The Sprout - B&B Gardening 2014

Hey fellas, my first time posting here. I live in an apartment so gardening was never really on my list of things to do.
Mosquitos and spiders are waking up for spring so I wanted to try and keep them away from my small porch.

Two citronella plants for Mosquitos and a little peppermint plant for the spiders. Hopefully it works!

abragus said:

Hey fellas, my first time posting here. I live in an apartment so gardening was never really on my list of things to do.
Mosquitos and spiders are waking up for spring so I wanted to try and keep them away from my small porch.View attachment 443753

Two citronella plants for Mosquitos and a little peppermint plant for the spiders. Hopefully it works!

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Welcome!
Let us know how those plants work out. I might put one on my porch for the mosquitoes

Toothpick said:

Welcome!
Let us know how those plants work out. I might put one on my porch for the mosquitoes

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I saw 3 Mosquitos flying around the plants. Not sure if it'll work so well.

abragus said:

I saw 3 Mosquitos flying around the plants. Not sure if it'll work so well.

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Durning the 2012 year I lived in a home that was basically surrounded by trees. So many trees grass hardly grew. I used to sit on my front porch for hours at a time and would get ate alive by mosquitoes. I put two 3 wick citronella candles by my rocking chair, one on each side right by my feet and would STILL get attacked. I'm skeptical that citronella works but maybe coming right from the plant it would be better

The pumpkins and the spaghetti squash decided to pop their heads outta the ground yesterday and today!

Anyone ever grown figs?

igasho said:

Anyone ever grown figs?

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My neighbor had some that I'd snag sometimes. Delicious!

igasho said:

Anyone ever grown figs?

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My late grandpa had a beautiful fig tree that a can remember as far back as my memory goes. It died the same year he did.

Corn is coming up! I'm so stoked for the garden this year! so back to figs, I'm just curious if anyone has ever grown one from seed? I have my peach tree i grew from a pit, and I have some apricot pits I was going to plant this fall to see if I can get one of them going.

One benefit of all of the rain we had yesterday....

Now I can grow rice in the garden!

oooo rice, jealous j/k If you read up on the acreage required per lb of crop its crazy to look at rice and wheat and grains.

igasho said:

oooo rice, jealous j/k

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Oh well, so much for rice; all the water has drained off today.

igasho said:

If you read up on the acreage required per lb of crop its crazy to look at rice and wheat and grains.

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Yeah, Granddad had a farm in N.E. Oklahoma when I was a kid and raised wheat, milo, corn, etc. Uncle has about a 6,000 acre ranch about 30 miles away from there (my cousin is pretty much running it now) and he still raises soybeans for livestock feed.

I still remember when I was about 8 years old standing in the back of the grain truck that was driving next to the combine as we went over acres and acres of wheat...I had to use a scoop shovel to spread out the grain in the bed of the truck from under the spout that spit out the combined wheat.

Then we'd go to the barn and auger what Granddad needed of whatever grain we were doing, for feed for the cows and the few pigs he also raised, into the grain bins and take the rest to the feed mill to sell.

That was some hot, dusty work. A wet bandanna over the nose and mouth was a must have.

I think I'd rather work cattle using a squeeze chute to dehorn, vaccinate, brand, and castrate. That's hot and dusty also but you have more room to move around than the back of a grain truck.

And the ranch dogs that hung around while we were working cattle LOVED the "mountain oysters" that were thrown to them...those that didn't get saved for putting into the freezer for cooking later.

Water has drained, sooo...no rice this year.

Everything else is coming up good though.





Even SWMBO's plums have some green on them.

That's going to be a good lookin' garden!

All my plants are on the verge of death! I had to leave unexpectedly Tuesday morning and I just got back home today. First thing I did was water the tray of light green/brownish plants. Hope they pull through!

Just keep babyin' 'em.

SWMBO ordered some tomato plants from a nursery several weeks ago and they came by mail before we had the garden area ready. They took longer than expected to get here and when she opened the boxes they were all wilted and brown, and one looked...Dead!

She put 'em in containers, gave 'em plenty of sunlight, and watered 'em good. Now they are all going like gang busters, but Jessy's tomato plants look bigger than mine are right now.

She said she wanted a small garden but bought too much stuff to fit in what space we had broke up. When I told her she was going to have to till up the extra space for 'em herself she promptly put the excess into containers.

Here's a pimiento pepper, four banana peppers, six bell peppers (that she thought were banana peppers when she picked them up), and four of the tomato plants that wouldn't fit:

I would like your thoughts on fertilization, water, weeding, and pest control. Thanks in advance.

August West said:

I would like your thoughts on fertilization, water, weeding, and pest control. Thanks in advance.

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Well everything I know about gardening I learned from my mom, who has had a garden just about every year of my life (30 years). And I'm sure well before that. Gardening can be as simple as putting a plant in the ground and walking away or as complex as wearing a lab coat and formulating an exact scientific method to produce the best crop.

