Gardening: 2002-2009 Seasons

[Dukeofyork]

As fall and winter approaches, I have new gardening question: what vegetables can you grow indoors? Which ones work best?

[mrbigjas]

By the way - does anyone else own a dog that eats raspberries?  I couldn't figure out why the wild raspberries everywhere else were doing so well and our crop was so light.  I finally caught our husky eating ours!  It's both funny and aggravating to watch him delicately nibble a cane, stripping the berries as he goes, with nary a leaf lost or a thorn in his mouth.  Since he's a doggie teenager, and I'm always telling him "no" about something really important (my sorrel, my watering can, the cats), I let him have his fun and went foraging elsewhere.

←

i can't believe it too me several weeks to see this--smithy, we used to have a dog who ate vegetables. she loved peas and green beans especially, although she wasn't shy about picking tomatoes. she used to walk along the rows eating the ripe fruit off the plants, leaving the unripe stuff. very discriminating.

[boticella]

Well here I go, my first post on magnificent EG forum, after having just finished reading all 29, yes, twenty-nine pages of gardening . Applause and felicitations this way, please.

I know I had something of essence to share with y'all but im spent now, so I will return later, I do have lotsa questions about, ohh, tomatoes, squash, compost, figs, and having discovered 4 watermelon beauties from a plant neither one of us remebers planting creep into the tomato cages, well, watermelon questions too.

[Smithy]

Welcome, boticela, and congratulations on your tenacity! This is a good place to ask questions, get and give answers, and share triumphs...

...

as well as lamentations....

My cherry tomatoes are about done, though they were good. So far I've gotten 5 ripe large tomatoes from my plants. Every one has been mealy, as though it perhaps got too much water. Could I have overwatered the plant? Or was it the growing season or the soil?

Edited September 8, 2005 by Smithy (log)

[Toliver]

I thought I would bump this back up since it's that time of year again up here in the Northern Hemisphere.

So what are you planting for eating and cooking purposes this growing season?

[Basilgirl]

Well, we've already been enjoying the spinach The Basilman planted, especially in salads with lots'o'bacon. He also planted a mess of other greens. I'm sure this year will be the usual overkill of 100 tomato plants and at least 100 pepper plants. I'm still using last year's bounty.

He must be stopped.

[Lori in PA]

I finally planted a couple of kinds of lettuce and Ruby Swiss Chard yesterday. The tarragon, chives, and sorrel are up and the rosemary survived the winter this year -- yay!

[christine007]

We had great luck last year with acorn and butternut squash, tomatos, peppers zuchinni and cabbage.

we didn't get a lot of rain so the cucumbers not so much. The lettuce went nuts,and it reseeded itself so we had two crops.

I'll post some pictures later.

I'd love to share our gardening experiences!

Edited April 4, 2006 by christine007 (log)

[suzilightning]

we're supposed to have snow flurries tonight and tomorrow...

i hate spring.

in nw nj we don't even plant pansies until the middle of may - though my primroses are doing well in the west facing kitchen window...

i need my herbs and i bought my morning glory seeds

[jackal10]

So far:

Eating the last of the leeks and overwintered rainbow chard

In the UK spring is late, cold and wet. Still getting frosts

Sown outside: Broad (fava) beans; Peas (purple podded)

Probably plant seed potatos (arran pilot, and purple) this weekend

Overwintered garlic is showing

Moved the cardoons to make way for a new Asparagus bed (Purple Pacific)

Inside: Tomatoes (Sungold, Gardeners Delight, Brandywine)

Chillis: Thai Dragon, Prarie Fire (ornamental as well)

Lettuce: Winter Density, Buttercrunch, Lollo Rosso

Basils

Cleaned up the strawberry bed and the raspberries.

[ninetofive]

It's still pretty chilly here in the Boston area. Rhubarb is just starting to poke out of the ground. In the herb garden the first bit of sorrel is ready for soup, the chives are looking good, and my thyme is starting to green up. And we're getting our first dandelion greens in the lawn. Yum! My Round-up spraying neighbors think I'm nuts.

In the veg garden we planted peas on March 17. I'm going to plant some mesclun and lettuces later this week, now that we've rabbit proofed our small garden with a fence this weekend. Indoors I've started plum tomatoes, basil, Italian parsley, watermelon (for my son), and assorted chili peppers by seed. Maybe near the end of the month I'll put in carrots, radish, and parsnips. I'm trying not to go too crazy -- we belong to a CSA and by July I'll be overwhelmed with produce.

Question: I bought some sprouting sunchokes at the grocery store last week and planted them. I figured by early winter I'll have tubers to harvest. Is this going to work? Will they grow at all? Will I have to wait a year for harvest?

