How about a gardening thread?

[Tom1234]

Tell me about it.

My son had to do a leaf collection assignment for his homework last night. He went outside and came back after five minutes with them all (except the Ash).

"That was quick, where did you get all these", I asked?

"The garden."

"What, even the oak?"

"Yup!"

We have so many weeds, I wasn't even aware there were tree saplings growing through them.

[DantesDame]

Oh this weather has been a boon to my garden because now I am willing to go there and work for more than a hour before sunset

I have gotten so much done this weekend - weeds galore have been pulled and a perfect zucchini has been harvested. I even discovered that the raspberries are fruiting AND there are a couple of small blueberry bushes!

Now if only a good, soaking rain would come through...

[Tom1234]

	Quote:
	My son had to do a leaf collection assignment for his homework last night. He went outside and came back after five minutes with them all (except the Ash).

My son found an Ash sapling too yesterday in the garden!

[st2lemans]

	Quote:	DantesDame
	Now if only a good, soaking rain would come through...

We had 10" of rain Saturday night.

Tom

[DantesDame]

	Quote:	st2lemans
	We had 10" of rain Saturday night. Tom

6mm of rain in the forecast ... any minute now!

[carlasmom]

	Quote:	carlasmom
	The lack of rain is already taking its toll in our garden. A big hortensia has dried and shriveled leaves already. This is our third year in this house and every year this plant looked pitiful though never as early as his year. It has most likely been here for many years judging by its size but maybe its time to replace them with something less thirsty? We also have a rhododendron of similar dimensions which will probably be showing signs of drying next. How would you handle this? Do I really need to water these mature plants that are practically the size of trees?

Last May I posted on this thread asking for advice on my shriveled hortensia. Other posters shared their wisdom (thanks Odile!) and after a good pruning, some fertilizer and lots of water the plant is healthy and beautiful!

[Odile]

Wow - wonderful I always give plants 3 chances over 3 years- more often than not- it works

[Tom1234]

Do the paper carrier bags compost well?

We use the same heavy duty plastic bags for shopping but occasionally end up at a shop without these so buy a paper carrier bag.

We have quite a few.

They are not allowed in our paper recycling and nor are they allowed in our cardboard recycling.

So, torn up and and added to the compost heap, do they compost well? I assume so but I thought I'd ask in case someone knows better.

[FCBarca]

We needed the rain here in La Côte but I think by the end of summer I have to go ahead with my plan to have an automatic irrigation system for the yard, garden, plants, flowers etc

Anyone with experience installing this on their own?

[Tom1234]

	Quote:	FCBarca
	We needed the rain here in La Côte but I think by the end of summer I have to go ahead with my plan to have an automatic irrigation system for the yard, garden, plants, flowers etc Anyone with experience installing this on their own?

I installed a semi-temporary one this week for pot plants and a few other plants.
It's a simple micro-irrigation one based on a timer.

But when we end up doing more extensive re-modelling of our garden, I'm going to install all the pipes etc underground for a full-system.

What I want is feedback so the plants don't get too much water and water is not wasted so I may either run low voltage (12V) cables to power moisture sensors dotted around the garden or build some battery powered ones which basically sleep and wake up every few hours to take a reading and send it back to a central unit.
I'll link it into the weather forecast too so the automatic watering will be held off if rain is imminent but will come on later if the forecast was wrong.

I got the micro-irrigation pipes from Ali-express. If I was laying pipes underground, I'd use better quality, more heavy duty ones and just use the cheaper ones around the actual plants.

All the above probably didn't answer any of the questions you may have!

The most important things you need to consider:

1. Pipe bore diameter. Too small and too long and the last sprayers in the line will pass no water. You need to experiment or do your sums.
   
2. Mains water Pressure. Too high and most systems won't cope. Gardena (and others) sell pressure reducers.

[weetruffle]

Hello everyone!
I started growing some vegetables a few months ago. In typical newbie style, I plopped them into the ground and expected a veritable cornucopia to spontaneously erupt. So far I've beeng grateful for the crop of wild strawberries that were there before me and have managed to survive my attentions.
I'm particularly flumoxed by my courgettes: they seemed very healthy when I planted them, but then we had the slugs and the mildew and the rain battering the flowers off. Now I have some new flowers and some teeny courgettes but they are just not growing. I read somewhere that this is something to do with fertilisation not happening? Also, the lower leaves just keep rotting off. Now I have two very tall, unsligtly stalks with the new leaves sprouting from the top.
Help!

[meloncollie]

	Quote:	weetruffle
	I'm particularly flumoxed by my courgettes: they seemed very healthy when I planted them, but then we had the slugs and the mildew and the rain battering the flowers off. Now I have some new flowers and some teeny courgettes but they are just not growing. I read somewhere that this is something to do with fertilisation not happening? Also, the lower leaves just keep rotting off. Now I have two very tall, unsligtly stalks with the new leaves sprouting from the top. Help!

