Gardening 2025

[Animal]

So there was a sale on roses, I have planted 9 bushes of 8 different colors in 3 new beds that I put in in the past 2 weeks. I've also added 2 Hardy hibiscus, poppies, 3 trollius, orange creeping thyme, heucheras, pasque flowers, 2 more maltese cross, 5 lingenberry bushes, list count of the daylillies and iris, then ordered about 150 bulbs to play this fall. My back yard is going to be amazing next year.

i planted a few rose bushes at my ranch last year. Every one died. I didn't have them in a location that they could be watered. I assume that was the problem.

[Ricrude]

It can be. That's why rabbits can be so frustrating.
Nothing worse than cultivating a vegetable garden or flower bed and having a rabbit or 2 just decimate them.

Or deer. My wife's brother in South Carolina can't have any sort of garden now matter how he's tried to fence out the deer. Somehow they find ways to get in and decimate his poor veggies. They of course leave his chickens alone, so he at least gets eggs, a minor consolation.

Deer == forest rats.

This works for me in SC...have had great success with it...spray it around the garden and on your fence post. Smells like hell but that dies down in a day or two and last for a few weeks at a time. Depending on the size of his garden. One big bottle should work for the growing season.

[QillerDaemon]

i read the other day that banana trees really aren't trees. The trunks are just leaves that are tightly wrapped. In areas that harvest bananas they cut the entire tree down each year after the fruit is harvested. Then they grow back.

I have no idea if any of that is true.

A banana "tree" is actually a large non-woody herb where the stems of the leaves cover the younger leaf stems inside to form a sturdy false "trunk". The banana is distantly related to the ginger plants, some of which can grow into large "trees" themselves, usually ornamental rather than edible. And yea, after the tree makes the bunch of fruit, the tree quits growing and needs to be cut down to let new trunks start to grow. The plant grows from a "corm", the hard root knot in the ground the leaf stems grow from. The corm sends out new corm buds that can be used to start new plants. Banana plants grow from those corms instead of seeds, so most banana plants of one variety are actually clones. The small black spots found in banana fruits are what's left of the seeds which are sterile.

The common banana we eat is the Cavendish variety, but the banana flavoring used in candy is actually from the previous common variety Gros Michel or Big Mike, with a different banana taste. There are hundreds of other varieties including Goldfinger, Lady Finger, Apple, and Ice Cream. I have mini Cavendish that grow smaller and sweeter fruit than Cavendish, and are wonderful in banana bread. I want to use my other property to grow Big Mike if/when I can find the plants. And those grow huge, over 20' tall. Bananas are easy to grow, but require a lot of water to grow well.

I'm surprised there aren't banana plantations here in Florida and even Texas, both have environments perfect for growing banana plants. We had a few growing on our old farm in Galveston, even, and occasionally we got fruit from them, but we had to cook the fruit like plantains to eat them.

[QillerDaemon]

This works for me in SC...have had great success with it...spray it around the garden and on your fence post. Smells like hell but that dies down in a day or two and last for a few weeks at a time. Depending on the size of his garden. One big bottle should work for the growing season.

I'll tell my BiL about it, thanks!

[Ricrude]

This works for me in SC...have had great success with it...spray it around the garden and on your fence post. Smells like hell but that dies down in a day or two and last for a few weeks at a time. Depending on the size of his garden. One big bottle should work for the growing season.

I'll tell my BiL about it, thanks!

Welcome!

[BigChiefin]

It can be. That's why rabbits can be so frustrating.
Nothing worse than cultivating a vegetable garden or flower bed and having a rabbit or 2 just decimate them.

Or deer. My wife's brother in South Carolina can't have any sort of garden now matter how he's tried to fence out the deer. Somehow they find ways to get in and decimate his poor veggies. They of course leave his chickens alone, so he at least gets eggs, a minor consolation.

Deer == forest rats.

This works for me in SC...have had great success with it...spray it around the garden and on your fence post. Smells like hell but that dies down in a day or two and last for a few weeks at a time. Depending on the size of his garden. One big bottle should work for the growing season.

I love this stuff (except the smell). I spray it every two weeks or immediately after it rains. Keeps those fuckers away from my day lillies which apparently are like candy to deer.

[Animal]

[Ricrude]

It can be. That's why rabbits can be so frustrating.
Nothing worse than cultivating a vegetable garden or flower bed and having a rabbit or 2 just decimate them.

Or deer. My wife's brother in South Carolina can't have any sort of garden now matter how he's tried to fence out the deer. Somehow they find ways to get in and decimate his poor veggies. They of course leave his chickens alone, so he at least gets eggs, a minor consolation.

Deer == forest rats.

This works for me in SC...have had great success with it...spray it around the garden and on your fence post. Smells like hell but that dies down in a day or two and last for a few weeks at a time. Depending on the size of his garden. One big bottle should work for the growing season.

I love this stuff (except the smell). I spray it every two weeks or immediately after it rains. Keeps those fuckers away from my day lillies which apparently are like candy to deer.

Keeps everything away except bugs...

[Blast]

So there was a sale on roses, I have planted 9 bushes of 8 different colors in 3 new beds that I put in in the past 2 weeks. I've also added 2 Hardy hibiscus, poppies, 3 trollius, orange creeping thyme, heucheras, pasque flowers, 2 more maltese cross, 5 lingenberry bushes, list count of the daylillies and iris, then ordered about 150 bulbs to play this fall. My back yard is going to be amazing next year.

i planted a few rose bushes at my ranch last year. Every one died. I didn't have them in a location that they could be watered. I assume that was the problem.

There are since roses that are easier to grow then others. Then again, Texas may be too hot and dry. Check your zone and let me know what it is. I know a chick who knows about roses.