Gardening for Beginners

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
M

Miri

Guest
#44
I need a British to American translation. What's bung? (You really don't want to know what that means in American. Close to saying "fanny" in front of a Scot. Not quite as bad, but close -- geographically speaking.
)
Ha ha, you really make me laugh.



Put or throw (something) somewhere in a careless or casual way:fill out the reply-paid card and bung it in the post

Or it can mean

Close with a stopper:the casks are bunged before delivery
Fanny is very rude in the UK generally, not just the scots.


Maybe someone should start a UK, USA, Aussie translation dictionary on here. Lol
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#45
Ha ha, you really make me laugh.



Put or throw (something) somewhere in a careless or casual way:fill out the reply-paid card and bung it in the post

Or it can mean

Close with a stopper:the casks are bunged before delivery
Fanny is very rude in the UK generally, not just the scots.


Maybe someone should start a UK, USA, Aussie translation dictionary on here. Lol
Aussie isn't British with another accent? I thought you and they speak the same language.

Although, I feel sorry for the Canadians. They're stuck somewhere between British and American, but with some of their own words in between.
 

Grandpa

Senior Member
Jun 24, 2011
11,551
3,188
113
#46
I've got seedlings going indoors right now. I transplant them outdoors about May 15th.

I've got tomatoes, Jalapenos, cilantro, assorted hot peppers, and my wife talked me into bell peppers.

I'll have to build some sort of planters because we don't have the gardening space for all of it.
 

mar09

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2014
4,927
1,259
113
#47
I've got seedlings going indoors right now. I transplant them outdoors about May 15th.

I've got tomatoes, Jalapenos, cilantro, assorted hot peppers, and my wife talked me into bell peppers.

I'll have to build some sort of planters because we don't have the gardening space for all of it.
We grew up w/ ornamentals, but i really wish i learned earlier to plant veggies. My tomatoes never grow tall for i didnt know what to put in, and had these white design on the leaves. I havent got to figuring out what to do, but maybe will pour epsom salt water soaked on there to see what happens. I have had a few bell peppers bear fruit.. but so small. I guess the soil i used wasnt rich enough.
For the tropical gardeners there, do share ur gardening tips.
 

mar09

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2014
4,927
1,259
113
#48
Gardening for beginners umm (carefully considers).

Well I tend to dig an ole, bung in said plant, water, then
hope it lives to fight another day.

Is that helpful?

View attachment 145595
Long ago i found a book called the Lazy gardener. I dont remember what was there.
 

jb

Senior Member
Feb 27, 2010
4,940
588
113
#49
Gardening for Beginners
I absolutely hate gardening!

But I do love looking at the trees, flowers, bushes etc...

For many years my home had a large garden with a LOT of grass to cut, which had to be done on a regular basis, I have recently moved into a nice new apartment, with NO garden and so NO grass to cut!

Happy Days! :cool:
 

mar09

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2014
4,927
1,259
113
#50
I absolutely hate gardening!

But I do love looking at the trees, flowers, bushes etc...

For many years my home had a large garden with a LOT of grass to cut, which had to be done on a regular basis, I have recently moved into a nice new apartment, with NO garden and so NO grass to cut!

Happy Days! :cool:
You do? But i believe adam and eve loved gardening...We didnt have a very big yard when growing up, but did have some grass and fruit trees, and it was memorable because we could have picnics on a mat, and the colorful leaves of the star apple was so nice we tried to catch them when they fell. After a storm, we could also slide on the fallen banana stalks, altho our shorts did get some stain... Is it in the kind of grass?? Ours i think was the carabao grass, wc didnt grow tall anyway, and didnt require that much regular trimming as far as i can remember=).
 

mar09

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2014
4,927
1,259
113
#51
I live in Philly, which means garden-planting season isn't coming until May 1st. Seems mean, since it feels like May 1st now. (It's warm enough to wear summer clothes.) I saw a daffodil ready to bloom at hubby's rehab center. I hope it's kind enough to bloom if I can get him outside in his wheelchair this weekend. (Physical rehab during the week, so he's too tuckered to travel then, but nothing happens on weekends, so there's a chance.)

I'm not sure how gardening will go this year. In the last four months most of my day is either trying to deal with everything I need to deal with before (or after) going to visit hubby, or I am visiting hubby. Container garden, so it requires watering with someone aiming the hose in all containers (except for the cactii and succulents) every day, which takes about an hour -- including weed picking, minor little quick fixes, like a tomato needs to be staked, and admiring and smelling each plant. Hubby has been the muscles and the troubleshooter for our garden and now he's not here. Not sure if he'll see the garden at all this summer, so, boy! I really would like a place where we can talk gardening and exchange ideas again. (Many of our plants are perennials so there is no option to simply skip caring for the garden. That AND we planted a blackberry bush last year, and I so hope it fruits!
)

(I find it funny that PW and I exchanged ideas on this post last year, we both left since then and both came back with new names. I am wondering if he's ready to plow his garden yet.)
I have watched ur video again, because i wanted to see the plants. There are some that grow in the tropics, but also some wc i have attempted to grow beofore like lavender, wc much later learned is less easy to grow by seeds, but wc was all i had to grow them with. I am familiar w/ some incl. rosemary, chamomile, leek, coleus (mayana), black-eyed susan. fennel, , 4-oclocks, beautiful foxgloves, oregano, strawberry, tarragon, some we have planted before. We have also planted/attempted to grow basil, draecana, cosmos, lemon, guava, papaya, impatiens, carrots, kalanchoe, some lilies, oxalis, peppers, guyabano, portulaca, ferns, and others i dont know the names of. Also carabao and frog grass... but parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme have eluded me.

