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fords8

fords8

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Tis the season! :bliss:

Share your gardening secrets, tips, questions, pictures, whatever...


A few things I thought of while picking leaves out of the landscaping this afternoon.............

Use boiling water to kill weeds in sidewalk/street/pavement cracks..... no cost, no killer chemicals :)

I use a narrow rake, like for crafts/decorating, from the Dollar Store, to get leaves out from inbetween the landscaping plants.

Instead of spending money on LOTS of little accent plants, i get a bigger one and take cuttings from it,..... and then cuttings from those..... takes longer, but over the season, everything fills out beautifully... sweet potato vine is GREAT for this... No need to even put the cuttings in water first.... straight into the dirt

Well, then there's the "bucket 'o death"... VERY effective trick (not very cookiemom-ish, I admit) for getting rid of unwanted chipmunks... well, i'll post that if anyone wants :redface:

Speaking of gardening... Happy Spring, Tygrladi..... hope you're doing well.... Would love to hear some of your gardening wisdom if you're so inclined..... miss ya.

Happy Spring! Happy Gardening to all!!!
 
I need this thread!

My DH wants to make the garden bigger and plant more stuff. We've grown tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, and onions.

What else is simple for northern illinois? Potatoes? Garlic?
 
Lauri said:
I need this thread!

My DH wants to make the garden bigger and plant more stuff. We've grown tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, and onions.

What else is simple for northern illinois? Potatoes? Garlic?
Click to expand...

How about green beans?
 
I do potatoes in a garbage can. Super easy! Google how to grow potatoes in a bucket for step by step directions.
 
NoHio said:
How about green beans?
Click to expand...
Or how about purple ones?
5718.jpg


or yellow ones?
5037.jpg
 
Ok, that last cauliflower pic is scary!

I have absolutely no gardening abilities. Keeping a houseplant alive is about as far as I can go and even that is a challenge. I think the idea of dealing with creepy crawlies would keep my away from gardening even if I had a bit of ability. Luckily my neighbors have an awesome garden and like to share. In the past they've given us tomatoes, zucchini, lettuce, cukes, green beans and more. You can't beat great neighbors!! :hiphip:
 
Those beans are really pretty! My little Polish daddy will grow whatever we ask him to in his garden, but it's getting really hard with his arthritis......
he was up to about 30 basil plants year before last..... I was sooooooo tired of making pesto :surrender:
 
cookiemom said:
Well, then there's the "bucket 'o death"... VERY effective trick (not very cookiemom-ish, I admit) for getting rid of unwanted chipmunks... well, i'll post that if anyone wants :redface:
Click to expand...

I prefer my old daisy bb gun - it's not enough to kill 'em, but it really makes them hesitant to come near the garden :lol:

I do square foot gardening, two 4'x4' and two 3'x3' boxes... gives quite a bit of food for a family of 5, and is VERY easy to maintain.

Lauri said:
I need this thread!

My DH wants to make the garden bigger and plant more stuff. We've grown tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, and onions.

What else is simple for northern illinois? Potatoes? Garlic?
Click to expand...

All kinds of things that are pretty easy to grow (read:hard to kill) for this region... cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, beans, radishes, spinach, leaf lettuce, carrots, onions and potatoes (IMO almost as cheap to just buy those two), garlic, asparagus (time consuming tho), squash, etc.
 
smbka_1 said:
All kinds of things that are pretty easy to grow (read:hard to kill) for this region... cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, beans, radishes, spinach, leaf lettuce, carrots, onions and potatoes (IMO almost as cheap to just buy those two), garlic, asparagus (time consuming tho), squash, etc.
Click to expand...

Also zucchini.
 
Has anyone tried the topsy turvey thing for growing tomatos? I bought one this year and am going to try it.
 
cjpuppy said:
Has anyone tried the topsy turvey thing for growing tomatos? I bought one this year and am going to try it.
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We tried it last year and it did not turn out as expected. It might have been more our fault than the plant.
 
cjpuppy said:
Has anyone tried the topsy turvey thing for growing tomatos? I bought one this year and am going to try it.
Click to expand...

I've done it with a lard bucket...results were OK, but not spectacular...
 
cjpuppy said:
Has anyone tried the topsy turvey thing for growing tomatos? I bought one this year and am going to try it.
Click to expand...

I agree with the others. It's good if you are really limited for space... but the yield is really minimized over traditional planting.
 
Strawberries, blueberries, grapes all grow great and will come back year after year (perenials) in northern Illinois. Basil, dill, green spring onions, lettuce and rosemary have all grown reallllly well. Tomatoes, peas and beans will need to be "tomato caged", staked or supported in some fashion but they also grow really well. Green, red and yellow bell peppers, habernero and jalepeno peppers grow very easy. These were all relatively no work planting, except the weeding... that bites, but doesn't it always?!?!
I did not have good luck with: Pumpkins, corn and green beans. My area is over run by those **** japenese beetles. Once they appear, it's all out war and I'd rather spend my time weeding than fighting these little ****s! My corn was eaten by the beetles and some kind of worm, I didn't bother to find out what kind, I wasn't wanting to share corn with workms, thanks no ty! The green beans were also loaded with the japenese beetles. So I have learned it is "hit or miss" in my garden. When the beetles didn't kill it last year, the neighbors tree falling on it was just as destructive.

This year we have seeds already started. We have the rain barrels set up. Next weekend, provided it's not raining/muddy/freezing cold, we are rototilling the garden in. It was tilled last year so it shouldn't be much work.

This year I will only be buying tomato plants and green pepper plants. Everything else I have started by seed. I have never had luck starting tomatoes or green peppers, so I'll buy those.
 
mama22angels said:
This year I will only be buying tomato plants and green pepper plants. Everything else I have started by seed. I have never had luck starting tomatoes or green peppers, so I'll buy those.
Click to expand...

I completely agree with this. I put seed in the ground ~3 weeks ago, risking the frost, for a lot of the other plants... but the tom's and peppers that I started from seed back in Jan aren't nearly as big as the transplants I could go buy right now.
 
Mine are started in the greenhouse as it has been too cold (just my opnion, if your plants are growing, great!!) to plant directly. Probably not until May 1st will I try it :) You could easily plant broccoli and peas now as they are a cooler weather loving veggie :)
 
My Wisconsin grandmother (by Marshfield) didn't plant non-cool weather crops until Decoration (Memorial) Day...
 
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