For me, peat moss never fails. I get better results from dirt from my yard mixed with peat moss and fertilizer than commercial potting soil.
@moonchild, I agree poppies will look better in the open. I may be able to clear out grass in one area.
This will be the first year that I use peat, coir, azomite and bone meal in my homemad soil mix. Previously I just mixed bagged topsoil with compost.
Nasty drop in temperature the past two nights. Almost at freezing in some nearby areas. Can’t transplant the seedlings yet, dang it.
It’s cold and slightly misty here today. I went to a nursery and gots tons more plants. I bought one jalapeño pepper because that’s the type of pepper my husband can eat raw, not too hot. Bought a few alpine strawberry plants as well as Quinault type of strawberry. My husband loves cherry tomatoes and zucchini so I bought six packs of each type of vegetable.
On another note, green beans are producing regularly now, there is no need to buy them in the store.
My tomato plants are now over a foot tall. Still living indoors.
We had flurries today! I might never be able to transplant my starter plants.
I moved my tomatoes into the greenhouse. It is still too cold for them to go into the ground, so they acclimate in there.
We’re expecting a low of 28 degrees where I am tonight so I’m feeling sorry for all those people I saw at the local nursery last week with carts full of tomato and cucumber plants. Our last frost date is May 14 so the only thing in my ground right now is kale and swiss chard.
BTW, If you don’t already know this, make sure to check the labels on your plants to see if they’ve been treated with neonic pesticides. These pesticides are killing bees and are sold at Lowes, Hope Depot and many other places. Lowes recently said that they will stop selling them by 2019. Hopefully, we’ll still have bees by then. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erich-pica/gardeners-beware-beefrien_b_3757020.html
I don’t know if this post belongs to the bragging thread or not but we just eaten our first Celebrity tomato. It’s was pink and not ripen yet. But if I didn’t pick there it won’t be there for the picking.
My roses are slowly come up. I have my first Eden Climber rose just open, so lovely, dare I say, I’m in love. Haha. Also the sun finally came out, it was depressing yesterday, rain and cloudy.
You can let your tomatoes ripen inside. I usually do that since if you let them get fully ripe on the vine they are more prone to cracking and also they are prone to being pecked at by birds who are attracted to the color red.
Good to know. I usually let it ripen in the vine unless I was removing the plant. I have one more pink tomato out there, and we just put in the new water vase/fountain and I already saw some birds perched up nearby. My husband thinks it’s probably exciting for the birds to have a source of water in this dry California land. I wish the birds would eat some bugs. Then it’s a win win situation.
Had planned to get my soil mix together this past weekend, but again a relative had a task (chore, ugh!) for me at her garden on Saturday, and a friend’s Sunday Lunch turned into Sunday Dinner, leaving me no time to get my hands dirty to craft a soil mix. I might try tonight after work.
Okra seedlings look fine, as does the Azoycha Yellow tomato seedlings and the Costoluto tomato seedlings. Still waiting for the Jalapeno, Thai Chili and Hungarian Chilies seeds to emerge. Marconi sweet pepper seed is also DOA thus far.
LW, my sweet peppers took their sweet time to emerge from seeds! Don’t give up hope yet.
Thanks, BB.
All my hot pepper seeds have not sprouted nor the eggplant seeds. A few tiny cosmos plants here and there but not great numbers. Green beans are the only thing that came up consistently. I’ve beginning to think it’s my soil.
Our local garden center gave out ladybugs this weekend. I put them on the plants yesterday. I’m hoping a few stick around.
What, do Ladybugs prey on aphids or something? We had lots of them at my place three years ago, so much so that I had to keep the windows closed on most summer nights. If I had known that they were useful I might have “farmed” them.
I have never been successful with purchasing lady bugs, they tend to fly away. I do have lady bugs here but not tons, just an occasionally bug here and there. Same with praying mantis, I saw some baby ones but not seeing mature one yet.
I usually see a couple preying mantis a year. Maybe we have more bugs…
Ladybugs also eat soft-bodied insects and insect eggs. That’s why I’m hoping they stick around the garden plants.
Ladybugs will fly away, but if you release them at dusk, they will at least stay for the night and hopefully the next day. You can keep them in your refrigerator and they will hibernate until you take them out.