What are You Growing in Your Garden?

[minousbijoux]

I have pots and pots of flowers spilling down my back steps - full of blue and purple lobelia, orange and red mimulus, blue forget-me-not, deep blue lithodora, crimson and violet sweet peas, yellow coreopsis, and some blue larkspur and orange cosmos. I have herbs mixed in too since its right outside my kitchen. Its so great because all the colors and greenery make me want to pull up a comfy chair and enjoy my yard...

My vegetable garden in the way back of my yard will (hopefully) have lots - the peas are in but not growing as well as usual, the corn is up, lettuce, leeks and shallots are going gangbusters, the broccoli/romanesco is thinking about heading, and as always, the tomatoes are growing like weeds. And there's so much i haven't even planted yet! My biggest problem is the squirrels that taunt my dogs by running along the fence behind the garden; I have already had to repair the fence multiple times to keep my furbabies out (though I don't blame them in the least). I have now hung cowbells as a loud deterrent.

So we know iLander grows mangoes (thanks iL). What do you grow? Anyone else have great fruit trees? Anyone else into vegetable gardening? How about flower beds? Let's hear from you!

 

[monarch64]

MB, your garden and flowers sound amazing! We need pictures!

This will be our 2nd summer in our new home, and last year by the time we moved in it was too late to start a garden. We are expecting our first baby at the end of May/beginning of June, but I was determined to start a raised bed full of veggies, herbs, and flowers this year. I started a bunch of seeds in March and I've spent the past 10 days or so getting everything planted.

My husband brought home two tomato plants from the farmer's market this afternoon; one is heirloom, the other is cherry. You can see in the picture that they are the tallest plants! Everything else was started from seed indoors, although it was certainly warm enough for the most part to start them outside this year. From top to bottom, I have:

Lettuce
Heirloom tomatoes
Sweet peppers
Pepperoncinis
Basil
Black beauty zucchini
Dill
Cilantro
Heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes
Zinnias
Dwarf hollyhocks

I may transfer some plants to containers in a few weeks, kind of depends on what takes off. I made sure to buy mainly varieties that worked well in containers or smaller spaces like the black beauty zucchini. This is my first foray into vegetable gardening, although two years ago I did several containers of basil and cilantro which went well. I still need to have my husband build some sort of retractable sun shade device for the lettuce on the top end, I think. Oh, he built the raised bed himself; I think the entire cost was less than $40 including boards, hardware, and dirt. We picked up everything at locally owned businesses and the boards came from a friend who didn't end up using them himself.

Happy gardening!

 

[lulu]

My focus right now is dividing and potting perennials for our Master Gardener plant sale May 19th. I was outside for about 6 hours today and there is a very cold wind blowing off the lake. My next door neighbor and fellow gardener died unexpectedly in December, so I'm trying to keep up with her beds too. I really miss her.

I'm potting up a lot of rudbeckia, japanese anemone,catmint,shastas, hosta and sedum this year. The catmint is really out of control.

 

[minousbijoux]

We are expecting our first baby at the end of May/beginning of June, but I was determined to start a raised bed full of veggies, herbs, and flowers this year. I started a bunch of seeds in March and I've spent the past 10 days or so getting everything planted.

Happy gardening!

Okay, Monarch, now I am truly impressed - how you got down on your knees and were able to plant seedlings when practically 9 months pregnant is beyond me! A big round of applause for Monarch!!!

Happy gardening to you, too. Oh and as a bona fide gardener now, CONGRATULATIONS! you have graduated and can now call it "soil" instead of "dirt."

 

[minousbijoux]

My focus right now is dividing and potting perennials for our Master Gardener plant sale May 19th. I was outside for about 6 hours today and there is a very cold wind blowing off the lake. My next door neighbor and fellow gardener died unexpectedly in December, so I'm trying to keep up with her beds too. I really miss her.

I'm potting up a lot of rudbeckia, japanese anemone,catmint,shastas, hosta and sedum this year. The catmint is really out of control.

Lulu: I am so sorry to hear of the passing of your neighbor and friend. I think having a relationship with someone through gardening is truly special and I'm sorry she is no longer there with you.

