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Female blossoms are short-lived. Female blossoms of pumpkins and squash open first thing in the morning and close a few hours later (24 hours at the most), never to re-open again. If these blossoms are not pollinated they abort and fall off the plant. Generally, the female blossom is open from about 10:00 a.m. to about 3:00 p.m.
chiggerbit wrote:I finally started gardening in earnest this year. I had tried it a number of years ago when I moved down here, but finally gave up, as the clay soil was so horrible, always too wet or too much like cement. In the meantime I had horses in the garden area, so now it is nicely manured, and what a difference it makes. I'm trying to do it organic, but....I really hate those bugs on the asparagus. I'm squishing them so far. Any suggestions welcome.
My problem is, I can already tell that I made some mistakes. I definitely didn't give the squash row, next to the corn, enough room. What monsters! I wanted them to vine into the corn, but the squash seem to have their own ideas on that. And what about the blossoms? I vaguely seem to remember that there are male and female squash blossoms. I want to pollinate them, as there are so few bees. Are the blossoms up close to the crowns different than the ones out towards the end of the vines?
As for the corn, it's about to the stage that the coons will be marauding it. Any organic repellents out there? Other than chaining my dogs up there? And the bunnies are eating the bean leaves. Maybe I should have planted more, to share with them.
Any tips on carrots?
The super chili peppers seem to be doing great, not so sure about the bell peppers. Tips?
Tomatoes are doing fine. What are your favorite kinds?
the horse poo has to be composted right though
Err, what do I do with the boiled linseed oil? Paint it on? I had already bought four 10x2x8's, untreated, for the asparagus. I can get more.boiled linseed oil
In "regular" soil, that taproot will often run into an obstacle, which causes it to split into two or more roots.
...get down 10-12 inches...
The No Dig Garden is built on top of the ground, so you can start building a vegetable garden anywhere. This is organic gardening at its simplest and best.
Building a vegetable garden of this sort is extremely attractive for those sites that have poor soil or invasive weeds. It's also a great way to build a garden for those that can't, or don't want to, dig a good size vegetable garden!
First thing, of course is to choose the site for building a garden. Make sure the site is level and gets at least 5 hours of sun a day. If it's not level, fill the gaps with whatever organic material is at hand (leaves, twigs, washed seaweed) until it is level.
If you are planting the vegetable garden over lawn or weeds, mow the area to ground level and build the garden on top. If you are planting your vegetable garden on a hard surface, put down some cushioning organic material first (as above).
To build your no dig vegetable garden start with a layer of newspaper (no colour printing), at least 6mm (1/4 inch) thick. Surround the garden with some sort of border material. This can be bricks, logs, planks or rocks but should be at least 20-25CM high (8-10 inches) to contain the organic material within and to discourage the weeds around it.
Lay down a layer of pads of lucerne hay leaving no gaps, to a height of 10cm (about 4 inches). Layer some good organic fertilizer on top to a height of 20mm (1 inch). This can be just about any sort of good quality material like chicken, horse, cow or sheep manure. If you don't have this sort of material available, sprinkle a layer of good commercial fertilizer. No need to go the full 1" depth with commercial material.
Add a thick layer of loose straw to the garden 150mm (6 inches) and another layer of fertilizer and then top it off with a 100mm (4 inches) of compost.
Water the garden until it's wet but not soaking. You can now start planting your seedlings immediately for instant garden!
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