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What have you planted ? ....


rhino
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spring has been cool and damp here in western Illinois

today I finally planted some things ...

Here's the list ...

  • cockscombs, hollyhocks, zinnias, old fashioned variety packs ... all from seed
  • about 40 bean seeds ... derby I think
  • maybe 80 sweet corn, candy corn?
  • and a bunch of black Simpson's lettuce ... I broadcast it with other stuff to keep weeds subdued, and it dies off for summer (or I eat it or hoe it) so it doesn't compete later
  • sunflowers are coming up volunteer from last year
  • still need to buy my tomato plants
  • want to do some honeydew and muskmelon and watermelon a little later
  • plan to take some grape cuttings and start new vines this year also ... Frontenac ... they will sprout in your pocket, and good to 40 below over winter ... :)

I guess that is enough to keep me busy ...

How does your garden grow?

Edited by rhino
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I wish I knew how to garden. I don't like flowers because they attract bees but I love vegtables. Home grown tomatos, green peppers, yum. I actually bought some opium poppie seeds (Papaver somniferum) because I thought I could grow them and slice open the pods and smoke them when I get my cramps, but I found out that although it's legal to buy the seeds it's illegal to grow them and I just don't want to take the chance. Although I'm sure people do grow them.

Edited by RottieGrrrl
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The usual...

Tomatoes (Roma and cherry), winter and summer squash, green peppers, jalapenos, cayenne, okra, cucumbers, beans, peas, beets, onions and tobacco.

I used to plant a lot of potatoes and corn but since I've cut way back on eating starches, I no longer plant them.

Herbs include rosemary, cilantro, stevia, thyme and cumin. Garlic grows wild here, which is why we've never had any vampires here in the Ozarks, so I don't mess with that.

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Garlic grows wild here, which is why we've never had any vampires here in the Ozarks, so I don't mess with that.

Must be why the Clintons left! :biglaugh:

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So far I've only gotten my squashes, yellow, butternut, acorn etc in and my onions and cukes. I was finishing them off in the dark, covering them up. I still have two trays of carrots, tarragon, leeks and broccoli. Then I have my peas, green beans, corn and others still as seeds waiting. We've had a wet spring. I still have to get my tomatoe plants. My grapes are leafing out just fine and I figure it will take about two more years to cover the arbor, so that I can be like Cleopatra, eating my grapes and spitting out the pips as my dream weaver takes my on my flights of fancy. Cough! Cough!

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Fellow gardeners on this site!!! Blessings abound! We better garden considering the price of fuel. Hopefully folks know how to can and have deep freezers to hold you over until next summer. Remember, don't buy hybrids. You want to keep seed. Hybrids don't reproduce and if they do they are reluctant and are mutant. Above all don't use chemicals in the garden. Compost, compost, compost.

The romaine and green leaf has been abundant. Clip it back and it keeps on coming. These kind of greens require considerable attention. They love water and need nutrition to continue producing. Thank God for compost. The early snow (an oxymoron here in the deep sunny south) peas were sweet because we have had rain. Gonna harvest cabbage in a couple of weeks. I make kraut. It cures what ails ya. It freezes very well, also. The wonderful thing about greens they can be produced and harvested twice a year. In the cool coming off of winter and the cool going into winter. Many, many foods are in this category. Wonder if Father God had a reason when He created these foods...hhhmmm...

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Nice gardens Ron and BrideofJC ...

Some good ideas kimberly ... I use roundup before I plant, to knock out all the weeds that are there. No chemicals is possible, but seems a lot more work to me. I haven't saved seed much, but that is a reasonable idea for the serious gardner. Of course with all this round-up ready corn and soybeans, you have to agree not to save your seed for growing next year.

Good points on the lettuce ... I'm not that diligent and by summer my lettuce is going to seed and getting tough.

I'm not quite ready for canning or even freezing too much, but with oil so high, food has gotten more expensive, so saving more of what we grow starts to make more "cents". I saved three boxes of butternut squash, but never even used one ... oh well ... :)

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I haven't gardened in a long time, but I saw a tv commercial where they were selling these hanging tubes that you can grow tomatoes and other vegies and plants in.  I was very inspired to try them, untill I started doing some research on them and found that they really don't have a good track record of working.

So, I'm thinking I can do the same with some elevated planters, maybe just tomatoes in one and chili peppers in the other, I would love to do strawberries, but I think it gets too hot here.  

Anyone here have experience with planter vegies?  I could use some tips.

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I haven't gardened in a long time, but I saw a tv commercial where they were selling these hanging tubes that you can grow tomatoes and other vegies and plants in.  I was very inspired to try them, untill I started doing some research on them and found that they really don't have a good track record of working.

Yes! I was tempted by the same commercial, the upside down tomatos. I did research as well and I found mixed reviews so I nixed the idea. I'm wondering if anyone here has tried them.

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I don't know about the upside down tomatoes but my Dad always planted his tomatoes in a furrow.

You lay them down horizontally and cover just the roots. Then, after they right themselves vertically you mulch around the base.

