Gardeners of AW, unite

Fenika

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Kewl. Let us know if you find any useful tips for us winter gardeners in the not-PNW group :)
 

Paul

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I've been looking at plans for building cold-frames, and researching both fennel and garlic -- I've not grown either, before, but both have varieties that do very well here in the Pacific NW. But it's still dipping into the high 20s at night.

Last year's rainbow chard is still merrily growing in its concrete container, in spite of an awfully cold winter (for us) so this year the greens we container-grow are going to include kale and collards and spinach, as well.
Garlic would grow in your ear, as the expression goes.
ETA any place where snowdrops, crocuses or daffs grow outdoors, garlic will grow.

no need for cold frames, imo.

fennel possibly if there's a lot of frost.
 
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MacAllister

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Paul, I was thinking of a cold frame primarily as a place to start and harden-off tomatoes and spinach and other more delicate sorts of plants, and a place to grow greens all winter. We had rainbow chard in a big concrete container, last year, that did amazing things all summer, and survived winter cheerfully too (in spite of nighttime temps in the low 20s/high teens) so I'm very interested in expanding the range of greens, this year.
 

Shadowflame

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The herb container has sprouts :D

I'll be starting some peppers and tomatoes next week and prepping some tubs for plantation for next month. I sooo miss having a garden
 

Paul

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@ Mac. yes that all sounds good. Include the fennel, why not? but the garlic can survive rugged conditions. not Arctic, but rugged. :)
 

blacbird

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We had rainbow chard in a big concrete container, last year, that did amazing things all summer, and survived winter cheerfully too (in spite of nighttime temps in the low 20s/high teens) so I'm very interested in expanding the range of greens, this year.

Rainbow chard is fabulous and does very well in cool conditions (I live at 61 degrees north latitude and am intimately familiar with cool conditions and short growing seasons). It is a major part of my garden every year.

But, many other greens do very well: Mizuna, various mustards, leaf and romaine lettuces, bok choi (and other chinese cabbage varieties), mache, arugula, sorrel. And radish greens are really very good, so plant radishes heavily and thin, and eat the greens. Arugula and sorrel have unusual flavors you may find interesting in salads. Oh, and kale.

As well as herbs, notably chervil and cilantro, which are excellent fresh in salads and in cooking seafood or chicken.

caw
 

mccardey

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Ok - I'm not one of those people who whinge about their spouses, I'm really not. So I'm just asking if anyone has any idea what I could do with my husband's total death weedkiller spray kit that would kind of impress upon him - in a physical sense, if need be - that one doesn't spray plants just because they're not flowering, or because they're flowering but he's not sure they're meant to look like that or - and this was what turned out to be the real reason - because there was a spider.

Anyone? Any ideas? It's too late to save the plants, of course, because once he'd started he thought what the hell, I might as well do the whole garden; but still, purely for the satisfaction it will afford me, if anyone could think of anything to do with a total death weed killer spray kit. And/or a husband...


:rant:
 
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Fenika

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Throw out kit. Explain to husband that plant killing chemicals stay in soil and will stunt future growth. Force him to listen to at least 10 podcasts of you bet your garden. Forbid him from touching outdoor chemicals again. Easy sprays are not toys. They are poisons.
 

Shadowflame

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Yep get rid of spray, or the hubby. :D

Much easier ways of getting rid of pesky plants, which some btw are very useful to the soil or better for you than the plants you are trying to grow. Get some books on wild edibles for your area. Dandelions are wonderful!
 

Fenika

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I'm sooo excited. I ordered 200 seeds of Celeriac (Celery root). I'll be planting most of them :D Celeriac doesn't need much space.

I got some other seeds, and I'll be adding two 4x4 raised beds, and growing a variety this year. Beans, squash, some brocolli, peppers (in pots again mostly, and going inside overwinter), herbs. Maybe carrots.

So many tasty things.
 

Fenika

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What do you folks like by way of bush beans? I'd prefer something that's great raw, right off the plant. Bonus if it likes moist soil as bush beans and celeriac can companion plant...
 

Fenika

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Gardeners, return!!!

;)

I have spinach and lettuce outside, along with buckwheat, 'wild' sunflowers that I potted in case of hard frost, and some parsley and chives.

Inside I have over 70 celery root sprouts, some basil, an oregano, and a fresh round of stuff I started this weekend: lavendar, more spinach, snap peas, peppers...

Next up, direct sowing carrots.

