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antronics posted:I just noticed a little bug crawling on one of my cucumber leafs. Can you recommend an all in one insecticide for bell peppers, tomatoes and jalapeņos?
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Apr 18, 2012 02:05
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antronics posted:I just noticed a little bug crawling on one of my cucumber leafs. Can you recommend an all in one insecticide for bell peppers, tomatoes and jalapeņos? Plus_Infinity posted:any tips for keeping aphids away from lettuce/ bok choy? Planting lots of flowers around your vegie patch will provide nectar for various beneficial insects like hoverflies that eat aphids. A good plant for this is sweet alyssum, but you need to make sure you have flowers all year round. It takes a while to establish new plants so if you need a more immediate, white oil is a pretty good spray for aphids and you can make it yourself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_oil
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Apr 18, 2012 03:17
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Thanks for the reply. I'm going to get BT for those pests, but besides the flowers, any other recommendations on inscetacides?
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Apr 18, 2012 04:16
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Pyrethrin/pyrethroids perhaps? They're good general purpose chemicals and most garden shops will stock them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrethroids
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Apr 18, 2012 04:26
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Great. I'm going out tomorrow for more buckets and some bamboo sticks, so I'll pick that and some BT up.
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Apr 18, 2012 04:43
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A quick note about pesticides and toxicity, cats are very sensitive to permethrins, but are mostly tolerant of pyrethrins. They're similar but different; essentially permethrins are a synthetic version of pyrethrins with a slight change in the chemical structure. Unfortunately this change is one that cat livers can't handle very well(dogs deal with it better thankfully) and thus can't deactivate. So if you've got cats or your neighbors have cats that like to hang around your garden, double-check your active ingredient lists on those pesticides.
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Apr 18, 2012 05:50
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I'm trying to plan our new backyard, we're moving in June and this is the current set-up. The house is North and the back of the yard is South, lots of sun.   I'm planning on removing every single one of those cedars on our property. Those things turn in to god-awful obelisks and luckily we're getting in while they're still small enough for me to remove. A small yard like this can't handle that much shade. Next I'm going to get rid of the wavy brick bed perimeter on each side and replace it with a stretch of cinder blocks sunk about an inch on a layer of pea gravel. This will give me 4' beds on each side (about the same as the current diameter). For scale, the red crab sandbox is 47.5" x 47". Next, I'm going to build two or three raised 4'x8' planters which will take up the back half of the yard. This will split the yard in to vegies in the back and lawn in the front. I'll replace the circular planter thing that's currently going on with grass. I'm going to run irrigation to the raised beds along the side beds. I will bury PVC piping from the house to the side beds and from the side beds to the raised beds. For the beds themselves they will get flexible drip piping. I will be planting small drought tolerant perennials in the cinderblocks (such as heathers) to make things look more attractive. Because the left fence is chain link and the right fence is wood, the left side will get more sun. So the left side will get space hungry plants that need sun while the right will get space hungry plants that tolerate partial shade. We're going to replace the old cobblestone path through the yard to the back with pressed concrete since we get a lot of snow and that's the route to where the car is parked. A better path will be easier to clear. I'll take the opportunity to move it other to adjacent to the side bed so we don't end up with a silly two foot wide strip of grass. This will give me some more space for the raised beds on the right.  Opinions? I have to double check all the measurements next time we visit. Also, anyone know of anything I can paint on to the center of the cinderblocks to make a waterproof barrier? Cinderblocks will suck all the moisture out of the soil in the center. Presumably I could use that material they paint on to concrete foundations below the soil line. Alternatively, I could line them with something. cowofwar fucked around with this message at 06:11 on Apr 18, 2012 |
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Apr 18, 2012 06:06
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Wow, beautiful house and property. Not having a garden would be a disservice.
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Apr 18, 2012 08:23
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cowofwar posted:Also, anyone know of anything I can paint on to the center of the cinderblocks to make a waterproof barrier? Cinderblocks will suck all the moisture out of the soil in the center. Presumably I could use that material they paint on to concrete foundations below the soil line. Alternatively, I could line them with something.
