Gardeners of AW, unite

draosz

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 27, 2016
Messages
341
Reaction score
32
Location
Croatia
Does anyone have experience with Delphinium? My seedlings are growing rather slowly and are becoming somewhat yellowish after they've developed true leaves.

Edit: thyme is also stuck at tiny seedling size.
 

mrsmig

Write. Write. Writey Write Write.
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
9,884
Reaction score
7,172
Location
Virginia
Stuck in my midtown Manhattan sublet for the summer, with only a single potted succulent to keep me company, but living vicariously through my fellow AW gardeners' posts!
 

Friendly Frog

Snarkenfaugister
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 23, 2011
Messages
4,098
Reaction score
4,944
Location
Belgium
I keep trying them because they're so beautiful and the snails keep decimating them before flowering. Mine tend (before their eventual slimy demise) to be thirsty though.
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
Edit: concerning carrots, I learned from my grandma, who infected me with gardening, to plant carrots with onion and parsley. She didn't know why, I didn't question it; she inherited the practice from countless generations before her.

Turns out onion is a good companion plant to carrots/parsley because it repels their common pests.

Another really good thing for carrots and other members of that family (e.g., parsley, parsnips) is coffee grounds or just dead coffee.

caw
 

Teinz

Back at it again.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 20, 2010
Messages
2,440
Reaction score
186
Location
My favourite chair by the window.
My garden is up and running. Ate my first lettuce yesterday. Beans are in the ground, as are the taters. Cabbages are really starting to grow. I have a question though. For the third year in a row, the radishes develop nothing more than red colored root and a lot of foliage. No nodules, or tubers, or whatever they're called in English. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? The Internet is of no help, alas.
 

draosz

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 27, 2016
Messages
341
Reaction score
32
Location
Croatia
My garden is up and running. Ate my first lettuce yesterday. Beans are in the ground, as are the taters. Cabbages are really starting to grow. I have a question though. For the third year in a row, the radishes develop nothing more than red colored root and a lot of foliage. No nodules, or tubers, or whatever they're called in English. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? The Internet is of no help, alas.

All I can say based on that is to try extra water, since radishes only develop relatively shallow roots.

Problems I've had with radishes is almost always pests. Soil they're in shouldn't absorb too much water, and most importantly, don't sow it at same spot year after year. You also need to know when to harvest, before roots become too woody.

Also important: don't sow them too thickly - they require space (15-20 cm).

Hope that helps.
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
Lettuces: To paraphrase Jim Morrison, "I am the lettuce king. I can grow anything."

I and my family eat a lot of salads in summer, and a wide variety of greens are involved, but I've become very fond of certain lettuce varieties you'll never find at the grocery. Lollo Rossa, an heirloom red leafy variety is top of my list. It's frilly, with crisp leaves and an excellent flavor (not all lettuces taste alike). Tom Thumb, a container-sized light green butterhead form is another good one. Other things that have worked well for me are Red Salad Bowl, Red Sails and Red Romaines. For some reason the red varieties seem more robust in my garden than many of the green ones.

The trick, for me, with lettuce planted from seed is to plant carefully two or three seeds in small four-pack starter pots, and when the plants get to be an inch or so tall, to do an intermediate transplant of individuals into 4-inch pots for a couple of weeks. It's maybe a bit fiddly, but I enjoy the fiddly part of gardening, so I'm okay with that. I plant new ones every two weeks or so until the 4th of July, and stick 'em in the ground or in larger containers when they get to be three or four inches tall, and have lots of lettuce until frost arrives.

And also have things like spinach, orach, baby bok choy, cress, cilantro, chervil, arugula, sorrel, mustard, swiss chard and a couple of wild leafy greens for salads all summer.

caw
 

harmonyisarine

Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 15, 2014
Messages
349
Reaction score
29
Location
Farmlands of Western PA
It won't stop raining. The things I got in the ground before the infinite rain started are beginning to get root-rot in all but the very best drained garden bed (and the drainage in the rest isn't too shabby), and the rest are dying in their starter or intermediate pots and I can't put them in the ground because the ground is mud.

Two more days after today, and then we might finally get sun for a stretch. Please make it that long, gardens!
 

