Anyone else Planting gardens/flowers?

[Poirot]

This is our first full summer in our house and man did the last owners do a number on it once they knew the house was sold. Everything was covered in weeds. The grass is full of clover, crab grass and creeping charlie. We also have a stone walk way that has pea gravel in between that was covered in weeds. I spent most of the past weekend digging at it. The lawn will get a healthy dose of seed and fertilizer friday / saturday since it's going to warm up and rain.

I have one of those Jiffy indoor starter kits and I'm going to start my veggies indoors today. YAY. I have broccoli seeds but given the info on here I may not be planting it. The past owners had broccoli, cauli and tomatoes but I guess they gave up on them because when we got here the tomatoes had blight.

Can't wait to see photos of others gardens when the summer growing kicks in.

If your potatoes or tomatoes have blight.Remove the effected leaves then shake some PTV potato dust insectcide on the effected plants You can buy PTV potato dust at Home Hardware.If they don't have it in stock they can order it for you and phone you when it comes in the store and just come pick it up and pay for it.Red Deer Home Hardware does this.

[Speckled28]

I'm wondering if anyone has had any luck with cucumbers? We tried them for the first time last year and while we got a few they eventually got some sort of fungus/blight that infected our pumpkins as well.

[marstec]

I'm wondering if anyone has had any luck with cucumbers? We tried them for the first time last year and while we got a few they eventually got some sort of fungus/blight that infected our pumpkins as well.

Do you have the cucumber beetle in your area? They are the main culprits of spreading disease. I've been lucky so far. I grew them up a trellis for the first time last year. Worked well and kept the vines off the soil.

[marstec]

The past owners had broccoli, cauli and tomatoes but I guess they gave up on them because when we got here the tomatoes had blight.

I had blight for the first and only time a couple of years ago...it was a very muggy summer if I recall. Anyway, to prevent that from happening again, I changed my watering practices, especially with regards to my tomatoes. I only watered them from the ground, never wetting the leaves, so we had to shut off our automatic sprinklers for this crop. The blight spores spread on wet leaves, so you can prevent spread by limiting it, can't do anything about the rain, but every little bit helps.

Now the above poster suggested potato dust, that, technically shouldn't work at preventing blight since the main ingredient in it is rotenone, which is ground up root of something (can't remember, but derris (?) comes to mind). What you need to prevent late blight (not cure, because once you have it, it's fatal for the plant), is something called bordeaux mixture. It is copper-based and it's called that because it was first used in the Bordeaux region for their grapes. Another important thing is to clean up any fallen leaves and foliage so that the spores cannot overwinter.HTH

[Speckled28]

Do you have the cucumber beetle in your area? They are the main culprits of spreading disease. I've been lucky so far. I grew them up a trellis for the first time last year. Worked well and kept the vines off the soil.

We did have a beetle as well and I suspected the cucumber beetle but wasn't sure since it started poking around the pumpkins too. I've read that some people have success growing the cucumbers up a trellis so maybe we'll try that this year. I love cucumbers and was so sad to see all my vines die last year. We had some really wet periods last summer too.....which didn't help.

[Poirot]

Buy a moisure meter $4.99.They are sold at Canadian Tire.Then you can check the moisture level in the soil.

[Poirot]

We did have a beetle as well and I suspected the cucumber beetle but wasn't sure since it started poking around the pumpkins too. I've read that some people have success growing the cucumbers up a trellis so maybe we'll try that this year. I love cucumbers and was so sad to see all my vines die last year. We had some really wet periods last summer too.....which didn't help.

You could also grow cucumbers that you plant in a pot.

[Lakers69]

will start next week....look forward to planting some flowers along with some tomatoes

[Lua]

The long weekend is upon us and I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one looking forward to doing some planting!!! My goal is to get my veggie garden all planted along with some colourful annuals. I'm still working on figuring out what I want to plant this year, but I still have a few days to figure that out before I go shopping Friday night.

Now, I have a question for you all.

We have been noticing the cutest little bunny hanging around the back yard the past few weeks. I don't want to hurt this cute little sucker, but I definitely don't want it snacking on my freshly planted veggie plants. Building a fence around my garden is not an option. Any ideas of what I could do to make sure it stays away from my plants???

[marstec]

The long weekend is upon us and I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one looking forward to doing some planting!!! My goal is to get my veggie garden all planted along with some colourful annuals. I'm still working on figuring out what I want to plant this year, but I still have a few days to figure that out before I go shopping Friday night.

Now, I have a question for you all.

We have been noticing the cutest little bunny hanging around the back yard the past few weeks. I don't want to hurt this cute little sucker, but I definitely don't want it snacking on my freshly planted veggie plants. Building a fence around my garden is not an option. Any ideas of what I could do to make sure it stays away from my plants???

My mother is plagued by rabbits in her garden. Some idiot let them loose a few years ago in suburban Calgary and they are all over the place now.

My suggestion is to plant things they don't like to eat, but that is a really limiting option for you. The most practical thing would be to build some sort of enclosure to keep them out...lots of work, I know, but then you won't be disappointed when you find that the little critters have dined on the fruits of your labour. You can check about products like Liquid Fence, but I''m not sure it would work in your case. Best of luck to you!

I am hardening off the plants I started under the grow lights and will plant them all in a couple of weeks. The garden gets rototilled on Wednesday and hopefully, we can plant by the weekend. We haven't had any rain all week, but Murphy's Law says it will come down in buckets when we want to plant.

[DaveP]

I totally cheated nature this year, heh heh.

My kids started a bunch of apple trees from seeds a couple of years ago. We grew them outdoors in pots and they're about a foot/foot and a half tall, stalks turned to wood - on their way to real trees. This february I took 3 of the 12 inside and set them facing the light. Fed them and they have doubled their size before the other ones outside have even started! Sweet!

[anisa]

i decided to start seeds this yr. a variety of veggies. i killed them all!

[anisa]

I totally cheated nature this year, heh heh.

My kids started a bunch of apple trees from seeds a couple of years ago. We grew them outdoors in pots and they're about a foot/foot and a half tall, stalks turned to wood - on their way to real trees. This february I took 3 of the 12 inside and set them facing the light. Fed them and they have doubled their size before the other ones outside have even started! Sweet!

my dad did orange trees from mandarin seeds i think. about a couple of yrs ago. they wold strictly be indoor plants i guess, but they looked nice!

[Natalka]

For rabbit ridding, I've heard of using hair clippings, used kitty litter, mothballs, and cayenne pepper - oh, and garlic - not powder, but granulated.

Some ideas here
http://www.helpfulgardener.com/phpBB...pic.php?t=2350

[Lynn49]

I've only planted a row of dutch onions for the green onions, and another row that will wait until the fall to harvest big onions...our chives, tarragon survived the winter and are flourishing, and hubby has basil growing in our Eurogarden like last year. We'll be putting in sage also since I love having 'fresh' frozen basil and sage all winter. Other than that, we picked up packages of bulbs today: gladiolas, stargazer lilies (my favourite for their intense scent!), dahlias, and somethingelseiforget. We'll put them in tomorrow if it's not pouring. We transplanted 15 feet of hostas from our DD's home that were on two sides of their old toolshed (our old toolshed), and put them along one side of our deck..it'll soften it so nicely.

Other than that, we have 4 deck planters, and 5 hanging planters to plant, and hubby's on the hunt for something called "million bells"...So...so far, that's about it....Oh. And we also picked up seeds for a pumpkin for our grandson, and radishes...probably mini tomatoes, will go in also, since I love grazing on them in the summer....that should be it....