|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ethel Duath
Half-elven
Jul 20 2015, 5:31pm
Post #1 of 94
(3895 views)
Shortcut
|
How Does Your Garden Grow?
|
Can't Post
|
|
I know some of you are immersed in winter right now. But do you grow anything inside? Container garden/herbs?
(I could use some tips! I can never grow anything indoors.  )
(This post was edited by Ethel Duath on Jul 20 2015, 5:34pm)
|
|
|
Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Jul 20 2015, 5:56pm
Post #2 of 94
(3758 views)
Shortcut
|
It's more my wife's garden really.
|
|
|
swordwhale
Tol Eressea
Jul 20 2015, 5:58pm
Post #3 of 94
(3760 views)
Shortcut
|
...contemplating the many choices.
small, medium, large, veggies, flowers...
sideways.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAASSS!!!!
and everyone else too...
My parents grew up on farms, grew their own stuff. I have co-workers who grow actual vegetables. Edible, actual salad-in-summer veggies.
I convinced tomatoes to sort of grow in a pot. Then this year decided to pt them in the actual ground so I didn't have to water them so much. I also (lacking a tiller) decided last year to create a no-till garden of a small circular size.
Bunny fence, fine. Stuff growing: sort of.
Also thistles and mystery greens and is that mile a minute weed or morning glories?
and grass.
Somewhere in there are actual vegetables. ANd the marigolds who were planted to ward off the bugs that ate the native ( I repeat NATIVE therefore more resistant to bad stuff ) hibiscus.
I have some wimpy little tomatoes.
Something really big that must be sunflowers, which the birds will eat before I can get to them.
And squash.
I recommend squash as a ridiculously easy thing to grow, so easy even I can do it. They produce pretty flowers, nice exuberant green leaves, and love to climb out the fence.
They also cross pollinate, so they five kinds of winter squash and summer squash and heritage pumpkins you bought will combine into a Mystery Vegetable which you will not be able to google.
But, you can still, as Sam said, boil it , roast it, stick it in a stew...
|
|
|
CathrineB
Rohan
Jul 20 2015, 6:17pm
Post #4 of 94
(3746 views)
Shortcut
|
Only in my head and all over the place. It's practically Fangorn Forest at this point.
|
|
|
sevilodorf
Tol Eressea
Jul 20 2015, 6:45pm
Post #5 of 94
(3739 views)
Shortcut
|
in other words fake plants I've never had any luck growing things inside or out
|
|
|
Ethel Duath
Half-elven
Jul 20 2015, 7:12pm
Post #6 of 94
(3737 views)
Shortcut
|
I mostly can't grow them (fungus attacks), although I manage many other vegetables just fine.
Which herbs do you have growing?
|
|
|
Ataahua
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Jul 20 2015, 7:27pm
Post #7 of 94
(3740 views)
Shortcut
|
I have a row of azaleas out front and vegetables on the other side of the small lawn*, and a small orchard of fruit trees within a ring of large specimen trees. There's a huge cherry tree that attracts kereru and a pine that I've kept because its branches make it great for climbing.
* This season will be scant for vegies as I'm not mobile enough to garden. I am doing a good crop of chickweed, though.
|
|
|
Meneldor
Valinor
Jul 20 2015, 7:38pm
Post #8 of 94
(3727 views)
Shortcut
|
I'm not a fan of gardening, but I sure love rhubarb. It didn't get very big this year, but it sure did taste good.
|
|
|
Ethel Duath
Half-elven
Jul 20 2015, 7:42pm
Post #9 of 94
(3730 views)
Shortcut
|
|
Now, that's a happy-looking bird!
[In reply to]
|
Can't Post
|
|
So sorry about mobility issues. Hope that changes for you soon. I have challenges on and off myself, which makes weeding very difficult, so I sympathize Just yesterday I noticed some crab grass sticking up at least a foot above the bush beans!
|
|
|
Ethel Duath
Half-elven
Jul 20 2015, 8:21pm
Post #10 of 94
(3719 views)
Shortcut
|
Sounds like how I started out. I've never used a tiller (or on a boat either--sorry to Meneldor!  ), just a shovel and a hoe, but we have very sandy soil that's easy to break up. I've expanded to an area about 10X4 feet by the garage, gradually digging more lawn up each year, and 2 years ago, hired a kid to dig out a slightly smaller area by the back fence.
I can't grow squash or pumpkins because giant Japanese beetles burrow into the stems. And they seem to always get powdery mildew and pass it on to the tomatoes. I started with tomatoes to, after my son brought home a plant from school, and it turned out that was the way to get him to eat vegetables—have him grow them!
