The Unc-tanical Gardens

[MildeStoner]

Thought it was a monstrose lophocereus! I seem to be drawn to all the genetic freaks of the cactus and succulent world for some reason. I'm jealous!

 

[unclefishstick]

the small one you can see in the terra cotta pot is an offset from the larger one in the background,i got the big one which is two stems,one heavily offset about 5 feet tall for 175 bux which was a steal.its massively scarred and had some frost damage badly pruned away but it has two large offsets that already have adventitious roots on them already so they should root up in a snap,relatively speaking of course...i have a weakness for the mutants too,they can be a bitch in cultivation...

 

[unclefishstick]

not to ignore the veggie garden,its really coming along well,a couple of treatments of foliar azamax mixed with some silica blast and there are far fewer bugs now,getting rid of the cabbage seems to have gotten rid of the bulk...
already picking nice ripe cucumbers,plenty of maters forming up,chilis are starting to form,seem to have gotten the chilies and the black turtle beans much happier after side dressing with some happy frog 3-8-8 bulb food and more mulch,plus i trenched and mounded around them since they dont like overhead watering.got a couple rows of carrots coming up,first batch should be about ready soon,more beets,some purple tomatillos and a late addition some red potatoes coming up here and there,cantaloupes are doing well and starting to show flowers this morning,the second sunflower blossom is opening up now.i top dressed in some happy frog tomato and veggie food around most all of the plants and added more bark mulch,seems like the mulch is breaking down pretty nicely,the interface between the mulch and the soil is getting harder to distinguish...i will continue to scratch in some ewc and kelp meal and the like throughout the summer...

composter is working well,everything is breaking down finer and finer,even the big chunks of stuff are going away..

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[unclefishstick]

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[greenmatter]

what is that stuff coming up in front of the cucumber (i think it's a cucumber) in the third pic?

looks like monarda/bee balm to me but i'm not sure.

i have it in a few different places. beautiful plants but they have always had PM problems in late summer for me. gonna see if i can get semi religious about applying pro-tekt this year and see if i can help em out

anyone know any other tricks?

 

[unclefishstick]

those are potatoes coming up in front of a cantaloupe if thats the pics you're talking about...

 

[greenmatter]

ahhhhh.

tried those here ...... they don't dig clay

 

[unclefishstick]

i may bitch about the sand buts its way better than clay...whack it with a pickaxe a few times and it turns back into sugar....at least it drains well...

 

[unclefishstick]

had a bit of fresh garden produce last nice,a little cucumber salad and some fire roasted beets with fresh rosemary and thyme...have some new additions coming up,a couple of pole beans,purple something or other,and a couple of crookneck squash plants,havent seen the scallions coming in yet,hopefully soon,the first round was really good....purple tomatillos are coming along,the cantaloupe plants are already taking off,the veggies seem to be dealing with the heat well,watering twice a day,once in the morning then again in the afternoon,monsoon season is approaching,it typically raining on july 4th just in time to convince the city to put on a fireworks display....hopefully that will amount to something this year...only 5 inches of rain last year....

need to try and grab some shots of the compost in the barrel,started about 2/3 full of fresh grass clipping and dry stuff from the pile about 1/2 and 1/2,plus a good sprinkling of alfalfa meal and chicken poop....after about a week of sprinkling in some water and rotating the barrel a few times i started adding kitchen scraps and coffee grounds plus adding in dry stuff from the pile and flower heads and weeds from the flower beds plus about 6 gallons of rootballs....got in and chopped it up with a shovel last night and really turned it over good....smells good and earthy and mostly like fresh grass or alfalfa,nothing stinky so that seems to be going well....

enough blather,got watering to do,plus 30 gallons of compost tea brewing...


more cactus flowers...a parodia and a mammilaria this time..

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[captain planet]

That is awesome !!! When you get to enjoy your efforts, whether it's a cucumber salad, dank herb , or just something beautiful to look at , that's what it's all about! I don't think you've shown that composter yet....

 

[unclefishstick]

i just refilled it this morning with fresh grass clippings so it looks like a barrel full of wet grass clippings...i tried to get a shot but the sun angle was all wrong...

 

[unclefishstick]

just so no one thinks my cactus lust has gone unabated recently...picked up 3 new ones today,another golden balloon cactus,i think i have like 4 of them now,but this one has survived walmart for 4 months and the direct sun and it was about to flower so i rescued it...and a couple of unlabled mammilaria im guessing,plus i repotted the old man cactus and yet another of the hundreds of mammilaria..

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[unclefishstick]

lol,oh yeah,i had picked up a second birds nest cactus as well...


and for giggles i counted the cactus today,including all the in ground cactus that will actually survive the winter i have 110 cactus now,call it around 95 potted specimens and im guessing 80+ different species....


and some spine shots..and an aloe flower,a blue elf hybrid aloe
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[captain planet]

I swear my mamm had it's pink flower hot glued to the top of it..... Home de pot ?

 

[unclefishstick]

they do that which is a shame since it ruins them to get it off most of the time,and ironically they choose the cactus that are easiest to get to flower on their own...

 

[MrSterling]

Uncle, I'm just getting into collecting aloes and I'm unfamiliar with the sort of soil requirements for them. I'd like to make my own.

 

[unclefishstick]

Uncle, I'm just getting into collecting aloes and I'm unfamiliar with the sort of soil requirements for them. I'd like to make my own.

pretty much anything that drains well will work but typically the mixes are composed of compost,sharp sand,pumice or scoria or sometimes lava rock crushed fine.typically succulents need very little nitrogen in the mix as it tends to produce weak growth,indeed too much organic matter in general is a bad thing for many succulents.
i use either black gold cactus mix or uni-grow...
heres whats in unigrow...pumice,forest products,sand,peat moss,bone meal,blood meal,ewc,cottonseed meal.


im not sure how many aloes i have,of course an aloe vera,but mostly hybrids like a blue elf,i have an alligator aloe,a climbing aloe,one thats called a "park avenue" and a few more,still looking for a partridge breasted aloe...check out the bulbines since they are used medicinally in much the same way as aloe..

 

[MrSterling]

I picked up a hybrid called Silver Ridge recently - beautifully textured, and one I believe is called ranch fire, but long thin leaves with a reddish hue.

 

[unclefishstick]

i saw a partridge breast aloe today while out shopping,didnt grab it though,got another honeysuckle and some echinachea flowers..


heres some of the aloes...

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[unclefishstick]

things are coming along nicely in the veggie garden,been hotter than satans ass in a fur g string and only some teaser rain,only a couple weeks from monsoon...fingers crossed....as you will see there is seriously large amounts of calcium in the water here...

tomatoes ripening...san marzano or matine? labels got sun blasted and i was too dumb to make a garden map this year...its my first veggie garden,i didnt expect to become a master gardener this summer or have my beds perfectly dialed in...

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new mexico big jim green chili

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sunflower...

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cantaloupe and taters...got a bag of mulch for the taters,just gonna keep adding a layer as the taters grow the idea being all i need to do is move the mulch away at harvest time...

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