Gardening

Anyone who has a garden must feel good about this time of year.

Picked our first strawberry today. Yum! I planted some corn, squash, beets and sunflowers today.

My mother was a really good gardener - for decades doing a large vegetable and flower garden in the back yard. Over time, she took over the *entire* back yard. The house was on a total of 1/2 acre, so the backyard garden was about 100' x 60' when she finally stopped. I sort of didn't pay too much attention to her as a kid back in the 70s and 80s. But the last couple years, I've been able to put together a 50' by 40' garden plot in the back yard.

This year, I'm not as into it as last. But it's time to spend more time on it to get the final stuff planted (peppers and tomatoes). Working in the garden also was part of a weight loss program I did last year and the prior year. Ended up losing nearly 40 pounds through the added exercise of the garden and eating right. Sadly, this year, I lost the interest in the weight loss and put on most of those pounds again. Time to stop feeling down and get back on the program, right?

Thanks mom for planting the "seed" for doing gardening back a couple decades ago. I can see she got much out of it (and still does at 88 years old!)

My husband and I are wanting to do a veggie garden as well as our flowers. The only thing that's keeping us from doing it is that we have to till for a garden. We just don't have anything to till with and can't afford to get one yet.

My grandmother was the gardener in my life. When I was younger I used to hate to go shopping with her because she would always spend so much time in the garden department and I would get board. Now I get so execited when I see a new shippment of flowers has come in. Now I understand her.

We have a garden also. About a 15x20 ft area. Hubby had to replant beans yesterday . The birds and another critter ( we think its a bunny) are eating the plants. We did the redneck thing and put sticks with pop cans tied to them to help keep the critters away. Hopefully it will help some. We also got peas, beets, cabbage, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers,lettuce , radishes and strawberries out there. Very compact garden lol. And we do have strawberries ready to be picked also. Yummy!!

Montygirl... can you rent a tiller? Might help get it started that way. You'll have to do hoeing and all that in between... but at least renting wouldnt be so much? Just a thought.

Montygirl - you may be able to get a lower-priced tiller on eBay. I bought a refurbished Mantis 2-cycle tiller on eBay for I think $275 or so. It's worked out pretty good - it's like a chainsaw engine with a few tiller blades on it. Anyway - renting is also good like mentioned above. For certain stuff, you can dig a hole in your grass and just grow it within a hole. Some web sites talk about that. Or, build a "raised" bed - with some 2"x6" boards and fill it with dirt - make them about 4' by 8' in size. Look up "raised bed" and also "edible landscaping" on google for ideas. A raised bed is a good way to start and no need for tilling! Some of the Amish farmers around me use railroad ties as the border of their raised beds which is their "personal family garden" - the farm is for selling produce at market.

i love plants but dont have much room to grow veg this year we are hopping to get togeather with our neghbour to do raise beds for next year

but i have got strawberrys planted into a trough planter and the fruits are nearly ready

i love our garden i dont know much about plantin i just started fixing evrything up for the summer it is so relaxing though

My gardening isn't what it used to be, between working full time (unemployeed right now) and getting older, gardening can be hard on the old joints sometimes. Also for the last 6 years we have a different house that isn't suited for a veggie gardening, I'm starting to miss it now in Feb as I wait for Spring.

I watch the ads on tv about the upsidedown tomato plants and want one. Or two or three, but at $20.00 each, I think not. I'm going to try to make my own upsidedown plant pot, out of vinyl or plastic or some other material and just hang it upside down - it may work. This time of year I really do think about how I can rework my yard to have a few veggies inbetween the flowers and shrubs.

My daughter has 3 or 4? raised beds which have worked out really well. Her plan is to have 6 total, but one thing at a time. Her hubby has an issue with "buying dirt"! Oh, well. He is very willing to do the all the hard work of building the frames for the raised beds and hauling and putting the dirt in, and tilling it etc. Having to actually buy DIRT is something his left brain just has a hard time with.

She grows so many really good things, like raspberries. She made jams for Chrsitmas gifts this year. She wants to put in a few fruit trees over the next few years too.

I'm imagining how my lavender plants smell just now.

Oh yeah, gardening talk!!!!!!

Pexeva13 - Dirt is to gardening what ingredients are to cooking; the end result is only as good as what you put in it! I have beautiful black, filthy rich dirt and I've never bought dirt. But we're talking soil amendment through compost enrichment and a good 15 years or more of labor doing it!

Maybe a compromise of 1/2 purchased to 1/2 existing dirt will be agreeable?

