I buy those as well, as supplemental sacrifices for the pesto-making in the food processor.
I'll keep you posted!
Gardeners of AW, unite
- Thread starter Fenika
- Start date
I'll keep you posted!
YES!! I've been doing this for a while - it also works exceptionally well with things like leeks and spring onions. Leave about an inch of stalk when you chop them, and plant the ends in the garden. And then - when you need them, cut down to about an inch, and they'll grow back on. I have a dedicated greengrocers bed entirely from store-bought clippings - lettuce, leeks, spring onions and celery are doing very nicely just at the moment, some of them on their third year.
But I've had no luck with the leafy herbs, so you must have green thumbs, Patty.
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Well, I'm from Indiana. That might explain some of it, especially the corn, but I can kill plants too.
Good to hear about celery. When I try from seed, the stalks are always too thin and stringy.
That might explain some of it, especially the corn, but I can kill plants too. Good to hear about celery. When I try from seed, the stalks are always too thin and stringy.
I grew my first successful corn ever last season (I try every year). OMG delicious!Well, I'm from Indiana.
Good to hear about celery. When I try from seed, the stalks are always too thin and stringy.
Came home after a ten-day absence and the garden looks...okay. The DC Metro area had a major heatwave while I was gone and my husband didn't think to water the plants, so the tomatoes look straggly and something basically uprooted my zucchini plant, which was having a hard time of it anyway. The cuke vine is vigorous but with nary a fruit; same with the sugar baby watermelon. I got the garden started late so that's probably on me.
The upside is that this year's experiment - butternut squash - is going great guns. I've got two beautiful squash nearly ready to pick, and little baby ones started as well.
The upside is that this year's experiment - butternut squash - is going great guns. I've got two beautiful squash nearly ready to pick, and little baby ones started as well.
I also returned after a period and the garden had to deal with a heat-wave while I was gone. Lost some plants like the minth and half of my buddleia cuttings. The thyme is happy as a clam in this dry heat and actually grew larger still. Others like some of my irisses are perhaps not across the brink and may be saved. I would be very disappointed to loose my Concord Crush, I didn't even get the bloody thing to flower yet.
The seedlings in the shadow survived, the rest all withered along the line of sunlight, so that must have been some intense sunlight instead of just the general heat. My potatoes who were strong when I left look sad and slug-eaten. I should look up if I should harvest them now rather than later.
My 'wild meadow' is still a barren patch, even the weeds went under. Clearly I am missing something here. Could I not have tilled deep enough? Will attempt again next year. This shouldn't be rocket science!
Still, if this is the future looming, gardening with climate change is going to be a lot less fun.
The seedlings in the shadow survived, the rest all withered along the line of sunlight, so that must have been some intense sunlight instead of just the general heat. My potatoes who were strong when I left look sad and slug-eaten. I should look up if I should harvest them now rather than later.
My 'wild meadow' is still a barren patch, even the weeds went under. Clearly I am missing something here. Could I not have tilled deep enough? Will attempt again next year. This shouldn't be rocket science!
Still, if this is the future looming, gardening with climate change is going to be a lot less fun.
We'll definitely need to change our ways. The old guys still give the same advice down here about things like when the tomatoes go in - but it doesn't work all that well anymore. Which makes me very sad, because I do like the old gardening guys.
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I have been working like a burra in a milpa. At least that is what Beto says. I am taking it for a compliment. He also renamed my patio/kitchen garden. Milpa really does make more sense although I had to argue to keep him from planting corn. The mapaches are pesty here, at the edge of town. They swipe the neighbor's elotes or ejotes (never can tell them apart.) eat them in my grandkid's clubhouse and then poop the place up!
The first of June I found someone to lay the pavers, restring the wire fencing and repair the raised beds in a fenced in, raised- bed garden that had gone to hell at the side of my house. Beto did all those things, never mind he is three years older than I am! I had been trying to get this done for more than 3 years. Contractors--YOUNG men-- would show up, give me an estimate. I'd say fine and never see them again. I actually paid 1/2 in advance to one outfit that never showed up to work. (They do apologize when I run into them at the town's one Lumber Yard or café or grocery store and promise they will be out tomorrow.) (Awkward for both of us and for the people who have to witness the apologies. It's a small town.)
I live in the last house in town, on a dirt road that everyone uses to drive into town. Over the past year, at least 4 people have stopped by and offered to buy the 5 stacks of pavers and edgers, at the side of the road, cheap, to take them off my hands. And then my neighbor said "I know an old guy who needs work. I'll send him by."
