DUCKS for THEE in 2023

[Marie2020]

I was surprised to hear on "Growing a Greener World" that chemical fertilizers contain salt.
I am not bashing the large scale use of them bc I understand that chemical fertilizers sustain 2 billion people through agriculture.
Just thought I'd research the subject.

How Much Salt Is in the Fertilizer? | Farms.com

www.farms.com

What is Salt? - Garden Myths

Some people won’t use synthetic fertilizer because it contains “salts”. For years I was told not to use mushroom compost – it contains too many salts. Salt is also recommended to kill weeds and just today I saw a post that suggested pink Himalayan salt makes plants grow better. You can buy...

www.gardenmyths.com

Solutions to our problems are laughable, like the comment here AND same solution on a garden program, using salt to kill slugs.
There are two ways to kill slugs:
1) surround with copper which produces a small electric shock
OR
2) bury an open cheap can of beer
I have done #2 with great success, when I had a 1/4 acre shaded lot.
#1 would work well until you neighbor sees the current price of copper and steals it.

I like this guys idea

 

[ducks4you]

Fortunately I don't really Have a slug problem, maybe bc my lawn slopes away from the house and has few wet areas.
Still, GOOD to know!
Been weaning myself off of benedryl every 12 hours.
Yesterday it was like I was on sedatives ALL DAY!!!
Today I skipped a pill.
The other night I discovered that the cover for my LR chair had scent on it. I went to bed and had welts on the backs of both legs. I found some benedryl cream and it stopped the itching so I could sleep.
I have gotten several Really good night's sleep. Even Eva didn't bother me until 6:30ish, and Pyg had no accidents last night.
The ONLY gardening I got done was to put out pots with multiple tomatoes that had gotten pretty big. I put them in my window wells, south side of the house and they all look great!
This buys me some time to set up the fencing around the cistern and then I can plant them.
Meanwhile, downstairs gro light/heat mat/2 fish tanks spots have opened up.
Got a city meeting tonight to prepare for and I am bringing in my car to get the oil changed, and probably 2 new tires. The back passenger tire holds air for about one day. DD's tried to change to the (full sized) spare, but the lug nuts are stripped. I am SURE that my garage can fix these things, and I called to give them a heads up.
They are VERY busy right now.
This weekend I start up potting my peppers and I will keep them downstairs until maybe mid June.

 

[baymule]

I hope your sensitivity to Downy Unstoppable is only to this one product and that it doesn’t kick off sensitivity to everything. I lead a very pure life, devoid of any type of scented product. It took years to reduce my reactions to a tolerable level. Even filling up the car or truck, diesel and gasoline fumes sent me into a tailspin. By eliminating ALL soaps, shampoo, laundry detergent, cleaning products and using only a few that didn’t set me off, was I able to get by. Now I have a greater tolerance and can at least fill up car and truck, but I get back a few feet while filling up.

Downy has sent you a warning. It might do you well to get other scented products out of your life.

 

[ducks4you]

TOO TRUE!!!

 

[ducks4you]

Not many posts. Looks like we are all actually gardening!
I have had several benedryl days so my list of outside jobs has been curbed.
BUT, I am learning to grow from seed in 2023 and this week has been up potting. Many pictures...I will have to resend the fish tank with the perfect fitting square pots of sweet peppers another day, bc it didn't arrive in my email.
Firstly, I have been moving tomatoes to the porch. One pot of 4 got a cold from the open screen window and they all died. The Next pot I put there have 4 thriving plants.
Here are the porching tomatoes:

 

[ducks4you]

I have had all of the peppers on top of the fridge for a couple of weeks now. I sowed them in a 72 cell seed starter that first housed impatiens. I bought the flat for $5 on clearance a few years back and the cells are deeper than the seed starting flats that you buy. I put a shallow plastic lid on the bottom, I have been pouring water in and watering From the bottom. Here is what they looked like right before I started up potting. When I had filled a fish tank in the basement with sweet peppers and another with Fooled You Jalepanoes, I moved the set up, complete with a tall plastic top---WHICH I HIGHLY RECOMMEND!--to the bottom shelf of my basement seed starting shelving unit.
I killed one pepper bc I pulled it up by the stem. Then, I used a long teaspoon to loosen from the cells. Transport was in a shallow plastic dish to the porch, where I have been using the dirt in the planter that my CATS WON'T STAY AWAY FROM!!! to up pot both tomatoes and peppers.
I used my shallow green bucket to carry them in shifts to the basement.
Instead of labeling, I have up potted the Sweet peppers in square pots, and up potted the jalepanoes in round pots.

 

[ducks4you]

Somehow, some WAY I discovered the measly Italian garlic that I had harvested last fall.
When I sowed the grape tomatoes, I also sowed the garlic.
EVERYTHING came up, including a lone pumpkin. Hope the garlic and pumpkin can wait until tomorrow for outside transplanting.

 

[ducks4you]

I still had Italian garlic. I dumped them into a small and round starter pot, then decided to separate the cloves and see what could be started. Although they are Very small, some have presprouted. I had exactly 72 of them, SO...or "sow" I put more dirt in the seed starter where the beefsteak tomatoes had been, watered deeply from below, put back the plastic lid and it is sitting on the porch, where it gets full morning sun. It is Very humid inside.

 

[baymule]

Soon you will be able to set them outside in the garden. It’s a lot more fun to start your own seeds and grow more varieties than are available as plants from the store.

 

[ducks4you]

Agreed! I am also NOT bringing home any stray weed seeds or any stray insects.
I do have quite a collection of plastic pots, 2 1/2 in diameter round, 4 inch diameter round, 4 inch diameter square, and larger AND some tree pots--plenty to use for up potting.