Garden thread

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Replies

  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,724 Member
    BranDleeJ wrote: »
    I’m so excited for my little garden this year. I’m in the Midwest so we are finally having nicer weather. We just got to plant over the weekend. We have a small area approx 7x20. No tiller so it took four of us the entire weekend to till, build the beds, and plant. It was a hoot.
    Our mini garden has 8 tomato plants (Roma and beef), 8 bell and mixed pepper plants, 2 small rows of carrots, on one end we’ve planted sunflowers and squash, on the other we have corn and pumpkins. We also planted three watermelon plants off to the side. On the porch, so far we have thyme and 2 cilantro plants…hope to add more herbs.
    We have no idea what we are doing. We are taking this year to learn and have fun with it. We just moved to the Midwest from the South. Huge change for us. Everyone here cans, so I reckon we will be learning too. Lol

    Wow, you packed a whole lot into a small garden space!! Word of warning: things have a habit of growing(if you're lucky! :)) and ending up taking up much more space than you anticipated. Ask me how I know. :) Good luck! And your garden sounds like it'll be amazing!!
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,930 Member
    BranDleeJ wrote: »
    I’m so excited for my little garden this year. I’m in the Midwest so we are finally having nicer weather. We just got to plant over the weekend. We have a small area approx 7x20. No tiller so it took four of us the entire weekend to till, build the beds, and plant. It was a hoot.
    Our mini garden has 8 tomato plants (Roma and beef), 8 bell and mixed pepper plants, 2 small rows of carrots, on one end we’ve planted sunflowers and squash, on the other we have corn and pumpkins. We also planted three watermelon plants off to the side. On the porch, so far we have thyme and 2 cilantro plants…hope to add more herbs.
    We have no idea what we are doing. We are taking this year to learn and have fun with it. We just moved to the Midwest from the South. Huge change for us. Everyone here cans, so I reckon we will be learning too. Lol

    It must be pretty warm there. I won't plant tomatoes for at least a month I think. Generally we wait until soil temperature is over 70. We have only had a few days this year that the air got over 70. Those were nice days; I either took them off work or left a few hours early to sit outside and enjoy.

    I need to get weeding, but it is so muddy. The garlic needs it bad. The remaining beets need to be pulled and composted. I am about to ....


    .... you know it's coming.....


    START HARVESTING ARTICHOKES!
  • MsCzar
    MsCzar Posts: 1,039 Member
    Sipping the first batch of fresh lemon balm/mint tea as I type.
  • Ironwoman1111
    Ironwoman1111 Posts: 3,913 Member
    mtaratoot wrote: »
    I harvested two artichokes today. I will probably eat them tonight.

    yzxadoq629g9.jpg


    I also cut the first open peonies of the season. I cut some earlier today and put them in water to open inside, then found these. Shamelessly holding the jar in front of the double-file and some tulips in the front yard.

    7ujsvxdluebq.jpg

    Must be nice!🤩👌

    I’m thinking of giving the garden a break this year. Does anyone else do that after a few years?
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,843 Member
    mtaratoot wrote: »
    I harvested two artichokes today. I will probably eat them tonight.

    yzxadoq629g9.jpg


    I also cut the first open peonies of the season. I cut some earlier today and put them in water to open inside, then found these. Shamelessly holding the jar in front of the double-file and some tulips in the front yard.

    7ujsvxdluebq.jpg

    Must be nice!🤩👌

    I’m thinking of giving the garden a break this year. Does anyone else do that after a few years?

    Are you talking about a formal crop rotation plan, in which some sections deliberately lie fallow? Or just not gardening?

    I don't do either. There's no need for the first with my type of home gardening. For the second, gardening is too therapeutic for me as well as my primary source of cardio this time of year.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,843 Member
    I gave away a roughly 4x10 foot section of common orange day lilies via Facebook Marketplace. I wasn't watching him closely and he took a LOT of dirt with them. Just as well - I got to amend the soil with a bale of peat moss (my Home Depot was out, as was Walmart, so I paid a little more at the local garden center), compost, and some part dirt/part compost from the side of the woods.