And, to my amazement, he showed up and started to work--no estimate, no money up front. Ten dollars an hour and we shook hands. He actually put down his pala and gave me his mano, then resumed trabajando. The catch is that he only speaks Spanish. You say "but shakey--you are a Spanish teacher! This should be the perfect arrangement."
Pues…, I do speak Spanish but my major was in Spanish Lit. I can tell you about El Libro de Buen Amor or why Miguel de Unamuno depresses the crap out of me but I am not into the nitty gritty--- like confusing carnations and nails, or porkchops and handsaws, or garden hoses and the capital of Nicaragua. Tenses, especially the conditional, also trip me up, so that when I showed Beto a spot in my yard and told him that someday I would like a pond there, I was only wool gathereing. Then I went to the post office and when I came back he was digging a pond!!!!!!!!
I thought about telling him that I am too chinga-ing old to actually maintain a pond but did not have the words. I did get him to stop but not until he had dug a good three pies by five pies-- (not pies but feet--see what I mean? )
SO I bought a small pond liner and then went with my brother to pick up some limestones to border the new pond. We took the stones from our family ground, about thirty miles to the north of my present home. It was a nice trip. No rattlesnakes. We bonded while picking through stones hand carved by our great great grandfather and we also found some nice fossil stones-- shells and something crawly--stopped for a beer and a sandwich. Never once remembered that I had told Beto that I would like a couple of new flower beds by my deck and a paved path and a bigger place my hostas! Guess you see where I am going here.--shakey
The first of June I found someone to lay the pavers, restring the wire fencing and repair the raised beds in a fenced in, raised- bed garden that had gone to hell at the side of my house. Beto did all those things, never mind he is three years older than I am! I had been trying to get this done for more than 3 years. Contractors--YOUNG men-- would show up, give me an estimate. I'd say fine and never see them again. I actually paid 1/2 in advance to one outfit that never showed up to work. (They do apologize when I run into them at the town's one Lumber Yard or café or grocery store and promise they will be out tomorrow.) (Awkward for both of us and for the people who have to witness the apologies. It's a small town.)
I live in the last house in town, on a dirt road that everyone uses to drive into town. Over the past year, at least 4 people have stopped by and offered to buy the 5 stacks of pavers and edgers, at the side of the road, cheap, to take them off my hands. And then my neighbor said "I know an old guy who needs work. I'll send him by."
And, to my amazement, he showed up and started to work--no estimate, no money up front. Ten dollars an hour and we shook hands. He actually put down his pala and gave me his mano, then resumed trabajando. The catch is that he only speaks Spanish. You say "but shakey--you are a Spanish teacher! This should be the perfect arrangement."
Pues…, I do speak Spanish but my major was in Spanish Lit. I can tell you about El Libro de Buen Amor or why Miguel de Unamuno depresses the crap out of me but I am not into the nitty gritty--- like confusing carnations and nails, or porkchops and handsaws, or garden hoses and the capital of Nicaragua. Tenses, especially the conditional, also trip me up, so that when I showed Beto a spot in my yard and told him that someday I would like a pond there, I was only wool gathereing. Then I went to the post office and when I came back he was digging a pond!!!!!!!!
I thought about telling him that I am too chinga-ing old to actually maintain a pond but did not have the words. I did get him to stop but not until he had dug a good three pies by five pies-- (not pies but feet--see what I mean? )
SO I bought a small pond liner and then went with my brother to pick up some limestones to border the new pond. We took the stones from our family ground, about thirty miles to the north of my present home. It was a nice trip. No rattlesnakes. We bonded while picking through stones hand carved by our great great grandfather and we also found some nice fossil stones-- shells and something crawly--stopped for a beer and a sandwich. Never once remembered that I had told Beto that I would like a couple of new flower beds by my deck and a paved path and a bigger place my hostas! Guess you see where I am going here.--shakey
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Shakeysix, that was an enjoyable tale. Thank you for sharing it with us. BTW, tell Beto that since he started this then he must at least help with recommendations of pond-appropriate flora and fauna (*consider throwing in a wink and a winsome smile*).
