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    GAH - Can I at least get some blooms going...

    ... before the dang squash bugs show up? Really??? Ugh!
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    I ran across a great deal on tomatoes at Lowe's just now...

    Fifty cents each for 4" pots. The problem? The labels said "tomato". And that's all. lol I passed for fear that they'd do phenomenally well and I'd want to plant that variety again. The picture was of a red tomato. That narrows it down, huh? :lol:
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    I neat trick I devised for sowing teeny, tiny seeds...

    Water and a medicine dropper. Forgive me if this is common knowledge, but I had the trickiest time sowing the smallest of my seeds recently. Catnip, snapdragons, cherry tomatoes, poppies, etc. They had been soaking in water overnight and the thought dawned on me of using a medicine dropper...
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    Well that's a neat surprise...

    I'm trying some Moon and Stars watermelons this year. The leaves have spots and I just knew they'd been attacked by some sort of malady. But then it dawned on me... maybe the leaves are speckled too. Sure enough, they are! How cool! :D
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    Is there something odd going on with mint this year?

    I've tried to find some mint plants (plain, old, regular mint) to go in a pot and despite weeks of checking the usual sources, I can't find any. I even lucked up and met the nursery delivery truck at Wally World yesterday and even he complained about not having/getting any this year. I can't...
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    My teenaged son found this in the woods over the weekend...

    ... and in a rare moment of thoughtfulness, he dug it up, brought it back to the house and planted it for me. :) Obviously, it's some sort of lily, but I don't think I've ever seen one quite like it - certainly not growing wild. And he said it was the only one back there. I should have...
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    Are potato plants frost hardy?

    The tomatoes are covered. The basil is covered. The beans are covered. The peppers are covered. Do I need one more for the potatoes? Internet wisdom is confusing. I need a simple answer.
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    My poor tomatoes. :(

    I transplanted them outside a couple of weeks ago, when the weather forecast called for nearly a week of rain. Great transplanting weather (I thought.) However, what we got the first two days was flooding thunderstorms - complete with hail. I managed to baby most of them back to life and they...
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    Tell me about hilling potatoes, please

    I'm still pretty green at this gardening thing - I didn't realize that "hilling" potatoes was something I should do. My potatoes look great. They were planted about three-four weeks ago. The plants themselves are about a foot tall, three, fairly close together rows in a 3'x7' bed, not...
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    Rooting tree cuttings - question

    Rooting tree cuttings seems to be a really inexpensive way to grow trees. But after thinking on this a bit today, something puzzles me. Let's say I want a fig tree. So I find someone with a fig tree, cut some twigs from it and root them. Now, I should expect that little switch of a branch...
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    Suggest another plant for me, please.

    For the front of our house. I want a shrub or maybe small tree to go in front of the house, off the side of the porch. Height needs to be at least 3 feet. Our house faces south, with no shade at all on this spot except for very early in the morning. It will need to take absolutely BRUTAL...
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    Stupid question about grafting fruit trees

    If I want to graft an apple sprig, do I have to use an apple tree root stock to do it? Or can I use another variety of tree for the root stock? For example, can I make my cherry tree grow a branch of apples?
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    Suggest a plant for me

    We have a space in the back of our house (North side) that's between the deck and air conditioners. Almost no sun, even in summer, and it's really, really wet. Not quite standing water wet, but compared to the rest of our landscape it's really soggy. We've got very sandy, very acidic soil...
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    Frost protection options?

    So I bit the bullet and planted stuff outside already. (The Bradford pears told me to.) Anyhow, it looks like after this "cold front" comes through today, we'll be flirting with lows in the mid 30s. When the weather girl says 35, that usually means a dusting of frost at our house, so I think...
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    Earthworm castings...

    So I'm trying to educate myself on these things because I read that they're good for a garden. Well, after researching pictures, it seems that I do indeed have earthworm castings in my yard. Here's my question though... how on earth is one supposed to "collect" these castings for a garden...
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    Tell me everything you know about...

    ... cottonwood trees. :D Hubby brought some interesting looking pod-like things home and they've opened, spewing forth these fluffy, flaky looking seeds. We've determined them to be seed pods of a cottonwood tree and would like to know if they'd be suitable to cultivate for shade around our...
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    Beginner's question...

    When something says "Hardiness: Zone x---y" what does that mean exactly? I'm in what I've determined to be 8a. And I want to try some "foxtail ferns", preferably outside eventually. The internet says: Hardiness: USDA Zones 9-11 Does that mean it will not die over the winter as far north as...
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    Let's talk chicken moats...

    I understand the concept. Don't see ANY downside, except for the work and expense of building it. But... does anyone here actually USE this method? I want experienced opinions. And pictures. lol
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    Out of my six broccoli plants, they only eat one.

    Something (haven't found any critters yet) is eating one of the broccoli plants in my raised bed. The others have what appear to be "nibbles" on the lower leaves, but not nearly to the extent that they like the one. It's been eaten down to the stalk for weeks now. It's still hanging on, so I...
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    Fertilizers...

    Yesterday, I put another dose of fish emulsion fertilizer on my broccoli, lettucs, peas and carrots. It stinks, (blech) but my plants sure do love it. I should have picked one plant to fertilize with Miracle-Gro just for comparison but alas... I didn't. Has anyone here done such an...
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