[snowangel]

Tis the season when I take my first cup of coffee out in the yard, down on my haunches, peering for the sites of spring. I have rhubarb nubs, and my chives are poking through. I need to clear some debris away. I never clean out the garden in the fall except for tomato plants, preferring to enjoy any winter interest some of these plants provide.

It is an exciting season, and will get even more exciting over the next few months, but I'm not likely to plant many plants until Memorial Day weekend when we are out of frost danger. But, my fingernails are screaming for dirt!

[tejon]

Is it crazy to already be planning a garden for a back yard I don't own yet? I can't wait to get my hands in the dirt and start!

[snowangel]

Is it crazy to already be planning a garden for a back yard I don't own yet? I can't wait to get my hands in the dirt and start!

←

No. We made the offer on our house on Christmas Eve. The yard was covered with snow (and little did we realize when the listing said "wait til you see the yard" they meant just wait and see how much work you'll have to do on this neglected piece of property) and when I took breaks from getting ready to move, it was all about planning the garden.

I even arranged with the buyers that I could go back in the spring and split some perennials -- both herbs and flowers. My chives and rhubarb came from my folks house and they came from my grandmother's farm, so I can't begin to guess how old they are and how many times they've been split.

[sparrowgrass]

I finally got the tiller fired up and running, and tilled about half the garden last night.

This afternoon, I will plant peas and potatoes, lettuce and spinach.

Has anyone played with Google Earth? Neat program of satellite photos, allows you to "fly" to different places.

My garden is so big, you can see it from outer space!!

Sparrowgrass Hill

The two rectangles in the middle of the photo are my house (left) and garden (right).

The bright white line is the neighbor's drive, just above the house and garden.

Too bad it looks so flat--this country is pretty lumpy!

[christine007]

That's a cool picture, Sparrow!

we have snow this morning too...

We were out last weekend doing the first stages of the clearing of the garden debris. What's cool about where I live is that my city recycles organic garbage into mulch.

Here's a pic of last year's effort.

This was the latter part of summer. To the left in the front you can see the lettuce going to seed. down the middle starting in the front is green beans, tomatos and squash, the cucumbers on the fence, the corn, which sucked last year, and the carrots and beets, which are hidden by the corn.

Here's a front shot. please ignore Mr. Handsome.

In this shot, to the left of the kiddie pool, you can see how dang much room the acorn and butternut squashes took. They pretty much took over that part of the lawn in addition to the garden! We joked that we'd wake up one morning in bed with those vines.. they were amazing. Directly left of the dog are the enourmous tomato plants from Burpees. They did fantastic, but we had pounds and pounds of green tomatos at the end of the season, although most of them ripened in the house.. we did five kinds, including a wonderful low acid yellow tomato. Right of the dog is the lettuce and green beans, both of which were winners last year.

I'd like to get an early start, but last year we planted our herbs in April and then it snowed! we're west of Cleveland, Ohio.

The big losers of last year were the zuchinni and the cucumbers, we didn't get enough rain and no matter how hard we watered, they never got happy.

[gini]

We have a deck of our own this year - hurrah - and plan to do a couple of potted plants on it. We want to have one of the pots filled with herbs - can someone help me out here? I've always lived in a cement jungle where gardening is a bit out of reach, so this will be my first time planning something like this. If I want 3 or 4 different types of herbs in a pot, how big do I need to go? Spacing? Herbs that won't be fussy growing near each other? Thanks in advance.

[christine007]

gini, my experience was to follow the planting instructions on the seed pack, make sure they have plenty of sun, and water but don't over water.

Herbs are not picky, for the most part. We grew basil, dill and parsley.

[BarbaraY]

We have a deck of our own this year - hurrah - and plan to do a couple of potted plants on it.  We want to have one of the pots filled with herbs - can someone help me out here?  I've always lived in a cement jungle where gardening is a bit out of reach, so this will be my first time planning something like this.  If I want 3 or 4 different types of herbs in a pot, how big do I need to go?  Spacing?  Herbs that won't be fussy growing near each other?  Thanks in advance.

←

Rather than a pot, I would use one of the boxes that can be found in the home and garden stores. Then you will have room to plant a number of plants. They also look nice as an edge to the deck.

[Toliver]

Is it crazy to already be planning a garden for a back yard I don't own yet? I can't wait to get my hands in the dirt and start!

←

Not at all. You could even start now (or when it's warm enough). Put some large pots on your back porch or front stoop and plant tomatoes or whatever you like. Then when you do move in, you hopefully will have the beginnings of a good crop.

My brother has a decent backyard at his house but still prefers to use large pots for his tomatoes and chile peppers. He likes the control he has over the soil and is able to move the pots to follow the sun over the course of the seasons.

