How does your garden grow?

[Neesy]

We grow raspberries here and Andy planted some nice purple grapes that really took off. Of course there is the ever popular rhubarb which is almost impossible to kill. We had fresh chives growing in a big bucket so I hope that comes back this year. Since they put that garage in the back yard our garden space is severely cut back now.

VultureLvr45 - try planting chrysanthemums near the plants you don't want eaten by the bugs (well duh I guess that would be ALL of them, right?)

I put yellow and orange mini chrysanthemums in between my tomato plants back when we used to live in Ottawa. The neighbours had plants right next to ours on the other side of a chain link fence but they did not put the mums in.

All their tomatoes got earwigs in them but ours weren't touched. We finally had to let them in on the secret! (Maybe they thought we just liked the pretty orange and yellow chrysanthemums?)

I guess mums smell funny and give off a chemical that naturally repels bugs that want to eat all your good stuff.

 

[Bryan James]

No matter how cool it might look, do not plant any bamboo.

One night, a few years later, when you sleepy shuffle to the toilet and sit, you will get anally impaled. Bully full-on Vlad Tepes style.

The stuff IS that invasive.

 

[Lepplady]

No matter how cool it might look, do not plant any bamboo.

One night, a few years later, when you sleepy shuffle to the toilet and sit, you will get anally impaled. Bully full-on Vlad Tepes style.

The stuff IS that invasive.

Agreed. There's no getting rid of it.

 

[Neesy]

No matter how cool it might look, do not plant any bamboo.

One night, a few years later, when you sleepy shuffle to the toilet and sit, you will get anally impaled. Bully full-on Vlad Tepes style.

The stuff IS that invasive.

Sounds like Sheemie or Stanley Ruiz's giant stalk!

 

[Grandpa]

I don't want to bring shame to the family. My aunt, who's in her 90s, walks at least a mile every day at 6:00 a.m., and has a "garden" out in her back yard. (Grandma calls it a truck patch.) She has a variety of corn, beans, berries, fruits (tomato is a fruit), and who knows what else. And she knows how to make candles and soap and churn butter and, for that matter, butcher a pig. If we descended to postapocalyptic dystopia tomorrow, she'd outlast us all.

For me, when I pluck an older garlic clove out of the fridge, I see a sprout starting to come out of it and wonder, "What if I just put that thing in the dirt?" I may have to try that.

And after I made the last batch of guacamole, the non-bio daughter took the avocado seed and half-immersed it in water. Since then, I've teased it out to a two-foot ten-leaf tree (yes, I count the leaves) that seems to be doing okay. We'll see where it goes.

That's my idea of gardening. I'm exhausted just talking about it.

 

[Sigmund]

Hi!

It was my husband that had the garden. Have mercy! We had all kinds of tomatoes, chili peppers, radishes, scallions, carrots, squash (yick) and corn. Mine were herbs. ( I love to cook.)

I don't do that any more.

I can kill a plastic plant with no effort at all. ( When we were discussing wall paper my son strongly suggested I leave out any plant species involved. Ha!)

Peace.

 

[mustangclaire]

Sounds lovely! I've never tried to grow garlic - now I must google and see if I can do it. We love garlic around here.

Grow it Holly! I get bulbs from my mum who orders it from Marshalls seed catalogue. We plant the cloves in November, and it's ready to harvest late August. I'm still using up last years crop. You get the fattest, oiliest bulbs which are miles above anything you get in the supermarket. You don't have to do anything to it, just stick it in the earth and leave it.

last years crop..

 

[arista]

I love planting flowers. I have attempted this year to get together a small garden.

 

[FlakeNoir]

My garden has almost come to the end of its season. End of last/this year I had: tomatoes, (cherry & 2 other large varieties) beans, capsicum, spring onions, silverbeet, pumpkin, 4 different types of lettuce, courgette, strawberries, basil, thyme, chives and mint.

 

[fljoe0]

I grow pineapples in my yard. They are super easy because I normally don't any issues with bugs or critters. Pineapples have an armor that seems to keep those things away. What is kind of weird is that they don't require much water, although they grow in very rainy places. They grow best in soil that drains water quickly (sand is ideal). The biggest drawback is that they take about 18 months to get a ripe pineapple. But the wait is worth it because there is nothing quite like a fresh picked pineapple. I usually have 15 - 20 plants scattered around the yard. The plants are very hardy and will survive almost anything.

I have a lemon tree too but I rarely get any lemons because it is in my front yard (not inside the fenced area) and the tree is just too tempting for the little kids in the neighborhood to leave alone. Every time I start getting lemons, the kids pick them. Things like that are really hard for kids to resist. I'm sure I did my share of that too.

 

[DiO'Bolic]

Argggh... Frost again in the forecast for tonight. I’m about ready to give up with the whole garden thing and just let the strawberries take over.

 

[Becks19]

I always plant cucumbers and tomatoes. This year I am thinking of adding lettuce and strawberries! I love gardening!! I am also going to try my hand at canning some strawberry jam and pickles!

