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Gardening!
May 28, 2017 23:46:14 GMT -6
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2017 23:46:14 GMT -6
Let's talk about our gardens and yards! What's everyone up to right now?
My dumb question today: do you prune your tomatoes, and if so, what is your method? My plants are going nuts with lots of stems and leaves, and I'm wondering if I should prune some of that back so they can put more energy towards fruit. What do you do?
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pearbear
Amethyst
Posts: 5,562 Likes: 32,794 
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Post by pearbear on May 29, 2017 4:23:14 GMT -6
I love the gardening threads. I have most of my gardening done for the year. We are going today to get a couple more arborvitae and that'll be the last things to go in. I unfortunately don't have the sun for a veggie garden.
You'll want to sucker your tomatoes. Pinch off any shoots/stems that grow between two others. If you google it I'm sure there are pictures to make that make sense. Suckering them allows the plant to focus on growing the fruit and will promote healthier growth. This is especially important in the first couple of months after planting.
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Post by roguelily on May 29, 2017 4:37:48 GMT -6
::stares at concrete::
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Post by nuggetrn on May 29, 2017 6:05:26 GMT -6
I am super excited about gardening/my garden this year. We moved last March and I just did not have it in me last summer to work on anything. This year I am doing a bunch and getting my gardening space all set up. I am excited!!
Right now I have strawberries planted. I also have some tomatoes I need to plant but I need to get dirt in my two raised beds. I started cucumbers and basil from seeds and am getting a huge kick out of watching them sprout. My husband thinks I am insane.
I need to till up a few areas because I plan to plant corn, watermelon, and sunflowers. The rain has been making this part extremely complicated though.
I am hoping some place is open today and we can go pick up some dirt. I stupidly waited until today to figure this out.
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Pistol
Diamond
Posts: 28,064 Likes: 62,420
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Post by Pistol on May 29, 2017 6:25:05 GMT -6
Let's talk about our gardens and yards! What's everyone up to right now? My dumb question today: do you prune your tomatoes, and if so, what is your method? My plants are going nuts with lots of stems and leaves, and I'm wondering if I should prune some of that back so they can put more energy towards fruit. What do you do? Yes. You'll want to trim the suckers off your tomatoes. I'm still unsure when I do it and always ask H so I'll ask him when he gets out of the shower. lol |
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Pistol
Diamond
Posts: 28,064 Likes: 62,420
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Post by Pistol on May 29, 2017 6:27:09 GMT -6
So far we have our tomatoes, peppers, and one row of peas planted. Hoping to get the other row of peas, green beans, carrots, zucchini, and lettuce planted today.
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Post by sweptaway on May 29, 2017 6:30:20 GMT -6
We've tried a veggie garden in a few places here and it hasn't worked for various reasons. (We've been here 5 years but I had a really great garden at our old place.) This year we finally built a raised bed and I think it's going to be great.
We have an acre so we have a million projects. We have a brick path in the front we're ripping up to reseed and then lay a stone path in a better spot. We have a bunch of brush to clear, a tree that needs to come down, and a bunch of things I'd like to transplant since the previous owners seemed to put things in weird places. So far it seems we're making better progress this year than past years
I don't know anything about anything other than veggies and herbs so it's trial and error right now. I'd love to have a couple little more natural looking flower areas in our back yard but having so much space actually makes it hard for me to figure out where to put anything.
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Bluebird
Amethyst
Posts: 6,448 Likes: 22,456
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Post by Bluebird on May 29, 2017 6:45:24 GMT -6
Nothing exciting happening here because we move in a month, but I was excited to see my sweet potato vine from last year just came back.
OP, I never pruned my tomatoes, but I also haven't had the best luck with them either.
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Post by GhoatMonket on May 29, 2017 6:46:03 GMT -6
I have never in my life "pruned" tomatoes, and I'm positive my parents don't (they generally have around 50 plants- ain't no time for that).
Never been an issue.
