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Old 02-06-2014, 01:45 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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On Sat, 31 May 2014 19:00:15 +1000, Fran Farmer
wrote:

On 31/05/2014 12:28 PM, bluechick wrote:


It sounds like you manage to produce a lot of food from your garden and
have done a lot in the time since you've moved.


We had surprisingly good luck with our first garden here at the new
place. This will be the second year and all our hard work last year
may pay dividends. I say "may" because you never know what Mother
Nature has in store. I certainly didn't expect a hailstorm to come
through this past week.

I try to grow citrus but in my climate it's a bit iffy. I've managed to
get some lemons but each year lose my mandarins and it's too cold here
for oranges. I should do what you do and put some in my sunroom - it's
certainly big enough to take big pots of citrus.


It's too cold here as well for citrus to overwinter outdoors. The
sunroom and gallery that leads to it seemed to be the ideal solution
for us. With all the east-facing windows, the citrus trees thrived. I
hope you have good luck trying a citrus in your sunroom too. I misted
mine on a regular basis last winter because the ceiling fan was always
on, even in winter, and I was afraid they'd dry out too much in the
dry air of the house. It seemed to work. That, and the fact that
that part of the house stayed pretty warm on sunny days. They didn't
drop one lemon or orange but were otherwise dormant (no new leaves or
flowers). We didn't have any limes last year but we will this year
along with a couple of extra lemons and one more orange. I wonder if
there will be room for _us_ in the sunroom this year!

I do grow figs and I've planted 3 blueberries which I hope will produce
next summer. I have lots of different varieties of raspberries but
can't get to them before some animal eats them. I suspect mice or rats.
I have lots of strawb plants and yet only got about 3 berries this
year - same suspected mongrel animal getting the ripe fruit - either
mice, rats or possibly blue tongued lizards.


Do you have a critter camera? Like a deer trail camera that hunters
use? Might want to set one up to take pictures or AVIs during the day
or at night with IR, set to trigger after 30 seconds or whatever.
We've used the heck out of our cameras. They go through the
batteries, though. But that way you'd have a better idea of what is
getting your berries.

I too grow lots a herbs largely because I like to cook.


Me too! There's nothing like popping out to the kitchen garden to
grab some fresh herbs.
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Old 04-06-2014, 02:55 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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bluechick wrote:
....
The more I examined what may have gone wrong, and what may have been
the true culprit, I'm beginning to suspect the plants themselves had a
problem, even though they looked fine when we bought them, and the
heat may have tipped them over the edge. For one thing, I had two
peppers in a whisky barrel. The green bell wilted while the red bell
wasn't affected. I checked my gardening database after I posted here
and I noted that all the peppers that died in the whisky barrels and
all but one in the small bed, were bought at one garden shop. Same
for the basil. The red bell was purchased elsewhere. The monkey
wrench in my logic is one plant that died in the raised bed was
purchased elsewhere. Yet, the basil I grew from seed, planted next to
the store bought basil plants, is perfectly fine. We used the same
soil mix in the herb bed, the raised bed in the veggie garden and in
the planters. So, it's still a mystery.

....
Thanks so much for all the suggestions and tips. I'll see if I can
narrow down the culprit(s). I hope it's not diseased soil, too.


you're welcome, sorry couldn't be more
precise. too many variables to know what is
going on at a distance...

from the sounds of it i would say it was the
plants/supplier. we've had pretty good luck
with the greenhouse here that we like for our
starts. we're very short on space here in the
house so it makes sense for us to just get
them from the greenhouse instead of trying to
find a place for them.


songbird
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Old 04-06-2014, 04:21 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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On 5/30/2014 9:28 PM, bluechick wrote:
On Fri, 30 May 2014 12:01:46 +1000, Fran Farmer
wrote:

What sort of things are you interested in growing?