How vastly different the trees we have, althou we do have some common herbs and shrubs. we grew up with a coconut, cacao, star apple, bananas, chiko, rambutan and guava trees, among others like the mangoes where we vacationed, and some seemingly weird tasting trees like the camachile and tiesa.. the latter is a not so popular yellow fruit with a strong flavor, but not the sme as durian, Some make it into ice cream, like the much-disliked durian for those who grew up not accustomed to its taste and smell. But they are very mild when made into pastillas or ice cream, wc i have at least tasted.
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#52
I've got seedlings going indoors right now. I transplant them outdoors about May 15th.

I've got tomatoes, Jalapenos, cilantro, assorted hot peppers, and my wife talked me into bell peppers.

I'll have to build some sort of planters because we don't have the gardening space for all of it.
Or just pick up some 5-gallon buckets from Dunkin Donuts (what their frosting comes in) and poke holes in the bottom.

Let me know if your bells get store size. Every time we've ever grown them, they're a little bigger than a jalapeno.
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#53
We grew up w/ ornamentals, but i really wish i learned earlier to plant veggies. My tomatoes never grow tall for i didnt know what to put in, and had these white design on the leaves. I havent got to figuring out what to do, but maybe will pour epsom salt water soaked on there to see what happens. I have had a few bell peppers bear fruit.. but so small. I guess the soil i used wasnt rich enough.
For the tropical gardeners there, do share ur gardening tips.
You live in the tropics! You're surrounded by stuff that makes good soil. I read a garden story about a Jamaican's way of making a huge garden from what he had on hand. He'd gather the leaves of trees (mostly palms) into black trash bags, tie them up and lay them out in the sun. Because of the heat y'all have it decays in a mere three months. Instant make-your-own soil.

Your tomatoes caught a disease or pest. (I only look up the disease my plants get and haven't had white design on leaves, so I don't know which disease or pest you got.) Google "tomato pests and diseases, white on leaves" and search to find which thing matches what your problem was. It will tell you how to avoid that the next time.

As for small peppers? Same here, so can't tell you what's wrong, but nutritious soil is always a good idea. You can't learn how to do it well if you give up after one attempt. I can grow tomatoes. (I'm from South Jersey. South Jersey tomatoes are why it's called "the Garden State.") I still lose them some years. And I have to figure out how to deal with squirrels eating them too every year I grow them. (Some years I fight them. Some years I grow enough for them to eat half. lol)

If you don't absolutely need to garden to survive, who cares if something doesn't work out right? My best stories are the things that didn't work out as advertized. lol
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#54
Long ago i found a book called the Lazy gardener. I dont remember what was there.
That's the book my hubby read when he decided to garden way back when. Best advice he liked in the book was to start a compost pile, make it big, and then every time you see a weed in your garden throw a blob of compost on it. The compost smothers the weed and gives more nutrition to the plants. He started gardening when he and his first wife moved out into the suburbs and had a yard. He only lived in that house for five years, but when he left the garden was 4 inches higher than the rest of the yard.

(You really need to learn how to compost first, because hubby burned his hand the first time he reach in for that blob. Without turning the compost pile it heats up to steaming in the middle and can start a fire.)
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#55
I absolutely hate gardening!

But I do love looking at the trees, flowers, bushes etc...

For many years my home had a large garden with a LOT of grass to cut, which had to be done on a regular basis, I have recently moved into a nice new apartment, with NO garden and so NO grass to cut!

Happy Days! :cool:
Tiny cement yard to avoid mowing grass ever. Garden without mowing. :)

And my mother's solution to mowing grass was to grow nothing but native wildflowers for the yard. Never need maintenance or mowing.
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#56
I have watched ur video again, because i wanted to see the plants. There are some that grow in the tropics, but also some wc i have attempted to grow beofore like lavender, wc much later learned is less easy to grow by seeds, but wc was all i had to grow them with. I am familiar w/ some incl. rosemary, chamomile, leek, coleus (mayana), black-eyed susan. fennel, , 4-oclocks, beautiful foxgloves, oregano, strawberry, tarragon, some we have planted before. We have also planted/attempted to grow basil, draecana, cosmos, lemon, guava, papaya, impatiens, carrots, kalanchoe, some lilies, oxalis, peppers, guyabano, portulaca, ferns, and others i dont know the names of. Also carabao and frog grass... but parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme have eluded me.