I’ve roots! Basil, that is. Not hair. (… Although, probably way past time to make a salon appointment.) Anyway, yes, basil stems in a shot glass of water set on the kitchen sink windowsill are creating a root-theme ecosystem. They’re starting to take on an alien/SF appearance. It’s quite beautiful in an awe-inspiring, botanical way. I didn’t segregate the clippings: grocery store basil (sweet), backyard Genovese (sweet) basil, and some other sort of backyard sweet basil grown from a seed pack (Greek, I think; though, could be an Italian species… I’m unsure because I can’t find the original seed pack). There were about eight-ish stems at the start and it seems that every one of them has rooted. The backyard Genovese was the first to send out a root tendril, from a nodule below a branching created from a previous ‘harvest’ (like deadheading). I’m slowly adding vermiculite/perlite/soil mix, pinch by pinch, and hoping they won’t be insulted. Oh, and I dropped in two-ish granules of Miracle Gro.
:eeks in::
Is it too early to be talking about gardening?
I decided to try something different this year and start my vegetables from seed, rather than just buy plants from the local garden centers. I'm partial to heirloom tomatoes but can never find much beyond Brandywine and the occasional German Johnson in my area, so having some unusual varieties was my impetus. After doing some research and price comparisons for seed starting tables, I decided to make my own out of inexpensive shelving, a couple of grow lights and some cheap domed trays. I'm pretty happy with the results:
That's just the bottom shelf; I have another shelf above it, with its own grow light, to fill. I'm not crazy about the pinkish light but it's better than the screaming purple-pink lamps that seem to be "the thing" now. I planted these tomatoes yesterday. I've got four varieties started: Opalka Polish Paste, Matt's Wild Cherry, Gezahnte and Stump of the World (which I confess I bought simply because I love the name). I have seeds on order for one more variety called Woodles Orange, along with some other oddball vegetables: Mexican Sour Gherkin (also called "cucamelon" or "mouse melon") and Aunt Molly's Ground Cherry. And I also have lettuce, spinach and cucumbers to start indoors, as well as radishes and Italian green beans to sow outdoors when the time is right.
My husband and I took measurements to fence in the rest of my garden plots this year. Last year the tomato "fortress" he built me was a rousing success at keeping out the local deer and gray squirrel population, but the deer netting did almost nothing to deter the deer, so we're going to put up something sturdier this year. We'll have to move pretty quickly to fence in the perennial garden because things are already starting to bud.
eeks in::Is it too early to be talking about gardening?
I decided to try something different this year and start my vegetables from seed, rather than just buy plants from the local garden centers. I'm partial to heirloom tomatoes but can never find much beyond Brandywine and the occasional German Johnson in my area, so having some unusual varieties was my impetus. After doing some research and price comparisons for seed starting tables, I decided to make my own out of inexpensive shelving, a couple of grow lights and some cheap domed trays. I'm pretty happy with the results:
That's just the bottom shelf; I have another shelf above it, with its own grow light, to fill. I'm not crazy about the pinkish light but it's better than the screaming purple-pink lamps that seem to be "the thing" now. I planted these tomatoes yesterday. I've got four varieties started: Opalka Polish Paste, Matt's Wild Cherry, Gezahnte and Stump of the World (which I confess I bought simply because I love the name). I have seeds on order for one more variety called Woodles Orange, along with some other oddball vegetables: Mexican Sour Gherkin (also called "cucamelon" or "mouse melon") and Aunt Molly's Ground Cherry. And I also have lettuce, spinach and cucumbers to start indoors, as well as radishes and Italian green beans to sow outdoors when the time is right.
My husband and I took measurements to fence in the rest of my garden plots this year. Last year the tomato "fortress" he built me was a rousing success at keeping out the local deer and gray squirrel population, but the deer netting did almost nothing to deter the deer, so we're going to put up something sturdier this year. We'll have to move pretty quickly to fence in the perennial garden because things are already starting to bud.
It's absolutely NOT too early. I'm already thinking about what I can grow.
Lots of public libraries have seed swaps. And there are some companies that specialize in heirloom seeds.
Lots of public libraries have seed swaps. And there are some companies that specialize in heirloom seeds.
Never.
Besides, it's bound to be gardening season somewhere, even if not currently here.Looks very promising!
For some reason vegetable growing doesn't draw me that much. Possibly because I suspect they'll take more time than I have to spare on them, and partly because we already get to harvest so little from the fruit in our garden, I suspect vegetables to be no different. I am personally more inclined to plant cabbages and nettles for the butterflies than for myself anyway.
