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Post by woodyz on Jun 6, 2012 19:47:38 GMT -7
I plant my water melons in old tires. As the melon vine starts to grow I put the melons outside of the tire on a bed of straw. That way when I am weeding or feeding or watering I don't injure the melons. Also I water to the inside of the tire and let the soil pull it out as it wants it.
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Post by wtrfwlr on Jun 6, 2012 20:19:32 GMT -7
Not a garden thing per say but Pecans need Iron to produce filled out nuts. Place any kinda iron you have around your Pecan trees. Scrap pieces, old nails, screws washers(all buried of course) or old re-bar. Machine shops will often give you all the lathe turnings you want and welding shops always have lots of scrapes that are for the asking. Old timer told me this one and it has made a huge difference in my Pecans. Next time you see an old farm implement laying under an old Pecan tree you now know why it is parked there!
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Post by woodyz on Jun 6, 2012 20:23:09 GMT -7
BINGO
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Post by orly152 on Jun 7, 2012 0:58:46 GMT -7
Lots of good gardening tips here specially for guys like me
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Post by ccove on Jun 18, 2012 9:52:54 GMT -7
When I do a hanging basket with the coconut hull liner, I line the inside partially with a plastic bag. Poke holes in the bottom to prevent water logging but it also stops rapid drying.
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Post by orly152 on Jun 20, 2012 16:19:13 GMT -7
When I do a hanging basket with the coconut hull liner, I line the inside partially with a plastic bag. Poke holes in the bottom to prevent water logging but it also stops rapid drying. Another great tip....I have a few of those that I'm looking to plant strawberries in a few days
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Post by Deleted on Jun 21, 2012 2:19:50 GMT -7
All summer long, we save the used coffee grounds and put them in a couple of 5 gallon buckets. After the season is over in teh fall, lightly scatter teh grounds over the garden and let tehm set. Tehn over the winter, we clean out teh wood stove and put teh ashes in a series of metal 5 gallon buckets (5 of them covered loosely with an olf tailgate cover and weighted down). Then when all the buckets are full, we load them on the 4 wheeler trailer and take them to the garden to be scattered in the garden. This is left as is until its time to plow and disc the coming spring. Right before planting, when we are tilling the ground for the last 2 times, we add peletized lime very heavy and 12-12-12 fetilizer and till slow and deep so it gets well incorperated. The combination of al this along with teh compost and river borttom soil makes a nice bed for the garden.
For potted herbs on the deck, about once a week I will use my dirty dish water to waater them, being careful not to get it on the leaves, but give thema good soaking. I think the food and such in the water does something for the herbs, because they love it!! I use Dawn dish soap WITHOUT bleach.
I like to use the black weed barrier stuff for the garden. Stops me from having to weed constantly, and has kept the thorny pigweed from taking over, it keeps the ground damp longer from the sun, and the wind doesn't dry it out as fast either. I get teh 3'x45' rolls from Dollar general for $5. It is biodegradeable, but it takes a couple years, so I lay iot down, weight the edges with clods of clay soil, and use an exacto knife to cut small holes wher plants or seeds go. I can use the same holes for as many years as the barrier is dow before being replaced. Each fall, we will simply pull the dead plants, use a hoe to spray the mesh off as I roll it up and put it in the shed for the following spring...holes already in it for the using!!
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Post by missj on Jun 23, 2012 21:24:13 GMT -7
Has everyone heard of the chicken tractor? Basically it is a smaller, portable chicken coop usually on wheels and ALWAYS has an open bottom. The chickens scratch up the earth for you and then "fertilize" with their own secret recipe! Each time you move the "tractor" you've got mowed, fertilized and slightly tilled soil left behind. It still takes an hour or so with a spade/shovel to turn the soil deeply enough, but makes the work easier for sure!
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Post by missj on Jun 23, 2012 21:28:50 GMT -7
This is probably not news, but plant your seed potatoes in trenches about 1 foot deep.
As the plants grow, keep throwing a bit more dirt on top of them. Keep doing this every time the plants are about 6-9" above the soil but always leaving at least a couple of inches poking through.
1 seed potato will keep increasing it's yield VERTICALLY for as long as the growing season continues. Thus greatly multiplying the yield from each seed potato. I've heard folklore of people using old tires to built up a potato "silo" a week or so at a time and at the end of the season having an 8 foot high tube of potatoes out of each chunk of seed potato!
I'm not that adventurous so I usually just dig 1 foot deep, then keep "hilling up" the taters until we are about 12-18" above ground resulting in about 2.5 feet worth of potatoes. Still....that's about 3x more yield per chunk of seed tater than you would get by just regular planting.
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Post by jimmyq on Jun 23, 2012 22:31:38 GMT -7
yes indeed, spuds will sprout taters laterally above the initial seed potato but not below, hilling them is the key to large yields.
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Post by mountainmark on Jul 30, 2012 6:16:15 GMT -7
Not being a gardener myself, I only have one gardening tip for you.
Eat the "weeds" you pull up (provided you are able to identify them). This will greatly increase your harvest.
Some common edible garden weeds found near me are purslane, lambs quarters, amaranth, mallow and smartweed.
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Post by cowgirlup on Jul 30, 2012 7:13:25 GMT -7
LOL, My garden is full of weeds, but since most are edible I just count them as veggies.
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Post by mountainmark on Jul 30, 2012 12:37:34 GMT -7
Just be carefull CGU, you get too good at that and you may just decide to quit gardening all together!
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Post by cowgirlup on Jul 30, 2012 13:41:25 GMT -7
LOL! Not until I can find wild green beans, tomatos and winter squash. But I do have the most beautiful patch of young plantain out there. I'm going to look for something interesting to do with it.
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Post by mountainmark on Jul 31, 2012 6:36:45 GMT -7
Well, I can tell you that young boiled milkweed shoots taste just like green beans and black nightshade berries taste like an ultra sweet cherry tomato. Winter squash.......that's a tough one. good luck with the plaintain. Not all plants that are healthful are necessarily all that palatable IMHO. If you come up with something that tastes good, please share!
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