My first raised bed garden for vegtables

About those Azaleas..........................they are intertwined with a wild Passion Flower vine. I spent 1 long day over there trimming the Azaleas back (they had taken over 6' of the yard) and pulling down miles of the passion vine. Of course, by the next season, you could not tell I'd cut a thing.

I take Yolie all my empty pots & get baby plants in exchange. If not for them, I'd not have 1/2 my lovely plants.

It is really nice seeing the gardens. I can already tell there are many special plant treasures there!

Plant-Thang you have some lovely gardens!

Q- I have had that jalapeno plant for a year now and the first batch of peppers stayed green, but were super hot. The second batch all turned red, but I was not able to get anyone to taste test them for me ( I do not like hot/spicy foods...LOL). Now, I have blooms opening while I have peppers growing, at least a dozen total between the new blooms and existing peppers.

Plant Thang, Absolutely Beautiful, I love your landscaping! I want a pond now! lol, I'm running out of yard space though!
here's what I've been up to lately. Picking horn worms from my tomatoes, I found some other critters on my cucumbers, look like more worms, don't think their horn worms though. My new neighbor saw my back yard, and is tickled to death she has someone in the neighborhood that she can relate to. She has brought me quite a few plants, some milk weed for the Monarch Butterfly, plus a few I can't remember the names of. My plant book is out in the shed, and I don't venture into the yard this late. I couldn't sleep so here I am. My DH and I laid a bed of sand yesterday, and sat the pool up, ugh, after we started filling it, had to empty it and disassemble it so we could move it. The water was all going to one end, we thought we had the ground level, NOT! What a pain in the butt. After all that, it's up and filled, went to pinch a penny and got chemicals, so tomorrow will be a swim day. I'm ready for it. FYI, when your outside sweating, sprinkle corn starch all over yourself, it absorbs the sweat. I was out front of my house, didn't realize what I looked like, my neighbor asked me if I had seven dust all over me, I had to laugh, and told her no, it's what the Thai's do when their working outside in the tropical hot sun, something I picked up while in Thailand. Looks funny, but it sure works, last for about 2-3 hours, depending on how thick you sprinkle it on yourself.
I still have some stuff to get planted. My flowers from seed are still in their growing pots, the gardens are screaming attention, I feed once a week, pick weeds out of the beds, pick worms, or should I say I take a garden tool and flick them into a pail of soapy water, yuck, to have to use my fingers, no way, I tried and just couldn't do it. have picked sugar snap peas, peas, squash and cucumbers. Everything is coming along very nice for my first time with raised beds. I have found that my squash plants are finicky, even though I have well established squash, the lower fruits seem to be getting end rot(?), or is it flower rot? I know that deep down on the raised mounds, the roots are very wet, which isn't good, but yet I am getting good results from the squash that's growing higher on the plants. Really weird. I found some weird looking cat on my cuke's, not like the horn worms, I flicked him off into the soapy water to, but no visual damage to the plant.I took some neem oil and sprayed the raised bed garden, and than because I was running out of time, and my fingers were hurting from spraying, I got the seven dust out, and did the corn garden, which is what I named the far side garden, where I have the watermelon growing. I also have cantaloupe in there, way opposite of the watermelon, some more squash, cucumbers, and bush beans. My friends stop in and help out, but I don't know how much they know about gardening, probably the same as me, Notta! If I could keep my lap top clean, and have it outside on the picnic table, it'd be easier than running in and out asking "ask" questions 30 time's a day, which I really do.
My scarecrow is working wonderful! No doubt!! Bear sightings in the neighborhood are rampant, for sure their are 2, and they have been making a mess with garbage, knocked a neighbors berry tree down, just doing what bears do, but they are staying out of the garden, as are the deer, and the smaller predators. I have an armadella digging holes in the yard, I went around and sprinkled ammonia where he travels to no avail. My DH said to let him be, he's not hurting anything. Yeah right! A good way to sprain your ankle is to walk into one of his hole's if you don't see it.
Anyway, story short, haha, from me, that's a joke, but I've been busy, everything is looking good, I wouldn't change a thing. The back yard is almost done, next fall, and through spring will be focusing on the front yard. I did some landscaping, but not enough for what I really want to do. Money is tight, DH bought a 1928 Buick Century, without the bumper seat, it's in my garage as he restorer's it. His hobby for the rest of his life time, I think! So, no more money for me and the yard! BUT, I do get to drive it, when he's finished with it. I'm OK with that:). Yes, we've been busy!
I'm posting some picture's here, and even of his car, ( I know this thread is about raised gardens, But it is my thread) and to all reading, I have no problem with you just chipping in, with what ever it is you want to chat about, just saying!!! Have at it! But do share your raised beds if you have them. I learn from everyone out there and this is my first year with them.
My pool is an intex pool, 15'x33" deep, just big enough for a few people to float around in, easy to keep clean, BUT, needs to be on flat ground, otherwise you could shoot a guest clear across your yard should a side blow out, my biggest concern when we first set it up. Now it's good to go
My garden picture's are self explanatory, the horn worms, and other critters that I'm not sure about. And the car, just a throw in since I mentioned it in what I've been up to.

