Mumsy's Romantic Garden Advice

[Sally8]

I know this is about Mumsy's garden but if someone has a great idea on getting rid of poison ivy, I'm all ears. We have it all along our property line and I so hate itching.

Mumsy, I meant to write this while it was still topic but I live at the bottom of 2 Finger Lakes. If I left potatoes in the ground, they would be spoiled by spring. Rarely does any of it make it through winter. Occasionally, and this year is it, I have a tomato plant sprout up where it wasn't planted, ( I don't ever recall a potato) and when I called the neighbor to tell her, it went all through church of how I had a tomato grow. It's big news!! I can understand how it could be a problem.

Campsis Radicans (Trumpet Vine) is a creeper that I find so beautiful. I have a couple growing on the edges of my property. I find it to be very invasive, though. What are your thoughts on invasive but so beautiful plants? Do you grow them?

 

[armorfirelady]

Mumsy, I meant to write this while it was still topic but I live at the bottom of 2 Finger Lakes. If I left potatoes in the ground, they would be spoiled by spring. Rarely does any of it make it through winter. Occasionally, and this year is it, I have a tomato plant sprout up where it wasn't planted, ( I don't ever recall a potato) and when I called the neighbor to tell her, it went all through church of how I had a tomato grow. It's big news!! I can understand how it could be a problem.

I have the same weather as you. I have 4 tomato plants growing that I didn't plant. I still marvel how they survived winter and than grew on their own. (Can you collect the seeds from tomatoes to plant them the next year?)

 

[Sally8]

I have the same weather as you. I have 4 tomato plants growing that I didn't plant. I still marvel how they survived winter and than grew on their own. (Can you collect the seeds from tomatoes to plant them the next year?)

I always buy started tomato plants, along with pepper plants. I know people that grow both from seeds very early. Having cats is always a battle to grow anything. They eat everything!

 

[DeesHens]

No warning on my fly papers. They do work very well. I have them in the barn and hanging in some runs.

I heard bug zappers can send the inner contents of flys and mosquito's zinging through the air in minute pieces, landing in coffee cups and water dishes. That knowledge sounded disgusting so I never got one.

Speaking of bugs, I do not spray my roses with anything. Aphids can seem to pile up on new growth some years but I watch the small tweety birds go from plant to plant, bud to bud and pick them off. I think over spraying flower gardens may be part of the problem with the decline of the honey bee and other good pollinators. There is conflicting data but I don't spray or dust insecticides on plants or on my chickens.

In the garden and in the flock, I believe balance can be achieved. Just like I use deep litter in the barn, I let birds and beneficial insects control the garden. Some years I may lose a plant or shrub but just as in my flock, the tough survive. The weak are not left to pass their genes on. I raise and hatch stronger birds. I raise and propagate stronger plants.

There are many products available in nurseries that claim they are safe, organic, and will do a host of nice things without harming the environment. That may be true but those products cost a lot of $ I don't have.

Home made remedies work sometimes. I mix Dawn dish soap and spray flys that get into the house. Works most of the time but I get soapy stuff on my furniture.

I've used white vinegar as a weed suppressant and had mixed results. I kills top growth of many weeds quickly on hot dry days but it doesn't kill the roots of tenacious perennial weeds like Buttercup and many perennial grasses. It only slows nettles down here. The nettle spreads by rhizomes. One little piece starts a new plant. And in my climate, grass grows faster than I can spray the vinegar. I find it most useful in Spring on dry days. This time of year I give up. At least the vegetable garden is growing faster than the weeds. Sometimes all we need is to really slow down the insects or weeds. Either by letting wild birds do it or using something like vinegar. Giving the beneficial plants just enough of an edge to thrive. I raise my flock the same way. Some days I win, some days I lose.



I love frogs in the garden. Even a little ninja green one like this guy can eat his weight in aphids.

I very much appreciate your "clean" gardening Mumsy. As you know it is a good sign of a healthy environment when you have frogs and snakes around. I enjoyed your pic of your "little ninja green guy". I found an unexpected benefit from garter snakes being around when my DH was mowing several weeks ago. He inadvertently provided fresh meat for Betsy Barr Rock much to her delight. It was a gift indeed!We thanked the little snake for feeding her thus us via her egg the next day. That was a very tasty egg indeed.

~Dee~

 

[MumsyII]

I know this is about Mumsy's garden but if someone has a great idea on getting rid of poison ivy, I'm all ears. We have it all along our property line and I so hate itching.

Mumsy, I meant to write this while it was still topic but I live at the bottom of 2 Finger Lakes. If I left potatoes in the ground, they would be spoiled by spring. Rarely does any of it make it through winter. Occasionally, and this year is it, I have a tomato plant sprout up where it wasn't planted, ( I don't ever recall a potato) and when I called the neighbor to tell her, it went all through church of how I had a tomato grow. It's big news!! I can understand how it could be a problem.

Campsis Radicans (Trumpet Vine) is a creeper that I find so beautiful. I have a couple growing on the edges of my property. I find it to be very invasive, though. What are your thoughts on invasive but so beautiful plants? Do you grow them?

That is funny about the self seeding tomatoes. Potatoe peelings sprout normal sized potatoes in my compost pile every year. So annoying. I just found three tomato plants growing among the thick weeds next to the flower garden. I didn't plant them. I didn't even put compost there. Have no idea how they got there! And they are forming fruit of all things!

I don't have poison ivy so have no practical advice on how to eradicate it. I also hope someone that has gotten rid of serious plants like this on their property will share what worked for them.

