Has anyone grown dwarf fruit: favorite gardening plants?

[Recovery4Me]

@DharmaGirl … you are so wonderful of a Mom to move your Son from this unfortunate illness with toxicity. Glad you can take your trees with you! Love, light and warmth sent your way.

 

[Tornadic Thoughts]

We've had some critters find their way into the garden recently and enjoyed a buffet of some lacinato kale, lettuce, carrot tops, and peas. They have great taste. lol Grateful they didn't eat it all. I put a trail cam out there to see if we can spot the culprit(s). We also added another string of wire around the top, in case it's deer (but there were no tracks in the mud), and added some chicken wire to a few cracks at the gate. Never a dull moment.

 

[Recovery4Me]

@Tornadic Thoughts So sorry to hear that!

I am gonna be real… the opossums, squirrels, & crows are a pain here but upon closer watch my schnauzer has alerted me to a rat skirting the garden. Sooo, I ordered some traps today.

 

[Friday]

I've squashed some over-ripe cherries onto some paper to save the seed. If one plant can give me all of that it must be a good one to grow again.

You can clone it, too. Just clip a bit beneath a “crotch” and dip it in root-tone, & stick it in a peat pod. As many times as you care to. Voila! attack of the clones.

 

[blackemerald1]

@Friday - I gotta ask since ignorance will do me no favours and my imagination is boggling.

We just don't have the kind of predators that you do. We do have some and I guess some people might rightly argue a lot but milking them is usually left to the experts and for venom.

So how do you acquire the predator piss? Or, perhaps not you personally but the middle man? lol I'm intrigued!

Perhaps we should get some though because we have a feral deer, pig and wild mongrel dog problem of gigantic proportions and I guess a couger smell might drill back into their ancient prey brains and make them run away??

 

[DharmaGirl]

So I'm stuck here waiting for housing. So, in the meantime I'm going to continue to garden since that's what I love. I met another homesteading couple who have been here for 2 years, and they gifted me 2 turkeys. I gifted them 30 chickens, lol. I still have 30 and more are hatching every day. The turkeys talk constantly all day long. Yikes!

My new friends told me it's really hard to garden in the soil here, which is probably why so many people have raised beds. I found some container zucchini, cucumber, delicata squash, and beans, so I'm going to move the containers to the raised bed area. I also have to move the poultry netting so I can garden in the area the chickens dug up. Thank you chickens!


You buy predator piss in a spray bottle at the store.

 

[Recovery4Me]

@blackemerald1 I use to buy it at the gun, bait and tackle shop but now various predators‘ urine is easy enough to order on Amazon.

@DharmaGirl …turkeys can be quite the little guard dogs lol. Are you going to enjoy this thanksgiving or what? Lol

@Tornadic Thoughts I know, right? Fending off the critters is a full time job! So good to read however as I can relate.

@Friday …you are pretty skilled in growing stuff (not just blowin‘ stuff up): who knew? Thanks for adding solid thoughts.

 

[Friday]

So how do you acquire the predator piss? Or, perhaps not you personally but the middle man? lol I'm intrigued!

Garden stores & hunting stores & (these days!) online

@Friday …you are pretty skilled in growing stuff (not just blowin‘ stuff up): who knew? Thanks for adding solid thoughts.

We can blame that entirely on a boyfriend! Horticulture degrees, and he took personal offense at my black thumb. He was a fishing & hunting guide in season, and I was chasing catastrophes, but the bulk of our income came from what we grew / forced indoors for the most part. He needed to be able to trust I wouldn’t kill everything if he was right there watching me, much less if he booked a few weeks away. For a loooong time I could only grow certain plants as I memorized everything they needed -and troubleshooting- at every stage. But eventually I got handy with enough species that glancing at the charts makes sense & I can piece together the rest. I still revert to “not trees” if I start zoning out & treating them plants. I’ve almost killed more container dwarf lemon trees more times than I can count. And I HAVE killed no fewer than 3 bonsai. (They look cool dead, though?) Trees are tricky bastards.

Before that boyfriend, if I had fake plants indoors I would need to take a lighter to their edges to make them look sick/dying if I wanted anyone -who knew me- to actually believe they were real.