I hope you all have had a sparkling sunny happy kind of day here in the Florida Tropics, it's heating up faster than anyone really wants it to, Remember, wear that corn starch, it keeps you dry!!!!! For real!! No joke! Looks funny, but guess what, I'm not dripping sweat. Take care and see you all again real soon, Jami

Here are some more picture's. I didn't realize the second picture was blurry of the little tomato, there is a worm going inside of it, I have a picture that's clearer, but if anyone can put a name to the different worms I showed Please, tell me, I know they can't all be horn worms, and I did read where there are a few different one's that like tomatoes, I just took picture's of everything I found that looked different. The 4th picture, was on a cucumber leaf and had a hard looking shell with what looked like wings flat against it's body, it wouldn't fly as I was moving the leaf to get it into focus, but it looked like it had horns, a hard shell for a body, legs, and antennas! The 3rd picture is what I assume are horn worms, and no, these are from different plants, I was just cutting the leaves off the plants because they had no importance, and they just happened to be laying side by side, ick, worms, they took a bubble bath after the picture was taken!
Pic 1 The 1928 Buick Century
Pic 2 The scarecrow set up to chase the squirrels from the bird feeders
Pic 3 sugar snap peas from the garden
Pic 4 a cucumber
Pic 5 A new flower garden with limbs I drug from the woods, eventually will turn to mulch

And a few more pictures
#1 Squash
#2 cucumber
#3 tomatoes
#4 back yard view of the raised beds, really filled in since the first picture's I posted, Can't wait to see the flowers that will climb and cover the fence! They are growing,!!
#5 a new bed of banana trees and elephant ears I dug up from the woods, I hope they grow, so far so good! I just need to cut out the grass and create an island, haven't thought of what I want to create yet!



Ok, let's get the show on the road, show me some of your creative beds. raised or not, if you like what you've created let's see it, I'm showing you mine, now, let's see yours!

Happy sunny side up, have a glorious day! Jami

Its great hearing from you and seeing all the progress Jami!

Things are looking great except for the bug problem. I believe in Spinosad for veggies. Wishing them away for you.

Those Intex pools are tough stuff! I have the same pool and bought it 4 years ago to raise Tilapia in. I grow them for food and fertilizer. I have some in the fridge we just fileted last night. I'll take a pic and send it! I think I should do a thread here for those who may like the idea. If you get tired of the cleanings and pool chemicals etc. you could raise Tilapia!!! Ha!

I am a huge old car fan and That buick is cool!

The tree limb branch framed bed is super. Of course its right up my alley! I use old logs and wood all the time.

Keep up the good works, and everything is looking great!

David

I'm back from my camping trip, was really nice, some heavy rain first day just as we arrived, but gave me a few hours to finish my book and the hubs got to take a three hour nap, something he loves to do. Then perfectly wonderful weather, and the coolest thing was all the lightning bugs (fireflies) in the evening, been awhile since I've seen any of those. We were at Tomoka State park in Ormond.

Jami glad you got your pool up, and except for the caterpillars your garden is really coming along nicely, I like the way you used the branches as a garden buffer, it looks pretty good. We were at the Flagler market Friday morning, some nice produce there and lots was Florida grown, some really good tomatoes and Florida seedless watermelon.

David I can't believe you raise fish too. I really didn't know you could raise fish in a pool to eat, what a great idea. Now I really wish I had more room for a pool because that is something I'd like to try. ☺

Actually, my pool is a little smaller then Jami's Sherri. It's 13' x 36" high. I have friends around here who raise them in 300 gallon stock tanks the size of the pond you have seen pictures of in my front yard, and it works for them! They are easy, sturdy and tasty fish. I like knowing where they come from for sure.

Here's a picture of their home...
***********************

I'm glad you had a nice time at Tomoka. My huge Opuntia cactus out front came from a start there. I took a cutting from a sad specimen in too shady of an area in the woods. I never dreamed it would develop so fast in only 5 years in the place it should have been growing. Full Sun in my front Southern exposure. Tomoka Park was one of my favorite haunts as a kid, and still is...