As to what you're growing, we could almost guess where each other live by what we're growing...are you in the northeast somewhere, or what are those states in the Midwest somewhat similar in climate? Like Michigan or Wisconsin? Good luck and dust for your Master Gardener plant sale!

 

[monarch64]

We are expecting our first baby at the end of May/beginning of June, but I was determined to start a raised bed full of veggies, herbs, and flowers this year. I started a bunch of seeds in March and I've spent the past 10 days or so getting everything planted.

Happy gardening!

Okay, Monarch, now I am truly impressed - how you got down on your knees and were able to plant seedlings when practically 9 months pregnant is beyond me! A big round of applause for Monarch!!!

Happy gardening to you, too. Oh and as a bona fide gardener now, CONGRATULATIONS! you have graduated and can now call it "soil" instead of "dirt."

Hahahaha! I planted the first row of lettuce on my knees and then wised up and sat on a milk crate instead. Much, much easier! And from now on, I will refer to it as "soil," thank you!

My mother had a gigantic garden next to our main barn when I was growing up. I remember having a lot of fun "helping" her with it, and helping my dad dig up worms to use for bait when he took my brother and me fishing. I've always had a green thumb when it comes to flowers and indoor plants, so I really hope this veggie garden is a success.

How did your love of gardening develop, MB?

 

[lulu]

I'm in Michigan-a 6a, and really hoping it's warmer next week! Where are you Minous? Obviously someplace warmer!

 

[Lotus99]

We're in the middle of an extremely long remodel of the back yard. So far, we've got a Meyer lemon, a grapefruit, and orange and a lime planted. I've had them for a year in containers, so they were happy to get in the ground, finally.

The grapes are already pea-sized, so they might be ready in a month or so.

I've been a failure with the vegetable projects I've tried so far. I'm in the California desert (near Palm Springs) and the seasons/climate are a big challenge for me. I'm going to try peas and lettuce again in the fall, if I can get a raised bed going somewhere. It's already consistently in the 90s, so I'm too late for any spring crops. I'll figure it out eventually.

 

[minousbijoux]

Monarch, I really am truly impressed - good for you for improvising with a milk crate - brilliant! I love that you would "help" your Mom and that you grew up somewhere rural enough so there was barn. Lucky you. Sigh. Envious here.

I had a wonderful Grandma who (whom? I can never get those straight) I loved to pieces (I have a thread around here somewhere where I talk about the lovely rings I inherited from her and her Mom). We would spend summers with her way up in the Northern part of Vermont fairly close to the Canadian border and she had a house on a hill and gardens running all the way down it. Beautiful, beautiful flower gardens. She was known around the area for her beautiful flowers. My Grandpa - kind of a weird, standoffish guy who we were all afraid of - had the huge, massive vegetable garden across the road (next to the barn). Since I was scared of him, I would hang out with her, and talk flowers. By the time I was 10, I knew all the names of the flowers she grew, including their latin names. I don't think I actually helped much but I LOVED hanging out with her. The colors of the flowers were stunning and jewel like, just like the colored stones I love so much. Oh, and she had special bee gardens (good for bees; scared me though).

Now I'm in the California Bay Area. Doesn't get really cold, and doesn't get really hot either. I'm trying watermelons again this year, though they need a lot of heat, so we'll see. But Lulu, you're definitely right, warmer than you at zone 16-17!

Now here come all my photos just for you I know you want to see them all, right?!!

First up, vegetable garden pics. Black plastic mulch is sure ugly, but is great for keeping weeds at bay.

 

[minousbijoux]

Okay, here come my seedlings: cucumbers, squash, tomatoes (too many), peppers, swiss chard, watermelon, more corn, beans, lettuce, more broccoli, sunflowers. Oh, and my new Weber grill that the good PS community helped me to buy when I was completely overwhelmed

 

[minousbijoux]

Now for the beeyooteeful flowers...

 

[minousbijoux]

Some more...

Monarch, where are you located?