    I dug up tiger lilies from a too shady spot, and bee balm that was under a bush. I tried to divide a hyssop, but am not sure if the roots I managed to get will take. I'll also be planting some bulbs and annuals. I'd planned to put something around the hyssop, but now I think there is not enough room. Will probably give that away on FB as well, once I learn its name, LOL.

    (I moved in with my Mom and brother last fall. My grandfather was also an avid gardener and bought the place in 1959. There were existing gardens then.)

    poe7vd0hptrv.png

    The fencing on the top right is for peas.

    Spent almost 4 hours on it yesterday. Great accomplishment, but my back hurts :(
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,843 Member
    My new kick butt shovel for slaying tree roots and suckers.

    ubh02tmksi5u.jpeg
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Now I know what to get my mom for Mother's Day :lol:

    Just ordered it from Target. It might arrive after Mother's Day, but I think we are going to celebrate a little later anyway, so my sister can come. First family visit now that we are all vaccinated!

    I did get this for Mom last year and have been using it quite a bit this year. (Am living with her now.) I love it so much!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,717 Member
    edited May 2022
    (snip)

    I’m thinking of giving the garden a break this year. Does anyone else do that after a few years?

    If you're not in fact talking about letting the garden lie fallow (or better, under a nitrogen-fixing cover crop), but rather about taking a human break:

    If "a few" is a couple of decades or so, yes, pretty much.

    Honestly, unless one's family's well-being is dependent on the garden in some significant way, it's just a hobby like any other hobby. Some hobbies stick long term because they deeply resonate with us or serve our longer-term needs.

    Most hobbies, for (I think) most people, are things that people do for a while and lose interest, or find things they enjoy more. I've seen that in myself with many brief hobbies I've had . . . and in other people with almost every hobby-like thing I've done more than briefly - various crafts, rowing, martial arts, more.

    If gardening isn't pleasing you anymore, as a way to spend your time and energy, and it's not economically or otherwise truly essential to your family . . . why keep doing it?
  • Fuzzipeg
    Fuzzipeg Posts: 2,297 Member
    I've not had the time or the energy to be out in the garden very much so far this year. I've not even thought of starting any veg. I've put some bought flowering plants in tubs out by Our front door this summer, this will be my only attempt at productivity Because after 20 years here I'm disillusioned working clay.

    Our rainfall used to be spread differentially throughout the year, do you remember the 2012 London Olympics when it had been so very wet? At the opening ceremony our Czech competitors showed humour by parading in wellington boots, I appreciated their humour then. Now our winters are on the dry side and the other seasons seem to have lost themselves rainfall wise. Rainfall just can't be relied on here on the central south coast of the UK, east of where the Olympic sailing events took place. I'm now dismantling the raised beds I'd created, off the drive by the kitchen door for easy access to water butts if watering was necessary. I added a loose butt for kitchen run off but the raised beds still baked in full sun in the last couple of summers! My potted black grape did manage a handful of small bunches, my other veg were so disappointing.

    I made use of the concrete foundations of the removed green house for my new veg plot. The area flooded in winter, the reason the greenhouse fell out of use before I arrived here. Stupidly I thought filling the area with raised bed soil mixing it all, leaving it raised through the winter would solve the problem, no. I fear its global warming coming up fast. I've had veg plots for 50 years and its so disheartening not to have the physical wherewithal without reasonable rainfall to cope again this year. I hope I can come up with more ideas for next year.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,717 Member

    (snip)

    I’m thinking of giving the garden a break this year. Does anyone else do that after a few years?

    If the question is about letting the soil rest, an alternative - depending on where you live - would be to clean up the garden (or the parts of it where things aren't growing in your least gardening-intensive season), and plant an off-season cover crop mix. (These tend to be some mix of nitrogen-fixing, bulky, and soil holding varieties.) Typically, it will get going in the tail end of the season, die back in the cold season if you have one, then come on again as the weather warms.

    When you're prepping for the next year's garden, you just till/dig in the cover crop, and go on as usual.