David

This is the 2nd time I started this, the 1st time, I forgot to send it, now it's 2 days later because I've been busy fighting the flooding in my yard from all this rain. David to be quick and finish this message, I still have inside chores to do, ugh, to much all at once, rain rain and more rain, but ! I love the idea of the fishing pool. I have to look into it. I like that idea, Knowing what's on or in my veggie's as they grow and we eat them is so satisfying, and to know that I can do the same with fish, sounds to good to be true. I'm going to look into it, and just maybe, give it a try.
Sunkissed, Glad you enjoyed your week, or weekend here! Tomoka State Park is Beautiful! Because I live here I wouldn't camp there, but have enjoyed the day time there. I still haven't been to the Flagler Market, have no need because of the garden, no excuse, But you know the saying, you don't know what you have till it's missing. I live here and take everything for granted, the market, the beach, just living in a little beach community. I can't go in the ocean because of my cervical spine, afraid I'll get knocked over by the wave's, the parking has gotten out of hand on A1A, a lot of Daytona Bch. people come up here and use the beach due to the fact it's free, and there is parking along side the beach. In Daytona, you either take a chance and drive on the beach hoping to get a spot, or you park in a designated parking lot, and carry all your stuff a couple hundred feet to the beach, and with a few little one's tagging along, it can be a handful. driving up here is much easier. I stay close to home, unless I have chores to do out and about, I just put a pool in my yard, so I just simply enjoy what I have, here! I do occasionally take the dogs over by the police department/and library, there's a really nice boardwalk that goes through the wet lands, I love walking it with the dogs, enjoying the setting sun, the wild life, and just chatting with the people who are also strolling along for a late afternoon walk. It's so peaceful and beautiful. I don't know if you've been there, but there are a few miles of boardwalk, entertwining through the mangrove's, and trees. Flagler did a great job when they built that walkway. They have benches, and picnic tables with little overhead shelter, similar to what they have along the beach on A1A. You can carry a lunch, and halfway through , stop and enjoy a nice afternoon. I've taken chicken necks, twine, a net and went trying to catch blue crab, yes, had some luck, I see some people fishing the little arbitrarys( sp, or correct word) that run through there, there are quite a few, as it's all run off from the River. I really do enjoy it! But, I'm glad you had a nice time. It's peaceful when your camping, our last trip was down to Sabastian Inlet! Now, that is a great place to go too! They have the camp ground right on the inlet, you see the big boats coming and going, fishing , swimming, nice restruants, and it's 1 way down to the campground and one way out. Similar to going to the Ponce Inlet. Ok, I hope I wet your whiskers! lol, getting you ready for your next camping trip, I know I did mine. I'm ready!!!
If I missed anyone, I'm sorry! I just wanted to jump on here for a few minute's and tell you whats up with my gardens since all this rain started.
1st off, I don't know where they're coming from but I have worms on my Tomatoes, Corn, and found a few on my peppers, and squash!!! This is a new garden, never planted in before, 3 raised beds in 1, with some potted plants too. The other garden was tilled 3-5 time's, and the soil I used was bought from Lowes. The corn garden is OK, no worms found as of yet, but the raised bed garden, ugh! And the worms look different. Some are deff horn worm, but the other's I don't know. I have blasted them with soapy water, bough 7 dust, neem oil, than I went and bought more 7 dust in 1 of those garden hose sprayer thingings. I don't use this stuff everyday, but give it a few days before blasting them again. These worms have almost wiped out my corn, so I think. DH say's maybe I caught them in time, I don't know, but I'm freaking because I have 2 corn fields, 1 with bi colored sweet corn, this is the one with the worms, the white sweet corn is now drowning! I planted the white 2 weeks after I planted the multi colored. The multi has the silk starting to form inside the stalks, and all I can see is damage from the worms. Maybe some aphids too. I'm putting some picture's up here and if anyone has suggestions please, don't hold back, if I have to pull it all, do I have time to reseed the garden or count my loss this year. I am new, and this is why i started this thread. Now I really need help!
As for the white corn flooded garden, the corn wasn't as far along, but I have a large cedar tree at the bottom of the garden, and it's roots were stopping the flow and drainage of the water. I also had built up my rows of corn and squash to hills, and all the water is laying in the ditches between the veggies. I'll have to post a few time's to show you what I spent my day doing. While we slept last nigh, in addition to the rain, our hot water heater went crazy, flooding the garage. My garage is our family room, shop, whatever. We woke up to soggy carpets, 2 full bags of wet charcoal we just bought for the 1 side of our grill, wood chip, parts from my DH's old car, wood panels, they used wood to make some of the parts on a 1928 Buick, as in running boards door trim, roof trim, I don't know all that they used wood for, but quite a lot, and he was keeping it to make a template for the new parts. That's just a few things that were on the floor. So, while he was getting the garage and hot water heater back together, I was out with my shovel, and hand tools digging trenches to drain the water from my garden. I also unhooked the filter from the pool I just set up, and drained the water below the skimmer, as I was worried about the pool collapsing, because the sand wasn't really that stable under it yet. It kept overflowing, as was the rain barrel, not enough hoses to syphon the water away from everything. Just a mess! BTW, Remember, this is our 5th month in this home, so much to learn and do after this mess, imagine if this were a hurricane, OMG! Glad we got this now, so we know what we're facing! Anyway, to get to the point, He worked in the garage, I dug, heart and soul, body aching with every shovel of dirt I shoveled, trying to dig a ditch to drain the water. Every once in awhile DH would come out and take over, to give me a break, my neck was killing me, but we don't have that kind of money to call in help from a professional. It's DIY, I created this monster, and I get to handle it, the good and the bad! What I ended up doing was getting on my hands and knees, and literately digging the ditches with my hand shovel, and I had root cutter clippers, I actually dug the roots out from this cedar tree, cutting the thin roots, and the real big thick one's, digging till I found the bottom of the root, and digging under it so the water would drain . After about 5 hours, with many breaks, It was done the best I could. The water was moving, it reminded me of a small stream up North when I lived there! The picture's I post here will tell you what I did. Tonight I don't feel too bad, but I know I'll be miserable tomorrow, my hands hurt on a normal basis, as does everything else, I overdid it, but, we can fix this mess now with pvc, knowing that this is a problem, it wasn't a hot humid day as I was working, actually sweating, with 3/4 length pants, garden knee boots with 2 pairs of socks, and an insulated jacket with a hoodie, and another ball cap, I didn't have a rain coat, but till I was done, I was mud from head to toe, and wet, clear to my skin. Than I had to wait to get a shower, cause he was still installing the new water heater! lol, I went out to the rain barrel, got some water, and than rinsed off in the shower! And how was your day!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I feel good, knowing that this won't ever happen again, at least this bad, we will put some reinforcements in, and correct the problem. I forgot to tell you about the pool. It's holding up, rather nicely, we took nylon rope and one of those swimming tubes, cut the tube into 5 inch pieces, ran the nylon rope through the hole in the middle of the tube, and than ran it around the bottom of the pool, to keep the legs together. If one leg would have been wiped out from the shifting sand, which hasn't happened, the sand is staying in place, it could have taken all the legs out. But, I did empty the pool half way, so I don't have to worry about that mess, or replacing the pool should it happen.
Here are some picture's I took today!
#1 first kind of cat found on a tomato leaf, horn worm?
#2 also on a tomato leaf
#3 This cat was on the underside of a squash leaf? Funny that they all look different!!
#4 Hubby getting ready on late afternoon Thursday, to try and get some ditches dug for drainage. To many roots from the cedar tree, being close to the end of the day, his back hurting( he already had surgery, need's more) and it was stiil raining, and dinner was almost done, he gave it up for the evening. Didn't realize what would be the waiting the next day!
#5 The dogs checking things out. This is the corn garden, and this side ( left) of the garden, watermelon, pole beans, and cantaloupe are high and dry compared to the right side!

