Gardening: (2016– )

**Shelby** · April 11

19 minutes ago, MaryIsobel said:

My camelia is late blooming this year. I was laid up last fall so it didn't get trimmed but she perserveres!

Beautiful!

**Shelby** · April 11

Ronnie has tons going in the greenhouse. 60 tomatoes are up and I don't know how many peppers. Hopefully not as many jalapeños as last year. I still have a lot in the freezer.

Yesterday I planted 300 onion sets--100 each of yellow, white and red. And 3 rows of radishes.

I did very little today. I am sore lol.

gfweb · April 11

11 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Ronnie has tons going in the greenhouse. 60 tomatoes are up and I don't know how many peppers. Hopefully not as many jalapeños as last year. I still have a lot in the freezer.

Yesterday I planted 300 onion sets--100 each of yellow, white and red. And 3 rows of radishes.

I did very little today. I am sore lol.

Holy cow!

I could never use that many tomatoes and one radish would be a year's consumption for us

I figure to plant one or two Celebrity tomatoes and a Sweet 100. Basil, parsley, dill, rosemary and thyme.

**Shelby** · April 11

2 hours ago, gfweb said:

Holy cow!

I could never use that many tomatoes and one radish would be a year's consumption for us

I figure to plant one or two Celebrity tomatoes and a Sweet 100. Basil, parsley, dill, rosemary and thyme.

Right???!! It gives him something to do in the cold months before fishing .....I think he worries that some won't come up. We can give some away to family members. And there are years that we don't get a ton of tomatoes no matter how many we plant. We so enjoy fresh tomatoes. I dunno. I'm scared lol.

gfweb · April 12

36 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Right???!! It gives him something to do in the cold months before fishing .....I think he worries that some won't come up. We can give some away to family members. And there are years that we don't get a ton of tomatoes no matter how many we plant. We so enjoy fresh tomatoes. I dunno. I'm scared lol.

I completely understand the fear. I have a little too.

FauxPas · April 12

3 hours ago, Shelby said:

Ronnie has tons going in the greenhouse. 60 tomatoes are up and I don't know how many peppers. Hopefully not as many jalapeños as last year. I still have a lot in the freezer.

My dental hygienist was telling me that her husband planted at least 65 tomato plants last year and she was freezing, canning and dehydrating them up until November. She said she BEGGED him to plant less this year, she took a peek and he's started about 60. So I guess that is less, but still.... 🙂

gfweb · April 12

24 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

My dental hygienist was telling me that her husband planted at least 65 tomato plants last year and she was freezing, canning and dehydrating them up until November. She said she BEGGED him to plant less this year, she took a peek and he's started about 60. So I guess that is less, but still.... 🙂

He'll always have something to do. Screw around in the garden until the ball game comes on.😃

KennethT · April 12

I planted some seeds of some dried chillies I brought back from Malaysia recently. These are locally called cabe keriting - which means curly chilli - they're long and skinny and medium heat. I have no idea what they'd be called here. Every seed I tried germinated! I picked the two best ones and set them here. Hopefully it'll be warm enough inside that I get fruit set. If not, I'm thinking about putting a heat mat under it.

On the right is a rhizome - sand ginger, or kencur in Indonesian. I harvested all of my previous crop and then replanted just one of the rhizomes.

chromedome · April 16

Ate the last of the beans and kale from last year's garden last night, unless there's an overlooked bag of tomatoes lurking in the freezer somewhere. Getting to mid-April isn't bad at all. We were able to have at least some of our own homegrown vegetables on the table most nights, to complement the store-bought.

**Shelby** · April 16

Took a couple pictures of Ronnie's hard work. These are out to harden off. I hope they don't blow away--I've never seen it so consistently windy around here. I mean it's Kansas. It's always windy but this is ridiculous.

