The Official Gardening Thread!! Spring is coming!!
Posted by _Dalida_ on Feb 15, 2009 · Member since Jan 2009 · 966 posts
Hey Fellow Vw'ers!
Spring is just around the corner, so I'm just starting to do my seedlings and pick out what I'm planning on growing for Spring... I've already got my herbs started.. I think I will do a mix of indoor windowsill/kitchen , container & outdoor (possibly raised bed) gardening. What do you guys have planned? I'm for sure not a gardening pro, but I'm trying to relearn what urban man has forgot and be able to grow *some* food or at least herbs & garlic... So, everybody feel free to contribute anything pertaining to indoor or outdoor gardening please!! ;)b
Pook!! I have one supposed Bhut Jolokia from an earlier planting that just started producing and now it looks like the guy sent me the wrong seed. The peppers it is producing are turning yellowish-orange and look more like Devil's Tongue than Bhut. That means the two new "Bhuts" that are up are also likely to be Devil's Tongue. Now I have no Bhuts. :'(
Storm, do you do anything special to your peppers? I can't get mine to grow! I think it's too much sunlight?
This is a fun thread, makes me want to post pics of my garden. We've only had limited success this growing season. Talking to other gardeners and farmers, there seems to be a concern about bees disappearing/dying. We'll be self-polinating next season.
Our basil is thriving! I keep making pesto.
Back to the farmer's market for me, hopefully I'll have more luck when it starts to cool down. It's often above 100 degrees in the summer where I live so plants tend to wither.
How are everyone else's plants doing?
mine are all dead : ( but i put in some seeds to get started on my fall garden. its been in the hundereds here for weeks and no rain since july 3rd. eek.
my herbs are doig pretty good. the chocolate mint apparently got fried by the sun, but I'm giving it extra attention & it's coming back. My peas, unfortunately, grew tall but before any actual pods grew, died :( I'm sure the pot I had them in is way too small though. I'm going to plant the rest of them in a larger thing like a blue box or something and see how they do...I really want fresh peas!
my herbs are doig pretty good. the chocolate mint apparently got fried by the sun, but I'm giving it extra attention & it's coming back. My peas, unfortunately, grew tall but before any actual pods grew, died :( I'm sure the pot I had them in is way too small though. I'm going to plant the rest of them in a larger thing like a blue box or something and see how they do...I really want fresh peas!
i'm trying southern peas right now. and they can stand the heat. so hopefully they give me something. i miss having fresh fruits and veggies!
My tomatoes all have either flowers or fruits but nothing is ripening. My green beans have given me 10 though it looks like our recent four days with minimal rain have given me another small rush on beans, maybe 5 out there now! My pepper plants havent done much growing but i now see a few tiny flower pods forming. Not much hope as they are barely 7 inche tall plants.
My one win is the Jalapeno plant. It has 3 little tiny fruits on it that are getting bigger! Yay!
The deer ate my squash down so I am doubtful they will leave it alone long enough for any zucchini to grow.
Herbs, not too shabby, but everything else is playing the "Wait for the sun" game.
beh. I'm jealous of you all. I can't wait to have a garden...
Or for it to be Spring!
That's all for now : )
Storm, do you do anything special to your peppers? I can't get mine to grow! I think it's too much sunlight?
I'm sorry for not checking back in this thread. It's probably too late to answer but I will anyway: Poop! I mix cow dookie into my potting medium when I move them into their final pots. I also go through a series of transplants because I read that shocking the roots improves growth. I generally start them in 4 inch pots, move them up to 8 inch pots, then 12 inch and finally 10 gallon containers. I've found that they do better when they get morning sun, but not late afternoon sun.
i love this thread so much. I hope people post back and keep me updated. I'm planning my fourth-ever crop for the winter and wondering if anyone else was thinking about their garden plans.
storm, you rock for all that advice! thank you so much. lots I didn't even think about, so i have so much hope for next crop!!!! i would do anything for fresh peppers. we spend soooo much $$$ on peppers, it's ridiculous.
our summer heat is finally diminishing and it took most of our remaining plants with it. We've still got a little bit of basil, which is good, I'm running out of ways to use it. Our zucchinis grew huge! and were so delicious. only one left and my man's requested i use it to make Benz Zuchinni Bread from this site.
My peppers never grew beyond a few inches tall. I have them in a raised bed with other plants, so I'll try separating them into pots, transferring them as needed and showing them extra TLC.
Two pumpkins are growing! I swear, I didn't even plant pumpkins, but I'm not complaining! Hopefully they'll be ripe in time for Halloween and pumpkin pie!
Cali, my tomato plants aren't flowering or anything either. They're getting so big, but nothing! I don't know if I should try to pollinate or something. There hasn't been many bees around here lately.
A couple weeks ago I went out to water and saw half my tomato plants and all my potato plant leaves were eaten! We found these HUGE green worns (horn worms?) feasting away, like 8 or 9 of them. We relocated them to the wash near our house and haven't seen them since. But they did incredible damage in just one night. Anyone else have this problem? Is there any way to prevent them from feeding on our plants?
i would do anything for fresh peppers. we spend soooo much $$$ on peppers, it's ridiculous.
I hear ya, sister!
I've got a big bowl of Red Savinas, a handful of Orange Habs, and a handful of Manzano peppers that just came off the plants. It's going to be a very spicy week at my house!