LOL, Now here is Fridays picture's, I may have to post a second time for this batch!

The picture's are self explanatory! Except for the 4th one. Whiskey is a shihtzu, but he thinks he's a water dog. He will get into any water he can find, and I think he actually put's his head under water, with his eyes wide open, as he does put his head under the water. He has to have his eye's open because he does it all the time. I have many picture's of him in all kinds of water, even his water bowl. He's the only one out of the 3 to stay out when it's raining, he love's his swimming pool, and now that he knows the new pool is a swimming pool, he puts his front legs on it, and barks to be put in. He'll do a lap, and than swim to me to get out. I don't have a picture of that yet, as it's all new, but he has developed a habit, so picture's will be coming soon. The other 2 like water, but aren't crazt enough to over do it. In and Out, that's it, and only at the dog park if they're hot!

And some more from Friday!
#1 old sprinkler piping laid in the water to help it drain down hill
#2 Swimming pool drained, look close, yellow nylon rope with swim tube pieces on it to help hold the legs in place!
#3 Bare roots from the cedar tree, water draining freeer, and faster since the roots were dug out of the way. Before we put the soil back in place we will put something in place to keep this from happening again!
#4 still wet, but getting better
#5 I forgot to mention in the last thread of pictures, I was washing Whiskey off with the hose, he wanted to go in the house, so the drill is, get a hosing off, a snack and a towel dry in the garage, than, you get to go in the house. While I was doing this, I came outside and saw the wind had picked up my umbrella, threw it on top of the shed, and toppled the plastic table. This is the 2nd time this has happened to me. The first time, about 4 weeks ago, I had a smaller glass top table, with a smaller umbrella in it, same thing happened, but I lost my glass top table, the glass shattered in the lawn, so I picked up the big pieces and saved them for a mosaic, and the little shards got sucked up with my wet vac so the dogs wouldn't get any in their paws. I don't know where the wind come's from, when it is windy, I put the umbrellas down, it's like a freak accident, but twice in 4 or 5 weeks!!! Go figure!

In the 3rd picture is bird seed that got ruined in the garage flood, from the hot water heater!
The raised bed garden is doing OK with all this rain, I forgot to mention it! Only problem over there are the cat's. Yuck, I hate them. I hope I beat them, and I hope someone can give me some feed back.
David, I tried to buy spanosaid , I don't have the spelling handy, but the stuff you told me you use for pest? I can't find it, and was told by a rep at Lowes to try a feed and grain farm store, or buy it on line. Where do you get your's. I'm desperate. With all this rain, the neem oil is being washed off the leaves, I bought 2 bottles, and am 3/4 way through the first one, spraying in-betweeen the rain drops, haha, that's funny, and I also bought 2 bottles of seven garden hose spray, and used 1 already. Those bottle's don't have very good directions on them, nor on line as to how much 1 bottle covers sq ft wise. Weird. I think I'm in over my head at this time. I worked hard and feel like I'm losing the battle. Not much imput here from other readers, other than the normal folks. I don't understand that either. A lot of stalkers, reading, gaining knowledge but not giving any! I need help here folks, if you know something I don't speak up. I put money and me into my garden, so we can eat healthy and save money. Now I'm watching it be washed away by the rains. At least I'll be prepared next time, but that doesn't help me now!
First the cold and frost, than nothing, now floods, what's next??? Snow maybe, hahahahahahaha, Anyway, I've had enough tonight, wrote more than I wanted as usual, are you still there David, hehehe, I'm just so tired that I get overtired, and ramble on.
Now to get bust with the house till I fall into bed, as usual! I hear DH snoring already, and the dogs have all had their last call on pee pees, so now it's just me!

