Gardens vegetable, flower or other?

[Puzzicato]

Ok, Ok. lol I should charge for all my recipes.
I have two of them that I use depending on severity

Light Baking Soda Spray:
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 quart water
A few drops of liquid soap

This Will Kill it All Spray:
■1 tbsp vegetable oil
■1 gallon unchlorinated water
■1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
■1 tsp Listerine (yes, the famous mouthwash, no mint flavor, just regular)
■1 tbsp liquid soap
■1 ½ tbsp baking soda
■Pump sprayer (large)

Mix the baking soda, soap, Listerine, and oil with 1 cup water. Add the vinegar last so that the mix won’t bubble over. Pour the mixture into the sprayer and add 1 gallon water. Shake to combine. Spray plants thoroughly---this means under the leaves as well.

The second one works wonders for my roses and will get rid of bugs as well. They absolutely hate the taste.

Thanks!

 

[RBH]

I just ran across this site from Kraft. Its pretty neat.



HOME FARMING

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Well, this baby goes in the salad tonight!:eusa_clap

bk

 

[Foofoogal]

Fried some squash and first of the okra last night. Yummy.
Finally got some needed rain around here.

 

[LocktownDog]

Found aphids all over my roses this morning. Have never needed to deal with them before in any of my gardens, either here in the dry desert or back home in wild wet Oregon. Saw no evidence of them on any of the veggies, just the roses. The blooms are quite prolific this year and show no adverse effects from the little nasties.

I mixed up a batch of my favorite insecticidal soap. A little Murphys Oil Soap and a bit of cayenne pepper added to a gallon of water in a pump sprayer. I coated all the leaves and blooms and then moved on to do the veg as well. Will let you know if it works.

 

[jamespowers]

Found aphids all over my roses this morning. Have never needed to deal with them before in any of my gardens, either here in the dry desert or back home in wild wet Oregon. Saw no evidence of them on any of the veggies, just the roses. The blooms are quite prolific this year and show no adverse effects from the little nasties.

I mixed up a batch of my favorite insecticidal soap. A little Murphys Oil Soap and a bit of cayenne pepper added to a gallon of water in a pump sprayer. I coated all the leaves and blooms and then moved on to do the veg as well. Will let you know if it works.

That should probably do it. The cheapest way is to just spary them off with a strong blast from a hose. They will come back but you can blast them again. It is kind of therapeutic. Come home from a tough day and blow off some aphids.
I usually use this to prevent it from the very beginning:

 

[Mav]

The flower and the zucchini. The flower tastes like really powerfully strong zucchini. Stuffed in various ways, it can be a stunning thing to eat.

Battered and deep- fried, as well. You can do that with just about any squash blossom. Delicious.

 

[LocktownDog]

That should probably do it. The cheapest way is to just spary them off with a strong blast from a hose. They will come back but you can blast them again. It is kind of therapeutic. Come home from a tough day and blow off some aphids.

I tried the hose for a couple of nights. But when the population nearly doubled overnight, I resorted to the spray. As of right now, there are very few aphids left. I may spray again tomorrow just as a precaution.

 

[Puzzicato]

I ate my first strawberries last night! Yum!

 

[jamespowers]

I tried the hose for a couple of nights. But when the population nearly doubled overnight, I resorted to the spray. As of right now, there are very few aphids left. I may spray again tomorrow just as a precaution.

Spraying works for me too. Anything to get rid of the danged plant lice. :eusa_doh:

 

[The Lonely Navigator]

Eating that flower sounds yummy. I used to have a book on edible flowers...

Edible Flower Garden

Also found a nice link on edible flowers...

Edible Flowers

 

[Puzzicato]

Zucchini/courgette flowers are more like a vegetable than a lot of edible flowers. They don't have much fragrance, just a mild vegetabley flavour. Usually when I think of edible flowers I think of things like nasturtiums, roses and borage where the fragrance is the point of them!

 

[The Lonely Navigator]

LoL - Yeah I don't blame you! I love Roses myself, and folks know you can use the Rose Hips too for nutrients. My other favorite flower to eat is Lavender (I love drinking it as a tea).

I just think it's fun to eat flowers - something that some may consider odd because society tends to usually view them as for decoration and not to eat...lol

 

[JazzyDame]

Victory Gardens!!