Ari Meermans

MacAllister's Official Minion & Greeter
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 24, 2011
Messages
12,854
Reaction score
3,057
Location
Not where you last saw me.
That's about the state of things here, too—even my various mints are unhappy. It's our annual rainy season with four to six weeks of daily gully-washers. Problem is, all of May 'til about the middle of June is the ONLY time we get any significant rain here in EastTex.
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
Problem is, all of May 'til about the middle of June is the ONLY time we get any significant rain here in EastTex.

Well, yeah, rain and tornadoes.

We here in Anchorage, Alaska, had a nice rain overnight, the first in a couple of weeks. It's been very dry, and I've had to water stuff every day, sometimes twice, morning and afternoon, so that rain was extremely welcome.

Then, however, there is the moose issue. I was bent over on my knees in the front flower bed yesterday, planting annuals, and stood up to look around and about fifteen feet away was Bullwinklette, seven feet tall and probably seven hundred pounds, just standing and staring at me. I moved slowly off to my right, and she geared up and trotted on past me. We've had multiple moooooooses in and out of the yard during the past week or so, including a mom and newborn who stayed around for three whole days. And ate the blooms off the peonies and roses, because they look so much like lollipops.

caw
 

harmonyisarine

Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 15, 2014
Messages
349
Reaction score
29
Location
Farmlands of Western PA
Beautiful lollipops until the moose found them, I'm sure.

I'm in Western PA, we're fairly spoiled with a good growing season here, though I'm along one of the ridge tops so sudden early and late freezes sometimes hit us. But that rain! At least I'm just a hobbyist. I know a lot of farm-as-a-life-and-job people in the area who lost so much seedcrop to the rain, and now that the rain's finally let off (straight to uncomfortably hot, though) it's going to be very late to start.

But my personal garden survived much better than it looked! A few things were stunted, some herbs did die, but all the veggies came through and most of my flowers. I've already replaced most of the herbs (the sage is under watch right now). I hurt my back badly enough last week that I can't do a lot of hard work just yet, but I had some help weeding earlier today and I'm healed just enough to dig in prepared dirt. Tomorrow I'll transplant as many of my perennials as I can, I'm a few years into a project to repair a 15-year ignored perennial garden. Some sunflowers to go in, too. If I can have help hauling potting soil around, I can even get my porch plants all arranged.

I also am falling in love with the idea of a cutting garden and put a bunch of purple-and-white daisies into the gaps by the herb garden.

I asked this question on facebook but it'd be good here too, I think. I have an old English style garden (well, that's what I was told it was, no idea how accurate the name is). It's got a big old catulpa tree in the middle and has forsythia and lilac and honeysuckle around it. Some irises and lilies, too, and I just added a rose and I'm trying to resurrect an old small-blossom rose bush that survived the neglect. The basic shape of the garden is there, but I want to fill in the gaps for all the trees and bushes that have died through the years, and there is room for shade-tolerant plants in the center. My goal is to make the shape into a meditative spiral, and I want to help that along with plants that are either fully native here or have a good mythology to them. Botanist friends filled me in on native, but I still need myth-filled suggestions for plants that are between 3 and 15 feet high, bushes or trees that don't mind close neighbors, and small shade-happy plants. The small ones can be annual but the rest would ideally be longer-lived.

I know that's awful specific, but where better to ask for storied plants than a gardening subforum on a writing forum, right? XD

Harvest report: Baby bok choy, carrot tops (from thinning the seedlings, but good in salads or lightly wilted), and one black radish. And a ton of wild mint.
 

Friendly Frog

Snarkenfaugister
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 23, 2011
Messages
4,098
Reaction score
4,944
Location
Belgium
My goal is to make the shape into a meditative spiral, and I want to help that along with plants that are either fully native here or have a good mythology to them. Botanist friends filled me in on native, but I still need myth-filled suggestions for plants that are between 3 and 15 feet high, bushes or trees that don't mind close neighbors, and small shade-happy plants. The small ones can be annual but the rest would ideally be longer-lived.

I know that's awful specific, but where better to ask for storied plants than a gardening subforum on a writing forum, right? XD
Cyclamen is becoming one of my favourite plants for shade. Low growing, pretty colourful flowers and good with carpetting small areas even though the leaves do seem disappear for most of the summer months.

