What did you do in the garden today?

[politicalcenter]

Been raining here for a week. I got into some fire ants this morning. I tired to driwn the one on my hands i attempted to drowned them in a bucket of water. No help. The bucket full of rain water. I wish i had a organic method to rid them. Guinnies (spell?) possibly? African ant eaters?

Water won't kill them. You may try taking a shovel from one mound and put it in another and mix them up. They say they kill each other.

I use permathrin bought at the local CO-OP.

People from the north have no idea what a pest fire ants are.

 

[jenn-]

Water won't kill them. You may try taking a shovel from one mound and put it in another and mix them up. They say they kill each other.

I use permathrin bought at the local CO-OP.

People from the north have no idea what a pest fire ants are.

I sent boiling water down on them. I think it killed a few and flattened the mound. Then I threw some diatomaceous earth on them. Tomorrow I will sick them on each other if I have to. The garden really needs to be planted before the rain comes again.

 

[Meaghan]

I don't know if they really do kill each other, but you'd have to figure out which colonies are attached. Fire ant colonies consist of multiple queens and dozens of mounds. If you dump a pile of ants from the same colony but different mounds I don't think they will attack each other.

Water doesn't kill them, but it does make them move. Problem is, you don't know where they're going to move to.

 

[3goodeggs]

I found what helped was -I know poison is bad- but if you only put out bait near the fire ants and try very hard not to broadcast and get the other less annoying ants, then once we got the populations of the other ants up, the fire ants are less aggressive and there are fewer of them.

But I still have to shake out the Extinguish around the fire ant mounds occasionally.
We can not have fire ants within 20 feet of our greenhouses, so it must be done.

 

[RichnSteph]

Today in the garden we got our two growbeds lined, the plumbing connected and tested and power run from the house out to the AP system. Hoping to have the rock in place this week and finish up a few minor details and then plant this weekend. We also planted pumpkin, watermelon, squash, cantaloupe, okra and green beans in our regular garden. The blueberry and blackberry bushes are doing well and we even have a volunteer avocado tree that has sprouted.

So far so good!

 

[rgunn1]

The last link I posted touches on that.
The shredded material leaches (mostly zinc), the intact material (whole tires) off gas when new (like many things) but apperanty they don't leach much anything unless shredded or burned. Any way I understand your choice.

Yeah, we decided against it. First, it's not worth the risk (ie, we have too many other options available). Second, the wife doesn't want to look at the old tires in the yard! Regardless... thanks for the links.

 

[allegiant85]

Hey all , I'm new to gardening and byc, I decided to tackle both this year and I'm 5 weeks in on the chickens and about 2 weeks into gardening. Quick question regarding the attached image ... Should I be doing anything at this point besides watering them and taking them outside during the day? They are dwarf sunflowers, they all started in the same pot but I put a few in other pots about 2 days ago and they seem to be doing well. Since I know absolutely nothing about gardening and all my supplies came from someone else's Tuesday trash pile (yea yea I know) I figured this would be the place to inquire about what I should be doing next or if I'm good to go with what I've been doing. Thank you all very much in advance for any advice

 

[hennible]

Your doing great Allegiant85, not much else you can do at this point.

 

[lazy gardener]

Thanks to who ever was kind enough to post the fact sheets about using tires as planters. The actual information, rather than "hear say" of what folks have done was what it took to help me to make an informed decision. Like you, rgunn1, I decided that there are too many other options to bother to use tires in my garden. They'll be going to the land fill.

 

[allegiant85]

Your doing great Allegiant85, not much else you can do at this point.

Thank you for reassuring me, I get worried that I'll wake up and everything's going to be dead so I'll keep my fingers crossed. I also bought this thing and filled it with soil and a bunch of different seeds hopefully I'll have some stuff popping out in a few days