Gardening

Beth Gallagher said:
Well, this was a new one on me. I went out to check on stuff this morning and noticed a creepy sponge-like growth on a couple of my cucumber plants. It was wrapped totally around the stems and when I dug at it with a stick it smelled like mushrooms. I cleaned it all off my plants and hosed them down, then came inside to research.

Apparently this is called "Dog Vomit Slime Mold" 😵‍💫 o_O and is quite common, though I have never seen it before... at least in my garden.

View attachment 1186

Of course the recommendation is to NOT hose it down because that will spread the spores but too late now.
Click to expand...
Dog Vomit Slime Mold is actually beneficial to breaking down organic matter in the soil. It is common to see on wood chip or bark top mulch. I had it around my hydrangeas when I had the bright idea to use wood chip mulch. I hate wood chip or bark mulch because it attracts grubs, slugs, and mold. The combination of bark, and Dog Vomit Slime Mold, is a condition I call Barf.

It is important to distinguish the difference in Dog Vomit Slime Mold and Dog Sick Slime Mold. The sick one is found in lawns where overwatering during cool spells, brings this mold to full glory. It isn't so much an organic decomposing mold like the vomit variety. Either mold may be white or yellow adding to confusion in identifying. :sneaky:

Dog Vomit Slime Mold-Fuligo Septica --------- Dog Sick Slime Mold-Didymium Spongiosum
Cat hairball Fungus.jpgDog_Sick_Slime_Mould,_Katwijk_aan_Zee,_Nederland_imported_from_iNaturalist_photo_336481296.jpg
 
Last edited:
Jake Smith said:
I don't know, it's just one of them I planted from seed last year. Strangest thing is that I transplanted them and the squirrels tore them up; even with the dogs going after them, and me throwing stuff at them, they chewed them up, "animals". :unsure:
Click to expand...
Squirrels love to eat the polly seeds you get from the Sunflower. Maybe they like the plant also.

The Mammoth or Russian sunflower have large sunflower heads with lots of polly seeds. There are decorative sunflowers also. I used to put Mexican sunflowers in one of my beds it was a pretty plant. The flower was reddish orange I found a photo online see below.

1775004768137.jpeg
 
Tony Page said:
Squirrels love to eat the polly seeds you get from the Sunflower. Maybe they like the plant also.

The Mammoth or Russian sunflower have large sunflower heads with lots of polly seeds. There are decorative sunflowers also. I used to put Mexican sunflowers in one of my beds it was a pretty plant. The flower was reddish orange I found a photo online see below.

View attachment 1243
Click to expand...


Pretty plant, "colorful". Squirrels do love them, little pests; at times.
 
I am trying an experiment. I had a lot of old seeds that just never got planted, and some that my Daughter-in-law gave me ; so I decided to make a small flower/greens garden in the front yard.
I got a small kiddy pool, and have been filling it with leaves, pine needles, and grass clippings and then we added bags of topsoil to it this morning .

I mixed up all the packets of seeds and scattered them all over in the dirt, planted some strawberries around the edges, and then covered the whole thing with a comfrey leaf mulch.
Over top, I put plastic fence in to keep out cats and squirrels until the seeds can get a good start sprouting.

I have no idea how much of it will come up, but hopefully some of it will, and some should go to seed this fall and come back again next spring. For sure, we should have strawberries there.
My main patch is out back, and there were so many runners last year, that I planted them in planter pots, which I now need to plant tomatoes in; so the berries had to go somewhere,

IMG_1632.jpeg
 
Got two radishes out of the garden yesterday, they're the ones that grow larger then the round ones; but I noticed a crack in one so I pulled two for Marie and I to try. Plenty is still left.




DSCN2628.JPG

That's my cold mug of beer in the photo, It tasted great after grading the road yesterday. ;)
1775233668333.png

Keep trying to get garden photo like Marie told me to put up, after she had looked at it and said it's looking good; but pic's are not really showing how we seeing plants, for some reason, going put photo up anyway; and will snap another when it's plants are big later.

DSCN2627.JPG

Strange the difference in these plants live, and in the photo. Marie said it maybe the settings are not set right, for landscape photos. I'll come back and do it later.:)
 

Attachments

  • 1775233403364.png
    1775233403364.png
    34.1 KB · Views: 0
Last edited:
Beth Gallagher said:
Lillies, lantana and geraniums are brightening up the yard.

View attachment 1277
Click to expand...
Beautiful!!!

Lantana is one of my favorites.

In the 60s we had an outing to a place called Sterling Forrest which was upstate New York. They had in a ginormous pot a Tree Lantana. It was trained to a single stem that branched out like an umbrella
shape. They must have moved the pot to a sheltered area in the winter.
 
Tony Page said:
Beautiful!!!

Lantana is one of my favorites.

In the 60s we had an outing to a place called Sterling Forrest which was upstate New York. They had in a ginormous pot a Tree Lantana. It was trained to a single stem that branched out like an umbrella
shape. They must have moved the pot to a sheltered area in the winter.
Click to expand...

I love lantana, too... especially the smell of it. I have a bed of yellow lantana under my kitchen window that froze a couple of months ago but it has already sprung back and is blooming!

I also have a knockout rose bush that is covered in buds, so it's about to be fabulous.
 
Beth Gallagher said:
I also have a knockout rose bush that is covered in buds, so it's about to be fabulous.
Click to expand...
I had 5 beautiful knockout rose bushes. As soon as they were in full bloom and looking gorgeous, those freaking Japanese beetles arrive and destroy the flowers and leaves.😠 I tried everything to keep those buggers off of all my flowers. After fighting them for years, I gave up trying to have nice rose bushes. I also had a beautiful chaste tree. Damn beetles ate it to nothing as well. It seems like the only thing they don’t bother is my Ornamental grasses and my landscape shrubs.
 
One of the things I always enjoyed about gardening, when you start your own plants you can' select new varieties or a vegetable you never tried before.
I remember when I decided to try growing celery. The stalks came out pretty nice, and I blanched most of them, I left a few unblanced to see what they taste like. they were too strong tasting and bitter for me.

This is the first year in a while that I'm trying new varieties of tomatoes and peppers and I'm really enjoying it, brings back a lot of good memories.

I had the same feel for flowers starting them and couldn't wait to see them blooming was it going to look like the catalog.

All in all I did pretty good starting my own plants but that doesn't mean I didn't have failures I had my share. Trial and error comes with the Adventure.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top