garden update!

[kettunainen]

N and I bought a deep red hollyhock yesterday and I transplanted it last night. A couple of nights before, N acquired a couple of milkweed plants from an area that was slated to be mowed, and he transplanted those... They're not doing too well, but hopefully they'll perk up soon

Comments

[plumjudy]

Milk weed likes dry soil. I'd assume they are in a little bit of shock. they haven't fallen over so they should hold on!

apparently you can't kill a day lily if you tried lol.

I was just thinking "woa! that's one dry garden!" and then you said it lol. they key to watering is to water until it stops going into the soil. (unless you know otherwise that the plant does not like water...) oh, and water in the morning, watering at night encourages mold/fungus.

your poor soil is so rocky! good for drainage and air though. keep on with the compost. that is one thing they keep drilling into us. "ORGANIC MATER #1!"

so proud of you!! I love you garden!

yay for gifted squash! oh, but about squash, you need a male and female squash plant to get baby squash...(they are dioeceous (sp?) if you must know, sorry, I had to throw a hort. term in there ha ha) If you are unsure on how to sex a plant I'll teach you once they have flowers!

see you Wednesday! maybe if it's nice out we can putter a bit.

[kettunainen]

re milkweed: are you *certain*? because I know of three different types and just looking at Wikipedia, there are apparently over 140 types. Of the three I'm familiar with, one prefers almost swamplike conditions, another prefers dry dry dry, and the third -- what we transplanted -- is an unknown quantity.

I just watered the hell out of those two milkweeds. argh. research, darn it!

thanks for the watering tip! I will endeavour to water the regular beds in the morning, since I've seen shrooms in the flower bed. But the raised bed... the soil dries out so easily -- I'm afraid if I water in the morning, the sun will evaporate it all before it gets a chance to settle in!

I do water until the soil is shiny and then I leave it until the water is absorbed, and then I water again until it's shiny.

there are too many squashes all crowding each other there. surely there will be a male and female in there *somewhere*!

[plumjudy]

I'll bring my wild flower book. where was it growing when you got it? that would be the best indication. yay for a multitude of squash!

[kettunainen]

the squash was growing in the covered compost bin. there were about 8 or so leggy sprouts, presumably from the butternut squash we ate months ago.

[kettunainen]

thanks!

[misslynx]

Looking good - you guys have really done a lot!

You might want to try putting some kind of mulch over the surface of the exposed areas of soil - it can help keep moisture in during dry spells, and slows down the flow of water into the soil during rains so that there's less soil erosion and less chance of plants drowning. And if it's something plant-based it will also eventually decay into the soil and add organic matter. Basically it serves the same function as the layer of fallen leaves and what not that you get in most wild ecosystems.

Also, if you go with something that look recognizably mulch-like, like bark or wood chips or something, it might help make it more apparent to random alley-wanderers that it's a garden, though as the plants grow bigger that will probably take care of itself to some extent. That hollyhock, for example, is pretty hard to miss. :-)

[repaleinen]

Just my two cents here - bark or wood chips tend to be rather acid to their nature, so it may affect the plants depending on how the soil is on the whole; that´s why it´s usually not recommended in a kitchen garden! :) But hay clips for example work wonders.

And is it really so that your wood sorrel there blooms with yellow flowers? Or is it a weed of some sort that´s blooming in the picture? Funny ´cause our wood sorrel has bigger flowers and they´re completely white with a faint tint of pink or purple. :) Fascinating.

[plumjudy]

it depends on the wood chips you use. Pine is very acidic, but cedar is less so, but cedar attracts mosquitoes.

[repaleinen]

Ahh, didn´t know that, but we don´t have cedar growing here in Finland, that explains. :D

[tormenta]

Hah, just remember with the Lamb's Quarters that you need not be soft or sparing about the weeding. They, unlike the wood sorrel ARE a 'weed' - they takeover quickly and with little warning, think "mint"like. Pick it and compost it or eat it, but don't think, oh, that's valuable, I'll eat it later - you'll end up with a large amount of the stuff, maybe too much to harvest and eat comfortably

[kettunainen]

ahh, yes! coconut coir is ph neutral and really helpful for retaining moisture. Thanks for the reminder!

I tried looking for the slugs last night when I went to water and I couldn't find any! so I have no idea what's going on. I've seen slime trails on some of the plants, so I can only assume that it's slugs, but I've yet to see them.

And people don't really mess with it -- it was just during the street festival that we had serious problems. It's more people hanging out there because it's pretty and then leaving their cigarette butts all over the place. Making it prettier may defeat the purpose!

I've held off on the mulch because I wasn't finished adding plants to it and I wasn't certain how much more difficult it would be to dig around with mulch in the way...

I've seen how lamb's quarters can grow and we haven't had any such grandeur 'gracing' our gardens yet. I'll be sure to manage them with vigilance. And whatever we're not able to eat, we toss it in the compost. Yay for recycling! ;)

[misslynx]

And people don't really mess with it -- it was just during the street festival that we had serious problems. It's more people hanging out there because it's pretty and then leaving their cigarette butts all over the place. Making it prettier may defeat the purpose!

Maybe putting some kind of container out for cigarette butts and other garbage would help?

I've held off on the mulch because I wasn't finished adding plants to it and I wasn't certain how much more difficult it would be to dig around with mulch in the way...

Not very, at least from my past gardening experience. It's usually just a soft layer of shredded bark or leaves or cocoa husks or whatever, and when you want to put another plant in, you just brush it aside a little. Easy.

[tamago23]

The garden's coming along nicely! :D I should really do a similar labelled photo post of my current garden... I've just been so draggy recently about getting anything done.