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People who know about gardening? - 8/5/2013 12:49:10 AM

AthenaSurrenders

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Some quick tips if you don't mind?

-Can I/should I hand-pollinate pumpkins? And it seems like male and female flowers aren't blooming at the same time - I have tons of male and the female ones aren't ready to open yet. Are they ever going to be on the same schedule?
-Are pumpkin flowers edible like courgette/zucchini?
-Heavy rains have left my garlic in soggy waterlogged soil. Is there anything I can do to help them before they drown? They're not ready to come up yet.
-Are all sunflower seeds edible or only certain varieties?

Thank you to anyone who knows any answers!

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/5/2013 5:18:02 AM

DarkSteven

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1. Why? Aren't the bees doing their job?

Look at it from the pumpkin's POV. The initial male flowers let the bees know that there are flowers on the area. By the time the females open, the bees are regular visitors.

2. Yep.

3. Beats me.

4. All seeds are edible, and all winter squash seeds as well.

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/5/2013 5:48:53 AM

AthenaSurrenders

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I'm not convinced the bees are doing their job! I haven't seen one for ages. The bushes that the bees love in our garden are all done flowering and I've seen barely a bee since then. Such a shame by vegetables didn't flower earlier because we had large numbers of bees a month ago.

I didn't think of the pumpkin having a plan, that does make sense. Maybe I am being over-protective. I'm crazy about that damn pumpkin plant. I've never really grown anything before, and the pumpkin has been especially satisfying since it almost seemed to burst to life and become huge all at once.

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/5/2013 6:10:42 AM

pahunkboy

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From what I see on FB and in my garden- no one has a great crop this year.

By now- I would be giving away tomatoes by the bushel. We barely got enough for a salad. and I got them in early. So I have no clue what is wrong.

On sunflower seeds- they are GREAT for your thyroid. Be sure to dry them out well. I am a big fan of seeds and nuts. I once had food poisoning- and seeds and nuts were the main thing I ate after words..... as I did not want to go thru that again.

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/5/2013 6:25:47 AM

ARIES83

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-In regards to the bees, do you spray any pesticides?
-Pumpkin flowers should be edible, google it to be sure.
-Err, I have no idea... If it's only that spot that gets soggy, you will know to plant something in there next time that likes dampness, or you can build up the garden bed to improve drainage next time... Not much you can do with well established plants though...
Unless you can kinda dig a small drainage system...
-And YES! Fresh Sunflower seeds are awesome! And I have a few tips!
The best source of sunflower seeds to grow plants from I've found were just seeds from cheap brands of bird seed that you get at te supermarket... The seeds come from special breeds of sunflowers used because of the extremely large yields which are obviously a pretty important factor for commercial seed production.
They are not as pretty to look at, but you will get a butt load of seeds!
Also, the reason I like fresh sunflower seeds so much is that you don't need to go through the hassle of de-shelling them... With fresh ones there is enough moisture still in them that you can just shoot the inside edible bit into your mouth by squeezing the seed between your thumb and forefinger.
It doesn't take much practice.

I have seriously stood infront of one of my sunflowers before just picking seeds off and shooting them into my mouth untill i couldnt fit anymore in because my chewing couldn't keep up with my shooting.

< Message edited by ARIES83 -- 8/5/2013 6:27:44 AM >

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/5/2013 8:01:04 AM

MasterCaneman

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The reason you haven't seen bees that much is because there's been a mass die-off. While I'm not much of a gardener, my neighbor is, and one day I saw her out in her yard with one of those feather dusters gently brushing her flowers. When I asked her what she was doing, she said she was pollinating her flowers with it. She gently brush the male flowers to get the pollen off (it was one of those micro-fiber jobbers) and then she'd hit the females with it. Apparently it works, because her yard looks great.

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/5/2013 8:03:53 AM

DesFIP

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There's an infestation of mites affecting honey bee colonies. It's a major problem for growers of all kinds.

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/5/2013 10:34:14 AM

AthenaSurrenders

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Hey nice tip about the bird seed, I never thought of that.

In June and early July we had two bushes in the garden that were swarming with bees - almost every flower had a bee on it morning til night, honey bees and bumble bees (and probably other types I can't identify). So that filled me with hope. But those plants are done flowering and sadly it seems the rest of the garden isn't as attractive. We do have a lot of butterflies though, so they might do some pollination for me.

I thought of another question - are all apples edible? I have some sort of apple tree with little 2 inch apples ripening, I doubt they'll be tasty raw but I thought I could make some jelly rather than waste them. No idea how to tell what variety they are though.

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/5/2013 10:48:55 AM

ChatteParfaitt

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Your garlic is most likely ruined. There's not much you can do with any plant that's been hugely over watered. Garlic needs to be kept dry after the leaves turn yellow so the bulbs can firm up, and there's no way to do that with water logged soil. It may very well come back next year or even over the winter (not sure how mild your winters are there).

Next time I'd augment the soil with some sharp sand, perhaps as much as 1/4 sand to 3/4 soil. All bulb plants need to be well fed, so use lots of compost.

You can eat pumpkin flowers and any kind of apples that aren't crab apples. I bet you have a local horticultural society, ask them what you have.

