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Post by Hugs and Hisses on Mar 30, 2017 8:55:37 GMT -5
Oh, I forgot my other gardening philosophy -- benign neglect. I need almost all my plants to be able to survive or thrive under benign neglect. Take, for example, my potted lemon tree. I was sure that thing was dead but lo and behold, it has buds! I'm so excited! I'm not counting on actually getting any lemons, but hey, lemon flowers are nice!
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Baron von Costume
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Post by Baron von Costume on Apr 3, 2017 9:47:27 GMT -5
I'm seeing pretty good results from most of my seeds so far but man my Habaneros just aren't sprouting at all  I mean of the three peppers I planted they're the ones that are easiest to get live plants for later, but still |
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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Apr 8, 2017 8:55:22 GMT -5
I'm back from my trip, and I visited my garden for the first time in 3 weeks yesterday. Well. That is certainly a lot of not-plants.  |
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Post by ganews on Apr 10, 2017 11:12:45 GMT -5
The tomato seedlings are all out. Except there was one stupid tomato with its little pre-leaves still stuck halfway in the dirt while its stem was making a huge loop up. Last night I finally got a toothpick and popped its little head out, and it sprang to 90 degrees instead of completely inverted, but the stem was still all twisted and deformed. Now that it's in the sunlight it is all straightened up and ready to go.
This is why early childhood education is important. Now this tomato will become a productive member of society.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Apr 10, 2017 12:01:30 GMT -5
Aw man, 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 , I'm so sorry about your garden! But surely the trip was worth it? And Baron von Costume , I'm sorry about your remedial pepper seeds. Not cool! In our garden news, the snow and ice finally melted, so I was able to plant the peas last weekend. Just three weeks later than I would have liked! Yay! Here's the breathtaking scene of garden on our first planting day:  Oh, the majesty! Anyway, we had a week of heavy rains, so I've been back out a few times to poke the already-sprouting peas back under the dirt, because they keep washing out. Speaking of majestic, I also got the last of our three new fruit trees planted on the same day. We normally order our trees from Trees of Antiquity, which sends three-year-old grafted saplings. They are unimpressive in scale, and it always looks like a medium-sized stick has been planted in the orchard when we put a new one in. This newest tree of ours is from Seed Savers Exchange, though. Two years ago in the fall they started a new program of offering custom-grafted fruit trees in very select batches from their heirloom stocks, where they'll offer a handful of types one year, then a different bunch the next, and so on. So basically they offer a kind of once-in-a-lifetime chance at whichever trees they've selected for that year. And they graft them when you order, and send it out a year and a half later. We selected a Quaker Beauty crabapple, because we've long wanted to add another crabapple to our existing one, and we're Quaker, so it seemed a good fit. When the tree arrived the week before last, though, I nearly died laughing. What a difference from the three-year-olds we're used to dealing with! Here you can see the Quaker Beauty crabapple, in all its resplendent vastness:  The tall stick in the background is the pear tree we planted, from Trees of Antiquity, the week before. Just for scale. I expect tourists to come from miles away to gawk at the brilliance of our crabapple tree. Finally, this past weekend we put the onions into the garden proper. It was the most beautiful day of the year to date -- warm and clear and stunningly gorgeous. I've been in a gloomy funk the last few weeks because of work bullshit, and man. An hour in the sunshine in the garden is exactly what I needed to shake off that mood. It was spectacularly wonderful. And the onions look great, too!  |
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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Apr 10, 2017 20:10:58 GMT -5
Totally worth it, Liz n Dicksgiving ! Had a hell of a time. I need to make a thread of my terrible art jokes. Terrible Friend is continuing to not live up to her name and has given me half her extra tomato seedlings (I am not supposed to tell her sister that originally she was supposed to receive two of each type). I repotted them today so I can give her back her containers on Friday. I might not move these into the ground for quite some time so they can get good and big. And who knows, maybe the tiny green sticks completely bereft of leaves in the garden will somehow bounce back. I have also started new trays of peppers. Hopefully these live, since now I am out of Doe Hill seeds. |
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Baron von Costume
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Post by Baron von Costume on Apr 11, 2017 10:34:44 GMT -5
I now see a couple more seedlings.
it's not what I was hoping for but at least a few of them of each type are out now.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Apr 11, 2017 17:25:02 GMT -5
This past weekend we had acceptable temps and no rain for two straight days so I spent 4-5 hours in the garden. I put up seasonal hanging baskets, transplanted a hosta, planted more hostas and shade plants, and mulched until my hand was bruised from raking. I stretched muscles I didn't even know I had and now I deserve a massage.