These are the little guys still inside

**Shelby** · May 5

Looks like all the onions are up. Radishes too. Planted 40 tomatoes yesterday plus 3 peppers. A few more peppers to plant. Maybe more tomatoes if we can't find someone to take the plants--have 24 of those left. Did a whole bunch of green beans this morning. Cucumbers and squash are planted too. Oh and also watermelons and cantaloupes. Asparagus going good--I planted 10 more crowns a month ago. Won't be able to eat on those for a couple of years. I'm still debating on planting corn......not doing okra because I have a ton frozen and a ton pickled still.

First of the peonies My favorite flowers

FauxPas · May 5

1 hour ago, Shelby said:

First of the peonies My favorite flowers

I adore peonies! Mine have fat buds but haven't opened yet.

Why are you debating about corn? Do you still have a lot frozen? Or is it maybe a carb thing?

I tried starting some tomato seeds in my little countertop greenhouse but it didn't seem like they were going to germinate so bought some young plants at a local nursery. A day or two later, I checked and my seeds were germinating after all, so I will have more tomato plants than I need too! But nothing like you! I only bought seven plants and have about the same number starting up. Overnight temps are still a bit variable so bringing the plants in at night for now.

I planted some snap peas because I love them so much. But I'm filling most of my pots and little raised beds with flowers this year, I want LOTS of colour on and around the deck. I started some zinnias from seed, too.

**Shelby** · May 5

33 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

I adore peonies! Mine have fat buds but haven't opened yet.

Why are you debating about corn? Do you still have a lot frozen? Or is it maybe a carb thing?

I tried starting some tomato seeds in my little countertop greenhouse but it didn't seem like they were going to germinate so bought some young plants at a local nursery. A day or two later, I checked and my seeds were germinating after all, so I will have more tomato plants than I need too! But nothing like you! I only bought seven plants and have about the same number starting up. Overnight temps are still a bit variable so bringing the plants in at night for now.

I planted some snap peas because I love them so much. But I'm filling most of my pots and little raised beds with flowers this year, I want LOTS of colour on and around the deck. I started some zinnias from seed, too.

Regarding the corn, yeah, mostly the carb thing. I do so love our garden corn but it all comes ready at once.....and yeah, I still have some frozen. If I could plant like 4 seeds and they'd germinate, I'd do that but I don't think that will work.

Your tomatoes look good!

I should be like you and plant flowers, I just never do. I want to plant more peonies.

JoNorvelleWalker · May 6

I perused the Burpee site today. I'm allowed to have one plant on my balcony, or maybe two. I would love tomatoes. There is a sale. But from Burpee one has to order plants in multiples of three. I'm not sure I have the energy. Or the funds.

BeeZee · May 6

@JoNorvelleWalker, you can get small tomato plants at Shoprite or Home Depot, if you aren’t too fixed on a particular variety.

KennethT · May 6

8 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I perused the Burpee site today. I'm allowed to have one plant on my balcony, or maybe two. I would love tomatoes. There is a sale. But from Burpee one has to order plants in multiples of three. I'm not sure I have the energy. Or the funds.

I'd also recommend Laurel's Heirloom Tomato plants. They have an amazing variety and you can buy just one plant (or you could years ago back when I did so - I don't know if they've changed their policy).

JoNorvelleWalker · May 7

14 hours ago, KennethT said:

I'd also recommend Laurel's Heirloom Tomato plants. They have an amazing variety and you can buy just one plant (or you could years ago back when I did so - I don't know if they've changed their policy).

"Minimum order is four (4) plants." Though I really enjoyed reading about the varieties.

dcarch · May 8

On 5/6/2025 at 10:45 PM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

"Minimum order is four (4) plants." Though I really enjoyed reading about the varieties.

I am growing 66 tomato plants this year. two plants per variety. I feel bad that I had may be 20 extra seedlings leftover which I composted. Those were big 10 to 14 inch tall seedling I started under LED lights. A few were already blossoming.

I wish there is an efficient way I could ship some to you from NY.

I am way behind in getting my garden in shape. Unexpected things happened, like the rototiller not working

dcarch

chromedome · May 10

A quick look at some of the early blossoms around our property. We have a whopping two red trilliums at the edge of the woods to the south of our house, but I'm happy to have any. They're very beautiful while they last.

