Garden thread

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Replies

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,846 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Katmary71 wrote: »
    @moonangel12 Lettuce leaf basil would be fun to grow! I love mints too, what do you do with them? I mostly use them in water, I have spearmint, orange mint, and berries and cream. I bought a packet of mixed mints and none have sprouted. Chocolate mint is good on strawberries and balsamic over ice cream! My aunt introduced me to getting good block feta and cutting it in chunks and wrapping in mint, that's pretty awesome! I bought my seeds from Baker's Creek which has a good reputation but my lemon balm didn't start either. I ordered a new African basil and they said it needs to be hot to germinate so I'm still waiting but it's hit 90s and nothing.

    Do you grow other herbs? I have two different kinds of oregano, marjoram, rosemary, lavender, basil, mints, evening primose, pinapple sage, regular sage, parsley, chives, echinacea, chamomile, dill, stevia, and I think that's it. My herb garden area was my first garden, I'd eventually like a bay laurel tree as well. I have a few others I just started like anise hyssop, I'd like to get a good selection for tea.

    My first zucchini are about ready, woohoo!

    The bolded might be a hidden blessing, just sayin'. Lemon balm is pretty close to the most thuggy, spready thing I've ever grown - spreads by both roots and copious seeds, it seems. Other things in the mint family are aggressive, but IME lemon balm takes it to a whole new level. For sure, it's the worst herb that way that I've grown - worse than the other mints, worse than chives . . .

    There are some ornamentals I wish I'd never planted (one low sedum, a particular campanula, maybe Aristolochia clematitis (Birthwort) . . .), but even considered among those, lemon balm is a thug. If you get some growing, I'd recommend keeping it in a pot, keeping the pot on hard surfaces far from soil where it could seed.

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  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,846 Member
    edited June 2021
    MsCzar wrote: »
    Thanks, mtaratoot. Never heard of the egg trick before. I added netting to the tomato cages and will fence the entire area later this week.

    On a happier note: Peas! Not sure how to tell when they are officially ripe, but they are coming in nicely. Those deer better stay away!

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    If they are snow peas (edible pod) the one in the foreground is ready to eat.

    If they are snap/sugar peas, they are ready when the pod is fat and still green - once it starts to brown and wrinkle it is a little late, but they may still be edible or can be saved for seeds for next year. Perhaps they can be saved as dried peas as well - have not tried that.

    Good luck with the deer! At my last place, I first planted peas right up against the garden fence and the groundhog would eat them right through the fence >.<
  • MsCzar
    MsCzar Posts: 1,039 Member
    edited June 2021
    Thanks, kshama200. The peas that aren't quite ripe are delicious whole raw. As they mature, the pod is less tasty, but the peas are larger and very sweet. Not sure what variety they are. On a whim, I bought the pack of 'Sweet peas' at the dollar store for 25¢.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,945 Member
    Katmary71 wrote: »
    @mtaratoot what zone are you in? I just started nasturtiums not realizing they don't do well in the heat but a local garden group commented about it, I moved them to a shadier area but they aren't growing fast now, I'm in 9B.

    I'm in Zone 8B. We can grow so SO many things. Almonds; not so much. Okra? Not the best for that either. We grow a lot of seeds as well as produce crops. Really good wine grapes. I happen to also have really nice soil that was deposited by the Missoula Floods about 14,000 years ago.

  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,945 Member
    MsCzar wrote: »
    Thanks, kshama200. The peas that aren't quite ripe are delicious whole raw. As they mature, the pod is less tasty, but the peas are larger and very sweet. Not sure what variety they are. On a whim, I bought the pack of 'Sweet peas' at the dollar store for 25¢.

    I bet "Sweet Pea" implies a snap pea, sugar pea, or whatever else we call 'em. Eat the whole pod before the peas mature. The kind that you let get mature are shelling peas. Those aren't really "sweet peas" though; that's more of a name for a similar plant grown for the flower.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,945 Member
    I divided my staghorn fern over the weekend. It lives outside in the summer. It had two smaller sprouts coming off, so I removed them and put them in new pots. Now I have three at home and one big one at the office that might also get to be split some time soon. It was one I divided from the original main plant - on the left in the picture.
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  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,724 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    MsCzar wrote: »
    Thanks, mtaratoot. Never heard of the egg trick before. I added netting to the tomato cages and will fence the entire area later this week.

    On a happier note: Peas! Not sure how to tell when they are officially ripe, but they are coming in nicely. Those deer better stay away!

    vpn49kyzdvlt.jpg

    If they are snow peas (edible pod) the one in the foreground is ready to eat.

    If they are snap/sugar peas, they are ready when the pod is fat and still green - once it starts to brown and wrinkle it is a little late, but they may still be edible or can be saved for seeds for next year. Perhaps they can be saved as dried peas as well - have not tried that.

