The Gardening Thread

I live out in coon country. Never had them bother my maters. They do hit up my ripe melons and corn stalks though. Seems I plant those two just to feed coons.


And no offense to any of you fine people, but it appears @Exie has detoxed us all from her system. Nobody studies that much. Even adults. This room ain't the same.

It seems she has removed her username. It doesn't come up.
@VolNExile has taken breaks before. This has been a long one. She’s not only busy with finishing her degree, she’s singing in multiple choruses, volunteering and growing plants for the local extension office, working on landscaping repair work for her church post-hurricane, and raising chickens for the first time. I hope that she comes back to VN one day soon.
 
@VolNExile has taken breaks before. This has been a long one. She’s not only busy with finishing her degree, she’s singing in multiple choruses, volunteering and growing plants for the local extension office, working on landscaping repair work for her church post-hurricane, and raising chickens for the first time. I hope that she comes back to VN one day soon.
My neice and her husband moved to Ashville with the baby. They both work for Waffle House corporate and they asked him to go there and take over a region to square it up. It was a temp ask, but it'd be slim to see them go back to ATL. They love it there and are having a grand time being newbies and getting around. Hope they see a need to dive in and become a part of the community and chip in some where they can help. She's equally adept at decorating and DIY and interior design as she is her job.
 
My neice and her husband moved to Ashville with the baby. They both work for Waffle House corporate and they asked him to go there and take over a region to square it up. It was a temp ask, but it'd be slim to see them go back to ATL. They love it there and are having a grand time being newbies and getting around. Hope they see a need to dive in and become a part of the community and chip in some where they can help. She's equally adept at decorating and DIY and interior design as she is her job.
Sister and family live there. We'd be there too, but have a daughter and granddaughter here in Nashville. The heat is killin me.
 
Sister and family live there. We'd be there too, but have a daughter and granddaughter here in Nashville. The heat is killin me.
Never saw downtown Ashville maybe once. Spent one week a year for 35+ years at church camp in Black Mtn. Did Biltmore a couple times & rafted the river a few times. At the end of the week the teens would go in to the bowling center to kick off the last night of camp and not going to bed when we/they got back to the camp. One year in my 20's, I fell for a girl that was working the camp that summer, and after road tripping to Ocala afterwards with a friend from camp that lived there, I drove back up to Black Mtn to have a date with her hiking over at Chimney Rock where Last of the Mohicans was filmed. Went into downtown on that run. Only time I recall. Been over a good many parts of Western, NC but never really explored Ashville. Even passed thru Hanging Dog on numerous occasions. That was my cut over outside Murphy into the Tellico River. Even did one of those crossovers in a '93 accord one time. lol. Other trips were a LC or Toyo 4x4. Luckily the river was low when I did the accord.
 
Build a pond.

Beyond that, they hang around if you have enough pollinators for them to selectively feast on, but they really like open wet fields, ponds and boggy areas with a lot of insect activity.
unfortunately I live on the side of a hill, so any standing water is going to be difficult. I have been planting more things to attract pollinators. I have just been having issues with everything dying off. stuff will be doing great, and then just die in patches.
 
unfortunately I live on the side of a hill, so any standing water is going to be difficult. I have been planting more things to attract pollinators. I have just been having issues with everything dying off. stuff will be doing great, and then just die in patches.
Unless you have graded in some tiered areas, my guess is the slope makes it hard to retain any soil moisture in the hotter and dryer months. Especially slopes that were at one time "modified" so to speak in development or something. The original top soil would be depleted. Not having seen your property that assumption is all relative to what kind of slope we're talking. A gentle or moderate slope could possibly make daming in a small pond feasible. Cutting from the high side and pushing that to the low side to build up a dam with some decent stone mixed in for stability, instead of digging a big hole.
 
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unfortunately I live on the side of a hill, so any standing water is going to be difficult. I have been planting more things to attract pollinators. I have just been having issues with everything dying off. stuff will be doing great, and then just die in patches.
This is not recommended but I know you can trick them if you have an open area. When I used to do nursery propagation we would see hundreds of dragonflies routinely hanging around the black weed barrier cloth. The dragonflies mistake the surface for water & congregate just like they would by a pond. They are known to do this near wet asphalt as well. 🤓
 
Since last year, we’ve seen more and more green anole lizards on our property. Yesterday, a small one was working its way through my remaining pepper plants.
 
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Whelp, this year was sort of a bust. Got a good, but not historical average amount of raspberries this year. Blueberries lost all of their blossoms and got no berries. No idea why. The cherry bushes were too young to keep fruit so hopefully next year. They grey a good amount I’d say with filling out and growing wider/taller about a ft each way. The peaches were the same way. Had quite a bit of flowers and peaches started to grow but fell off very early in the process. Again, I think they are still too young to produce so hopefully next year. However they grew a TON. Filled out really nicely and at least 2 foot taller for one with the other at least 3 feet taller.

Does anybody have any thoughts on how to feed the peach trees and berry/cherry bushes over the winter?

@SoilVol sorry to name drop you here. I read a few weeks ago in the Recruiting Forum Football Chat that you have some peach trees. Care to share any info on care and feeding? I have 1 Contender and 1 Belle of Georgia. I live in East Tennessee in the Alcoa/Maryville area. Thanks in advance 🙏.
 
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Whelp, this year was sort of a bust. Got a good, but not historical average amount of raspberries this year. Blueberries lost all of their blossoms and got no berries. No idea why. The cherry bushes were too young to keep fruit so hopefully next year. They grey a good amount I’d say with filling out and growing wider/taller about a ft each way. The peaches were the same way. Had quite a bit of flowers and peaches started to grow but fell off very early in the process. Again, I think they are still too young to produce so hopefully next year. However they grew a TON. Filled out really nicely and at least 2 foot taller for one with the other at least 3 feet taller.

