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

mar09

Senior Member
#121
Sep 17, 2014
4,927
1,259
113
#121
Two days later, there are hardly leaves on that bush that bears white flowers. I could not remove the fat green 'pillars (there were 2 after all), and it may be time for the bush to be pruned...? As an amateur gardener, i just want to go out whenever possible, but there are other more important things, of course. I saw an interesting article on urban gardening on yahoo sg earlier, hoping to post the link.
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/11-urban-garden-ideas-for-tiny-city-spaces-123952568.html

The caterpillars lookd like this pala:
 
Last edited:
D

Depleted

Guest
#122
#122
mar09 said:
Two days later, there are hardly leaves on that bush that bears white flowers. I could not remove the fat green 'pillars (there were 2 after all), and it may be time for the bush to be pruned...? As an amateur gardener, i just want to go out whenever possible, but there are other more important things, of course. I saw an interesting article on urban gardening on yahoo sg earlier, hoping to post the link.
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/11-urban-garden-ideas-for-tiny-city-spaces-123952568.html

The caterpillars lookd like this pala:
Click to expand...

About a year ago, I saw one of those caterpillars in my banana. At least, it looked like that. They aren't indigenous to North America, so it was doubly creepy. But look up "banana slug." Might be the same critter.

And sure, you can get rid of it. The same way we get rid of our caterpillars. Pull it off with needle nose pliers, (yes, you might lose the branch, but better than losing the whole plant), and stick it in a pale of soapy water. I take one added measure. I squeeze it in two from the spot I grabbed it from. But warning: You might want to wait until it's fully immersed in the water. The caterpillars I pull off truly stink when squeezed. It stops birds from wanting to eat them.
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#123
#123
I've decided squirrels can smell seeds -- particularly sunflower seeds.

When I sowed the seeds, I had two pots of nothing-but-sunflowers, and then divided a third huge pot with half of another kind of flower and half sunflower. (A medium-sized sunflower.) When the plants start emerging, I noticed little dig marks specifically in the two sunflower pots. The squirrel is good. He dug exactly in the same pattern I sowed the seeds. Out of the two pots of nothing-buts, one sunflower is growing out of each pot. (A small variety of sunflowers, so they should fit more than one plant.) In the huge divided pot, the front half has plenty of seedlings. And half of another container was devastated. The back has the same conspicuous pattern. So, last week I sowed the rest of my seeds figuring "why bother saving them?"

I went out two days ago. The conspicuous pattern is back. And this time I really did intentionally form a pattern so I could tell if the squirrel was just guessing. It's not! AND, it left a single peanut behind. It felt like he thought he gave a good exchange, like "One peanut is worth seven sunflower seeds." lol

50-year-old-Lynn would have been so angry. 60-year-old-Lynn finds this so funny! The squirrels have done a great job training me.
 
M

Miri

Guest
#124
#124
Aw that's so thoughtful of you to feed the squirrels. Lol



We have some "mission impossible" squirrels at the bottom of our garden.
They climb down the massive tree,
jump onto the fence
walk across it
jump onto our hedge
walk along that
jump on the neighbours washing line
repel along that
then onto the neighbours bird feeders
stuff their mouths
then make their way back along the route to the tree. :D


5121.gif
 
W

WarriorForChrist

Guest
#125
#125
My little garden on porch.

IMAG00002 (2).jpg

IMAG00003 (2).jpg
 
W

WarriorForChrist

Guest
#128
#128
Actually asked my wife but she said they are larger tomatoes. We have those, red peppers, snap beans, cucumbers and onions
 
M

mar09

Senior Member
#129
Sep 17, 2014
4,927
1,259
113
#129
Depleted said:
About a year ago, I saw one of those caterpillars in my banana. At least, it looked like that. They aren't indigenous to North America, so it was doubly creepy. But look up "banana slug." Might be the same critter.

