Give your kitty a couple of extra treats tonight.
For those of you who have been growing lettuce: what process do you use to clean it and get the dirt out.
I don’t know if this is the BEST way, but I use a combination of colander and the spray nozzle at my sink or a large bowl of cold water, swish and drain - repeat a few times. Or both. 
Maybe a salad spinner would be good at the end of that process but I don’t have one!
If only my lettuce would grow. Pretty much the same size as when transplanted. Not feeling the heat, just not flourishing.
I planted more lettuce than we could eat, so had to give it away.
I used a salad spinner. It works with herbs too.
Salad spinners work great. I was skeptical until I tried one in our rented condo. You will probably have to do a few cycles of wash/spin to get all sand out of your homegrown lettuce.
I didn’t want to leave my garden for a vacation. I was worried my brandy wine tomatoes won’t be here when I got back. Well they are all here when I got back, 7 large yummy brandywine tomatoes are ripe for the picking. Sorry for the bragging, I live in California, so not having to pay for tomatoes in June is an achievement.
Picked a bucket of sweet red cherries yesterday! The dry weather made it possible - usually, cherries on this side of the mountains rot before they get a chance to ripen. Mulberries and blueberries are next. This is the earliest ever we got cherries… Scary!
I saw a mulberry plant growing in container for the first time. Is it better than blueberry in terms of nutrition.
Mulberries grow like weeds here. Horrible little seedlings with gigantic roots.
Onward, good to know. I have to contain the plant if I grow one.
Birds love the mulberries and the plants spread when they poop out the seeds. It’s a bit hard to contain that! OTOH, you can try to raise some silk worms and they will happily eat the leaves for you.
I dont know what plant I need to grow to attract some predators for the grass hoppers. They have been feasting on the leaves of my roses.
Yes, the robins have been beside themselves gorging on the berries. I even saw a squirrel today going after some. We do see the unfortunate result on our siding and our cars. 
Oh, well, I love having all the critters around so what’s a little mess. But boy, those seedlings are tough to pull!
Our birds like to spread laurels. Those little plants are tough to get rid of! The mulberry tree is a weeping variety we bought from Raintree. It is quite ornamental, and our birds have not figured out the berries yet… So no baby mulberry trees.
I have tomatoes! Just little green ones at this point but still. Nothing yet on any of my pepper plants.
This year’s “new and different” pest…woodchucks! There are some living under my shed, which is next to the garden. I’ve never had this issue before (had a garden at this house every year for 18 years…) We put a chicken wire fence around the garden each year to keep the bunnies out - but these darn woodchucks are wayyyyy more stubborn than rabbits. Every day we find a new “breach”, despite our best efforts to seal the bottom of the wire to the ground (with stakes, re-bar, you name it). Tops of my beans? gone. Tops of my cuke plants? gone. I’ve harvested peas, but I can tell that woodchucks also eat pea plants. Grrr. I just KNOW when I start getting tomatos, they will be goners.
Any suggestions? PS, even if we can get them out from under our shed…our neighbor has some under his. So not sure that would solve the problem.
I just happened upon this thread. I do the flower gardening, hubby tends the vegetable garden.
Here’s what I don’t understand. I live in Ohio. Lowes and Walmart in our area still have a very large selection of vegetables/herbs/annuals. None are marked down as of yet. Home Depot has some items on sale, but still lots of annuals at full price. Lots of racks of vegetable and herbs.
Is anyone still planting these now that it’s June 25? I know people will spruce up a bit more for the 4th of July, but the mad dash for these plants is end of May-ish/Memorial Day. The garden centers have far less customer activity now.
Why aren’t these items marked down by this point? I can understand perennials,shrubs and trees retaining their value, but it seems these stores will take a big loss on the yearly stuff.
I don’t even have blossoms on my tomatoes yet. The yellow pepper looks unhappy. But I do have a few teeny green beans and one pea pod (and lots of flowers on those.) My best growers are the Katahdin potatoes. I felt around in the potato bag (has a little velcro side opening) and those babies are growing. Last weekend, started a second bag with the remaining sets and they’re shooting beautifully.
I get plants at plant sales, grocery store, small nurseries, also cuttings, layering & seeds.
What sort are you looking for?
The big box stores have plants that are treated with growth inhibitors, so they may not be what you want anyway.
http://www.wired.com/2014/06/garden-center-neonicotinoids/