Next weekend I have to figure out how to get 70 celeriac into 4" pots without harming them or taking 2 hours. Yay?

And I have a whole bunch of veggies and companion flowers to plant when it warms up.
 

blacbird

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Update. Today, the day before Easter, it has been snowing all day, and that has allowed us to smash the all-time historical record for a winter snowfall in Anchorage, Alaska. The total is now around 135 inches, with more expected overnight.

This has not been conducive to doing much in the way of gardening. I still have about 3 feet of accumulated snow in my yard and my garden plot. Damn seeds just don't do well in that.

caw
 

Hip-Hop-a-potamus

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It snowed here twice last week. The first time it was almost all melted by 4PM. This last time, it was the heavy wet stuff, and there was more of it. So still waiting.

But I had started some new babies here in the house, ready to let em go crazy when Victoria Day gets here (that's when it's technically safe to plant in Alberta). These schizo springs are still taking me a while to get used to!

I've got dill, Chinese lanterns, basil, nasturtiums, and sweet peas in this first batch. I also cleaned out my terra cotta pots with bleach solution since the last batch of potting soil I bought really cheap and it had these nasty little mites in it. Blegh. So once they start getting a little bigger, I can move the nasturtiums to the pots. They're sprouting already. Yay!

I trimmed off some of the dead growth outside between snows last week, and had some little tiny green shoots of new alchemilla (lady's mantle) starting to rear their heads, so I tucked the mulch a little tighter around them, which was a good thing because of the last snow.

Can't wait to see all the bulbs I bought last year start to show up. Probably another month, I'm thinking.
 

CoriSCapnSkip

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Gardening is one of my passions. I have four houseplants I keep indoors from about October through May and then put outdoors. My cat Buster Kitten has been eating the one he can reach so at some point the shelf must be rigged up so he can't get to it.

Outdoors I have all sorts of small plants, shrubs, and trees, but it is mostly a spring garden--where we have a lot of rain, moderate temperatures, and no leaves to shade growth. For my summer garden, I am still very much in need of anything that will grow with a lot of shade and not much water in areas that can reach 100 degrees in summer. Suggestions welcome.

A friend's mother gave me some miniature asters (kind of like pompom but TINY) that I LOVE and I want more of but have been unable to find anything much like them anywhere and since then they've moved and sold the house.
 

Fenika

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Well my nice post on cool season shade tolerant plants got eated.

Look into celeriac and snap peas and greens. The first two require lots of steady moisture, so mulch over soaker hoses or something.

And most shade tolerant plants dont tolerate or outright die with high temps, so you need to plan around the summer or get some sun. Moving potted plants from one sunny spot to another works. (and maybe brief shade at midday)

Celeriac might work for you as a summer start if your frost date is later.
 

Tepelus

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Finally, a week without having to worry about frost. Some of my plants show a little damage, but I consider myself lucky we didn't get down into the twenties like the peeps in the New England area and my home state and others. After a warm March, my hostas which are frost intolerant, were popping up all over, a month too early. Then April comes and we've been cold with frost and freeze warnings for half the month, so outside I go to cover up the plants. Good to now have nights well above freezing in the ten day forecast. Maybe now the other plants will join their buddies that were in too much of a hurry to grow.
 

Hip-Hop-a-potamus

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My nasturtium seedlings are massing for an attack on the kitchen! Need to get these bad boys outside pretty soon, but I still need to wait a month or so. :/

Plus, my chinese lanterns are shooting up, and I have daisies, basil, dill, sweet peas, and some other stuff starting to look nice. And my bulbs (tulips, narcissus, allium, and a couple others...I forget!) are finally starting to peek out. The alchemilla (lady's mantle) and delphiniums outside have new shoots too.

Thanks to a friend of mine, we inherited a mess of unmatched plastic lawn furniture last year, so I found some gorgeous outdoor pillows at JYSK with pale aqua, medium teal, and dark turquoise plus chocolate brown in stripes and also a geometric print. So I found some matching paint for those, and I'm slowly getting all the pieces primed using plastic primer and then painted. It's going to look FABULOUS when I'm done! I want to go back and get the matching umbrella, or a nice chocolate canopy to put over top.

I LOVE spring!
 

Fenika

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I'm growing nasturtium for the first time this year.

