Newbie with a bunch of questions.

Hi group, Newbie here. Two years ago I moved into a new house and for the first time in a long time, I have room for a garden. So this summer I planted a garden just to see how things would work out. Well, we didn't get steller results. But we got something. Based on the results of or first season, I have a bunch of questions. For those who are currious; I planted:

Corn: The sqirrles ate about half the corn seeds out of the ground before they could sprout. The stalks never got higher than about 5 feet and the ears were very small. I had one ear that had fully developed kernls but the ear was only a few inches long.

Tomatoes: 4 types, All did reasonable well.

Zuchinni (harvested 4 vegitables), Egg plant (3), Yellow crookneck (3), PattiPans (about 12), Lemon cuces (about 12).

Sweet pea pods and Bush beans (both did well)

2 kind of Lettuce (continuous crop, not too big leaves.)

Radishes and carrots (did not develop well).

Strawberries: These just showed up. Squirrls ended eating the berries before I could pick them.

Currently I have all the leaves from the yard raked into the garden to provide weed control.

I think I'll ask my questions indiviually.

Reply to
Gordon
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Where are you, what is your climate?

Corn needs full sun, long warm or hot days and plenty of water. It is a heavy feeder, requiring fertile soil rich in nitrogen, this does not mean burying them in urea or ammonium sulphate. Failure of any of these conditions will give reduced plants and cobs. Incomplete cobs that have "bald patches" instead of kernels is due to inadequate fertilisation. There must be one grain of pollen for every kernel. Corn is wind pollinated so it is better to plant in blocks not rows to make the precess more efficient. If you do get a good crop of corn you will discover there are many birds and animals that like it very much and they will race you to the ears unless you exclude them.

Those are fairly poor returns on cucurbits, I would expect to get a dozen or two fruit from a zuchinni or a cucumber. Are they in full sun, well watered and fed? Did they have room to get sun and full root development? Do you have bees active?

David

Reply to
David Hare-Scott

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in news:jacad9$5o9$ snipped-for-privacy@news.albasani.net:

Ah, yes. That would be a key bit of information. Wouldn't it? I am in Portland, OR. We have two seasons: It's Raining, and Rain's Coming.

The corn was a big experiment. To tell the truth; I wasn't expecting much. I may plant another cluster (yes, I planted in clusters) next season just to act as a barrometer to see if I get any improvememt.

I lost several fruits that fell off the vine while they were small. I'm not sure why. Also, not every blossom developed fruit. Perhaps this is a pollination issue? I wonder if planting some flowers (marigolds?) in the garden would attract bees?

As far as feeding and watering; The soil was initially very poor and I mixed in peat moss and the leaves that I used as winter mulch to try and create a looser more loamy soil. I also mixed in a bit of plant food as well. The plants were watered daily and well soaked.

Reply to
Gordon

Ah yes, the home of the great Linus Pauling, where hoseholders compliment each other on the decoration of their mud room.

The odd thing is that looking at the statistics on WikiP Sydney (for an example I am familiar with) has more rain and only a little more sunshine, yet Sydney is not noted for being wet or gloomy.

It is hard to say without seeing what has happened but one possibility is too wet and not enough sun. Corn and cucurbits (any plant that needs energy to make fruit) need full sun. Extended periods of rain or cloud are equivalent to heavy shade. Also cucurbits in particular are susceptible to fungi which is made worse in such conditions, powdery mildew for example can set them back very badly.

D
Reply to
David Hare-Scott

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in news:jaeh24$ul6$ snipped-for-privacy@news.albasani.net:

Hmmm, Looks like I had all those problems. Actually, we had a fairly sunny and dry summer. Once it finaly showed up. But it was several weeks into the season before I noticed that the garden was too shady. I helped the situation some what by trimming a branch off the offending tree. But it was several more weeks before I learned that my neighbor had a pole saw and I took off another branch. We did have a white fungus on the leaves. I tried a few remidies that were some help. Add to that the poor soil. I am getting some good advise on how to properly prepare the soil for next season.

Reply to
Gordon

Hi! I'm a newbie and I have a bunch of questions too...

Fist one: how to grow strawberries so they are big, but now watery but actually sweet? is there a special sort of such strawberries?

and another one: how to take care about chinesis rose? (did i spell it right?)

i'm sorry if i'm off-topic, but this is just my 1st post :)

Reply to
Lowell81

Welcome Lowell81, It would help if we knew where you were! Regarding straw berries, there are large fruited varieties, but I find the bigger they are the less flavour they've got. This is, I should add a purely personal generalisation and probably quite unfair, that said, try the 'alpine' varieties, they may be small, but the taste is to die for!! My grand kids love them, I grow them in hanging baskets so they can't reach them!! that way I actually get tp eat a few myself!

Reply to
Paul Rix

Andy comments:

Ahh, yes..... Have you considered rice ????

:>))) Andy in Texas, where , when it rained for forty days and nights,,,,,,,, we got about an inch....

Reply to
AndyS

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