Good Night all, Hoping for a sunny smiley kinda day, dry the damage up in the gardens and my garage! Jami

There is a product called "Stickee" (I believe that is the spelling) that you mix in with the product you are spraying on. It causes the other product to "stick" tot he plant so it will stay on thru "normal" rain.

And we will have to add fertilizers again once this rain stops. Right now it has all washed down to China!!!!!!

I had to walk thru my garden to get to a flag that was wrapped around the fence. I was happy to find that most of the garden seems to be the higher ground of the back yard.

And WM sells the knee high rubber boots!!!!! JoAnn's has the pretty ones on sale starting Sun.

Jami,
I might be wrong but I believe the small worms in your first pic are of the hated (around here) cabbage lopers. Yolie had something like that on a few of her tomato plants and I'm pretty sure that's what she called them. They were skeletonizing the leaves and that woman declared war and threw DE all over them. Kilt em dead in a short time. I know she used DE because she's really adamant about any product she uses, she makes sure it won't hurt bees or butterflies. She's more protective of bees than she is of me or her rabbits.

Hey Charlie - how flooded is your yard?

Not too bad right now Jean but for two days Yolie was ankle deep in water out back checking on things. Better question is how flooded is our hallway ??????????????? and other parts of downstairs, vent pipe on the roof went bad and made a mess. Your friend, my beloved wife, that woman made me climb on the roof of this tall house in the pouring rain to fix it but the damage was already done. The shop vac and carpet shampooer have just about done their job and the screaming has lightened up a little. Do you know how loud Yolie can scream when she's ticked off?

Funny David I was actually looking for a Opuntia cactus while hiking over around Tomoka, didn't see any though. I do know where some are in Flagler but ran out of time for a good walk over there...next time, or I can pick a piece off yours ☺.

Jami, sorry about all that flooding and the worms. Sounds like hard work now, but like you said at least you've fixed it before a tropical storm dumping tons of rain. Personally this whole rain storm looked a wee bit like a cyclone to me on the weather radars.

That market in Flagler has much more than just produce, they have some fresh catch of the day and we've had some really good shrimp from there. Some really great roasted nuts, homemade bread, plants, cheeses. There are some jewelry, and craft booths also. I don't really wear jewelry but saw some very pretty handmade pieces.

Down by Gamble Rogers is a nice dog beach, right before the North peninsula park preserve area, bet your dogs would love it. We used to live right by the pier and I don't like all the traffic there, but then I don't ever like the touristy areas anywhere, that is why we hook up the RV at Gamble Rogers and spend our beach vaca there....much more peaceful. I can walk for miles towards Ormond-by-the-Sea and not see a but a few fishermen here and there.

-Sherri

regarding raised beds ,the best i have seen so far were built by my son.your idea is great but the frame will not last.
Here is a brief description of what he did.
Frame size: 4' x 16' ,material used 6"x6" timbers.
height: 2' 6"
weeping water lines on surface.beds are placed 2'6" apart.
super easy to work on and last year produced organically a massive crop of vegetables and berries.

georgiacat

a footnote to my previous post.
six beds will provide in abundance the needs of a family of four ,for most of the year

georgiacat

quilter, I'm going to look for that product ! Thanks for the info, Anything to kill these ugly creature's, I won't touch them, I flick them off into a pan of sudsy water, or if I can't get them off, spray them directly!

Plant_Thing, is DE same as neem oil ? I'm not sure what DE is, but if you tell me, I will get some, if I don't already have it! Thanks for the info!

sunkissed, I know the market has expanded to include a lot of other things, I have to get over there and visit mor often, like I said when you live close by you tend to take things for granted. I'm missing out on why I live here! lol, it only taks 1 person to remind you of that. Thanks for reminding me, my eye's are open, and I'll be more appreciative of where I live. I love it, don't get me wrong, just got to comfortable in my own little world I created, or am creating. LOL! Hope to meet you on your next camping trip, maybe we'll haul out the camper and go to Tomoka, anywhere away from your own property is relaxing!!

OK, here's a follow up, no picture's yet, but will post them later. Sun is starting to shine a little, the back where we were digging is almost water free, except for the low points where we might have dug to deep. The water is still draining in the trenches we dug, yeah, this has helped move the water to the woods. If it stays fairly nice out, we will start filling the pool again, after we make sure the legs didn't shift. In a way I'm glad for this 4 days of heavy rain, it has given us insight as to what will happen if we do get a tropical storm. We'll be ready for it!!
It did feel like a tropical storm as it was, with the winds and the heavy rains that would come and go, like feeder bands of a hurricane. So, how did everyone else fare? btw, I hope my corn pops back up, it's all laying on the ground, soggy. If the corn is shot, do I have time to plant more? Just wondering, especially with the worms in one patch and the flood in the other! lol

Time to get busy, gotta run to the grocery store and get that out of the way while it is clear outside.

