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I did something to hurt my back. I was talking to macabredelight ( wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY if you have not already down so) and turned to say something and I felt my Latissimus Dorsi Muscle in my back (right side) cramp up. It hurt bad for about 30 minutes and went more or less away. This morning I wok up and it hurt even more then when it cramped up. It was bad enough I had to knock off work -  which I almost NEVER do, even for vacations. Needless to say I have not been a happy camper today.

So it is kinda funny I found this little on in my garden as I was walking around trying to distract myself from the back pain.



Such a determined little sunflower - it is a dwarf of some sort.

Also - does anyone know what this thing could be?

   

This is only the top - they come in very tall stalks in groups of 1-4 ( so far ) and they are about 4 foot and growing!

They have been coming up for months and I have been leaving them to see what comes out of them. Not one has bloomed yet.

Here's to hope that a good night sleep will help the back.

Cheers all

One of my red roses in the morning sun.

I just received the 3 level, off center stacked, hanging or free standing pot I ordered from the National home gardening club not too long ago.

SQUEEEE

I'm excited because I do mostly container gardening off my back porch. This means I free up more space. WoOt!! I've given up on getting into the "vegetable garden space" towards the back of my roommate/landlord's property. I'm just too paranoid about the little bit of poison ivy/ sumac I have spied along the fence line this year. I'm just too afraid of getting a rash and being miserable the rest of the summer.
One of these days I'll get a decent camera and get pics up of everything.
The strawberries have been doing to wonderfully I'm thinking of cutting back of a lot of the runners or transplanting them all. I've pinched back all of the flowers on all of them this spring and early summer and they've grown to the sizes they are at now.
The pothos plant is getting to mythic proportions as I've transplanted it into a large hanging basket. The orchid is now growing a 4th leaf and is either growing a new bud that I'm hoping is a future flower stalk. My Dad recommended I water it more. He said all of his get fully watered twice a week, and misted at least every other day. So since doing that with my own, it's started the new leaf I mentioned, and started growing the "mystery bud".
We'll see what happens and hopefully have pics before the end of the season.

hello again :)


when i went outside today to get the mail i decided to stop and look at what's growing in the garden in front of the building, where the irises are. ( and here's what i found. )

All you seasoned gardeners may now laugh at me. As the scary, mutant sunflower triffid stalked me from in front of my door, I wondered where the sunflower seeds would come from. Slowly, that first gigantic sunflower lost it's petals and as I was coming up the walk from work today I thought it really needed to be dead headed. Besides having lost all it's petals, the outside of the 'eye' was beginning to look kinda grody too.

I step up to the triffid armed with sharp tools (just in case it wants to attack me) and that's when I notice that it isn't some sort of 'grode' in the eye-- it's sunflower seeds!

Yeup, I'm that much of a noob.

This is the same sunflower that's in my icon:



I did a tiny bit of research and have stuck the head in a paper bag to catch the seeds as they dry up more and fall off. Unless ya'll know of another method. I can't tell you how fascinating I'm finding this whole deal. I hope the triffids don't come at me in the middle of the night when they find out I'm gonna eat their babies.

has anyone had any luck using corn gluten for weed control, specifically Concern brand (it is 82% corn gluten with bone meal, wheat middlings and something else as fertiliser).  im using it to control the grass burrs (sticker grass) around my property.

fyi: corn gluten, and im not sure how, is supposed to supress the ability for seeds to start while leaving established plants alone.

edit: the soil in the front yard tends to get really compacted over the year, despite being pretty sandy.  other that peat moss, (i dont want the soil getting too acidic) what can i add to give the soil volume? 

This year things I planted have been a failure for different mysterious reasons... The tomatoes didn't grow - they're still just 10 cms high, except for one volunteer that showed itself. The marigolds were perfect until... something mysterious ate all their leaves - I still hope they'll grow back and so on... The nastitriums died after so perfect blooms... I don't know what's wrong but well... there are still nice things up there . . . .




This is something new I bought last week... The girl working at the nursery told it's name is  "crocosmia"... I find it stunning...



A closer shot below the cut...

( More photos here . . . . . )

Finally, after a few days of sun I have ripe tomatoes!!!!!
( more good news and pictures here )

Peppers and Eggplant are the perfect veggie plants for containers. I grow them in 5 gallon black plastic pots in a mixture of compost, peat moss, green sand, rock phosphate, bone meal and a little vermiculite.

( closeups after the cut )

Hi everyone! My name is Christa and I have been lurking in this community for the past couple of months. I finally decided to de-lurk and share some of the success I have been having this summer with my garden!

