Garden thread

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.

moonangel12 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!

Tea is my main mint use, but now that I am doing AIP (auto immune protocol) I am relying more on fresh herbs for flavor so I am looking forward to some new uses this summer!

I have a very similar list to yours: lavender (fave!!), oregano, rosemary (two types), thyme, lemon thyme, sage (and variegated sage which is beautiful! I am a sucker for variegated anything), chives, echinacea, German chamomile starting, hopefully some dill will pop up... I think I put out some anise hyssop seed as well. I do need to get some cilantro and parsley going, those are my main “everyday” herbs that I use.

Quoting myself I do have a bay laurel in a pot that is doing really well this spring! I couldn’t tell late winter if it was starting to croak on me indoors, but after a few weeks outside it has new growth, yay! I got mine off of Etsy this last time (WaWas Garden). If anyone buys a plant don’t get it from the company that sells through Walmart (Hirt’s Gardens) - I bought one for myself and 2 gifts, all of them died. Pretty sure all three came with a bug infestation. Haven’t had any issues with the newest one...

I am thinking about digging up the Artichoke Forest.

I set a new personal record today. Nine. I steamed five last night and set them aside. I ate them earlier today. I just steamed four more and ate them. That's a lot of artichokes. I got poked several times putting the trimmed leaves into the compost bin while prepping, and there's even little thorns on the stems. Ouch. But I'm doing OK keeping up. I will let a half dozen open. They are really pretty, and the hummingbirds and bees like them.

But seriously - there's a lot of them. I give a lot away, and I still have so many. I think I actually might dig them up this fall, set some aside, amend the soil, let it sit for a few months over winter, and plant back maybe a quarter of them. I can give the others away.

Wow.

Ugh! A deer lopped off the top 6" of one of my largest tomatoes not yet in flower. If it's a determinant, does that mean the plant is done before it's started?

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!

He looks quite happy there! I have some catnip seeds to plant so I'm sure a similar scene is in my future.

The timbers that used to border my garden bed rotted into the ground, so the nails holding the twines to mark my rows were just sunk into the earth this year. That means the twines aren't taught, and a storm shifted them all, so now it's not clear where my rows actually are. I've had to stop weeding until things I want to keep make themselves obvious. But I got the kale weeded yesterday and will do the beans today. Getting there.

My onions are looking pretty sad. I lost one cucumber hill so bought a plant instead of trying to grow seeds. BUT my sweet potato slips are rooting very well in water and I'll be sharing with my sister within the week and planting some in my garden as well. Keeping fingers crossed that those take off!! Other than that, green beans are growing, strawberries are doing well(except for the part my dog got into and dug a trench down through the middle of the bed ), zucchini are now looking very nice and healthy, tomatoes will need their cages soon. The green peppers aren't doing great; for some reason we seem to have issues with growing peppers in our garden. I remember last year out of 2 plants we might've gotten 6 peppers.

Just a side note, because the weather this spring started off so warm compared to usual, every one was buying/planting earlier than normal(including myself). I should've waited because yesterday I went to Home Depot and their selection in the garden area was amazing!! Next year, I hope I can wait and be more patient.

Anybody fancy a guess? This guy showed up at the edge of my spinach patch after the coriander and oregano died off. That area of the garden had a few wildflowers last year, so I am hesitant to pull. Then again, I feel very silly tending to what is probably just a big ol' weed. Not seeing anything else quite like it in the surrounds. Guess time will tell, eh?

@ReenieHJ

Well... also will want to flood a part or the property to grow some rice, and I definitely need a bacon tree. I keep looking for seedlings. I can't find them.

I was pleased to see a couple volunteer (or overwintered) nasturtium. I hadn't planted there yet and now I won't. I have odd little microclimates, and rotating where I put things like tomatoes is tough. I am tempted to carve out some more space and put a chunk of ground that used to be strawberries (and eventually just weeds) back in production. The area among the fruit trees is an area I'm trying to sort of turn into a meadow. Over the last ten or 15 years, I've been expanding the amount of giant camas (Camassia leichtlinii) that grows out there. I just started collecting seeds yesterday. I collect them for several weeks, and when they're done, I use a string trimmer to reduce fire risk back there. In autumn, I spread the seeds. I started from a handful of bulbs and have expanded to a nice stand of the stuff.

Come by and get a couple artichokes. I have enough to share

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.

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¢.

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.

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!

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.

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.