We've always been closer to the set it and forget it method.

Fertilization: My mom always used Miracle-Gro. And mostly always the kind for tomatoes, even on all her plants. When she first puts the plants in the ground she adds some to the hole, and then covered with dirt as normal. And from there maybe once a week she would attach the Miracle-Gro to the water hose and water them with it. She also likes to put Epson salts around the base of each plant, but not actually touching the plant stem, just in a circle around the plant so it soaks in to the ground. Once every week or so on that as well.

Water: Water when dry . Keep an eye on the weather. If you see rain in the schedule for tomorrow don't water today. If you see no rain in the forecast you might want to water when the soil is dry and dusty. We like to water early morning or late evening. I've heard you shouldn't water during the heat of the day but....whatever, we've watered at various times and no issues.
If you are going to use a sprinkler I'd say let it water your garden for 45min to an hour. Surprisingly the ground may look soaked, but just a few inches down it could be dry as a bone. So really soak those plants.
And likewise it may look bone dry on the surface, but a few inches down is moist. If it is really hot watering every 2-3 days (with no rain in the forecast) would be fine.

It's my opinion that you don't want to water daily. You want to give the roots a chance to grow. Without daily water the roots will spread out, and grown further down in search of water.

Weeding: No big deal here. We've had gardens that have been spotless, magazine quality. And we've had gardens (like last years) where we didn't weed at all. Both produced crops. But I think that a weed free garden looks better, and is easier to manage. Easier to see the fruits of your labor, easier to spot the crops and know when they are ready to harvest, more nutrients get sucked up by your garden plants too and not some junk weed. When you see a weed, yank it. Or set a schedule of once a week to hoe your garden.

There are products you can buy to spray your garden to prevent weeds, but I have no clue about these as we never used them. We've done the weeding the manual way.

Pest Control: Sevin Dust. It's what my mom has always used. Sprinkle some on your plants and done. Do it when they are dry though. So you'll have to do it after you water, or after it rains. Surprisingly we've never had an issue with larger pests. But really even a fence won't keep everything out. Deer can hurdle like 6 foot fences and rabbits will just dig under it, mice can fit through a hole the size of a nickle (if they can get their head through their body will follow). I'm sure their are products to keep rodents and veggie eaters away but I have no clue what works and what doesn't cause we never really used any pest control besides Sevin Dust, which is primarily for bugs.

August West said:

I would like your thoughts on fertilization.

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I'm definitely no expert, but that depends on your soil. In my area it's mostly sandy loam and triple thirteen is about the standard.

Most places advise to send off a soil sample to be tested and see what nutrients are needed, but I never have. Do you know what type of fertilizer people in your area use?

August West said:

I would like your thoughts on water.

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Yes, you definitely need water.

Just don't use treated water, like something that has been run through a water softening system, and don't over water. Some people mulch.

And maybe some Miracle-Gro from time to time.

August West said:

I would like your thoughts on weeding.

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Hire some local kid to weed it. J/K

Just keep the weeds thinned out so they are not competing with the veggies.

August West said:

I would like your thoughts on pest control.

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We usually use Sevin dust or something similar. There are myriad types of bug stuff out there, depending on what your problem pests are.

I need to spread out some fire ant bait in the grassy areas around the garden (not in the garden proper) as they always seem to eat up our potatoes.

Maybe someone with more technical experience than I have will chime in.

Edit: Jason beat me to the post as I was typing.

Thanks for all the informed responses.

Subscribed to thread.

simon1 said:

I'm definitely no expert, but that depends on your soil. In my area it's mostly sandy loam and triple thirteen is about the standard.

Most places advise to send off a soil sample to be tested and see what nutrients are needed, but I never have. Do you know what type of fertilizer people in your area use?



Yes, you definitely need water.

Just don't use treated water, like something that has been run through a water softening system, and don't over water. Some people mulch.

And maybe some Miracle-Gro from time to time.



Hire some local kid to weed it. J/K

Just keep the weeds thinned out so they are not competing with the veggies.



We usually use Sevin dust or something similar. There are myriad types of bug stuff out there, depending on what your problem pests are.

I need to spread out some fire ant bait in the grassy areas around the garden (not in the garden proper) as they always seem to eat up our potatoes.

Maybe someone with more technical experience than I have will chime in.

Edit: Jason beat me to the post as I was typing.

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Hey, I'm no expert. Just a regular ole dude that learned from his mama.
Sounds like we have the same basic system.

We've always used whatever water comes out of the outdoor spicket. City water. And a few years of well water.

We've also always had black dirt. Northern Illinois, West Tennessee. We've never had it tested, but certainly wouldn't hurt anything.
This year I've got clay. Darn clay! Even the best fertilizer wouldn't grow anything in this crap. So I'm going to have to do a raised garden.