The EllGab Garden

[Rikki Gins]

How does your garden grow?  A couple of the fellows and I were talking about oranges a little while ago and it came to me that we could use a gardening thread around here.  We can discuss our gardens, talk about plants in general, and trees too.  We could also upload photos of our vegetables, fruits and flowers.  (And pests.  Peter W. displayed some nice snail pics on the old board.)  Might be fun, and for starters, I spotted a baby Praying Mantis the other day.  Fascinating creatures.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis   

[pate]

I bet it was a Male mantis, they don't get very big.  It's pretty late in the season for baby manti.  It is getting close to egg sack laying/formation time so if your lil' fella "gets lucky" it'll be his head...

I bought five mantis egg sacks for my garden this spring, I haven't seen any running around in months.  I even captured a female and released her a few weeks ago, same story.  I think the birds are eating them.

This year's container garden: Tomatos, squash, cucumbers (complete failure again), and peppers.

I also dug up all the crabgrass and seeded with bentgrass (putting green grass) it is coming in nicely where the dogs are allowing it.  Most of the lawn is Bermuda grass which I actually like because the dogs can't seem to kill it, and I can cut it really low (middle setting on a reel mower, maybe 1/2 to 3/4 inch).  The bentgrass I overseeded into the Bermuda is slowly coming up.

That bentgrass seed is fairly expensive, I think, 1 lb cost about 16 bucks.  1lb/1000 sqft, lucky I have a tiny backyard.  30 ft by maybe 60-80 ft.  Nice thing about the bentgrass seed I got is that it sprouts in about 3-4 days (or has for me in the three sections I have seeded since mid-August).  Takes a lot of water though.

[GrumpyOldMan]

Any of you have a good organic cure for flea beetles?  I brought in some top soil from a local landscaping company a couple of years ago, and I have been dealing with those little bastards ever since.  I've kept them in check by spraying with  pyrethrins, but the less spraying, the better.  Once winter hits, I plan to take a weed burner and torch the hell out of my little garden plot.  I don't know if that will do any good, but the thought of burning the little bastards unborn makes me happy.

[GravitySucks]

Any of you have a good organic cure for flea beetles?  I brought in some top soil from a local landscaping company a couple of years ago, and I have been dealing with those little bastards ever since.  I've kept them in check by spraying with  pyrethrins, but the less spraying, the better.  Once winter hits, I plan to take a weed burner and torch the hell out of my little garden plot.  I don't know if that will do any good, but the thought of burning the little bastards unborn makes me happy.

Maybe diatomaceous earth?

[ShayP]

Maybe diatomaceous earth?

Gravity is on to something.  I can't speak from personal experience because I do not have a green thumb.  However, my cousin has gardens of all varieties and swears by the stuff.  It's definitely worth a shot.

[Rikki Gins]

Any of you have a good organic cure for flea beetles?  I brought in some top soil from a local landscaping company a couple of years ago, and I have been dealing with those little bastards ever since.  I've kept them in check by spraying with  pyrethrins, but the less spraying, the better.  Once winter hits, I plan to take a weed burner and torch the hell out of my little garden plot.  I don't know if that will do any good, but the thought of burning the little bastards unborn makes me happy.

If you have the room, planting these next year might help. Wiki:

Flea beetles can be deterred by a number of different companion plants, that can be grown intercropped in a garden to benefit neighboring plants. For example, thyme, catnip, and other kinds of mint cover up the scent of nearby plants.
Radishes, on the other hand, can be grown as a trap crop, luring the flea beetles away from more important crops. Since the root isn't harmed by the beetles, they remain useful, themselves.  A number of natural predators can be employed to keep flea beetles in check, including two that parasitize it: Braconid wasps and tachinid flies. In both cases, the larval stage feeds on the flea beetle, while the adults feed on nectar and pollen; some species are even important pollinators.
To encourage Braconid wasps and Tachinid flies, some types of flowers can be planted between crops: umbels such as caraway, herb fennel, coriander and Ammi majus, and simple open flowers such as California poppies and pot marigolds, as well as yarrows.

