Gardening

[Rattus]

That sounds just beautiful...any pictures you can share?

I put those cheapo feeder goldfish in my small pond, also. One of them is now about five inches long! They've been out there for over four years...tough little fish. And a lot cheaper than koi!

You're lucky. We had goldfish in the pond at our last house, and one by one, the racoons took them for dinner .

[roseskid]

Ellen DeGeneres has a koi pond at her house, and was having trouble with something grabbing her fish all the time too. I think it was an egret? Fish can definitely be on lots of critters' menus - aside from ours. My BIL made a cool pond out of some old barrels, and he's had fish in there for years, so I guess it depends on where you live.

[waywyrd]

How cold do your winters get waywyrd?

Not too cold. Nothing worse than mid 20's, and we rarely get that. Pretty mild winters here (which do NOT make up for the blistering, humid summers! ).

I did have some kind of critter pull up a big pickerel rush plant in the pond last year...I bet that was a raccoon. Never did see him, though. My biggest problem is deer, who think my back yard is their own personal salad bar.

[Rattus]

Considering we live just off downtown in the largest city in Canada, it is really surprising how much wildlife we have to deal with. Apart from the ubiquitous squirrels, racoons and skunks (who, bless their furry malodorous little hearts, built a nest under the garden shed while we were in the process of building it), there have been issues with bunnies, coyotes, foxes and groundhogs, and earlier this spring a gyrfalcon took out one of my neighbour's doves (scared Finley right back into the house for a few days - that's a bird he can't take). And five minutes walk away from our house, the beavers are taking down the local trees. I just can't understand why mother nature keeps fighting us on this gardening thing.

[cricketeen]

Well, Gut, I wish I had your gumption. Your garden sounds gorgeous.

Roses, I have also heard that goldfish will grow according to the size of the container.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement regarding the butterfly bushes. I held on for another week and sure enough, there are leafy sprouts coming up!

We're expecting storms tonight, I hope the peonies don't get blown down - they are almost ready to bloom.

[Gutmutter]

I'll post pictures if I can ever get my camera back from my daughter who has commandeered it. I came home from work to 80-plus degree weather, went and sat with a magazine at my table by the pond with the fountain and waterfall going and it was just lovely. Man, am I lucky.

[lei]

Yay! There's even a gardening thread here! FORT is amazing!

I wanna catch up by reading about y'all but a quick introduction: Our garden is in Hawaii, and I tend to it compulsively (and sometimes to the chagrin of my back ) Features include an aviary and cage with ten finches, lots of wild lizards, and a four-foot waterfall with a pond. Some of our best growers are gingers, palms, bananas, jasmines, bromiliads, orchids, bouganvilla, succulents, and ferns. I'll post some pictures soon.

Garden is sanctuary. Garden is peace.

Aloha everyone

[lei]

I also want to share my favorite gardening tip (it didn't come up on a search so perhaps it hasn't been covered.) Neem. It's a plant-based oil which is not only non-toxic (for everything but mites, whiteflies, fungi, and other pesty things) but also beneficial for bees and other friends. It's been used since ancient times in India and Egypt. It's safe to eat food that's been sprayed with it. My friend says it's good as hair conditioner but I never tried it that way (other than what gets on me while using it.)

Anyway it works as well as any poison, without killing geckos and things, and feels a heckuva lot better to breathe in.

Green Light makes a great form. TWO TABLESPOONS per gallon. I need to respray every two weeks but it's worth it.

Hope that helps someone!

P.S. I have no interests in Green Light; this is just my way of trying to save the planet

ETA: SORRY POSTED WRONG AMOUNT FIRST TIME!

[G.G.]

mrd, potted plants (including tubs) need to be watered much more frequently than those planted in the ground. We have two tubs that we did vegetables in the first year, flowers in the following year, and now have sumacs and ground cover. I had to water them nearly every day because they are much more exposed to the sun and consequently get a lot hotter and dry out a lot faster. If you have water control issues in your area, things I do are: use cooking water from steaming vegetables; put a bucket in the shower while running the water to get it warm enough; and most importantly, use a rain barrel. Actually, we have two rain barrels but will be getting a third this summer. We almost never have to use city water on our garden.

I remember one year in Denver, there was a big hullaballo about using rainbarrels. The farmers downstream had fits over various new broadcasts showing peoples' inventive ways to catch rainwater because they felt those people were rightfully taking water that should have run downstream into the river for the farmers' use. In the end, if I recall, the upshot was that in Denver, at least, it was illegal to catch rainwater that way and that the ground water (or what should have been groundwater) was being "stolen" from downstream farmers. Crazy eh?

I like the shower water option. I know one other issue that always seems to come up is using old dishwater - some people feel that the dishsoap, etc. makes the water inappropriate for dumping in the ground. I wonder if that holds true if you use "green" dish soap?

I love gardening and wish I had more time and space for it. My new home office is teeming with flowering plants. The nursery told me no way would bleeding heart, lavender, pansies, etc. grow inside because they wouldn't get enough light or temperature contrast. I'm pleased to say that all are thriving and wish I could have told the nursery worker that clearly they've never been in the upstairs of my house where it gets well over 90 during a summer day, and well into the 50's at night since we live in what is technically high desert (and I always have the window wide open).

ETA: As I read through the rest of the posts on this page, I remembered something else. I, too, have used packing peanuts as drainage. One time, though, I had a HUGE pot that was up to my waist in height and didn't have enough packing peanuts to do the trick. So, I used crushed pop cans (ok, maybe some beer cans too). They worked great!

[Gutmutter]

Lei - your garden sounds heavenly! When I get flight privileges from my daughter (I technically have them now, just don't know how to access them) I'm flying out to see your garden. How much work is the aviary? That really captures my imagination. Just so nobody gets deluded that I'm some crack gardener, I feel the need for full disclosure that my vegetable garden (originally cultivated by serious farmers) is almost completely grassed over. My question - how badly grassed an area can a rented cultivator (can't think of the word!) handle?