really nothing wrong with it per se, but it shows that the plant hasn't been cared for. http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/indoor/should-you-repot-your-plant-happy-root-bound-house-plants.htm edit: I notice in that link that there's some contradictory wording about aloes producing more babies when they are rootbound, I don't believe this is true and it contradicts the previous sentences - looks like they may've just had a mental hiccup while typing, or the sentence may just be an awkward one that reads incorrectly. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Mar 25, 2010 |
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Mar 25, 2010 20:51
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I just put in some annuals in my front yard - primroses, 99 cents a piece, from a Rite Aid. I know that's not veggies, but sometimes you can find steals at the non-garden shops on soil and pots. Rite Aid is a pharmacy/convenience store around here. Beer and pansies.
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Mar 25, 2010 21:04
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How deep should I be building my raised garden bed? For the soil mixture I lucked out and the wife got me some spent coffee grounds from work, but what ratio should I mix them with, and should I just place the mixture on top of the soil (with grass removed)?
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Mar 25, 2010 22:19
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HClChicken posted:How deep should I be building my raised garden bed? For the soil mixture I lucked out and the wife got me some spent coffee grounds from work, but what ratio should I mix them with, and should I just place the mixture on top of the soil (with grass removed)? I usually shoot for 8-10" on raised beds. You can get by with 6" if the soil at grade is decent, and you till it. If you're making raised beds because you have crappy soil or poor drainage, err on the deep side. For reference, I have lousy drainage in my yard, and my raised beds are nominal 2x12 hemlock filled to a depth of 9-10". As far as the coffee grounds go, how much are we talking about here? Coffee is acidic. It's hard to say a ratio because it depends on what the pH of your soil is to start with. The best thing to do is to mix several small batches. Let's assume you have a lot of grounds - do a test with maybe a 4:1 mix of soil:grounds. Then do a 3:1 and a 2:1. Get a sample of each tested, and a sample of just soil. Then you should be able to figure out what the best ratio is. Regarding rootbound plants, yes, that's one of the reasons why those plants mentioned are house plants - it's difficult for a plant to be rootbound when it's growing in the ground  . Spider plants are notorious for not making spiders until they're rootbound, and it's a common mistake for people to repot little spider plants in huge pots - they'll take forever to produce. Spathiphyllum (peace lily) may not flower if it's not stressed, but it's sure not going to get any bigger if you never transplant it.
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Mar 25, 2010 22:52
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I have about a gallon of coffee grounds, and will have another 2 by the end of next weekend. So quanity isn't a problem. I'll be buying and mixing my own soil to fill the raised bed. I'd like to buy compost since it was too late for me to make my own. But I'll see what works.
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Mar 26, 2010 01:26
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How big are you planning on making your raised bed(s)?
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Mar 26, 2010 02:09
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Richard Noggin posted:How big are you planning on making your raised bed(s)? Just one 4x8
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Mar 26, 2010 02:36
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Pick up a soil pH test kit; they're inexpensive and can be found at garden centers (and maybe Home Depot?). I know I'm waxing on about this stuff, but it's important. I had a pretty much total failure last year because I didn't test the compost delivered to me from a reputable local company (and neither did they!) In my case, it was too alkaline, and I could have used a couple gallons of coffee grounds.
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Mar 26, 2010 12:02
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Anyone here tried myfolia.com yet? I stumbled across it last night while browsing around for garden journaling software. It's basically Ravelry for gardening. I signed up two nights ago, but haven't had time to do much with it yet. It seems pretty cool, especially since I definitely want to journal what I do, but suck at keeping hand-writted notebooks, haha. I'm starting a balcony container garden for the first time this year. My balcony kind of sucks, placement-wise, it faces SE, and only gets 5 hours of sun in the morning. My mother-in-law has an *amazing* garden that takes up pretty much her entire backyard, and says I might be surprised. We're down here in Dallas, where it's hotter than hell by early June, she says the full sun plants might do better than I think with only 5 hours and then being in shade during the worst of the heat. I'm not convinced, but we'll see. To that end, I'll be planting far more herbs than vegetables, since herbs apparently do better when stressed some (MIL says they taste better), 2 types of rosemary, parsley, sage, cilantro, lavender, thyme, three different types of mint, catnip, basil, garlic chives, and oregano. The right half of my balcony only gets like 3, 3 1/2 hours of sun max, so I'm going to try some mesclun, looseleaf lettuce, and microgreens on that side in large windowboxes. The only fruit vegetables I'm going to attempt is a couple of tomato plants, two types of pepper, and some strawberries that are supposed to do well in partial shade. I'm signed up as Cerri on myfolia...would there be interest in a Goons in Gardens group? Cerri fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Mar 26, 2010 |
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Mar 26, 2010 19:52
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Cerri posted:I'm signed up as Cerri on myfolia...would there be interest in a Goons in Gardens group? No. Quit trying to make me join other forums. 
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Mar 26, 2010 20:32
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