How vastly different the trees we have, althou we do have some common herbs and shrubs. we grew up with a coconut, cacao, star apple, bananas, chiko, rambutan and guava trees, among others like the mangoes where we vacationed, and some seemingly weird tasting trees like the camachile and tiesa.. the latter is a not so popular yellow fruit with a strong flavor, but not the sme as durian, Some make it into ice cream, like the much-disliked durian for those who grew up not accustomed to its taste and smell. But they are very mild when made into pastillas or ice cream, wc i have at least tasted.
Lavender is too hard (and too long) to grow from seeds. I bought that lavender as 2-4 inch tall plants. Sadly, after ten years, they died that fall. Bought some more the next year, and the following winter below average temps killed them... and then the same thing happened the following winter. I think my new ones survived last winter. I still buy the small ones, so they haven't flowered yet, and probably won't this year either.

But, man! When no one is hovering near them with a camera (and teddy bear) in late afternoon the bees swarm. And great site too, because it's various sizes and types of bees who all have strategies to get the lavender without letting other species take any. Some stand watch by hovering above to keep tabs on foreigners. (And species not theirs is foreigners.) Some attack others. One type of little bee lays their eggs inside a small caterpillar. The eggs grow on the caterpillar as it grows, sapping its strength to feed the eggs, until nothing's left but rows and rows of eggs on a large caterpillar carcass. It's much like watching all of World War II in the space of 30 inches by 18 inches.
 

Grandpa

Senior Member
Jun 24, 2011
11,551
3,188
113
#57
Or just pick up some 5-gallon buckets from Dunkin Donuts (what their frosting comes in) and poke holes in the bottom.

Let me know if your bells get store size. Every time we've ever grown them, they're a little bigger than a jalapeno.
This is the first time I ever tried growing bell peppers. We'll see how it goes.

The jalapenos grew great last year. Nice and big and spicy.

The tomatoes were a bit on the small side. I got lots of them. But they were mostly small to a few medium.

I've got 18 tomato plants, 16 jalapenos, 10 assorted hot peppers, 9 cilantro, and 6 bell peppers, planted as seeds right now. Right now, I have room for about 10 plants...

This is kind of the way I do just about everything... Way over do it, and then figure it out how to pull it off on the fly... Its better to have too much than not enough, right??? lol
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#58
This is the first time I ever tried growing bell peppers. We'll see how it goes.

The jalapenos grew great last year. Nice and big and spicy.

The tomatoes were a bit on the small side. I got lots of them. But they were mostly small to a few medium.

I've got 18 tomato plants, 16 jalapenos, 10 assorted hot peppers, 9 cilantro, and 6 bell peppers, planted as seeds right now. Right now, I have room for about 10 plants...

This is kind of the way I do just about everything... Way over do it, and then figure it out how to pull it off on the fly... Its better to have too much than not enough, right??? lol
Were the tomatoes supposed to be small? If not, the best way to get the size you expect is to remove suckers. Suckers are the beginning of branches that grow in the V of two other branches. Yes, tomatoes can grow on sucker branches too, but if it keeps branching out and growing more and more tomatoes, it has to divide up the nutrients, so each one is smaller.

Of course, to me that's like pulling off a leg on a bug. The bug may still live, but it has to hurt. (I can only kill mosquitos and roaches. I even feel bad killing weeds. lol) So, I just go with smaller tomatoes.

Next year, if you're into the tastiest tomato, try Cherokee Purple or Brandywine. They're "make you wonder what you've been calling a tomato all your life" good! If you're using tomatoes for sauces, I recommend the Roma or San Marzanos. They're plum tomatoes with more flesh than seeds. BUT, they're also more prone to Blossom End Rot. (BER.) BER isn't really a disaster. Just cut the rot off. It's not harmful, just ugly rot.

Hey? How come you're not growing more kinds of herbs? (Hehehe, I'm an enabler when it comes to gardening.)

And, as someone with a 16' X 16' yard, got to say, yes! There can be too much. The moment I can't get around the yard to water it is too much. lol
 

Grandpa

Senior Member
Jun 24, 2011
11,551
3,188
113
#59
My wife wants me to grow a bunch of herbs too.

I already told her we don't have the room for the plants I've already planted. The cilantro was her idea as well...


I also didn't remove any of the suckers from the tomato plants last year. I didn't really know how to do it without hurting the plant. So I just let it grow how it wanted to.

Maybe I will remove them from half the plants this year and see how it goes.
 
M

Miri

Guest
#60
I absolutely hate gardening!

But I do love looking at the trees, flowers, bushes etc...

For many years my home had a large garden with a LOT of grass to cut, which had to be done on a regular basis, I have recently moved into a nice new apartment, with NO garden and so NO grass to cut!

Happy Days! :cool:
Haha,

I don't mind cutting the grass I find that quite relaxing. I keep looking at
my grass and thinking that if we can get a few days of dry weather and
preferrablh just leading up to a day off, then I will soon have to give it
the first mow of the year.

Now trimming the hedges, that is just an evil job! It's back breaking
arm aching, awful, prickly, frustrating, Aaargh.

One men of these days I'm going to burst a blood vessel trimming the hedge. :(