I have plenty of space to plant, my problem is sunshine. Most everywhere is only 2 to 4 hours of direct sunlight at best. Lots of tree canopy makes the shade. It's challenging to say the least.

notz

Hey Notz

I hear you about composting! My daughter and family bought the house we used to own, and I composted, amended, worked hard to improve the soil. Mostly it was sand or clay - not like the rich black soil from my home town in Grand Forks, North Dakota. But the soil I have here in Ohio is ok, I just have a wooded lot without much sunlight like you. It is an acher (can't spell today) of woodland, no grass, lawn grass that is, just ornamentals, it is all planted with groundcover and trees and the perennial beds. Very natural. Was very overgrown when we moved in. Oh, and did I mention, a ravine drop off, very sloppy back yard! Lots of shade. Nothing flat to speak of anywhere. OH, and ivy Did you know that ivy can grow with just 1% light?

I'm going to get rid of the ivy over the next few years and replace it with a ground cover than won't grow up the trees etc. Our project for this summer is a stone retaining wall and I want to also get rid of the day lilies that bloom all summer, or at least are supposted to. The name is stell'dora or some such name, I know it when I see it, just can't recall the name today.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!!!!! A real gardener person. You, me and Madisgram so far. Maybe we should create a gardening social group?!?

How very fortunate that your daughter & SIL have all that amended soil you left for them!I have Georgia clay - harder than concrete and not nearly as pretty! And yes, I know all too well that ivy can grow in the darndest of situations - I bet it could grow in the dark! And we have serious issues with kudzu here in Georgia - under optimum conditions it can grow 36" a day!

My method for killing ivy begins with patience. I mow over it or weed whack it so that it puts out a flush of new light green foliage then I spray it with Round Up/glycol phosphate, I think. My understanding is the cell structure of the new leaves is weak as compared to the strong old green leaves. The Round Up is a systemic herbicide and the young cells suck it right up! This is where the patience kicks in - do it like every 10 to 14 days for the rest of your life. No! Just kidding.

Stella de oro daylillies are nice in certain applications. The department of transportation uses them a lot here to plant on hillsides. They are supposed to be pretty good at holding soil in place. They are also drought resistant, another huge problem in GA.

You'll have to post some pictures especially the stone retaining wall! That sounds like fun!

I live in an apartment and the only gardening I can do is in pots. I have 2 big pots outside my front door I play in. The first year I was here I did tomato plants and didn't do to well with them so last year did flowers and did real good.

This year I want to do herbs. I'm thinking about doing a spaghetti garden in one and not sure about the other one yet. I can't wait.

Jan

I am ready for gardening season. Winter has been too long, cold and snowy. I'm sick of it! I want some green instead of all the white.

We're still buried in snow and ice here so my garden is a dream that's months away. I live in an apartment so can only garden in pots on my balcony. I grow flowers in hanging baskets from the edge of the balcony railing and in big tubs in one corner of the balcony, and then in the other corner of the balcony I grow tons of herbs and chili peppers. I tried tomatoes for the first time last year and didn't get very many, but they were really good, so I'm thinking of trying them again, with a different variety this year.

I can't wait for May.

---splitimage

Hey to all you gardening ppl.

Isn't it amazing how gardens bring out the best in us?

I'll start taking photos as the season springs to life and retaining wall grows. As for killing off all my ivy, thanks for thoses words of encouragement. We no longer own a lawnmower - due to no grass to mow, but most certainly have weed wackers and other rather industrial garden weapons.

Hey,as to the scientific reason why Roundup works (from my master garden program) it is something like this: the chemical(s) prevent the leaves from producing a needed amino acid (gotten from phothesthsis) from forming a protein (I think) and preventing new growth. The plant roots absorb this chemical, but don't store it as they would do in fall or during other less active times of the season, like too hot too cold too dry and thus, the stuff needed for growth, can't shoot it up to the leaves, basiclly. The best time of year to apply is when the plant is doing its most active growth, in the Spring or after pruning, (pruning activates the plant to grow), thus you're so right to say spray the heck out of it after mowing it down. Ok enough, but I found that fact interesting, hope you didn't mind my lecture.

The first step before starting the retaining wall is to dig up all my perennials as they start to pop up and put them in pots for the season! I tried to do that last year, but between my mental health issue - in that I wasn't at all interested - and then choosing to have an elective surgery that laid me up for several months, my yard was a bit unkept. But the middle of summer prior to surgery, I ran an ad to sell some of my woodland plants and thought I'd get rid of a lot more that I did.

One thing I will make this year is Lavender Cookies! I so love the scent of lavender.

Anyone got any recipies for other unusual "herbs"?

I love the idea of a spaghetti herb garden in a pot. Here's an idea for the other pot. Spaghetti Squash! Just kidding they grow all over the place and even though I like squash, spaghetti squash is just stringy squash.

There is noting like picking a fresh tomato, warm from the sun and eatting it like an apple! As a kid, I did that with fresh potatoes too.

The Gardening Club is here!

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