Gardeners of AW, unite

HistorySleuth

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Our local Indy bookstore is having a seed swap on the 18th. Plus a couple gardening experts think from one of the agricultural places. (I'm in a very rural area.)
 

tiny

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I have asked my fella to weld me a nice trellis to fit in a specific pot for sugar snap peas and some decorative tomato cages. Yes, I know you buy them, but he can make exactly what I want for the new container garden. I have sort of okay luck with the garden in the ground, but the dog destroyed a lot of it.
 

Fenika

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I planted more lettuce and spinach and my mystery seeds (parsley??? I hope it's parsley). I can't find my broccoli seeds since the move, but they'll turn up.

So far I'm really happy with my soil mix. I took last years potting soil and some leaf mold and manure compost and mixed it all up in the wheelbarrow-cart. Hopefully the plants will love the mix as well. I'll still need to add pelleted fertilizer, but not as much. I'm also realizing I forgot to check the pH. Oops. *makes note*
 

blacbird

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Two recommends for anybody gardening:

1. Swiss chard. Does better in cool weather, but is pretty easy from seed. Get the Bright Lights variety, great colored stalks that keep color when cooked. I throw chopped chard stalks into almost any casserole, pasta dish, stir-fry, etc. And the leaves are excellent in salads or as a spinach substitute, cooked. Plus waaaaaaaaaay nutritious. Chard is actually a form of beet, which doesn't produce a big root. In warm Southern climes, it would be a very good fall/winter garden crop. Alas, I live in Alaska, where the only thing to be grown in winter is moose.

2. Chervil. An herb, looks much like cilantro, but with a very different flavor, lightly sweet with an anisey touch. Great with fish, in salads. And you'll almost never find it at your grocery, as it wilts rapidly. But is dead easy to grow from seed, in pots, and is a fabulous kitchen herb. Be a little careful with the seeds, which are shaped like slightly curved needles, and as sharp on either end.
 

Fenika

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Hmm, I think I'll take you up on both of those. Plus the moose. :)

I have got to build a movable planter box (4x4 I think) asap. I want to plant my peppers, even if it is early.
 

jennontheisland

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There's a container composting workshop at the U next Thursday! Apparently you get a bin and the red wigglers if you attend. Too bad I have to work that day. :(

I'm going to email and see if I can make some kind of arrangement to get them anyway. I've been in the apartment for over a year now, but it still feels strange to throw veggie trimmings into the garbage after having such lovely compost piles.

Not sure what I'd do with the compost, since I have no balcony and proved last year that I don't have enough light for herbs even. I guess my houseplants will be really happy?
 

Fenika

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Good luck getting the composting goods, Jenn. Composting is always useful and means less stuff to fill the landfills in conditions where decomp can't take place. Most your houseplants should LOVE a top layer of compost, but make sure to check first. Certain plants will be shocked by the nutrient overload and won't like it.

Depending on the type of composting you do will depend on the ingredients you need. I think red worms don't need much/any browns?? I'm still learning these things, and luckily I have a nice forest to drop my organic material into when I don't want to deal with it. (Just so long as I don't create breeding grounds for flies!)
 

Fenika

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Anyone interested in a seed exchange? Not sure how that works crossing borders, but it could be useful for some. I have a ton of seeds saved (mostly peppers and basil basil basil, but also pumpkin and such), and seed packs sometimes come with 100s more seeds than needed. I can't guarantee my peppers will grow this early on, but the basil is all fertile. I have sweet, chef's (so called), and purple, and hybrids worked in as they please.
 

sunandshadow

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Good luck getting the composting goods, Jenn. Composting is always useful and means less stuff to fill the landfills in conditions where decomp can't take place. Most your houseplants should LOVE a top layer of compost, but make sure to check first. Certain plants will be shocked by the nutrient overload and won't like it.

Depending on the type of composting you do will depend on the ingredients you need. I think red worms don't need much/any browns?? I'm still learning these things, and luckily I have a nice forest to drop my organic material into when I don't want to deal with it. (Just so long as I don't create breeding grounds for flies!)
I managed to make my plants unhappy and create a breeding ground for fungus gnats, and there wasn't even any compost involved, just potting soil, perlite, a bit of peat, and a bit of chemical fertilizer. Apparently potting soil comes complete with free fungus gnat eggs. :Shrug: The second batch of soil I tried to sterilize with boiling water, but then I couldn't get it to dry out without leaving it uncovered (allowing the fungus gnats to get at it and defeating the purpose).
 

Tepelus

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I went outside a bit ago to check on my milk jugs I winter sowed with seeds, and I have two sprouts! One each of Liatris spicata and of Liatris punctata. It gives me hope spring is coming. Tonight, however, we're expecting 1-3 inches of snow. If only it would stop raining/snowing, and the sun shine more often, I'll have more little sprouts popping up in my milk jugs.
 

blacbird

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I got me some golden beet sprouts sprouted! In the house, of course. Considering that it was exactly zero degrees F at 8:00 this morning at my house, you can perhaps understand. Still a good foot of snow on the ground as well, though we haven't had any new snow for a month. But in the 20+ years I've lived at 61 degrees north latitude, i know we can have significant snowfall as late as the first week in May. So I always gamble with seeds. This weekend is a big seed-planting orgy, in leetle seedpots indoors at my house.

