Page 1 of 3 [ 38 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3  Next

raykusray
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 26 Jan 2012
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 67

04 Feb 2012, 9:11 am

So, does anyone here like to garden? I'm going to start working on my vegetable garden when it's less chilly out. If you do like to garden, what is your favorite plant/herb/flower/vegetable/fruit?

I'll start. Carrots! Simple and easy to grow.



Amik
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Feb 2008
Age: 42
Gender: Female
Posts: 645

04 Feb 2012, 9:29 am

I like to watch my hubby garden. Does that count? :P Well, I do help around a bit, but I must admit that he's the one with the who takes care of most of it and knows more about what he's doing.

We've grown our own vegetables every summer for a few years. It's fun to watch them grow right in front of our eyes.

I like carrots too. The part that sticks out of the ground makes everything so green and nice, and the carrots are really delicious once they're ready. I like to pick up a few every day when they're ready and give the green part to my rabbits and then we eat the orange part ourselves. It's like a little carrot feast for the whole family. :)

I like the peppers a lot too. I like the tiny flowers that grow on the plants, and then it's fun to watch the little peppers grow on them. We grow the peppers indoors though, because it's too cold outside where we live, so we need to do the job of the bees ourselves and brush the flowers gently and transfer pollen between them. That's fun. :D



Ellendra
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 21 Dec 2011
Age: 43
Gender: Female
Posts: 127
Location: Wi, USA

05 Feb 2012, 12:28 am

I go crazy if I don't have a place to grow things, I even have plants taking up 1/4th of my bedroom.

I like to grow a lot of things, but I'm especially fond of a zucchinni variety called zucchetta rampicante. It's a very viney plant, the zucchinnis have a firm, meaty texture that I love, they're good both raw and cooked, and if allowed to ripen long enough they also make a great winter squash.



kestrel
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Jan 2012
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Posts: 574
Location: Ohio

05 Feb 2012, 1:00 am

I garden a bit excessively.

Favorite thing in the world: Vandaceous orchids. :D Also, cherry trees are starting to rise in my list of favorite botanicals. I'm starting to wonder whether I should look into going back to school for botany.



AnnettaMarie
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 9 Jan 2012
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,286
Location: Issaquah, WA

05 Feb 2012, 6:35 am

I wish I didn't kill whatever I grew. I used to have a cactus collection, and they all got rot one year and tipped over. I wish I knew then that I could just chop the tops off and regrow them again. Boo.


_________________
I'm a crab in a lobster world.


raykusray
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 26 Jan 2012
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 67

10 Mar 2012, 1:29 pm

So, does anyone harvest seeds from supermarket plants and grow them sometimes? I've got Kumato seedlings now. I'd put the seeds I harvested at about 80% viability.
Just fyi, Kumato is owned (and strictly licensed) by Syngenta, and the seed isn't available to the home market. BUUUT, if you take the seeds out from a ripe Kumato tomato, there isn't anything stopping you from growing Kumato F2 tomatoes. And so on.
I'm going to try Bell peppers next (full of easy to harvest seed) and maybe some hot peppers from an asian market, for variety's sake. The easiest to both harvest and grow, as far as I'm concerned, are citrus fruits. They just take time. Although I forgot to label mine, so in a few years, when they finally fruit, I'll finally know what's what.



raykusray
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 26 Jan 2012
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 67

10 Mar 2012, 1:35 pm

YAY for orchid growers! I don't do much growing anymore, its a bit intensive. I do some watching of the Calypso Bulbosa that grows out back, and the color variations in the flowers as well as the environment it grows in/distribution. Seems to like a light pine mulching, and about 20m between plants at maximum, with some clustering. I'm also trying to propagate a type of wild blackberry that is distinctly different from the normal type that grows locally. It has larger fruit, for starters :D If I could only collect the strange, scented white violet that seems to grow roots in moss only....



identity
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 Mar 2011
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,555
Location: South West UK

10 Mar 2012, 1:42 pm

I like to grow flowers mainly. It started off with buying a couple of peonies I think, but their flowers don't last long so I started to try other things. I have sowed some sunflowers, cosmos, zinnia and tomatoes, which germinated in a couple of days, and are starting to go all leggy now. :( Luckily I still have some seeds to sow later aswell. Today I just sowed some Clarkia and Cornflowers directly outside in pots and some Lobelia which I have brought inside. We'll see how they go!

I did try to grow some butternuts from the seeds a few years ago but I don't think they really came to anything. Are you in a hot country raykusray?