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Apr 18, 2012 14:51
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cowofwar posted:Opinions? I have to double check all the measurements next time we visit. Those brick edges are terrible, ugh. Are you confident that the cinderblock on pea gravel is going to be enough to keep grass out of the beds? That would be my only concern. That circle area would be a nice place for a fire pit.
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Apr 18, 2012 16:23
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Fruit is addictive! It's my birthday! I just bought a cherry tree with the money people have given me, a dwarf one that makes cherries rather than just a load of pretty flowers, I had to hold back from also buying a damson tree and a plum tree and an apricot tree (and figs and strawberries and ooo, I don't even know what those are but they look tasty!), my garden isn't that big... The apple tree I got for my birthday a couple of years ago is absolutely beautiful this year. Maybe if all goes well I'll grow a pear tree too, I have a corner that would be perfect... Looking through my post history I asked about chickens. Welp, they're now firmly fenced in, there was not one green thing left apart from the incredibly thorny rose bushes, which not even they could kill. I even saw them jumping up and down last year to eat the apples off the tree! So I bought some more rose bushes and seeded a new lawn, the first sign of it finally coming up was this morning, where there was nothing yesterday but mud, today there's a green haze of seedlings and grass stems! Just as I was giving up hope too. It's a mix of a few different bags of grass seeds, "micro-clover", loads and loads of different flower and herb seeds and various seeds I found in a drawer. I'm hoping it'll make a meadow like effect. If not, oh well, it's still better than mud! Nettle Soup fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Apr 18, 2012 |
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Apr 18, 2012 22:39
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Socratic Moron posted:I use cinderblocks with my raised beds and don't have any moisture issues I'm aware of, especially since mulching the top of the soil. And the chances of any barrier you using not being food safe is going to be decent, so be careful. Cpt.Wacky posted:Those brick edges are terrible, ugh. Are you confident that the cinderblock on pea gravel is going to be enough to keep grass out of the beds? That would be my only concern. I'm starting to think about putting a fruit tree in that dirt circle now.
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Apr 18, 2012 23:35
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My annual flowers are all germinating (Dahlia, tithonia, dwarf sunflower, cosmos). I love how my set-up can germinate almost any seed in less than three days. If anyone cares, the process is as such. The important thing to remember is how plants germinate in the wild. They drop, desiccate, chill, hydrate, warm, germinate. So to get really good germination rates it helps to go through this process. 1) Place seeds in fridge in sealed tupperware with a silica packet for a week or so before sowing (this will help many seeds that respond to cold for priming). This is essential for some (cold climate plants) and unimportant for others (warm climate plants). Storing your seeds in the fridge with a dessicator will prolong their shelf life and allow you to use them way past their stamped best before date. 2) Transfer seeds in to a small amount of water (I use a little plastic cup and fill it about 2-3 seed heights with warm water, chlorinated tap water works fine for me). Leave them in the water from a couple hours to overnight, depending on the seed. The goal here is to rehydrate the seed and to simulate spring flooding. The seed needs to be fully hydrated before germinating, and soaking them before sowing ensures that the soil in which you sow them only has to be damp to promote growth. The problem with not doing this is that the soil will initially have to be very wet to allow the seed to rehydrate but then it will have to be only damp for germination. Most people suck at soil hydration level control so best to remove this variable and make life simpler. For large starchy seeds that are prone to rot (peas, beans, etc): #A) Grab two pieces of paper towel. Fold them down to size to fit in a ziplock sandwich baggy. Saturate them with water and then scrunch them up and wring out all the water so they're just damp. Place the soaked seeds in between the paper towel layers. Put the paper towel seed sandwich in a zip lock baggy and seal. Place somewhere that is slightly warmer than room temperature so like ~24C. I put them on top of the piece of plywood from which my grow lights hang. #B) After a couple days the hypocotyl should be starting to emerge. I like to plant them at this point. Do not let them grow in the baggy environment as they will rot easily and become extremely leggy in the absence of light. Also, letting them grow in a non-soil environment for too long will make planting at the advised depth difficult. If not all seeds are germinating at the same rate, sow them all anyways as they will likely germinate very soon, and if not the seeds were bunk so who cares. Don't sacrifice the healthiest for the weakest. For other seeds you can move directly to sowing. 3) Get a seed tray and a seed cell insert.  