A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Gardener's Chat What did you do in the garden today?2008 #2

if it is hot and sunny, you can pour straight vinegar on weeds to kill them "naturally"

BUT

don't pour it where it will go into your flower beds because it will kill your flowers.

it is great though for weeds in the cracks of sidewalks, stepping stones, etc. my walk way is about 4 ft wide, so i'll use vinegar on the middle 2 feet and boiling water on the edges. by the time the vinegar gets to the edges, it will be diluted enough to not matter.

you can also buy stronger than house hold vinegar at agricultural supply places, i think it is acetic acid, if i'm not mistaken. it works better, but i don't want anything that strong in the house. i'd rather have to use a little more than run the risks.

i use just plain house hold white vinegar. but i buy it by the gallon because i use it in my laundry also.

Jiffymouse, what a great idea, thanks for sharing this, it's the perfect solution for the weeds coming up in cracks in my greenhouse. I've been pulling them by hand but this will just work great for me.

Do you think this will this work around rocks in a rock garden as well?

i would be careful in the rock garden because it is harmful to the plants you want. on the other hand. boiling water from a kettle will do the trick on those if you can get it aimed where you want it.

I haven't planted my annuals yet and the plants that have come up are not close to the rocks so I think I would be safe. I know roundup works well, but I seriously hate to use the stuff.

Our neighbors use roundup everywhere, anywhere they can't get with a lawnmower and to kill weeds, even around the base of their trees they use the stuff, but I'm not that brave.

you can use the vinegar then, if there isn't anything you don't want to die. and it will be safe to plant after the first good rain (or watering).

and, it's non-toxic, so that's good too!

then, you need to post a picture so we can see

Great reminder Jiffy. I've got a bunch of grass comming up in my walkway too. This would help fix that.

I use straight ammonia in a spray bottle for weeds as well.

OK Ladies: how long does it take for teh boiling water, the vinegar or the straight ammonia to kill the weeds (or anyhting else it touches.--and I am assumint htis is a contact thing--or if it gets into the ground does it affect any & all roots it gets to as well??

vinegar is basically diluted acetic acid, which will break down naturally over time. vinegar is a contact herbicide much like round-up, and whatever it comes in contact to will die. But it will stay in the soil for a while, so boiling water is the way to go methinks.

actually, vinegar dilutes pretty quickly. i've never used ammonia. the boiling water is instant. the vinegar is same day IF the sun is shining. i wouldn't use vinegar in the rain.

Well, I got the yard mowed and weed wacked, DH has to do the ditches for me tomorrow though. Things are looking a bit better.

I'm hardening off my veggie seedlings.

I managed to water the flowers this morning. They needed it. The temperatures have been in the 90's. But they are suppose to slack off tomorrow for the rest of the week. I'm looking forward to that.

tkhooper how about sharing some of your hot dry weather with us. :wink:

We sure could us that already, it's been raining off and on all of May and now with the garden up and growing I need to do some weeding and can't get it accomplished. Was planning to do some weeding today and it rained last night and it's supposed to rain again this afternoon. The garden is up really nice I'm really not too worried about the weeds, but my cabbage-broc-cauliflower-squash-zucs seedlings need to be planted outside already and I can't get it done.

On the bright side of things, everything is so beautiful and green, I do love this time of year.

Guess we are sharing the same weather, it's always raining. it's hard to get anything done.

Well, it stopped raining for a few hours so I planted my onions, lettuce, peppers and tomatoes. Hope they make it. I couldn't wait any longer they were gonna get root bound.

That's the problem with my broc and the others, but it's raining hard today, they're saying we may get sunshine tomorrow, so we'll see.

I picked all the cucumber's from the garden. they all turned yellow this year and the plants themselves are looking pitiful. I've never had a prob with cukes before? anyway they taste fine, just look weird. I thought maybe by pulling off all the yellow ones maybe they'll produce something normal now. I was was looking at my broccoli. I planted it at the wrong time of year for this zone. (those lying seed pack instructions!) anyway, I was looking at them wondering if I could bring them indoors and maybe get something out of them, or if they've just been so hot for so long they won't know what to do?