Have a happy sunny day! Jami

DE is diataneatous (sp) earth. It is a powder. it comes in both food grade (you can put that with flour to keep bugs out) and the "outdoor" grade that is not as "pure". Both are environmentally friendly.

Jami,
Yolie buys her DE (diatomaceous earth) on e-bay, you can also buy it thru Amazon and from several garden centers. A little goes a long ways.

Thanks all, I'll be adding it to my arsenal!! Those critters gotta go, but not the bees, lady bugs, wasp, and any other good critter!
Now, for the rain to stop, we are under a severe thunder storm watch, and maybe a threat of a tornado! Enough is enough now!

See you all on the sunny side up of Sunday! God is my savior! Jami

I put DE in my pool filter all the time. Mine is ground silicone. I've used in fire ant mounds with fair results.

Fla. is really blessed with all kinds of bugs thats why chemical companies do so well here. I try to avoid pesticides and go natural. I tried neem oil and it did nothing on my vegies. Next I'll try Davids formula a ways back if I can find it again.

Bonnie

Everything is happy now that the suns out and especially the Squashes, Melons, and Cucumbers. Keep your eyes out for molds and Fungus' now.

I answered Nefitara's bug insecticide question on the '2013, (continued)' thread about the insecticide I use including a picture of the bottle Jami. It has a good description of it. Get those bugs in order! Ha!

Sun???? What is sun???? Still a fine drizzle up here and not even 70. Can't even get to my veg garden to see what is out there. I sure have some green grass out in front!!!!

David, I went back a few days ago and looked for it. I remembered you told me what you use, I than went to Lowe's to but it, they didn't carry it, one of the associates looked it up to see where I could go to buy it. No where around here as far as we could find. I haven't tried the feed store yet. Where did you find yours? I can't remember the name, spanasoid (?) something like that, I have it wrote down somewhere, just can't find it at the minute.
Also using DE is a good idea too. I just planted milk weed for the butterflys, and don't want to hurt the good bugs!

Well folks, it's sunny out, time to hit the gardens and try to clean up. See how much the cats ate since yesterday! I have some more seven left in the hose attachment bottle, I'll use that up, and than try and get me some DE in the meantime. " I"M GOING TO WIN THIS BATTLE! " lol, ( I hope) positive thinking at it's best, My mantra for the week ! ☼☼☼ Jami

Here are some picture's of my mess! Now the clean up starts !
#1 DH and the dogs trying to get the water to drain to the back, this is a sloped area, but after I put in the garden, the water lays in the trenches. I also found out that the cedar tree at the far end of the garden had roots that were holding back the water too. So since we got everything dug up, we'll lay some pvc under the roots, hopefully it doesn't clog up once we fill the dirt back in. I know we need to use some kind of screen, but still trying to figure this out. Any idea's ?
#2 ugh, my corn is laying on the ground, drowned. The squash and beans in the background were a little wet where they were planted in the hill, the hills were higher than where I planted the corn, but here again the trench between them is filled with water. I hope I don't get end rot due to soggy roots.
#3 Trying to get the water to drain by using hose and some old pvc sprinkler piping. It worked a little bit, but really didn't do much good, as the water would just accumulate where it was coming out. It had no where to flow.
#4 & #5 Here's the problem. Tree roots from our cedar tree. My DH and I tried digging with a shovel, but all the roots under ground created a problem. I ended up getting pruners and cutting the roots as I dug with my hand shovel and hands, moving the dirt out from under the bigger roots we couldn't cut away. After 5 hours of digging 2 different trenches to the back woods, the water started really flowing out of the beds.

Today it is wet, but no standing water left! Talk about a muddy job. I wish I would have gotten picture's of myself when finished. I was mud from head to toes, soaked through to my skin from the rain as I dug. And boy, does my body hurt from being on my knees, digging with my hands. I swear that was the most physical work I've done in a long time. I don't ever want to do this again.

lol, I need to check my picture's before making a new reply! I just noticed way back when, I already put these picture's up. Sometimes I can't sleep at night and come on here, post, and than forget I did it. My mind is going in addition to my body! Oh well, it save's everyone from having to go back and search. lol!!!

Sorry ! ♥♥

Look at all that expensive time released fertilizer floating around in that last picture! Scoop it up and spread it around!

Been eating any interesting herbs lately? HaHaHa! {:-)

David

All my tomato plants are wilted. I'm afraid they "drowned" in all the rain. These plants were all 4' tall and full of lovely green tomatoes. I'm just hoping they recover when the ground dries out.

Hi All!! Hope everyone is doing well! As for my garden, because of it being my 1st raised bed garden,I feel like I'm beating myself to death over everything that has been happening since all the rain we had. Everything was coming along great, than I had the horn worm problem, I think I got that problem under control as I haven't seen any of them or the holes in my leaves where they were feeding. Now, since the rain, I have a new problem, It looks like a mold of some sort! I had the same problem in my container garden last year, but was under the impression that because I was growing everything so close together, that was how I created the mold.
I'm posting some picture's, maybe someone can give me advise on what to do. Here's what I have been doing to help my plants, spraying neem oil every so many day's, and since the rain, I did spray everything once with a liquid seven, hose attachment spray. That all seems to be working, I didn't have to go buy any more stuff to combat the cat's.
Now about the mold, or mildew I think I may have. I have read that neem oil stops it in it's tracks. I hope so, Since the rain, I've sprayed it as I see some tinge of what ever is on my leave's, sometimes it seems to work, other time's no change! I'm getting very frustrated.