 

[monarch64]

Oh fabulous, MB! Great pics. Love that you used the file name "fleurs" and that is an awesome story about your grandparents and how you became acquainted with gardening! Do you like to read? Your story instantly reminded me of a book called "The Keeper of the Bees" by Gene Stratton-Porter. It is a LOVELY novel, I cannot recommend it enough. Anyway, thank you for sharing your pictures and the details of your gardening with us, and your story as well! That grill is beautiful, I bet your neighbors will be jealous this summer when you are grilling your goodies!

 

[minousbijoux]

Lotus99: well congrats on a whole backyard overhaul - good for you for finding the time with that all going on to still get your fruit trees in the ground and starting some raised beds. You have a tough climate because you have the opposite of us - the extreme heat and the cold in winter, right? So that means you can grow fruit trees that require a certain number of chill hours like limes and good oranges, apples and nectarines and peaches? Oh! Oh! for sure that means you can grow great watermelons (all melons for that matter), peppers and eggplants and tomatoes (I believe you can't kill tomatoes even if you try), and a whole bunch of other stuff that I can't even fathom cause I'm in the wrong climate! I never stop being amazed by the differential in microclimates in California...

 

[minousbijoux]

Monarch, if you weren't so far away, I'd invite you over for grilled veggies this summer! Thank you for the book recommendation. I'm always looking for good books to read, and it sounds right up my alley. I wish you all the best with your garden and, more importantly, your other cultivating project It will be good for you to eat produce right out of your garden so you know what it has - or what it doesn't have in the way of treatments...

 

[lulu]

Love the pictures!

 

[Lotus99]

Lotus99: well congrats on a whole backyard overhaul - good for you for finding the time with that all going on to still get your fruit trees in the ground and starting some raised beds. You have a tough climate because you have the opposite of us - the extreme heat and the cold in winter, right? So that means you can grow fruit trees that require a certain number of chill hours like limes and good oranges, apples and nectarines and peaches? Oh! Oh! for sure that means you can grow great watermelons (all melons for that matter), peppers and eggplants and tomatoes (I believe you can't kill tomatoes even if you try), and a whole bunch of other stuff that I can't even fathom cause I'm in the wrong climate! I never stop being amazed by the differential in microclimates in California...

It doesn't get that cold here and we rarely have freezes. It's classed as USDA zone 9.

Citrus don't need chill hours, so we're fine there. I believe I could grow a few varieties of peaches or apples (only a few), but we have few chill hours, so the choice would be limited. Because it's so dry here, I fear the water use for those trees would just be too much. It seems wasteful in to use that much water. Citrus do well around here, so I'm sticking with those for now. Most of the Ruby Red grapefruit sold in the U.S. come from this area, so I figure it's a safer bet.

I can grow watermelons, peppers, etc., I just need to work out how. I have planting dates from the Master Gardener handbook, but I haven't gotten it right yet. I'm going to keep on trying.

Here's a pic of one of the bunches of grapes from last week. They're a little bigger today.




I honestly prefer ornamentals more, so I'm working on those more in recent years.

 

[Enerchi]

No vegetables here. I'm in Canadian zone 5, so its a fairly short growing season. I have gardens and gardens... and gardens. I planted WAY too many when we built this house and now, being mainly perennials, I'm working hard to give them away!

I have a lot of ornamental grasses, hostas, day lilies and irises. They comprise the bulk of my gardens. I've added rudbeckia, monarda (oh, I love rubbing those leaves and the smell they give off is heavenly!!) phlox (never grow well...) solomon's seal, bleeding hearts (grow like weeds!), peonies, tons of sedums and then I throw in 'colour' here and there via annuals. Loblaws garden centre gets me every time! I swear, each May 24 long weekend I promise myself - no, you have PLENTY, do not go to the garden centre.... but I'm weak and suffer from a total lack of control!

2 weekends ago we put down 22 bags of mulch over all of our gardens.

 

[packrat]

Last year was our first year w/a vegetable garden and we loved it so we expanded it this year..had to transplant a row of barberry bushes to the front yard but it worked out ok! We've got tomatoes, jalepenos, green peppers, pull onions, lettuce, radishes, peas, green beans, potatoes, sweet corn..I think that's all.

