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How does your garden grow?


Insanity

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Aside from myself, I know there are a few other people here who garden or grow various plants. Thought I'd see who else does so, trade stories, methods and tips about gardening.

This season I added another raised bed area for three total, each about 4x8ft. I may rearrange a portion next year and till two into a larger area and square off with decent size timber.

Planted 18 various tomatoes, 20 various peppers including sweet bells, habaneros, serranos, some pickling cucumbers, beans, radishes, onions, and zucchini. I just recently started some acorn squash from seeds and already they are peeking through the dirt. Also have some tobacco plants started and bought some ones that were further ahead.

Last summer was not good for the garden, as there was a drought for about 8-10 weeks with no rain and temperatures in the 100+F during that time. This year already seems better.

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Gophers! A sewer system is going in, and all the heavy equipment & digging has chased them into my yard. Mole Max seems to work, and stuffing moth balls & dryer sheets down into the runs.

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I have no green thumb . It's most depressing ,but this year I've started growing things out of necessity .

Tired of gmo fodder and prices at my local market .

I'm doing a series of glass jar water ,and potter plant like growing vessels.

I'm doing green onions(scallions) ,just plopped in a glass jar .Snipping the growths.

For my bunnies,I have carrot tops in glass,and the green top growths,are snipped off every few days for a snack .

I also bought them hay seeds,and I'm just growing a bunch in a pot.

I planted a few potatoes with eyes ,in a big pot,and some organic garlic cloves.

They're sprouting wildly .

I'm told I will have heads of garlic ,and some potatoes,end of the season .

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Excellent choice of a topic, I just love it!

My garden is surrounded by woods, so though the soil is very fertile, the woods are always trying to claim it back. A clean cut well ordered garden is very difficult to maintain and somehow would seem too 'out of place'. I prefer a more "laissez faire" look (also out of frustration) with wisteria left to clamber over tall trees and cascade their flowers like a curtain. The local name for wisteria here is 'blue rain', a very apt name.

This year is one during which I aim to bring some order to my wild garden. The battle against nettles seems to be tipping in my favor, but bracken & horsetail are an entirely different story (tips & suggestions are very welcomed)! With almost continuous rain neither manual weeding nor herbicides are very effective. However, I did manage to wrest the wildest corner of the garden from the weeds, had it paved with yellowish-white gravel and put a hammock under the weeping willow there (dreaming of sunny warm days).

I'm not very clever with growing vegetables except pumpkins and courgettes; the yield of first is mainly in the domain of wishful thinking, the latter thrive. Kiwi and grapes remain largely ornamental. Roses do very well and manage to scatter their seedlings in the oddest parts of the garden.

The weather here is more like autumn than spring, 10° and lots of rain. I hope we have a bit of a summer this year!

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Excellent choice of a topic, I just love it!

My garden is surrounded by woods, so though the soil is very fertile, the woods are always trying to claim it back. A clean cut well ordered garden is very difficult to maintain and somehow would seem too 'out of place'. I prefer a more "laissez faire" look (also out of frustration) with wisteria left to clamber over tall trees and cascade their flowers like a curtain. The local name for wisteria here is 'blue rain', a very apt name.

This year is one during which I aim to bring some order to my wild garden. The battle against nettles seems to be tipping in my favor, but bracken & horsetail are an entirely different story (tips & suggestions are very welcomed)! With almost continuous rain neither manual weeding nor herbicides are very effective. However, I did manage to wrest the wildest corner of the garden from the weeds, had it paved with yellowish-white gravel and put a hammock under the weeping willow there (dreaming of sunny warm days).

I'm not very clever with growing vegetables except pumpkins and courgettes; the yield of first is mainly in the domain of wishful thinking, the latter thrive. Kiwi and grapes remain largely ornamental. Roses do very well and manage to scatter their seedlings in the oddest parts of the garden.

The weather here is more like autumn than spring, 10° and lots of rain. I hope we have a bit of a summer this year!

