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Post by Dramaphile on May 3, 2018 6:59:47 GMT -6
How is your garden doing? Anything growing?
Mine is finally almost ready. I have one raised bed planted with carrots, onions, peas and bush beans, and my peas and beans are starting to come up. Got my second raised bed turned and fertilized and did the same with a mound of dirt we used on the other side of the yard last year for pumpkins (this year it'll be zucchini). Went to the garden center last night and picked up tomato, pepper, cucumber, and tomatillo seedlings and going to plant those tonight along with tuscan kale, beets and zucchini. Still haven't decided where to plant my pumpkins, they got white mildew last year because the area I grew them was too moist.
I got bush cucumbers this year instead of vine because they got out of control and tried to take over my beds last year. Anyone have experience with those? Are they ok to grow unsupported or did you need to stake/cage them? Last year, I did cukes in a cage and they outgrew that quickly and ended up running some twine to my fence and attempting to train the vine on there with minimal success.
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Lakes
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Post by Lakes on May 3, 2018 12:33:12 GMT -6
The tomatoes ds started from seed are doing great outside! The cucumbers...not so much.They never really bounced back from not being watered when I was gone. I replaced my big rosemary that died and put in some basil seedlings. My chives and garlic look great. I decided to do wildflowers in one raised bed and they’ve sprouted.
I have room for something else since the cucumbers died. Not sure if I’ll grab cucumber seedlings from the store or something different yet. I’ll grab some more herbs for my pots. Gotta have some mint for mojitos and juleps!
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olenka
Gold
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Post by olenka on May 3, 2018 19:17:17 GMT -6
Garden is going crazy...the weather the past couple weeks has been ideal and it's been so fun and relaxing to garden after work in the evenings. I have been eating a ton of mixed greens, sorrel, and chives. Beet, onion, garlic, and kohlrabi plants are kicking ass. SO planted peas, potatoes, and carrots which are sprouting now. He got some peppers and tomatoes started inside but then they got roasted in the sun when he put them out on a 88 degree day. We made a couple hanging baskets last nite for the porch. And I unearthed this creepy gnome from under my rosemary. I hadn't seen him in a couple years!
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olenka
Gold
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Post by olenka on May 3, 2018 19:21:24 GMT -6
Dramaphile, I've never staked my cukes, but they sort of grow up the wiring we put over everything to keep out neighborhood cats, so that is some sort of support, I guess. But I need to pay better attention to my cukes this year, I definitely want pickles.
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Lakes
Sapphire
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Post by Lakes on May 3, 2018 21:03:42 GMT -6
olenka that gnome is a tad creepy! I have a small collection of grumpy vintage garden frogs watching over my garden.
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2018 22:58:13 GMT -6
I have tomatoes in the ground and still in pots. A pepper in the ground and beans coming up. Lettuces and radishes from seed are sprouting as well as chia sage. I think I spotted a Brussels sprout, spinach, and chards too. My garlics are still in the ground. Peas and kales are growing - I ate my first snap pea this week! Strawberries have lots of green berries.
In pots I have eggplant, more peppers, cucumber, zucchini, yellow squash, watermelon, pumpkins, butternut squash, sunflowers, basil... these are all still just seeds so fingers crossed.
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cam
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Post by cam on May 5, 2018 5:49:23 GMT -6
I'm just over here like, "Woohoo! The show is finally gone from the garden!" I need to redo the fence before I actually do much with the garden. Even my dog knows the garden is the first place to check when she wants to hunt (a.k.a. chase) rabbits. I do have some rhubarb popping up though, but otherwise, it's a bit too early yet to plant outside here.
Question: I have read up on how much space to put between the various plant types I want to grow, but it seems some plant types can have some of that space between filled by another plant type (i.e. if I plant 2 of "X" which need to be 4 feet between, but I can plant 3 of "Y" in between at 1-foot intervals). Is this correct (for some plant type combinations of course, not just anything)? If so, is there a good resource for determining which plant types can pair with others?