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Post by ganews on Apr 18, 2017 22:43:17 GMT -5
I was so traumatized I forgot to post. But I spent 5 hours in the garden on Saturday, four of them tilling. My hands were shredded to bits. It took twice as long because I hadn't been able to get out there for three weeks prior, so what was once ground freshly cleared of dry weeds and last year's stalks was full of tenacious life (and Wifemate wasn't there to weed either). Now I need to get out there and spend some time raking, perhaps I will do that tomorrow after work. Looks like my final week of going to the gym is barely going to happen at all, because I'm also busy on Thursday.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Apr 20, 2017 12:19:32 GMT -5
Got home from work last night, took a stroll through the garden, and was infuriated to discover that something had dug up a significant number of our onions! Just... pulled willy-nilly out of the soil! I suspect it was probably a squirrel digging around in the bed (judging from the way the bed was disturbed), but there was also, right in the middle of things, an obvious tunnel hole from the vole we've been calling "The Cucumber Cuddler" for the last few years. The Cuddler has become increasingly brazen, moving from nibbling the odd low-hanging cuke to consuming entire pepper or carrot crops. And I think a second one moved in, because last year I saw two run from the regular Cuddler hiding space when the garden was being watered one day.
Now, I am fairly confident the Cuddler was not the one to pull up the seedlings. But he's still out there, waiting for veggies to ripen, eager to strike and eat all my stuff. And I've had it. I know the organic way to get rid of garden pests is to trap them and kill them by hand, but I'm a totally squeamish baby. I've needed to kill this fucker, but remotely. I've put up with him for this long because I just can't quite get there with poison (I'll probably poison some otherwise innocent animal, or send tendrils of it further up the food chain and fuck up some unsuspecting hawk or something)... UNTIL NOW. After replanting our poor little onions I stormed into the house and announced my desire to go nuclear on the Cuddler.
Boomer just emailed me to say she'd been to the garden center and asked about poison. They recommended putting castor oil on cotton balls and pushing that into the vole holes. So... I guess we'll be trying that? I kind of want to see this little bastard's corpse, but I guess just driving him away works as well.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Apr 20, 2017 21:19:33 GMT -5
Look at my nasturtium seedlings! Aren't they cuuuute!?!?  |
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Post by ganews on Apr 20, 2017 21:39:36 GMT -5
The county delivered the annual huge mound of LeafGro to the plots a few days ago, and it always goes fast. So I spent a good couple hours after work spreading it over all 20 intended rows.
Prep before planting is the hardest time of year.
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Post by Hugs and Hisses on Apr 21, 2017 14:55:19 GMT -5
Prep before planting is the hardest time of year. Followed closely by "worrying because your pepper seedlings haven't germinated already" time of year and "waiting for your tomato flowers to turn into edible fruits" time of year. |
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Apr 26, 2017 23:12:45 GMT -5
So...does anyone else - as they're surveying the garden and making plans for the season - become so enraptured by the possibilities of earthly bounty at their fingertips that they begin to grin wildly or cackle maniacally like a supervillain? Sometimes I really get a buzz off of gardening.
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Baron von Costume
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Post by Baron von Costume on Apr 27, 2017 3:27:19 GMT -5
Some of my seedling are starting to look a little worryingly sad. Given we got some annoying late april snow dustings this week it'll be a while before it's safe to let them outside though. Hold on little buddies.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Apr 27, 2017 9:54:54 GMT -5
So...does anyone else - as they're surveying the garden and making plans for the season - become so enraptured by the possibilities of earthly bounty at their fingertips that they begin to grin wildly or cackle maniacally like a supervillain? Sometimes I really get a buzz off of gardening. Oh man, I should start doing that! I can't say I've ever cackled like a supervillain, but I do sometimes get just completely overwhelmed by this sort of excited joy at the prospect of it all. I never feel that way when the garden is actually in full flight (because that's always full of weeds and work and whatever), but this time of year? When the verrrrrrry first things are in the ground? I'll survey the garden and feel like my insides are made up entirely of excitedly wriggling puppies or something. Especially when we start eking out our first harvestable things. So far I've picked a bit of green garlic for one dinner and two rounds of chives (which now volunteer in two spots, which is great). There's been a mint explosion, so that's ready to come in, too. It's funny how, no matter how hard I try to remember the feeling exactly, I'm never prepared for the thrill of those first few harvests. I should overwinter radish seeds. If we had them in the ground all spring, I bet we'd be picking radishes right now! (Not that I'm great about eating radishes, but still!) |
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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Apr 27, 2017 16:51:06 GMT -5
I direct-sowed two dozen radish seeds last weekend (for quicker garden gratification) and I think three of them have poked some leaves out. Gonna go check on them again today.
