Gardening

Earwigs or some other insect have been voraciously nibbling on my bean and radish leaves. I saw it mentioned in several places to put out a dish with oil and a little soy sauce. I figured it’s worth a shot.

Do you have a favorite way to keep the tiny critters away from your leaves?

I'll have to grab a photo of a more curvy one in a few days, but here's a taste.

For the curious: they're vigorous growing, climb, produce well, and taste a lot like a zucchini. If you're pressed for square footage and want a squash, they're a great choice.

We completely neglected to thin the backyard apricot tree, so we have a huge crop of tiny apricots this year.

Early pickings go into the dehydrator. Later fruit will go into the freezer to eventually become jam. And of course we also eat them fresh until the whole family is sick of them.

Carrots are NOT doing great. May have failed to thin enough.

On the plus side, beans are THRIVING.

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It's always amazing where tomato seedlings pop up. We've found them all over our yard, but this has to be the oddest location yet.

On a side note, I never knew there was some with multi heads. Each node is starting its own flowering site.

I don’t know if I’m going to say anything with the seeds, but should you reduce the amount of heads for health or anything?

These gonna destroy my trees if I don’t deal with them?

I may have gone a bit overboard. This is a mix of some beans, cucumbers, mini-cantaloupes, butternut squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, and tromboncino

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17825263

> [Image description: a bright green bee with pollen covered legs on a lilac flower with jagged edged petals.]

This variety is called homemade pickles. I waiting until the first hot day of summer, which was June 8. I poured 1/2 cup of complete organic fertilizer into three spots each, then mixed it up with the soil. Then I billed those three spots up into low mounds 2 inches high and 18 inches wide. Then I watered the soil. After watering I pushed my fist deep into the middle of the hill and laid 5 seeds on top and sprinkled dry soil over. I DID NOT WATER until they sprouted, then I watered. As the days got hotter I laid down straw and watered wider and wider around avoiding the stem and the leaves. They just made the first male flower today. I’ll side dress fertilizer tomorrow. Hoping to can a years worth of pickles

The plants in front of them are called huazontle, a Mexican vegetable related to lambs ears.

They do turn (mostly) green when you coo them, but the kids still think they're super interesting, which is a win.

Little satire of buddies post, realized we had a frost warning a little over a month ago, and now almost everything is wilting or bolting from the heat.

The tomatoes and peppers are finally looking green and moving though, so a little plus.

sorry if this doesn't count as "gardening"--i dont know any better active communities to post this question in. i also searched google/ddg but the results felt like SEO spam to me.

someone i know planted a yoshino cherry tree last year. this is its second year, and it's growing very well without any problems. what we were wondering about is there's a lone branch right at the bottom of the trunk--does it need to be pruned off in the winter/spring or anything like that? it makes the rest of the tree look strange, but neither of us have much experience with growing trees, let alone ornamental ones.

any other advice is also appreciated :) thanks.

My in the ground bell peppers are freaking massive.

I'm going to be making so much pasta sauce

Hi everyone, I'm hoping to get some input on my pepper plants. Last year all my vegetable plants were explosive in growth and produce. This year they've been a bit stressed by the early heat we've had (southern Ontario) but otherwise doing well. Everything from cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, potatoes, carrots, lettuce, garlic, and onions are doing well.

My pepper plants, on the other hand, look terrible.

• https://ibb.co/B65gjbN
• https://ibb.co/bvDd9dG
• https://ibb.co/g93Z4sT
• https://ibb.co/p3Tw8gM
• https://ibb.co/K2YN2vD
• https://ibb.co/x1mcLsr
• https://ibb.co/6Dbctpm

Initially I thought they were just extremely stressed from the heat, but I noticed a few of them (not pictured) are doing fine. What clicked in my head today is that the ones that are doing ok I grew from seed, and the rest are from garden centres (a semi-private one and a commercial one).

From my zero-level knowledge and subsequent Googling the answer is:

• Too much heat
• Too much water
• Too little water
• Exposure to herbicide

It's the last one that really raised my eyebrows, and seems to fit based on photos.

Anyone have any insight on this? Thanks in advance.

My favorite ones are starting to open up! Still have a few others to start turning as well. Need to deadhead the spent ones here today though.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17588319

> [Image description: a thicc green hornworm hanging onto the stem of a tomato plant. The hornworm is speckled with little white dots, has eyespots and angular white stripes down his side, and the namesake sharp little spike of a horn on its butt.]

The lattice is a plastic “redwood lattice” and the gravel is ~6” thick 7-10mm “pea gravel”.

I used pvc panels to protect from the rain and collect the water, there’s a tarp on the north side to prevent driving rain, and a tarp under the stairs for a little more protection too.

Still need the creature comforts like a light, organize the shed, run the hoses again, etc, but pumped to have this milestone crossed off, since it was an absolutely unexpected side quest from what we wanted to get done this year, but that’s life.