 

[FlakeNoir]

I always plant cucumbers and tomatoes. This year I am thinking of adding lettuce and strawberries! I love gardening!! I am also going to try my hand at canning some strawberry jam and pickles!

Sounds great Becks! I made tomato relish again this year... yummy.

 

[cat in a bag]

Every year I say I'm going to have a garden and every year I don't do it. I don't know if I have the stamina for one. If I ever do it, I will have cucumbers and peppers and tomatoes and sweet corn, and zucchini. Onions too.

One of my most favorite memories of my paternal grandma is sitting in her garden, helping pick blackberries. I didn't like them but sure liked picking them!

 

[Moderator]

I don't do nearly as much gardening as I would like but plan to do more once I have more free time on my hands. For now my partner does the vegetable gardens and I tend to the flower gardens. We also have grapes, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and rhubarb and this year should be able to start picking asparagus. We have wild blackberries so don't have a more formal area for those. The fruit trees are getting old enough to start producing fruit so hopefully we will have some from the 2 apples, 2 pears, plum, 2 cherries, and peach. Will have to replace the nectarine as that didn't make it. The wildflower garden area is in its third year and starting to take off--assuming we didn't lose most of it from the severe winter or the birds eating the flower seeds. I'm sure I'll be replacing some of the perennials in my other flower gardens because of the below freezing temperatures we had for so much of the winter. This year I have several hardscaping projects on my to-do list that didn't get done last year and plan to build at least a couple waist high raised beds from plans I found on-line. My partner will be going in tomorrow for hip replacement surgery so am hoping those will help him out.

 

[Walter Oobleck]

...I was just thinking yesterday I really must start a veggie garden in the back since it gets direct sunlight like a hundred hours a day. It'd be a raised garden, I think, due to the kind of ground I have, what with roots and buried tires and all. How would I begin such a thing, after I set out the lumber or whatever I use to put the soil in?

I'd be leery of using treated wood and I'd investigate that matter perhaps at a greenhouse/nursery/landscaping service. That said, I do have a dog kennel that border my garden and there is some treated wood there...that and when I hosed out the kennel is flowed downhill. Redwood maybe? Redwood will rot, as will cedar. Some here must have raised gardens...maybe they'll weigh in...didn't see if they already have. I'd look in the yellow pages for dirt suppliers...as maybe you could get a small load of topsoil delivered, dumped in the drive? Or closer to where you need it? Seems like that'd be less expensive than buying bagged dirt although there is quite a variety of bagged material on the market and I think I would acquire some bagged fertilizer unless you know someone who composts animal manure. I made one whole flower garden nothing but composted cow/horse manure. I used rocks...we have Jacobsville sandstone in the area and the large flat rocks make for good raised gardens. Stream/creek beds around here are awash in flat stone, too...a neighbor, years ago used a wheelbarrow and visited a creekbed a short distance away. Seems like down south there is two growing seasons...you could plant from seed...or visit a nursery/greenhouse and buy plants already started. Seed costs less. Once you have it all set up, don a pair of leather breeches and dance by the light of the moon around each plant bed...counter-clockwise...and periodically whisper, "grow! grow! grow!" If you can do this during a full moon, all the better. Give me your address.

 

[Out of Order]

We used to have a good sized vegetable garden and used cow manure supplied by a neighbor. Was great stuff. We had all the favs, but had the best luck with the tomatoes, cukes, zukes, summer squash, broccoli, green and hot peppers, green beans and a variety of herbs. We still do the toms in planters on the deck and we really enjoy them still, but our son's baseball takes up most of our spare time (and I'm not in any way complaining) now. Kind of miss it, but we still keep busy with a few flowers beds and planters here and there.

 

[Dana Jean]

I posted a picture of part of my garden somewhere on here, not sure where.

The crops I have that come back every year are:

Blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, rhubarb, four different varieties of apples, green seedless grapes, asparagus and raspberries, and filberts.

I always plant cukes, zukes and many different tomatoes. Cherry, grape, yellow pear, and then lots of different big ones. Green peppers too. I have grown all sorts of things over the years. Miniature corn, regular corn, eggplants, carrots, radishes, onions, celery, lettuces, cabbage, artichokes, okra, yellow squashes, watermelons, pumpkins, cantelope, hot peppers, red, purple, yellow bells, herbs, broccoli, cauliflower just name it and I've probably grown it.

 

[Mr Nobody]

I'm about to start on my first gardening season. My dad had veg patches galore and a fairly big greenhouse when I was a kid, but I lacked the interest and/or motivation to really learn. The amount that stuck is funny, though.
Unfortunately, the gardens at the place we moved to haven't been tended very well for years, by the looks, and the weather's been so changeable that I've not been able to get out there as much as I'd have liked. The lawns at least look like lawns instead of a setting from Jurassic Park, though, and I've got my seeds to hand. I just need to work out when to plant what, now. (I'll be trying to grow cauliflower, onions, carrots, parsnips, green beans, broad beans, and swede. Then next year I'll be trying to learn how to make a nice, concrete extended patio area, no doubt. )

 

[Out of Order]

........just name it and I've probably grown it.

Brussels Sprouts?