Anyone Recognize this?

These are growing in my newest compost pile and I cannot figure them out. Any guesses? They do not look like any weed, veggie or plant from my yard. In 2 other locations, in otherwise plant-empty pots (just soil or 'finished' compost) I have 5 little seedling coming up that now appear to be in the cucubit (sp?) family, so either cuke, melon or squash - all of which I grew last year. I will take all these little guys and transplant them somewhere. Won't know for awhile if they are from hybrids or heirloom plants.

Lynda

Potatoes? I had some sprouts from my composting last year which kind of looked like that - left them to grow, and got tiny potatoes.

Hmmm, never considered that. Since that is a newer pile, not as much kitchen waste has gone in there - mostly straw and horse manure, can't recall if 'taters went in. I will have to watch and see, maybe not move them then.

Can you take a closer picture?

I'll try, usually I shake the camera too much, lol

LOL Been there, done that. Pick one to focus on and don't necessarily zoom in as far as you can. You can always crop it some for better detail.

I can't tell either, QG, but it does look like ya got some road apples. LOL! : - )
WIB,
SW

LOL, Sw, as I said, this is a newer compost heap, although even when the pile is 'done cookin', there are still some whole apples.

Peanuts, planted by the birds?

Really? That's possible? If the birds did it, they were REALLY busy as there are a lot of them!

I had birds plant peanuts here! I pulled these weird plants up, and they were peanuts!

Interesting that you may have peanuts growing in your compost pile. I've never seen a peanut plant.

Well, I am going to let whatever it is, continue to grow there and see if it turns out to be edible. So far no rabbits or gophers have munched down on them. The other squash/melon/cuke looking volunteers in my dirt 'mixing' bucket may be moved to the same compost location. I just won't do and more mix-ins in the compost pile where volunteers have shot up.

OK, Maybe a tomato variety? Here are some new pics, but taken with my older phone. 3 different parts of the compost pile.

Another shot

And one more oops, they are getting more blurry. Maybe I am just tired. Nope, it's blurry.

Oh, see what else I found in the garden, no not my DD, but her arm ware. The gopher snake was caught up in some bird netting, bound around his middle and his head all entangled. Neighbor and DD with clipper, scissors and box cutter carefully freed him, then dug an opening to a gopher hole, gave him some water and let him go down the hole. Bon Appetit'!

It's that time of year, QG. : - )
It's warming up enough for the snakes to start coming out.
YS saw a rattler when working with his Dad last week. Out in the yard we've seen a leg less lizard, and the boys caught a gopher snake and he got away down a gopher hole. : - )
I'm really glad you were able to save that helpful g.s. from all the line he was tangled up in.
People don't realize how helpful our snakes are to maintaining the integrity of our gardens.
I am particularly fond of the King Snakes (they eat rattlers), and gopher snakes. Pretty aren't they?
I have been assured that peanuts can be grown here and I intend to try. Hope to get them in the ground in the next week or so.
I have also been told they are spread by birds, and in some places can turn into weeds. Well, if we don't water it, it pretty much doesn't grow. We have probably had our last significant rain for the year, at least until next Oct.- Nov., unless we get a thunderstorm during the summer, and those last long enough to make it humid, and don't drop much rain either.
We all get shaky and tired. Don't worry about it.
I got to go.
WIB~
SW

I'm glad there aren't any snakes around here, I just have no respect for them. If I saw one coming thoward me I'd have a heart attack or scream and run.

I'm going to try gardening in some styrofoam containers. DH pulled a couple really big ones out of the dumpster so I googled to see what kind of paint I can use on them. Watched a video where they used regular spray paint and Kylon's H2O paint. Of course the regular spray paint started eating up the styrofoam right away. I've got water based paint around here so I may try that. Another project and I don't want to put this one on hold.

Pegi, I have seen folks use styrofoam in the Container Forum. Always more projects than time or gumption around here.

Hey Samigal,
I've seen people actually use styrafoam to make carvings in, using nail polish remover. It was way cool. My friend "tiled" her son's wall in his room in styrofoam, so that she'd made them look like stones found in an ancient castle. Way cool.
I am pretty sure she used a water based paint, then sealed it with a spray lacquer.
Hope you can get it all figured out. I'm trying to figure out what to do with some tall clay cylinders that showed up one day. They don't have holes in the bottoms, so I guess you could use 'em as bottom waterer's, for small potted plants.
Maybe I could drill a drainage hole. Hmmm . . .
Wanted to thank you again, Samigal, for all the help at the RU. I really enjoyed seeing you!
Got to go water. : - (
WIB~
SW

SW I wish I could have helped you more. The shoes you gave to me fit perfect and I have worn them in the yard many times. Very comfortable too, right now I need to give them a washing so they are ready to clog around in again. I'm always "seeing" flower pots in old things. Just drill a few holes in the bottom and plant away. My son drilled some holes in a couple of long metal containers for this purpose, but haven't planted anything in them yet.

I've got exercises to do for my back so if I want to have back free pain while gardening I have to make these a regular part of my day. I have 2 weeks to get in shape before seeing the therapist again. I better show some improvement. No more bending over to garden, now just who is going to pull all those weeds!!

