A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2004 Around my yard

Well, I figure it's time to show just how black my thumb is. I knew this day would come. Here's a link to pics of my yard . I took these photos today.

Meg

Those photos are great Meg...you haven't got a black thumb...stuff is growing:) My sister has a black thumb...there is nothing in her yard...even the grass doesn't want to grow for her lol:)
Chrissy

Thanks for sharing Meg.

Wow... those "pansies" really DID take over, didn't they?!?
Never saw any quite so orange before, though!

Yes Meg,
Those are a lovely bunch of pansies!!!

What do you have at the base of your hibiscus tree? Is there some kind of mulch right around the base of the tree???
I couldn't tell by the angle of the picture...
The hibiscus flower is a beautiful color, I love it!

Weezie

Yep Weezie, there's a nice bed of mulch there.. I believe we used either Hardwood Mulch or Cedar Mulch. I forget which one ended up over there. Most of our mulch ended up being the hardwood stuff, shredded mostly. I don't care for the bigger nuggets. Here's a link to pictures of my hibiscus , when it was looking nice. I'm so upset the aphids got it, because it was looking so purty. And beetles whacked my pumpkins badly. Many of the leaves are yellow and dying, where 2 weeks ago, they were looking so nice and tall.. just beautiful. *sigh* I just hope they make it a little longer. Even tho I didn't get my pansies that we thought we planted.. it was exciting seeing the pumpkins grow.

Meg

Don't worry about the pumpkin leaves turning yellow. My cucs are doing that and I seem to remember squash does that. They'll stay green at the tips as they vine out.

Updated photos today . Took these at 6:30am, to show how different this is looking than a couple weeks ago.

Meg

Meg,

Before I can comment on these plants please go take as large a jpg or raw format photo of the two leaves that I have outline below.

I think I know what is wrong, but I need bigger and clearer pictures before I open my mouth and stick in foot.

Raye, I would like to know your diagnosis. You thinking powdery mildew??

Ok Raye, I just shot off 3 snaps to you. Hope they are good enough.. my camera kinda sucks, particularly for close ups.

I'll post one of the photos here so everyone can see it better.


It's not all so bad... look at this one.


Meg

In a word YES.

Megan, I suggest you spray the whole plant with 20% milk/ 80% water. Another gardener on another forum took this advise and stop the mildew cold.

Here is an interesting link concerning this matter.

Got Mildew? Get Milk!

I'll give it a try Raye, thanks. I just hope it's not too late. Today, most of the leaves are looking really dead/dying. I mean, I cut off some that looked bad the other day.. but now, it's so much worse. I likely just commited plant murder.

Meg

Megan,
Just mark this up to a learning experience.

When folks come around and look at my plants a lot of times they say WoW~~You must have one really green thumb. I reply, Nope. I got a graveyard full of dead plants that I've killed, or allow to go the way of the Dodo bird because I was just being dumb about things.

Also good gardeners don't have green thumbs, they got black knees! This is something some folks just don't understand. Black knees = love of labor.

My point here is you want to succeed, you ask questions, you look for help. Now next time, should you wish to grow this type of plant you are going to say to yourself: What can I do to prevent this from happening again or at least limit it.

If you are going to grow this again next season then yell and I will give ya my preventative rather than the milk which IMO is an last effort item.

Thanks Raye,

I really am a beginner gardener. And I have so much to learn. We bought this house, 2 years ago this week. And I finally got tired of seeing my "blah" yard, and at the very least, wanted some flowers.

Now, in case you haven't seen my story, here's what happened. I love pansies. I wanted a pansy border, and some other items as well, but mostly was focusing with starting easy, with the pansies. I had a box of mixed pansies with about 700 seeds. Never did the seed thing before, but figured I'd follow the directions and hope for the best. We spent so many hours in the blistering heat Mother's day weekend, cleaning up the mess where we wanted the beds to go, tilling, weeding, making the wood border, and just getting it all done. I never imagined it'd be so much work. But, in the end, I was pleased and anxious to see if anything would sprout. About 2 weeks later, we got our first sign of green. I was so excited, they were actually going to grow. And they did just that.. grow, and grow, and grow.. these were the biggest dang pansies I ever saw. I thought they were taken over by aliens, the leaves were getting so big, and yet, no flowers! Well, several weeks later, when my bed is really getting nice and full of all these huge green leaves, a friend, who was raised on a farm, asked what I planted. I told her in a not so certain way.. pansies? And she said, funny, looks like pumpkin or squash to me.

So, then it hit me. The little pumpkin that sat on our porch last halloween. The one that never got tossed in the trash, because it was mush, and I didn't want to touch it.. just gently nudged it with my foot and it fell off of the porch. It must have not gotten all cleaned up after winter, and some seeds were left. We tilled and worked so hard. We tilled them seeds right in the ground, planting pumpkins and not knowing it. Never did see a pansy. (So if you ever see me post about my pansies.. that's the joke.) However, I wasn't terribly upset. My girls were excited we were going to have our own pumpkins. I was excited something lived under my care. It was looking so good. I had done *nothing* for these plants to grow, other than water & weed regularly. No fertilizers, no sprays, no beneficial anything, and they took off on thier own. I was just really enjoying the fact that there were pumpkins growing, and that I even helped start them out before the bees became so very active, by hand pollenating. I had read about it, so thought, why not. I have several pumpkins growing. Now, I just hope they live, since the leaves are all looking so bad. I had noticed bugs, and worried, so I found out what they were, and did my first time of spraying for them, the first time I did anything for them, really. It seemed to work. Then, I got some ladybugs & lacewing eggs to put in there. I only wish I'd gotten the nematodes while I was at it. And Phil on here had been trying to give me so much helpful info. I thought I had beat it. Then this. I am just really a plant killer. I can probably count on one hand, how many plants have lived under my care (this includes hardy house plants) in my 34 years on this earth.

So, I don't know if I'll attempt pumpkins again or not. It was fun this year, but definately, if I do it again, I'll likely not put them in the same place, in my front yard..lol. My yard isn't that big. I live in town ya know. Less than a 1/5 acre total, and my house is in the middle of that, and the cars are parked too.. so really, not that big of a yard.

Thanks for all the help you've been giving. Between you & Phil, and really everyone else, I may have a fighting chance at growing something that lives, perhaps next year. Really, hubby kinda was hoping that maybe I'd plant corn & green beans. Not a whole lot, but a small veggie garden in the back of the house. So.. next year, this may be something we attempt. Ya know I'll be asking for LOTS of help then..lol.

Meg

Now this is funny as it reminds me of the time I ran out of room. So I planted in the front yard corn, tomatoes and beans. When my sister visted she told me...Raye you have just to much polock in you. (I'm 1/2 polish.) After that my wife put her fat little foot down...no more corn in the front yard~~