How much space do each of the courgette plants have?

One mistake I've all too often made is to plant them too close together. (They look so lonely as seedlings... ) Mature courgettes are big sprawling plants - they need space and sun. That you are getting mildew might boil down to being too tightly packed together.

Here's a decent overview of mildew problems in courgettes. It's an American article, so Zuchinni...

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/zucchin...gus-53698.html

[weetruffle]

I suspect they are too close together, they're getting a bit tangled up with each other
I'm trying to train them to grow in opposite directions but they both stubbornly want to grow *at* each other.
But would the closeness also stop them making baby courgettes? I thought that would help!

[meloncollie]

	Quote:	weetruffle
	I suspect they are too close together, they're getting a bit tangled up with each other I'm trying to train them to grow in opposite directions but they both stubbornly want to grow *at* each other. But would the closeness also stop them making baby courgettes? I thought that would help!

While courgette plant produces both male and female flowers, nonetheless pollination requires a bit of help in the form of bees.

There are many reasons for failure to pollinate, from lack of bees, to weather that reduces bee activity, to yes, planting too densely for the bees to get from one flower to the other to pollinate.

Another SFgate article:

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/zucchin...uce-26167.html

I see they recommend pollination by hand... that's more work than I've ever contemplated doing. Zucinni are supposed to be an easy plant...

Were it me, I'd start by clearing away all the mildewed leaves, perhaps even consider sacrificing a middle plant to give the other's more room. (You can always try transplanting, but at this late date unlikely to be successful.)

However, there are far, far better gardeners on EF than I - so wait a bit for more answers before you go pulling up one of your plants.

[Odile]

Ah ah - of course. Was thinking this morning as I picked more courgettes- how well they are doing this year. The bees, of course. A friend has put a hive in the orchard just below the veggie garden - and the bees have been doing so well here. Wonderful - so we get courgettes ... lots of fruit.... and soon ... honey. Talk about win win. Plenty of honey will be left for the bees- unlike in commercial production where hives are stripped bare and the bees given sugar syrup in (very poor and very mean) exchange.

BTW, my bees live in the far West and travel to France every day... no border checks.

[weetruffle]

	Quote:	Odile
	Ah ah - of course. Was thinking this morning as I picked more courgettes- how well they are doing this year. The bees, of course. A friend has put a hive in the orchard just below the veggie garden - and the bees have been doing so well here. Wonderful - so we get courgettes ... lots of fruit.... and soon ... honey. Talk about win win. Plenty of honey will be left for the bees- unlike in commercial production where hives are stripped bare and the bees given sugar syrup in (very poor and very mean) exchange.

Interesting - could you please give the bees directions to Stäfa?

[Belgianmum]

We have an abundance of courgettes here and not a beehive in sight so there is much more to it than just the bees.
I think the overcrowding and mildew have got a bigger part to play in your lack of success personally.

[neddy]

Horrifying load of fungicides recommended in that article. I get mildew on my plants but they carry on producing so I leave them to it. Just yank off leaves occasionally. I sprayed with watered down milk last year but it seems more effort for little result. I have a glut again this year despite planting less than last year.
Did you put a good dose of compost in when you planted them weetruffle?

I prefer this article. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/digin/201...s-mildew.shtml

[meloncollie]

	Quote:	neddy
	Horrifying load of fungicides recommended in that article. I get mildew on my plants but they carry on producing so I leave them to it. Just yank off leaves occasionally. I sprayed with watered down milk last year but it seems more effort for little result. I have a glut again this year despite planting less than last year. Did you put a good dose of compost in when you planted them weetruffle? I prefer this article. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/digin/201...s-mildew.shtml

Very good point!

Best to go the non-chemo approach. (We live next to a farm, the back 10 meters where my veggies are is a green zone. I can't use a whole list of things that could jeopardize the farmer's bio status.)

Weetruffle, I see you are in ZH, are you anywhere near the Oberland? If so, Meier garden center in Dürnten would be a place to go for advice.

https://www.meier-ag.ch/cms/

The info desk is staffed by folks who really know their stuff. I often bring an infected leaf or a photo of a problem plant and ask what the experts might do. Free advice... but be warned, the garden center is the stuff of dreams. I rarely leave without a car full.

[DantesDame]

	Quote:	meloncollie
	Here's a decent overview of mildew problems in courgettes. It's an American article, so Zuchinni...

Thank you - I was just about to look it up

My god but we are overrun with courgettes! We have only two plants but I have given away more than I thought possible - with still more coming.