What a lovely description! I feel relaxed and inspired just reading it. :)

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We are renting and are not allowed to dig up the yard or kill any grass. So, we are trying pots this year sitting up off the ground a few inches on the decorative bricks around the back window areas. We've planted a variety of tomatoes, a variety of peppers, lettuces, Japanese eggplant, lots of culinary herbs, and have a lemon tree and roses that came with the property. I can't remember what else right now. We've never gardened in pots (vegetables) so it is an experiment for us. But like someone said, we were tired of the awful prices for awful produce at the grocery.

We simply drilled holes and put some rocks in the bottom of the pots for drainage, then added Miracle Grow (vegetable?) potting soil. When it rains here in se Texas it pours, and I mean pours! So we've been worried that they could get over-watered in the pots, but so far everything is growing, even a tomato plant we had previously lost all hope for :( .

Can't wait to EAT!!!

Edited by QuiteContrary
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I have 15 raised beds sizes 4x8 and 4x6 had to go to raised beds soil sucks rock hard clay. my daughter took over 2 beds for strawberries (bumper crop) my wife put some sort of flowers in one bed to attract bees. I got 3 beds of tomatoes ('mater sammich on toast with mayo can I get a AMEN) 2 beds of onions. corn in a couple beds and green beans.

last year we planted Jerusalem artichokes in 2 of the beds I would not recommend this EVER. those little freaking things will grow from the tiniest speck of a root and are a pain in the ass to get rid of. I am going to have to go through those beds this weekend and try to get the plants out and pray they don't come back.

I've also been raising worms for several years and have started using the "tea" on my plants this year so hopefully I will have a good harvest.

Also love the topic out in BFE where I live gardening is a easy hobby to pick up.

Edited by MiskatonicGrad
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We are renting and are not allowed to dig up the yard or kill any grass. So, we are trying pots this year sitting up off the ground a few inches on the decorative bricks around the back window areas. We've planted a variety of tomatoes, a variety of peppers, lettuces, Japanese eggplant, lots of culinary herbs, and have a lemon tree and roses that came with the property. I can't remember what else right now. We've never gardened in pots (vegetables) so it is an experiment for us. But like someone said, we were tired of the awful prices for awful produce at the grocery.

We simply drilled holes and put some rocks in the bottom of the pots for drainage, then added Miracle Grow (vegetable?) potting soil. When it rains here in se Texas it pours, and I mean pours! So we've been worried that they could get over-watered in the pots, but so far everything is growing, even a tomato plant we had previously lost all hope for :( .

Can't wait to EAT!!!

I think with the holes in the pots for drainage, and do not become a standing mud puddle, the plants will be fine.

Some people around here will use 5-gal plastic buckets and drill the holes.

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After last years drought, I decided to leave the far veggie garden alone this year- we really need to start building our raised beds before I try that again. Still not quite decided on 4x8 or 4x4 beds.

So this year it's gardening up on the pad in containers. It's an area the previous owners had set up for dogs. Has three chain link and one open frame wall making four short halls. I currently have some tomatoes, peas, sugar snap peas, a couple kinds of melons, a few kinds of squash, and a cucumber growing in recycled 35 pound plastic kitty litter buckets and a couple large black party tubs. In the ground on the edge of the area I have green beans, yellow beans, and a couple kinds of soup beans planted in- luffas will be going in soon to climb over the whole thing.

With the luffas I'm experimenting with a stringing method that allows you to drop the ceiling at the end of the season for easier harvest- if it goes well I want to use the same technique to grow hops over a pavilion.

Tore up 35 feet of fenceline two feet deep and planted in a bunch of different kinds of bulbs, got 10 pots of irises I got on clearance last fall that should give bloom this year so I know where to plant them. Planted in 100 grape hyacinths in blocks to border in an edge of the solarium. I have tons of herbs and marigolds that need to go into the ground too. The tight clump of irises I dug up and moved last year are just about to bust into bloom.

In the solarium I got lemon balm, toothache plant, and oregano seedlings. And one celery plant- I cut my celery down the entire plant till I'm left with a 2-3 inch stub, soak the stub overnight, then pot it up. You can grow a new celery that way.