Right now we have a couple of varieties of peaches, lots of rabbiteye
type blueberries, Celeste and LSU Purple figs, several thornless
blackberries (and about a zillion wild blackberries with mean thorns
and dewberries), 1 raspberry as a test, all sorts of tomatoes
(mostly heirlooms), several types of peppers, and bulbing & bunching
onions. We're getting the tail end of the English peas now though
some are still trying to flower even though it's getting way too hot
for them. The sugar snaps just finished producing. Most of the
blueberries were transplants of bushes we had at the old house and
they had to recover last year from the ordeal. Same for the Celeste
fig scions we dug up when we moved. I don't know if the figs will do
anything this year because they were frozen back in February and are
coming back from the root. The blueberries seem to have recovered
completely from the move and are covered in berries. I'm keeping my
fingers crossed that another calamity won't hit them. The hailstorm
and small tornado we had Wednesday didn't bother them at all though
the hail tore up several tomatoes.

Our blueberries were hit by a late frost in early May and dropped their
blossoms. We planted them last year and harvested about a gallon of
berries that year.

We had a fall garden with spinach and many types of lettuces. Didn't
bother with broccoli, cauliflower or cabbage last fall though we've
grown them in the past.

We've got so much broccoli and cauliflower still in the freezer from the
garden we had in Louisiana, we moved here in November 2012 so you can
imagine how full that freezer is.

We also finally finished the big herb bed and have several types of
basil, common chives, flat-leaf parsley, French rosemary, borage (in
the herb bed and also next to the tomatoes), several varieties of
thyme, Bergamot and pineapple sage, and Texas tarragon because I gave
up on French tarragon a long time ago in this climate. The smaller
herb bed won't be finished until the tiller comes back from the tiller
hospital and then I'll stick the container-bound spearmint in there.

What are you calling Texas tarragon? Would that perhaps be Mexican Mint
Marigold? I took the Mexican Mint Marigold out and bought a "Russian
tarragon" from a local nursery, seems to me it tastes more like real
tarragon than the other ones. True tarragon doesn't like the weather
here. I grow both Greek and Spanish oregano, the Spanish version is what
you find in the grocery stores. Always grow lots of big leaf basil,
rosemary, common thyme, flat leaf parsley, fernleaf dill (I use the
fernleaf in dill pickles or anything that requires dill as the seeds are
to strong for my taste.) Lots of scallions, aka bunching onions. This
year we bought several Texas 1015 sets and they are bulbing nicely. Lots
of garlic and onion chives, we plant them around fruit trees to keep
peach borers away.

On the deck, we have some container-type blueberries (Jellybean and
Peach Sorbet - both corymbosum types, which are new to us, and they're
the first to produce ripe berries this year) as well as some lemons,
oranges and limes. Those citrus trees did surprisingly well last
year, even though they took over the sunroom in the winter.

Our only citrus is a kumquat tree, still rather small but heavily in
bloom at the moment. I miss my old fifteen year old Meiwa kumquat, it
was very prolific, so much so that we ended up composting about ten
gallons of fruit as we had eaten and made marmalade and jellies from
many more pounds, still eating some of it two years later.

The rest of the stuff we're growing this year are mainly to attract
bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

My lovely wife grows salvia near the vegetable gardens, salvia attracts
bees of all sorts. Our biggest pollinator this year are bee flies,
there's hundreds of them in the garden every day. Here's info on bee
flies: http://www.cirrusimage.com/flies_bee.htm when bees are scarce
these little guys really help out.

Your gardens sound like what we used to have until we got old and
decrepit. I started gardening with my parents during WWII, as did my
wife, in the family "Victory Garden," didn't garden while I was in the
military but as soon as we married we were building gardens again. Keeps
me sane most of the time.

George
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Old 04-06-2014, 04:24 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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On 5/31/2014 4:00 AM, Fran Farmer wrote:
On 31/05/2014 12:28 PM, bluechick wrote:
On Fri, 30 May 2014 12:01:46 +1000, Fran Farmer
wrote:

What sort of things are you interested in growing?