So, what's the general feeling on those plastic popup greenhouses?

After a particularly rough month with my plants I am considering getting a popup style plastic greenhouse for my plants.

I am kinda hoping that it would help to keep the moisture up and the shade up since a like half dozen of my peppers just got sunrot.

I have noticed my plants under my bug netting do better and my pepper plant in the ground under it doesn't have sunrot. I think it would also let me keep my pots longer in fall since in in zone 7 and cold snaps happen.

So.... Any thoughts? Tips? Etc?

Didn’t spot this one right away so it got away from me. They’re gherkins, I plan to make sweet pickles. Not with this monster though, we ate it fresh and it was delicious.

Hi yeah so I'm not sure if this fits here but I'm posting it anyway. I live in a van so my garden has to be in pots so I can move it when I have to. Also there's fuck all soil where I am right now. I'm mostly about flowers, I'm not growing any food this summer except that tomato plant in the blue crate, someone gave me that and I couldn't not give it a chance. I think it's a heritage beef tomato. There's a couple of apples in the mix, one of em flowered in spring but they were only cuttings& grafts last year so doubt it'll fruit. The rest is meant to be pretty stuff, sweet peas, calendulas (dead headed, hopefully back soon, those fuckers are bulletproof), marigolds (slug attack but couple survivors) gladioli, couple of roses, snap dragons, sunflowers be coming late due to sluggery, cornflowers, the orange crate is supposed to be meadow flowers, we'll see what happens there. Anyway, if no-one tells me not to I'll post another pic in a few weeks cos all being well it'll only get prettier

Well it's in the title... They were growing great but in the last days or so the leaves started wilting. They always showed some yellowing and I thought about nitrogen deficiency so I fed them with slurry but without success... Any tips?

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So turns out they just let you leave with puppies now, was expecting atleast a week process. Not quite done the dog run, but enough he’s got a good amount of space while I get stuff done.

First garden project so we didn't know quite what to expect; thinking we should have given them a little more space. They've completely grown over the basil and in the past 2 days shot out of the netting. It's exciting they're doing so well though.

Bonus first harvest pic

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Got a little excited and accidentally picked some still green ones, but hey! First ever fruit I’ve grown! Tastes all the sweeter for it! Thanks everyone for all of your advice! I’ve got so many more still turning, I’ll have to make some blueberry cobbler once they’re all done.

I am making this post because after years of frustration, I have finally learned how to do it consistently. Most sources say that Papaver Somniferum needs to be cold stratified and have light to germinate and this is basically false. Forget about the cold part, that's completely unnecessary. Get a wet paper towel and squeeze out all the water. Lay it out and put the seeds on top. You can lightly mist the seeds but I don't think you have to. Put the paper towel with seeds on top into a ziploc and seal it. Put the bag on the counter in a bright room in your house. Not in direct sunlight, and keep it at room temp. The seeds will begin to open in 2-3 days.

Then drop those seeds onto the soil in a large pot. Lightly sprinkle some soil over them. Put the pot outside and keep it moist by misting it gently. If it's too hot outside to keep the soil moist, you can put the pot in a shady spot. They will sprout in another 2 days. Then move into the sun.

Poppies thrive on neglect. Don't overwater them, don't fertilize, and make sure that the soil drains very well. You don't want fertile soil for this. They would grow like dandelions out of a crack in the sidewalk and be happy. Just when they first begin to make buds, give them Calmag or something similar. I use lime and bonemeal.

The poppies are the most potent 10-14 days after the petals drop off. Look for a brown line to appear just under the round part of the pod. Look at the photo I posted. Do you see that brown line under the pod? That's NOT the one you're looking for. This brown line will appear ABOVE that line, right where the round pod tapers to it's 'neck'.

For years I tried leaving them out all winter, or putting them in the fridge, and nothing worked nearly as well as this method. Now that you're growing them on your schedule you can grow them in 3 seasons. The seeds are easy to purchase online. Look for one called Lauren's Grape. It's beautiful. In the US it's legal to grow them, but illegal to harvest opium from them- so don't do that.

If hybrids produce seeds that aren’t ‘true-to-type’, then how do they keep making the same ones every year?

Hopefully you all will be able to help me with some questions I have about growing bamboo.

I just had a fence installed, and unfortunately the ground is not flat, so there are some gaps at the bottom of the fence. I was thinking I could build some raised garden beds along the base of my fence to block the gaps, and pretty up what otherwise is a very crappy yard (no grass, mostly trees).

Since bamboo is pretty invasive, I know it’s not something I would want to just plant anywhere. I was wondering if it would make any difference if I planted the bamboo in raised garden beds? Would that make it easier to control? If not, is there some other low-maintenance plant I could use that would look good along a fence?