Today so far I've gotten 4 inches of top soil layed up against the landscaping timbers in the tree/flower bed. That was hard labor. But I am making headway at getting all the dirt spread out. I didn't think it would take over a week but it has. Just proves I'm a woose lol.

So to make up for my lack of progress outside. I sat down with my seed box and updated the hole thing. All 249 entries. Now maybe this time I'll keep it updated. Well anything is possible right?

I don't remember if I posted yesterday afternoon but I got the banana peppers planted and some zinnia. I still have several varieties of zinnia to plant and a few other things as well. Wish me luck lol.

I'm going to be down to plastic bags very soon. I only had about 40 yogurt cups. I have to eat more yogurt.

I can look in to my garden but no way can I walk or work in it. We've had over 6 inches of rain in the last few weeks and it's wet wet wet wet. Now for some sunshine and warm weather. It's pretty outside right now, clouds and sunshine.

It stopped raining yesterday morning. I didn't do anything but I did notice that the cat ate all of my lettuce seedlings......

Today I am going to buy some chicken wire fencing to keep it out.

Yipe that's what I had to do this year too Tamara. Once the plants got big I took it off and so far only our dog tried to lay in it once. You can train a dog but not cats, he hasn't done it since.

Wire fencing was too expensive. I bought bird netting to use instead. I'll try rig it up tomorrow.

Good luck with your pets. So far I've seen a squirrel and a variety of birds. No problem with any of the plants though and that's great.

Today I hauled more dirt. Did that suprise anyone? lol.

Then I took my 4, count them 4, soaker hoses and positioned them so that all of the plants in the tree/flower bed get watered. Then I connected them to a "Y" joint with shutoffs so that I can use my regular hose or I can use the soaker hoses. Nice set up me thinks. At least for now. when I do the street flower bed I'm going to have to rethink how everything gets watered. But that's in the future.

Then I managed to get my car loaded with boxes for the couple that are moving. That applies as gardening since as soon as I clear that space in the garage I'll have more room for my gardening stuff. See how I got that in there lol?

that's taken care of my morning. And I feel really good about it. Now I'm going to go water my seeds and houseplants.

You sure are one busy and active lady tkhooper. Try not to over-do like I did this morning. Didn't have my boys close by at the time so I lifted quite a few of my greenhouse containers. Now I have a sore back. The price we pay to get things done.

Well, we put up the ugly net fencing. It'll do for this year. Hoping next year to have something nicer. DH mowed my ditch and I planted up my flower pots...never worked on the rock garden, still can't lift anything over 10pounds for a few more weeks.

I love epsom salt baths lol. And with my new garden tub they are really luxurous. My back is getting a real workout this year. But it's a good thing. I can do alot more today from constant stretching of my limits than I could a couple of weeks ago.

Today the rest of the dirt got distributed. Including some into what this year is the onion patch and what will be the vine bed come next year. I have two types of clematis seeds along with other vines to try. And I already have the eye hooks and the fishing line so I'm all set.

Next is weed pulling and Manure spreading. I've only got 2 5 gallon buckets but fortunately the dairy farm is close by. So I'll be making trips over there as often as they will let me. Hopefully 5 days a week until I get everthing fertilized.

TK, be careful. Even old manure can carry weed seeds. I have cattle and used two year old manure last fall, weeds galore this spring from it.

I've learned my lesson and will use manure tea from now on. You just steep a bag of manure(burlap bag tied tight) in water and use the water instead.

thanks for the information Tamara.

Whew, today I pruned the tree infront of the one I need to cut down. It's going too but I haven't gotten the electric chainsaw yet. I'm going to town on Thursday so I'll get the chainsaw and weed wacker then. That's going to be an expensive trip.

