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Slugs: Bury a cheap-rear end aluminum pie pan flush with the rim in the dirt. Fill with one can of cheap beer. In the AM, you'll have a nice tin of dead drunk slugs. Copper works too. I've been a container gardener as well as a permanent herb gardener for several years now. Back in the olden days, I grew a HUGE garden with my parents (like 1 acre). This year, I plan on building a raised bed "square foot" garden. I have a grand plan, but I may start with four 4'X4' planting sections. Gotta dig out the canning gear this year so I can play PRESERVING GUY this year.
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Feb 24, 2009 21:58
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Grilled zuchini. Zuchini Gratin. Zuchini bread. Stuffed baked zuchini. Zuchini fries (batter french fry shaped strips of zuchini, deep fry) Zuchini onions and garlic stir fry. (you'll still have way too much zuchini) Just planted my two flats of 72 peat pots. Now, I need to see if the Freecycle people will come through with my requests for free poo poo for my square foot garden boxes. Come on now, some of you out there have some lumber you don't need...
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Mar 21, 2009 15:34
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FuzzyDunlop posted:I love seeing the variety of gardens in this thread--krushgroove's containers, the various allotments, ChaoticSeven's motherfuckin FARM. It's really cool to see people using the space they have to grow food, even if it's just a little bit. I was raised by back-to-the-land hippies who had us do various exciting "activist" activities almost evey weekend. We did the farmer's market thing, "urban gardens", and all sorts of "food security" stuff in the late 70's and early 80's. This is obviously WAY before it became "fashionable" to do so. Our poo poo always got wrecked. Mom and dad sure liked to help the urban centers, but we lived way out in farm country. Partially so we could have space for all the homesteading activities, but partially because they weren't interested in having poo poo loving ruined by assholes on a regular basis. Living 10 miles from a town of 5,000 on 40 acres is some security by distance for sure. Consequently, I grew to regard the vast majority of activists as unrealistic do-gooders and have my own place out in the goddamn sticks.
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Apr 18, 2009 16:12
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But it's also a testament to the power of gardening, and the reasons why we keep going, despite the many setbacks a gardener has to face throughout the season. So in that sense, I found it rather affirming.
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GARDEN UPDATE!! Potted basil is going gangbusters.  The habanero peppers are coming along nicely. That smeared mess is a sign my kids made for me for father's day. It lasted exactly 1 rain storm, then it was hosed.  Tomato corner is a happy place.  One poor little tomato plant didn't quite make it.  The red bell peppers are doing nicely as well.  Square foot gardening plot with more basil (teeny) and red bell peppers.  This square foot plot has corn. Both are in full sun after about 9 AM for the rest of the day.  If you squint funny, you can see the row of blueberry and raspberry plants.  The chives are still chiving. I need to separate the clumps next year and plant some of them somewhere else.  Oregano is growing and growing.  Oregano is growing on this side too, and my sage plants didn't die over winter either! Yay me!
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Jun 26, 2009 14:22
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enki42 posted:Basil in particular I've found extremely picky. I have a few plants that have been hanging on for dear life for a while, but they're not exactly inspiring. Really?? I have always found Basil as easy to grow as a weed. I've started it in the ground or in peat-pots indoors or in containers outside. The only problems I've had with basil is deer. What varieties are you growing?? What are they planted in? How much sun are they getting?
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Jun 26, 2009 19:38
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The Big One posted:There's some actual blackberry fruit in the front of the house, no idea how this stuff gets here: Bird eats blackberry. Bird shits out blackberry seeds--->Blackberry plant. Works pretty much the same way with elderberry plants and raspberries as well. They're tasty, but the per plant yield is WAY less than if you had a commercial cultivar and the fruits are way smaller as well.
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Jul 8, 2009 17:07
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kid sinister posted:Not to mention nearly all the commercial cultivars have the added benefit of being thornless. I found the ONE stand of elderberries near my house, on the side of the road. They're still flowering, so it's easy to spot them now. I have the spot marked and plan to visit it in a month or so and make some jelly and pies.
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Jul 13, 2009 15:08
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coyo7e posted:You can thank Disney for that, in large I believe. Johnny Appleseed was a pretty badass mofo, and a lot more savvy than people assume from popular myth. Our horse would eat apples that fell off a tree in his pasture. Drunk horses are not as funny as you'd think. At least he was mostly a happy drunk.
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Jul 15, 2009 13:19
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kid sinister posted:No, but squirrels are! Awww, the poor little guy's got the bed spins and he's on solid ground! It'll be OK my fuzzy pal. The horse was stumbly and goofy and would walk into poo poo (and nuzzle you too with the I LOVE YOU MAN!! vibe), but I have heard tales of horses who are mean drunks and will gently caress up your poo poo even if they are nice when they are sober.