Except for potatoes, maybe. I will be trying those again this year in bags. And hopefully the minth has survived the winterwet for the occasional minth tea.
February has been dismally wet, and the rain has knocked down all the crocusses before they got to open up, even the new yellow ones I planted last autumn. I am very disappointed about that.
It even cut short my rock garden irisses flowering, even though they persisted better than the crocusses. I'm pretty pleased with my rock garden irisses as they keep delivering year after year. Even my eyecatchers, which I thought dead as they didn't flower last year, came out beautifully if tiny. That earliest splash of colour in the garden does so much for lifting my mood. But there is some... weird hybridisation going on that I didn't know rock garden irisses could do. Some look very different from how they looked in their first year. Ah well.
Hoping this year my other fancy irisses will finally bloom. My spirit mountain iris has like four offspring plants in three years but not a single flower. I'm starting to wonder whether I'm doing something wrong. But something took a big bite of the one I potted out in the garden. I'm not liking that.
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Irises are beautiful, and crocuses as well. Such lovely spring time flowers. And those grow-lights--Wonderful, Donna!
Our flowers are quite nice ATM. The Ribes (gooseberry) and Western Redbud are both popping their showinesses. The Manzanita is starting to fade.
Vegetable-wise we have salad greens and peas coming in. Cabbages are started and leafy and will begin making heads before long.
I got impatient and planted corn from the corn I grew last year. The kernels are refusing to sprout, but since it's really too early to plant corn, I'm telling myself to be patient.
Oranges are coming in from the tree and looks like the lime tree (which recently flowered) might set some fruit this year.
Our flowers are quite nice ATM. The Ribes (gooseberry) and Western Redbud are both popping their showinesses. The Manzanita is starting to fade.
Vegetable-wise we have salad greens and peas coming in. Cabbages are started and leafy and will begin making heads before long.
I got impatient and planted corn from the corn I grew last year. The kernels are refusing to sprout, but since it's really too early to plant corn, I'm telling myself to be patient.
Oranges are coming in from the tree and looks like the lime tree (which recently flowered) might set some fruit this year.
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You know that scene from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" where the giant, rumbling, boulder is chasing Indy? Poor Indy is in a panic is running for his life, peeking over his shoulder at the boulder and trying to keep in front of it. Well, I am Indy and that giant boulder is spring. It was a cold gray winter. I got a little crazy with the seed catalogs. I am getting deliveries almost daily--40 strawberries, a strawberry pyramid and 3 planters, tomato seeds, squash seeds in Jiffy pots--oh, and the Laura Bush petunias that I never expected to come up at all. The ground is thawing but it is still cold and windy. From personal experience I know that we will have at least one more blizzard. The strawberries are bare root, in the fridge for now but cannot stay there forever. Roses and daylilies on their way--and seeds. Lots of seeds. --ss
One can never have enough seeds? Ah, everybody knows that limiting your new seeds to your available containers is just crazytalk. 
So ready for spring, or rather, well, not ready by a mile. The pond's a total mess, sooo much weeding, something will have to be planned for the bees, and oh-god-the-pruning!
So, no. Not ready at all. But I want spring. I crave spring. I've so had it with winter right now. Right now, windmilling and screaming 'Aaah spring's here and I'm not ready!' is endlessly preferable to watching the dreary winterweather from inside while mopping up the water in the basement from those consequetive weekend winter storms.
So ready for spring, or rather, well, not ready by a mile. The pond's a total mess, sooo much weeding, something will have to be planned for the bees, and oh-god-the-pruning!
So, no. Not ready at all. But I want spring. I crave spring. I've so had it with winter right now. Right now, windmilling and screaming 'Aaah spring's here and I'm not ready!' is endlessly preferable to watching the dreary winterweather from inside while mopping up the water in the basement from those consequetive weekend winter storms.
My heirloom tomato seeds started sprouting yesterday, one variety after another. Stump of the World led the pack, with Gehzante and Opalka Polish Paste tied for third and Matt's Wild Cherry coming in a distant third. Seeds for my remaining heirloom, Woodles Orange, were just planted on the 6th, so it's not even a contender yet. I also started some lettuce and ground cherry seeds, received an order of tomato ladders and other plant supports, and am hoping to get fencing installed around my perennial garden and the veggie patch, maybe this weekend since the weather is currently very nice. I would hate to lose all my goodies to deer again.
Yeay for sprouting!