I got too many peppers as well as zucchinni! Every year I plant the zuchinni in a spot where the soil is really bad hoping they won't produce so much but every year they continue to surprise me with an abundant harvest. My secret is the way we compost. Instead of having a messy pile which we can't have anyhow because it attracts the GRIZZLY BEARS!!!, I have set up outside a garbage disposal which I run all my compost through with lots of water, which I then just dump around the plants and then throw a little dirt on top. It really works! I used to do it with a blender which works good too but we have so much compost now that the garbage disposal works better. Of course not everything can go in there including corn cobs and husks, avocado pits, cherry stones, etc. and it is better if things are first chopped up a little bit. At planting time I put a good quantity of this ground up compost in the spot where the plants are going to go and then plant them right in the yucky stuff. I also harvest alfalfa from a nearby field which also goes into the hole with the plants. It can just be chopped fine or blended as well. For added nitogen I was able to get some soybeans which were no longer good to eat, just too old, and grind them into a powder in my Vita-mix. I was running short of soybeans this year and found down the road where a truck had accidently spilled some canola seeds. I did a little research and found that these were high in nitrogen and other minerals so scooped them up into some plastic containers for later use. I got about two hundred pounds of them which will last me a few years. Anyway this years garden is the best yet. Happy gardening.
My gardening is limited, lack of full sun. I am trying to work around.
So on order, hopefully arriving soon are pennyroyal, chives, spearmint, lemon balm and salvia whopper lighthouse. Also as an alternative is found this website that I can window garden..http://www.thedailygardener.com/
I am very interested in soil based spouts. The prices seem(?) reasonable?
But double that of more common sproutables that I can get from bulk at wholefoods such as winterberries, quinoa, buckwheat, mung beans, sunflower seeds and I was able to start mustard greens. Just adds diversity.
I am joining in as a totally new gardener, I literally have no idea what I'm doing, but I did it! I planted tons of kale, arugula, and romaine lettuces, red and green bell peppers, pumpkin, roma tomatoes, cucumbers, brocolli, cauliflower, parsley, basil, lavender, and tarragon. I bought little starters for all of those and also planted some sunflower seeds and green pea seeds. Heres hoping they all do well! I think I want to make several containers of lettuce and kale mixes as well! and maybe a few seperate herb mixes. I want to get some zuccini as well. I'm sure it will be a learning curve, but I'm excited!
Gardening is not as difficult as it seems. Put in plenty of organic material (i.e. compost), mulch and water regularly.
My tomatoes have flowers that started opening last week. It has been a cool spring for us. So, it is taking longer for them to set. I'm still excited. There are a few varieties that I can't wait to see how they turn out.
thanks V-20 and Di I am excited for my garden, I like to just sit outside and look at it! So far so good!
BGS, I'm doing the same thing. Some stuff I seeded in containers indoors so they're almost ready to plant in the garden now. Other stuff we bought as seedlings and some we just transplanted this weekend. It is an experiment of the best possible kind!
awesome Tino! You'll have to let me know how it grows!
What I have in my garden and how they're doing:
Tomatoes- I have 3-4 varieties and they're all doing really well. There's little baby tomatoes on them so far.
Radishes- They're pretty small but they're growing insanely fast. I could believe how quickly they grew.
Beets- Also going well, the leaves have started to pop up. Now I need to separate them because I planted them too close.
Beans- These have grown so extremely fast, I don't know why but our beans always grow amazingly! No beans yet but I'm sure they'll be there soon.
Bell Peppers- No baby bell peppers yet but the plant is there, these always grow really slow though.
Brussel Sprouts- These things are huge already and I wouldn't surprised if I see baby brussel sprouts really soon.
Pumpkins- I just planted this but it's doing well so far, hasn't died yet.
Lettuce- Two varities. One I can see is starting to grow but I'm not sure I see the other one.
Chard- A little patch is growing so far, not sure what's going on with this one.
Scallions- Didn't even plant any thing year. We did last year and we keep having some randomly pop up everywhere. We had a HUGE scallion this spring, I'll have to post this picture or it, it was unbelievable!
Arugala- For some reason this flowered and there's no arugala.
Broccoli- It started to grow and then it started to flower so we've been picking it really early.
Leeks- These still look like little scallion right now, nothing much.
Red Cabbage- This looks like it's growing awesome!
Basil- It's starting to get really big!
Parsley- This just started to grow, we didn't think it was going to make it.
Raspberries- They're out and grown! They're nice and dark and yummy already!
Blackberries- These are still small and green. These are growing sooooo slowly for some reason.
I probably forgot a plant or two but whatever!
I still have some planters that are empty. I'm thinking of getting stuff to make tea with and grow it like mint, lemon balm, chamomile, lavender. I tried mint one year and it never grew and now where it was there's a huge patch of shamrocks growing.
Btw, here's the scallion I was talking about (the picture does not do it justice):
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h80/Midnight_Nebel/TulipFest003.jpg
Getting ready for the fall planting season! That's one thing I love about Florida....the year-round growing season! And tomatoes do better in the winter here anyway....fewer cooties attacking them!
:)
I had to revive this thread because I am so excited to start my first ever very own potted herb garden in my enclosed screened porch! I was going to start from seed but because my partner and I procrastinated so much we ended up buying baby herb plants from a local farmer and started that way. My partner made our own cedar boxes and shelves for the plants. So here is what we have:
dill
Curly Leaf Parsley
Italian Flat Leaf Parsley
oregano
thyme
stevia leaf (when I saw this herb I couldn't resist trying it! The leaves are very sweet and its hard not to want to munch on them every time I pass by :-D)
cherry tomato plants
I wanted fennel and basil too but they didnt have any there. I think I have enough to keep me going for a while. I just love using fresh herbs for cooking. My porch is right off the kitchen so it's very convenient, and my plants get the full sun all summer. wish me luck as gardening is new to me! I used to help my Mom years ago but this is the first time I have tried this on my own. One question, can you plant different herbs in the same planter? I have them spaced well apart but I am a little worried now. From my research I havent found any of the herbs I have to be aggressive towards others but I could be missing something.
Pages