    Good luck with the deer! At my last place, I first planted peas right up against the garden fence and the groundhog would eat them right through the fence >.<

    This is an aside, but there's a family that sells (small scale) at a local farmers' market, has lots of interesting Asian specialties (I believe they're Vietnamese immigrants) including red amaranth "greens" (yum), bitter gourd, long beans (love these), more. They grow snap peas, sugar snap type. When they start to get a little over-mature as edible-pod peas, toward the end of the season, they shell them and sell them that way, as fresh shelled peas. They're glorious, raw or just lightly steamed/stir-fried to heat. A luxury.
    mtaratoot wrote: »
    Katmary71 wrote: »
    @mtaratoot what zone are you in? I just started nasturtiums not realizing they don't do well in the heat but a local garden group commented about it, I moved them to a shadier area but they aren't growing fast now, I'm in 9B.

    I'm in Zone 8B. We can grow so SO many things. Almonds; not so much. Okra? Not the best for that either. We grow a lot of seeds as well as produce crops. Really good wine grapes. I happen to also have really nice soil that was deposited by the Missoula Floods about 14,000 years ago.

    Really? Not okra? It has a rep for liking warmer climates, longer seasons, but here in 5b, I had great luck, from direct seeding, with varieties from Johnny's Selected Seeds (Northern garden specialists) that have a shorter maturity. They have beautiful flowers, too.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,945 Member
    Not quite warm enough here for okra unless you have a microclimate. I heard someone say they did it at home by piling soil in tractor tires to absorb the sun... but.... tractor tires have some chemistry I might not want to eat.

    We have a warm season, and to be honest it's probably warm enough for okra, but just not quite long enough. Not quite enough growing degree days. Maybe that will change sooner than we'd like to admit. As much as I like okra, I'd rather we don't end up being able to grow lots of it.
  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,724 Member
    Going to be planting my homegrown sweet potato slips within the next couple of days. They ended up doing very well and hope they survive the garden experience; gave some to my sister yesterday and she planted them right away.
    I figure I'll either get zilch or be so sick of sweet potatoes after harvest that I'll never want another one. :)
  • spinnerdell
    spinnerdell Posts: 230 Member
    Funny thing about climate zones- my southern Nevada zone 8b is a much different growing environment from mtaratoot's western Oregon zone 8b. Okra grows beautifully here, artichokes not so much.
  • lx1x
    lx1x Posts: 38,308 Member
    edited June 2021
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    Zucchini doing well.. cucumber slow but survived the frost..

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    Tomatoes doing well.. okra and peppers not so much.. have seedling growing in pots at the moment to replace the sad looking ones..

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    Corn is sprouting.. just planted it Saturday. 🤣
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,945 Member
    Funny thing about climate zones- my southern Nevada zone 8b is a much different growing environment from mtaratoot's western Oregon zone 8b. Okra grows beautifully here, artichokes not so much.

    Sunset Zone 6
  • SuzanneC1l9zz
    SuzanneC1l9zz Posts: 451 Member
    Meanwhile I'm so far behind you all because I'm in zone 3. My garden is just sprouting!
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,365 Member
    Meanwhile I'm so far behind you all because I'm in zone 3. My garden is just sprouting!

    Bummer... north central Texas here - we have tomatoes that are almost ready for harvest, first bunch of green beans will be ready this weekend, as will the blackberries! We have also picked the first strawberries as well.
  • MsCzar
    MsCzar Posts: 1,039 Member
    Deer found my peas! 😡 😡 😡
  • lx1x
    lx1x Posts: 38,308 Member
    Herbs in pots are doing well. been harvesting too much basil ...might have to give some away to coworkers.. 😆
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  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,724 Member
    lx1x wrote: »
    Herbs in pots are doing well. been harvesting too much basil ...might have to give some away to coworkers.. 😆

    Pesto freezes beautifully, just so you know in case you have a freezer. Jam jars are a nice size, or the 1-cup tempered glass bowls with plastic snap lid. When we grew lots of basil, I'd freeze many jars of it, give them to folks as part of their Christmas present, and we'd eat it all Winter long ourselves as a nice treat. While one can't microwave it to thaw quickly (the parmesan gets weird), it thaws very quickly if one puts the frozen jar in a dish of warm/hot tap water. If in canning-type jam jars, the jars will take that hot/cold stress OK, too.
  • pabmac
    pabmac Posts: 53 Member
    lx1x wrote: »
    Herbs in pots are doing well. been harvesting too much basil ...might have to give some away to coworkers.. 😆
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    Wow, gorgeous basil!!
  • pabmac
    pabmac Posts: 53 Member
    Here’s my baby garden! Beans, leeks, sweet peas and sunflowers :)0jjcsb1bnl1f.jpeg
  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,724 Member
    Maybe you should sell the basil; have you seen the price of fresh herbs in the stores??
    I've never grown herbs but you're making me rethink that. :)