Right now we have a couple of varieties of peaches, lots of rabbiteye
type blueberries, Celeste and LSU Purple figs, several thornless
blackberries (and about a zillion wild blackberries with mean thorns
and dewberries), 1 raspberry as a test, all sorts of tomatoes
(mostly heirlooms), several types of peppers, and bulbing & bunching
onions. We're getting the tail end of the English peas now though
some are still trying to flower even though it's getting way too hot
for them. The sugar snaps just finished producing. Most of the
blueberries were transplants of bushes we had at the old house and
they had to recover last year from the ordeal. Same for the Celeste
fig scions we dug up when we moved. I don't know if the figs will do
anything this year because they were frozen back in February and are
coming back from the root. The blueberries seem to have recovered
completely from the move and are covered in berries. I'm keeping my
fingers crossed that another calamity won't hit them. The hailstorm
and small tornado we had Wednesday didn't bother them at all though
the hail tore up several tomatoes.

We had a fall garden with spinach and many types of lettuces. Didn't
bother with broccoli, cauliflower or cabbage last fall though we've
grown them in the past.

We also finally finished the big herb bed and have several types of
basil, common chives, flat-leaf parsley, French rosemary, borage (in
the herb bed and also next to the tomatoes), several varieties of
thyme, Bergamot and pineapple sage, and Texas tarragon because I gave
up on French tarragon a long time ago in this climate. The smaller
herb bed won't be finished until the tiller comes back from the tiller
hospital and then I'll stick the container-bound spearmint in there.

On the deck, we have some container-type blueberries (Jellybean and
Peach Sorbet - both corymbosum types, which are new to us, and they're
the first to produce ripe berries this year) as well as some lemons,
oranges and limes. Those citrus trees did surprisingly well last
year, even though they took over the sunroom in the winter.

The rest of the stuff we're growing this year are mainly to attract
bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

It sounds like you manage to produce a lot of food from your garden and
have done a lot in the time since you've moved.

I try to grow citrus but in my climate it's a bit iffy. I've managed to
get some lemons but each year lose my mandarins and it's too cold here
for oranges. I should do what you do and put some in my sunroom - it's
certainly big enough to take big pots of citrus.

I do grow figs and I've planted 3 blueberries which I hope will produce
next summer. I have lots of different varieties of raspberries but
can't get to them before some animal eats them. I suspect mice or rats.
I have lots of strawb plants and yet only got about 3 berries this
year - same suspected mongrel animal getting the ripe fruit - either
mice, rats or possibly blue tongued lizards.

I too grow lots a herbs largely because I like to cook.

I've eaten mice and rats and know what they taste like (think military
survival course). How does a blue tongued lizard taste? Anything like
iguana? G
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Old 05-06-2014, 12:25 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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George Shirley wrote:
I do grow figs and I've planted 3 blueberries which I hope will
produce next summer. I have lots of different varieties of
raspberries but can't get to them before some animal eats them. I
suspect mice or rats. I have lots of strawb plants and yet only
got about 3 berries this year - same suspected mongrel animal getting the
ripe fruit - either
mice, rats or possibly blue tongued lizards.

I too grow lots a herbs largely because I like to cook.

I've eaten mice and rats and know what they taste like (think military
survival course). How does a blue tongued lizard taste? Anything like
iguana? G


Dunno. Some indigenes of my aquaintance tell me goanna (a local type of
lizard) is very tasty. But if you have been chasing bush tucker through the
bush all day just about anything would be tasty come dinner time. Of course
all these native animals are legally protected unlike placental rats and
mice.

D



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Old 05-06-2014, 11:54 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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On 5/06/2014 12:24 AM, George Shirley wrote:

I've eaten mice and rats and know what they taste like (think military
survival course). How does a blue tongued lizard taste? Anything like
iguana? G


Reminds me of the movie King Rat.

Dunno what a bluey might taste like. If I had any Jack Russells still
alive I'd ask them because they used to like to tear them apart and only
eat the tail - probably it's full of fat. Mind you, the Jack Russells
would tell lies and say they'd never even seen a blue tongued lizard let
alone killed one.

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Old 07-06-2014, 12:50 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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On Tue, 3 Jun 2014 20:55:38 -0400, songbird
wrote:

bluechick wrote:

Thanks so much for all the suggestions and tips. I'll see if I can
narrow down the culprit(s). I hope it's not diseased soil, too.


you're welcome, sorry couldn't be more
precise. too many variables to know what is
going on at a distance...


Not a problem. You gave me some ideas on things to check as to the
culprit behind the wilted plants. There were too many variables here
to know the reason with any certainty.

from the sounds of it i would say it was the
plants/supplier. we've had pretty good luck
with the greenhouse here that we like for our
starts. we're very short on space here in the
house so it makes sense for us to just get
them from the greenhouse instead of trying to
find a place for them.


Yep, everything still points to the plants themselves - contamination
at the supplier or seller. I've put some test plants in the same
planters as the afflicted plants and some pepper plants in the same
raised bed and nothing has so much as drooped in the past few days.
Those sick plants showed signs of trouble in less than a week after
transplanting so I would have seen some sign of trouble with the test
plants by now. When I dug up the bad plants I made sure to grab as
much soil around them as I could, hoping any surrounding plants would
remain unaffected. I think I caught it (whatever "it" was) in time.
So far, so good. *knocks on head*

I miss the greenhouse we had at the old house. Maybe one day we will
get one here. It sure does help starting seedlings and cuttings and
gets a jump on the planting season.

songbird


bluechick
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On Wed, 04 Jun 2014 09:21:45 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:

On 5/30/2014 9:28 PM, bluechick wrote:
On Fri, 30 May 2014 12:01:46 +1000, Fran Farmer
wrote:

What sort of things are you interested in growing?


Right now we have a couple of varieties of peaches, lots of rabbiteye
type blueberries, Celeste and LSU Purple figs, several thornless
blackberries (and about a zillion wild blackberries with mean thorns
and dewberries), 1 raspberry as a test, all sorts of tomatoes
(mostly heirlooms), several types of peppers, and bulbing & bunching
onions. We're getting the tail end of the English peas now though
some are still trying to flower even though it's getting way too hot
for them. The sugar snaps just finished producing. Most of the
blueberries were transplants of bushes we had at the old house and
they had to recover last year from the ordeal. Same for the Celeste
fig scions we dug up when we moved. I don't know if the figs will do
anything this year because they were frozen back in February and are
coming back from the root. The blueberries seem to have recovered
completely from the move and are covered in berries. I'm keeping my
fingers crossed that another calamity won't hit them. The hailstorm
and small tornado we had Wednesday didn't bother them at all though
the hail tore up several tomatoes.

Our blueberries were hit by a late frost in early May and dropped their
blossoms. We planted them last year and harvested about a gallon of
berries that year.


I checked our blueberries in the main garden (not the two container
types on the deck) and they're still hanging in there. Not quite
ready to pick. The container ones are producing well but I spied a
muskrat on the upper deck not far from the blueberries. I scared it
and it scared me! I don't know if he was making plans for those
berries or not but he's going to have to fight me for 'em.

We had a fall garden with spinach and many types of lettuces. Didn't
bother with broccoli, cauliflower or cabbage last fall though we've
grown them in the past.

We've got so much broccoli and cauliflower still in the freezer from the
garden we had in Louisiana, we moved here in November 2012 so you can
imagine how full that freezer is.


A full freezer indeed! We used to grow cauliflower and broccoli every
fall but the last time, years ago, we were hit so hard by cabbage
loopers that it put me off growing them for years. We used Dipel
(bacillus thuringiensis) on all the brassicas but we couldn't keep
ahead of the caterpillars. Now that we live in a rural area the bugs
are even worse.

We also finally finished the big herb bed and have several types of
basil, common chives, flat-leaf parsley, French rosemary, borage (in
the herb bed and also next to the tomatoes), several varieties of
thyme, Bergamot and pineapple sage, and Texas tarragon because I gave
up on French tarragon a long time ago in this climate. The smaller
herb bed won't be finished until the tiller comes back from the tiller
hospital and then I'll stick the container-bound spearmint in there.

What are you calling Texas tarragon? Would that perhaps be Mexican Mint
Marigold? I took the Mexican Mint Marigold out and bought a "Russian
tarragon" from a local nursery, seems to me it tastes more like real
tarragon than the other ones. True tarragon doesn't like the weather
here. I grow both Greek and Spanish oregano, the Spanish version is what
you find in the grocery stores. Always grow lots of big leaf basil,
rosemary, common thyme, flat leaf parsley, fernleaf dill (I use the
fernleaf in dill pickles or anything that requires dill as the seeds are
to strong for my taste.) Lots of scallions, aka bunching onions. This
year we bought several Texas 1015 sets and they are bulbing nicely. Lots
of garlic and onion chives, we plant them around fruit trees to keep
peach borers away.


I've grown both "Mexican tarragon" and "Texas tarragon". Everything
I've read seems to indicate that they're the same plant, both billed
as Tagetes lucinda, but they aren't the same. I've learned that there
are two varieties of Tagetes lucinda, one that is tall and one that is
short. No other differences are noted.

What's being sold here as "Mexican tarragon" is not worth growing. It
never comes back after the first year even though it's supposed to be
a perennial, has thin curly leaves with a sprawling growth habit,
flowers in late spring, and has only a hint of tarragon flavor. It's
more like a scrawny marigold. My two "Texas tarragon" plants are
absolutely perennials, grow upright, have long 3-in. straight leaves
that are anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide, have a strong tarragon
flavor and don't bloom until late summer. I've been able to find it
at only one local nursery. I got a second one from them this year, 5
years after getting the first one from them. Everyone else around
here has the Mexican variety I mentioned above. It's an entirely
different plant and I'll be damned if I can find any book or website
that makes note of the difference. In my experience growing it,
Mexican tarragon and Texas tarragon are not interchangeable.

I've tried Russian tarragon and I don't remember if I liked it or not.
I do wish French would grow well here but it hates our climate. Last
time I grew it I had to treat it as an annual and it didn't do well.

I knew I'd forgotten some herbs in my last message! We have Greek and
another oregano here that is probably Spanish or Mexican. Both do
well here. The Greek is trying to take over the whole corner of the
herb garden so I guess it's happy.

I will try planting garlic scapes around our peach trees this fall.
Thanks for that tip! I'd forgotten everything I'd learned about
caring for peach trees. My parents had a peach orchard when I was a
child but the trees finally died out. We didn't try to grow them at
the old house since the umpteen thousand squirrels we had there would
have taken all the fruit anyway. As for garlic chives, I won't
plant them again. They took over one of our original raised beds at
the old house and choked out some of the herbs.

On the deck, we have some container-type blueberries (Jellybean and
Peach Sorbet - both corymbosum types, which are new to us, and they're
the first to produce ripe berries this year) as well as some lemons,
oranges and limes. Those citrus trees did surprisingly well last
year, even though they took over the sunroom in the winter.

Our only citrus is a kumquat tree, still rather small but heavily in
bloom at the moment. I miss my old fifteen year old Meiwa kumquat, it
was very prolific, so much so that we ended up composting about ten
gallons of fruit as we had eaten and made marmalade and jellies from
many more pounds, still eating some of it two years later.


I saw a kumquat at the same nursery where we got our second Meyer
lemon. Almost got it but we've run out of room on the deck. Sounds
like you had wonderful luck with that Meiwa. I know you wish you
could have brought it with you to the new house. I feel that way
about the big Celeste fig we had to leave behind. I hope your new
tree treats you as well as the Meiwa did.