[mrbigjas]

gini, my experience was to follow the planting instructions on the seed pack, make sure they have plenty of sun, and water but don't over water.

Herbs are not picky, for the most part. We grew basil, dill and parsley.

←

yeah, what christine007 said. as long as your pots are kinda big, herbs just don't care that much (well, except for tarragon, which is kinda finicky). i've been growing them in pots for several years now, and lemme tell ya that being able to get your own free herbs instead of paying insane amounts for them in the store is totally worth whatever trouble it is to grow them--which, since it's hardly any trouble, is even more worthwhile.

this year thyme, chives, mint, rosemary all survived. parsley and cilantro you have to replant every year anyway if you're growing in pots. other things i've noticed:

thyme and mint will both take over every inch of space you give them, so they'll probably need their own pots. rumor has it that mint can get potbound and die, but that hasn't happened to mine yet and i don't have it in a big pot.

basil is a little more touchy than some others, but on the bright side it grows fast and is an annual anyway, so if it dies just start over.

tarragon can grow kind of oddly, not appearing to do anything for a while, and then taking off, and then dying just as quickly and mysteriously. i don't get it.

oregano and marjoram are both relatively trouble free.

chives are easy and will come back year after year as long as your winter isn't too brutal.

since i've ascertained for sure that tomatoes just won't grow right on my deck, i have several large pots available, which i'll be filling with yet more herbs this year.

[gini]

We have a deck of our own this year - hurrah - and plan to do a couple of potted plants on it.  We want to have one of the pots filled with herbs - can someone help me out here?  I've always lived in a cement jungle where gardening is a bit out of reach, so this will be my first time planning something like this.  If I want 3 or 4 different types of herbs in a pot, how big do I need to go?  Spacing?  Herbs that won't be fussy growing near each other?  Thanks in advance.

←

Rather than a pot, I would use one of the boxes that can be found in the home and garden stores. Then you will have room to plant a number of plants. They also look nice as an edge to the deck.

←

Excellent idea - thanks!

yeah, what christine007 said.  as long as your pots are kinda big, herbs just don't care that much (well, except for tarragon, which is kinda finicky).  i've been growing them in pots for several years now, and lemme tell ya that being able to get your own free herbs instead of paying insane amounts for them in the store is totally worth whatever trouble it is to grow them--which, since it's hardly any trouble, is even more worthwhile.

this year thyme, chives, mint, rosemary all survived.  parsley and cilantro you have to replant every year anyway if you're growing in pots.  other things i've noticed:

thyme and mint will both take over every inch of space you give them, so they'll probably need their own pots.  rumor has it that mint can get potbound and die, but that hasn't happened to mine yet and i don't have it in a big pot.

basil is a little more touchy than some others, but on the bright side it grows fast and is an annual anyway, so if it dies just start over.

tarragon can grow kind of oddly, not appearing to do anything for a while, and then taking off, and then dying just as quickly and mysteriously.  i don't get it.

oregano and marjoram are both relatively trouble free. 

chives are easy and will come back year after year as long as your winter isn't too brutal.

since i've ascertained for sure that tomatoes just won't grow right on my deck, i have several large pots available, which i'll be filling with yet more herbs this year.

←

Great advice! Thanks!

[jackal10]

Question: I bought some sprouting sunchokes at the grocery store last week and planted them. I figured by early winter I'll have tubers to harvest. Is this going to work? Will they grow at all? Will I have to wait a year for harvest?

←

Not only will you have Sunchokes (same family as sunflowers btw), you will have them forever - you can't dig them all out.

Google maps also shows my house http://www.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=c...005524,0.020428

Annoyingly they have spelt the village name as Cladecote instead of Caldecote...

Its the house at the top of the picture. If you zoom in you can see the vegetable plot, the green house and the fruit cage along the East boundary...

Edited April 5, 2006 by jackal10 (log)

[ninetofive]

Question: I bought some sprouting sunchokes at the grocery store last week and planted them. I figured by early winter I'll have tubers to harvest. Is this going to work? Will they grow at all? Will I have to wait a year for harvest?

←

Not only will you have Sunchokes (same family as sunflowers btw), you will have them forever - you can't dig them all out.

Yeah, I know they take over, which I why I stuck them down in a cleared-out woody thatch next to our property.

Thanks -- yay, sunchokes forever!

[Toliver]

thyme and mint will both take over every inch of space you give them, so they'll probably need their own pots. 

←

My mom was talking about planting herbs this year and I wanted to warn her about some of the herbs that spread like wildfire if planted in the ground.

Are thyme and mint the only culprits, or are there more?