Pellet Fan
All Things Considered => General Discussion--Non food Related => Topic started by: Kristin Meredith on March 30, 2020, 11:09:41 AM
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Bentley has been hard at work for the past couple weeks getting things ready in the veg garden -- working on the compost pile, building new beds, weed whacking, moving berry plants, transfering dirt and compost. Yesterday he was spraying the weeds in the beds and between the beds in the hopes of planting grass between the rows in a few days. The vegetables I am most interested in planting aren't ready to go in yet. I have helped about 5% of the time and otherwise it is all his effort!
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Impressive, I envy you guys. The wife and were just talking this morning about buying a Aero Garden Harvest Touch. ;D
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We have quite the garden going on outside too but it is all weeds. Wife is going to have fun taking care of all of that stuff when she gets back home. I have no idea what to do or where to start, and she probably wouldn't want to let me loose with anything anyway.
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I'm ready and the garden is ready (built up the beds and new soil since last year.) But it's still a tad early and my nursery is closed and the farmers market where I get a lot of starter plants I don't get from seed is closed.
So I've resorted to Amazon. My Walla Walla sweet onion sets I usually get in the ground by now, coming next week via USPS. It's going to be a weird year.
On a happier note, zucchini is looking great in the greenhouse, the raspberries are growing like crazy already, and the sugar snap peas came up last week.
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These are not the type of heat I can handle, but it will be interesting to see if they are viable to germinate. They were sent by my oldest sister Karen from California last Fall. I think we will be done with freeze issues in the next 2 weeks, so hope at least a few will germinate.
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Oh, my! Make sure to wear gloves at a minimum when dealing with that pepper. May need goggles and a mask if dehydrating or cooking them too. They are REALLY HOT. I eat them in sauces and rubs but would never eat any portion of them raw. If you eat them, have some milk on hand or something to take the heat away. It takes about 15-30 minutes before you can no longer feel the effects of eating them in something. To me, they don't burn like cayenne or habanero but your whole body goes into a fight routine against them and you will feel a warmth for that whole time. It just takes time to go away.
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If only you were closer... I ordered seeds from Thailand and have 30 or so plants. Most were to share with coworkers but we shut the office down due to Covid19.
I like spicy but I won't touch the ones you have in the photo.
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First planting. May be a little early still, but we are counting on that early spring promised by the rodent in PA! Planted the parsley and dill, not because we really use that much, but because buterflies love to lay their eggs on it and the caterpillars eat it before metamorphing into butterflies.
Probably will get some sage. Don't know what else Bent wants. As it warms, we will get the weeds between the beds killed and re-establish some nice fecus/bluegrass mix in between.
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I think the soil is finally at an acceptable level for crops. My Candy Onion Plants from Dixondale Farms should be here next week.
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The chili seeds do not appear to be viable. About 3 1/2 inches in the last 5 days. Was in the process of roto-tilling the parkways for the seed. Have to let it dry and then go over one more time, rake out the rocks, roto it once more, then seed. Got half the onions in, waiting 2 weeks to plant the other half.
The raspberry's are a little weak, but I think we are gonna have lots of blackberry's!
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Freeze warning here in Eastern PA in the next few mornings.
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Yeah, we are rollin the dice with the herbs...The onions are about the right time. Supposedly in the next 15 days, we have 2 nights at 36° and then nothing under 41° for the rest. So I hope we are done with the 30's!
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I soaked my pepper seeds in potassium nitrate (plain old salt peter) like this article said and most of them germinated. I got it at the hardware store. Who knew stump remover is so versatile.
https://www.chileplants.com/growhow.aspx?section=10
They were 10 years old and most came up. I only had one make it to transplant in a pot though. They all grew so fast they couldn't support their height and fell over. So did my Cherokee Purple tomato plants. I don't know why. Kristin, any suggestions?? I planted more without soaking just to see what happens.
