[Bush Lady]

Hi MightyQ

I think that you may be right about it being a combination of to much water and cool temperatures. And we have clay type soil here that holds a lot of water. Time will tell how my cucumbers are going to do.

I will post with an update.

[MightyQueenC]

Clay here, too, Bush Lady. Man ... can that crud hold water!

Can you try replanting them? I read, somewhere, that that may work.

Best of luck to you!

[eggplant43]

Gazania is one of my favorite flowers, and yes, grown as an annual in your zone. Da Prince is a very talented fellow.

Lu, so glad to see you up and about. Gardening is good for the soul, so hope you can get some in, within your allowable parameters. If you moisten soil, and potting mix before you work with it, you can probably manage it safely. I'd stay away from vermiculite completely, it's just too risky.

Two thoughts on planning a garden; there is very nice software out there for planning a garden, perhaps it would be available at your local library. Gardeners are a giving lot, if you know any gardeners, just ask them for divisions, seeds, cuttings, spare plants, and you'll ber amazed at what you can get. I've helped others start their gardens all my life, and I know there are many more like me out there.

[Sooky 47]

Thank you so much, Yvonne, Carolyn, Penny + Bruce for the encouragement and ideas on how to try and get help with my gardens. There certainly are different avenues to explore that I had not thought about. I will check out those links Penny.
* Lu

[Tuppence2]

You're welcome, Lu. Good Luck. Hope to see photos sometime.

"Buddy" is sweet! A great photo of a dog enjoying life. Thanks for the photos.

I've more roses flowering for the first time, "Bobbie James", "Sheila's Perfume", and a cutting I took from somewhere that's a ground cover rose, by the look of it, shades of pink - pretty.

Hot and sunny this Sunday morning. Temperatures reached 91 degrees Farenheit yesterday. Too hot for the dogs, and me!

[ymfoster]

Carolyn what a nice shot of Angel,
she looks very relaxed

Bush Lady I wonder if you could build up your bed about 6 inches so it can drain better in the wet weather & not get waterlogged, but would need more water in the hot weather to stop it drying out too much.

You're welcome Lu,
Hope you find some good ideas


Hope you're all having a great weekend

[franca]

Having a great week-end thanks YM......hope you are also......

Just got this from Penny, thought I'd share it with you all.....

Hello everyone.

This is me and some of my roses. It's an album made using Picasa2. If you have that program, you'll be able to view this as a slideshow, I hope.

Penny
Saturday 9th June, 2007

Me and some of my roses.

[MightyQueenC]

Even without "the program" it can still be viewed as a slideshow or individually.
Thanks for forwarding the link, Franca and thanks for the Me and your roses, Penny.

I'm off to the building supply place to get some whatchmacallit for the one side of the balcony steps that Angel thinks is her alternate entry/exit.

Happy gardening all.

[eggplant43]

Wow, that was neat. I very much like Picassa two. I didn't know you could do a web album like that, it's really neat.

It was nice seeing Penny's picture. I liked the roses, and loved the picture with the wisteria.

Off to the garden.

[Bush Lady]

Originally Posted by ymfoster

Bush Lady I wonder if you could build up your bed about 6 inches so it can drain better in the wet weather & not get waterlogged, but would need more water in the hot weather to stop it drying out too much.

My cucumbers are starting to turn green again. Except for the ones that are completely white, they are dying. I also have cucumbers that turn yellow when they come out of the ground. My mother when she used to garden always had that problem. She just put a little pesticide on the plants.

And about building up the bed so it will drain. Our garden is in a slight angel, so if it rains to much the water goes to one side. Last summer this happened, it suddenly started raining hard. If I had not gone out side to make a ditch so the water could drain off down the driveway, our potatoes that year would have rotted.

And besides the weather forecast is clear skies all week. So the clay soil I have will be able to dry up.

And those sure are lovely roses.

[MightyQueenC]

Originally Posted by MightyQueenC

I'm off to the building supply place to get some whatchmacallit for the one side of the balcony steps that Angel thinks is her alternate entry/exit.

The whatchamacallit was way too expensive.
1' X more than I need was $15 something, and besides, I really need 24" X about 40", so it'd be a pain in the rear to install 2 strips. I was going to get the plastic, sort of a cedar tint, but it was $30 + for the size I needed.
So I went with nails and blue nylon twine, strung taut for now.
It will work or she'll simply nose her way through the gaps and make a ruddy mess of the plants (and herself) below.

Here are some shots of my balcony and some plants, as I took it pretty easy gardening wise, today (darned hip):

Lu et al: many of the items are ground scores, or bought on the cheap.
The hanging chair was $20 at Big Tiger and that's probably the most expensive item.
The little water feature, using a sealed 14" hanging plant pot, has small pump (from an old fish tank) and contains some neat rocks from around the area as well as some sea shells, Amethyst and a large chunk of Rose Quartz. I've made several attachments to have the water trickle, splash or stream, using plumbing parts pieces and this at that from my "junk" drawer. The center support right now is a 3" copper pipe inside a hydro pole ceramic thingy that I "found" on the road where hydro workers had abandoned it. It had a previous "life" as a branch bark protector from when I had car tire swings strung in the apple trees in the back yard. I'd secured it to the branch and strung more rope through it attach to the tire.

The bench was sitting out on someone's driveway about 3 years ago, so I asked how much and they said just take it. I re-webbed the seating, and replace the cushions with homemade ones. It was sitting in the side yard for a couple of years, is solid oak I think (very heavy) and and has weathered the weather well, so maybe later this summer, I'll give it a good sanding and light stain or something.