That's supposed to make for a strong stem base. I don't know if it really makes that much difference but it never seemed to hurt them.

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Nice gardens Ron and BrideofJC ...

Some good ideas kimberly ... I use roundup before I plant, to knock out all the weeds that are there. No chemicals is possible, but seems a lot more work to me. I haven't saved seed much, but that is a reasonable idea for the serious gardner. Of course with all this round-up ready corn and soybeans, you have to agree not to save your seed for growing next year.

Good points on the lettuce ... I'm not that diligent and by summer my lettuce is going to seed and getting tough.

I'm not quite ready for canning or even freezing too much, but with oil so high, food has gotten more expensive, so saving more of what we grow starts to make more "cents". I saved three boxes of butternut squash, but never even used one ... oh well ... :)

When your squashes are coming in to maturity, this is when you want to bake them, scrape out the shells and then freeze if you have the room. Canning isn't that difficult and I see it as a must and I am so thankful that my Grandma taught my Mom and she taught me how to do it, it's hot in my kitchen during that time, but come winter, when everyone else is eating store bought stuff....mmmmmm.....I'm eating almost fresh.

I don't know about the upside down tomatoes but my Dad always planted his tomatoes in a furrow.

You lay them down horizontally and cover just the roots. Then, after they right themselves vertically you mulch around the base.

That's supposed to make for a strong stem base. I don't know if it really makes that much difference but it never seemed to hurt them.

Hmmm....I've just always planted them upright and staked them and used my old nylons as the ties to the stake.

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I've put out a lot of flowers, and just transplanted some day lillies I got from a friend. As for my edible grden, my dill is growing like wildflowers, and I've already seen the first crop of swallowtail caterpillars on it! My chives, garlic, fennel, coriander, basil, lambs ear, spearmint, lemon balm, and catnip are all doing well too. My tiller bit the dust, so my veggie garden won't be as large this year as I'm doing everything by hand, but I've got several tomatoes (roma, grape, and better boy's) and strawberries going well, and my swiss chard is coming up. My yellow squash already has blooms, as do my cukes! After the rain passes this afternoon, I'm going to go plant my green beans and purple hulls. Usually, I have corn, and I'll do 4 rows about 12' long, and once the corn gets growing good, I'll plant my beans alongside and they use the corn for a trellis. I usually plant my corn on top of fish heads and guts (sounds appetizing, I know) but I haven't even been fishing once yet this year.

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The temp still drops into the mid thirties here(Rockies) so all my plants are still indoors. I'll begin getting them hardened this week, and hopefully all will be in the ground by the end of May, though I will still need to cover them some nights.

We do have garlic growing, we'll havest it in July. We grow peppers, tomatoes, salad greens, many herbs(some of those are up--sage, thyme, chives, mints, lavendar, motherwort, horseradish) rhubbarb, summer squash and cucumbers, broccoli, green beans and peas. Basil grows well here and we grow lots of it to make pesto.

I do grow flowers, right now I have hyacinth, tulips and daffodills up. I have sunflowers, morning glories and gazania plants to transplant. I want to add a heritiage yellow climbing rose. a English daisy, and a chokecherry for the backyard this year. I always buy a few flowers flats, mostly impatiens for the shade, and I like geraniums outside, too.

I have some hardy wildflowers around too, mostly bellflowers, some columbine and some volunteer sweetpeas.

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My wife plants all sorts of things. I think her primary motive, though, is to make it as hard for me to mow the lawn as possible! (Let's see...his mower has a 22" blade, so if I plant things 18" apart and 20" from the fence line...)

One thing to remember: plant what works for your climate and soil. For instance, apples and pears don't grow in southern Texas, because they need a winter freeze. You won't see any maple trees down here, either! A local radio gardening expert (Randy Lemmon) always warns Yankee transplants that all the trees and flowers they grew up with are not going to do well here.

George

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We still have "snow on Peavine" (the mountain you can see from here). Tomatoes in the house.

Plenty of weeding to do. That's mostly what I do in the garden -- weed. Fighting the goatheads is a continual battle.

My long-lasting rose (planted when we first moved here 15 years ago) didn't make it through the winter. But things are starting to sprout. IT's really tough getting things to grow here out in high windy desert high alkaline soil. Plus the guy who owned this place before us sprayed oil on the dirt to kill the weeds. But been mulching for years and things are growing now.

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Linda ... I like those yellow flowers, but the seed head that pops up is kinda ugly ... little purple violets in the yard ore nice too ... I'm letting some wooded areas go "native" ... which the deer like for cover ...

George ... maybe if you helped your wife plant she would not torment you so ... :biglaugh: But as to the maple trees .. that reminds me, I have several thousand that popped up this year for some reason. I may try to kill off the grass (treflan?) and keep the trees ... then thin them in the fall when I see which ones have the prettiest fall colors. Then in three years sell a thousand for $20 each ... :)

Hey George, you're a Yankee transplant ... you're doing well down there ...

Kit ... sorry about your rose, maybe it will send up a shoot? ... could you get a truckload of good soil for your garden spot?