Does anybody have any thoughts on how to feed the peach trees and berry/cherry bushes over the winter?

@SoilVol sorry to name drop you here. I read a few weeks ago in the Recruiting Forum Football Chat that you have some peach trees. Care to share any info on care and feeding? I have 1 Contender and 1 Belle of Georgia. I live in East Tennessee in the Alcoa/Maryville area. Thanks in advance 🙏.
Peaches are an extremely challenge. Every pathogen and insect wants to eat the fruit, leaves, and wood. They can also be finicky with respect to planting zone and such. They're a burden lol.

However, its extremely rewarding if you get them to the finish line.

Proper pruning (both fruit and vegetation), pest and disease management, and fertility are equally important. For fertility you can get fruit tree spikes or a standard granular slow release fertilizer and spread that around the drip-line (edge of canopy) in the fall or spring. Don't want too much N. Focus on P and K.

Pathogens- follow a fungal/disease management regime. Copper based fungicide before bud-break in spring. I also spray captan during the season to fight brown rot and such on the fruit (wear your PPE when spraying anything and follow instructions on label).

Insects- you can spray stuff like DiPel or Bt which are organic-approved microbes that kill worms. I do also spray insecticides but focus on timing to reduce how much I spray. I'll usually alternate between an insecticide like Malathion or Bifenthrin and Bt, but the thing about Bt is its not great at controlling the "worms" in the fruit because those are actually beetle larvae (plum curculio weevil). Those eggs are laid on the fruit while the flower petals are falling off so that's an example of timing a "harsher" spray to specifically target exposure to the pest.

There's a lot of resources and videos on pruning online. And most state extension agencies have peach/stone fruit management guides with all this info and recommendations on sprays and timings.

I'll also usually stop spraying 3-4 weeks before fruit should ripen to give plenty of time for any residue to wash off. Its costs some worm and disease damage but not extreme and easy to work around for home consumption.
 
Whelp, this year was sort of a bust. Got a good, but not historical average amount of raspberries this year. Blueberries lost all of their blossoms and got no berries. No idea why. The cherry bushes were too young to keep fruit so hopefully next year. They grey a good amount I’d say with filling out and growing wider/taller about a ft each way. The peaches were the same way. Had quite a bit of flowers and peaches started to grow but fell off very early in the process. Again, I think they are still too young to produce so hopefully next year. However they grew a TON. Filled out really nicely and at least 2 foot taller for one with the other at least 3 feet taller.

Does anybody have any thoughts on how to feed the peach trees and berry/cherry bushes over the winter?

@SoilVol sorry to name drop you here. I read a few weeks ago in the Recruiting Forum Football Chat that you have some peach trees. Care to share any info on care and feeding? I have 1 Contender and 1 Belle of Georgia. I live in East Tennessee in the Alcoa/Maryville area. Thanks in advance 🙏.
Kind of same. All my fruit/berry trees/bushes are young too. did get some bluberries and soem balckberry and raspberry but not full potential yet. Figs are a year older, but no harvests yet. THink I actually was managing mine wrong in my upper middle TN zone. I've been trying to get them where they don't freeze off. Read they will freeze down for a couple years then toughen up. But also saw one clip for upper reaches of fig production where you do cut htem back every year down to first 2 or 3 nodes then mulch the crap out them for winter and just let them regrow every year. May try that this year.

But I got crap loads of squash, cucumber, and tomatoes and okra. Still picking tomatoes though the ripening is now slower and fruit smaller. Had one bell pepper plant that put out quite a bit. That one plant gave up more peppers than I've ever grown on any amount of sweet pepper plants combined.
 
Red bell pepper plants are an aggravation, but boy howdy when a plant produces as one hopes. All of my plants produced one or two fruits to date, but one has four big fruits beginning to ripen this September. 😋
 
My giant Marconi pepper plants have been good this year, but my gypsy pepper plants have been spartan. The smallest one is producing prolifically this September.
 
My Cherokee purple tomato plants were a bust this year, producing only three tomatoes before dying. My San Marzano tomato plants have been prolific. I’ve eaten them fresh this year, lacking much in the way of other tomatoes. My big cherry was also a bust, yielding only a half dozen fruits. Weird year in the vegetable garden.
 
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Some pics from my garden this year. Have harvested a pineapple each of the last 3 years. Tons of peaches the last 2 years and for 4 years I've been growing blue clarage corn, because purple grits and fried fish are fun.


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Still need to reply to your previous post on peach trees care and maintenance. But if you don’t mind me asking, what area of the country do you live in? My guess is Florida, Texas or some place similar that allows pineapple growing.

I’m trying to find a good calendar to follow for fruit tree maintenance, but seems sparse. And there seems to be a ton of spraying needing to be done with peaches (from my small amount of searching I’ve done). Do you apply dormant oils in late fall and early spring?
 
Other crops I’ve thought about growing are corn, German potatoes, and sweet potatoes. It’s finding the time with 2 littles. Hard to justify right now. Still, garlic has probably been my most prolific crop I’ve ever grown. That and Hungarian paprika. My paprika I made is still hands down the best and everyone from the fam asks for some from my jar. VIBRANT red and not dull brownish red like you see in the stores. More flavor. Tastes great on deviled eggs .
 
My Cherokee purple tomato plants were a bust this year, producing only three tomatoes before dying. My San Marzano tomato plants have been prolific. I’ve eaten them fresh this year, lacking much in the way of other tomatoes. My big cherry was also a bust, yielding only a half dozen fruits. Weird year in the vegetable garden.
Cherokee Purple were our most prolific. Still getting 1-2 daily, but smaller.
 
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