*I hope I caught all the "typos" that the recent update on my tablet's autocorrect keeps putting in. It keeps changing a ton of correct words to different words that it just thinks I want for some reason.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2018 23:41:12 GMT -6
I'm just over here like, "Woohoo! The show is finally gone from the garden!" I need to redo the fence before I actually do much with the garden. Even my dog knows the garden is the first place to check when she wants to hunt (a.k.a. chase) rabbits. I do have some rhubarb popping up though, but otherwise, it's a bit too early yet to plant outside here. Question: I have read up on how much space to put between the various plant types I want to grow, but it seems some plant types can have some of that space between filled by another plant type (i.e. if I plant 2 of "X" which need to be 4 feet between, but I can plant 3 of "Y" in between at 1-foot intervals). Is this correct (for some plant type combinations of course, not just anything)? If so, is there a good resource for determining which plant types can pair with others? *I hope I caught all the "typos" that the recent update on my tablet's autocorrect keeps putting in. It keeps changing a ton of correct words to different words that it just thinks I want for some reason. Depending on the plants, yes you can plant that way. You have to think about the space each mature plant will take up and when each harvest will occur. So like, you could plant lettuces in between your Brussels sprouts, because the Brussels will be tall and you can continually harvest lettuce leaves before the plants get too big. ETA I have a book that goes into some detail about this, The Essential Urban Farmer by Carpenter and Rosenthal.
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Post by Dramaphile on May 7, 2018 6:56:02 GMT -6
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Post by yoginikiki on May 7, 2018 10:22:18 GMT -6
I've been working super hard to get the bed ready and just had to bite the bullet and put my tomatoes in the ground. I have peppers, eggplant and tomatoes in. I'm string trellissing my tomatoes so I might put a pole bean in between each tomato plant.
I bought Foodscaping by Charlie Nardozzi and I reworked my whole garden plan. Now my plants are mixing with flowers in my flowerbeds instead of in a traditional garden bed. We'll see how it goes, but we just couldn't kick winter long enough to dig out a bed.
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Post by mommabakes on May 9, 2018 5:38:19 GMT -6
Peas and lettuce are coming up! I got some tomatoes, bell peppers, basil, and carrots to plant today. Strawberries, gooseberries, rhubarb are doing well, and I'll be able to pick rhubarb soon. We weren't sure if the grape vines survived the winter, but they have new growth, so yay! We planted honeyberries, raspberries, and a kiwi vine. Our fruit trees are doing well, (other than the old apple), and we've added a few more so we now have 5 apple, 1 peach, 1 pear, and 2 cherry.
In about 30 years we'll have so much fruit, lol!
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starbuck
Emerald
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Post by starbuck on May 9, 2018 6:39:22 GMT -6
Everything is coming along nicely. I did a round of plant tone organic fertilizer last week and I can tell the difference, especially in my kale and squash. I'm starting to get some blossoms on the tomato plants and squash.
Right after I put everything out, something ripped out my cucumber, but the new one is growing like a weed so it's all good.
My marigold border is slow growing but the one that survived indoor seeding is flowering, and my son grew me one at school that should blossom in the next week.
The only thing is my bell pepper. I think I put it out too early because it's really slow growing and I read later that cold weather after transplant can really stunt it. I think it's finally growing again but I'm wondering if it will even produce. Next year I will wait another month to plant it outdoors.
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Post by Dramaphile on May 9, 2018 8:06:48 GMT -6
Everything is coming along nicely. I did a round of plant tone organic fertilizer last week and I can tell the difference, especially in my kale and squash. I'm starting to get some blossoms on the tomato plants and squash. Right after I put everything out, something ripped out my cucumber, but the new one is growing like a weed so it's all good. My marigold border is slow growing but the one that survived indoor seeding is flowering, and my son grew me one at school that should blossom in the next week. The only thing is my bell pepper. I think I put it out too early because it's really slow growing and I read later that cold weather after transplant can really stunt it. I think it's finally growing again but I'm wondering if it will even produce. Next year I will wait another month to plant it outdoors. Last year I planted a poblano pepper and it was suuuuper slow growing for the spring/early summer and popped a couple of small peppers out really early and then nothing (I was disappointed and thought it was done fruiting), and then in late summer it shot up and started producing a ton of peppers.
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starbuck
Emerald
Posts: 12,464 Likes: 81,139
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Post by starbuck on May 9, 2018 8:10:46 GMT -6
Everything is coming along nicely. I did a round of plant tone organic fertilizer last week and I can tell the difference, especially in my kale and squash. I'm starting to get some blossoms on the tomato plants and squash. Right after I put everything out, something ripped out my cucumber, but the new one is growing like a weed so it's all good. My marigold border is slow growing but the one that survived indoor seeding is flowering, and my son grew me one at school that should blossom in the next week. The only thing is my bell pepper. I think I put it out too early because it's really slow growing and I read later that cold weather after transplant can really stunt it. I think it's finally growing again but I'm wondering if it will even produce. Next year I will wait another month to plant it outdoors. Last year I planted a poblano pepper and it was suuuuper slow growing for the spring/early summer and popped a couple of small peppers out really early and then nothing (I was disappointed and thought it was done fruiting), and then in late summer it shot up and started producing a ton of peppers. FX that mine follows suit. Thanks for sharing!