The tray is a simple rectangle with walls. The cell insert sits inside the tray. YOU NEED BOTH. Don't buy stupid self watering crap trays that cost $60. These things are anywhere from free to a couple bucks. Take care using them and you can re-use the inserts year after year. If you really want the gimmicky ones and can't be bothered to remember to pour some water in the tray every three days then good luck. 4) Fill the inserts with potting soil or soilless seed starter. I used to use the soilless seed starter but I don't like it and the normal potting soil works fine for me. If you're germinating in a cold basement then you might want to use the soilless mix as it is sterile and seeds wont rot as quickly as if you sow them in a damp, cool basement in regular potting soil. 5) Place the seeds and cover with the indicated amount of soil. Gently firm down the soil. Remember that the soil has to be firm enough to allow capillary action, and promote good root growth and function but if you compact it too much it prevents germination. Some people gently press the soil down with their knuckles (that's what I do), others use the round end of a screw driver. 6) Place the cell inserts on a tray filled with water and wait until the soil dampens. YOU MUST ALWAYS WATER FROM THE BOTTOM AND NEVER FROM THE TOP. 7) Transfer the cell inserts to a new, dry tray, or pour the water out of the tray if you only have one. Do not leave water standing in the tray especially if you are germinating in an enclosed space with poor ventilation. The excess moisture will promote mould growth. I like to germinate under lights in a warm area as the lights help warm the soil. The lights aren't necessary. If you are trying to start the seeds in a basement or somewhere cool then get a seed mat, these keep the soil at around 23C and will greatly increase your success if your house is cold. You want to keep the soil damp but not wet. Touch the surface of the soil and if it's damp and particles stick to your finger, it's perfect. If nothing sticks then it is too dry and if it squishes it is too wet. If you let the soil get too wet the seeds will rot or not germinate. If you let the soil get too dry the seeds will not germinate, and if they had already germinated they will die during the first few days when they are extremely sensitive to desiccation due to their limited root structure. 8) The MOMENT you see the hypocotyls emerging from the soil you need to get the seedlings under lights. Don't wait until later that day as seedlings grow extremely fast at this stage. They are dumping all their energy in to getting taller than everything else in order to get sunlight (or else they are doomed to die). If you let the seedlings grow without light they will become leggy and fall over under their own weight and rot. If only a couple have germinated it doesn't matter, the rest will be coming soon and you don't care about the laggards because they will grow poorly for their entire lives. 9) As the plants grow larger they will need more water more frequently. Keep on top of watering, always pour water in to the tray in which the seed cells sit. They will draw water up from the bottom which will promote good root development. If you water from the top the plants are prone to rot and will have poor root structures (shallow), it will also result in soil compaction. I like to add blue liquid fertilizer 10-15-10 to the water. You can start doing this only after the first true leaves appear (not the cotyledons). 10) Pot up the plants once their growth slows or water uptake is impeded by roots. I go from seed cells -> beer cups -> yoghurt containers. I use a drill to drill large holes in the bottom of the beer cups and yoghurt containers. You can get around 18 beer cups in a tray and 6 yoghurt containers in a tray. Lighting: Most people use two 48" fluorescent lights with 5000K natural white tubes for indoor growing. Most people have the lights plugged in to timers set to at least 16 hours of light a day. A standard seed tray is 10"x20". Most people hang two fixtures (each fixture has two tubes) and place two trays underneath. You must always keep the lights a maximum of four inches away from the plants and a minimum of around a centimeter. You can either hang the lights with chains and raise them up over time (I use chains and eye hooks screwed in to the overhanging piece of plywood). Or you can place the trays on a pile of books or something and remove them over time to give the plants room. I have two racks and a super ghetto set-up on my desk. I have three shoeboxes on each side forming pillars and a piece of plywood bridging across them. I have eye hooks screwed in to the underside of this piece of wood from which I hang my lights. The whole thing cost like $30 (lights included). Grow racks can be built very easily as well. Don't buy the $800 racks, I make mine with around $10 in wood. Frame the structure with 1"x1" cut pieces of lumber (you can have the store cut them for you). Drill holes and screw together with a drill. Buy some cheap particle board cabinet wood for the shelves. cowofwar fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Apr 19, 2012 |
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Apr 19, 2012 00:34
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Came across this the other day: https://secure.flickr.com/photos/blaineo/2984552937/in/photostream/ Would this really be as simple as putting some hydroponic grow media in a gutter, and circulating a nutrient solution with a small pump? Or is there something I'm missing? Seems like this could be thrown together really inexpensively.