Only one of my seed trays are showing signs of life. Just the verbena is starting to show, but that one has always done well from seed.
I noticed just today that three of my other seed trays has one row of pots washed away in February's downpour. Those posts were just under the edge of a ledge where the water has dripped off apparently so repeatedly and violently that half of the sand, and I assume most of the seeds, have washed out down to the floor. Bummer, I did not expect that.
Still rooting (heehee) for the other seed trays. They're all flowering plants which I have never tried before from seed: vitex, lynchis and calaminta. And some ensata-irisses - I would be so pleased if those sprouted! But we'll see.
My oldest fancy iris is making new offshoots that you can almost see growing. They've grown like 12 cm in barely a month. Practically checking very day if there's a flower stem coming because it's been three years that I've had them and they've yet to flower and I'm getting impatient. I'm probably way too early in the season to see flower stems, but it's hard not checking.
We have sunshine today! So glorious! I saw the first butterfly. I really should change and go down and potter in the garden, it'd be the first day of the year where that's feasible.
Only one of my seed trays are showing signs of life. Just the verbena is starting to show, but that one has always done well from seed.
I noticed just today that three of my other seed trays has one row of pots washed away in February's downpour. Those posts were just under the edge of a ledge where the water has dripped off apparently so repeatedly and violently that half of the sand, and I assume most of the seeds, have washed out down to the floor. Bummer, I did not expect that.
Still rooting (heehee) for the other seed trays. They're all flowering plants which I have never tried before from seed: vitex, lynchis and calaminta. And some ensata-irisses - I would be so pleased if those sprouted! But we'll see.
My oldest fancy iris is making new offshoots that you can almost see growing. They've grown like 12 cm in barely a month. Practically checking very day if there's a flower stem coming because it's been three years that I've had them and they've yet to flower and I'm getting impatient. I'm probably way too early in the season to see flower stems, but it's hard not checking.
We have sunshine today! So glorious! I saw the first butterfly. I really should change and go down and potter in the garden, it'd be the first day of the year where that's feasible.
Lovely sprouts, Mrs. Mig!
Friendly Frog--Happy to see sunshine and butterflies appearing for you. Spring is almost upon you.
Spring's well upon us here in southern California and today has brought a nice dumping of water which we can always use. So I am inside, critiquing some excerpts for a virtual writers' meet-up and thinking about soup and trying to decide if I should go to the store and panic-buy or not. I mean, tomorrow is Saturday. Maybe I should go to the store today. Or not. Probably not.
So that leads me to looking at the cupboard and the garden and seeing what food is there. I've got spinach and lettuce and peas in the garden. Those are lovely. The oranges are ripe.
That's all old news from a few posts up. (I suppose the cabbages are getting closer than they were a couple weeks back.) The broccoli I planted in December (winter sowing is amazing--try it sometime--the seeds seem to love sitting in the ground frozen) sprouted in January and is coming along. No florets yet, but that's a matter of time.
But most excitingly, my corn has sprouted!!! Last post I made, it hadn't poked up yet. I actually got impatient and planted a second set of seeds right alongside the ones that hadn't sprouted and within about three days of that, saw the first batch starting.
The story on this corn is that last year I found an old ear from some years back. The ear had about thirty kernels on it and i planted those and they all sprouted but a raccoon dug the sprouts up. Except for six or so. I was angry, but I left those six and they grew into nice stalks and gave enough ears for a couple batches of cornbread and some kernels left over for this year's planting.
I planted earlier this year (and in a different part of the garden, over by the orange tree) to outwit the raccoon. So far so good. I have about forty sprouts of corn, and I don't think the raccoon ever goes over to that part of the yard.
There's still enough of last year's corn to make another batch of cornbread. It keeps nicely when dry.
Keep digging, keep planting!
Friendly Frog--Happy to see sunshine and butterflies appearing for you. Spring is almost upon you.
Spring's well upon us here in southern California and today has brought a nice dumping of water which we can always use. So I am inside, critiquing some excerpts for a virtual writers' meet-up and thinking about soup and trying to decide if I should go to the store and panic-buy or not. I mean, tomorrow is Saturday. Maybe I should go to the store today. Or not. Probably not.
So that leads me to looking at the cupboard and the garden and seeing what food is there. I've got spinach and lettuce and peas in the garden. Those are lovely. The oranges are ripe.
