Search results

Put containers on the green roof, water the bejeebers out of them b/c of the heat and the fact that they're containers, grow something heat-tolerant, and hope the roof holds the extra weight? Some herbs are pretty tolerant of heat and shallow soil, you might possibly get thyme established if...

It is only expensive if construed as a religion ;) If you just take it as a book giving you some useful ideas to consider regarding intensive growing -- as opposed to a package deal 'all or nothing' -- then it is quite useful. You take what fits for you, you leave the rest. (Personally, I leave...

It is hard to tell from the pic but that almost looks more like Chionodoxa than Scilla? (I actually like Chionodoxa quite a lot and the more purply color is WAY easier to work into garden planning than the scary robins-egg turquoise-blue of Scilla) Pat

*transplants* is going to be a toughie. Googling, I found this outfit that is still taking orders for mid-May shipping if that's not too late for you (and they are not real cheap either, but have a great selection and it does include Mortgage Lifter)...

*A* favorite flower? I can't even comprehend the concept :P I don't even think I could make a short-list of a dozen. Especially since, favorite for *what*? Sentimental associations, bone-hardiness, impressive or lengthy display, flowers that are really cool when examined close-up, low...

AFAIK the main disease-sharing is of things like blight and just within the Solenaceae, particularly with potatoes. I can't think of anything offhand that is a big problem for tomatoes *and* for raspberries/blackberries, aside from generic things like anthracnose and aphids that can affect ANY...

You can get all mental about companion planting if you want, there are plenty of books and websites. Some of it does a little bit of good, but a lot of it is rather tenuous at best IMO. A strictly pragmatic not-companion-planting-related approach would be something like this: Plant the corn...

It's worth a try. The plain common scilla is a pretty hearty critter, I have it doing well in VERY dry soil under pines and I've seen it in deeper shade than I would have thought bulbs would be likely to bloom in, although it was not blooming *well* there. The bulbs are pretty cheap in the...

Squill is Scilla, you may know it under that name. It is nice all thru a lawn except that, like having crocus or grape hyacinths all thru your lawn, it does not mix well with either a) dense fast-growing turf or b) a frequent low lawnmowing regime. Works best IME when done in...

IME lettuce starts best in actual seed starter medium, i.e. NOT miracle-gro mix that has fertilizer premixed into it. I've never tried presprouting it so can't comment on that. I find it not that easy to direct-sow but then I basically suck at direct-sowing anything smaller than beans :P so that...

Wow, you're lucky -- our quackgrass often has roots down a foot or more, and intensive chickening does not seem to kill it off (although they do eat the sprouts as soon as they come up in the run). Wanna trade quackgrass? LOL Pat

Well, it isn't ground-elder. That's about the sum total of my useful input on I.D. though :P If it were North American I'd almost wonder if it were a goldenrod but I don't think you folks have wild goldenrod and in any case it doesn't look quite right for it. As far as solving the problem: my...

Yup, if it were me I would not try to correct it at all, just don't do it no more :) If it's minor they'll outgrow it; if it's major you probably werent going to be able to fix it anyhow. My money is on minor :) Good luck, have fun, Pat

Honestly unless you KNOW you have a pervasive Ca deficiency or pH issue in the soil, it probably makes more sense to just dust a bit of ground limestone (or crushed eggshells or whatever) into the hole you're transplanting your tomatoes into, stir it around a little to mix in, and then put the...

I haven't had any problem planting thru netting, in the bed where I put it to discourage the then-free-ranging chickens from scratching all over. You plant thru holes you cut in it; the plants can spread easily all on their own (sprouting up thru the meshes). It has never occurred to me to rake...

What seedcorn said. Limestone is 0-0-0. It has NO nitrogen or phosphorus or potassium; what it has is calcium (it is calcium carbonate). If your soil is deficient in calcium, adding calcium is useful. However it is not going to do anything for a plant's N, P or K needs. IME more cases of...

If you want something living, what about hens-and-chicks and all the varieties thereof? Pat

What they said. It means about the same thing as when electric fence chargers say "charges X miles of fence", or items are sold with "lifetime warranty". Really the only information for you in "days to maturity" is that it allows you to get some guess at how different varieties of a particular...

Yup, for sure that is fringe tree. They're nice, I keep contemplating trying one here but honestly we are just in too cold a microsite too far to the edge of their range, I think it'd just languish and die. One of your better class of large bushes or small trees or whatever you want to call it...

I would suggest rocks except that in full day S/W sun exposure they would cook most plants. So instead I will suggest using very coarse wood chips, maybe even *pieces* of wood, either alone or over top of a finer wood-based mulch. Or if you have evergreens around that you can cut branches off...