Gardening: 2015-2016

[ElainaA]

@Wayne  Nice!

[HungryChris]

After seeing some deer nearby the house and a rabbit, while getting the paper yesterday, it was time to put up the temporary fence.

HC

[dcarch]

No one is doing electric fence?

 

dcarch

[kayb]

Years ago, Daddy did electric fence on our garden. Deer jumped it. He took to sitting on the deck with a shotgun around dusk and sunrise. Didn't take long for the deer to clue in.

[djyee100]

Fava, thanks for the pix. Could you tell us generally where you live? I'm curious about what people are growing in the different places in the world.

 

Shelby, artichokes like the warm even temperatures of coastal areas in Mediterranean climates. But new hybrids and/or some extra effort are supposed to work in cold weather places. I googled "artichokes for cold climates"

https://www.google.com/#q=artichokes+for+cold+climates 

 

Recently I saw artichokes growing in the front yards of a street in Berkeley. A wise choice. Neither people nor deer will touch them. Them thistles look mean.

 

Kenneth T, I love your garden. It's like a spaceship garden in science fiction.

 

Everybody's pix are enjoyable to see. I'll try to get some pix up eventually of my little gardens, i.e, the front and back decks of my townhouse condo. I did a lot a transplanting and repotting this spring, and everything still looks small, ragged, and recovering from the moves.

[kayb]

I have harvested:

 

 

First fruits of the 2016 crop, if you don't count the herbs I've been snipping for a month. I ate them.

 

I started, in fact, to eat them right on the spot. But I remembered my daughter's warning, "Mama, you wash that stuff before you eat it. You know Jack (the attack Yorkie) pees on all of it."

 

I figured she had a good point, so I brought them in and washed them off, and ate them standing in the kitchen in front of the sink. They were glorious.

 

In other garden news, if squash blossoms are any indicator, I ought to have a bumper crop of yellow crookneck this summer. Zucchini, and my cucumbers, are a little behind the yellow ones.

 

Edited June 6, 2016 by kayb (log)

[Shelby]

Yay!!!!  I'm so glad for you, Kay   Such a rewarding feeling and I know that you worked hard for them--and I know that you've had a lot of gardening in your early years and were sick of it.  Your mom and dad are up there smiling  

[IndyRob]

On ‎6‎/‎5‎/‎2016 at 8:54 PM, ElainaA said:

Well, in this thread rather than a forum, if you have questions about basil or arugula, I grow both. So just ask.

 

Well, I do have some basil growing, but that's not where my questions are.  More along the lines of grapes and mulberries.

[Fava]

6 hours ago, djyee100 said:

Fava, thanks for the pix. Could you tell us generally where you live? I'm curious about what people are growing in the different places in the world.

 

I live in north east NJ, ca 15 min. away from New York City.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

13 hours ago, Wayne said:

I stopped harvesting asparagus two weeks ago, I planted some of last years seeds to extend the bed and those are coming up in the foreground.

 

 

Aww, baby asparagus! Asparagus is somewhere near the very top of my long list of favorite veggies, but this is my first glimpse of infant seedlings, so thanks, Wayne, and for the rest of the pictures of your lovely garden.

 

6 hours ago, djyee100 said:

Kenneth T, I love your garden. It's like a spaceship garden in science fiction.

 

If you are thinking of "Silent Running" 1972, cool movie. If not, and if you are into spaceship gardens, you need to see this movie.

 

djyee100, I'll be looking forward to photos of your deck gardens.

[Wayne]

9 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

 

Aww, baby asparagus! Asparagus is somewhere near the very top of my long list of favorite veggies, but this is my first glimpse of infant seedlings, so thanks, Wayne, and for the rest of the pictures of your lovely garden.

 

 

Thanks. If you look at the photo closely notice the dots on the left side. Those are the berries (which will eventually turn red) which contain 8-12 seeds each and each seed can start a seedling.

 

I remember 'Silent Running'. Classic Bruce Dern.

 

[dcarch]

1 hour ago, Wayne said:

 

Thanks. If you look at the photo closely notice the dots on the left side. Those are the berries (which will eventually turn red) which contain 8-12 seeds each and each seed can start a seedling.

 

-

 

 

Those are female plants. You should remove female plants because they are not as productive as male plants.

 

dcarch

[rotuts]

have you tried to start an Asp. from seed ?  hope you succeed   its very difficult to do, which is why crowns are sold.

Edited June 7, 2016 by rotuts (log)

[Wayne]

 

In reply to dcarch and rotuts.

 

Removing female plants would be counterproductive. I'd have to purchase crowns and wait 2 years to start harvesting. This way I slowly increase the size of the asparagus beds with my own seed (and have been doing so for a number of years). I wouldn't say it is very difficult but it is difficult however the fun is doing it. The more difficult the journey the more enjoyable the destination.

 

 

[dcarch]

1 hour ago, Wayne said:

 

In reply to dcarch and rotuts.

 

Removing female plants would be counterproductive. I'd have to purchase crowns and wait 2 years to start harvesting. This way I slowly increase the size of the asparagus beds with my own seed (and have been doing so for a number of years). I wouldn't say it is very difficult but it is difficult however the fun is doing it. The more difficult the journey the more enjoyable the destination.

 

 

Look at it this way, for a small plot of asparagus, I would not start seeds from unknown parentage.

I would do a little research and buy seeds which have qualities I like. I would want to optimize for the next 10, 20, 30 years of production.

Just MHO.

 

dcarch

[Tere]

Finally we had rain last night, and the veggie plot has gone bananas.

 

Basil is finally sprouting! \o/

 

My reward for weeding was the first two of the Alpine strawberries.