That's all old news from a few posts up. (I suppose the cabbages are getting closer than they were a couple weeks back.) The broccoli I planted in December (winter sowing is amazing--try it sometime--the seeds seem to love sitting in the ground frozen) sprouted in January and is coming along. No florets yet, but that's a matter of time.
But most excitingly, my corn has sprouted!!! Last post I made, it hadn't poked up yet. I actually got impatient and planted a second set of seeds right alongside the ones that hadn't sprouted and within about three days of that, saw the first batch starting.
The story on this corn is that last year I found an old ear from some years back. The ear had about thirty kernels on it and i planted those and they all sprouted but a raccoon dug the sprouts up. Except for six or so. I was angry, but I left those six and they grew into nice stalks and gave enough ears for a couple batches of cornbread and some kernels left over for this year's planting.
I planted earlier this year (and in a different part of the garden, over by the orange tree) to outwit the raccoon. So far so good. I have about forty sprouts of corn, and I don't think the raccoon ever goes over to that part of the yard.
There's still enough of last year's corn to make another batch of cornbread. It keeps nicely when dry.
Keep digging, keep planting!
Almost, but not quite. I hadn't even finished changing into garden work clothes before it started hailing! Hail!Friendly Frog--Happy to see sunshine and butterflies appearing for you. Spring is almost upon you.
But... spring is coming. I know it.Here's hoping the raccoon will miss your corn sprouts this year. That's so cool you actually had enough of last year's crop to sow this year.
All my tomato seeds have sprouted, including the Woodles Orange, which set the record for fastest germination (only six days!). My lettuce came up in three days, but the ground cherry is reticent (I've been told it's a slowpoke). I planted a deck box full of French Breakfast radish and another of Bloomsdale spinach, and since they're cooler weather crops they already outside and I'm expecting them both to germinate in the next few days.
My mother sent me a batch of seeds from Monticello (along with a darling seed packet box) and there are a couple of heirloom tomato varieties (Cherokee Purple and Yellow Pear) in the batch. I don't know if it's too late to start them indoors but I'm going to try. I'm running out of space in my little jerry-rigged greenhouse so some of the seedlings will need to be booted upstairs to a sunny window.
shakeysix and I swapped some seeds - I just received my package which includes a variety of zucchini that's new to me, plus some pepper varieties and some lovely moonflower seeds. So I'm overjoyed with seeds at the moment.
My husband and I fenced in the perennial garden a few days ago, since the deer were already making inroads into the just-sprouted day lilies and nascent stonecrop (they ate the latter down to the ground last year, along with the hosta). Haven't gotten the vegetable patch fenced just yet; maybe this weekend. I'd like to get the soil worked and plant some of the other cool-weather seeds (chard, carrots and a few others) before it gets too warm.
My mother sent me a batch of seeds from Monticello (along with a darling seed packet box) and there are a couple of heirloom tomato varieties (Cherokee Purple and Yellow Pear) in the batch. I don't know if it's too late to start them indoors but I'm going to try. I'm running out of space in my little jerry-rigged greenhouse so some of the seedlings will need to be booted upstairs to a sunny window.
shakeysix and I swapped some seeds - I just received my package which includes a variety of zucchini that's new to me, plus some pepper varieties and some lovely moonflower seeds. So I'm overjoyed with seeds at the moment.
My husband and I fenced in the perennial garden a few days ago, since the deer were already making inroads into the just-sprouted day lilies and nascent stonecrop (they ate the latter down to the ground last year, along with the hosta). Haven't gotten the vegetable patch fenced just yet; maybe this weekend. I'd like to get the soil worked and plant some of the other cool-weather seeds (chard, carrots and a few others) before it gets too warm.
My fancy iris has after three years decided to grace me with a flower bud! I'm over the moon.
And my iris ensata seedlings appear to have germinated! Also very pleased about that one, it was the first time I had any seed to try with.
My other seed trays are showing signs of life here and there but so far nothing that definitely said 'I'm-not-a-weed-mascarading-as-seeded-plant.' Except for the verbena, but I've grown those from seed for a few years now, so I know them well enough. All the others are first tries.
How does the gardening go with everybody else?
And my iris ensata seedlings appear to have germinated! Also very pleased about that one, it was the first time I had any seed to try with.
My other seed trays are showing signs of life here and there but so far nothing that definitely said 'I'm-not-a-weed-mascarading-as-seeded-plant.' Except for the verbena, but I've grown those from seed for a few years now, so I know them well enough. All the others are first tries.