The herb garden I started last year is going ok- the sage is almost ready for some picking already, and my giant pot of parsley appears not to be getting eaten by monarch caterpillars.

We lost a small crabapple tree in the orchard this year that I need to remove. But we planted in a Green Gauge plum this spring. All the other fruit trees have blossomed and most of them look like they are starting to swell with fruit.

The nasturtiums I planted in pots for our front doors- the ones I started a month ago are all looking healthy, the ones I started a week ago haven't really sprouted yet.

The store bought horseradish I potted up a month ago is growing like crazy- I might not have planted it in a big enough pot!

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I'm growing a papaya tree!

166227_568762656477656_1950467511_n.jpg

It's taller now.

Can't wait for the fruits!

All my other plants died!

In future, I want a vegetable garden :)

Edited by Mnemonix
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I have 15 raised beds sizes 4x8 and 4x6 had to go to raised beds soil sucks rock hard clay. my daughter took over 2 beds for strawberries (bumper crop) my wife put some sort of flowers in one bed to attract bees. I got 3 beds of tomatoes ('mater sammich on toast with mayo can I get a AMEN) 2 beds of onions. corn in a couple beds and green beans.

last year we planted Jerusalem artichokes in 2 of the beds I would not recommend this EVER. those little freaking things will grow from the tiniest speck of a root and are a pain in the ass to get rid of. I am going to have to go through those beds this weekend and try to get the plants out and pray they don't come back.

I've also been raising worms for several years and have started using the "tea" on my plants this year so hopefully I will have a good harvest.

Also love the topic out in BFE where I live gardening is a easy hobby to pick up.

Owww,but you can use Jerusalem artichokes to make pasta . You can make flour out of them ,and make gluten free flour which makes the only pasta I've ever tasted ,that tastes good with Italian sauce ...

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I checked my plants this morning and noticed a delicate "flower" growing with my herbs I had never seen before. As I looked closer I realized it was some kind of mushroom. So I G'ed it and it is a Japanese Parasol or Pleated Inky Cap according to one website. http://urbanmushrooms.com/index.php?id=12

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I have 15 raised beds sizes 4x8 and 4x6 had to go to raised beds soil sucks rock hard clay. my daughter took over 2 beds for strawberries (bumper crop) my wife put some sort of flowers in one bed to attract bees. I got 3 beds of tomatoes ('mater sammich on toast with mayo can I get a AMEN) 2 beds of onions. corn in a couple beds and green beans.

last year we planted Jerusalem artichokes in 2 of the beds I would not recommend this EVER. those little freaking things will grow from the tiniest speck of a root and are a pain in the ass to get rid of. I am going to have to go through those beds this weekend and try to get the plants out and pray they don't come back.

I've also been raising worms for several years and have started using the "tea" on my plants this year so hopefully I will have a good harvest.

Also love the topic out in BFE where I live gardening is a easy hobby to pick up.

Plants which regrow from root fragments are almost impossible to get rid of, they do not only regrow, but increase their territory! I tried for years with several weeds and other 'undesirables' and failed miserably. Avoid the mistake I made, use a herbicide like Roundup. If they are popping up amidst other plants use a small handheld sprayer and a thick sheet of plastic to shield the other plants around it

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On Jerusalem Artichokes... Always try to dig the things out before the fall when they have their tubers set, dig them out as they appear in your garden. If you have the time and can waste the space for a growing season, you can try using plastic to kill them off- black plastic will deprive light, clear plastic will solarize or cook everything under it. A couple of friendlier killers you can try are boiling water, ammonia, and white vinegar to spot kill them.

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Plants which regrow from root fragments are almost impossible to get rid of, they do not only regrow, but increase their territory! I tried for years with several weeds and other 'undesirables' and failed miserably. Avoid the mistake I made, use a herbicide like Roundup. If they are popping up amidst other plants use a small handheld sprayer and a thick sheet of plastic to shield the other plants around it

Another good method is to wear some type of a cotton glove, over a latex one. Than soak the fingers in Roundup or another herbicide that will kill the plant and use the glove to apply it directly to the stems or leaves and selectively pick the plant rather than spraying. Would need to be a herbicide which will kill via contact like that, and there are some that will be carried throughout the plant.

