Expert Gardening Advice to help you Plant Successfully, Grow Organically, and Live your Best Gardening Life.
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Rick Bickling is a certified Master Gardener in Texas, and the host of The How Do Gardener. He has been designing, planting and maintaining landscapes and gardens for more than 30 years and writing about gardening for local newspapers and The How Do Gardener website since 2011.
As a Master Gardener, Rick is able to share research tested horticultural information with his viewers and readers in a clear, concise, yet entertaining manner.
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You lost. I'm loosing all my pears. Already half are gone so I'm gonna do what I did last time they started destroying my stuff. Leave a carcass of one near base of tree. That stops them everytime. Not working for me now since we have coyotes, so I put one up in a tree. He was gone the next day. Apparently we have bobcats too. Deer every night, groundhogs coming from everywhere. The birds. I give up. I've already lost enough to have made probably 30 QUARTS of pears! 😫😭😭
I'll plan on it. For the time being, here a few videos I did showing some of the flowers I grow in my yard: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bCmz9mz7Zu4.htmlsi=WVTAjYyocBHGdaTm ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sgd2j805bHw.htmlsi=u4NatVHnB6hK6uuH ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GMdJRt4OoNI.htmlsi=craKZI_WoM1rqQnb
Loved your video! My comment disappeared just after posting it. Hmm YT. I have tried probably everything, but have not tried the red balloon man. Will look into this. The critters in my area have eaten just about everything!
Hmm... YT hijinks. Glad you liked the videos. Your one from earlier this morning is still there under my other squirrel video. "...I, too, have squirrels. also have rats, mice, rabbits, opossums, raccoons, Bob cats, and birds devouring my garden. I have tried everything...". Thanks for sharing. Take care.
@@TheHowDoGardener Thank you! Your video made me laugh out loud many times. I’m glad that I am not the only one with critter problems. Take care! I look forward to your future videos! They are great! All the best! 😀💕👍👍👍👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🌸🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
The red balloon man I have not tried! I will look into this! I have definitely tried probably everything else. This year, my garden is a wild animal, all you can eat buffet. Me=nearly zero; Wild Animals=nearly everything.
@@TheHowDoGardener Usually it is not that much of a problem as I grow extra in case the critters eat some. This is the first year that I have had such a bad problem. I think that due to our very wet winter, it made it easier for the animals to survive. I don’t give up. I have been a gardener for more than 60 years. Worst comes to worst, I can grow some of the smaller items inside. Thanks again!
Love your video! It was hilarious, and true. I, too, have squirrels. I also have rats, mice, rabbits, opossums, raccoons, Bob cats, and birds devouring my garden. I have tried everything including caging my garden and traps. The critters chew through my cages. Quite the crafty ones. It’s an ongoing battle. This year has been the worst. Anything that is edible has been eaten.
Thank you so much for the kind words. Glad you liked the video. It sounds like you have quit the wild animal variety there. Not sure if it would help you or not, but I recently tested out an odd, yet very effective animal deterrent. Here's the video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZBgBPjRJnHc.html
@@TheHowDoGardener thank you! Will check it out. 😀👍💕🌸🍀🌱🌱🌱🌱 We also have large animals here as well. I’m in Southern California. We also have Coyotes, mountain lions, deer, and an occasional bear, and I am in a housing development.
We are in vegas 117 F has become our all time normal temp😢 all my rose plants are dried and about to die. Toamtoes hardly flower and got just 10 tomatoes overall whu h I couldn't even harvest because of hot temps.We have shade cloths but the problem is one wind can pull them off from ties... I don't know how to manage my yard. I love gardening but nothing seems to work..pls help.
That's a challenging environment to garden in. Here's a link to the Nevada Cooperative Extention garden vegetable planting calendar for your area to download. Hope this helps some. www.unlv.edu/sites/default/files/page_files/27/CampusLife_Planting-Calendar-LasVegas.pdf
Thanks so much for sharing ! Sweet potato leaves are very good to eat ! We, Asian , pick the young potato leaves and steam them ! Lots of nutritient vitamins and fiber in them ! We also cut themand feed the chicks or pigs
I grow my tomatoes in a space where it gets morning sun for about 6-8 hours and then shade the rest of the day and my tomatoes are still producing even in 100+ degree weather!
Thank you! Glad you liked it. It is very discouraging when the squirrels ruin all of your hard work. I recently tested something unusual, yet effective, to keep squirrels away. Here's the video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZBgBPjRJnHc.html
Cucurbits (cucumbers, melons, squashes) are generally pretty heat-tolerant. Winter squashes are not called that because they grow in winter. Their growing season is the same as summer squash’s. But winter squashes can be stored (at a cool room temperature) until winter, and possibly even through the winter. This is mainly because they have thick, waxy skins. By the way, a pumpkin is a winter squash. Particular varieties will be called “squash” or “pumpkin,” but that’s a distinction without a difference.
A couple of other vegetables that like hot weather are eggplant and New Zealand spinach (which is not a true spinach, but can be used like spinach). Tomatillos also do well. Something I learned a long time ago is that large-fruited tomatoes stop setting fruit when the temperature gets high. This is also true of many bell peppers. The smaller-fruited varieties will keep bearing fruit through the heat.
@@TheHowDoGardener Eggplants are, in my experience, highly susceptible to spider mites and aphids. But when they didn’t get my plants, I got eggplants all summer (I was living in Dallas, where it’s about as hot as where you live. Now I’m in far south Texas, but haven’t grown eggplants here). Since eggplants are in the family Solanacae with tomatoes and eggplants, maybe the small fruit/large fruit thing is true for them, too, but I haven’t tested that with eggplants. Oh, and another observation I had is that large tomato fruits split in very hot weather. That’s another reason to go with varieties like cherry and Roma tomatoes in hot weather.
Frustrating when it's over 100° for a couple of weeks in June & nights are in the 40's. Nothing has bolted because it was all tiny. It all just stopped growing.
Haven't tried this myself but I read about a gardener using a solar powered radio with a talk radio station cranked up so the squirrels think people are back there. I notice when my neighbors are outside the squirrels disappear. As soon as the quiet returns then my pumpkin bulbs get eaten. I have fences too but some of my plants just can't be fenced in
Good video I was looking at those a while back. I'd have to leave them running all day and I would need several of them. I wonder about battery powered motion activated Halloween or Christmas decorations. Ones that light up and shake and make a lot of noise.
@jaxonv2098 I recently tested something along those lines that worked well. Here's the video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZBgBPjRJnHc.html
I'm growing Virginia Peanuts in 2 gallon containers inside my 120 degree greenhouses and they are blooming and making peanuts like crazy. And my sweet pepper varieties are doing better than my Hot pepper types. Tomatoes need water every other day watering as long as air is moving constantly over the plants.
You had me at Leander. Local garden club Hill Country Bloomers is looking for gardens to tour for inspiration later this year (2024). We used to meet in the Leander library but now we are in cedar park rec center.
Good to see another local gardener here. That's great about your garden club. I've got some things coming up this fall that will preclude me from being part of a garden tour. But maybe next year. I'll have to try to make it to one of your meetings sometime. Take care.
I love your content, great humor and presentation. This is the second video I’ve watched and laughed and learned at the same time. Thank you 🙏 new sub. (I’m at war with the squirrels too)
I wonder if that would work to deter Mr Racoon. He did a ton of damage, and as soon as I would fill in the holes and replant he would attack again. Finally caught him on the critter cram i put up. I put all my plants in jail and I still had massive holes. Then the critter cam showed he had brought Mrs. Racoon to help him! Grrr...
It seems to work on the racoons for me. They're no longer in the peach tree, now they keep getting into my garbage can. It's always something. Thanks for sharing and take care.
I just checked, and looks like they are currently out of stock on both their website and Amazon. I would guess they'll be back in stock at some point. Sorry about that.
Purslane is very dangerous. Very high in oxalates. Causes all sorts of calcium problems in your body. Don't eat it if you have kidney stones or calcium deposits on your tendons. Drink lemon juice to counteract oxalates.
I have a Texas yellow pear tomato plant that can take the heat and is prolific. Cowpeas, sweet potatoes, Italian parsley, sunflowers, marigolds, cosmos, cukes, cantaloupe, and watermelon stand up to Texas heat but it's important to water, mulch and provide shade.