David, what you see in the last 2 picture's is a bunch of bird seed. The week end of the rain, my hot water heater blew a gasket,( just a figure of speech)and when we woke up, we had no hot water, went to the garage to see what was going on, and found everything on the floor soaked, the bag of bird seed being one of the items soaked. I had a huge bag of it, same as I had 2 huge bags of charcoal for my BBQ grill. All of it was soaked, the bags fell apart, so my DH scooped up the birdseed and put it back where we hang the bird feeders. That is what your seeing in the picture's. The squirrels will eat it if the birds don't.
And what do you mean have I have been eating any special herbs lately ? This question may have went over my head , not sure who you were directing that question to, I thought it was directed to me, so can you tell me what it means. Sorry, I sometimes can be clueless, but am very curious! ( I just may have an inkling, after reading a few of my older post, and LOL, NO..... It's just lack of sleep and being in a lot of pain at night when I'm trying to sleep, the yard work catches up to me, so I get up, move around a bit, than try to sleep again. And because I'm so tired, I re-post stuff I already did. You are to funny, you catch stuff like that! If that's what you meant! I'm still chuckling to myself over that. haha! I could only wish though!!!!!

Q, I feel the same way as you do, I don't think I'm losing any tomato plants, but I have begun to see damage, which is why I came on here tonight, to see if I can get any feedback.

I know I lost 2 watermelon plants,and a few green bean plants, These I noticed right away. Now, I'm seeing more things going to pot,( lol David, no pun intended) But, my cucumbers are getting spots on the leaves, than turning brown, and getting a crunchy feeling to them. I'm also seeing damage to a few squash plants doing the wilt of leave's, and some small fruits getting mushy on the end where the flower was, My other problem is on my pepper plants, they're still very small but something is eating hole's in them, and when I look for a bug, or worm, can't see nothing. I think they're hiding from me. My sweet corn too, I did have cat damage to some of the corn, now I only see destruction, and no worms, thanks to neem oil. I'm wondering if the corn will keep growing, even though some of the male part has been eaten away. I'm not sure about my descriptions here of the damage, I'm trying to do my best, but my picture's will give you a good idea to what I'm asking. Also, I have 1 more question, when your looking at where we dug trenches to allow the water to escape from my other garden, where it's mostly corn, squash, watermelon and cantaloups! How can I keep this from happening again? I need idea's. I can keep digging trenches, but I don't want to do that. I want to make something personal, to keep the water flowing. Mt DH said we should keep the pvc where it's at, just wrap some screen around it to keep it from getting clogged up with sediment, and other debris. I don't think it'll work! The tree roots are in the way, not letting the water flow.

BTW: Plant Thang, I have DE on my shopping list, I didn't forget what you told me about your DW using it faithfully, I just used up what I had, hoping I didn't need to invest more money into this garden. This was meant for us to save money and knowing what chemicals we were putting into our mouths!, By knowing what were eating and wanting to stay healthy, this was the best plan for us. But it seems there is a lot I need to learn yet, before it pays out! But I don't give up easily! I want this to work so I can teach my grandchildren. I feel in the future they'll need this experience more than they'll need their never ending video games. You can't eat "points", or "highest score" lol. That's all they know!! I want my grand babies to know how to garden!!!! To provide themselves with a good and safe chemical free food supply! ( I am a prepper, in my own way !)

Ok, now for the picture's! I need feed back folks!!! And thanks.

And here are some more photo's of my beautiful plants! ♥

Picture #1 is of Egg Plants, hole's in the leave's, but can;t find anything chewing on them!
Picture#2 is of another egg plant, but planted in a 5 gallon bucket!
Picture#3 Sweet peppers, have hole's in the leaves, but can't find anything eating the hole's into them!
Picture#4 I think this picture is of my squash plant, here again, nothing can be found on the leave's as far as bugs!
Picture #5 My Pole Beans, starting to get a funny spotting to it!

Is this all because of the rain? Thanks all!

Have a beautiful Saturday!!! Don't let the rain drops knock you out while falling from the sky, look up, stick out your tongue, and pretend your a child all over again!☺☺♥♥

Opps, Sorry , Picture # 4 is an egg plant!

Thanks for giving me your time! I so appreciate it! Have a beautiful green day! Jami

About the mold - is there good air flow around your plants? Not just be close together but where they are planted.

I found out that my wilted tomato problem was because they got "steamed" when the sun came back up.

As for the bottom leaves turning yellow - prob because it is sitting on the ground. Any leaves sitting on the ground, off the main stem, should be removed.

As for something eating your leaves - you can never stop that 100%. I grew up growing vegs & bugs eating your leaves are a fact of life. As long as it isn't terrible, just let those buggers have their dinner. Now crickets & big, fat worms are another problem and need to be dealt with.