The rest of the stuff we're growing this year are mainly to attract
bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

My lovely wife grows salvia near the vegetable gardens, salvia attracts
bees of all sorts. Our biggest pollinator this year are bee flies,
there's hundreds of them in the garden every day. Here's info on bee
flies: http://www.cirrusimage.com/flies_bee.htm when bees are scarce
these little guys really help out.


I haven't seen them here. I wish they'd visit us since that site said
they don't sting or bite. We're lucky to have a beekeeper next door
and his girls have been busy with the citrus trees and the clover. I
assume they were pollinating the tomatoes but I never did see what
critter did us that favor. A few of our salvias are blooming and are
covered in butterflies which the hummingbirds chase away. They don't
like to share. I'm waiting for the bee balm to bloom. That ought to
keep everyone happy.

Your gardens sound like what we used to have until we got old and
decrepit. I started gardening with my parents during WWII, as did my
wife, in the family "Victory Garden," didn't garden while I was in the
military but as soon as we married we were building gardens again. Keeps
me sane most of the time.


Gardens feed the soul as well as the tummy.

George


bluechick
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Old 07-06-2014, 03:14 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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bluechick wrote:

I've grown both "Mexican tarragon" and "Texas tarragon". Everything
I've read seems to indicate that they're the same plant, both billed
as Tagetes lucinda, but they aren't the same. I've learned that there
are two varieties of Tagetes lucinda, one that is tall and one that is
short. No other differences are noted.

What's being sold here as "Mexican tarragon" is not worth growing. It
never comes back after the first year even though it's supposed to be
a perennial, has thin curly leaves with a sprawling growth habit,
flowers in late spring, and has only a hint of tarragon flavor. It's
more like a scrawny marigold. My two "Texas tarragon" plants are
absolutely perennials, grow upright, have long 3-in. straight leaves
that are anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide, have a strong tarragon
flavor and don't bloom until late summer. I've been able to find it
at only one local nursery. I got a second one from them this year, 5
years after getting the first one from them. Everyone else around
here has the Mexican variety I mentioned above. It's an entirely
different plant and I'll be damned if I can find any book or website
that makes note of the difference. In my experience growing it,
Mexican tarragon and Texas tarragon are not interchangeable.


I grow targetes taragon, here it is called 'winter' taragon. I don't know
why as it dies back each winter. But it comes up each spring and if used
fresh it is quite pungent and tasty. I cannot grow French taragon, too
finicky in my heavy soil.


I've tried Russian tarragon and I don't remember if I liked it or not.
I do wish French would grow well here but it hates our climate. Last
time I grew it I had to treat it as an annual and it didn't do well.


Same here. The Russian sort is a waste of time no flavour.

D

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I'm rather at the other end of "difficulty growing tarragon" (Zone 4)
but I do generally keep some going. Lost it all a year ago and reaped
the rewards of being generous with it - got some back from a friend I
had split some off to. It's marginal to make through the winter, so I
try to maintain it in many different spots so that I have better odds of
at least one making it - and it wants to be split regularly anyway lest
it gets rootbound, so that works. Despite being rather harsh, this
winter didn't finish off the returned splits. AFAIK it's French - both
the original label and the lack of flowers concur on that point. Major
pest is foaming aphids.

Harvest-wise we've got nothing going yet other than a FEW Asparagus.
(and the bumper crop of weeds, including the crop-weed catnip) but
various things are coming along. I planted garlic WAY late for me
(December, I think) and it actually did the textbook thing of not really
sprouting until spring, where I usually have 6" high garlic sticking out
of the snow. The result of last year's experiment with cutting/leaving
scapes has put me in the cutting scapes camp for now. I've got the head
of heirloom (someone's Grandma's) garlic I was given two years ago up to
34 plants, and am growing 50 Spanish Roja, with a few survivors of last
year's flood that took out the mutt-garlic (unknown non-scaping) bed
coming back up there, but I'm leaning towards giving up on the
mutt-garlic, as it's been dwindling on me, which was why I got the SR
three years back.