Samigal,
Believe me, you did help a lot at the RU. : - )
You may not think so, but you did. I was loosing steam fast at the end of the day. : - )
I wasn't sure who got the shoes, but I'm so glad they are being appreciated and used! : - )
I'll ask someone else to do the drilling. I'm getting kind of shaky these days. You'd think the heat would help. Oh well, I got a summer kid who actually likes gardening to help out, and I'm sure being a guy, he'd love to drill me some holes. LOL!
He also helps with the weeding, planting, moving heavy things. He's been a great help. You may have met him briefly at the RU. He did eat with me. He was the one there helping us to set up the tables at the beginning.
Now you need to find a kid you can teach to weed. That was my first job. I pulled dandelions for older ladies who were having a hard time getting up and down off their knees. I got a whole quarter for every paper (lg size) bag I filled with the weeds. It's hard for girls to get jobs as kids. Started babysitting at age 13, and buying my own clothes. It helped with the family finances some.
You work hard on your exercises, but don't overdo. I have learned that the weeds will always wait for you, just like dirty dishes. I've also learned to cut off the dang seeds before they have a chance to spread. Sometimes if I really hate a weed I'll cut off the bloom before it flowers.
Hang in there, dear heart. : - )
I have to go finish the watering. Oh when will DH get that fixed so it's all automatic again? Soon I hope.
Walk In Beauty~
SingingWolf

Here is what these plants look like today:

I have discovered what they are (well, I recognized 2 of them as squash/melons). Potatoes! They appeared so crowded, I pulled a small one and an itty bitty potatoe was attached. Also in the photo, my first peppers and a lime for size perspective.

Soilsandup, you win.

This message was edited May 27, 2011 1:56 PM

Ah, mystery solved. I have squash plants coming up, taking over the raised bed and beyond. Noticed today tiny baby's apprearing on the yellow crooked neck squash. My main interest is the spaghetti squash, no babies yet. Tomatoes doing good, no fruit yet.

Hooray!!! I got something right. I think I have a patch of those coming up in my garden now too. I have a habit of not getting to eating my potatoes in time, and into the compost pile they go. I have a very haphazard compost pile and I often mix the compost in as I need organic materials to plant and many times not everything has broken down. Hence I get all sorts of odds and ends cropping up all over my yard.

Yes, I understand as I had some squash coming up in a big pot that I had (notice past tense, as in dead) a blueberry bush in. This week I put each of those 2 squash plants into containers where they can get full sun. Let's see if they fruit. This year, for veggies in containers I am using a mix of compost and bags of veg/flower soil amendment. The gal teaching the container veggie class at Armstrong gardens was always such a strong advocate or just potting soil, but came up with this as the veggies are just seasonal, and not living in there forever. So far, so good. While potting them up, using my own compost, I have seen melon or squash seeds in there. Last year I had a couple tomato volunteers, with the largest growing right at the base of a dwarf tangerine. Never fruited, though.

The summers are too hot here for any type of container gardening to be effective without having to water almost everyday in the height of summer. I have given up on them, except for a few potted plants that are on my front porch. Tomatoes need a lot of light to set fruit - that is probably one reason why your tomato that was underneath the tangerine tree never fruited. The best place in my house for vegetables is in my front side yard - so I finally got rid of the grass there, built a retaining wall, and that is going to be my main veggie bed. Here is the before photo.

Ditto here as to where my veggies and fruits reside, but we only have dirt, so no biggie with lawn. Soils, our weather is not much different than yours. I remember when I lived in Santa Barbara and went with my girlfriend to visit the school she was going to in Sacramento after graduation. It was July. It was over 100 degrees. I thought I would die. Now I live in a place like that, lol. We were so spoiled in SB! I wnet to weather.com and compared Sacto to here and you are cooler. Daytime, all year. At night, all year, we are cooler. The same goes for record highs and lows. And you get more rain. Kingman, AZ surprised me when I was comparing their weather to ours when a DG'r moved there. They are cooler also.

Here is a photo of the front left side of our house too, taken July, last summer. Last year veggies were in straw bales. To the right of the picture you can see one side of the "U" shape. Those are tomatoes you can see. That photo was before the horses were out roaming in Dec. and ate the palm trees down to the trunk. They are just now starting to get their first fronds. The compost pile is straight back near the corner, where to 'tators are growing.

I think I would go for cooler in the day than cooler in the night LoL...but hot is hot in the summer.
Interesting concept with the veggies in the straw bales. I had no idea that horses like palm trees.

Here is my after photo - the last of the lawn was dug up at the end of April, the retaining wall put in, and I am slowly planting in the vegetables. Since it is in the front yard, I am interspersing flowers in between.

This message was edited May 28, 2011 9:32 PM

What a great space for gardening! I love the retaining wall, you are going to have a fun time planting.

That is a beautiful raised garden bed and perfect for the front yard. Looks like you are on a corner. Do you get much foot traffic there, as in will there be veggies being 'liberated' by others than yourselves? I was just reading an article in a magazine of a woman who has been planting veggies, herbs, fruits in her front yard for more than 20 years. It is very densly planted with edibles, perennials and such in the ground, raised beds, planters with pathways, arched trellis' for climbers and places to sit. She said she changes the design and the planters and even raised garden's locations each year (with paid help).

I read about the straw bales in the Strawbale Forum here on DG. Some have been doing it for a many years and have started to enclose them with lumber too. They worked well for me, but there was a possiblitly of moving this year, so pots it is. I am using the same 6 ft wire fence DD put up for me for tomato supports, so the pots (tomatoes, bean, cukes) are in the same location. I have peppers and onions in pots in that general area of the palm trees too.

Ahh, yes, sadly, they love palm trees! Here is an after shot taken the first of Jan. They do like the queen palms the best, but started in on the Mexican fan palm later. Not as much low enough for them on that one. We found out later that palm can be bad for them due to the stinginess that can get tied up in their guts. They also love broccoli and brussels sprouts - right down to the roots. Roses are yummy too. They do not care for the drought tolerant stuff.

At least with cool at night, as soon as the sun goes down the windows can be opened. I have family in Dallas that don't even know how to open windows!

Oops, here is the photo