Comments on: Do You Have A Garden? Cause I Need Your Smarts.

By: cc

cc — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:49:35 +0000

maybe I’m to late but I too live in st. George and we have been gardening here for about 20 years…corn is next to impossible to grow. Sure you get beautiful stalks but never good eats:-) its just to darn hot! All the plants energy is put into the plant itself! Pine Valley is a great place for corn. Drip system all the way. It helps with weed control too. The turkey farms have great manure to mulch into your dirt:-) oh and a for sure is Sandia nursery past Washington Fields…best information along with the plants! Good luck!

By: Lizzy

Lizzy — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 02:19:10 +0000

I grew up on a farm. We grew corn and beans. Like the other ladies said your kernals did not get pollenated. Every kernal of corn has it’s own silk coming out of the top of the husk. And each silk has to be pollenated to make it’s kernal grow. I’d say just keep trying differnt veggies till you find some that grow good for your soil type and climet. Try a zuccini or summer squarch if you like them plant from seed one are to hills they always grow good for me.

By: Kate

Kate — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:22:07 +0000

I’m not a gardener, but I’m taking a little gardening class (in southeast Idaho) and the teachers mentioned this corn issue a few weeks ago. On commercial fertilizer, there is a code on the front that tells you how much nitrogen, phosphate, and potash, etc the fertilizer contains. The first number is the nitrogen and the second is the phosphate. They said that the phosphate (2nd #) needs to be higher than the nitrogen (1st #) or else you’ll grow really tall corn with no ears. I know we are in different growing zones, but I imagine this rule still applies.

By: Roxy

Roxy — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:30:48 +0000

Best information on gardening for your area is available, pretty much free, from your local county extension office. Good luck. Gardening is good for the soul and good for your health. My 87 y.o. grandmother is still gardening.

By: Tamra

Tamra — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 07:36:50 +0000

I love my little garden and have always done really well so here's my 2 cents.

1. Ditch the sprinklers they'll do more damage than good.
2. Box store plants can be good too, it's really just good soil, plenty of water and sun.
3. For your Tomatoes, get some 4" or 6" plastic plumbing pipe with the holes in it and cut it in pieces a foot long. Dig a hole about 10" at the base of your plant and shove this pipe in the hole and push the dirt back around it. Then water your tomatoes by filling up the pipes. It gets water deep into the roots and your tomatoes will thank in ways that will make you blush.
4. Definitely read The Square Foot Gardener" Super helpful for beginners!
5. SKIP THE MIRACLE GROW!
6. Get horse or chicken poop from someone and put it in an old pillowcase and throw it in a trash can filled with water. After a couple of days you have "manure tea" gentle enough to water your plants with but filled with enough good stuff to make your plants sing.
7.Mulch
8.Mulch
9.Mulch preferably with cocoa shells. In the summer heat the smell of chocolate will come drifting in through your windows and it smells delicious!!
10. Plant marigolds around your tomatoes to keep bugs out.
11. wrap your borders with copper tape (sold at K-Mart and most nursery's) to keep slugs out
12. And most important of all....put a small table and a couple of chairs in or near the garden so you and the man can sip some wine look at your pretty garden.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 03:29:04 +0000

There is a nursery out in the Washington Fields called Sandia Farms that is a good place to get plants. Drive past Staheli Farm to the south til you see a big huge greenhouse. Their prices seem really good and they are knowledgeable. I can't say for sure that our plants from there have done better than our big box ones but I would think that since they started their little plant lives in the desert they might do better here than ones that were shipped from somewhere else.

My other advice is to just keep trying! It's taken us a few years of trial and error to see what grows well in different areas of our yard and we are still always learning. Good luck!

By: Nancy

Nancy — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 23:11:43 +0000

Hi Mandy,
Buy a mix of mulch and manure from the place that delivers it in a truck, 4 yards should do. Mix that in with a shovel or whatever, huge difference in output with a good start. Get PCV pipe and drill holes evey 10″ or so, get elbows, make them go down the rows and link to a hose. You will get an even watering to each plant and no waste. Nursery plants are better generally but I do ok with home depot too. Corn attracts birds that eat EVERYTHING. I don’t plant it. Use Miracle Grow, it works! Deep watering is better than sprinkling, sprinkling makes a crust on the ground. Hope it helps. Love your style, YOU ARE AWESOME!!!

By: Cozy Little House

Cozy Little House — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 00:36:30 +0000

I love to garden. Often show my attempts on my blog. I just got divorced and moved out of state. So I’m starting from scratch. It is my serenity, digging in the dirt.
Brenda

By: Logan and Sydney

Logan and Sydney — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 15:40:57 +0000

I lied. I was at Lin’s last night and the tomatoes are called Phoenix.

By: Turling

Turling — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 20:22:16 +0000

The sprinklers may work; however, you’ll run into problems should a plant grow to a size to block the spray from reaching other plants. You’d be better off with a drip system. http://www.dripirrigation.com They have retrofit kits, so there’s no digging. You just attach the lines to your existing sprinklers and cap the sprinklers you don’t need to use.

With the corn, I’m a little less so, but I can remember my aunt in Eastern Washington hand polinating her corn. She would take the males (whatever they are) and brush them on the female flower (whatever that is). I asked why, and she said if you don’t and let nature try and do it, you’ll get corn without any corn! Sounds like what you got.