Thread: Off topic......my garden

Hang in there crazybird. I too have been trying to grow my own produce. But the heat has not been kind. This past Sat. it got up to 117 and I'm amazed that I have anything green to water this morning. The corn and squash have held on and only one tomato plant casuality. I also grew up on a farm and was amazed how quickly my farming skills came back to me. Next year I'll get an ealier start planting my seeds and will have a bigger crop. Boy, I sound like my grandfather saying that.

This past Sat. it got up to 117 and I'm amazed that I have anything green to water this morning.

Whew!!!! That is a tad on the toasty side! Last year it was brutal here but it's not been that bad this year. Fortunatly there hasn't been a real strict watering ban so I have atleast been able to do that. Last year it would have been a big no-no.

My Dad was just so good at gardening and made it look so easy. I've not been too successful in the past. Mostly it was food for insects. So this has been a treat for me.

I do the same. Nobody doing our landscaping, it's all me.

Welcome to the club!

Because our house sits on top of decomposed granite hilltop. My husband and I decided to landscape with woodchips. My drought tolerant plants are happy because the woodchips break down the decomposed granite and much needed provide moister during the hot summer months. And my husband is happy because he doesn't have to mow a lawn or hire a gardner. We replenish the woodchips every other year and let mother nature do the rest.

Originally Posted by bearpaw

Because our house sits on top of decomposed granite hilltop. My husband and I decided to landscape with woodchips. My drought tolerant plants are happy because the woodchips break down the decomposed granite and much needed provide moister during the hot summer months. And my husband is happy because he doesn't have to mow a lawn or hire a gardner. We replenish the woodchips every other year and let mother nature do the rest.

Do you have termites in your area?
We had an inground pool, and had cement steps that went up the side of the house....we had the pool taken out last month and took out the steps against the house....

I had told my husband 3 yrs. ago, I had seen termites in the room that the steps were against....he kept saying we didn't have termites....for 3 yrs. he said that!

So, when the steps came down, he saw our floor brace boards eaten out!

Had to have an exterminater come out, he said that the termites had been there about 3 yrs. to cause that much damage.....told us to get rid of the wood chips around the house....we just replaced them with river rock.

Got 2 tons of rock for $44.00....lots cheaper than wood chips.

moosetracks,

OMG, this is something my husband and I had not considered. I will certainly share your experince and suggestions with my hubby. Although we sit on 2/3's of an acre I'm not certain if river rock would be cost effective for us. How many acre's did your 2 tons cover?

crazybird..........proud of you gal..........doesn't it feel good to see those little green seedlings coming up and watching them grow, grow and grow, knowing they are here because of you?
I have 1 tomato plant cause I'm allergic to tomatoes, but I have 14 hills of okra. Only have 1 problem..........or should I say 5? Try gardening with Guinneas.........they love to rut in the middle of the plants when they first come up. I tricked them this year though........I put up a fence to keep them out. Worked
Nothing taste better than that which you have grown yourself.

This isn't totally related to Crazybird's story, but I'm reminded of a time when I was a teenager and my mom planted this huge vegetable garden along with fruit trees and berry bushes in our backyard.

Well, she was intent on not using any pesiticides, saying that "...a few little worm or bird peckings on our fruits and veggies won't hurt us as much as the poisons will". So, okay, we went along with that.

Well, the peculiar thing was that something was eating my mom's most coveted crop.....her strawberries....and it wasn't just little holes or peckings on the berries, it was the whole darned berry, right down to the stem!

So, totally perplexed, my mom decided to hold a stakeout one morning to see just what was eating her berries. Well, she set up her lawn chair way up at the top of our yard where she couldn't be seen and proceeded to look throuh her binoculars (thinking she'd see some small rodent, bird or even insect dining on her berries). Well, what she saw surprised her and amused her so much she practically fell off her chair!

What she saw was our beloved pet Irish Setter slowly sneaking her way down the long hill in our backyard to the lower level where the berry bushes were, and then proceeding to pick each and every berry off the bushes and eat them!

Needless to say, our Setter was no longer allowed unchaperoned access to the berry bushes!

Too funny. Had a nieghbor once who was growing her own jalapenos. She'd mentioned that something was eating them, so we both decided to keep an eye out and watched from an upstairs window. The culprit was my doberman! He loved them!

Oh no! Jalapenos! That doggie had a cast-iron stomach!