]

[albrecht]

Gravity is on to something.  I can't speak from personal experience because I do not have a green thumb.  However, my cousin has gardens of all varieties and swears by the stuff.  It's definitely worth a shot.

Wear a mask and watch breathing during application of such!

The debate:
I was outta town for a month and got yuuge number of various peppers. Apparently we had rain and sun lots. But most ripe to red: japs, cerrano, and bananna. Still good? Hotter or less due to color? Ways to use them?

[GravitySucks]

Wear a mask and watch breathing during application of such!

The debate:
I was outta town for a month and got yuuge number of various peppers. Apparently we had rain and sun lots. But most ripe to red: japs, cerrano, and bananna. Still good? Hotter or less due to color? Ways to use them?

Generally just a tad sweeter if they turn red. I don’t think they get hotter.

[Rikki Gins]

I bet it was a Male mantis, they don't get very big.  It's pretty late in the season for baby manti.  It is getting close to egg sack laying/formation time so if your lil' fella "gets lucky" it'll be his head...

I bought five mantis egg sacks for my garden this spring, I haven't seen any running around in months.  I even captured a female and released her a few weeks ago, same story.  I think the birds are eating them.

This year's container garden: Tomatos, squash, cucumbers (complete failure again), and peppers.

I also dug up all the crabgrass and seeded with bentgrass (putting green grass) it is coming in nicely where the dogs are allowing it.  Most of the lawn is Bermuda grass which I actually like because the dogs can't seem to kill it, and I can cut it really low (middle setting on a reel mower, maybe 1/2 to 3/4 inch).  The bentgrass I overseeded into the Bermuda is slowly coming up.

That bentgrass seed is fairly expensive, I think, 1 lb cost about 16 bucks.  1lb/1000 sqft, lucky I have a tiny backyard.  30 ft by maybe 60-80 ft.  Nice thing about the bentgrass seed I got is that it sprouts in about 3-4 days (or has for me in the three sections I have seeded since mid-August).  Takes a lot of water though.

I used to work at a place where, for some reason, full grown mantises would cling to the inside walls.  Everyonce in awhile I would spot one and put it in a small cardboard box.  Then, after I got home, I would take it outside and put it in my potted tomato plants.  It would usually hang around for a day or two before moving on to some other place.  It was kind of funny because I'd be at work, doing this and that, and someone would come up to me all at once with a mantis.  Ha, I'd have to stop what I was doing and go hunt down a cardboard box. 

[GrumpyOldMan]

Thanks for the advice!  May you never have to deal with these little bastards. 

[Rikki Gins]

Thanks for the advice!  May you never have to deal with these little bastards.

You bet.  I hope that things work out for you next spring.

[Walks_At_Night]

Tomorrow I lay sod in my front yard.   80% chance of rain.  I'm gonna be a Mud Puppy!

[Rikki Gins]

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


Here is a pic of my ash tree out back, looking up through it to the top.  That poor old tree was badly overgrown so I had a tree service prune it back a ways.  They got rid of a lot of dead limbs and shaped it up real nice.  I get more sunlight coming through it now which is what I wanted.  If you look close, you can spot a circle of cable that was installed to hold back any heavy branches that might break during a storm.  Hopefully it will keep some of them from falling onto the house.  A couple of weeks ago the leaves were mostly green but now they are turning yellow real fast.   

[Kingfish]

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


Here is a pic of my ash tree out back, looking up through it to the top.  That poor old tree was badly overgrown so I had a tree service prune it back a ways.  They got rid of a lot of dead limbs and shaped it up real nice.  I get more sunlight coming through it now which is what I wanted.  If you look close, you can spot a circle of cable that was installed to hold back any heavy branches that might break during a storm.  Hopefully it will keep some of them from falling onto the house.  A couple of weeks ago the leaves were mostly green but now they are turning yellow real fast.

You got ash borers in your area?

[Rikki Gins]

You got ash borers in your area?

No. Thankfully, they haven't made it to my state yet.  I did however use the trunk of the tree for a soccer goal post.  I didn't think I was hitting it so hard, but after awhile a large section of bark started to peel off.  Needless to say, I quit hitting it with the soccer ball.