posted
Well, if your deck is made out of dirt, dig a hole, plant some seeds and water. If it's made out of wood, seek professional help. (Psychiatric help, that is.) (Also, I'm convinced that my old tomato bed contained a dead body as I have an icredibly black thumb, yet for some bizarre reason, when given tomato plants, they flourished, producing hundreds of tomatoes. Go figure. Anyway, I'm convinced that dead body in the vegetable garden is the best way to up your veggie output.)
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Your story rminds me of an old Bocaccio story about a head burid in a pot of basil.
Also, thank you for that link, because I love those flower mats.
Container gardening is just like regular gardening, just get big pots. Inside is harder. you need special lights, not just fluorescent. Google "hydroponics."
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posted
Synesthesia, do a search for "container gardening" I like hydroponic methods myself, but there are lots of neat ways to get the most per square foot in a small non-soil space.
One way to get started is a small herb garden, they have some great cheap package deals including pots and everything at Walmart to begin one sucessfully. Walmart also sells some veggie trays too. Tomatoes and cucumbers are pretty easy to do in containers.
I've found that it takes about 3 years to get a bed all lush and lovely. I am a LAZY gardener. My beds have bulbs, perennials, and rampant self-seeders in them. They come up differently every year, but still manage to look great.
It seems you've got a lot of nice spring and early summer stuff, but you need things for later in the year. Purple coneflower and sedum are maintenance-free perennials that always look good. The coneflower will spread, though. Rudbeckia (black-eyed Susans) are another nice choice for late summer and fall.
When the plants die, I always leave the seed heads of the coneflower and sedum. Birds will come eat them, and when snow falls, it looks really pretty. That way, you have a nice late autumn and winter garden too.
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posted
Kayla, you are absolutely correct about dead bodies. In gardening circles, it's referred to as "compost". All your kitchen scraps, lawn clippings, etc. can go in a big pile to moulder and turn to wonderful dark earth. Or, you can put them directly into the garden.
posted
Synesthesia - what is your goal for this garden? Production? To see if you can grow things? Some pretty stuff? Attracting cool bugs? All these factors will affect my advice to you.
You've already had some great ideas given to you in this thread.
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posted
Can I just say that despite the inconvenience of Louisville being under a flood watch 2 times in the last 4 days, the rain has been great for my garden. I just planted the veggies a few weeks ago, and they're already huge. 'Course, my flowers are rotting before they even bloom, but I guess you can't have everything.
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This is why DIVERSITY is important. Monocropping is foolish, because different crops do well under different conditions. You need to plant a variety of things. That way, something will always be doing well. Go out and look at a completely naturalized area. It will have gazillions of different plant species, because that is the way things survive best.
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posted
Thanks, Jenny! And of course you can call me Liz, it being my name and all. I tried to be "Liz" on the board, but it was taken. In fact, I think it was taken by me! (I also discovered "E.")So, I am an old newbie.
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posted
Well, tt&t, it is, in a way, because we obviously think she is a pretty darned knowledgeable gardner.
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posted
Jenny, don't push it. Part of being a good gardener means you constantly have dirt under your fingernails, pick up stray pieces of horse poo off the road to put in your compost pile, and start to cry when you see someone putting leaves in black plastic leaf bags, rather than using them as mulch. Ha ha.
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I generally sport my dirty nails and cut fingers with pride. And people forget all about my gardener's habits when they taste the goods I grow!!
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You know, I never made the connection between the name Jenny Gardener and the fact that Jenny gardens before. D'oh.
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posted
maybe I should start a compost pile the thing is Steve has a mulcher attachment that chops up the grass to tiny bits and just lets it lie rather than filling bags
I've thought about getting a doggy dooley for dog poo.
But I have been raking up and disposing of these really annoying seed pods that whirligig out of the trees that line our tree lined street. They are beautiful and everyone on the street has the same problem, but I have been sweeping them out of my driveway and pitchign them.
posted
They'll grow in a compost pile, but just turn it with a pitchfork, and those little whirligigs will turn into beautiful compost. Also, dump all your kitchen scraps from veggies and fruit into your pile. Makes your garbage less smelly and you don't have to take it out as often.
I recycle plastic, cans, and glass as well as composting. I only generate about 1 big trash can full every 2 weeks. My mom, on the other hand, throws everything in the trash, and generates 2 big cans or more in 1!
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posted
I recycle as much as possible. It is second nature to someone born in CA. But I haven't figured out the correct psychological technique to use to get Steve to.
We had a compost pile when I was growing up, I just hadn't thought to start one here now that I have a house of my own yet. With only the two of us we really don't have many kitchen scraps to supplement it either. The one reservation I have is where to put it where it won't bother the neighbors. See we only have a 4 ft chain link fence in the back, and I hesitate to put it somewhere where they have to constantly look at it, even if it is out of the way for me.
quote:Monocropping is foolish, because different crops do well under different conditions.
Not neccesarily true, at least the monocropping part. If you're doing it argirculturlay (on a farm where plans are your main source of revenue) then it can actually be a very good idea. If the wether works out for you then you have a huge crop, so good for you. And if something goes wrong and your crops die, the goverment gives you the going rate for your product, which is actually probably greater than normal since if it's a bad growing season for that product prices go up. Really the worst that can happen is a moderate year.
But you were probably talking about home gardening since that was this thread was about so I'll let you get back to it.
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Actually, Hobbes, monocropping is a bad idea at any level, but is probably worst on a large scale. If you grow all corn, it depletes the soil of nutrients, causing the need for more fertilizer. One crop is like a big old party for corn-eating insects, so you end up having to use major pesticides. It throws nature off balance in a big way.
Unfortunately, small farms which grow many things, and fertilize with manure, are unable to survive financially, and are going under at a rapid rate.
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posted
Well I was actually talking about for one season, which is kind of a good idea, if you do only do it for one season. But even if you don't, even if you plant the same thing year after year and get end up spoiling your crops then you get paid by the goverment (subsadizing). I've heard people say they prefer to get a terrible crop over good one because the goverment money is more than they would've earned.
Of course I haven't reasearched this extensivley or anything, but from talking to farmers that seems to be the local consenus.
posted
Hobbes, Perspective is everything! You are right. If you are a farmer, and can get a government refund, then it is a good thing. I guess I am looking at it more from an environment standpoint.
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