Gardening 2017: Fruits, Veggies, Flowers

[Lady tehMa]

When is your favourite time to water? I prefer evening, as soon as shade hits the plants. However, sometimes my schedule dictates mornings.

I have already had some sun scald on some of my plants, it seems the sun is more intense this summer or something (silly, right?)

I move my sprinklers often - which is why I'm hopeful to get my irrigation set up this year for the garden beds, then all I will need to do is move the sprinklers for the lawn (which does not get near enough attention, I'll admit).

[Lady tehMa]

And now I have a birdbath/fountain

[Queen K]

Freebie? Garage Sale?

I"ve got certain berries ripening up. Nice!

And just today the garlic scapes have really shown up, I had two yesterday at 3 pm. Slootman, did you want some?

And I've been watering everything in sight. Sadly, there will be no saskatoon berry crop, it all dried up right on the plant.

[Jflem1983]

Chopped some onion tops to garnish my baked potatoes tonight . Love growing food .

[Lady tehMa]

Freebie? Garage Sale?

I"ve got certain berries ripening up. Nice!

And just today the garlic scapes have really shown up, I had two yesterday at 3 pm. Slootman, did you want some?

And I've been watering everything in sight. Sadly, there will be no saskatoon berry crop, it all dried up right on the plant.

As usual you're ahead of me - I have flowers. My haskaps are ripening, but no where near ready (and this year I'm making liqueur with them - tried the haskap one at Okanagan Spirits booth at Creative Chaos today, YUM).

My birdbath/fountain was a Castanet find. Exactly what I wanted, and in my price range. With 290 views I'm shocked it didn't go sooner!

Jflem, I agree. Had some herbs from the yard in dinner tonight as well.

[Queen K]

Haskap Liqueor! Wow, I'd like to have tried that. Maybe I'll do it some day when I get enough to justify the effort.

[prairieflower]

Hello all....hope everyone is gardening happily along. Our garden is finally starting to take shape and lots is growing. The only sad part this year is our raspberries. Leaf curl has taken a hold and we have lost all our plants (normally we get 14-20 liters of berries) and this year, we are having to cut them all down In the many, many years my hubby has been growing raspberries (20+) he has never seen this. We never spray as we aim for organic in all our gardening, but next year it may have to be done :(.

pf

[RustyCrayon]

Leaf curl.
I don't know if it's the same type of leaf curl (I know very little about plants) The nectarine and peach trees in our yard, as well as the neighbours all have it too. Not looking good.
Brian Minter was on CBC radio last week and said leaf curl is very common.

Ants.
They are all over the place. Tiny red ones, small black ones, bigger back ones, some black and red...
Does anyone have any solutions to getting rid of them? Should I get rid of them?

Peppers.
What am I doing wrong? They are pretty sad looking and don't seem to be growing at all since I planted them.

Any advice?

[prairieflower]

Different leaf curl than peaches, as it is a raspberry leaf curl, but all the same crap. Peppers will come, they love the heat and lots of it, give them time. Ants are every where this year..and will continue to be well past our time LOL

[Lore]

Ants.
They are all over the place. Tiny red ones, small black ones, bigger back ones, some black and red...
Does anyone have any solutions to getting rid of them? Should I get rid of them?

YES, kill the ants.
Hate those little things.
I have used this treatment before and it worked.
Make a mixture of 50 / 50 % boric acid and icing sugar.
Sprinkle on anthill or area of largest amount of ants.
The thing is that where ever you put this mixture you need
to kind of cover that area with larger rocks or something like that
so that cats,dogs birds or whatever other life can't get to it.
Only want to kill the ants.
They are attracted by the sugar and take it (and the boric acid) back
to their nest and I think it was about a week maybe less the ants were gone.
It worked for me, hope this helps.

[Lady tehMa]

Yes, ants are everwhere! I'm using the boric acid/icing sugar thing, forgot how long it takes though. I covered with a bucket so rain wouldn't melt it.

My plum has a bit of leaf curl, but I have ladybug larvae all over it so I'm leaving it alone.

[RustyCrayon]

Perfect!
I'll leave the peppers alone...and thank you so much for the boric acid tip!

[Queen K]

I've lost a whole crop of Saskatoons due to aphid infestation. Ants farm aphids and I forgot. Next year it's tanglefoot around each and every saskatoon trunk.

Sorry about your leaf curl Rusty Crayon. Raspberries are precious things, and it'd hate to see you not be able to get it out completely.

My biggest garden problem right now is the strawberries are ripening and I hate to leave them now. As in, go away for four days.

I actually want to get in one more road trip before going back to work too.

And are Haskup berries tart tasting when they're ripe? Our look ripe, but taste tests say "no." I know the Tay Berries have that problem, unless they are falling off the cone, they're not ready.

Made one more rhubarb crisp yesterday with a third picking. Found strawberries still frozen from last year to add to it.

Garlic scapes are almost all done now. Slootman? Coming over after work?

[RustyCrayon]

I've lost a whole crop of Saskatoons due to aphid infestation. Ants farm aphids and I forgot. Next year it's tanglefoot around each and every saskatoon trunk.

Sorry about your leaf curl Rusty Crayon. Raspberries are precious things, and it'd hate to see you not be able to get it out completely.

My biggest garden problem right now is the strawberries are ripening and I hate to leave them now. As in, go away for four days.

I actually want to get in one more road trip before going back to work too.

And are Haskup berries tart tasting when they're ripe? Our look ripe, but taste tests say "no." I know the Tay Berries have that problem, unless they are falling off the cone, they're not ready.

Made one more rhubarb crisp yesterday with a third picking. Found strawberries still frozen from last year to add to it.

Garlic scapes are almost all done now. Slootman? Coming over after work?

Oh I wish I had raspberries! The leaf curl is on the nectarines. They look quite sad. I highly doubt they will be producing any fruit this year.

There are some blueberry bushes on the property. They never make any berries though. Not sure what I'm doing wrong there.

I still have bags of frozen black berries from a wild bush near the house. Not sure what to do with them all... Maybe I should try to make a crisp? I've never made one...are they difficult to pull off? (I'm bad at baking things that involve crusts)
Would you like to share your recipe Queen K?

[Lady tehMa]

I've lost a whole crop of Saskatoons due to aphid infestation. Ants farm aphids and I forgot. Next year it's tanglefoot around each and every saskatoon trunk.

Sorry about your leaf curl Rusty Crayon. Raspberries are precious things, and it'd hate to see you not be able to get it out completely.

My biggest garden problem right now is the strawberries are ripening and I hate to leave them now. As in, go away for four days.

I actually want to get in one more road trip before going back to work too.

And are Haskup berries tart tasting when they're ripe? Our look ripe, but taste tests say "no." I know the Tay Berries have that problem, unless they are falling off the cone, they're not ready.

Made one more rhubarb crisp yesterday with a third picking. Found strawberries still frozen from last year to add to it.

Garlic scapes are almost all done now. Slootman? Coming over after work?

Haskaps can be tart - depends on the variety. My big bush is always tart, and sometimes a little bitter. My small bush has plumper and sweeter berries, I much prefer it. One is "Borealis" and the other I think might be "Tundra". I can't remember :/