At the beginning of this thread I said something that I live by. Right plant for the right place. Anything growing in the wrong place is a weed. Most of my property is 'the right place'. I let things grow to the size it can and with wild abandon unless it encroaches into my head space. We prune just enough so we can walk from space to space with out our clothes getting snagged or stuff caught in our hair. If a plant wants to take over the world and threaten the life of another plant we might intervene. It depends if the plant that is threatened is more valued to us than the brute that is taking over. This is the kind of gardening I love, cherish, and encourage. I'm not interested in having my husband spend hours and hours every weekend mowing fields of grass. I won't pay someone to do that either. There are precious few patches of lawn on my half acre. We had more when the kids were home and young. That Boy liked to play catch with his dad and they all liked to play on the lawn when they had puppies. Lawn is not important to us any more. Lush garden with little to no interference is more in our style these years. We still keep it in bounds of a sort but just barely.

Not sure if this answers your question about invasive but beautiful plants Sally. Invasive non native plants are something else. Such as Himalayan Blackberry's and Holly. These things get weeded out constantly. They are not native to Whidbey Island. The wild birds seed them everywhere.

 

[aoxa]

That is funny about the self seeding tomatoes. Potatoe peelings sprout normal sized potatoes in my compost pile every year. So annoying. I just found three tomato plants growing among the thick weeds next to the flower garden. I didn't plant them. I didn't even put compost there. Have no idea how they got there! And they are forming fruit of all things!

I don't have poison ivy so have no practical advice on how to eradicate it. I also hope someone that has gotten rid of serious plants like this on their property will share what worked for them.

At the beginning of this thread I said something that I live by. Right plant for the right place. Anything growing in the wrong place is a weed. Most of my property is 'the right place'. I let things grow to the size it can and with wild abandon unless it encroaches into my head space. We prune just enough so we can walk from space to space with out our clothes getting snagged or stuff caught in our hair. If a plant wants to take over the world and threaten the life of another plant we might intervene. It depends if the plant that is threatened is more valued to us than the brute that is taking over. This is the kind of gardening I love, cherish, and encourage. I'm not interested in having my husband spend hours and hours every weekend mowing fields of grass. I won't pay someone to do that either. There are precious few patches of lawn on my half acre. We had more when the kids were home and young. That Boy liked to play catch with his dad and they all liked to play on the lawn when they had puppies. Lawn is not important to us any more. Lush garden with little to no interference is more in our style these years. We still keep it in bounds of a sort but just barely.

Not sure if this answers your question about invasive but beautiful plants Sally. Invasive non native plants are something else. Such as Himalayan Blackberry's and Holly. These things get weeded out constantly. They are not native to Whidbey Island. The wild birds seed them everywhere.

Goats.

 

[aoxa]

Goats.

That was a joke.
They will eat everything else on top of the poison ivy.

 

[BlueMouse]

I'm tired of itching too! YUCK. and afraid one of the kids will get into it. It's the thing I hate the worst about our environment here is that the darned stuff evidently thrives.

I have a trumpet vine too. Survived the flood and is coming up here and there all over the yard. I found the main clump of it inadvertantly when I was digging the footing for a rock path. Dug down, found this root, looked like the root of something that had been planted on purpose, so I dug it up carefully and re-planted it somewhere else. Marked it and awaited developements. Lo and behold a month later up comes trumpet vine. I'm letting it grow up there where it will eventually grow on the wall of the vegetable garden, and by the house where it can grow over the side of the (very ugly) porch. I planted a slip from my mom's rambling "fairy" rose and we'll see which one wins! Either way it should be a pretty display of pink and orange engulfing the (did I mention it's hideous?) porch. The trick is figuring out what to plant in front of them. most rambling/climbing roses have very ugly bottoms. The best thing about trumpet vine is how the hummingbirds love it!

we have volunteer tomatoes in the garden almost every year. Either from the compost or something that fell. Now that we pretty much only grow heritage tomatoes a lot of times they set great fruit. Mom had an amish paste come up out of the asparagus bed this year! It looked so beautiful and sturdy that I staked it out to the side for her so it could get more sunlight. About saving seeds, as long as your tomato or what have you is open polinated or a heritage breed you can absolutely save seeds. There's a few great books out there to get you started. Mom and I have been saving and sharing seeds for several years now. We save the seeds from the hardiest plants, and the best and earliest fruits. In this way every generation of plants is closer to our ideal for our environments. Hardy plants that set early fruits for our (relatively) short summer. Much to our surprise we've found that our seeds have a better germination rate and grow more vigorously once transplanted than either ones we start from bought seeds or the plants we can buy at the local nursery.I really want to try mumsy's hoop coop greenhouse next year and see if I can actually get pepper plants to grow......... or even (gasp) egggplants.

Off to get ready for our big day tomorrow. Weekends around here mean work work work and more work!

 

[BlueMouse]

That was a joke.
They will eat everything else on top of the poison ivy.

I keep telling my hubby that goats are the solution. He doesn't care. He doesn't get poison ivy.

 

[armorfirelady]

I About saving seeds, as long as your tomato or what have you is open polinated or a heritage breed you can absolutely save seeds. There's a few great books out there to get you started. Mom and I have been saving and sharing seeds for several years now. We save the seeds from the hardiest plants, and the best and earliest fruits. In this way every generation of plants is closer to our ideal for our environments. Hardy plants that set early fruits for our (relatively) short summer. Much to our surprise we've found that our seeds have a better germination rate and grow more vigorously once transplanted than either ones we start from bought seeds or the plants we can buy at the local nursery.I really want to try mumsy's hoop coop greenhouse next year and see if I can actually get pepper plants to grow......... or even (gasp) egggplants.

So if any of the seeds I bought in the spring say heritage on them I can keep the seeds? Darn I guess I should of let a couple beet greens & kale go to seed

And the seeds from my random tomatoes I can keep to? I never thought you could keep seeds from tomatoes.........
I really need to visit the library more.......

Quote: But it was very funny.......and a way for someone to support their goat habit.