I want to grow mangos and pineapples and coconuts in my garden.
 

sunandshadow

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I want to grow mangos and pineapples and coconuts in my garden.

Good luck with those. ;)
Dunno if any of you have ever played the Harvest Moon games - it's a series of games where you are a farmer, so it's decent for a gardening fix in the middle of winter, lol. But one game in the series, Back To Nature, let you buy a greenhouse and grow pineapples and some other exotic things in it. After playing that, I keep looking at my back yard and thinking, "Boy, I could put a greenhouse right there..."
 

Fenika

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My sprouts are looking tasty! The lettuce has come up super fast and strong. The spinach is right behind it, though one batch I buried too deep. Less to thin for spout-salad I guess.

Have I mentioned I have a single purple basil that came up on its own? It's doing well and I made it a little plastic bottle cold frame to help it along.

This weekend I am going to plant some peppers and see how far my current soil might go. If I get time I'll build that 4x4 box or at least buy the materials, but that's prolly something for next week.

I'm going to visit a friend Sunday and she has gardening materials for me. Plus there's a rain barrel class coming up that I can sign up for.
 

Tepelus

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Finally got to do some gardening today. After weeks of rain and a sloppy, muddy yard, we've had a few nice days with no rain and though the yard is still squishy, I was able to get to my beds and do some spring cleaning. I only cleaned out the raised beds, the ground is still too sloppy to get into the other beds to do some cleaning, but it felt so nice to be outside in the fresh air and get into my flowers beds, and to see what is waking up and survived. And more of my seeds I planted in milk jugs are sprouting, I have wild lupine, feverfew and more liatris sprouting. Seems there was something else sprouting too, but I can't remember what it was. Oh, ratibida columnifera, that's what it was. I love spring!
 

icerose

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I love spring too. It's still a couple months before planting time for us, but the dandelions are coming up. I'll be collecting roots next week for roasted dandelion chia and tea. Hehe, I'm so excited.
 

Fenika

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Dandelion tea sounds nice. What's it taste like?

My basil sprouted! I planted it last week and they came up Thursday morning or so. It helped that I kept them in the bird room (low 70s). It's still cold at night so I'm taking them in by night and out by day. I have a lot of hybrids in this batch- I wish I'd paid attention to which seed batch I took them from, but it doesn't really matter. The hybrids look so cute with their green and purple cotyledons and stems. I will plant more basil this weekend so I can have a ton soon.

The peppers haven't 'hatched' yet, but it's still early.

The spinach and lettuce are looking great, especially the lettuce. Both are just starting to put on true leaves. I'll probably plant more of these this weekend too.

And lastly, I can't find my broccoli seeds! Argh. Maybe today they'll turn up. Otherwise I'll go buy more, or my friend might give me some.
 

icerose

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It actually tastes a lot like coffee. It was a popular coffee substitute in the south during the blockaid. The chai has cardamon, nutmeg, cinnamon and a few other spices so it actually tastes a lot like the real chai.

Yay on your basil sprouting! I'm getting a ton of gardening catalogs and I'm dying to order some seeds and plants and get them going.
 

Fenika

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Nice.

Oh, and I have cilantro coming up too. I planted it with some of the basil, but now I'm regretting that for long term. I should be able to transplant it okay into my smaller pots.
 

Tepelus

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I discovered more sproutage! I have altogether now so far:

Dracocephalum tanguticum - Dragonhead
Tanacetum parthenium 'Virgo' - Feverfew
Liatris spicata - Dense Blazing Star
Liatris punctata - Dotted Blazing Star
Digitalis purpurea subsp. heywoodii 'Silver Fox' - Foxglove
Lupinus perennis - Wild Lupine
Ratibida columnifera - Mexican Hats
Geum triflorum - Prairie Smoke
Dodecatheon amethystinum - Amethyst Shooting Star
Penstemon strictus - Rocky Mountain Penstemon

I need to get my daylily seeds planted, I'm such a slacker. Perhaps that will be my task for tomorrow.
 

Ol' Fashioned Girl

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Ahhhhh, Spring! The Wall O' Waters are up! The tomato plants are bought (heirlooms and a grape named 'Juliette'). The herbs are in... unfortunately, I lost my old rosemary bush - had to dig it out (had several branches as thick as my wrist!). Replaced it with three babies. Now my very old Mr. Lincoln rose will get better sun and more air circulation.

I have to enjoy this all I can before the severe storms fire up!
 

shakeysix

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i bought new strawberry plants for my strawberry jars yesterday. i had a new front porch put in, with a couple of shelves to hold all of my porch plants and strawberry jars. my g-daughter magnolia and her buddies edwin and christopher have been digging holes. love how kids dig holes in the spring. ---s6
 

Fenika

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Hey gardeners!

Anyone else listen to You Bet Your Garden? It plays on NPR and other stations too. It's a great show with a great host, Mike McGrath. Well, they are having a web chat! http://www.whyy.org/91FM/ybyg/201103_livechat.html

Wednesday at noon EST. I will be there and will probably ask questions :) I hope some other AWers can make it as well.

Don't forget to make sure the chat works on your computer before the event! (As of now I don't think there is any way to test this. Maybe they'll open it an hour before??? Anyone see something I'm missing?)