|
Post by raphanus on Apr 9, 2022 6:23:34 GMT -5
Well after a little over $2k, quite a few facefulls of concrete dust and coughing and no shortage of back pain, I have a massive privacy fence separating me from the crazy neighbor. I’m thinking about unique ways to add plants along the fence line. It’s deep shade, but I’m considering planting bamboo, fruit trees, or attaching a trellis and training vining crops like grapes or pumpkins or beans up the fence. Any ideas?
|
|
|
Post by raphanus on Apr 9, 2022 6:24:46 GMT -5
How do you encourage the alligator to relocate? All your plants look great! Thanks! I like alligators, I don’t encourage them to leave, I just let them do their thing
|
|
|
Post by Mumsey on Apr 9, 2022 6:55:42 GMT -5
raphanus, Is that deep shade constant? No sunlight at all during the day? Hostas would be a good idea, but you can't eat them. (As my dad would say).
|
|
|
Post by raphanus on Apr 9, 2022 7:20:57 GMT -5
Mumsey, The privacy fence is on the north northwest side of my house and there are two large sheds next to it and a large plaza with buildings behind it, so the only sliver of sunlight it gets is in the evenings as the sun sets. Definitely hoping for something edible.
|
|
|
Post by emmsmommy on Apr 9, 2022 7:44:02 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by reuben on Apr 9, 2022 7:52:53 GMT -5
I’m thinking about unique ways to add plants along the fence line. It’s deep shade, but I’m considering planting bamboo, fruit trees, or attaching a trellis and training vining crops like grapes or pumpkins or beans up the fence. Any ideas? Bamboo will spread everywhere, taking over the world, and it's almost possible to get rid of. Strongly suggest something else.
|
|
|
Post by Mumsey on Apr 9, 2022 9:31:59 GMT -5
raphanus, Well, there ya go! Hostas ARE edible!!! I've got 60 but never considered eating them.
|
|
|
Post by reuben on Apr 9, 2022 11:06:34 GMT -5
Deer and groundhogs will eat them, too.
|
|
|
Post by emmsmommy on Apr 9, 2022 15:19:43 GMT -5
Deer and groundhogs will eat them, too. Yes and the deer seem to prefer the fancier varieties here. Or maybe that's because I have more of the fancier ones near the house.
|
|
|
Post by Wheelgarden on Apr 9, 2022 15:58:06 GMT -5
reuben is right. Beware the bamboo, there be dragons. Spreads like wildfire with a mat of thick, hard roots. Took me years and heavy equipment to eliminate it.
|
|
|
Post by raphanus on Apr 11, 2022 10:59:33 GMT -5
About a month ago, I partitioned off half of the chicken run area and planted wheat, barley, rye, two types of clover, oats, Austrian winter peas, english sweet peas, arugula, mustard, vetch, and some other stuff and allowed all that to grow up under the grapevine for a month or so. Yesterday I finally opened the area and let the chickens forage. They managed to destroy a months worth of growth in about an hour. They loved it. I filmed it. Unfortunately, the dominant hen decided she wanted to eat some small bird before going for the forage. The first few minutes of the video is her eating some small wild bird, the remainder of the video is the hens foraging on their cover crops. youtu.be/pW3ysam1rLoI have an awful bamboo that I think is called Nandina or heavenly bamboo that has been here since the 1960s and is awful and I’ve destroyed my back trying to remove it many times to no avail. The roots are bright yellow inside and incredibly hard but also flexible so very difficult to cut with an axe. I’ll probably never get rid of it even if I rented an excavator. The new bamboo I bought is a black/purple bamboo that is quite pretty and will make for lovely tomato stakes. Speaking of invasives, I still haven’t dealt with the insane poison Ivy situation yet.
|
|
|
Post by raphanus on May 29, 2022 6:37:38 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by gardendmpls on May 29, 2022 8:27:45 GMT -5
but now just feels like stress. Wow! What kind of state do you live in? I can't believe they can tell you what to do in your own back yard. Front yard I could understand a little, although I am not for that either, but to come into the back yard and tell you to mow the cover crop of clover? I would go to court over that one. What's next, coming into the living room and saying they don't like your sofa and the carpet is ugly, so get rid of them? Oh, and the wife's ugly, too. Keep a bag over her head. Great crop of squash. I'm just starting squash seeds this weekend. You might try winter squash, if they do well in your area. They keep for months, and the vine borers don't like them much, either, because their stems are solid and borers prefer hollow stems. I inject BT into the hollow squash stems to take care of the borers. Besides canning squash, you could freeze them. I bought a good dehydrator last year and find drying saves a lot of space and keeps the flavor. They rehydrate well for cooking. A lot of dried veggies make good snacks, too.
|
|
|
Post by raphanus on Jun 29, 2022 16:40:17 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by raphanus on Aug 7, 2022 12:55:03 GMT -5
Peppers are cranking at the moment. Harvesting about 2-3 dozen peppers per day, mostly bananas, bells, marconis, shishitos, and habaneros. Purple cayennes are the prettiest. I’ve been saving shishito seed for five years now and every year they get weirder looking. They are much larger now and seem to ripen to different colors (they originally just went from green to red), now a lot go from green to weird shades of orange brown, then red, some go all the way to burgundy. Seem to get more diseases now than they used to. I grow about 20-30 varieties of peppers each year and save seed from most of them and I imagine there is a small amount of crossing since there are lots of bees around. The zinnias outcompeted pretty much all the vegetables in the front yard garden. Not sure if I want to mow down all the giant woody zinnia plants soon to prepare front yard for cabbages and collards for winter. The zinnias are still blooming. But that real estate is better used for food, like cabbage. Some of my corn seems to be trying to flower even though the plants are half the height they should be. They look healthy and ice dumped a ton of organic fertilizers on them and have been watering them, but a lot of them are already making flowers and they are only 4-5 feet tall. Maybe a response to shorter day lengths? Also, Martian Jewel are supposed to be all burgundy foliage, but mine are completely green, only the flowers are burgundy. I heard that 100 degree days can “wash” anthocyanins and other pigments out of leaves, making foliage that is supposed to be burgundy or purple just appear green. At least the flowers are still burgundy. Very disappointed though, mine looks nothing like the photos online or on the seed packet. I think Martian jewel needs to be grown in a cooler climate in the early spring to really express the burgundy leaf trait. I’ve been planting green beans but it’s still too hot for them to set pods, flowers just dropping off. Hopefully I’ll get massive yields in October. Also noticed that my burgundy bush beans are looking more viney and pole like, which I think is a function of being in the shade under corn. Maybe the heat also affects how bushy vs viney they look. Acorn squash is being kind of slow. Considering seeding a few flats of cabbage today. Anyone grown “Vantage” or “All Seasons” ? I think the former is a modern variety, the latter might be a little older. I think Vantage is smaller and purple green while All Seasons is huge and light green. Days to harvest in fall? It’s probably too early to seed them but I’m impatient. Still triple digit days and 80 degree nights for another 50 days, but maybe I’ll keep them in deep shade and water well and hope caterpillars don’t destroy them. They probably should be transplanted to garden around October 15, so I really shouldn’t seed trays until closer to September 1. I just really like the idea of having like 50 basketball cabbages where there’s supposed to be a front lawn, with food prices the way they are, I feel like the sight of that makes people curious and empowers people to try gardening if they haven’t yet. And I’m anxious.
|
|