Gardening

[Cayuse]

Those are big! Ours only get about 4 inched tall and teacup sized clumps at the most. Maybe a different kind of violet?

 

[Willow Flats]

Every day I get a little basket of strawberries. There would be more, but I eat half a dozen (at least) while picking & if there are any worm holes or bird pecks I toss those to the chickens.

 

[Kelly]

HELP!! SNAKE!!!

 

[Willow Flats]

Yikes. Not a fan of snakes but that's a great picture! Like the passion flower too.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

Great Picture Though now I'm thinking ill remove all of my passionfruit vines

 

[Marsha Cassada]

This volunteer vine showed up in my pot of mums. Guess the seed was in the compost soil. I wasn't sure what it was, but today saw a wee little gourd forming. I wonder if the growing season will be long enough for it?

 

[candycar]

OOH I hope so! I love volunteers!

 

[Kelly]

I need some advice on what to do!! We moved into the new house a couple of weeks ago. There is this wonderful fruit orchard here that I am so excited about and absolutely LOVE! The trees are mature and were covered with all kinds of fruit a while back: pears, peaches, apples, plums, pecans, and other fruit that I don’t even know about yet … …. Anyways, the SQUIRRELS ate everything!! And what the squirrels didn’t eat, the bunnies finished up. I was able to get a couple of pears and apples before they enjoyed themselves. What do you do about the squirrels?? Next year I am thinking about that birds netting, but does that work? Or maybe that metal steel around the trunks of the tree, but the trees aren’t very tall IMO. So… what to do?… What to do??? HELP!!!

I have a dog that chases squirrels… I was thinking about putting her out there, but she is an 11 year old Lab, and would they out smart her? Maybe team up on her? So then I was thinking about getting another dog to chase the squirrels…. and before you know it I would have 20 dogs that ain’t gonna work since I am more of a cat person LOL LOL

So…. What to do?? …. What to do??

 

[Willow Flats]

We have mostly ground squirrels here but I use the bird netting. My mother-in-law had a problem with squirrels eating out of the bird feeders she had hanging in her trees so she put her dog on it, and that worked pretty well for her. He was a natural born squirrel chaser!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

The woman I walk miniatures horses with has three geese. She said she never has any varmints in her yard. I'm wondering if that would be a solution, instead of a dog? The geese live in the open 24/7 and are not needy and don't really need special fencing; they stay around naturally.

 

[Kelly]

My pup is an excellent squirrel chaser, but she is 11 and getting up there in age….. I guess someone could say that about me

Hmmmm…. Now you got me thinking Marsha… and I have a ton of geese questions … will the geese get in my fruit trees and eat my fruit? My trees aren’t very tall. Can I have just 1 goose? 2 is probably better. I googled geese keeping squirrels away and couldn’t really find any articles on that. Anyone else raise geese? I like that you said they would not be needy, so I’m thinking low maintenance. …..hmmmmm…… my fencing is really good, 8 ft tall (I think) on the sides and the back…..hmmmm……

 

[Silver City Heritage Farmstead]

Better be careful Kelly. I don't know if there's such a thing as goose math (like chicken math or mini math)...but there might be!

My mom and Grammie had geese. My brother called them "skin eaters" because they constantly pinched him. They can leave quite the nasty bruise.

Eight foot fencing sounds like more than enough. A kiddie pool seems to be sufficient for a pair. Do your research, to decide what breed would be best for your needs and set up.

As to the eating fruit, my mom's only ate what fell to the ground. But their big, flat geesie feet did trample some things in the garden when they got in a couple times and helped themselves to the fresh micro-greens buffet bar.

 

[Dragon Hill]

Geese can fly. If you get adults you will need to clip their wings to keep them around long enough to consider your place home.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Have to share a cactus picture. This morning one of mine is blooming! It came up mysteriously from seed in the hawarthia (sp?), which I've had for about 30 years. I found it is called a peanut cactus. Such a beautiful flower! My cacti have all done really well so far outdoors this year. Cacti are among my favorites. Researching peanut cactus, I guess I need to give this one its own pot.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

A mysterious vine appeared in my garden. It grew and grew. Then little gourds appeared! They are only about 1 1/2" long; hopefully they will have time to mature before frost. They are climbing the wire which surrounds my garden. If they get too large or too numerous, I will have to cut some off. It's fun to watch them. The flower is a papery white and even has a slight fragrance. I guess the seeds were in my compost.

 

[MaryFlora]

Love your magical garden plants, Marsha! Two very lovely surprises to sweeten your day!

 

[Silver City Heritage Farmstead]

I love my volunteer plants. I always figure that they're super adapted to whatever spot they've chosen to grow in.

The last couple years, in spite of plans otherwise, I've done almost nothing as to planned growing. I have a whole bunch of volunteer decorative squash growing, and a couple small patches of petunias. In the interests of sharing, I'll get some pictures the next couple of days and post them.

 

[MaryFlora]

I love gardens and admire all of you able green thumbed gardeners! My skills are limited to annuals purchased from a small local nursery with very healthy plants, then put into pots. We have sun most of the day on three sides of the house so geraniums (one of my favorites) and marigolds do best. I have a few hanging pots, and petunias do well in those pots as they get a mix of shade and sun.

Our other gardening trick for years has been to mow around anything blooming. This year we have had a couple of large beautiful daisy beds. The hotter dry days seem to work for them.

I will try to post a photo and look forward to seeing yours!

 

[Willow Flats]

I had no idea you are supposed to thin your peach trees. Every Spring we get high winds and that takes care of it. Half the blossoms are blown off and I get nice sized juicy peaches. We had a really windy spring but I guess they were tenacious because I got tons of peaches, but they are all so small! Some of them not much bigger than an apricot! I made a cobbler yesterday, but what a pain to peel. I ended up popping them in boiling water and then an ice bath to make it easier. Fortunately they are sweet, so I was lucky there. Next year I'll pay more attention! I have so many I thought I'd try making freezer jam.

My plums are huge this year so that's nice.

 

[Kelly]

I think they say that if you don’t thin out your fruit trees then you’ll get really small fruit. My apples are tiny!….the few apples the squirrels left for me By the looks of it, my orchard has never been pruned back so that is what I will be doing this fall.