The last photo is me, relaxing with a cuppa in my swingy chair, trying not to spill my tea.

Oh and haven't taken a photo yet, but under my air conditioner, I've placed a small balcony planter (24" long) to catch drips. Right now, it's got my rubber gardening shoes in it.
I'm thinking of placing rocks in the bottom and using them to support some bamboo. I saw some canes in the store, but forgot as I was leaving , distracted by other beautiful plants, but am kinda glad. Would the water in the "trough" be too yucky (or toxic ) from the air conditioner to have the bamboo growing in it?

Have a great week everyone.

[franca]

Originally Posted by MightyQueenC

The whatchamacallit was way too expensive.
1' X more than I need was $15 something, and besides, I really need 24" X about 40", so it'd be a pain in the rear to install 2 strips. I was going to get the plastic, sort of a cedar tint, but it was $30 + for the size I needed.
So I went with nails and blue nylon twine, strung taut for now.
It will work or she'll simply nose her way through the gaps and make a ruddy mess of the plants (and herself) below.

Here are some shots of my balcony and some plants, as I took it pretty easy gardening wise, today (darned hip):

Lu et al: many of the items are ground scores, or bought on the cheap.
The hanging chair was $20 at Big Tiger and that's probably the most expensive item.
The little water feature, using a sealed 14" hanging plant pot, has small pump (from an old fish tank) and contains some neat rocks from around the area as well as some sea shells, Amethyst and a large chunk of Rose Quartz. I've made several attachments to have the water trickle, splash or stream, using plumbing parts pieces and this at that from my "junk" drawer. The center support right now is a 3" copper pipe inside a hydro pole ceramic thingy that I "found" on the road where hydro workers had abandoned it. It had a previous "life" as a branch bark protector from when I had car tire swings strung in the apple trees in the back yard. I'd secured it to the branch and strung more rope through it attach to the tire.

The bench was sitting out on someone's driveway about 3 years ago, so I asked how much and they said just take it. I re-webbed the seating, and replace the cushions with homemade ones. It was sitting in the side yard for a couple of years, is solid oak I think (very heavy) and and has weathered the weather well, so maybe later this summer, I'll give it a good sanding and light stain or something.

The last photo is me, relaxing with a cuppa in my swingy chair, trying not to spill my tea.

Oh and haven't taken a photo yet, but under my air conditioner, I've placed a small balcony planter (24" long) to catch drips. Right now, it's got my rubber gardening shoes in it.
I'm thinking of placing rocks in the bottom and using them to support some bamboo. I saw some canes in the store, but forgot as I was leaving , distracted by other beautiful plants, but am kinda glad. Would the water in the "trough" be too yucky (or toxic ) from the air conditioner to have the bamboo growing in it?

Have a great week everyone.

You are putting all to shame with your cool projects MQC.........love the pic's......keep up the good work, and don't forget , keep getting those hands dirty.... HAGO..

I noticed the first buds are showing on my Dahlias...

Ripen green tomatoes with newspaper

Pic's taken yesterday...

[Bush Lady]

Well my peas are about a foot tall now. I have weeded them out a few days ago. Since we have a riding lawn mower with bagging units on it. I told my brother that we are going to put those grass clippings in the garden between the rows of peas. I just don't like it when the weeds are taller then the peas, when I am ready to harvest. When peas are big and you want to pull out the weeds, chances are that you will be also pull out the peas. So now I put grass clippings in the rows. This will stop the weeds. And my soil is a clay type, so the grass clippings are beneficial.

Lovely flowers frank.

Gardening sure is a lot of hard work, but look at all the benefits we have afterwards.

[telecom69]

Hi all,great to see so many posts,and pictures, just love that balcony of MQC's just about everything on there ...dont know how on earth you manage to balance in that swingy chair though have you thought about fixing some canes instead of twine in the gap ?I suppose the fixing might be a problem though,you would have to either drill through them to avoid splitting them,or use some sort of staples...dont know what to think about the water drips from the air conditioner,I would think it should be ok,wouldnt have thought it was toxic,but who knows,trial and error might be the best bet.

Now then Frank how did you manage to get such a perfect looking Hosta?there isnt a blemish on the leaves,never seen one in such perfect condition,you must surely be growing that inside ?I too have some buds on my Dahlias and one or two of them are close to opening,whilst other plants dont seem to be moving very much...

Yesterday I went down the garden and was surprised to see several spikes of Delphiniums lying flat on the ground,these were 4 ft high,so was a bit dissapointed as they were in full bud,I thought at first it might have been cats responsible,but on closer inspection at the point of break there were inch long gashes,black in colour, eaten? halfway through the stems,can only think it must have been slugs? have never seen this happen before in all the years I have kept Delphiniums ....My Orange Blossoms are in full bloom at the moment and the scent from those are overpowering almost,especially at nightime Everything now growing madly,lots of watering of course as we are in the middle of a dry spell again,but rain promised for Thursday hopefully,very pleased with my Tomatoes,they have their second trusses on and Im watering them twice daily at the moment as last year I had a lot split,due,supposedly to erratic watering but then again last year we had record temperatures to contend with...I have 3 Cucumbers and they are doing ok but not as good as I hoped,keeping a strict eye on them more later,take care all

[Sooky 47]

Very creative in your projects, there MC! Talent must run in the family!

Nice flowers there Frank .......... You and Carole do a fine job of it!

Hi Bob ...... good to see you!