Then I got all of, well most of the garden stuff in the shed. There is one more box but 5 boxes is a pretty good haul I think. And then I boiled a huge canning kettle full of hot water and boiled the weeds around the first stepping stone in my walkway. It takes forever to get the water boiling in that thing. But I'm all set up for tomorrows run at boiling weeds. In about an hour I'll go out and clean up that area. I have about 20 stepping stones so this could be a long term project.

Then I hauled the dead azalea to the compost pile along with all the branches from the tree.

Next was pruning the mum. I didn't want it to start blooming this early. The color is lousy now compared to what it will be in the fall. And anyway I'll need the fall color.

Pot ash was next I sprinkled in on the compost pile and in the veggie bed.

Then I got the tarp up off the weeds where I had spread it out to dry. The weeds were very appreciative lol.

Wow, a busy day. By the way those electric chainsaws are the best

Never did anything here, to wet. I do have some groundcover plants that need to get planted though, hopefully today.

too dry here, just getting out everyday and watering everything, looks like we might get rain tonight I sure hope so.

Well the lawn guy said he'd be by today. We'll see. He said he'd be by last week too.

Last night I got up the gumption to spray the wasps nest. That was scary. I hope it worked. They kept dive bombing me when I went out on the deck.

As soon as it gets light I plan on attacking the weeds in the walkway again.

I plucked worms, little green worms that are eating every columbine(and columbines only)in every flower bed I have. I've never seen such a thing before, they aren't touching any other plant. I have columbines that look like bare sticks now...

Googled them up. They are 'Columbine sawfly larvae'. Cr@p.

I saw a dead green larvae like thing today in the garden. I hope it wasn't one of those. I'd hate to loose my columbine next year. And I plan a pretty big spread of them.

I boiled another 3 step stones of weeds. And I weeded the side foundation garden. And I tied up the glad's they were really sagging. I can't find my flower stakes. Everything is trying to hide from me now. But I'll find it.

I planted 3 groupings of Pineapple Mint.

And a bunch of Yellow flag iris and Van Soin Heirloom daffodils. I still have many many more bulbs to plant. Hopefully I'll get them in the ground soon.

I move the mulch away from the portulaca to give them more room to grow. They are loving the edge of the foundation bed.

I started to dig the rocks out of the soil on my property line on the northside of my property. That should all be lawn when I actually get a lawn and right now it's good soil except that it is filled with rocks. So they have to come out. I'll use the compost screen and the 5 gallon bucket to fix that.

Ok, I'm still working on things today lol. Although it's started to get hot so I'm probably finished.

I got the rest of the different types of zinnia all planted in yogurt cups.

Then I planted the Lemon Balm and the Mini Chocolate Bell peppers.

We'll see if anything comes up. The seeds aren't fresh so they could all be non-starters. If so I've still got plenty of others to try. Sooner or later I'll have my garden full of different things. I can't wait until it looks like an english cottage garden. Full and lush. Boy is that going to take time.

The lawn guy came by. He wanted to sell me 5 treatments. I told him one and we'd see how that goes. I think I can put down weed and feed stuff all by my self but we'll see how it goes.

I've started boiling weeds again. My weeds are somewhat resistant to the boiling water. I was suprised to see that the blue eyed grass usually took two days of boiling water before it would die.

And I've begun the stratification process for the day lilies so they will be ready to plant in the beginning of August.

I'm still working on my seed list trying to figure out what I can plant now and what in summer and what in fall and winter. My hope is to be able to get everything in the ground by next spring. And then see what comes up.

If you can get a dry spell...use pure ammonia. I get a $2 bottle, put it in a spray bottle and give them a good going over. My landscaping fabric under my stone walkway has deteriorated and I have to fight weeds as well.

I got my grocery shopping done and since I bought ammonia and a gardening hat so I quite sunburning the top of my head I get to count it right?