What Did You Do In The Garden?

Dirtmechanic

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I don't know why, but my entire being is feeling desperate to grow some food this coming season. Remember I live on a golf course; the planned wrought iron fence was rejected by the HOA due to a silly rule, leading to deer and Canada geese invasions; I am inundated by moles; and more....

I'm going to have to be creative to fulfill the pull...
Motion activated sprinklers squirt golfers looking for errant balls as well as running off vegetative pests.
 

seedcorn

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Interesting. Friend and I were just discussing why anyone would live on a golf course and have strangers walking through your yard. Hitting balls into your house, etc..... I”LL share your up coming answer. IF their ball does damage, who is responsible?
 

digitS'

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How about ..

. GOOPP? That's Gardening On Other People's Property, @Rhodie Ranch !

Maybe there is a community gardening membership available. Look around in the neighboring exurbs. Ya know, the places where the residents spend 2 hours every weekend sitting astride their riding lawnmowers driving in circles.

Something I found was the older folks who had a big garden while their kids were still home and now, they have flown the coop. Or, there was a horse on that acre until about a year ago. It doesn't look like it's gonna be replaced.

I once had a lovely location above the banks of the river. A gully separated that ground from the back lawn and that made it even more difficult for the property owner to get his mower out there and he wasn't about to bringing in irrigation. I was! Water was paid annually the basis of acreage so I was asked to pay nothing. One hundred feet of black plastic pipe through the trees and gully, I had water for the garden ... of course, I could stand at the edge of the garden and cast a fishing line into the river but couldn't tap that resource ;).

Steve
 

Trish Stretton

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I've been trying different ways to stop some of my sweet corn from blowing over with all the wind we have been experiencing. I've never had this before and wondered if part of the problem is that the soil is a bit too rich. The plants are still green and healthy looking, tassels are out and pollen reigning supremely.
 

Ridgerunner

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@seedcorn is our resident expert on corn. But I'll offer some comments.

How deep did you plant it? Corn makes three rings of roots. If you don't get it planted deep enough the top set is out of the ground and not helping with stability. I try to plant mine between 1-1/2" to 2" deep. If you can see the top set of roots out of the ground plant it deeper next time.

Mine still blows over in a strong wind. Soil type might have something to do with that, some soils are denser than others, I don't know. But I think even if the roots were set in concrete it would still bend over in a strong wind. When that happens I leave mine alone. Most of the time it straightens back up in a couple of days, at least enough to produce pretty well if not all the way. I'd do more damage trying to straighten it than just letting it straighten itself as much as it will.
 

seedcorn

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@seedcorn is our resident expert on corn. But I'll offer some comments.

How deep did you plant it? Corn makes three rings of roots. If you don't get it planted deep enough the top set is out of the ground and not helping with stability. I try to plant mine between 1-1/2" to 2" deep. If you can see the top set of roots out of the ground plant it deeper next time.

Mine still blows over in a strong wind. Soil type might have something to do with that, some soils are denser than others, I don't know. But I think even if the roots were set in concrete it would still bend over in a strong wind. When that happens I leave mine alone. Most of the time it straightens back up in a couple of days, at least enough to produce pretty well if not all the way. I'd do more damage trying to straighten it than just letting it straighten itself as much as it will.
Couldn’t have said it as well.
She might dig up a plant, send pix of washed roots. Grubs. Or rootworms could be an issue. When strong winds hit plants, they have 2 choices, bend or break (green snap). If they green snap, tear up patch, start over.
 

Trish Stretton

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Arrgh.... I dont remember how deep they got planted, maybe to the same level of the punnet they were in.
I can just see the top of the top most roots before they go into the ground so maybe I didnt plant them deep enough.

I had to move some soil out of another bed that had too much soil in it, (its empty at the moment) and used this to bulk up the level of the soil for my blown over ones.....as well as leaning them in amongst the ones that were still standing straight, so now they arent falling across the path.
The tassels are releasing pollen still so maybe it will turn out okay.
 

Trish Stretton

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wind break and block planting, so i'm curious as i thought your place was more protected?

My place is one of the highest around here. In the sou-west, there is a 'valley' and this is the direction the winds are coming from at the moment. I have planted some trees that have now grown higher than the height of the roof of the house, but there is still one part that isnt protected. My back yard is up hill from the house by maybe half its height so it still gets blown about. This is probably the only real area where I can get hit by strong winds.
Normally, we get prevailing winds from the nor-east or nor-west, but I think things are different this year due to all the fires in Australia.

Its on fire. I thought it was just around Sydney which is understandable, but no, its all over the country.
My son is back here on holiday but will have to go back home in Brisbane shortly. He's conplaining about having hay fever due to all our plants/pollen....and here I am thinking- better pollen than smoke/fire.

Today, I actually looked at the sun, not something I usually do, but I did today.
Its RED...from all the smoke coming from Australia. It looks spooky, more like a blood moon than the sun.
This is having an effect on our temps as well. Its rather cool from early evening through to mid morning, then suddenly its nice and warm again.

Me getting upset about my fallen corn stalks has made me feel rather ashamed of myself, getting upset over such a little thing, when our neighbours are in such turmoil.
 
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