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melohdy
Platinum
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Post by melohdy on May 9, 2018 9:38:41 GMT -6
Our snow peas are taking over. I picked a bunch the other day. They were delicious! We've got one tomato in the ground and one in a topsy turvey thing. The one in the ground is hanging on by a thread; it's not doing great. Our zucchini plants seem strong; we've got tons and tons of huge red onions coming in that are almost ready to pick. I think we have one cucumber plant that's doing alright. Basil is managing alright also. Something keeps taking the strawberry blossoms and eating them.
We've got mint in a pot and a raspberry bush in a pot.
We've also got a whole row in our bed of something that didn't survive the transplant. I'm not sure what to put there. It's next to the peas; so I will look into companion plants. I'd like to start cucumbers maybe.
It's about to get scorching hot here and that's where I've lost plants in previous years. I'm not sure how to keep them going through the heat.
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trtlcrzy
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Post by trtlcrzy on May 9, 2018 12:06:05 GMT -6
I’ve only got a few edibles planted, my front landscaping is my main project for this year.
Food: I have a couple of asparagus up but won’t be able to pick for another year so they’re just gonna hang out and grow. I planted a bare strawberry root last year and didn’t get any berries from it. It’s back and huge so I’m hoping it will produce well. I also bought some strawberry plants for the pot on my railing. I need to get some stakes to prop a net over to keep the birds off of them. I have one basil plant in a pot and that will be plenty for my family. I purchase oregano and arugula seeds that I need to get planted.
Flowers: I ordered 2 hydrangea love plants and a clematis online and they just arrived yesterday. I don’t have a trellis for the clematis quite yet (I told DH which one I wanted as a mother’s day gift) so that’ll hang in the pot for a bit. I’m going to try to get the hydrangeas in the ground today in front of my front porch. I also ran drip irrigation in that bed which I’m super excited for. I need to expand it out the other way so that all the plants along the front of my house can benefit from it too.
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2018 20:58:07 GMT -6
I’ve only got a few edibles planted, my front landscaping is my main project for this year. Food: I have a couple of asparagus up but won’t be able to pick for another year so they’re just gonna hang out and grow. I planted a bare strawberry root last year and didn’t get any berries from it. It’s back and huge so I’m hoping it will produce well. I also bought some strawberry plants for the pot on my railing. I need to get some stakes to prop a net over to keep the birds off of them. I have one basil plant in a pot and that will be plenty for my family. I purchase oregano and arugula seeds that I need to get planted. Flowers: I ordered 2 hydrangea love plants and a clematis online and they just arrived yesterday. I don’t have a trellis for the clematis quite yet (I told DH which one I wanted as a mother’s day gift) so that’ll hang in the pot for a bit. I’m going to try to get the hydrangeas in the ground today in front of my front porch. I also ran drip irrigation in that bed which I’m super excited for. I need to expand it out the other way so that all the plants along the front of my house can benefit from it too. Ooh I am adding clematis to my landscaping plants wish list.
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2018 21:06:19 GMT -6
My Thai basil seeds sprouted! I haven’t had much luck growing the plants so far so I’m hoping these are my guys.
I have some compost that is almost ready, but the bed I planted in January could use some food, so I think I’ll make some compost tea this weekend.
Sunflowers and cucumbers have sprouted. I’m going for a mix of sizes and colors with the sunflowers. If they grow well for me it should be really pretty.
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Post by Dramaphile on May 10, 2018 7:13:47 GMT -6
My pea and bean sprouts are coming up, and I think I have carrot sprouts, although it's hard to tell yet if they're carrot or weed! Hoping my pepper seedlings hang on, it's been hot and dry this week and they are looking wilt-y when I go to water them.
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trtlcrzy
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Post by trtlcrzy on May 13, 2018 15:10:48 GMT -6
I got my trellis for Mother’s Day so I am going to be placing it and planting my clematis tomorrow!
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mb3
Sapphire
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Post by mb3 on May 15, 2018 22:28:03 GMT -6
I miss this thread in here.
Anyways, I have been busy. Our garden along the front of the house had some evergreen shrubs, hosta, a Japanese maple, a rose bush and a few goldflame plants. I added petunias and then a perennial lithodora.