I’m a beginning gardener – this is only the second year I have been growing my own veggies. I’m in Zone 5 (Northern Indiana) and have been having quite a bit of luck this year. I’m on probably my third crop of radishes and second batch of green onions. Yesterday, I was thrilled to finally be able to pull three carrots (first year I’ve grown carrots, too)!

( Crazy Carrots )

( White Radishes )

Nice to meet all of you! :-)

hello, i'm new here! my name's rachel, i live in zone 5, in new york close to niagara falls. i have been lurking here for a while thinking of whether or not to post. i'm shy. i'm also very new to gardening. my husband and i just moved into our house this past november and with it came a nice sized yard with pretty much nothing to it. clean slate. i kind of liked that. we started doing a bunch of work on this section off to the side that was covered in vines and leaves. there's still so much to do where i'm planning on putting my flower garden, as it's the best spot for sun. i do have some pictures to share, if you don't mind, flowerless, but there is stuff growing :)


( here we go... )

Hi guys, I have a huge pot filled with honeysuckle and geraniums, which usually flower really well, but this year they've gone a bit brown and withered... it looks more serious than the normal plant life cycle, it looks like something might have attacked them, but i'm not sure.

here's an example:

( one more photo )

Despite this disaster earlier in the week, the other plants in my garden are quite happy. After the cut, pics of gladioli, jalapenos, tomatoes, and my Brett-monster.

( Peekshers... )

Looking for some advise on my rosebush. A few weeks ago it was lush and beautiful - I was *thrilled* with it. This is the first year it's bloomed (just planted last year) and it couldn't have been more beautiful a few weeks ago. But now... something has gone horribly wrong.

( Photos below )

What is this plant? It seems like it could possibly be a viney plant but I'm not sure. I'm very new to gardening. There are little green things that at first looked like very young grapes or something but I think they're actually the flower bud. The flower is purple and very small. It's a very bleh looking plant aside from the pretty flowers (which is possibly due to my lack of care...I never go where that plant is). If it's a weed, I'd just remove it but if it's something that has potential, I'd like to move it out of the dogs' reach and care for it! Oh yeah, I'm in zone 6a.

Thanks in advance!

( Pictures under the cut! )

The pole beans are heavily laden with beans, so tonight the pressure canner comes out for the first time.  7 quarts of bean will be in the basement by morning.  I'm starting to feel that this year might get decent yet.

This is kind of about cooking, but I figure fits here as anyone who grows zucchini typically has to find ways to cook it all...

My husband and I grow a variety of zucchini called "eight ball" and we really love it, it grows round.  We're usually good about catching the ninja zucchini before they've gotten "too big" but we missed one.

So now I've got a zucchini roughly the size of my head.

Now, with regularly shaped zucchini I use the big ones for zucchini bread, since they taste less...tasty...and when shredded are typically less watery than the small ones and have more skin surface...but I'm not sure what to do with this giant round one.  I have it in my mind that one of the tasty zucchini aspects of zucchini bread is the skin...it's the nice flecks of color and texture and I think flavor, since the meat of bigger zucchini is kinda flavorless...but with this sucker, if I shredded it it would be all mostly the meat, rather tasteless meat, without as much skin ratio.

...is this just my imagination about the whole skin thing in zucchini bread?

I mean, I suppose I could shred it up and see what happens...but before I do, any other thoughts on what to do with a huge amount of zucchini meat, not much skin, that's rather tasteless, but also quite seedless and not very watery?



Too bad it wouldn't last until Halloween, I'd just carve it up and then compost it...it's that big...heh.

Thanks!

I'm sure all you knowledgable gardeners in the community can help me out. I bought this plant dirt cheap at a local greenhouse (zone 5) and, silly me, did not even ask what it is.

Hello again.

Despite last year's wonderful flower show, my Rose Mallow hibiscus is not doing so well right now. After soaking the branches in insecticidal soap (potassium salts) to remedy a sawfly infestation, each bud has turned black and died. I don't know if the buds were affected by the soap, or if there is a fungal infection (like botrytis?) going on. I don't know enough about diseases to make a judgment. My biggest concern: is it salvageable? I greatly appreciate any advice.

( A sad hibiscus, sawfly larvae damage, and a sad delphinium...image heavy )

This lovely flower is growing in one of my clients' gardens. It has grassy foliage and sprays of bright orange-red lily-like flowers opening in succession from the back of the stem forward. Apologies for the crappy cameraphone pic. I'm in Zone 5a, northern IL.