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Now you tell me... :pig:
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All it did was help them germinate. Out of the 15 I planted, one is alive. With that kind of batting average I don't think I'm going to get called up to MLB. I'm stuck in the minors.
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I assume you mean suggests for keeping them upright in early days of growing before transplant. I don't really. It is why I hate starting from seeds indoors. The only folks I know who have success seem to constantly re-pot and put part of the stem a little deeper in the medium when they re-pot.
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That's what I need to be doing then. I don't want to go to Walmart to get tomato plants, so I'm trying seeds. And they never have the chile petin and pequin pepper plants I want. They grow wild here in Texas, but only after a bird has eaten them. The tomatoes came up and I'll go re-pot them. Thanks!
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Our local power company has hired Asplundh Tree Services to do a bunch of tree trimming in our area. They have been around the house for the last few days and got them to drop off two loads today, and they said they might have one for tomorrow. It would take 2-3 years to break down, but we will use it as a ground cover for weeds in the big melon/squash beds...
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And it is supposed to be 32° tonight, have fingers crossed!
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At some point in my life Asplundh was what I thought was a local tree or landscape service company. It seems like they have acquired many other local companies over the years. No harm no foul as I don't know anything about them.
So, my question is, how do you contact them for assistance, what types of services will they provide, and what are the cost of those services? Do they provide some free of charge because they just want to get rid of some of the natural resources that they have accumulated?
I have no interest in their services because I just don't have a need based on my property. I am asking because I think others may have a need and may be more receptive to help if they knew if the company had assets and/or services they were wiling to donate to those that needed them.
Carry on.
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Not exactly sure if you are asking a ? The guys around here are being paid by the energy company. I guess they would normally just dump the stuff on property that allows it and then smooth it out.
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Thought yesterday was going to be the start of planting. Bent was going to rototill the beds I wanted to plant and prep the 3 big beds for planting in about 10 days. But we have had so much rain recently everything was too wet and he said the beds were just too hard to till. Need to let them dry out a bit. So, of course, it rains today and we may get an inch and a half. Guess now we will shoot for Sunday afternoon or, more likely, Monday.
The front bed is planted with his onions (which are doing well so far) and I am very happy that asparagus has returned to half of the bed -- an unexpected bonus! The next bed is what he tried to rototill. I will plant beets in it. The big bed is where we will make two mounds then cover the rest of the bed in a heavy mulch of the wood chips and plant watermelon in about 10 days.
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His onions -- looking good so far!
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No garden here, but just read the forecast is for 2.5-3 inches of rain here today.
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No garden here, but just read the forecast is for 2.5-3 inches of rain here today.
Send some here. Sunny and 90 in need of rain today.
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My garden. ;D
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What are you growing hughver?
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Two types of basil, thyme, dill, mint and curly parsley. All came as an herb package, I also have cherry tomatoes that I'll do next.
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Is it hydroponic? It appears to be on a stand with a timer, then the grow chamber appears to sit on top of that. Is the lamp above a grow light? Looks like a fairly advanced system, what is it called?
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It's called an AeroGarden, this is the six pod Harvest Elite WiFi model. Yes, it's hydronic and the herb grow kit comes with liquid plant food that's added to the water and dirt filled seed pod containers that stick down into the water. The grow light is programmed to be on for a specific amount of time that is dependent on the plants that you are growing, the herbs get 17 hours of light a day. The digital readout also indicates when more water or plant food is needed. Another stay busy toy.
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Grow light is telescopic? Curious if the fertilizer shows the 0-0-0 (nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus) breakdown?
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Yes, the grow light is telescopic, you start with it low and raise it as the plants grow. The display only shows when to add plant food.
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Is there anything on the plant food container?
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A picture is worth a thousand words.
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Thanks. Gives me an idea how to proceed with fertilizing mid summer!
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Bentley, have you seen your forecast for this weekend? 32 for a low Sunday morning! :o
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Bentley, have you seen your forecast for this weekend? 32 for a low Sunday morning! :o
Yeah, that's why the tomatoes and peppers are staying in the house rigght now and I am not even thinking of putting seeds in the ground until next week.