I also added two new gardens in the front, where our walkway meets the sidewalk. They’re pretty small and basic. I decided to stick to annuals for those since they’ll get snow (and some salt) on them each winter. This year I put in verbena and viola because they looked pretty and were on sale. A few neighbors have complimented them though, which is nice.
Container wise I have cilantro in a hanging basket, basil and oregano in strawberry pots, mixed lettuce greens and spinach in the boxes hanging along the deck rail, and celery in a deep pot. Those are all growing from seeds (first time for me!) and coming up nicely. It’s exciting to watch the progress.
My brand new garden in the back I put in an Annabelle hydrangea and 5 dead nettle plants, all of which seem to be doing well. I also did liatris bulbs and two bare root bleeding hearts in the shade section and I’m just waiting to see what happens with those. In the sunny portion I have iris bulbs and lots of wildflower seeds. We’ve had several big rains so I’m half convinced everything that wasn’t a plant has drowned.
And the goutweed is back in the side garden. 😡 I had to sacrifice another hosta because the roots were too entwined, and then I dug a full 12” down into the earth to trace some goutweed roots. I think I’ve got them all but need to look in better light. I hate goutweed. If I can keep that section free of goutweed til the fall I might divide some of my hostas and fill in the now bare area with those.
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Post by catladymeow on May 16, 2018 8:56:15 GMT -6
I really want to put out some herbs but our darn frost warnings just won't go away for night time. Sadface. I'm going to try to put them in planters up on our front steps and hope that the deer don't come for them.
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regal
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Post by regal on May 16, 2018 22:16:23 GMT -6
mb3, gout weed is awful. I've been harvesting lots of asparagus. Two crowns produce 4 to 8 stalks per day, a third crown seems thing so I'm leaving it. Cilantro seems to have self seeded and our chives, thyme, and oregano survived the winter. I need basil and mint to add to the parsley and rosemary I've already planted. I'm considering a sage bush in my front yard. I have lots ours peas and beans coming up. My tomato, cucumber, and zucchini seedlings are just about ready to be planted. We've been hardening off for two weeks and they are outside full-time now. I'll direct sow some lettuce, kale, spinach, melon and mini cucumbers too. I want to buy some different peppers to make hot sauce and salsa this year. I'll see what seedlings I can find. This year I'm planting in 5 gallon buckets that I've collected from all my wine making neighbors. So far so good!
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Lakes
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Post by Lakes on May 17, 2018 11:04:13 GMT -6
I’m in the land of never ending rain and haven’t been out to check things in forever. The herb garden and tomato beds are doing well but I can’t see my raised beds from the deck. Looks like my morning glories are a couple inches high. The ferns I transplanted last summer from my grandma’s house are doing well. That makes me ridiculously happy. The end of last summer was dry and I wasn’t sure they were established enough to make it.
I received two flower baskets for Mother’s Day, one shade loving and the other sun. It was satisfying to add some colorful and established plants into the mix.
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mb3
Sapphire
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Post by mb3 on May 17, 2018 18:40:05 GMT -6
Astilbe was finally available in stores! Our specialty greenhouse had it but after putting in 3 new gardens this year their price was out of my budget so I’ve been stocking Lowes for it to arrive. Today I bought and planted 3 light pink flowered plants. I’m debating getting 2 more at the specialty place next year unless Lowe’s gets the darker pink color I want.
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Post by Dramaphile on May 18, 2018 9:09:49 GMT -6
I think I'm going to put in another raised bed so we can plant some asparagus and other perennials and hopefully get a harvest in a year or two. There's a corner of my yard that always grows these huge weed things (no idea what they are) that come back every year after being cut down, and I'm hoping if I cover the area I can keep them at bay.
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olenka
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Post by olenka on May 18, 2018 10:24:56 GMT -6
My peony bloomed! I got to enjoy them for approx 3 days before all the petals fell off. There was a total of 7 blooms instead of the usual 5, so that was exciting.
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Lakes
Sapphire
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Post by Lakes on May 18, 2018 12:28:57 GMT -6
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regal
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Post by regal on May 18, 2018 18:54:27 GMT -6
I'm finding the gardening community is very helpful and generous. I've been getting plants from neighbours and it's been great! I needed hostas so I put out a post in our community FB page. Two people responded and also offered white peonies and day lilies! They are super grateful that I'm helping them out and I get free plants would cost a fortune if I had bought.
I gave my next door neighbour chives and oregano and he gave me garlic and scallions in return.
Someone else has a quince plant that needs to be cut back so I might go get some of that.
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olenka
Gold
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Post by olenka on May 20, 2018 10:42:01 GMT -6
Thanks! I wish they lasted a little longer though!
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