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Apr 19, 2012 01:05
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Zuph posted:Came across this the other day: If you really want to have fun you can get in to aquaponics. It's the same thing as hydroponics but it incorporates a fish tank. The fish excrete ammonia as waste which is fixed by bacteria in the grow beds and turned in to nitrogen for the plants. This makes it so that you don't have to add nutrients to the water and you get fish to eat. It's great in warm climates in a green house with rapid growing fish. Just search hydroponics or aquaponics on youtube, there are tons of videos. It's a huge, geek friendly culture. cowofwar fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Apr 19, 2012 |
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Apr 19, 2012 01:14
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Great germination writeup, thank you cowofwar!
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Apr 19, 2012 03:54
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I had to add another rack to my good germin' rig, and I may need yet another soon. If you're using those lights that attach to the chain with an S-hook, do yourself a favor and pinch the bottom of the hook closed so that the light can't slip off and crush your plants. I leave the top of the hook open in case I need to swap out different lengths of chain. Of course I can't find it now, but I read an interesting paper about growing tomato starts the other day. They compared using a constant ratio of light and dark per day to a increase of 1 hour of light per day. The increasing amount of light yielded bigger starts for the same amount of energy. I guess since the leaves grow when the light is on and the stalks grow when it's dark that it makes more sense to have less light until more leaves develop.
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Apr 19, 2012 07:28
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cowofwar posted:Yep, hydroponics is cool. Many people cut holes in PVC pipes. You have to be very careful with the water temperature, pH, and nutrient levels. Oh, I know it can get as complicated as I'd like it to get. I'm curious about the flaws in my brilliant plan to throw coconut coir into some recycle gutters, and circulate an off-the-shelf nutrient solution around it, since all these bits are very cheap at the local hydroponic supply store. I know nutrient levels, pH, and temperature are critical, but it still seems too simple.
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Apr 19, 2012 12:18
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I was thinking when this thread hit 100 if we should make an extensive OP for those looking to start? Your write-up was good cow.
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Apr 19, 2012 15:13
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cowofwar posted:seed I've been grabbing seeds since last year and chucking them in the fridge, but is that not as good of a method as I thought? Will it be too humid in there for long-term storage? I was also watering from the top, just thinking "oh, this tray is useful for catching the water that goes through!!  " The sad thing is that I had even accounted for some of the water to collect in the tray to keep the soil moist for longer, yet I continued to water from the top while trying to figure out some method of not battering the sprouts.I just wish I could being myself to settle down somewhere so I could justify going hog wild with a growing setup. A decent job would probably be the first step there.
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Apr 19, 2012 15:14
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Zenzirouj posted:I've been grabbing seeds since last year and chucking them in the fridge, but is that not as good of a method as I thought? Will it be too humid in there for long-term storage?
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Apr 19, 2012 16:34
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I spend most of my time in the business finance forum so I have to ask, do you guys think you've saved or lost money with your gardens? I understand that for many gardening is a hobby and they're not concerned about the bottom line but my intentions are to save money on groceries and to have a hobby at the same time. I also want to be more self-reliant. I've narrowed my diet down to mostly vegetables/fruit and small portions of meat on some occasions so growing my own vegetables could save me a lot of money despite the up front costs.
