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using some of them for fishing

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That reminds me of a story. The first time I went fishing was with my husband. He would do all the work, set up the poles and put on the bait etc. After a few fishing trips, he decided it was time that I learned to put the bait on the hook. I don't know what I was expecting but when I went to hook the worm, it squiggled in my hand and I dropped it on the ground. I asked my husband to do it because I didn't want to do it after that and he wouldn't. So, I let the worm crawl on the ground and try to stab it with the hook. It would have turned out better for the worm if I just had the guts to put it on the hook. I had to stab it about 5 times before I got it on the hook. Needless to say, I didn't get any bites on that worm.

Ew. I'd like to learn fly fishing. No itty creature sacrifice involved.

I wonder if burying fish in the garden actually works like the history books say? Or rather, like my history book said in 2nd grade...

I don't know what your history book says but my husband (the gardener in our house) does bury fish in the garden....he claims it makes good fertilizer for tomatoes. The only problem is it stinks up the yard something awful.

I love to garden.....absolutely love it. However, gardening doesn't like me. This past summer I planted several flower gardens, a rose bush, and a veggie garden. In this veggie garden I planted radishes, green beans, tomatoes, green and red bell peppers, cucumbers, chili peppers, banana peppers, and zuchinni. I yielded 5 tomatoes the size of a half dollar, one green bell pepper about the same size, and one zuchinni that was about half the size it should have been......THAT WAS IT! My flowers did a bit better, but I work my tail off, and I especially worked hard with my veggies last year. Quite upsetting results. Especially since my ex husband could garden, and while I was married I always had fresh veggies to can and make sauces with, etc...... How embarrassing that I can't do it myself!!! LOL!

And as for worms, I love to play with worms AND snails. I fish a lot in the summer. Lures are for the weak at heart. I like my worms wiggly and juicy.....and I hook them tighter than ever!!! Those fish love my bait (And I always throw my catch back into the lake.....of course the fact they are mostly blue gill has a lot to do with that!)

Getting good results when gardening has so much to do with the soil. If the soil is bad, no matter what else you do, you won't have good results. If you have a lot of earth worms crawling around in the soil, its probably pretty good. My soil is very sandy, when I plant anything I have to add something, like manure, Yuk.

I don't try veggies much, because I'm too lazy to take good care of them. They take a lot of sun too and I don't have a lot of that. Every year when I see neighbors planting vegtables, I start thinking of trying it. In Florida we have to grow veggies in the winter, instead of summer, too hot and wet to grow veggies then. The one thing we can grow is citrus. Just plop it in the ground and water and it grows, no problem.

I've got a new flower bed around a very big cottonwood. Actually it's an old one. I was cleaning out a bunch of old boxwood and found a circular brick edging that I had no idea was there. So now, I'm wishing there would be daffodils there come spring. I've bought daffs in pots at the nursery and planted them in the past, but I've never put them under trees. Anyone have any experience with daffodils and their need for sun? I was thinking they needed sunshine after they bloomed, until the leaves die.

Daffodils should get pretty good sun, even under a tree, since the tree's leaves won't come out very early. The bulbs should be able to get suffient energy before the tree's leaves totally block the sun. Just don't plant bulbs up against the north side of the house. They won't get any sun there in the early spring when they most need the sun. I have some a few feet away from the North side of the house that do well. Your bulbs may even be able to catch some morning or evening rays coming UNDER the tree. That will help. So take the chance! Risk it! It will be as exciting as the wild card round! Haha.

There's been a bed of daffodils under a huge mulberry tree behind my house for about 15-20 years. Nobody really tends it anymore except to pull out the invasives (mostly porcelainberry, Japanese honeysuckle, and English ivy), but it seems to do OK. The strip of garden is cut N-to-S between a line of tall trees (to the west) and the house.

Garden surprises are so much fun, like digging around and finding something that you didn't know was there.

When I was digging a hole to plant a shrub, the shovel kept clanging into something metal. I thought I found something interesting, (maybe buried treasure) but no...it was just some scrap metal that my hubby had buried years before.

I usually find old action figures, baseballs and dog bones! But I agree. One of the funnest things about moving to a home with an older garden is seeing what comes up in the spring.

I wish I could have a large garden, but it's not to be, living the urban life. However, I volunteer in a community garden, and get to take home fresh, organic vegetables. Most of our produce goes to a local food bank, though. Everyone wins.

That's really cool, SLIH!

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Originally posted by SomeLikeItHot:
I wish I could have a large garden, but it's not to be, living the urban life. However, I volunteer in a community garden, and get to take home fresh, organic vegetables. Most of our produce goes to a local food bank, though. Everyone wins.

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So do y'all do completely pesticide free gardening in your community garden? I'm a big fan of that, using absolutely no pesticides on my lawn or gardens. It's hard to get people to go along with eschewing pesticides. They don't realize they are killing the beneficial insects along with the bad ones, and that there are ways to tip the balance towards the beneficial ones.

Yes, it's 100% organic. It is San Francisco after all. However, I worry that vehicle exhaust isn't really helping things.

Vehicle exhaust kills bugs, so it's all good. (kidding)

Planting a variety of compatible plants together in a garden is a good way to keep out the weeds, and some plants have natural pest repellents and "beneficial bug" attractants (is that a word? LOL). Not only that, but some plants can influence crop flavors. It's pretty neat stuff, and a much better answer than GMO pesticide-producing plants... what a disaster...

When I walk for exercise and a big old truck goes by spewing black smoke, I feel like I'm being exterminated. Its hard to get away from vehicle exhaust.

Since I started gardening, I'm more concerned for the wildlife and the environment and try to use as few chemicals as possible. Yeah, I totally agree, that we are just killing all the good bugs and probably not so many of the bad. Everything gets out of balance and we cause more problems than we solve.

Well DaZ, it's almost daffodil time here. I'm getting really anxious to get into my garden. I've got a rose bush to move soon, and I'm gazing wistfully at perennial catalogs (my mother gave me a gift certificate to one for my birthday!) Spring is always so exciting, although my nose tells me the elm trees will be flowering or are flowering soon. I can hardly wait to see green things poking through the mulch.

Betts...here in zone 9 Florida, everything is mostly green, milkweed is starting to come up from seed and the penta's weren't hurt much from the cold weather. I have a few bulbs...mostly caladium (miss muffit is my favorite) the other bulbs I have sometimes get eat up by grasshoppers in the summer, so I'm always surprised by what has survived.

I have a few roses...mostly old fashioned ones. I never know when to cut them back. Hybrid roses would be cut back in Feb. but the old roses are in bloom now.

Ah, how nice. So you get to garden year-round? We have pansies year round, and that's about it. But there is something exciting about having the first shoots of green pop up after a brown and ugly winter. It can't come too soon for me!

Well, weeds grow year-round too, so its not all good. Actually, I just give up during the hottest part of the summer. Hot, humid, wet and the mosquitoes are big enough to just carry you away. So, I just let the weeds and vines take over and hope they don't strangle or smother any of my favorite plants.