Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Mae wrote: ↑

Sun May 06, 2018 6:21 am

I'd like to recycle used coffee grounds for my garden. From what I've read, used coffee grounds have a neutral pH. Does anybody have any experience with this?

Yes they are pretty close to neutral. They will not acidify your soil. They have a fair amount of nitrogen and help to loosen heavy clay soil quite a bit.

Happy with the growth of arugula in a pot.



Seeing as arugula isn't rooted deeply, I am considering recycling an old bonsai pot I have and grow some more. I can start this project up as soon as Wednesday.

I got a strawberry plant from a friend's garden last week ... including a leaf rolling caterpillar. I keep the plant in a pot, so hopefully, getting rid of the leaf and caterpillar will be enough to save the plant. Should I check for anything else?

Mae wrote: ↑

Thu May 10, 2018 4:46 am

Seeing as arugula isn't rooted deeply, I am considering recycling an old bonsai pot I have and grow some more.

Arugula turns into a knee-high shrub with roots running nearly a meter deep if you let grow to maturity. The seed from one plant is more than enough to keep a gardener supplied. You can plant the seeds densely if you want to harvest young arugula for your salad.

Strawberry plants are pretty hardy. There may be more local pests to look for so that you're not bringing anything bad into your home. Pluck off any moldy leaves, even if it's only tiny dots.

George the original one wrote: ↑

Thu May 10, 2018 2:29 pm

Arugula turns into a knee-high shrub with roots running nearly a meter deep if you let grow to maturity. The seed from one plant is more than enough to keep a gardener supplied. You can plant the seeds densely if you want to harvest young arugula for your salad.

Oops, my mistake. (Revealing myself as a newbie gardener who doesn't know anything about plants.)

I'll look into collecting arugula seeds. I found this info: http://urbantomato.ca/collecting-arugula-seeds/

The sweet corn sprouted in 8 days. Now I'm wrestling with the varmints that uproot the tender shoots, same ones still pulling up pea plants (grrrr). Seriously considering overplanting the sweet corn next week.

Yay, first pea blossoms appeared in today's burst of sunshine!

So I'm pretty sure the midwest has officially left a pattern of 4 seasons and entered a pattern of 2. The last 3-4 years for sure and this year is turning into the same. We just jump from 30's and 40's (in which nothing will grow) to 85-90 degrees in a matter of weeks. There is no in between anymore!! 4 weeks ago today a massive blizzard shut down north Iowa and southern MN. Now look at it! *

It's really maddening because spring and fall crops just aren't growing very well the past few years. All my spring transplants are bolting, despite being under shade clothes.

*Looking at this map, maybe it's the whole country?

cmonkey wrote: ↑

Mon May 14, 2018 8:45 pm

So I'm pretty sure the midwest has officially left a pattern of 4 seasons and entered a pattern of 2.

If you're located near a body of water (like the Pacific Ocean in my case!), it will help moderate conditions as you get a marine layer of clouds or fog in the morning and then it cools down nicely when the inevitable breeze/wind arises.

To illustrate, while Portland's temperature was 87-90F today, here on the coast it was only 65F. Despite the low air temperature, though, that sunshine was HOT. Even without the morning cloud cover (like yesterday), we're still 10F cooler than Portland because it begins cooling down at 4p instead of 6-9p.

I agree cmonkey.

Strawberries are ripening already. All the other plants look good. I need to figure out what to do with the area where the wildflowers were last year. I might just expand the herb garden.

I haven't killed any of my plants yet.

*knocks on wood*

I've never heard of arugula becoming a shrub! Maybe it's a different arugula. It will definitely bolt if it get's the least bit stressed, so I'd recommend planting outdoors if you can.

I don't have a garden so a pot is the only way to go.

(The packaging of the seeds just says arugula, so that isn't very helpful.)

My strawberries are only in mid-flower, no berries set that I've noticed. Have had a week of overcast weather, though, so I bet things will change in a hurry once the sun decides to shine again.

Have had a few radishes, a couple were even full-size. Corn is ankle-high, everything else is doing okay.


The wireworms seem to be vacating the garden plot since their food (fresh compostables) is rather scarce now. I'll plant potatoes soon.

Strawberries definitely setting on now (when did that happen?!?). Peas still flowering, no pods set. Radishes, spinach, kale, & arugula all in harvest now. Expect lettuce next week. Planted 60 row feet of green beans today, 3 varieties. Will plant potatoes in a day or two.

Garden is making a liar out of me: discovered tiny pea pods this morning! These are a shelling variety called "Premium". I sampled one of the baby pods and it was delicious. Still... I will wait for them to get to shelling size as my real pea pods, "Oregon Giant", will come a month later (if the damn voles stop chewing on them).

My Pond lily seeds sprouted. I paid $0.99 for ten seeds on ebay. Many of the seeds were invalid. I have some algae problems. The best solution is covering the pond for four days. The algae dies off and fills the filter. The water clears up. Hopefully some plants will use up some of the algae's nutrients.

Yay! The green beans are sprouting!

Boo! The voles descended on the freshly sprouted beans!

So I spent a few minutes replanted the uprooted survivors. I really need to work on a vole barrier for beans & peas... there's just too much wild area around the garden to have any hope for eliminating voles, so barriers seem to be a more logical answer.


[edit] P.S. 120 row feet of potatoes are planted. I had only prepped 60 row feet and other spaces were occupied, so the other 60 row feet were planted between the corn rows. Wireworm activity has certainly died down, though I've got a little damage on radishes caused by juveniles. Was going to replant with more radishes, but seems wiser to cycle to something that isn't damaged by them, like lettuce.

My cat thinks voles are candy. So soft and yummy.

ffj suggested honeysuckle on the fence for privacy. That's working extremely well. I think I planted too much ...




The wildflowers reseeded more than I thought. They need a good weeding now that I can tell the flowers from the weeds ...






The fruit has also set ...








I'm enjoying fresh strawberries from the garden with a little cream and homemade gluten free shortcake for my birthday this weekend.

Just saw some strawberries in the store for bargain basement prices.. time to stock up!

GF's uncle gave us a ton of backyard kumquats.. too many to eat so I'm having a go at making wine out of them and some kumquat bread with the leftover pulp.