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Weather.com shows over night of 34° on Friday and 36° on Saturday here in Stevensburg. Hard to believe. I will assume we will not be at those lows for more then a couple hours. The basil is dead, everything else seemed to have weathered the cold from 3 weeks ago, so hoping we dodge another bullet. I am done with blankets and cover!
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It's a mild 108° here in the valley of the sun. ;)
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It's a mild 108° here in the valley of the sun. ;)
My Brother and Sister in law live in Phoenix, eighty first ave. and bordering the 303, Peoria Az. They said it is warm.
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2nd week of May and a fire during the day! And 4 days before the air conditioner on!
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Probably has something to do with lack of pollution in the air that used to block the Arctic air from traveling further south. ;)
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The rule of thumb in this part of Virginia is that you wait until after Mother's Day to plant tomatoes and peppers. We had a freeze last night. Our vineyard neighbors had the fans going from midnight on. We are to have some more cold nights and very windy days until Thurs, so will plant my tomatoes and peppers on May 14 along with all other seeds. Late garden this year.
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Big day has finally arrived -- we planted seeds! The beds were all prepared. The 3 big ones have a heavy layer of the shredded tree bark and some straw. They got planted with watermelon, cantaloup and acorn squash. Three middle beds have beets, then middle will get tomato and pepper plants tomorrow when last cold night is truly done, the last bed has carrots and a couple of zucchini. In the front beds, only planted the two cucumbers which will grow up the trellises. They have a heavy straw mulch at present. The far right bed is still empty, Bent will plant his jalapenos in there in a couple of weeks. Back trellis of blackberries are blooming nicely.
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next dry day I'll get a few pictures up. Garden is coming along nicely (although frustrating I didn't get to purchase some of the fun items from the farmers market like chocolate cherry tomatoes). Warm spring here in the Pacific Northwest, but a wet spell is happening now.
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Very nice, way too much work for me though. We are pretty fortunate, pretty easy to get farm fresh veggies from several places. Until we moved here we always had a small garden but no flat ground and heavily shaded so it would not work.
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Finally got the rest of the veg garden planted -- tomatoes, Anaheim chili and bell peppers. Those plants are soooo puny. Wish I could have bought from either the MG plant sale or the local farmers market, but not to be this year. Also got a nice covering of sawdust mulch around them and also the herbs and asparagus, courtesy of neighbor Kearney & Assoc. Now for sunshine, warmth, rain and time!
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Bent has done a great job of transplanting and tending to to balckberry bushes the last two years and I think we are going to have some fine results this year!
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Making Pesto later today. :lick:
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That basil sure grew fast. Looks so nice and healhty.
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Was worried that the Kentucky 31 was simply not taking. But it appears to have come to life in the last week. Figure it will need to be mowed in a couple of week, we are going into a warm spell, and we just had 1/2 inch of rain, so I expect it to take off this week.
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The "early" planted veggies and herbs seem to have made it, the basil was the only casualty. The parsley is exploding, the dill is really taking off, the rosemary is under performing, but hoping it is ready to start growing. The sage has come a long way and even the little pepper (that I cant even remember the variety) is gonna make it, little, but healthy.
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Admirable effort. Hope it works out great for you. Are you planning to vac seal whatever you can't immediately use?
I know the local corn farmer here just pulled the plastic over the seeds this week. It looks like the frost risk is behind us and temps should be in the 70-80+ range for highs and in the high 40s to low 60s for the lows going forward.
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And the Candy Onion Plants from DixonDale Farms in Texas are doing great! Every one that was planted has made it, about 57. Problem is, how do you eat 35 to 45 pounds of onions before they go bad. Wish I had a root cellar! You can see the ones on the right are bigger then the left, they are 2 weeks apart, but it seems the ones planted later are catching up fast!