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Post by Not a real doctor on May 5, 2017 8:37:57 GMT -5
I haven't participated much but here's my "gardening mega-post/ photo essay!" I took a new job and moved so I'm apartment-dwelling and aren't going to be around enough in the summer to justify getting a plot in the community garden. So, what to do? "Put your garden at work?", you say? Of course! I have a greenhouse, and I have a "green roof" which has suffered from several years of serious neglect:  No matter! We'll tend to that mess later! In the mean time, post spring break, I had my gen-ed environmental science class start a bunch of wacky heirloom seeds. Most of them had never actually grown anything and also come from the background of "tomatoes should be roughly 3" diameter, round, and red." So this space will also be a demonstration for the fall section of the course to show the massive diversity that can exist in fruits and vegetables. (disclaimer: I'm going to put some Romas in there because, like any sane person, I'd like to actually have some tomatoes at the end of the season, not a bunch of disease-ridden plants that only bore 3 fruits all year...). So I started them under my grow light rig:  And eventually moved them into my greenhouse and had the students do some divisions when they started to grow up (because we started 3 seeds in each cell and had almost 100% germination):   Over the weekend I came in and cleaned up the "physical junk" out of the space:  And yesterday and today in lab, they're weeding and planting it:  |
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Baron von Costume
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Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
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Post by Baron von Costume on May 7, 2017 14:13:57 GMT -5
I bought a new cherry tree this weekend. I hope it takes, would like to have my own source of cherries if my parents sell their house anytime soon.
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Post by Not a real doctor on May 15, 2017 15:57:26 GMT -5
My campus sustainability office runs a small CSA out of a garden on campus. They're giving the overabundance of seedlings I started a good home. This, actually makes me stupidly happy. Like, I feel fuckin' giddy that these kids were so happy to be gifted all of my "leftover and castoff" plants. To be fair though, it's a pretty sizeable quantity and I think they've had some heavy initial mortality on their own stuff so they were happy to have some free spares.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on May 15, 2017 19:22:18 GMT -5
That reminds me, it seems I've become quite a big wheel down at the cracker factory, er, garden club. After hosting a plant swap thread on Nextdoor for a few years, the neighborhood association asked me to put together a formal swap this past weekend at the elementary school. Not only did we get a great turnout in great weather, but people brought all sorts of cool native species, ornamentals, and edibles. We also raised $60 for our project to build pollinator stations on corners throughout the neighborhood!
Plus I managed to unload some hostas and nasturtium seedlings while scoring wild geranium (a lovely native shade plant), basil, and some kale.
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Post by The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk on May 16, 2017 9:09:10 GMT -5
Not a real doctor, that's great! It's not stupid at all to be happy about knowing your hard work is making other people happy. moimoi, I looked up pollination stations to see if they're what I think they are, and I just squeaked a little. What a wonderful idea! This weekend, my mom and I finished weeding the front garden, planted a bunch of red celosias (they look like flames and are my mom's favorite), and spread brown mulch over the whole thing. It took two bags! But it looks really nice now, and my wildflower seeds, which are sprouting, finally have a little cover from the direct sunlight that hits our front garden in the afternoon. I also got one of those window boxes that has a cutout in the bottom to fit over a sill, but instead I put it on our deck railing where it gets the most sunshine, and put oregano, rosemary, marjoram, and a jalapeno plant in there. And I bought a tomato plant that grows "patio" tomatoes, which are apparently about 3-4" inches in diameter. They seem good for beginners, and I hope that I don't screw things up! This is the first time I've ever attempted to seriously grow anything edible.
