Garden thread

kshama2001 wrote: »

mbaker566 wrote: »

i plopped my blueberries in the ground with no specialness. so far so good. planted it at the beginning of 1 season and had it for 1 more year. not a lot of berries but it's a young plant
i think it will be a year or two before i get significant berry harvests on all my berries. i want a couple of marionberry vines too and plant near my water spout (they are from the PNW)

i plan on having my berries on the chainlink fence to discourage fence testing and jumping by the foster dogs. however, my lab just barrels thru the roses on the other side of my yard. i'm always pulling thorns out of her.

i also have 2 arkansas black apple trees. though i think only 1 will make it thru the winter. i don't know if it will recover from the shock it suffered when we planted it (dad and i).
i want to plant a few more apple trees in back and 1 or two small cherries in front of the house.
also kinda want a mulberry plant

Mom is up to three mulberry trees. We have mulberry pancakes and mulberry pie around the 4th of July. Mulberries freeze well. Some people complain that they are messy - I always had purple feet when I was a barefoot child.

Ah mulberries are the best

MoveitlikeManda wrote: »

Just found this when catching up on the other thread.
my husband got me 2 big veg trug and 2017 we grew strawberries, cucumber, peas, radish, small potatos, peppers, tomatos, carrots and broccoli.....butterflies got the brocs though.

didnt grow anything this year as we have a Dalmatian (was 1 year old last month) and he managed to dig up and eat everything I tried so I gave up.

its funny I came across this as we were just sat in the garden having a *kitten* and talking about how we can protect the trugs from the daft dog so we can grow next year.

anyway, when I have a few mins to myself will read through this whole thread x

Ok, just gotta know the nature of the *kitten* being had in your garden.

How's the sun? We had a block party recently and ended up looking at people's houses and back yards since when they were originally built (around 1907-12, depending on the house, all part of one development), they were basically the same but have had different levels of reno/expansion. One thing we noticed was that a few people had huge beautiful trees and those shaded most by the trees said they had a lot of problems getting things to grow. My own yard is not shaded, and things seem to grow quite well (although I moved too late and didn't do anything new this year). I'm kind of happy that I get to appreciate the trees (especially the ones in front), but seem to not be overly affected by the shade from them (or responsible for trimming them).

Rhubarb is a great idea -- my grandmother used to grow that, and it should grow well here.

@rcreynol3090 I've thought about an apiary but I'm slightly allergic to bees but it seems like such a good thing for those capable

Hydroponic Swiss chard made my day!!!

peleroja wrote: »

This is lovely! What are the sides made out of?

Heidijens123 wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

Heidijens123 wrote: »

This post just reminded me that I need to remember to fertilize my garden very well this year. We just moved to a new house and after having a huge successful garden every year in my old place I could hardly get anything to grow here. Even my zucchini that I usually end up with massive amounts of wouldn't grow in my new garden.
Things I enjoy growing are zucchini, peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins and anything else that will fit.
Oh, the people here before us planted rhubarb and that did beautiful this year, I even got 1st place at the fair. Unfortunately I hate the taste of it. 😂

Assuming you have enough sun, how fertile is your soil? In my county we have people selling horse, chicken, and donkey & sheep manure in bags on the side of the road, but you can also get 50 # bags of Black Kow manure at Home Depot for under $6.

My mom started with really poor soil in 1993 but every fall composted with leaves and added tons of horse manure and her garden has been amazingly productive for quite some time.

Thanks, There should be plenty of sun. It gets as much as my last garden did. Thats my plan to make sure I fertilize the garden well this spring and fall. We have chickens and my in laws raise beef so no shortage of manure here, just have to get it in the garden.

Just make sure you compost that chicken manure (I don't know about steer). Chicken manure is "hot," quite literally, I think. It shouldn't be directly added, although maybe at this time of year in the N hemisphere, it's OK?...

I'm going to get asparagus for the first time next spring. I put the crowns in three years ago and have patiently tended them. I always do leeks, onions, potatoes (and more potatoes), tomatoes, winter squash and then something I've never done. This past year, it was shishito peppers. Wow. So easy to prepare, and so yummy. I used to grow between 15-20 tomato plants, but it was just too much to care for. Now, I only do favorites of heirlooms and cherry varieties. I have put in one dahlia for the past three years. Next year, I'm going to do at least five. And zinnias-tons of zinnias. I have the last little bouquet in my kitchen from this year.

nutmegoreo wrote: »

peleroja wrote: »

This is lovely! What are the sides made out of?

It's a corrugated metal roofing product! The guy who built it is a commercial carpenter so he took some scraps from work to make it. It's lined with untreated wood to eliminate any possibility of leaching etc.

Same here. I'd really like to install a drip system and I'd also like to collect rain water but I just haven't. But I think it's fun to go out and water the garden anyway, so does my toddler. Well he mostly sprays me with the water while I try to tend to my plants.

Wow!!! I’ve been reading through the thread and you guys are super inspirational! I love plants indoors and out. I’m kinda addicted to greenery all over the place - even here with my place in NYC.

This year we only had tomatoes and an herb garden. In spring I hope to plant 🌱 a ton of mint for tea, basil for everything and spinach. I’ve been thinking about blackberries——I may eat them all though. Haha

Any highly recommended books about gardening that people want to mention? I want to do some studying in the next couple of months.

lemurcat2 wrote: »

Any highly recommended books about gardening that people want to mention? I want to do some studying in the next couple of months.

Mel Bartholomew's "Square Foot Gardening" has lots of good information for growing vegetables efficiently. This book has been around for many years but remains a go-to for me. I also rely on local Extension Service information for specific planting dates and types of plants for my area.

Bumping so this doesn't get lost.

So I'm going to do some major planning over the next few months, but this is my situation:

Small yard (30x125 city lot, which includes my house and garage) -- nothing like the impressive areas some of you have

Right now the back yard is edged with perennials (not food, flowers, in addition to bushes and trees). The rest is grass, except I have one non-garage parking space (also a one-car garage), that I could reclaim for growing things in a box or boxes -- this would be only after I know I'll grow enough to make it worth losing the parking space.

The side is just strips along the house with flowers and easy maintenance perennials. (Also the grape vine.)

The front yard (smaller) has small evergreens and other easy maintenance perennials right in front of the house and then grass to the sidewalk -- this I'm not changing, I want my vegetable garden in back. On the other side of the sidewalk to the street is land that belongs to the city but I can plant if I want to (it has a small ginkgo tree but is otherwise grass). One of my neighbors has a flower garden on that area and there is a neighborhood initiative to include milkweed if possible, since we are apparently trying to attract monarch butterflies.

In front of that, where you would normally be able to pull up in front of the house, there's basically another area for plants (the city calls it a buffer). This has become in essence a neighborhood garden area, but it's mostly my responsibility since it's in front of my house. The former resident and another neighbor planted it with a mix of flowers and easy to maintain plants (like hostas), and are planning to add the milkweed, but my neighbor is also open to redoing it.

My thought right now is to leave everything basically as is but add vegetables (as a replacement to part of the grass in my backyard). Is it better to just add a box and not plant directly in the ground? Or does it depend on the plant (I assume).

I am doing planters on my back porch with herbs.

I've been really successful with tomatoes in my container garden, and want tomatoes, but also want to branch out.

I'm thinking the back should be mostly vegetables and I should use the options in the front for flowers if I want them, except might as well keep what exists. I don't care about grass except it is easy maintenance and my time is limited (although I am hoping to get into this as a hobby).