Your family's gardening plans (with pics)

We have plenty of Aloe Vera on our property.

I think the leaves of Aloe Hercules are very similar to the leaves of Aloe Vera.

One nickname for A.H. is Dr. Seuss Tree because it's so weird.

We just want a plant that the cut ants won’t CUT/ KILL and haul off to make their fungus. Last week, they completely wiped out our aloe vera garden at entrance to house :rage: :rage: :rage: :exclamation:

So far, we can’t plant anything that they don’t eventually go for. Cactus maybe?

I'll ask my sister.

She might know.

Would it be possible to get rid of the ants?

We’ve battled cut ants for the past 35 years. At one time, there was a bait available put out by Dupont. It was called VOLCANO. It REALLY worked.

But then, there came the problem of getting an EPA label for it. Couple million dollars of govermental red tape and then Poof… VOLCANO was no more.

All you can do now is deter them. But, that has proven to be an arduous and frustrating task to say the least.

Cut ants are a machine. Without an effective control bait, they rule.

Side Note. I did a lot of reading on cut ants over the years. I recently found on a Mexican forum that they use shaving cream to deter. So I tested by taking a couple of produce containers, (strawberry carton, mushroom carton etc), cutting a slit in them and wrapping around trunk of some pepper plants, filled with shave cream and they did NOT want anything to do with it.

Effective on trunked/single stem plants, but difficult to maintain succulents and other shrubbery. Shave cream deters, but what a PITA to deal with application.

I have also found that scented baby powder spread upon their trails messes up the pheromone scent they use to navigate. Works for a few days. But….“They’ll Be Back”

We've had our own problems with ants on our property.

What we did was contact the entomology department at the closest university.

After sending them some sample ants through the mail, they knew exactly what to use to get rid of our troublesome ants.

I don't know what research you have done for your ant problem, but that was how we got to our solution.

Diatomaceous earth (DE).

It’s like broken glass to insects. They walk through it, it scratches their waxy coating, and they ooze out and dehydrate to death. That’ll learn ’em…

I feed a few outside cats here, right on the front stoop, and ants will find the food and make their way up and into it. Disgrossting. Dusting the edges of the stoop with DE, and sprinkling it in the “garden” next to the stoop, and they stop coming.

Looks like crap if you do it right, like a bakery exploded and dumped flour all over the place, but it works.

We plant about one acre garden every year. We have/had peppers, tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, okra, onions, squash, and melons this year. The weather has killed just about everything but the okra so far. First months of spring it just about flooded us, so far this summer it’s been dry and super hot. What didn’t drown has burnt up.

learn something new EVERY day.

I wish I’d just taken pictures at the garden I just returned from. A friend is out of town for awhile and asked us to go by periodically and pick fruit. Peaches, apples, plums, tomatoes, bell peppers, squash, cherrie tomatoes, basil, citrus, flowers, and other stuff I’m not sure what it is. Its a bonanza over there, probably a 1/4 acre of just herbs and edibles.

This time the fruits mostly gone, so just basil, tomatoes, peppers and apples. Just . . . . :smiley:

We are planning on updating our landscaping, would love to have ocotillo, not sure it its hot enough in SB for that though?

@Streamer:

I got a hold of my sister.

She will look up cut ants.

We have cottontail and jackrabbits here, and they eat some of our plants.

She thought they would leave cactus alone, but they do not.

Maybe ants would leave cactus alone, but I wouldn't bet on it.

The DE you’d buy in home’n’garden stores likely has additives (<1%) to make it more effective against bugs, but there’s actually food-grade DE which, yeah, people can (and do) eat.

It’s basically just shells of sea-critters (literally, diatoms) that sank to the bottom and fossilised over time. Gets scooped out with backhoes, purified, and sold.

According to this website...

https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/57648

...Ocotillo will grow in Oakland.

I think that if it'll grow in Oakland, it'll grow in Santa Barbara.

Ocotillo is very pokey, though, so you have to be careful where you plant it.

EDIT:

I looked up Ocotillo in my Western Garden Book, and it says it will not grow in Santa Barbara.

Thanks for the feedback RC, I suspected it would not grow well here, just not hot enough. But Oakland ! ! !

Here’s a picture of today’s harvest

Hungry… hungry… hungry…

I built my wife a new garden this year. Slightly raised, filled it in with about 8 tons of new topsoil.

We usually tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions, carrots, radishes, sweet peas, gourds, etc. Also tried lettuce, cabbage, and strawberries this year. Also have raspberries, rhubarb, and apples.


Very nice! :+1:

Wow, great job :open_mouth:

Here’s my container garden area before 2017 hurricane Harvey. I’ve got it pretty much rebuilt since but no current pics.

We grow tomatoes, peppers, squash, herbs, cucumbers, radishes, and broccoli. Also have a mint garden .

I could swear this pic was crystal clear back then. Dunno what happened. Yes I do. The pic was shot in panorama view, but Imgur apparently doesn’t accommodate it.

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We live in the sub Tropics here.
Lots a water. Then none for up to 8 months.
Most don’t bother watering the front grass.
It just goes differing shades of brown till it reaches black.
3 days after first rain it’s all green shoots again.

Me.
I’m a green concrete person. Hose down once a month.

Landscaped gardens are fine. On someboddy elses block thank you.
Nice to walk past occasionally.

PS Wonder why I lived on my yacht for yrs.
Rented out the unit.

We used to grow some of our own food...

But now where we live we have coyotes, and they are attracted to people food.

We don't want coyotes in our yard because there's a good possibility they might kill my dog if given the chance.

I grow carrots, onions, leeks, white beetroot, turnips, raspberries, blackcurrants, Morello cherries, Medlars, sweet quinces, tomatoes, and chillis. Unfortunately the chillis were not even the species claimed on the packet, had no taste and no flavour. Some tomatoes grew wild, from tomatoes discarded on soil, and they’ve grown into huge plants with very tasty fruits, far better than bought ones. Carrots, onions and leeks are easy to grow. Unfortunately blackbirds kept getting under the netting and digging up the leek seedlings, so I had to buy in leek seedlings from a garden centre, and plant those. When I removed the netting yesterday, I found the skeletons of two young birds. I checked each day to let out any trapped birds, but these were hidden from view. The juveniles get in even when the netting is held down with pegs and stones.

England is dark and damp in winter, but our climate is not so bad, and near perfect for 8 months of the year. But crops such as squash and chillis are hit and miss as they need lots of warmth and sun.

I had a pair of red legged partridges visit regularly, then 11 chicks appeared, but soon disappeared. We reckon a fox ate them all. :frowning: