The Beauty Of The Changing Seasons

[Lady Cannafan]

Heirloom,

Your 'mators are looking awesome! You're going to have far more of them than I will, but at least it appears I will actually get to harvest some this year with them being enclosed in a "pen" away from bigger critters.

I started my second attempt at sweet corn in little pots and now have about 8 plants that are in the ground and the chippee's have left them alone.
What is the root structure like on corn? Can they survive in a large planter?

 

[Lilred]

Lilred, thanks for your pics!

I tried for a bit to find your bug, but I can't identify that one. The wings are pretty, but let's hope it's not a plant eater.

It shows up everyday and sits on the stalk...I am so afraid that it's eating the stalk...I think I will spray the table plants with neem oil that way the frogs in the yard won't be harmed.

I found a caterpillar crawling on the top of one of the pots this am. I did not kill him thinking that is a good thing.

Also I have a fern that these beautiful caterpillars love to eat...went out one morning and it was dead on the fern. Is this normal.

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[Lilred]

Thank u all for inviting me here....I have been having a bad run with my depression...meds not working anymore..and digging in the dirt has been sooooo good for me. It is the only time when I don't think about death. I guess that is why I am out there several times a day and keep looking for something else to plant or tend to.
I hope to soak up all yall knowledge and let my garden heal me.

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[Lady Cannafan]

It shows up everyday and sits on the stalk...I am so afraid that it's eating the stalk...I think I will spray the table plants with neem oil that way the frogs in the yard won't be harmed.

I found a caterpillar crawling on the top of one of the pots this am. I did not kill him thinking that is a good thing.

Also I have a fern that these beautiful caterpillars love to eat...went out one morning and it was dead on the fern. Is this normal.

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I don't know if it's normal for the caterpillar to die.....but you need to keep a close watch on caterpillars and plants. They are plant eaters, and they love MJ plants. Can you identify or get a pic of the caterpillar? That way we can look it up and see if it's a good bug or a bad bug for the garden.

You said your depressions meds aren't working anymore, are they pharma meds or MJ? There are specific strains that are good for depression and concentrated oil works wonders for it as well.

Post up here anytime, it's always good to communicate with people when you are feeling depressed. It helps to lift it.

 

[Heirloom]

Lilred-

You'll make friends here in a hurry and find this place to be therapeutic. As is gardening.

I'm not going to tell you you are doing anything 'wrong', because there really isn't a wrong unless NOTHING is growing. But I will give you some tips.

A decent basic fertilizer is Espoma Gardentone. I use it to some extent in all my gardens. Kelp, Fish hydrosylate and a P dominated guano (rock phosphate too) I also keep on hand to spot feed plants with special needs. Epsom salts as well.

Regular, consistent water is crucial. Gardens on timers with drip irrigation do best. Best intentions don't make for great gardens.

Get those plants in the ground. It's too hot for containers to do really well unless special precautions are taken.

Start composting ASAP. I assume you have grass clippings about once per week? Mix 50:50 with brown material...straw, leaves etc. Add kitchen scraps except for meat/fat to the compost. And/Or start a worm bin.

Any organic matter you can add to the soil, do it. Well composted manures are good. Forest humus is great too, and free. Have any fallen rotting trees? Roll it over and collect all the rich goodness.

Mulch the soil surface to reduce soil temps and retain moisture.

Choose appropriate mulches for the plants you're mulching around.
-Generally speaking garden veggies, grasses and flowers prefer a green mulch, like grass clippings, alfalfa meal etc. It's a bacterial preference thing, and you will learn about it as you learn about the 'soil food web'.
-Also generally speaking trees, shrubs, bushes prefer a brown mulch, which promotes more fungal growth. Wood chips is another decent brown mulch.

Don't over mulch. You don't want it to cut off air to the soil surface. Just a couple inches.

If you want a couple books to help you figure out what the heck happens in soil and plants, buy Teaming with Microbes and Teaming with Nutrients. It's seems to be some heavy stuff, but the writer makes it understandable. The two best books I've read in a while and really de-mystified what goes on on top of and below the soil surface and in the plants.

We are all here to help you in any ways we can!

 

[Lilred]

I don't know if it's normal for the caterpillar to die.....but you need to keep a close watch on caterpillars and plants. They are plant eaters, and they love MJ plants. Can you identify or get a pic of the caterpillar? That way we can look it up and see if it's a good bug or a bad bug for the garden.

You said your depressions meds aren't working anymore, are they pharma meds or MJ? There are specific strains that are good for depression and concentrated oil works wonders for it as well.

Post up here anytime, it's always good to communicate with people when you are feeling depressed. It helps to lift it.

Thank u
I take pharmaceutical meds now but please elaborate on the strains that help with depression.

In the pot this morning there was a black centipede...I have seen a few.
I picked up the dill fern because the caterpillars love to eat them and since that is their favorite...according g to the nursery....I figured they would eat there and not my plants. I did not get a pic of it before it died.

 

[ajagunle]

Hi Heirloom,

Are your Gardeners removing any of the side shoots from the Toms or lettng them do their thing? I was looking at my very weedy plants today and I was looking for an easy excise

 

[Heirloom]

Hi Heirloom,

Are your Gardeners removing any of the side shoots from the Toms or lettng them do their thing? I was looking at my very weedy plants today and I was looking for an easy excise

Yes, removing most of the side shoots. Because there are a lot of plants close together, it is especially important this year. Otherwise they get out of hand real quick. Tying them to the trellis happens every three days or so.