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Apr 19, 2012 18:07
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Orange_Lazarus posted:I spend most of my time in the business finance forum so I have to ask, do you guys think you've saved or lost money with your gardens? I understand that for many gardening is a hobby and they're not concerned about the bottom line but my intentions are to save money on groceries and to have a hobby at the same time. I also want to be more self-reliant. Lights: If you're trying to save money, then don't buy lights unless you're going high volume, starting 72 cell trays, and planting them outside almost immediately. Seeds: don't buy them, use the seeds in the veggies you buy from the store. I've started plants successfully from peppers and tomatoes (you get hundreds of seeds per fruit). Dirt: a bag of potting soil is a couple bucks. If your garden soil really sucks you can cut in a couple bags of dirt every time you plant a trough. I cut in the el cheapo 25L bags of dirt from the grocery store that are $2 each. You can pay more than $10 for a 25L bag if you're a sucker and buy the magic organic dirt. Nutrients: Mix in leaf compost or other compost that you can get for free from your city. Supplies: I bought trays and cells for a couple bucks but you can use old egg cartons (I've successfully done this but it's worth the couple bucks for the plastic trays). Growing environment: you don't need expensive landscaping or raised beds. Find a piece of land with good sun and go at it with a pitch-fork. Water: It can be expensive depending where you are, so you can do a couple things to reduce this cost. You can cover your garden with black fabric and just cut holes where you're planting. This ensures that you aren't watering weeds, it always reduces evaporation by a huge amount. This tends to require some sort of irrigation system though. You can also focus on planting varieties that don't need much water and are drought resistant instead of the super high production hydroponic geared varieties found in many stores. Plant selection: You'll save more by growing high value items in volume. Zucchini is a great thing to grow because it's low maintenance and produces a TON of fruit. Tomatoes are easy to grow and produce a ton of fruit. Peas and beans are easily sprouted in between damp paper towels and directly seeded outside. Storage: You can really save money by canning. You'll get a huge harvest of some fruit all at once but if you cook and can them you can have free tomato sauce for a year. Also use your freezer, you can fill your freezer with beans for the rest of the year from a small plot. Return: Basically, look at what vegetables you eat the most and grow those. I eat a lot of peppers, tomatoes and zucchini so I'm growing those. Save all your garden waste in a compost bin. Never throw your green waste in to the garbage because you'll have to pay for fertilizer in the future if you don't cycle nutrients back in to your garden. Ultimately, if you're out to save money, don't buy gimmicks and only plant things that can be directly sown in your garden. So peas, beans, squash, carrots, spinach and others only require water and workable dirt. Things to avoid are things like lettuce that require lots of input and provide very little nutritional output. If you have a green thumb you can subsidize your garden by collecting seeds from other peoples' flowers at the end of the season, growing annuals and selling them. Growing and selling vegetable plant starts is a high volume low profit endeavour but you can make a decent return selling annuals to your friends early in the season. The trick is to sprout them and sell them off within two weeks when they're still tiny. You can also grow lillies, raspberries or strawberries and sell the young suckers or root balls. cowofwar fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Apr 19, 2012 |
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Apr 19, 2012 18:46
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Orange_Lazarus posted:I spend most of my time in the business finance forum so I have to ask, do you guys think you've saved or lost money with your gardens? I understand that for many gardening is a hobby and they're not concerned about the bottom line but my intentions are to save money on groceries and to have a hobby at the same time. I also want to be more self-reliant. When I was growing up in Pennsylvania we always made out well, with piles of tomatoes and zuchini all summer. It saved my parents a ton of money on groceries. Now that I live in Oklahoma I haven't broken even 1 year in 4. The soil is a lot worse here and gardens require a lot more water. Could you provide some more specifics about where you live and what you're thinking about growing? A general response isn't going to help you much.