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Jul 17, 2009 01:32
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Since nobody in GWS likes my gardening posts, I'll cross-post this here. My tomaterz and pepperz are going loving GANGBUSTERS!!! Roasted red pepper soup is going to happen soon. I have lots and lots of red pepper plants and they seem to be setting 10+ peppers EACH. Good thing I have the big chest freezer.  Roma tomatoes  Red bell peppers
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Aug 11, 2009 19:50
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Fix my blossom end rot on my tomatoes!! Please!! What calcium/fertilizer stuff has worked for you??
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Aug 20, 2009 13:53
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Chajara posted:My tomatoes are mostly still green too, and they've been that way for weeks. They're slowly ripening one by one now, but the majority of them are still completely green. I'm just chalking it up to a cool summer and a good week where it was downright chilly and rainy. What sucks is that back when it was good and warm I had several tomatoes ripen, but they had blossom-end rot and I had to supplement the plant with milk and toss all the rotten tomatoes. I guess that's a lesson learned for next year. I suffered through a discouraging bout of blossom end rot with my roma tomatoes. A month worth of careful fertilizing and watering and the remaining tomatoes are coming in with no rot. They are staying on the plant WAY too long without ripening. I harvested enough tomatoes to make 3 pounds of tomatoes after peeling and seeding. Those turned into tomato basil soup. I like tomato basil soup. I will share my tomato basil soup with you people because I like you so very much. You need a pressure cooker, or you need to increase the times by about 4x. 1 small (supermarket mesh bag) onion, diced 2-4 cloves garlic, diced. Looking for a tablespoon or so of goo. 1/2 stalk celery, diced 2 TBSP olive oil 1 carrot, shredded 1 pound roma tomatoes, peeled and seeded (weight after peeling and seeding) 3 cups veg or chicken stock (or broth) 10 full sized basil leaves TBSP diced fresh basil ( I use one entire stem, strip leaves and dice) Salt and pepper to taste. Heat olive oil in cooker over medium low heat. Add onion, garlic, celery, and carrot. Saute until it just starts to take a bit of color. Add stock, tomatoes, and basil and oregano. I like to add a nice covering of cracked black pepper and about 1 TBSP of salt at this point. Bring to simmer and seal cooker lid. Cook 6-7 minutes, then release pressure. Blend soup to uniform goo. If you don't like larger hunks of stuff, strain prior to serving, but there is no good reason to do this other than you are a giant fussy pussy. Serve warm or cold. Freezes great. This soup is a much better use of your tomatoes than is the ever so boring method of making pasta sauce. Add 5 or 6 fire roasted red peppers to this soup prior to cooking and it's a wonderful roasted red pepper soup. You may want to fire-peel your tomatoes as well, but the benefits of that are dubious at best.
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Sep 15, 2009 23:19
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 04:16 |
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TheFuglyStik posted:Along with the beer idea, I'm saying gently caress it and spending $100 on a lovely .22 since a pellet gun doesn't kill rabbits so well. They're hellacious in my neighborhood. Unless TFR's resident BB gun expert and current thread regular Nosmoking has a great suggestion for under that $100 price point. Ammo is expensive. And yet again, I sniff out an airgun mention on the internet!! First off, fence in your garden to protect it from critters. If you are unwilling to fence in your garden, you're going to have to sit there all drat day (though mostly at dawn and dusk) to get your rabbits. I suggest the Benjamin 392, a .22 caliber pump pneumatic. A round nose or wadcutter (flat point) .22 pellet at 650-675 feet per second will humanely kill a rabbit out to 30 yards or so with reasonable care taken in shot placement. The rifle can be had for around $100 on sale and a Williams peep sight is about $30 and makes the rifle much easier to shoot to its potential.  The other decent option is the Crosman Quest 1000.  I'm nowhere near as fond of the .177 as I am of the .22 for hunting and pest control of larger animals, but the Quest is a decently powerful air rifle that can be counted on to kill rabbits with heart/lung hits. The Quest 1000X comes with a simple, but "good enough" scope (fixed 4X IIRC) and it often retails on special for right around $100 and it's widely available. Or, you can go loving bonkers and spend 10X or more for your garden protection. Beeman RX-2 and RWS 48  BSA Lightning XL and Beeman R9  Air Arms TX-200 and Weirauch HW-97K  Edit: Got my seeds started in the peat pots and got the square foot gardening beds and deck containers all ready for planting this weekend.
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Apr 20, 2010 14:56
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