Strawberries took a major hit either from the winter or from the
side-effects of the winter (I don't know if they were killed or eaten,
that is.) Raspberries and blueberries look good, cherries & plums look
good now but usually find a way to disappoint me before it's eating
time, hops need more room to grow. Grapes are somewhat in there with the
cherries and plums - more than usual dieback, I did get them pruned in
the winter, they look good now, on the rare occasion they make much
fruit the raccoons usually take it. I'm pretty sure I need to do more
management during the growing season, but I'm also pretty sure they'd
simply like more sun and I'm not seeing a way I can do that.

One of the Filazels took a big hit from EF Blight (I'd guess) last year,
but it's not all dead, and the others look fine, though the squirrels
get nearly all of those. Two shallots (from the food supply side of
things) that were sprouting got planted and are growing - they are
throwing scapes or flowers - should I cut those off, or not? My "Hybrid
'shallots' from seed" experiment of a year or two ago was pretty
disappointing, so I'm hoping for better luck from these "appear to be
actual shallots."

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
Please don't feed the trolls. Killfile and ignore them so they will go away.


  #26   Report Post  
Old 07-06-2014, 09:59 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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Default It's songbird's fault

On 7/06/2014 11:14 AM, David Hare-Scott wrote:

I cannot grow French
taragon, too finicky in my heavy soil.


Interesting. My French Tarragon is as tough as old boots and I grow it
in what I'd consider to be heavy soil.

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Old 08-06-2014, 01:43 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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Default It's songbird's fault

Fran Farmer wrote:
On 7/06/2014 11:14 AM, David Hare-Scott wrote:

I cannot grow French
taragon, too finicky in my heavy soil.


Interesting. My French Tarragon is as tough as old boots and I grow
it in what I'd consider to be heavy soil.


The summer rain might be a problem too.

D
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Old 08-06-2014, 09:37 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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Default It's songbird's fault

On 8/06/2014 9:43 AM, David Hare-Scott wrote:
Fran Farmer wrote:
On 7/06/2014 11:14 AM, David Hare-Scott wrote:

I cannot grow French
taragon, too finicky in my heavy soil.


Interesting. My French Tarragon is as tough as old boots and I grow
it in what I'd consider to be heavy soil.


The summer rain might be a problem too.


Could be. I tend to let my tarragon get quite dry before I notice that
it's gagging for a drink - dunno why it thrives given how badly I treat
my poor clumps.

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Old 08-06-2014, 01:37 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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Default It's songbird's fault

Ecnerwal wrote:
....
Strawberries took a major hit either from the winter or from the
side-effects of the winter (I don't know if they were killed or eaten,
that is.)


what type of soil are they in? i've
not had problems here and we have had
mixed weather the past few winters to
show that strawberries are pretty hardy
when it comes to cold. most of the
trouble i've heard with them dying off
is when they are in fairly sandy soil
without much mulch or cover for the
winter. then they can get frost heaved
and dried out.


songbird
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Old 08-06-2014, 06:26 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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Default It's songbird's fault

In article ,
Fran Farmer wrote:

On 8/06/2014 9:43 AM, David Hare-Scott wrote:
The summer rain might be a problem too.


Could be. I tend to let my tarragon get quite dry before I notice that
it's gagging for a drink - dunno why it thrives given how badly I treat
my poor clumps.


Apart from being miserable, clay does hold water, so that probably
helps. Where it rains more, good drainage helps - where it rains less,
clay can be a good thing (not being from where it rains less, most of
the time, and being abundantly supplied with clay, I found that sentence
hard to actually commit to print...2-3 dumptruck loads of sand would
improve my garden immensely.)

I really don't find it fussy, just prone to not all surviving the
winter. On the other hand, I seem to recall that I expanded the range
admitted to in one of the rec.gardens FAQs that was or is running around
the net from days of old.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
Please don't feed the trolls. Killfile and ignore them so they will go away.
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