[Shelby]

Pickage today.  First cucumber.

 

Newman loves lettuce.

 

[Okanagancook]

He looks like a wee fellow, that cuc.

Murdered before his time.

[Shelby]

20 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

He looks like a wee fellow, that cuc.

Murdered before his time.

 

  Well, in my defense, it is a pickling cucumber.

[Okanagancook]

Ok, you are forgiven.

i pulled my snap pea and regular pea plants yesterday...turning brown/no flowers.  I shall plant more as I think we have time for another crop.

 

[Smithy]

4 hours ago, Okanagancook said:

....

i pulled my snap pea and regular pea plants yesterday...turning brown/no flowers.  I shall plant more as I think we have time for another crop.

 

 

What different timing we have!  I just yesterday decided it was warm enough to plant my tomatoes and herbs in pots too large to bring inside at night. Those plants were all started in (someone else's) greenhouses, but we had frost warnings earlier this week.

[Okanagancook]

No kidding.  I'm in growing zone 6 or 7.  I planted my peas in the first week of March.  I started my zucchini plants in the greenhouse in late March and I am harvesting zucs everyday now.  I'm starting to plant more butter lettuce in the greenhouse to set outside when they are rooted well and I've got lovely baby bok choy in the fridge.  Also planting more of those in the greenhouse.  Should be getting some potatoes in about two weeks and my garlic just needs to dry out and it is ready for harvest.  Normally I harvest my garlic in the third week of July.  I should mention that the Okanagan is about two to three weeks ahead of normal.  Should be another phenomenal vintage for our local wineries.

[Deryn]

I have arrived back in Nova Scotia to barely spring temperatures (which is nice because when I left NC it was already hotter than mid-summer ever gets here). We have had mid-40s (since Monday) to (today) higher 50s - and rain every day except today. The 100 year old rhubarb that a month ago was barely peeking from the ground has blooms that I need to go out and get rid of asap. It is well over 3 feet high now and the leaves are gigantic. Too darned bad the leaves are dangerous or I would be using them to wrap very large fish I think.

 

Today I took a trip to the next small town and picked up some berry bushes - blueberry, raspberry, gooseberry, red currants, and black currants. No elderberry at that hardware store unfortunately - I shall have to search further afield for those but I am determined to get at least one of those in this summer. Now trying to decide where to site them so they will get through this first winter and become 'native'. Just as I do in NC (where before I left I planted some rosemary, thyme, and basil to be left to nature's care) I give lots of love to my garden - for the first day - and after that it is on its own. Luckily I don't plant in a dry environment because I don't even water. I leave it all up to God and nature - and usually they come through for me.

 

Did a big favour for my next door neighbour when I was down south (one which involved a significant cash outlay and 14 hours driving into WV and back) and suggested that perhaps he might drop over with his tiller soon (since I was not able to bring mine back this trip as I had hoped to do). Was told it was not working ... but then the wife phoned me later and said that suddenly he was out working on the tiller and would probably be showing up on a nice day in the near future - but I should act surprised when that happened because it was a secret.  She is a sweet lady but definitely is the town gossip. At any rate, I will probably get a late start here but it looks as though the season is not lost for me after all.

[Wayne]

 

I haven't had time to take and post photos however I've been busy harvesting: lettuce, herbs, bokchoy and tatsoi. I've had to harvest and freeze most of the bokchoy and tatsoi (leaving a few plants of each for seed) as it is bolting. None of the lettuce has bolted yet so knock on wood. Also started thinning the kale and collards. Spring radishes long gone and succeeded by beans. Started a garlic scape lacto-fermentation yesterday so we'll see how that goes.

 

Best guess is I'll have bush beans, beets and kohlrabi in 2 weeks or a little more.

 

The real disappointment this season was snap peas. Just not growing.

 

Really looking forward to the first tomatoes and hot peppers for the first "garden shakshuka" of 2016.

 

 

[djyee100]

I'm growing in zone 9. I was talking to a friend about this forum, how everybody else has flourishing gardens, and I've barely started in the last month. I'm living in a place without winter! What's my excuse?

 

I don't have one.

 

 

This year's herb garden on the front deck. I potted up most of these plants only in the last week or so. Genovese basil, Italian oregano, marjoram, French thyme, English thyme, creeping winter savory, chives, and Italian parsley. Also in the pic, Alpine strawberry (fraises des bois) and culinary lavenders, which have bloomed and been pruned a bit.

 

I separated out the shoot growing underneath my curry leaf tree (Murraya koenigii), which I keep for Indian cooking. I couldn't tell if the shoot was a sucker or a seedling. It separated easily from the mother plant and had its own twisty little root. So far it is growing well in its own pot...seems to like its new independence. You can see it in the northeast corner of the pic.

 

The flashy green and red "palm" next to the curry leaf plant is a tree begonia native to the Brazilian rainforest (begonia luxurians). My impulse buy at the nursery this year.

 

 

A scruffy back deck where most of the plants are recovering from transplanting or repotting. Last year during the drought I had a Monterey pine tree removed from here. Its invasive root system was sucking up all the water and killing the other plants. Now the area is sunny. I've moved many of my container plants into the ground here.

 

In pots on the deck, my kaffir lime tree (moved from the front deck), a bay laurel shrub (Laurus nobilis), 'Spice Islands' rosemary (which I'm having a hard time growing), and a couple cowslip plants. The cowslips are English wildflowers, the source for cowslip wine, that were my impulse buy last year. I expected them to die from the deer or the drought. The deer didn't bother them, and incredibly, the plants survived one of the worst droughts in California history. I put them in pots a couple weeks ago. They're the two pots at the edge of the deck.