I’m fairly new (been with The Fedora Lounge for just about a week now), and I’m THRILLED to find a thread on Victory Gardens and gardening, in general. This is my third year of cultivating a Victory Garden, and I am thoroughly loving it! Each year I try something new, or introduce a new addition to the garden. My V-Garden measures approximately 12’X25’. Currently, I’m harvesting two varieties of zucchini, cucumbers, sweet bell peppers, sugarsnap peas, onions, tomatoes, pumpkins, raspberries and blackberries. I’ve also got a patch of herbs (basil, thyme, oregano, rosemary, chives, spearmint, parsley and sage), three orange trees, a lemon tree, an apricot tree, a plum tree, two varieties of grapes (Thompson Seedless and Red Flame), and a “salad table”, which is basically a stand-alone garden in which I grow my salad greens. It’s a wonderfully rewarding and gratifying experience to cook “from-garden-to-table”, and nothing beats homegrown produce. No funky pesticides to worry about…I’ve planted a border of marigolds and nasturtiums around the garden as a natural form of pest-control, and there are plenty of garden lizards and ladybugs to keep things in balance.

I’ll post a couple of photos of the garden in its beginning stages this season (it looks more like a jungle of produce now as production is in full swing!) and the salad table. Please don’t laugh at my corny first attempt at making a scarecrow. By the way, his name’s Bogie, and, yes, his hat once resembled a straw fedora.

 

[PADDY]

Victory Garden.

Just harvested my potatoes! and planting the next crop. Rhubarb doing nicely (just love rhubarb crumble..yum!). Apples and Pears on my little dwarf trees (I train them along a hand-made larch fence) have been doing well, but...the boys have been nibbling the bottom ones!. Victoria Plums..on target for a good crop!! And the strawberries (first year of Operation Strawberry!) have done okay (the netting worked and kept both birdies and doggies out!!).

 

[LocktownDog]

My zukes are just now finally getting flowers ... they grow to full size and drop off. No fruit. Half of my tomato plants are seeing the same thing. So are all my peppers. My corn is high but showing no ear starts yet. Melons growing slowly ... very slowly. Trees are doing great. Grapes are fantastic. Strawberries are done fruiting and are throwing out runners everywhere.

Seems to come down to a definite lack of bees this year. I may have to hand-pollinate. :rage:

 

[Puzzicato]

Do you add phosphate to your soil? Fruiting plants are really heavy phosphate users - my tomatoes and squash are much better at holding their fruit since I started preparing the soil with a bit of superphosphate.

 

[rumblefish]

My zukes are just now finally getting flowers ... they grow to full size and drop off. No fruit. Half of my tomato plants are seeing the same thing.QUOTE]
Does it look like blossom end rot?
It could be lack of calcium. Tomato and zuchinni are most susceptible. I had this problem and licked it by using lots of egghells in my compost and plenty of lime during planting.

 

[LocktownDog]

The soil is fertilized organically, rotated, and layered with compost each year. This is the first season I've seen this happen. Its not end rot. The flowers look viable and remain for a week or so. Instead of producing, they just wither away. No pests, no blight. I really think I need to pollinate by hand. Not going to hurt in trying anyway.

 

[jamespowers]

The soil is fertilized organically, rotated, and layered with compost each year. This is the first season I've seen this happen. Its not end rot. The flowers look viable and remain for a week or so. Instead of producing, they just wither away. No pests, no blight. I really think I need to pollinate by hand. Not going to hurt in trying anyway.

Thetomatoes are quite easy to pollinate by hand. Just go outevery morning and shake the plant. The flowers will self pollinate due to the shaking motion. Sounds crazy but since my garden guy told me about it, I rarely lose tons of flowers.
Another thing you might want to try that few people know about is alfalfa pellets. Yes, the ones you give to rabbits. Spread that out and water it in or place two or three handfuls of the stuff in a five gallon bucket and make alfalfa tea out of it for your plants. Alfalfa has a natural growth hormone in it that makes plants take off.
The other plants such as melons need heat like crazy for long periods of time. They should take off with the current weather situation.
My grapes are doing fine as well. It is their second year since I planted them and they are bearing grapes already. They are also taking over the lemon and orange tree near it though. Perhaps I should prune them.