Kjas
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Feb 2012
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Posts: 6,059
Location: the place I'm from doesn't exist anymore

10 Mar 2012, 2:13 pm

I have quite a collection in my garden. I have an extensive range of herbs (about 24 total), the coriander grows the best, biggest and fastest, hands down although the basil and parsley take well. I also have kale, collard greens, rocket, baby spinach and a range of other greens.

I did take seeds out of an organic butternut squash and started a squash patch. That worked a bit too well though, I had to give quite a few away.

I also have a lime tree, passionfruit vine and I'm looking at trying some pineapples.... unsure at the moment.


_________________
Diagnostic Tools and Resources for Women with AS: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt211004.html


raykusray
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 26 Jan 2012
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 67

10 Mar 2012, 2:19 pm

Not hot, per se, particularly. Zone 7b for me. The summers are quite variable. One year can be cool and wet, and local farms will be abundant with everything. The next year, hot and dry, and crop failures all around. Thats why I like to grow just a bit of my own, and I'm expanding it a bit. The carrots did well with even with the dry summer and a crowded pot, and my strawberries produced well but had insect problems. The tomatoes did well, but someone stole all the ripe ones :x. I'm going to try an organic pesticide this year - this sprayable wax with capsaicin in it. Doesn't hurt the fruit, but bugs are supposed to dislike it. If that doesn't work, I'm going to figure out how to mix neem oil and biodegrable soap and make my own :x



The-Raven
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Apr 2011
Age: 45
Gender: Female
Posts: 762

10 Mar 2012, 2:23 pm

I like gardening.

Last year I grew carrots in pots and put them in my guinea pigs run for him to nibble at the leaves, they were great as they re grew their leaves all summer. I also grew cabbages but he didnt like them, but we got lots of cabbage white butterflies so i brought a leaf with the eggs on into the house and watched the caterpillas hatch and grow which was fun.

This year Ive planted 4 new rose bushes, 2 hibiscus and 3 other bushes I cant remember. im really lucky as there is a lidl shop at the end of my road and it often has really cheap plants.

All my bulbs are coming through now which I planted in the autumn, so Ive got buds of snowdrops, crocuses, daffs and one early tulip!

I also like wildlife in my garden and have lots of bird feeders, i want to make a small pond and log pile too.



raykusray
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 26 Jan 2012
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 67

10 Mar 2012, 2:26 pm

LOL. Cilantro (coriander) grows like a weed around here - put it in the ground and make sure to harvest before it sets seed. And Burpee just came out with this lovely novel variety called Confetti, I think. I've been intending to buy some seed.
I think pineapples are a bromeliad...Do you live in a warm area Kjas?



Kjas
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Feb 2012
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Posts: 6,059
Location: the place I'm from doesn't exist anymore

10 Mar 2012, 2:28 pm

I live in a very warm area. We never get frost here, so most greens grow year round. The following mixture keeps everything off my plants, especially the basil.

P.S. you can make your own garlic, chill and bell pepper spray that works.

Combine 3 garlic bulbs of minced garlic, 1 handful of chilies blended, 2 small bell peppers blended with 1 ounce of mineral oil. Let soak for 24 hours or longer. Strain. 
Next mix 1 teaspoon of fish emulsion with 16 ounces of water. Add 1 tablespoon of castile soap to this.
Now slowly combine the fish emulsion water with the garlic / chili /pepper oil. Kept in a sealed glass container this mixture will stay viable for several months.

To use: Mix 2 tablespoons of mixture oil with 1 pint of water and spray.


_________________
Diagnostic Tools and Resources for Women with AS: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt211004.html


Candles15
Pileated woodpecker
Pileated woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 30 May 2011
Age: 31
Gender: Female
Posts: 175
Location: United Kingdom

10 Mar 2012, 2:49 pm

Yes, I love gardening! And my favourite thing to grow is tomatoes and any sort of flowers.
Tomatoes because It's an amazing feeling when one of your tomatoes is ripe and you can pick it straight off the tree and eat it :D
Flowers because they smell nice and attract different types of butterflies!



identity
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 Mar 2011
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,555
Location: South West UK

10 Mar 2012, 2:53 pm

Has anyone tried tumbling tomatoes in a basket? I am thinking of trying them this year.



raykusray
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 26 Jan 2012
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 67

10 Mar 2012, 3:06 pm

Thanks Kjas, but the fish emulsion part is out - I'm vegetarian.
Identity, do you mean the upside down hanging tomato planters? I've heard good and bad about them.