One of the previous owners planted lots of these little blue guys, which have happily naturalized and have now spread for some distance along the northern edge of the property. I'm fairly confident in calling one grape hyacinths, though they're on the small side. The other I believe to be Siberian squill or maybe striped squill, in the darker of its two colour schemes, though I'm open to correction on both.

Some of you may remember me grumbling humorously that my garden's native soil might more accurately be described as "dirty gravel"? Well, this is what the surface of a bed looks like after a winter's precipitation.

I reckon if I keep scooping this stuff from the top of my beds, eventually I'll have nice graveled paths between them.

I've got most of my beds weeded now, with some help from our little grandson (age 7) who has learned that helping Papa means more time together kicking a soccer ball around. I've got a few early things planted over the past week: a row of peas, several of kale, and one of lettuces. Hoping to get other "as soon as the ground can be worked" seeds going, as soon as the bloody rain stops.

My tomatoes, peppers and okra are doing fine in my closet, under a Sun Blaster tube, and should be ready to go in another couple of weeks when we get to "all danger of frost has passed."

I don't recall if I'd mentioned it previously, but my daughter gifted me a pair of hardy magnolias as an early Father's Day present. They're the "Leonard Messel" hybrid, and I know for sure they'll survive and thrive in our climate because I've seen mature specimens in a few yards around our immediate vicinity.

https://www.monrovia.com/leonard-messel-magnolia.html

KennethT · May 10

An update for my photo from about a month ago.

This is the cabe keriting (long curly chilli) plant - with flowers:

I've been pollinating the flowers manually - hopefully I'll get some chillies!!! I don't think they exist in the USA - at least that I can find.

This is the kencur (sand ginger) - originally in the solo cup it had about one leaf or so... it had really started to fill out in the solo cup so I gave it some more room in a 1 gallon fabric pot. The rhizome grows really slowly, so this is still probably only 1 rhizome with more leaves/shoots.

These are what they call cabe rawit in Indonesia - typically translated as Thai chillies, they're a lot more plump than a standard thai chilli so I'm curious as to how these will do.

FauxPas · May 11

12 hours ago, chromedome said:

I don't recall if I'd mentioned it previously, but my daughter gifted me a pair of hardy magnolias as an early Father's Day present.

I adore all magnolias! Such a sweet gift from your daughter. 🙂

Have you decided where you will plant them?

FauxPas · May 11

4 hours ago, KennethT said:

I've been pollinating the flowers manually - hopefully I'll get some chillies!!! I don't think they exist in the USA - at least that I can find.

Wow, it's always interesting to see what you are doing in your indoor garden and hope you will keep sharing how things go!

chromedome · May 11

1 hour ago, FauxPas said:

I adore all magnolias! Such a sweet gift from your daughter. 🙂

Have you decided where you will plant them?

They're still very small, so I'm going to keep them in pots for another couple of years until they're bigger and sturdier (potting up regularly as they grow, of course). They'll need lots of sun but also some degree of shelter; in our climate they need a favorable microclimate so we'll need to work around that and also their mature size of 10-20 feet in height and diameter.

If all goes as we hope and intend, we're going to build a second house on a back corner of the property. It'll be designed from ground up for accessibility and "aging in place," and it'll be set partially into the hillside. We think we may ultimately plant them so that they frame this new house from the front, because that spot would combine the desired shelter (from the hill and the woods) in one direction, and also give them the maximum quantity of sunlight.

FauxPas · May 11

On 5/5/2025 at 7:17 AM, Shelby said:

First of the peonies My favorite flowers

On 5/5/2025 at 8:50 AM, FauxPas said:

I adore peonies! Mine have fat buds but haven't opened yet.

And suddenly they are open! My favourite is this coral one, I just love the colour.

**Shelby** · May 12

16 hours ago, FauxPas said:

And suddenly they are open! My favourite is this coral one, I just love the colour.

GORGEOUS!!!

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