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Baron von Costume
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Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
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Post by Baron von Costume on May 16, 2017 10:34:55 GMT -5
Bumblebees are crawling all over my plum tree and the new cherry  My seedlings are still not doing great but at least a few of them are holding on. Really need to get the garden wall done this weekend so I can build things up and get things actually into the garden. |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on May 16, 2017 11:56:29 GMT -5
Our long national seedling-tending nightmare is over, for another eight or so months! We planted everything in the garden proper this past weekend! WOOOOO! This is a funny garden for us this year, in no small part because we've decided not to grow tomatoes in earnest. So we suddenly had a lot of extra room that we could just be goofy with. We put in a handful of sunflower seedlings (they were very rangy and leggy and weird, so I have my doubts about them), one tomato plant (from seeds we saved from a delicious volunteer last year), a small bed entirely of broom corn* and cosmos (totally decorative!), and some impulse celery and various types of cabbages. For the first time in years I'm feeling very casual about all of it -- I'm psyched to see how it turns out, but I'm not stressed about anything "working", if that makes any sense. Of course, there is function amongst all the frivolity. Our work this weekend included direct-sowing the pickling cucumbers and transplanting 11 types of peppers and three types of basil. Those I do want to work out.  Along with the onions that went in last month (which are looking superb; the experiment of starting them earlier than usual seems to have worked) and the garlic that is in full-on "time to harvest the green garlic" mode, the garden is building up a head of steam! *We grew broom corn as an impulse thing several years ago, and I actually had ambitions to make brooms out of them. But then it was fall, and I was busy with other stuff, and what the hell was I going to use a homemade broom for, anyway, since I don't even sweep with functional brooms. So we just enjoyed it as a decorative autumnal thing lashed in bunches to the posts of the garden fence. Anyway, it's a gorgeous plant while it's growing, and the goldfinches adored it, so I'm really hoping it'll be as statuesque, colorful, and attractive to finches this time around, too. Only now with more companion cosmos! |
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Baron von Costume
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Post by Baron von Costume on May 17, 2017 14:21:29 GMT -5
My campus sustainability office runs a small CSA out of a garden on campus. They're giving the overabundance of seedlings I started a good home. This, actually makes me stupidly happy. Like, I feel fuckin' giddy that these kids were so happy to be gifted all of my "leftover and castoff" plants. To be fair though, it's a pretty sizeable quantity and I think they've had some heavy initial mortality on their own stuff so they were happy to have some free spares. The other (meaning not my alma mater) uni here had their plant giveaway today. Limit of two per person but I managed to pick up a couple of healthy looking peppers. One was a "Ring of Fire" and the other some sort of medium heat jalapeno hybrid she said. Hopefully they'll help make up for my dismal seedling performance. |
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Post by ganews on May 18, 2017 9:08:26 GMT -5
On Tuesday we finally put some seeds in the garden: two rows of cotton, two of green beans, 2.5 of butterbeans, one of cucumbers, one of burdock. Currently planning on putting in three rows of tomato seedlings this Sunday evening, because it's supposed to be cloudy and rainy for the week after. Those conditions make me anxious to put in pepper and eggplant seedlings too, but they're still small. We always mix rows of eggplants and okra, and I'm not worried about starting okra late because it always make a ridiculous amount.
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Post by Hugs and Hisses on May 18, 2017 9:24:10 GMT -5
It's a gorgeous, sunny, hot day here, so it seemed like good time to take some pictures of the Dick 'n' Hisses Garden before it turns into a disgusting weedy poisonous toad zone.  That's the pepper/basil bed in the foreground, garlic and peas in the background, and tiny bit of the cucumber/cabbage bed to the side.  This view shows the onions, more of the cucumber/cabbage bed, and the bed in the background which has the lone tomato plant and a bunch of really sad-looking sunflower seedlings. Here's a view that shows a bit of how lush the orchard is looking, and also features Songbird, our beloved plastic raptor who does nothing to keep the dreaded Veggie Cuddler at bay:  And last not but not least, because it's not all functional edibles at Liz 'n' Dick, here's some glamour shots of The Most Beautiful Peony In The World (TM):   |
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Post by Hugs and Hisses on May 19, 2017 14:25:34 GMT -5
Those might end up being the only nice pictures of the Liz 'n' Dick garden this year. The stupid blazing hot August-in-May sun fried many of the plants, and some stupid fucking bugs (possibly pill bugs?) ate much of the rest of the seedlings I spent the last three months toiling over.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on May 19, 2017 20:29:40 GMT -5
ooo, what kind of peony is that? Mine are about to pop off... Also, I am jealous of your attractive white fence, Hugs and Hisses |
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Post by Hugs and Hisses on May 22, 2017 11:39:00 GMT -5
ooo, what kind of peony is that? Mine are about to pop off... Also, I am jealous of your attractive white fence, Hugs and HissesIt's a Coral Sunset peony, I think. I like the big ruffly ones, too, but the more restrained elegance of this one makes it my favorite by a country mile. |
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Along with the onions that went in last month (which are looking superb; the experiment of starting them earlier than usual seems to have worked) and the garlic that is in full-on "time to harvest the green garlic" mode, the garden is building up a head of steam!