Everything seems to have survived the cold front so I'm happy. I will be doing more transplanting starting tomorrow.
 

backslashbaby

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My nasturtium seedlings are massing for an attack on the kitchen! Need to get these bad boys outside pretty soon, but I still need to wait a month or so. :/

Plus, my chinese lanterns are shooting up, and I have daisies, basil, dill, sweet peas, and some other stuff starting to look nice. And my bulbs (tulips, narcissus, allium, and a couple others...I forget!) are finally starting to peek out. The alchemilla (lady's mantle) and delphiniums outside have new shoots too.

Thanks to a friend of mine, we inherited a mess of unmatched plastic lawn furniture last year, so I found some gorgeous outdoor pillows at JYSK with pale aqua, medium teal, and dark turquoise plus chocolate brown in stripes and also a geometric print. So I found some matching paint for those, and I'm slowly getting all the pieces primed using plastic primer and then painted. It's going to look FABULOUS when I'm done! I want to go back and get the matching umbrella, or a nice chocolate canopy to put over top.

I LOVE spring!

Me, too! Ooooh, outdoor furniture talk :D I have new neighbors, sort of, because of a recent death. The son moved in, and I've said hello forever, but now I met his girlfriend, she moved, in, etc. She's British! Woot.

Anyway, they are giving me one of those old, wonderful concrete table and 4 benches sets. He'll move it. O.M.G. :D I love those things.

On the garden front, I'm happy as a clam. I've already had a hellacious case of poison ivy, but I'm finally eradicating it all. Those darned birds :) But the birds are amazing this year. My stuff is all maturing, so I get new kinds deciding I'm good for their home.

Blooming now: roses and roses upon roses :D Also my weeping lilac, several herbs, and candytuft and nepeta everywhere. The evergreens have new buds. The fruit trees are clean and shiny (past bloom now), and the wine grapes are rooting nicely! Blackberries, blueberries are on the way, and strawberries are already here!

I didn't have time to do seeds, lol. I'm on a wine grape kick at the moment, as if I needed more garden obsession :D :D

Oh, and I've already seen two snakes. Yay snakes (boo mice).
 

Hip-Hop-a-potamus

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Blooming now: roses and roses upon roses :D Also my weeping lilac, several herbs, and candytuft and nepeta everywhere. The evergreens have new buds. The fruit trees are clean and shiny (past bloom now), and the wine grapes are rooting nicely! Blackberries, blueberries are on the way, and strawberries are already here!

I didn't have time to do seeds, lol. I'm on a wine grape kick at the moment, as if I needed more garden obsession :D :D

I need to go to the nursery when it's warm enough and get some "Explorer" variety roses. They're some of the few that will grow up here, with names like Baffin, Henry Hudson, John Cabot, etc. Going to put some by the garage when I get a new bed cleared.

Up in Alberta, you pretty much have to start from seed to get anything to have somewhat mature plants that will stay around all season, since the growing season isn't that long. Unless you want to spend a fortune on the already grown stuff. And this is just a rental, so I couldn't spend tons.

I wasn't prepared last year, but this year I stocked up on trays and seed starter way beforehand! I was determined to have something pretty to look at it in May. :)

Nasturtiums are so easy to grow it's insane. And yummy in salads. I need to get some rainbow chard like the bird recommended. It will look lovely out there for some color.
 

backslashbaby

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I need to go to the nursery when it's warm enough and get some "Explorer" variety roses. They're some of the few that will grow up here, with names like Baffin, Henry Hudson, John Cabot, etc. Going to put some by the garage when I get a new bed cleared.

Up in Alberta, you pretty much have to start from seed to get anything to have somewhat mature plants that will stay around all season, since the growing season isn't that long. Unless you want to spend a fortune on the already grown stuff. And this is just a rental, so I couldn't spend tons.

I wasn't prepared last year, but this year I stocked up on trays and seed starter way beforehand! I was determined to have something pretty to look at it in May. :)

Nasturtiums are so easy to grow it's insane. And yummy in salads. I need to get some rainbow chard like the bird recommended. It will look lovely out there for some color.

I know those roses! One of my favorites that may work up there is called Champlain.

I save money by buying or trading tiny starts of things, yeah. In this climate I don't have to worry about their first winters like y'all do.

I should still do seeds. I always say I will and I never do :)
 

shakeysix

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some years ago one of my students gave me a jar of home made bath soak for gardeners. i think it was called gardener's scrub. her mother made it from a recipe. it had lavender for sure, some other herbs and mainly oatmeal. crazy as it sounds the oatmeal was great for stings and scratches. very soothing after a day like today, when i am all weedy, manure coated, mulch grungy and ant chewed. does anyone have this recipe? --s6