 

[Recovery4Me]

@Friday disciple of a horticultural guru, too cool. Actually I am almost jealous. Did you find a little peace within that time period of learning? Lemon trees can be tricky from what I have seen around here. So maybe they were bad stock away.

I have grown various trees and plants inside long ago in a condo with a wrap around patio window. My Son still teases/remembers his Mom using various hockey sticks, ropes, cinches and concrete blocks to anchor the monsters down as tree pots only came so large back then. However, like you- bonsai trees were never something that I could master unless brown crisp counts: so I really can relate. It was then as I took a good gander at my home that I realized I needed to move to the country where stuff can grow outside. Now with the water restrictions because of the drought, my yard is mostly a dirt bowl and it is kind of sad for all concerned.

 

[DharmaGirl]

@Recovery4Me, someone told me that you can use the water from washing dishes or bathing to water your plants. I'll have to look that up to make sure. I spray flowers with dish soap and water to get rid of bugs so I assume it's ok.

My neighbors gifted us a sequoia tree and a lilac! Very nice! With my last batch of eggs that just hatched I got an all black chicken. The skin and internal organs are black too. I'm gifting it to them since the wife loves those kinds of chickens. I have 12 more eggs going into lockdown today. They are all lavender orpingtons. I was only going to breed silver laced chocolate orpingtons, but it looks like I'll be doing lavender too. Once they're big enough they will go into the way back with the turkeys. The turkeys are supposed to keep the hawks away so hopefully that will work. I don't want to create too much work for myself but chickens are like potato chips, you can't have just one.

Yesterday I potted 2 bush zucchini, 1 bush cucumber, a bush bean and 5 pepper plants. I dug up soil from the bottom of a very large compost pile to fill a large raised bed. Actually, I only got 1/4 of it filled. I have to work on that again today. I'm going to plant tomatoes there when they are a bit larger. I also planted a pumpkin in the back. I have 5 different squash plants to plant out there too, they just aren't big enough. I'm confident in the pots and raised beds, but I'm not so sure about the stuff out back. We'll see. I got some more netting to keep the deer and birds away from the garden.

I hope everyone is doing well today, enjoying their gardens and feeling peace.

 

[blackemerald1]

Re predator spray - though entirely logical and easily a great idea. It simply had never occurred to me. I wonder if it would work on our feral populations even if they have never even met the equivalent of a cougar. I guess I could try to catch the neighbours moggy and see if that works first?

 

[Recovery4Me]

@DharmaGirl Thanks for the tips on recycling water, always welcomed. Your breeding program of chickens sounds exotic and beautiful. Kudos to your effort as well as care.

We have our share of owls and hawks too- which is a concern at times for my small/ medium 17” shoulder, 25 lb. rectangled dog that thinks he is to attack all who enter our garden. As we have chickens next door, I have acquired a few wildlife feathers from swooping predators and tussles.

We have wild turkeys in our area that form rafters/flocks. During the mating season, hens and their poults and banding of tossed out young Toms do have the ever watching hawks by day and night raids by the larger owls.
So size matters-careful of the poults.

Also perhaps, learn to mimic with body signals with bent elbows upward and extended (like a scare crow), stifled gait and neck bobbing to herd the turkeys or warn them when they decide to be territorial. I use it all the time when I am well enough to walk the dog: it works normally backing down the head Tom. If you already knew this… apologies.

~~~~~
I have several little things that I do inorder to conserve water however, grey water or (relatively clean waste water from washing machines, baths or sinks) to be fully effective oftens requires a carbon or other style filter and proper system to prevent too much detergent from harming the plants that still remain. I just rent the home and the yard is rather large for this area. Sadly, many ways and styles of life just have to pass into ‘yesterday’s ‘ life style or into compost until a different climate presents itself. Food is going sky high as agriculture is declining as water has to be shipped in. We are a agricultural, farming, ranching area and people are loosing their livelihood and property as streams, ponds, lakes and the Water Reserves run dry. The rain pattern has veered.

So, I only do alternate quick showers, recycle dirty dog water, do country style toilet flushing, careful on dish water, stuff the washing machine, only water the garden plant pots, barrels and raised beds -in the evening to allow longer moisture (but I have to watch for fungus). As well, I purchased Canadian Sphagnum (hot topic) and some vermiculite within the veggies that can handle an acid ph. Then I pray for all concerned that wind currents with rain return.