After we moved from that duplex, and got a house, I started with tomatoes and green beans (bush beans) and lettuce and carrots, but lettuce and carrots just won't grow too well here. Bitter, pale pink carrots, perhaps like the orcs grew in the Mordor gardens. I tried spinach, and it wouldn't grow either, but it will grow chard and bok choy if I buy them the seedlings. Same with the tomatoes. I started growing potatoes about three years ago, and so far, so good, and several years ago I got raspberry and blackberry bushes which generally do really well, although the blackberries can be really sour. But this summer— even with the rain— They're nice and sweet!
With all this, we're talking about and almost 25 years from beginning to end—I mean from beginning till now (hope it's not the end!). Good luck with it all, and may a Japanese beetles and squirrels (who bit holes in my pumpkins!) stay far, far away!
I'd love to sample your, ah, mixed vegetables! I bet you'll have several different kinds.
Let us know how they turn out!
|
|
|
Ethel Duath
Half-elven
Jul 20 2015, 8:42pm
Post #11 of 94
(3713 views)
Shortcut
|
My computer kept freezing, and I couldn't get back to this in time to correct things--hope it's not too confusing with the mistakes!
|
|
|
Gianna
Rohan
Jul 20 2015, 10:45pm
Post #12 of 94
(3701 views)
Shortcut
|
The main garden, anyway - we've a number of flower gardens along the edges of the yard but they rarely get tended.
|
|
|
swordwhale
Tol Eressea
Jul 21 2015, 12:15am
Post #13 of 94
(3692 views)
Shortcut
|
|
fight the evil forces of mildew and stuff...
[In reply to]
|
Can't Post
|
|
http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/controlling-or-eliminating-powdery-mildew/
A friend says whey from milk (so, now you have to find a source of raw milk, cook it, cheese it by adding vinegar, and use the whey) kills powdery mildew.
That article says disease resistant varieties, adequate air circulation, lots of light... and baking soda with oil and liquid soap (as with weed kiillers made of vinegar, the soap helps the stuff not slide off the leaves). Also vinegar, white vinegar is great for everything.
Diatomaceous earth is good for controlling bugs, it's harmless to larger lifeforms (in fact, you can eat it). I think it would also kill pollinators though.
The squash have decided to climb the sunflowers....
|
|
|
swordwhale
Tol Eressea
Jul 21 2015, 12:16am
Post #14 of 94
(3694 views)
Shortcut
|
...so I throw stuff in the ground, preferably natives or other easy stuff, and say "grow already!"
|
|
|
Gianna
Rohan
Jul 21 2015, 1:25am
Post #15 of 94
(3686 views)
Shortcut
|
I hate tending too. Weeding can be satisfying as long as you can see the difference. But bean-picking time is coming up this week and nothing will ever make bean-picking satisfying......
|
|
|
Brethil
Half-elven
Jul 21 2015, 1:46am
Post #16 of 94
(3692 views)
Shortcut
|
|
As you know - flowers and veggies and trees! yeah, 'oh my' covers it.
[In reply to]
|
Can't Post
|
|
What do I have going on? You brought it up, just remember that.
Fruit:
- Apples: N. spy (full size tree) columnar apples (2 vars., 5 trees)
- Asian pear (20th Century/Nijisseiki)
- Carmine Jewel sour cherry
- mulberry
- peach (Elberta, Blazingstar, one heirloom yellow cling)
- blueberry: Patriot, Northblue, Northland, Northcountry, likely Bountiful Blue (mislabel), unnamed vacc.
- raspberry: Jewel black, Kiwi Gold, Double Gold, Caroline, Crimson Night
- blackberry: Arapaho, Navaho
- cranberry: Stevens
- fig: Brown Turkey, purple
Veggies:
- tomatoes (Husky Cherry, Black Prince, Golden Jubilee)
- Ichiban eggplant
- peppers (Italian roaster, yellow Cayenne, Poblano, Cajun Bell, yellow bell, Cherry Bomb, mild Jalapeno and one more I can't recall!)
- Swiss chard
- kale
- zucchini
- pumpkin
- carrots in fall
- potatoes (start in spring)
Herbs:
rosemary, lemon balm, lemon thyme, garlic, garlic chives, onion chives, (growing chives are nice bug repellents too) Greek oregano, Italian oregano. I have Egyptian walking onion bulbs arriving this week.
Lots of flowers, I plant a lot for bees and birds. Birds love sunflowers (Super Snack and Maximilian) and liatris and coneflower seeds. Bees love all the flowers but especially the 6-ft tall Black Adder hyssop. I also grow a Japanese fiber banana for its gorgeous foliage.
Next year on order: Luisa plum, Sansa apple, another columnar variety (a red one) two black currants. Possibly a Methley and a Castleton plum if I resolve to container-grow them.