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Post by nuggetrn on May 29, 2017 6:50:29 GMT -6
I'd love to have a couple little more natural looking flower areas in our back yard but having so much space actually makes it hard for me to figure out where to put anything. This is kind of where I am... We live on about 6 acres and the back half is being rented to a farmer for now. There was zero landscaping when we moved in (we built). So starting from scratch and trying to figure out where to put things is HARD! I am kind of trying to work in sections. I did buy some wildflower seeds that I am kind of just thinking about flinging in some general direction far away from the house and seeing what happens. Lol. But then I worry about it looking right. It doesn't help that the neighbor right next to us is very into gardening and has already commented on my apparently amateur placement of our boxwoods. I also have a huge pile of rocks that we took from my grandmother's house after she passed away. My grandpa collected rocks everywhere he went and it was important to my mom and I that we keep them. I really want to create a memorial garden somewhere with those. For both my grandparents and our lost babies. We have a bench that came with us from our old house and a couple of other little things I would use. Deciding where exactly to set that up is hard when there is a bunch of room. |
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Bluebird
Amethyst
Posts: 6,448 Likes: 22,456
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Post by Bluebird on May 29, 2017 6:53:29 GMT -6
nuggetrn, how big of a pile of rocks? Could you do a little labyrinth on your property and landscape around it? goo.gl/images/cUuVqy - picture here
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Post by nuggetrn on May 29, 2017 6:56:47 GMT -6
nuggetrn, how big of a pile of rocks? Could you do a little labyrinth on your property and landscape around it? goo.gl/images/cUuVqy - picture here Oh that's so interesting! I definitely don't have that many.... It would be a very tiny labyrinth. Lol. |
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Post by sweptaway on May 29, 2017 6:57:41 GMT -6
nuggetrn yes! I just bought a few lavender plants on a whim and I'm struggling with where to put them becuase I want everything to be in just the right spot but... Idk what I'm doing! My neighbor also had a beautiful garden that butts right up to my broken fence and a huge overgrown brush pile and I feel bad about that. That's actually Hs motivation to clear the brush this year becuase it just looks awful and he feels bad
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Post by nuggetrn on May 29, 2017 7:01:51 GMT -6
So I actually have 67 rocks... I went outside to count. This photo is probably terrible because they are being overgrown by grass. They are just hanging out behind the shed at the moment.  |
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2017 7:06:05 GMT -6
Nothing exciting happening here because we move in a month, but I was excited to see my sweet potato vine from last year just came back. OP, I never pruned my tomatoes, but I also haven't had the best luck with them either. Same. Do you have any plans once you move? Or are you just waiting intimt the fall? I'm afraid to do much this summer. |
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Post by nuggetrn on May 29, 2017 7:07:16 GMT -6
nuggetrn yes! I just bought a few lavender plants on a whim and I'm struggling with where to put them becuase I want everything to be in just the right spot but... Idk what I'm doing! My neighbor also had a beautiful garden that butts right up to my broken fence and a huge overgrown brush pile and I feel bad about that. That's actually Hs motivation to clear the brush this year becuase it just looks awful and he feels bad I also don't really know what I am doing! Haha. So we will be good company. Yay for motivation to clear out the brush though! |
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Bluebird
Amethyst
Posts: 6,448 Likes: 22,456
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Post by Bluebird on May 29, 2017 7:08:38 GMT -6
Nothing exciting happening here because we move in a month, but I was excited to see my sweet potato vine from last year just came back. OP, I never pruned my tomatoes, but I also haven't had the best luck with them either. Same. Do you have any plans once you move? Or are you just waiting intimt the fall? I'm afraid to do much this summer. I'm in TX, so I won't be able to do anything else this summer because of the heat. I could maybe get away with some potted herbs if my new back patio gets enough shade, so we'll see! |
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Post by pianolove on May 29, 2017 7:10:49 GMT -6
I've never pruned or heard of pruning tomatoes either. MH just stakes them and end up with more tomatoes than we can eat and can for a year.
My dad puts a baby aspirin in with the seeds but he also was taught by superstitious Italian immigrants and is notoriously over the top. That's the only "extra" thing I've ever heard of with tomatoes.
