A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 million and one questions....

Hi everyone I am new to this forum and gardening as well. I have armed myself with books like companion planting, organic gardening and I wish they had a gardening for dummies book!

So I am all ready to plant next week with squash, peas, tomatos, cow peas, sugar snaps, bells, and some cucumbers. I am going to arrange my gardens as diagramed in my book for companion planting with the listed flowers/herbs etc.

My first question: I have bought some pre-season bells for cooking and I wanted to know the best way to dry those seeds out for planting next season.

My parnter and I wanted to go as organic as possible with our veggie garden. We own two horses so manure etc isn't a problem for us.

Second question: How much is two much natural fertilizer? Or can you over use natural means?


Heh guess thats not a million and one questions in this post but just wait..more to come I am sure.

First off HI & WELCOME,

about fertilizer yes it is possible to use to much but here is the compost formulas that you need. It's from an earlier post.

COMPOST

Drying seeds I think there was one just posted in the seed exchange section of the forum. One thing I know is that it differs depending on the type of seed so you need to search for bell pepper seed drying? I am a beginner gardener so I will leave that question to be answered by one of the experts of which there are many.

One thing I've found true so far is that alot more of the seeds sprout if I start them indoors. And did you know there are different kinds of potting soil for that? That was news to me too. But then just about everything is news to me.

Hope to see you around the boards a lot. I learn everytime anyone asks a question.

Hi -- Welcome!
There is a Dummies book on gardening -- I've got it!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764551302/002-3134521-5776814

Gisela

pepper seeds are fairly dry right out of the plant, so just put them on a paper plate for a day or two out of direct sunlight but in a warm, dry place and you should be good to go.

Tomato seeds require fermenting in their juice for several days. It's a stinky process but well worth it. You then pour off the gunk that forms on top of the juice and rinse until the water is clear, dump seeds out (shouldn't have any gel around them at this point) onto a paper plate to dry completely.

Keep in mind that peppers cross-pollinate so if you plan on using that seed next year, you'll need to "bag" the pepper blossoms with something like a muslin spice bag or organza bag like the ones used for wedding favours and then label that fruit somehow so you won't end up accidentally eating it later. If you only plan on growing one variety of pepper plant, you won't need to bag the blossoms. Same holds true for tomatoes and quite a number of other plants.

Good luck,
Julianna

Hello Missy,
How's your companion planting doing?
Have done any FORUM SEARCHES for COMPANION PLANTING? Or ORGANIC GARDENING....

Also I wouldn't exactly plant in the manure pile,
if you know what I mean... too much of the manure
will produce alot of green growth and possible
bug attraction, as too much green growth are good eats for aphids'.

I'd say, incorporate the well rotted manure into the soil and then side dress according to the type of plant actually...
Something like corn will do really good with it,
cause it's a heavy feeder....
But something like raddishes wouldn't do that well, as it would produce a heavy top/green growth and not a root crop like you'd like....

Hope that helps a bit...

And companion planting is awesome, space saving,
and helps the plants that are near them...

Weezie

Well the planting is going much slower than expected due to some tremendous storms lately. Several weeks in a row now we have had back to back storms that left it to wet to plant. In brandon MS last week we had tornados and severe flooding. Even here on the Gulf Coast the creeks and rivers are so swollen some folks are having to boat into their houses. Ah well gotta love April showers.

Today it was dry enough to plant our yellow squash plants. We started them off 2 feet apart in long rows of 13 ft. We have three plots of them. We took newspapers about 8 sheets cut holes in the middle and placed those over the plants so that the little fellows heads are sticking out. I hope its as good as a mulch/moister/heat barrier as I read it is cause it such was a pain to keep it from blowing away until we were done.

The green peas are in the ground now but this afternoon my son and I are going to build the A-frame type trellis I want to try. Its simply an A with old hay string tied downward to create "walls" for the peas to run up. Underneath the A I want to plant a shade friendly crop of maybe spinach or lettuce since it likes much cooler temperatures. Its supposed to rain again tonight but I am hoping I can get the butter beans in the ground tomorrow. (fingers crossed) I will keep you guys updated on the planting. Once in the ground I have some well rotted manure at the back of the horse pen I have been saving that I will add around the base of the plants. I picked up some borage the other day when I was at the city and I am looking forward to getting it in the ground as well. Oh my companion herbs are basil, dill, thyme, heather, rosemary and of course the borage. I have zinnas, daisys, nasturtiums, wave petunias and some marigolds so far as companion flowers. How does that sound?

I'd add some alliums (onion family) to your list of companions, especially for the tomatoes..garlic doesn't taste good to a lot of detrimental insects and another benefit is that they've been documented as making the tomatoes taste better. Aromatic herbs are great companions for tomatoes but beans don't like em so be careful there.

Dill can over-run a garden so careful where you put that one as well. We keep it way over in the time-out corner with the fennel..even though they're in the same family, all you have to do is smell them to know who's who, lol.

Buona fortuna,
Julianna

Hey thanks I will look into the onion family plants too. The rain was heavy and so of course its to wet to plant the butter beans. The A frames are up though and they look crude but hey I like it. Going to give the soil about three days drying time before I put in the cow peas and the butter beans. I have tons of left over squash plants and sweet peas since I sprouted them from seeds. I used the entire packet of seeds and they all sprouted. I have no idea what to do with the extra plants cept maybe just plant em out in the back and see if they grow or hey <lightbulb comes on> I will plant them around the area I see most of the rabbits at night. Think some sacrifical plants will do nicely rather than those little furry knotheads chewing on my garden. I have my fence up though so I think it will be ok from the rabbits. Few years back we had issues with the deer just plowing through the fence and then having a treat for themselves and the rabbits. I gave up after that but I am excited to try my hand at this again.