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Plants which regrow from root fragments are almost impossible to get rid of, they do not only regrow, but increase their territory! I tried for years with several weeds and other 'undesirables' and failed miserably. Avoid the mistake I made, use a herbicide like Roundup. If they are popping up amidst other plants use a small handheld sprayer and a thick sheet of plastic to shield the other plants around it

:(

But roundup is what's killing our bees ,and its so bad for us all. I look for natural alternatives if I can . This is just me .

I cannot give Monsanto more money to kill the planet

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Have raised beds for salad crops and carrots etc; runner beans and courgettes will go outside after the weekend; got tomatoes in the greenhouse; strawberries will be late this year due to the cool spring, but all the herbs are growing well. Also have shrubs and perennial flowers to encourage the birds and insects.

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:(

But roundup is what's killing our bees ,and its so bad for us all. I look for natural alternatives if I can . This is just me .

I cannot give Monsanto more money to kill the planet

It is only this year that I started to use it, and only in a 'localized' fashion on weeds which are not in flower. I know of no other natural effective alternative and weeding by hand just didn't work. The garden is big and I have every kind of problem weed growing in it, from ground elder, to nettles, brambles, braken, japanese knotweed....However, I never use insectides of any sort, natural or chemical, and make sure that the garden is full of flowers to feed bees and other insects.

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Another good method is to wear some type of a cotton glove, over a latex one. Than soak the fingers in Roundup or another herbicide that will kill the plant and use the glove to apply it directly to the stems or leaves and selectively pick the plant rather than spraying. Would need to be a herbicide which will kill via contact like that, and there are some that will be carried throughout the plant.

I tried it today and it's so much easier! Thank you :)

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I tried it today and it's so much easier! Thank you :)

Let me know how it works for you. I am not a big fan of spraying any poison or toxin. I do spot apply it when needed, but resist just simply spraying any area.

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Let me know how it works for you. I am not a big fan of spraying any poison or toxin. I do spot apply it when needed, but resist just simply spraying any area.

I'm not fond either of using toxins, but sometimes it's an unavoidable necessity! With the woods being so close to the garden, weeds simply hop over the fence, crawl under it, float their seeds in with every gust of breeze or in bird dropping; or worst of all have their seeds brought in by barrowing scatter-brained rodents who bury them at the roots of my plants then promptly forget where they stored them! Every year I spend days on end crawling under rose bushes trying to pull and coax long roots of nettles and yanking out tree saplings. By the time I think I finished cleaning the front yard and move the battle to the back, every minute root fragment I missed in the front garden has sprouted again. While I hate wallowing in mud under pouring rain, the weeds do not mind at all growing and flourishing. Every spring I get my hair torn, arms scratched, skin punctured...I look like someone who has been tied in a sack with a dozen crazed cats, and all to no avail !This year I used herbicide.

Today I used your method but with an additional rag soaked with herbicide and rubbed a problem bramble that entwined itself around the branches of an old rose bush where I did not dare spray.

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All of the brown "sticks" at the foot of the rhododendrons were a sea of brambles which smothered and killed some of the bushes. This year I finally got rid of them :)

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We picked our first produce this evening, two sweet banana peppers!

Hubby has charred them and is going to skin them and dice them with other peppers for a bolognese.

Our version lol. Italians would shudder.

My dill is horrible. I love dill and have never had problems before with this hardy herb. But the kind I am growing now and just picked for tzatziki is nasty!

Reminds me of Pinesol cleaner. Bummer.

Edited by QuiteContrary
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Planted six tobacco plants, Nicotiana sylvestris, also called Indian Peace Pipe. The others I started from seeds have yet to grow to a size to be planted outside and doubt they'll do much this season.

After looking at tobacco varieties, I am thinking that I already have some growing on the property.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Where are the gardeners of UM?

Why not post pictures, it's the season of flowers when gardens look their best?

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