Foxglove would be IMO an essential for an English style garden, but I'm drawing a blank on associated mythology at the moment.
 

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
If blac is the Lettuce King I am the Larkspur Queen!

My house was built in 1902 and was fairly run down when I bought it. The yard had been neglected for decades. First thing, I hired a guy with a tractor to start a garden border across about half my backyard. He could barely plow the hard clay --I'm not talking riding garden tractor, I'm talking big red tractor.

It did not turn out well. My dream garden ended up an ugly, 50+ foot slash with a pile of dirt at one end. That was 8 years ago and I've been working like a Bohemian farm wife on it ever since. The border is now 50 feet long and 10 feet wide and people around town tell me they enjoy driving by my sand road to look at my flowers. This was my goal.

Weeds are a problem with a space this big. Over the years I have experimented with weed control strategies. Forget fabric or plastic mulch. I am getting too old to spend more than an hour on hand weeding. So I read up on my personal weeds. The house is surrounded by fields and pastures and a lot of field weeds blow in, the worst is bindweed but spanish needles and foxtail are also bad.

I discovered that these weeds thrive in a well irrigated, clear area but don't stand up to invasive ornamentals that tend to cut out light and hog the water. Well, invasive ornamental, thy name is Larkspur! I started with a couple of six packs of bedding larkspur plants, because I could not start it from seed. That was 3 years ago. Now my garden is a huge swath of blue--blue was the only color when I bought the starters. There are white daisies, pink snaps, yellow snaps, lilies, fennel, pink sweet pea, a rose, scabiosa, yarrow and tickseed peeking through the blue tidal wave. 7 baby's breath in flower right now. The 21 dollar daylilies that I bought cheap last year, because the nursery had lost the tags, are beginning to bloom. Some are surprises but haven't seen an ugly one yet.

Tickseed and yarrow are native here. I fully expect them to seed out, so when I pull up the larkspur and put the stalks down as mulch, they will continue to fill in and stifle weeds. Next I will plant cosmos and zinnias to cover the bald spots where the larkspur grew. My great grandmother taught me to plant in late June because they love the heat and will be something pretty to look at in August. Cosmos and zinnias are every bit as aggressive as larkspur.

As for perennials there are daisy, columbine and hollyhock volunteers between the larkspur that will have to be moved to the front and back of the border this fall. I am hoping for an entire back border of tall hollyhocks next year. This might not work for everyone but if you have a big space to manage and enough time--I am retired-- you might consider aggressive ornamentals. --s6
 

harmonyisarine

Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 15, 2014
Messages
349
Reaction score
29
Location
Farmlands of Western PA
Cyclamen is becoming one of my favourite plants for shade. Low growing, pretty colourful flowers and good with carpetting small areas even though the leaves do seem disappear for most of the summer months.

Foxglove would be IMO an essential for an English style garden, but I'm drawing a blank on associated mythology at the moment.

I am definitely going to add cyclamen to my potentials list! That's so pretty and I do want carpets in this garden. Sadly, foxglove is out. I love it so much, it matches the attitude and climate, but I have a dog that will eat... just anything. My last one wouldn't but this one means I have to keep the toxic plants away.

As for perennials there are daisy, columbine and hollyhock volunteers between the larkspur that will have to be moved to the front and back of the border this fall. I am hoping for an entire back border of tall hollyhocks next year. This might not work for everyone but if you have a big space to manage and enough time--I am retired-- you might consider aggressive ornamentals. --s6

I am jealous of your garden and I haven't seen it! I tried planting some hollyhock this year and not one of them came up. Did you start yours from seed? I think I'm going to try them in starter pots. I don't mind if they come up late, so long as I can get them established for next year. I don't know if my dirt was bad or if the chickens scratched all the seedlings away.
 

Tsu Dho Nimh

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 2, 2006
Messages
1,534
Reaction score
248
Location
West Enchilada, NM
I tried planting some hollyhock this year and not one of them came up. Did you start yours from seed? I think I'm going to try them in starter pots. I don't mind if they come up late, so long as I can get them established for next year. I don't know if my dirt was bad or if the chickens scratched all the seedlings away.