    What mix of seeds is good is somewhat location dependent. For here in the Northern-ish US, I usually got a pre-formulated fall mix from Johnny's Selected seeds, which tends to include some kind of peas, vetch, Winter rye, etc.
  • girlwithcurls2
    girlwithcurls2 Posts: 2,257 Member
    I'm up to my eyeballs in asparagus and loving it. Chard too. I have put lettuce, peas, onions, leeks and radishes in, but everything else is going to have to wait. I'm a little north of @mtaratoot and his famous artichokes, and as I type, it's 46F and pouring down rain at 12:30 in the afternoon. Tonight's low temp is 39F. I usually put my garden in at Mother's Day, but this year, it's just sloppy, cold soil. I can't even put my new dahlia tubers in for fear of rot :( That said, the wildfire season is holding off in our region, and we're filling reservoirs and adding snow pack. I have to remind myself that we need all of this water...
  • perryc05
    perryc05 Posts: 206 Member
    edited May 2022
    I have grown everything under the sun over the years. I tend to favour things you can't buy in supermarkets and heirloom varieties were possible. Kale is a nice thing to grow as it is sort of pricey in shops here in Australia and is easy enough to get going, Sweet potatoes just seem to always grow and can't be stopped once planted. I do a patch of Jerusalem artichokes every year as they are very low maintenance and yield a lot of food for the amount of space they take up -- look good too as they are a sort of sunflower. Silverbeet, beetroots, radishes, chillies, paprikas, smaller eggplant varieties are all easy enough to grow and feature a lot in my patches. Rocket can't be stopped. Herbs like mint can take over wth little intervention other than water. Marjoram, oregano and thyme are all good value growers. I have masses of dried herbs that I have saved from over the last couple of years that I make up into various blends. I also grow from food scraps/offcuts like spring onion root bases.
  • Kiwi2mfp
    Kiwi2mfp Posts: 166 Member
    edited May 2022
    Yesterday we got a 50×50 foot area of garden planted. We had 68 tomato plants, along with collard plants, egg plant, and a variety of sweet pepper plants. We didn't have room to start our tomato plants so we had to buy them. Last year a flat of 48 plants cost roughly $25. This year the same flat costed us $48. We also planted 10 hills of a variety of squashes. The back of my upper legs are burning today! I could hardly move when I woke up this morning.

    My husband is out now tilling more to get our hotter peppers in. We then have to start on green beans and these really long beans I got to try. The long beans look delicious. I can't wait to try them. We have also planted peas, radishes and mixes of lettuce so far this year. The lettuce seems to mostly refuse to come up this spring. I don't know why. It can't be that all our seed went bad. We have tried planting twice and only two lettuce plants have sprouted. I have never had this issue before. But we still have a lot going so far so I will count my blessings.

    Got to get potatoes cut and ready to plant here soon too. We have a ton of potatoes in our basement left over from last year. Unfortunately they have sprouts on them that are likely 2 foot tall. I might have to cut the sprouts down a bit before planting. The year before last year we stored our potatoes in reusable shopping bags and they didn't sprout nearly as bad. This last year we had built a table top to store them on...that appears to have been a failed idea. This year we might try grocery bags of potatoes on the table top thingy in the basement. Maybe we won't have a potato forest to sort through come planting time next year!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,717 Member
    Kiwi2mfp wrote: »
    (snip)
    We then have to start on green beans and these really long beans I got to try. The long beans look delicious. I can't wait to try them.
    (snip)

    @Kiwi2mfp, if those were the beans sometimes called "Asian long beans" or "yardlong beans", I personally think they're very delicious, and they were prolific for me. They wanted a good trellis, for sure!

    Interestingly - not in a good way! - here the yellow jackets (evil sting-y things) really loved them, and that made picking them a bit fraught. For me, they seem to cook a bit differently (not hugely, but watch and sample for timing the first cooking), and have a . . . richer? . . . flavor.