Our other gardens are mostly hostas-they are far and away our favorite. We transplanted a bunch this year, split several, moved some here and there to fill in. Last year was SO horribly dry going into winter, and we don't have an outside meter yet and can't afford to keep everything watered the way it needs to be when it's drought conditions, so we had a few hostas die..and here that's a huge deal b/c they're our *thing*. Even our grass is all stupid looking this spring. So..there may not be a thread on Packrat's Yard 2012 next month!

 

[minousbijoux]

Hmmm, hostas - I thought they were shade and damp soil loving or am I making that up? Now I'll have to go look it up...

Packrat: did you have a successful garden last year? You must've to want to expand...

Enerchi: beds and beds and beds? I would love to have that, but I know I would not be able to keep up with the maintenance. I used to have my landscaping much more under control, but my front yard is not my disaster area, and I'm slowly trying to reclaim my yard.

It would be fantastic if you could get to the point that your perennials did not require too much maintenance, and your real work, apart form occasional weeding, would be to pick out the annual color fillers. I completely understand about going to the garden center. It is the BEST PART (other than seeing the fruits - pun intended - of your labor) of gardening; going and seeing all of the plants and imagining...I ALWAYS buy way too much and then have the "problem" of having to figure out what to do with it. Anyway, whole beds would be a completely different level - much work, but so much fun

 

[minousbijoux]

Lotus: I can't believe how far along your grapes are already. What kind do you grow and what kind of ornamentals?

 

[minousbijoux]

Enerchi: 22 bags of mulch?!! Yesterday, I dug up and amended a 25 sq. ft. square in my yard. I amended it with 2 big bags of planting mix and one bag of compost. Today, I am practically bed-bound because of lower back soreness. How can you do 22 bags?? I'd be beat just carrying them from my car to the back of my house. Gardening hats off to you!

 

[minousbijoux]

It doesn't get that cold here and we rarely have freezes. It's classed as USDA zone 9.

Citrus don't need chill hours, so we're fine there.
I honestly prefer ornamentals more, so I'm working on those more in recent years.

That's funny, cause we can't grow limes or mandarins here because we don't get enough cold hours - I thought it was chill hours?

 

[PintoBean]

Indoor garden here in the ol' apartment! Our cat is apparently a total health nut, so we have two small pots with wheatgrass, and a large bin of wheatgrass, in which she likes to lay and graze! We also trim some and add it to her food at night, and I like to pluck and hand feed her at least 10 blades each night. Thank god we can buy the seeds for cheap at Wholefoods! We adopted her this past October. All we know is that she was left on the doorsteps of the animal shelter the in December 2010 (I'm always thankful that she didn't turn into a kitty-cicle!), and that she is 2.5-4.5 years old. All I want to do now is spoil her rotten!

Fi and I hope to follow in our granola kitty's paw steps one day and start adding wheatgrass to our own diets,...someday. I've only sampled a few strands - wheatgrass is kinda sweet with a guava-ish flavor. No wonder she loves it!

 

[Lotus99]

I think with the citrus, you don't get enough hours of heat. At least, that's what the Sunset book seems to say about zone 17.

Lotus: I can't believe how far along your grapes are already. What kind do you grow and what kind of ornamentals?

I'm not entirely sure what kind of grapes they are -- the previous owner planted them. They're a seedless blush grape, and quite tasty. I've been trying to prune them for the past few years to get them into some kind of shape. They basically grow all over an arbor, and it's a big tangle up there.

As for ornamentals, I've got a cactus garden at the very front of the house. Cactus grow fabulously in the desert, of course. I'm amazed that after only about six years, I've got cactus up to 12 feet across. I've got mostly perennials in the front -- lavender, rosemary, vincas, salvias, lantana, and anything else that will take the heat and little water. I'm trying for a low-maintenance front yard and a back yard that's more tropical and has more room for fun. So far, the back has some palm trees, some citrus, a hibiscus, some gaillardia, kalanchoes and agapanthus. I grew some cuphea from seed this year to see how it does.

We have a whole lot of hardscaping to do. It's a work in progress... as are all gardens.