If you want to grow onions and have never had luck with them, I highly recommend these guys for next year. $13 includes shipping! Sure beats the Loews onion bunches I tried 3 years ago, not one lived!
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I guess the herbs could be dried and vac sealed. Kristin really planted them for the pollinator's and also for the caterpillar/butterfly population. The onions, I have no idea how to make them stretch!
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And finally the blackberry's! Man, what a difference a year makes, lots of blossom I hope means lost of berries. We will see how I feel about them when it is time to pick, the tenor of the moment usually changes at that time.
And the baby Jalapeno's, about 15 of them. Probably not the best to start seeds the middle of April! Will see how many survive. I was just tired of nursing them in the house, if they make it great! So small you will really have to look for it in the picture.
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Pick the onions and then cut them up and freeze them in vac seal bags.
If you have way too much of a bunch of things that I use, I would drive the 4 hours to your place if you would have me over for the night.
It may be better to reach out to your local fire department and other places you have supported and provided them with the extras that you can't use.
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Sounds like a plan! Will be curious if the onions get as big as they show!
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My folks always said onions can be stored most anywhere in a cool dry space. And if you put them in the legs of pantyhose or stockings and tied a knot between each one they wouldn't rot. I never tried it but I'm interested to hear what all of y'all think. ???
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Will have to start asking the AA women for there pantyhose, that should get me beat up a few times! Seriously worth a try, I have no idea what a pair of pantyhose cost!
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A lot of women don't wear them anymore. They aren't that expensive, I will try to remember to get a couple of pair in the store when I am in.
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They said that's how they stored them as children. Keeping them separated and in a cool dry place is the key apparently. They have to be hung up so they don't touch anything. I forgot to mention that for some reason. They might make the room smell like onions though. I like the smell personally.
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Sorta like the new Burger King social distancing burger that has extra onions on it
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I see they are a 90-100 day growing onion. So I should be looking to harvest the 1st 18 around 3rd week of July. Well, lesson learned, plant them much later next year. We have warm weather till usually mid September. Dry is not an issue, but cool is. Should plow through the 1st 18 no problem. I would venture to guess they will last in the pantry a couple of weeks too!
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making some progress, but everything except the sunflowers are behind from years past.
Hops are decorative, sunflowers are decorative, but I think add a lot to the experience of gardening.
Sugar snap peas, pole beans, raspberries, asparagus(new this year), blue berries, pumpkins, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, onions, lots of tomatoes, tomatillo, and then the peppers inside the greenhouse.
will update again when things start maturing, but before harvest time.
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Looking good DK and so much ahead of our stuff.
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Your stuff is way ahead of us. Are you North, South, East or West?
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Pacific Northwest. Vancouver Washington. My strawberries are way behind. Not sure what’s wrong. Will just be fun to have fresh strawberries in a month. Whatever else I could I started in the greenhouse .
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Well, Spring will be over here in 4 days, so I expect the stuff that is lagging to take off. Supposed to be an average to above June for temperature. I think our last 70° day is Monday and then it is all mid 80's for the next 2 weeks, along with a 91° on Weds.
The stuff from seed seems to be really lagging. Carrots, Beets & Jalapenos. Also the Melons & Squash.
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All herbs doing well except the Rosemary, maybe it is a slower growing plant then I know? Any know why some of the parsley would get yellow and die? Maybe to much water.
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Tomatoes taking off, Bell Peppers lagging! Onions just keep chugging along! And the cucumbers are starting to come up.
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And the Kentucky 31 grass has come in nicely, a few bare spots, but pretty happy with 2nd cut. And even the Rivera Bermuda decide to come out of dormancy for good!
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A little garden fly over...
VA Garden 6/2020 (https://youtu.be/T2itO21eKmY)
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coming along nicely
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Very healthy looking garden, wish I could say that about ours.
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Just beautiful DK -- one of these years we will get it.
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They started cutting the Winter Wheat today. And a fly over of the Anemic 2020 Garden...