As for Sevin - not only did it kill off your "bad" bugs, it probably killed of the good bugs & bees also. Stick to the DE. Home Depot sells it in the "healthy" treatment area. Need to read the labels but it is usually the least expensive one on the shelf. I just got some to kill the ants.

Bottom line - growing your own veg is not "easy". Takes a lot of trial & error. I'm still doing better using pots & moving them around the yard to figure where the best spot is for the "permanent" veg garden. The blazing afternoon sun will take a toll on all but the strongest plants.

Good luck.

Q, Thanks for the advise, I am def going to get the DE, TODAY!! I don't want to kill off the good bugs, so scratch the seven, I used it twice, once the powder form, the second time, using the hose attached to the liquid. I'm trying to keep the good bugs, and didn't think that sevin was a bad everything killer. I was trying to stick with the neem oil, but that wasn't working for me.
Air flow around the plants is pretty good. I was thinking a lot of the damage came from all the rain, than the dry period. Even though some things look close to death, I have more that are looking good. I want to keep things the way they are. I don't want to keep losing things.
After doing the raised beds for the first time, I have already made myself note's for next year. I'm going to do things a little different. I learned a lot this time, and made mistakes, which I'll fix next year when starting over. I wish I knew than what I do now. I feel good that I have managed to get this far with the garden, and being a perfectionist, I expect more. I know it's God's will, and the weather that control our gardens, we only get to help set the plants in motion, the rest is up to mother nature. Everyone gotta eat, lol, so I'll try to live with the bugs who may happen to still be munching out on my vegetation.
BTW, I did like using the pots better also, I could rotate the pots, and like you said, moving them to a different areas to see where they flourish best. Where I have the raised beds, the plants get full sun everyday. no shade except in the early morning when the sun is coming up over the trees, once it's past the trees, it's full sun till late in the afternoon. My back yard faces east, so it's sunny all day.

I'm headed out now to remove all the leaves that are on the ground, another piece of good advice, Thanks Q, I didn't know you could do that.

Take care all. Have a great week end! Jami

The, "Have you been eating any interesting plants lately" thing was just simply a funny Jami! Ha! That's all.

When you were talking about the mind lapse thing regarding the reposting pictures and such in the post previous, I instantly thought of the Brugmansias, Daturas, Lions Bane (Lions Tail) and such growing in my gardens, and not to mention the many Marijuana plants out front, (some folk have thought that is what my Texas Stars are)
It was just what popped in my head. I have a huge and creative since of humor that I realize is not always clear to some......... and NO! I do not have Marijuana plants in my yard.........

If some FBI agent reads this and comes up with the idea they should send a "Drone" over our house,.......... they would be wasting tax dollars. Ha!

I might swat it down wth my big ole' grapefruit picking pole from the 40's possibly if they did........

I might see it as a huge primordial Dragonfly!

See, I have an odd since of humor!

Thanks for sharing your you updates and Happy Gardening all....

David

This message was edited May 11, 2013 5:27 PM

This message was edited May 11, 2013 5:34 PM

LOL David, I knew what ever it meant wasn't mean, I really do sometimes forget what I wrote the day before ! I believe I take on too much, and than forget what I did or said the day before. No sweat, I know me, and I can be like a bimbo some days. But the truth is, I like my world to be tidy, and organized, and my garden is far from that, and than I get beside myself. Not enough time in my day to create a perfect balance, which I need.
You have a beautiful garden, and I only can wish I get mine in shape. The summer is upon us, the humidity is here and I feel like I need more time to finish, so I can relax, and start doing my mosaics. I'm done planting, now just trying to keep everything growing. Because of this being my first time with this garden, I've learned so much from you and everyone else, now I can't wait till next year, so I can redo things that I feel I did with out thinking about the outcome. I've learned a lot! And I'm laughing, just thinking about the FBI intruding on our gardens! I live in the flight path of planes flying in and out of the Flagler Beach Airport. hahaha! I sometimes wonder what they think when they're flying over my house and seeing all the gardens. I have my camper in the yard covered up with a piece of bamboo fence, a tarp, and an old picnic table umbrella, our rule's here state we can't have things like that in our yard! Well, my DH is adamant that we will keep the camper here, we have more than enough space, it's being used, not a piece of junk we need to trash, so, between that and the 2 gardens, I sometime's wonder what these people flying the planes over us think. I must have 15 tomato plants, and they too look like the wacky weed. Hmmmm? Do you think I'll get a knock at my door? That would be so funny!!!! Anyway, I did see that plant in your picture's, and thought to myself that it looked like mary jane, but I know better! Really , it does look it. lol! I want some for my yard!
Anyway, we know what we have in our yards, we're plant nuts, we like seeing things grow, what could be better than that? I'm seeing lot's of change in my yard, I can't wait to post the before and after picture's. I know I've come a long way with this yard in 5 months. It's already different from when I started, I keep saying I'm done, no more, than another idea forms in my head, and I'm off again. Anyway, by June, I'll be ready to do the before and after photo's. and than one more around July or August ! Than it'll be time to start all over again, I think:)

Anyway, have a great evening, and Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there! May you all receive a beautiful Rose Bush from your other half! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Jami

Did you get your Rosebush?

"Happy Mothers Day Jami!"