 

[hoover]

I'm In Canada, growing zone 3b (I think) and our general rule is to plant after the 3rd week of May There have been a few times in the last few years where I got over zealous and planted earlier, then a dump of snow or hard frost killed everything

I'm SO jealous of everyone who got to start their gardens already and those who have the plants I can only dream of growing with success. I would love to have citrus trees, mangoes, lychees, sweet grapes, and so so many pretty flowers.... I tried to sell the idea of a greenhouse to DH, but he said I have to prove that I can keep plants alive for more than one year (I kinda have a black thumb. I try my best, but the plants aren't playing nice with me)

Lotus99 - i love that you have a Meyer lemon tree. DH says that we had the world's most expensive lemons when I grew a Meyer lemon tree as a houseplant. I loved the lemons from them, until spider mites killed my poor tree... replaced the lemon tree with a Meyer lemon bush and that only lasted a year too until I repotted it, and then it gave up on me I'm tempted to buy another, but when I went into the garden centre to buy one, the price shot up to $120!!! I paid $50 and $29 before and thought that was kinda pricey, but $120???

My veggie garden was a mix of successes (carrots, peas, cherry tomatoes, raspberries, lettuce, spinach, cape gooseberries, zucchini, potatoes, apples, plums [total number of plums = 5 over 4 years, but it still counts, right?]) and failures (watermelon, beets, eggplant, heirloom tomatoes)

Oh yeah - DH says I get to redo the flower beds in our front yard this year! the shrubs we put in when we bought our house are now overgrown and he wants to start from scratch. I really love my rhododendron and Korean lilac bushes, but I think everything else can go... My dream garden is low maintenance with flowers all summer, but I think that's just a pipe dream any plant suggestions from anyone?

 

[minousbijoux]

You're probably right - I knew it was that we didn't have enough hours of something!

It sounds like a real contrast between the probably more typical desertish landscape of the front of your house and the exotic more tropical backyard. I have absolutely no knowledge of growing tropical plants, other than what I grew at home in my house when I was growing up. I don't think there would be any "tropical" plants that would grow here, right?

Everybody, we need more pictures! Pretty flowers! Lush tropical landscapes, expansive lawns, City rooftop gardens, succulent beds, etc. Let's see 'em!

 

[Dancing Fire]

I have pots and pots of flowers spilling down my back steps - full of blue and purple lobelia, orange and red mimulus, blue forget-me-not, deep blue lithodora, crimson and violet sweet peas, yellow coreopsis, and some blue larkspur and orange cosmos. I have herbs mixed in too since its right outside my kitchen. Its so great because all the colors and greenery make me want to pull up a comfy chair and enjoy my yard...

don't get caught..are they legal in your state? ..

 

[Enerchi]

Enerchi: 22 bags of mulch?!! Yesterday, I dug up and amended a 25 sq. ft. square in my yard. I amended it with 2 big bags of planting mix and one bag of compost. Today, I am practically bed-bound because of lower back soreness. How can you do 22 bags?? I'd be beat just carrying them from my car to the back of my house. Gardening hats off to you!

yeah... it was a bit of a chore! thankfully, my hubby was the one who carried them off my son's truck then we wheel barrowed the bags to where they needed to be opened. We probably could have done MORE if we'd layered an even thicker amount on the gardens, but after a while... we stopped caring! Thankfully we have a complete garden that is all hosta's in the shade, so we didn't even bother putting mulch there. That would have added another 3 bags just there.

If I can find photos from previous summers, I'll try and post them.

I'm in Eastern Ontario (from whatever other thread you posted that question in!! )

 

[Mara]

I've been meaning to get some pics of my garden since everything is blooming, maybe this thread will inspire me..!

I've got a bunch of roses in bloom, our lemon and lime trees are flowering, and our veggies are growing like mad. Spring flush is the best time, by summer everything just looks old and dry even if we water continuously, things are just so dry here (CA bay area).

Doing veggies for the first time this year with my 2 year old, we picked the first strawberries yesterday for him to eat. Growing tomatoes (5 varieties, went a little crazy), summer squash and zucchini. Keep meaning to start the melons and forgetting.... oh and we have a 3 year old blackberry bush.