Am I the only VJer with a garden?

[Niels Bohr 72]

My sister is a chemical engineer, and she goes berserk when someone used 'organic' word instead of 'natural' word. I'm also similar to her as well.

The chemical compounds in those fertilizers are organic compounds. What you want to use is the word 'natural' if you're not using organic compounds.

[SaadBell 0]

You are correct, it is used in jest, I tried some alternatives to commercial pesticides. I couldn't help it, I have to give kudos to commercial pesticides, and I will flush any plant, but I need to control this mess. I really studied the grasshoppers last year, and they just creep me out with their little insect eyes. I had some kind of black bug, could not fly but had wings, and it was eating one of my plants, not sure what it was, I live in Florida so the bug population here is off the charts, like watching a national geographic program. Oh yea and it looks like I have a nice slug population also, you can see how the egg shells and salt has worked, but I have weapons of mass destruction with me this year baby.

[Reba 2]

Lots of info on natural pest control and weed control at Mother Earth News

[Amby 490]

I'm considering going out to buy flowers today. I really don't know what type to get though. I have a spot where there's a lot of tulips planted and would like to fill that in some more. I dunno. Suggestions?

[Danno 1,228]

Planning on building my own mini-green house where I can grow these things all year long in New England.

I assume you would need to heat the greenhouse in the wintertime?

That would seem costly... to heat a room only insulated with 4. mil of plastic.

[Danno 1,228]

Herbs are used for cooking, among other things

BUt most of the herb plants I see for sale I never heard of in any dish.

In fact, my wife had me plant two I never heard of.

Anyway, who needs more than Salt, Pepper and Italian seasoning?

what two did you plant?

One was Basil, which I have heard of in cooking (of course).

The other was Cilantro I think.

My wife does this thing where she sits an onion on top of a coffee mug full of water.

From the top a green sprout grows and she will trim it off and cut it up to put on food.

Anyone else heard of this?

[Danno 1,228]

I love gardening, I spent 5 hours yesterday just planting some flowers that I am growing, I was going to keep them in containers, but I noticed they were not growing as well, so I put some in the garden bed, and the growth was unbelievable, so today all of them went into the garden bed out of the containers. Share what ferts you all use, and how do you control bugs in your garden. I do admit I had to treat twice already for bugs, with a chemical, I try to go organic, but as of this summer it is a major battle between the bugs and me. I was watering my patio Friday and something flew out of one of my plants, it was a big grasshopper, I had them last year, but just try to control them organically, of course didn't phase them in anyway, not this year baby, I sprayed immediately, I have Chinese lanterns starting up, I can't have these things eat my babies. I try to give fish fertilizer and super thieve and the soil has slow acting fert. So far so good, I have my climbing roses on the back fence that are absolutely breathtaking a very beautiful dark pink. My four clocks are different colors of purple, I love going outside in my garden. The only thing I hate is weeds. I will try to get pictures.

Fertilizer and bug control are two great questions.

As yet I have not had a big problem with bugs and as for Fertilizer, I have only sprinkled some stuff I bought last year "Shake and feed" I think it is called. I used it in some areas and not in others to compare (not much difference so far).

I saw a British guys vid on youtube where he makes fertilizer like this. (actually there were a couple vids on this idea)

name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="

type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>">

name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="

type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350">

I'm not the "organic" type but as this style is free and without chems, I thought I would try it.

[Amby 490]

I asked about harvesting the honey (is that the proper term?) and I was told some should be ready by early fall

[spookyturtle 9,466]

I asked about harvesting the honey (is that the proper term?) and I was told some should be ready by early fall

I love harvesting honey.

[Niels Bohr 72]

Do you eat the larvae too? My wife chow on them like candy, live.

[Amby 490]

I went outside today to get some lettuce and check on my peas. They've started growing like crazy. Here's a photo of the ones I picked today.

Anyone else have stuff starting to come in?

Edited May 24, 2009 by Amby

[Kathryn41 3,205]

lovely peas, Amby! Alas, we are late getting our garden in this year so no produce as of yet. We do have pears on the pear trees though, and interestingly found 3 volunteer cucumber plants and 5 volunteer watermelon plants growing over from last year so we have transplanted those and will see how they do. The only thing we have harvested so far this year is asparagus - oh and herbs for cooking - oregano, chives, rosemary and sage which all wintered over.

Edited May 24, 2009 by Kathryn41

[Amby 490]

lovely peas, Amby! Alas, we are late getting our garden in this year so no produce as of yet. We do have pears on the pear trees though, and interestingly found 3 volunteer cucumber plants and 5 volunteer watermelon plants growing over from last year so we have transplanted those and will see how they do. The only thing we have harvested so far this year is asparagus - oh and herbs for cooking - oregano, chives, rosemary and sage which all wintered over.

Thanks There's tons more out there, but I got way to many mosquito bites in my short time out there and couldn't stand it anymore!

I'm kinda sad out our fruit trees. There were so many cherries growing last week and the birds ate most of them. We were considering putting a net over the tree, but none of us could be arsed to get it out of the attic.

[Niels Bohr 72]

Our iceburg lettuce is so tiny.

[Amby 490]

Our iceburg lettuce is so tiny.

my romaine and buttercrunch is just starting to get bigger, but it will die soon. I think my spinach is on the way to death.