I've never had to hand pollinate pumpkins, but where I live is so different from where you live, this is a hard one for me. Nice even watering will keep flowers from falling off, I know this.

Sun flower seeds are all edible, but some are more preferable than others. A really good book to get is Seed to Seed by Susan Ashworth.

The color of the seed husks tell you which ones are most desirable for eating:

The all black seed husk is called black oil which is used for bird seed and making sunflower oil.
The husk that is striped black and white and often sold as "grey striped sunflower" is your most popular eating.
The whitish husks are used mostly for cut flowers but are edible.

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/5/2013 11:52:22 AM

kdsub

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Myself I love crab apples... the more tart and sour the better...also make jelly from them. As for bees a good way to attract and keep them is to have a spice garden near your pumpkin patch. Bees love them all summer long and they are tasty as well.

Butch

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/6/2013 2:47:34 AM

DarkSteven

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DesFIP

There's an infestation of mites affecting honey bee colonies. It's a major problem for growers of all kinds.

I'm a brand new beekeeper. Lemme chime in.

The thing is called Colony Collapse Disorder. Perfectly good hives abandoned. A relatively new phenomenon, getting worse rapidly. Nobody has proven conclusively what causes it, but there's a lot of speculation.

The main direct causes have been held to be the Varroa mite, and a kind of pesticide family called nicotinoids. I've heard someone say it's a parasitic fly as well. In addition, it's been hot and dry everywhere in the US, meaning that the summer nectar flows have been lacking, so bees have had less honey to get through the winter, and the normal winter hive die-off has been much worse than usual.

The indirect factors are that bees have worse resistance than they should. The real money in beekeeping is in trucking the hives around for paid pollination, which makes beekeepers more than the honey, so the bees are forced into a stressful nomadic life. Also, commercial beekeepers steal all a hive's honey and give the bees sugar water instead, which is far less good for the bees (disclaimer - us backyard beekeepers use sugar water as well, but to supplement nature's nectar flow, not to replace their honey).

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The small-breasted ones want larger breasts. The large-breasted ones want smaller ones. The straight-haired ones curl their hair, and the curly-haired ones straighten theirs...

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/6/2013 4:36:07 AM

ARIES83

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Very interesting.

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/6/2013 4:46:25 AM

DomKen

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quote:

ORIGINAL: ChatteParfaitt
You can eat pumpkin flowers and any kind of apples that aren't crab apples. I bet you have a local horticultural society, ask them what you have.

You can eat crab apples. They tend to not taste very good raw but they are very good in some cooked dishes (including jelly).

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/6/2013 4:50:46 AM

DomKen

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quote:

ORIGINAL: AthenaSurrenders
In June and early July we had two bushes in the garden that were swarming with bees - almost every flower had a bee on it morning til night, honey bees and bumble bees (and probably other types I can't identify). So that filled me with hope. But those plants are done flowering and sadly it seems the rest of the garden isn't as attractive. We do have a lot of butterflies though, so they might do some pollination for me.

Did those bushes have lots of flowers? Your pumpkins likely have a lot fewer. So you may not notice the bees. You can hand pollinate a few if you're really worried.

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/6/2013 5:04:10 AM

ChatteParfaitt

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I thought some crab apple seeds were poisonous. Am I wrong? I don't remember where I got that from.

In any case I should have said, don't eat them raw. I know some crab apples are good for jelly, but I really thought there were types to avoid.

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/6/2013 5:43:56 AM

tj444

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quote:

ORIGINAL: ChatteParfaitt

Your garlic is most likely ruined. There's not much you can do with any plant that's been hugely over watered. Garlic needs to be kept dry after the leaves turn yellow so the bulbs can firm up, and there's no way to do that with water logged soil. It may very well come back next year or even over the winter (not sure how mild your winters are there).

a raised bed for them would probably help also.. a raised bed can be as simple as just a mound of dirt, you dont need to have a frame around it, just a pile of dirt so the water can drain away and keep the plants from drowning..

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/6/2013 5:48:53 AM

ChatteParfaitt

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A raised bed would be great. I don't know much about gardening in Gr Brit, but I imagine it's cool and wet with a clay soil. Am I right about the soil?

I would love to have an extensive raised bed garden. I just don't have the space these days. My neighbor does and says she's going to do it if I help.

Maybe next year.

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/6/2013 5:56:03 AM

ARIES83

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I'm not living at my house at the moment... But when I get back next month I will post a pic of my raised vegi garden...
It's pretty great. (Setting reminder in phone

)

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/6/2013 11:32:01 AM

AthenaSurrenders

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I don't know about Britain as a whole, but yes my garden has a lot of clay. Most of our veg are growing in planters and gro-bags anyway since it's a rented house and we can't dig up the lawn or flowerbeds. I guess I will have to wait til next year for some garlic - it was only a few plants anyway.

Can't wait to see Aries' garden.

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RE: People who know about gardening? - 8/6/2013 11:33:50 AM

mnottertail

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'ere? can you get your grubhooks on small square bales of straw?

hunt up straw bale gardening on the net, and plant them alliums in that conditioned straw bale they grow to beat hell in cold.

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