Gardens seem good for the soul .. you can enjoy them when the rest of the world is in turmoil ...

Edited by rhino
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I never did any gardening in the past, but with the increasing cost of food, how unsafe commercial food is, and other factors I decided to try out a small garden this year. So we're growing hothouse tomatoes, serrano peppers, zucchini, and cantaloupe. We also planted a variety of flowers, but we're having some issues with our yard and focusing less on our garden right now. We have some problems, such as the discovery (when I planted the garden) that the builder of the house didn't put any topsoil down on top of the clay when they put the sod. So now we're going to try putting soil on top and hope that we don't have to end up re-sodding our grass. We also are having an issue that I didn't think happened here in Texas -- slime molds. For some reason, it appears that the mulch I bought is a haven for this stuff, so I get these huge bright yellow blobs appearing out of nowhere in our flowerbeds where I put down the mulch.

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I am great with flowers but for some reason I've had a really lousy track record with veggies. Can any of you recommend a good beginners basic veggie gardening guide book?

Highway, just plant zucchini.....It will grow so much, you'll be giving them away and eventually you'll be stuck with the rest.....because people will be tired of getting them from you. Just after they get some really long runners, clip off the ends to stem their growth so that they produce the fruit. It's hard to mess up zucchini! :rolleyes:

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Small plot, was a lawn till I gave away the turf. Now got lots of well-rotted hoss muck in it. Bit late in the season for doing this so some plants may not like it.

New plot currently contains:

Runner beans - 2 varieties

Rhubarb

3 raspberry bushes (2 of which not showing signs of life - kept in a bucket of water too long perhaps)

1 gooseberry bush (another one in another part of the garden in flower border (!))

Short row radish

Short row beetroot

Short row salad leaves

Short row Little Gem lettuce

In seed trays:

Lots of leeks - if they all come up there will be over 100

Lots of onions - if they all come up there will be over 100

On window sill:

2 cucumber seeds (threw a cuc in the compost and seedlings sprouted a few days later)

Herb garden:

Basil, parsley, thyme, lemon balm. The coriander got eaten by the slugs

Coming today:

1 chilli

Tomato plant(s)

Elsewhere:

Lots of sweet peas

Foxgloves, hebes, grannies' bonnet, rose of sharon, heaps of other plants both flowering and shrubby.

Would like a fruit tree (maybe a small apple or a plum) but other things are more pressing at present.

Friends are having an extension built over a border which has some nice plants and shrubs in it so I will be uplifting some of those shortly. These are to go in a shrub border which I am currently trying to clear of ground elder but it seems this noxious plant thrives on Round-up. Also in the shrub border are 4 leylandii which I chop bits off periodically. Would love to extract the stumps but no idea how to do that.

Seeing what else I can get in the vege line, from Freecycle or from friends.

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Small plot, was a lawn till I gave away the turf. Now got lots of well-rotted hoss muck in it. Bit late in the season for doing this so some plants may not like it.

New plot currently contains:

Runner beans - 2 varieties

Rhubarb

3 raspberry bushes (2 of which not showing signs of life - kept in a bucket of water too long perhaps)

1 gooseberry bush (another one in another part of the garden in flower border (!))

Short row radish

Short row beetroot

Short row salad leaves

Short row Little Gem lettuce

In seed trays:

Lots of leeks - if they all come up there will be over 100

Lots of onions - if they all come up there will be over 100

On window sill:

2 cucumber seeds (threw a cuc in the compost and seedlings sprouted a few days later)

Herb garden:

Basil, parsley, thyme, lemon balm. The coriander got eaten by the slugs

Coming today:

1 chilli

Tomato plant(s)

Elsewhere:

Lots of sweet peas

Foxgloves, hebes, grannies' bonnet, rose of sharon, heaps of other plants both flowering and shrubby.

Would like a fruit tree (maybe a small apple or a plum) but other things are more pressing at present.

Friends are having an extension built over a border which has some nice plants and shrubs in it so I will be uplifting some of those shortly. These are to go in a shrub border which I am currently trying to clear of ground elder but it seems this noxious plant thrives on Round-up. Also in the shrub border are 4 leylandii which I chop bits off periodically. Would love to extract the stumps but no idea how to do that.

Seeing what else I can get in the vege line, from Freecycle or from friends.

You pay for a backhoe man to come in and hoist it up. Or you can go the slower route, and buy a chemical that rots the roots and let nature take its course. You're helpful Ace Hardware person can help or a Farm and Home type store.

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Lots and lots of black-eyed susans, daisies and other perennials all around the house, a few other flower seeds that I got real cheap off ebay last fall and kept in the fridge over winter in hopes of fakin' them out.

In the veggie garden: sweet corn, roma & big boy tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers so far. May add a few more things as I really love gardening. The rhubarb came back up strong and this is the first year my lilacs are actually blooming!!! I put them in 3 years ago and we had a hard freeze too late in the spring for them to bloom last year. Oh, I love lilacs!!! One of the best reasons to endure winter, in my not so humble.

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