Chickens will eat them as fast as they sprout.
 

Jan74

Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 10, 2017
Messages
1,072
Reaction score
136
Location
Canada
We usually grow from seed wave petunias but they didn't grow very well this year, also my son planted a strawberry planted and it didn't do well either. So I have bought 2 hanging red and white petunias and three containers of red and white petunias with spike grass, these are on my front deck in recognition of our country celebrating 150yrs :):partyguy:

My back I bought a hanging strawberry plant which is producing fruit and pink and white petunia's.

I will miss our flowers from last year, we had tonnes of wave's. We had black petunia's which I really loved!
 

KellyAssauer

The Anti-Magdalene
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 3, 2006
Messages
44,975
Reaction score
14,604
Location
inbetween
My first tomatoes set on last week. I'm dumbfounded and excited all at the same time. I don't think this has ever happened this early in the year. (Southwestern Pennsylvania) *Does happy dance* :snoopy:
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
I spent the weekend plus Monday working my tuckus off getting veggies into my raised beds, and then was rewarded with a wonderful all day rain today, enough to last for another day or two. I be horrorshow happy.

caw
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
It's now August, and mushroom season here in Alaska. I forage for edibles, like Boletus edulis and Boletus mirabilis, both of which are common here, easily recognized, and fantastic. Along with some others that come around a little later.

But, I also gather "trash" mushrooms, as many as I can, on walks in the hiking and biking trails in my hometown, Anchorage. They get dumped into an old garbage can that has some holes bitten in it by a bear, and left to compost over the winter. In spring, that gunky, stinky black organic stuff gets spread on my raised beds to dry for a couple of days, then turned into the soil. No better treatment for garden vegetables can be imagined.

caw
 

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
I am so proud of me! Somehow I managed to keep 4 sickly nasturtiums--out of a packet of nasturtium seed--alive, through weeks of windy, dusty 106* heat. This past week has been cool, cloudy and--gasp!--rainy. The nasturtiums are gaining strength. One is a bright yellow tucked into a blue pot of white petunias. It has managed to bloom--so pretty. Another two in a planter of begonias and coleus. The last is in a pot with Black Eyed Susan vine. I'd thought I'd lost the nasturtium but with the rain, it is back and about to make the leap to the trellis. With any luck they will bush out and bloom well into autumn!

Zinnias, cosmos, coreopsis, sage all blooming but they are all over the place. The nasturtiums took some luck and planning! --s6
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
Vegetable garden, except for potatoes and some root vegetables, essentially destroyed by a windstorm last night, which continues through tonight, so far. Of the small greenhouse shelters for tomatoes and peppers, most were simply blown away to kingdome come, at least three of which I haven't found yet, it being too windy to go look for them. The ones I did find were torn and probably useless for the future.

I doubt I will try to grow anything in those kinds of devices ever again. Next year I might (yes, MIGHT) grow some potatoes and lettuce. Maybe. Otherwise, screw it.

caw
 

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
Heavy, dusty winds--my steel porch furniture keeps blowing off the porches. We have had below zero temps all winter and no moisture since November but the last two days have brought thunderstorms, rain, lots of rain, snow, ice and .... daffodils! This morning is still cool but the sun is shining, the snow is melted and the cats are sunning! I am giving it an hour and then I am going outside to play! --s6
 

mrsmig

Write. Write. Writey Write Write.
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
9,884
Reaction score
7,172
Location
Virginia
Shakey, that sounds wonderful. We've had mild weather most of the week (in fact, our weather in the Washington DC Metro area has been mild all winter), but today we're supposed to get a wintry mix and snow tomorrow - perhaps our first significant accumulation of the season. And of course, my earliest daffs have popped.

Since I was in New York most of last year, I didn't get to garden at all, and want desperately to put in my annual veggie patch next month. But I'm afraid it's going to have to be surrounded with a Fort Knox-like edifice, to keep the deer and gray squirrels out. Two years back we put up a 9-ft. high netting barrier, and it kept the deer out but not the squirrels - they just gnawed right through it. Anything one can buy commercially uses the same plastic netting as a barrier, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to come up with some kind of raised bed system and surround it with chicken wire. And then there's the little matter of how I'm going to be able to access the plants myself...
:gaah