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Apr 19, 2012 18:52
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Personally, I'm definitely in the hole so far but I haven't been growing long enough or well enough to recoup a lot of the initial investments. cowofwar covered most of what I was going to say, but I'll add a few bits. I bought a lot of individual fertilizer ingredients in bulk to mix up my own fertilizer according to Steve Solomon's recipe. The cost works out to about $6.32/gallon which is what he recommends for most crops per 100 sq ft, but I spent around $250 buying 50 pound bags of stuff. Fortunately all the ingredients will keep reasonably well for years. Water is another ongoing cost, and depends where you live. There are gardening techniques that can reduce or even eliminate the need to water, depending on how much space you have. I don't recommend rain barrels unless you have a huge rear end cistern, and even then you have to decide if the water running off the roof is safe enough for you. As to whether it's actually cheaper, it depends on how much you value your time and what you grow. I posted a chart a while ago in the thread from Steve Solomon comparing the price of growing various vegetables to buying them at the store. I'm sure you can find something similar online. The other thing to consider is that the nutrient value in organically grown vegetables is much higher than what you can buy at the store.
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Apr 19, 2012 18:52
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Orange_Lazarus posted:I spend most of my time in the business finance forum so I have to ask, do you guys think you've saved or lost money with your gardens? I understand that for many gardening is a hobby and they're not concerned about the bottom line but my intentions are to save money on groceries and to have a hobby at the same time. I also want to be more self-reliant. I suppose it would also depend on whether you enjoy gardening in the first place and how much you value your free time, since it's going to require consistent input, particularly during planting. But for most of the season it's a few minutes a day of supervision, maintenence, and watering. It also depends on how much you value freshness and taste. Your own vegetables will basically always be more nutritious and taste better than the majority of what you can get at a supermarket. Getting veggies of the same quality is going to be even more expensive, assuming it's even available in your area. But most the important factor is the sense of smug self-satisfaction you get when eating food you grew yourself and that is impossible to quantify.
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Apr 19, 2012 18:52
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cowofwar posted:Things to avoid are things like lettuce that require lots of input and provide very little nutritional output. This is more of a myth. It's really only true of head-type lettuce like Iceberg, especially if grown commercially. There are lots of other lettuces and salad greens you can grow that don't need much water and have plenty of nutritional value, especially if you use a good quality fertilizer that has trace minerals and micronutrients from things like soft rock phosphate (instead of bonemeal) and kelp meal.
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Apr 19, 2012 19:24
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plus, it's tasty! I have arugula growing like weeds and it's so spicy and delicious and would cost way more at the grocery store.
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Apr 19, 2012 19:38
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This is my first year so I'm in the hole. The first initial investment is in getting the tools needed, setting up your bed, and lights if you decide to start indoors. I made a lot of mistakes, plus I get very excited to try different plants and varieties so I went a little crazy and spent more than I thought I would. I decided to start from seed when I didn't have any beds ready to go, so many of my seedlings ended up stressed with poor output. Luckily I started early enough for a second try. I really treated it more as a learning experience and it's made me appreciate where my food comes from on the whole. I probably won't have to buy lettuce this summer if I keep it cool enough on the porch, and I should get a really amazing raspberry and blackberry harvest with how crazy both plants are growing, which will be a BIG money saver since berry prices can get as high as $4-$5 a pack. I'll be able to freeze and store them through the winter when they are out of season. I've spent about $400 so far, but I think that's worth the price of learning how to grow food for yourself and there is a certain reward of picking and eating something you have grown in your own yard. You saw that plant grow up and know exactly what has been done to it.
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Apr 19, 2012 19:59
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Cpt.Wacky posted:This is more of a myth. It's really only true of head-type lettuce like Iceberg, especially if grown commercially. There are lots of other lettuces and salad greens you can grow that don't need much water and have plenty of nutritional value, especially if you use a good quality fertilizer that has trace minerals and micronutrients from things like soft rock phosphate (instead of bonemeal) and kelp meal.