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2017 7:12:30 GMT -6
Same. Do you have any plans once you move? Or are you just waiting intimt the fall? I'm afraid to do much this summer. I'm in TX, so I won't be able to do anything else this summer because of the heat. I could maybe get away with some potted herbs if my new back patio gets enough shade, so we'll see! I think we'll be pretty limited bc of heat too. I have a black thumb so I'm pretty nervous about having a big yard for the first time. DNW to have the only ugly yard on the cul de sac. |
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Post by kittenmittens on May 29, 2017 7:16:02 GMT -6
We moved about a year and a half ago so this spring was our first opportunity to do anything. Two weeks ago transplanted the azaleas and spider wort the previous owners planted from the front to the back of the house. We started pretty much from scratch and got some green mountain box woods, goldmound spirea, coral bells, geraniums, and hydrangeas planted out front to go along with the existing rhododendron. In the back along the house we put in 5 hydrangeas. So now the plan is to keep everything alive! I have two tomato plants and a strawberry plant in containers. I never knew about pruning the tomatoes. I might have to give it a try. I also want to fill our containers on our back deck before next weekend when we're having a family party. Sorry if that pic is huge!  Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
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Post by honeylemon on May 29, 2017 7:19:42 GMT -6
I don't have a garden because we rent and aren't allowed to plant anything but I do have a few potted plants that are actually doing well this year. My kids both brought home plants from school. DS1 planted a Lima bean and brought home a 3 in stalk that is now 2 feet tall and growing inches daily. DD brought home a pot with tomato seeds and I thought it would be in the trash by the end of the week but it's growing strong!  I bought this hibiscus that grows multi colored flowers. Dark red, orange with pink centers, yellow, and white with pink centers. Next to that is a citronella.   And a friend gave me this gorgeous hydrangea.  |
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Post by GhoatMonket on May 29, 2017 7:23:49 GMT -6
I've never pruned or heard of pruning tomatoes either. MH just stakes them and end up with more tomatoes than we can eat and can for a year. My dad puts a baby aspirin in with the seeds but he also was taught by superstitious Italian immigrants and is notoriously over the top. That's the only "extra" thing I've ever heard of with tomatoes. That's a new one! We always put blood meal and bone meal in every hole. Bury the bottom 1/3 of the plant (which gets entertaining when you put them in late), hole needs to be twice the width of the current leaf spread (also entertaining when you do them late). |
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Post by sterl724 on May 29, 2017 7:33:58 GMT -6
We've got onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and a variety of peppers in. This thread reminded me I need to go pull suckers off the tomatoes!
We always make pickles, pasta sauce and salsa from the garden.
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Post by sunshine on May 29, 2017 7:41:49 GMT -6
We cheat and use starter plants. Maybe next year we will grow from seeds. We are headed out shortly to get what we plan to grow this year. I'm thinking it will be tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, a few other veggies -depending on what they have, and a few herbs.
I've never pruned tomatoes. Does it help to keep the plants under control?
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Post by imapenguin on May 29, 2017 7:43:55 GMT -6
I didn't plant any vegetables this year because I wasn't sure of the summer sun situation in our yard, but my flowers are all doing great. I'm on round 3 of roses and my hydrangea have some new blooms coming in too. Even my gardenia that I thought was maybe dead has a dozen or so blooms on it. We also had some pots behind the garage left by the previous owners that came back to life, so we put a plumbago and another rose in the ground yesterday.
My basil is doing awesome, I made some basil pesto a couple of weeks ago and I'm going to make another batch this afternoon. My neighbors garden is going crazy too and she brought me a basket of tomatoes, cucumbers, and various peppers yesterday and said she'll have some squash for me later this week.
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Post by nuggetrn on May 29, 2017 7:55:15 GMT -6
We are having a hard time finding dirt to have our raised beds filled. We waited too long it seems. We are about to just scrap the idea and till up the ground, maybe buy a few bags of manure to till in as well.
On one hand I'm like this will save us money anyway! But I like having raised beds and they're already there. Bleh.
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Post by nuggetrn on May 29, 2017 7:56:59 GMT -6
honeylemon all your potted plants look great!! I swear the year we were in our apartment with plants out on the deck was the best garden we ever had!!
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Post by GhoatMonket on May 29, 2017 8:00:13 GMT -6
We cheat and use starter plants. Maybe next year we will grow from seeds. We are headed out shortly to get what we plan to grow this year. I'm thinking it will be tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, a few other veggies -depending on what they have, and a few herbs. I've never pruned tomatoes. Does it help to keep the plants under control? The theory is that it will put less energy into the suckers and more into fruit, but the extra leaves from the suckers provide more energy for the plant in the long run. Now if it is a perennial (like a raspberry bush) then pruning the suckers does make a difference. You can remove the suckers and replant though since they have a root system in those cases. |
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Post by sunshine on May 29, 2017 8:28:17 GMT -6
I never knew this! Guess I will have to try it this year and see if I notice a difference. Thanks for the info!
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Post by pianolove on May 29, 2017 8:31:23 GMT -6
I've never pruned or heard of pruning tomatoes either. MH just stakes them and end up with more tomatoes than we can eat and can for a year. My dad puts a baby aspirin in with the seeds but he also was taught by superstitious Italian immigrants and is notoriously over the top. That's the only "extra" thing I've ever heard of with tomatoes. That's a new one! We always put blood meal and bone meal in every hole. Bury the bottom 1/3 of the plant (which gets entertaining when you put them in late), hole needs to be twice the width of the current leaf spread (also entertaining when you do them late). And that's new to me! Have you seen a difference in your tomatoes since you put blood and bone meal in the holes? Fwiw there is no difference with or without baby aspirin lol |
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