You did ask.
(This post was edited by Brethil on Jul 21 2015, 1:54am)
|
|
|
Dame Ioreth
Tol Eressea
Jul 21 2015, 3:27am
Post #17 of 94
(3668 views)
Shortcut
|
I love rhubarb. 
Stewed on vanilla ice cream
Or pie
Or cobbler
Or crumble (yes, they're different)
None of that silly strawberry-rhubarb. Why would anyone want to cover up that delicious taste! 
|
|
|
Brethil
Half-elven
Jul 21 2015, 4:29am
Post #18 of 94
(3658 views)
Shortcut
|
Pink Reliance, Tickled Pink, and un-ID'd one.
|
|
|
swordwhale
Tol Eressea
Jul 21 2015, 5:42am
Post #19 of 94
(3645 views)
Shortcut
|
|
I have to plant rhubarb next year...
[In reply to]
|
Can't Post
|
|
I got some from my aunt and learned how to cook it....YUM!
|
|
|
Starling
Half-elven
Jul 21 2015, 6:32am
Post #20 of 94
(3640 views)
Shortcut
|
|
If that kereru gets drunk and falls out of the tree,
[In reply to]
|
Can't Post
|
|
don't you dare eat it.
|
|
|
Meneldor
Valinor
Jul 21 2015, 2:27pm
Post #21 of 94
(3622 views)
Shortcut
|
I love rhubarb. Stewed on vanilla ice cream Or pie Or cobbler Or crumble (yes, they're different) None of that silly strawberry-rhubarb. Why would anyone want to cover up that delicious taste!
|
|
|
Ataahua
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Jul 21 2015, 7:30pm
Post #22 of 94
(3600 views)
Shortcut
|
|
|
|
dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Jul 22 2015, 1:24am
Post #23 of 94
(3583 views)
Shortcut
|
Do you have a bog?  No, really, I never thought of just growing them on the bush! Do you have to keep the area really damp?
Figs! I didn't know they'd grow in our area!
And I never knew there were so many kinds of blueberries, I thought there were just high-bush (large and a bit tart) and low-bush (small and sweet).
The columnar apples are fascinating. Do you need at least two for pollination?
|
|
|
Brethil
Half-elven
Jul 22 2015, 1:41am
Post #24 of 94
(3583 views)
Shortcut
|
|
Cranberries need situations and soil similar to blueberries
[In reply to]
|
Can't Post
|
|
The bog is mostly for ease of harvesting, as they use tidal flood water to float the crop. But they don't need quite it that wet; moist and ericoid (acidic, peaty, pine-barky) soil is the key, along with heavy pine mulch and annual sulfur applications.
Figs need cover but they do well here! I'm a bit zone-upped, being LI - the surrounding water makes us really 7a, versus 6a or 6b. But even by you, if winter protected, quite a few of the hardier figs would do OK: Hardy Chicago is a tough one. Some people keep them potted and store them in a basement or garage for the winter. Figlets below! (PM me if you ever want to start with figs D., I can give you some pointers.)
SOOO many blueberries! There are also rabbiteyes which are Southern-climate types. My favorite for taste is lowbush Northcountry. Mmmmm. Patriot gives me the biggest crop though. Sweetcrisp is supposed to be great. But I'm afraid of I get another blueberry hubby will commit me, or something. 
The columnar apples do need pollination; they aren't field tested for matches yet among all other apples but the columnars are all pollination compatible, and my guess is pretty compatible with overlapping bloom diploid apples in general (versus triploid. Can be complicated.) I'm hoping with so much apple in general floating around that I get good coverage on everybody. Thinking of adding two disease-resistant early apples next spring, Sansa and Pristine. More pollen! And summer apples for salads.
|
|
|
Annael
Immortal
Jul 22 2015, 2:18am
Post #25 of 94
(3572 views)
Shortcut
|
|
Mostly flowers, some trees, some herbs
[In reply to]
|
Can't Post
|
|
We are overrun with deer & I don't have a fenced area to garden in so I can only plant things deer won't eat. My landlords have a protected vegie/fruit garden I participate in though.
Most of what I have around the cottage is native to the area: rhododendrons, bleeding heart, salal, kinnikkinnick, lupines, columbines, heather. I have lavender, ornamental oregano, and evening primrose on the hot dry south side of the house, with a slope of lithodora below that is loud with bees most days.
I plant basil and cilantro in pots on the back porch for ease of picking & putting in my dinner. Also have sweet peas and godetia, my favorite annuals, in pots, as well as pots of creeping jenny.
|
|
|
|
|
Rhubarb season is over.
[
1