 

[Heirloom]

Heirloom,

Your 'mators are looking awesome! You're going to have far more of them than I will, but at least it appears I will actually get to harvest some this year with them being enclosed in a "pen" away from bigger critters.

I started my second attempt at sweet corn in little pots and now have about 8 plants that are in the ground and the chippee's have left them alone.
What is the root structure like on corn? Can they survive in a large planter?

Thanks Canna! Nice to see you around

Sure corn will survive in a planter. It's doing very well, at least growth and health wise, in a black plastic #5 pot in the summer sun here. With corn it is best to do a single large planting of even rows about 8" apart and at least 6 or 8 rows wide. The more the better. A 'block' works well. The reason is corn likes to lean and fall, especially with wind. They use each other as support. The outer rows and edges typically get battered, but you get a good core of plants. Pollination is best in single large plantings too. Think about corn fields. The edge plants are always tattered and have corn that's less developed/under pollinated, but the inner field corn is happy and healthy. I'm sure cooler ground from better shade also helps.

So keep it together, woman!

 

[Lady Cannafan]

This dragonfly looks like it's head is turned backwards with glowing eyes. And it's got mickey mouse on the wings.

These are so hard to get a good focused shot on because they are so thin that the camera doesn't understand what to focus on and usually the background comes in sharper.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Is anyone else having trouble uploading pictures tonight? I can't get them to process.

Thanks

 

[Lilred]

Is anyone else having trouble uploading pictures tonight? I can't get them to process.

Thanks

Yes I am

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[Radogast]

A great choice with all 3 plants in this picture.

Rosemary and basil are tasty and grow well.

I don't know much about the squash family, but it looks happy from here



Should Lilred/I be trimming off the Basil when it is going to seed (to allow it to veg more?) or is basil a plant where once it goes to seed, it stops growing new basil leaves? Last spring, I trimmed off flowers on one basil, and let the flowers grow on the other. We have such short summers here, I couldn't really tell how they responded, as neither basil grew much after that point.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Yes I am

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Thanks Lilred. A moderator responded to a help request last night, they are working on the problem. Glad to know it isn't just on my end. Had a terrible time with Skype trying to send pics the day before. Coincidence

 

[Heirloom]

Should Lilred/I be trimming off the Basil when it is going to seed (to allow it to veg more?) or is basil a plant where once it goes to seed, it stops growing new basil leaves? Last spring, I trimmed off flowers on one basil, and let the flowers grow on the other. We have such short summers here, I couldn't really tell how they responded, as neither basil grew much after that point.

They stop growing, though I've never tried to re-veg one. Mine have always clearly signaled 'I'm done'.

 

[Lilred]

Is it too late to plant peas? I ask cuz my client said so but she has no garden....yet she has lived here her whole life and I have only been down here for five years....DC native.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Heirloom, you might want to stay inside for the first two photos.

My back yard smells awesome!!! And the hummingbirds are all over it...as well as bees. ;-)

Okay, Heirloom...safe to come out now.

My tomatoes are getting taller, I need to get that cattle fencing in place this weekend for sure! I had a critter in there because I left it open on one end over the weekend. (story at the end)

I'm going to have Blueberry muffins galore. The wild blueberries are really going bonkers this year! I just need time to harvest them.

My Tiger Lily's are doing their thing, looks like they will be peeking out soon:

And this is for all of you. A beautiful fresh Tea Rose:

And a story:

Soooo, I'm in the barn on Saturday stacking firewood and getting ready to haul junk to one place for the junk dude. What do I see? Another huge hole in the dirt floor where a wood chuck or......Skunk has made a home. Looked like it had been quite comfy for awhile.
So I doused a towel with fuel/oil and put it in the hole to drive the critter out it's escape hole, filled it back in with the dirt and headed back to the garage to take care of shovels/etc.

On my way back, lo and behold..a woodchuck came out of my tomato patch and saw me. He headed straight into the garage and disappeared.

Luckily I saw which direction he went. I got the push broom and started banging it around the area and finally got him to run out of the stairwell and out the roll up door entrance outside.

Mean looking thing, yeah....I know...in the cities they look all friendly and stuff. Out here, they have an attitude. And I would prefer to eat the tomatoes myself. LOL

The Tomato garden is now sealed up, after I discovered one he had chewed on.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Lilred,

I ran out of time last night with all the photo problems and didn't get to your question on best strains for Depression.

The first and foremost, my personal favorite is White Widow. It is highly recommended by many growers for smoking and for making edibles, and I also use it for CCO (Concentrated Cannabis Oil) It has been around for ages and continues to deliver what it says it will. Depression, anxiety, mood swings...and it helps my appetite as well. Not munchies, it helps me to want to eat normally.

A couple of others off the top of my head would be AK47, and Blue Dream. I'm just harvesting my first Blue Dream, but it is also highly recommended.

I'm sure there will be others to help with choices.

When you have time go through the medical marijuana threads, and you will see lists of different illnesses that people have posted about. You might find some useful information there, I know there is an area for Depression in the threads.

 

[Lilred]

Cannafan

Thank you I will be sure to visit the thread. And I need to do more research with the oils. I too have a problem here lately with eating...sometimes I go a couple of days without eating simply cuz I forget or am too exhausted to try and cook...so I just sleep.

 

[Dennise]

One of the best I have found for depression is the auto Sugar Mango... I honestly can't stay upset when I smoke it... andddd today is a wonderful day.... guess what I got.....