2020 Wheat Harvest Stevensburg, VA (https://youtu.be/IKTyl5UAxR8)
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When I retire I'm getting a place that has a large area for a veggie garden! Our front yard faces south, so it's container gardening for us right now. Poles beans do pretty well in the back even those it's a northern exposure.
Right now we've got snap peas, strawberries, pole beans, 3 different tomatoes, pickling cukes, basil, cilantro, and jalepenos.
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Really nice bregent!
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Yes, another very healthy looking garden.
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Going to make some homemade chili with peppers fresh from the garden -- Anaheim, jalapeno, a sweet red (whose name a forgot), and some Asian peppers SIL gave us. Bent is roasting them for me and will then take the skin off, seed and chop. I am also going to use a tomato sauce I made last year from excess tomatoes and froze.
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Anyone who hasn't smelled roasting peppers should buy a couple to roast just for the odor.
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Anyone who hasn't smelled roasting peppers should buy a couple to roast just for the odor.
Oh yeah!!!
We bought two cases of Hatch Anaheim chilies, one mild, one medium hot.
All cleaned, bagged, vacuum sealed, and frozen.
I'm set until next season.
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I thought Hatch was its own variety. Then Ortaga brought the Hatch to So Cal and started growing them and just renaming them. Then you can go down the road of the elevation is different, the soil is different, the water is different for growing and that the Hatch is hotter then the Anaheim.
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I thought Hatch was its own variety. Then Ortaga brought the Hatch to So Cal and started growing them and just renaming them. Then you can go down the road of the elevation is different, the soil is different, the water is different for growing and that the Hatch is hotter then the Anaheim.
Hatch is a village in New Mexico.
Called the Chile Capital of the World.
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Question...
Doesn't anybody have problems with birds or moths?
I don't see and netting over any of you gardens.
When things cool off, I want to put some raise beds out back in our sand dunes.
Have two zones (unused now) on our irrigation system in the sand dunes, so that was nice that previous owners had that installed.
We have a lot of birds that are pests, and in June we get a big influx of moths.
Has anybody used any protection over top of your gardens?
I know there are dozens out there (been googling a lot) but would prefer recommendations from people here that I trust have used the product.
Any help would be appreciated.
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Since the berries did so well this year, I thought we might have problems with birds but did not happen. Don't know if it will be a problem in the future or if they just have enough other things to eat with surrounding crops. Moths were only a problem when I was growing cabbages. The only real damage has been to squash plants. I am usually reluctant to spray because I plant to attract pollinators. If you have a certain spray you are looking at, you can PM and I can ask our hort agent.
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Don't know if I want to use pesticides. Soapy water works well in many cases.
More concerned about bird than insects. I doubt strawberries would fare well if not protected from birds.
At this point I am just looking to build the raised beds so want to plan ahead for protecting the plants.
Will probably need some protection from sun as well, 98 today.
Plan B would be to build the beds, see what happens and go from there.
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I been around growing commercial strawberries in Fresno and Camarillo, and neither place ever used anything too keep birds away from plants.
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OK, thanks...
Maybe Plan B (just build beds and see what happens) is best option and go from there.
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You can always put up garden hoops and row covers if you want some sun protection, also for early or late frost.
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You can always put up garden hoops and row covers if you want some sun protection, also for early or late frost.
Yes, I was looking at a couple of videos of how to make them out of 10' galvanized tubing.
Some innovative thinking...
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I think the garden is done for the year. Bent's berries and peppers did really well, although I feel he picked the blackberries too early. But we learned some things and will work to improve the berries next year. The tomatoes were a disaster -- hit by wind and uprooted, then extreme heat, then too much rain. Bushes got big, but not many tomatoes. And the melons were a disaster. Same thing happened to them as the tomatoes, except the rain just made them get huge, but still trying to get ripe in mid-Sept and so are starting to rot. This watermelon has been the first with a bit of flavor, but not as good as prior years. Ah well, learned things so there is always next year!!!
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