How does the gardening go with everybody else?
My garden will be a barren wasteland this year. Our 8-month-old rescue pup, Pepper, ate all 12 of my emerging Stargazers (leaving only five bulbs), 6 'Peach Pink Ball' geraniums, 6 of 8 'Americana White Splash' geraniums, and a very large pot of parsley. She did leave the thyme, the mint, and the 3 well-established rosemary shrubs alone, so I guess that's something. Oh, and she ate 2 limbs off my Vitex tree. I've decided she's not a dog, she's a goat.
I'm sorry to hear Pepper is a bitey little pup but glad you rescued her. Friendly frog--your flowers sound pretty.
My plantings are hit or miss. Some old bean seeds don't want to sprout. The carrots refused to sprout. Most of the tomato seeds refused, but a couple are up. Same with the pumpkins.
I've got a fair number of sprouts going--Peas (second crop), onions/chives, hard squash, zucchini, spinach (second crop), potatoes, corn, and some others mentioned earlier. This is the 'tender sprout' phase for much of the garden, where I worry the slugs will slime them all to death. There are six pumpkin sprouts in three locations, these are pie pumpkins, and I suppose I am more excited about these than some of the others but still I scratch my head that fourteen seeds didn't sprout.
I put zucchini in the front yard--this is the first time I've planted vegetables in the front yard and I did it because of the stay-at-home which is actually why the garden is bigger this year than normal. Those are sprouting, but one or two sprouts have fallen to the slimy slugs already.
Oh. I took some wheat grown 17 years ago (and made into a decorative display) and am harvesting the seeds out of the heads. I plan to put in a patch of wheat field for the neighbors to enjoy, here in suburbia, again because of the shelter-in-place thing. The seeds look OK, no idea if they will sprout but if they do we will have a wheat field. About ten square feet.
My plantings are hit or miss. Some old bean seeds don't want to sprout. The carrots refused to sprout. Most of the tomato seeds refused, but a couple are up. Same with the pumpkins.
I've got a fair number of sprouts going--Peas (second crop), onions/chives, hard squash, zucchini, spinach (second crop), potatoes, corn, and some others mentioned earlier. This is the 'tender sprout' phase for much of the garden, where I worry the slugs will slime them all to death. There are six pumpkin sprouts in three locations, these are pie pumpkins, and I suppose I am more excited about these than some of the others but still I scratch my head that fourteen seeds didn't sprout.
I put zucchini in the front yard--this is the first time I've planted vegetables in the front yard and I did it because of the stay-at-home which is actually why the garden is bigger this year than normal. Those are sprouting, but one or two sprouts have fallen to the slimy slugs already.
Oh. I took some wheat grown 17 years ago (and made into a decorative display) and am harvesting the seeds out of the heads. I plan to put in a patch of wheat field for the neighbors to enjoy, here in suburbia, again because of the shelter-in-place thing. The seeds look OK, no idea if they will sprout but if they do we will have a wheat field. About ten square feet.
Yikes, goat sounds about right!My garden will be a barren wasteland this year. Our 8-month-old rescue pup, Pepper, ate all 12 of my emerging Stargazers (leaving only five bulbs), 6 'Peach Pink Ball' geraniums, 6 of 8 'Americana White Splash' geraniums, and a very large pot of parsley. She did leave the thyme, the mint, and the 3 well-established rosemary shrubs alone, so I guess that's something. Oh, and she ate 2 limbs off my Vitex tree. I've decided she's not a dog, she's a goat.
Oh you have a vitex tree! What kind? I have been given some seed of a blue vitex variety last year. I've seeded them earlier this season but am still waiting to see it they'll germinate.
Thanks! I have been waiting so long for it.
17 years is quite a while! It'll be interesting indeed to see if there's any life in it yet. Having a wheat field does have a certain appeal.Oh. I took some wheat grown 17 years ago (and made into a decorative display) and am harvesting the seeds out of the heads. I plan to put in a patch of wheat field for the neighbors to enjoy, here in suburbia, again because of the shelter-in-place thing. The seeds look OK, no idea if they will sprout but if they do we will have a wheat field. About ten square feet.
It's the variety called LeCompte, which has lilac-colored flowers. I had lilacs in Iowa and I missed having them but I knew they wouldn't survive Texas heat and drought. The little tree is still spindly after five years but very pretty when in bloom.