And sure, you can get rid of it. The same way we get rid of our caterpillars. Pull it off with needle nose pliers, (yes, you might lose the branch, but better than losing the whole plant), and stick it in a pale of soapy water. I take one added measure. I squeeze it in two from the spot I grabbed it from. But warning: You might want to wait until it's fully immersed in the water. The caterpillars I pull off truly stink when squeezed. It stops birds from wanting to eat them.[/SIZE]
Click to expand...
Actually i dont get rid of them, unless there's a need when theyre too much... as i wait for the butterflies in time. Thanks for the tips tho.
 
M

mar09

Senior Member
#130
Sep 17, 2014
4,927
1,259
113
#130
WarriorForChrist said:
Actually asked my wife but she said they are larger tomatoes. We have those, red peppers, snap beans, cucumbers and onions
Click to expand...
When i first tried cucumbers, i was really perplexed when a seedling that looked so much like a common weed here sprouted. I tried again, thinking that weed was simply lost in that batch of soil. But it really was a relative of the weed and the leaves look the same wherever i sowed. So i just waited for the plant to grow.
 
M

mar09

Senior Member
#131
Sep 17, 2014
4,927
1,259
113
#131
I cant believe it... the highly invasive 'weed' is ivy gourd and is being eaten in other parts of the world after all (probably my country too). And it is said to be good for diabetes, for one.


[video]http://youtube-downloader-mp3.com/watch-diabetes-herbal-ivy-gourd-id-E6ac7XdCsX0.html?similar[/video]
 
M

mar09

Senior Member
#132
Sep 17, 2014
4,927
1,259
113
#132
Has any here had to deal with fire ants?
 
M

mar09

Senior Member
#133
Sep 17, 2014
4,927
1,259
113
#133
I miss going to the roof. When we were small, we had 2 trees planted so near the haus that we could climb them to harvest some fruits and eat up there. Now i live elsewhere and there is no simple way to climb, and the nearby trees arent as near. Oh, it's santol season, and if you are familiar with the santol, it is a yellow-rinded sour fruit the size of a tennis ball more or less (but so varies as some are like pingpong balls too) but with very sweet seeds one can suck as cacao seeds-- and candies. We had bankok santol, wc i cannot eat much of now however, because i cant do much sour fruits unless preserved in syrup. After pruning some guava, new branches have come out, of course the flowers, and now young fruit. There is something i observed when some big red ants came for some aphids in the guave tree. They lingered on some fruits and i just wondered what they were doing there for so long. After the fruit seemed ripe enough, i discovered it wasnt ripened regularly tho, like parts were still so green and others were soft to the touch and light yellow. After a bite, i discover it was 'blemished' alright, with hard bitter parts, and overripe parts too! First time i found out there was such a guava, and what the insects were doing there. (The black bees that sucked the nectar from the flowers are kinder-- for they never leave fruit that tasteless.)
 
M

mar09

Senior Member
#137
Sep 17, 2014
4,927
1,259
113
#137
whatever the morven summer institute is (not know the site and am not endorsing it), i found a magnolia photo wc brought back memories of the magnolias we used to have. I understand it likes cooler weather.. but when we were small, we had a potted plant, wc, when it flowered so rarely, we'd put in a cup of water and place in the ref to last longer!


from https://morvensummerinstitute.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/day8b5.jpg?w=450&h=337

our magnolias looked so fragile and small (are they really, but i passed by flowering trees online) and lasted only a day or two. Mabuti pa (better is) the gardenia wc lasts and lasts.
 
M

mar09

Senior Member
#139
Sep 17, 2014
4,927
1,259
113
#139
mar09 said:
Has any here had to deal with fire ants?
Click to expand...
i think they are weaver ants after all.

whose formidable bite is laden with stinging formic acid. i understand the ant eggs are a delicacy in thailand, malaysia too...-0 but here i just want them to go away.
 
O

oldethennew

Banned
#140
Feb 28, 2016
11,311
2,972
113
#140
no problem here with those on our plants, but a very small ant, both black and red will
inevitably try and take over our raise beds. we have found ways to deter and to
extract them, but it is a job...we grow 'organic' so we have come up with some
super feed, in liquid and this strengthens the plants and helps them to overcome
their natural enemies...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.