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Apr 19, 2012 20:01
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I'm still in the hole but that's due to the scope of what I'm doing. I've planted a shitload of fruit and nut trees, brought in hundreds of yards of compost, bought over 1000 cinder blocks, etc. I keep track of how much I spend at the grocery store per month. Keeping in mind that my wife and I eat ONLY organic and local as often as possible, at present, we are now saving about $300.00 per month from our peak. And that's with only about half of our raised beds built and most of our trees are not yet producing. I aim to grow about 85% of our own food though so I'm a bit different than most. I also plan to sell some excess via farmers markets. I could have done this much cheaper but for me I wanted as much in the ground as fast as possible. But going forward I'll be saving a lot more money and be pretty much self sufficient. In addition, I consider this an investment as I believe food is only going to become more expensive in the future and less healthy for us. I put very little money into my garden at this point. I compost, I get free manure from people nearby with goats, horses, and donkeys, and I'm saving lots of seeds. The freezer is starting to get filled with excess and I hope to be at a production level in the fall where I have to start canning. In the long run, I anticipate our garden will save us a tremendous amount of money. Not only at the grocery store, but in health related costs since we'll be eating so much healthier as well.
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Apr 19, 2012 20:39
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Does anyone know if there's such a thing as a... without knowing what to call it, "Protective fruit netting". What I picture in my mind is a piece of netting with a drawstring that I can place around my growing fruit and squash to keep some of these loving bugs from chowing down. Is there such a thing, what are they called, and where can I buy them? Thanks!
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Apr 19, 2012 20:49
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Also, what'll keep the drat squirrels offa my peach and apple trees?
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Apr 19, 2012 20:50
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rt4 posted:Also, what'll keep the drat squirrels offa my peach and apple trees? This was on the previous page. quote:Liquify some chilies or some cayenne pepper powder dissolved in water and spray every thing down with it. Little bastards can't stand capsaicin and will leave every thing alone. Just make sure you give your vegies a good wash before you eat them.
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Apr 19, 2012 20:53
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Socratic Moron posted:Does anyone know if there's such a thing as a... without knowing what to call it, "Protective fruit netting". What I picture in my mind is a piece of netting with a drawstring that I can place around my growing fruit and squash to keep some of these loving bugs from chowing down. Is there such a thing, what are they called, and where can I buy them? Something like this? You could probably improvise with used nylon stockings.
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Apr 19, 2012 21:31
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Cpt.Wacky posted:Something like this? You could probably improvise with used nylon stockings.  It's hard to tell if it'll be perfect but I'm sure going to find out.
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Apr 19, 2012 21:39
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Break even? HAHhahahaha oh lord, I pray every day that no one has secretly kept a tally of all the money and time I've dumped into my gardens. Still, weeding the garden on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon with the wife is relaxing and quite a bit cheaper then a date. And blackberries are drat expensive here so if those start producing well I might start coming back on those a bit... but no, I have no hope of ever breaking even. Maybe if you had years and years of patience to let lovely soil you are likely to start with naturally improve with free compost and you start something like blackberries or strawberries that are easy to propagate and are diligent and patient enough to turn just a couple plants into a bunch of plants... And then your property value will have increased to where you can sell it to a wanna be gardener who sees the garden and overpays for the property? That'd be my best break even scenario!
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Apr 20, 2012 00:39
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Most people I've talked to in real estate tended to lean towards a garden devaluing a property.  Joke's going to be on whoever owns my home next, half the backyard is going to grow the most amazing grass and the rest will just stay crappy clay.
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Apr 20, 2012 02:08
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I can't see gardening actually being an accounting decision. It's a hobby and lifestyle choice. You forgo economies of scale (when purchasing produce at grocery stores) for control over the food and the enjoyment of it.
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Apr 20, 2012 02:14
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GD_American posted:I can't see gardening actually being an accounting decision. It's a hobby and lifestyle choice. You forgo economies of scale (when purchasing produce at grocery stores) for control over the food and the enjoyment of it. But if you have a mixture of fruit and nut trees in addition to your garden plot, traveling to the grocery store is 10+ miles each way, you're frugal with how you maintain everything, and you normally eat fresh organic fruit and veggies, then it can be an accounting decision. And ever penny gas increases in price, the better the accounting decision becomes.
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Apr 20, 2012 02:44
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