    In recent years, I've gotten more lazy about gardening, but have found the beans at a farmers market (very nice and fresh, from an Asian - maybe Hmong? - family who grows other specialties, too) and a local produce market. So good!
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,930 Member
    Well.... I had the day off and went out to weed the garlic. I had wandered out there the other day and saw how bad it got.

    Really quick.

    It's been SO wet around here, I just haven't even really gone back there much. I hope I got them taken care of enough that they keep growing. They also seem waterlogged. Might not be a good year for garlic. Bummer.

    The soil is SO wet, and the artichoke plants are so full of blossoms, one of the plants seems to have fallen over. I reckon I'll be harvesting those artichokes this afternoon and cooking them over the next days.

    Beets have bolted. I bet they're woody. I'll pull them soon.

    Raspberries are trying to spread beyond their allotted space. Bad berries. Stay where you're supposed to! They are so tasty though. I pulled some up with enough roots that I'll pass them to a friend who wants more of them in their garden.

    The cherry tree has cherries. I hope they don't all just fall off. The Bartlett pear has fruit. The Chojuro doesn't, at least not yet. No plums yet either. I'll be patient. Figs should be OK. Blueberry bushes are full of flowers, but the incessant rain may mean the pollinators ain't going to come visit. Bummer. Those are good berries.
  • Kiwi2mfp
    Kiwi2mfp Posts: 166 Member
    50 hot pepper plants in tonight right before a good rain. Looks like a rabbit ate one of our tomato plants we put in yesterday. Hopefully this doesn't become a trend. Potatoes are going to have to wait a few days...give my legs and side muscles a chance to recover. Who knew you use your side muscles when hoeing? I guess I knew at one point, this is just a good reminder. I'll have to look those long beans name up sometime soon but for now, I'm a bit tired. Good thing is my entire garden is surrounded by a sturdy 6 foot tall fence (keep the deer out). The fence works fairly well for growing beans and cucumbers up. Granted the deer get some but not most of the produce from the fence.
  • SuzanneC1l9zz
    SuzanneC1l9zz Posts: 451 Member
    It's garden centre day! 😀😀

    I'm not after much this year. I think I have all the seeds I need, so probably just a plum tomato or two and a zucchini or two unless something else catches my eye. After the eggplant was super prolific last year, hubby discovered that he doesn't like them as much as he thought he did and I don't think I can eat that much eggplant solo, so I probably won't grow it again. My sister also ordered a bunch of strawberry plants from a commercial supplier whose minimum order was 25 plants. I was already planning to turn the front flower bed into a strawberry patch and she doesn't need that many, so we're splitting the order. She wants to drop them off this weekend but the bed isn't dug out yet, so I guess that's another must-get-done project.

    I recently discovered that some lettuce hubby bought me from my new favourite store (little organic market) was harvested and packaged with a dirt-encased root ball. Unfortunately I discovered this after it had partially frozen when somebody bumped the fridge controls. I actually like this one, too (he had bought it because I eat a lot of salads, not realizing that I find most lettuce bitter), so I'm going to buy another one and throw it in a pot.

    We're also trying our hands at building me a raised veggie bed. We have most of the supplies, just need to grab a few more metal brackets from ReStore to reinforce the sides, and figure out the most cost-effective way to fill it. Fingers crossed that we can pull this off!
  • Kiwi2mfp
    Kiwi2mfp Posts: 166 Member
    Oh the bunnies! They really so cute yet so destructive! While tilling last week my husband rolled over a baby bunnies nest. Somehow he managed not to kill any. We found three of the four babies my husband counted as they scattered and put them in a sheltered location and hoped mama would come back. They were small enough to fit in the palm of my ✋. But now we have lost 4 plants in the last two days to rabbits! We didn't have this issue last year. We have to go find some rabbit deterent to try to protect our plants. I don't think many people want to hurt bunnies even if they are destroying their garden! I certainly hope we can find a resolution where we can cohabit peacefully. Thankfully the plants destroyed are store bought plants...they are easier to come by (though expensive this year) than our home started plants. Hopefully rabbits don't like hot pepper plants!