In the Garden

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What’s happening in yours?
We had several gardening threads but they always fade away.Maybe people get too busy in their real gardens to keep a thread going.
Let’s try again.
I moved some asparagus crowns to a new bed and divided Stella D’Oro Daylillies.
Almost time to start onions and leeks in flats.
Cutting and trimming stuff back and have several brush piles to burn weather permitting.I really need a chipper.

Very little happening in mine at the moment; it's too cold and wet to do much.
I grew some asparagus from seeds of the current plants a couple of years ago and they are ready to plant in Spring, but it will be another two or three years before I can harvest from them.
I've stopped growing onions from sets as it is more hassle weeding them constantly.
The sweetcorn was a disaster this year due to a prolonged drought and I didn't have enough water to keep watering them.
The runner beans did well once the drought ended. They are always worth growing.
The courgettes (zucchini) did quite well but got wiped out with mildew due to the infrequent watering during the drought, lost all six plants. However, a self set courgette elsewhere in the garden thrived. So next year I'll plant them apart so mildew doesn't spread so easily.
Early potatoes did well.
Have given up growing brassicas (cabbage etc) as the pigeons tear them all to bits and leave none for us. If I cover them invariably some cabbage white butterflies manage to get in somehow then we lose the lot to caterpillars.
Swiss chard grows well and has few pests, however Mrs Radish doesn't like it much so it tends to remain unpicked in the garden. (sigh)
Soon be time to plant some leek seeds, they do fairly well but the dogs tend to trample them.
I grow lots of tomatoes in the greenhouse and always plant far too many and end up giving lots away.
The grape vine in the greenhouse did spectacularly well and yielded 125 kg of grapes which has all been made into wine.

My poor garden seems mostly dead from the cold snap we had. I hope some of my plants will come back.

That was an awful cold snap, negative two here.I’m sure the figs were killed back, I don’t know why I even bother with them.I get figs maybe once every five years.Then they are glorious.Even wrapping them won’t help with that type of cold, I’ve tried.They did make a good Halloween decoration then.Like a giant misshapen ghost in the yard.Not sure if the cannas and lantana will comeback ,even well mulched.
It also took out all the greens, turnips are making a comeback but the chard, kale,lettuce and mustards are mush.
Summer garden had a month of no rain and temps around 100.
Hand watered every day, okra loved it.
Corn looked like death but amazingly rebounded when it did rain.Tomatoes wouldn’t set fruit in extreme heat but grew well, then when it rained and heat went down I was rewarded for my efforts.Then the peppers got a blight and I had the worst pepper year ever.Only a few jars of escabeche made.
Cabbage worms tried to appear but I know how to deal with moths.
Rats are my worst pest, they try to harvest branches off my foundation plantings for nests.One year they killed an arborvitae by pruning it down to a stem.The dogs caught a giant one in an out building and it was HUGE.
I’ve actually considered buying a ferret for those darn rats.
Except I don’t think the dogs would care for it much.

Thanks for getting some gardening going again here on WP.

The Christmas weekend cold snap was disappointing. My fruit trees have taken a terrible beating with Irma a few years ago, two nights of sub-zero temps last winter, two hurricanes this fall. I suspect I won't get any fruit this coming year either.

Longevity spinach is doing well, as is the Cuban oregano and sweet potatoes. I got one crop of bananas last year. Lost more this year in the hurricanes. One bunch is coming along and may ripen if we don't get anymore freezing temps.

I did get two persimmons this year, double last year. They have not been very successful. I have two avocado trees and they are four and five years old each and no cados yet.

The culinary ginger was going great guns, it has died back for the winter. But I can still dig some up. It is delicious and I love fresh ginger tea.

Ive been planting up my greenhouse.
There's blackberries, lettuce, eggplant, silverbeet, thyme and something else, ive forgotten.

Outside we have potatoes, sweet potatoes, blueberries, coriander, basil, sage, parsley, thai basil, beetroot, leeks, onions, pumpkin, rockmelon, watermelon, longevity spinach, leaf ginseng, habeneros, red chilli, birdseye chilli, asparagus, mint, cherry tomato and pigeon peas.

In the orchard we have macadamia nut, avocado, elderberry, lime, lemon, grapefruit, pomegranate, mandarin, fig, black sapote, cherry guava, paw paw, banana and mulberry.

Maybe we can keep this garden thread growing.
I had an Asian persimmon, Itchi I think was the name.It never did well for me, you’d think it would since there are wild persimmons here.I finally put it out of its misery.
I’m not going to plant any more apples , peaches or plums.Between the black rot, apple borers and late frosts it’s not worth it.Pears and pie cherries do okay if we don’t get a weird late frost.I have a few Arkansas black apple trees that I’m going to try to keep the borers out of ,it’s my favorite apple and only found locally.I wrap screen wire around the base of the trunk but sometimes that fails and the borers girdle the tree and kill it.This usually happens right when the tree starts producing.
Now I’m concentrating on what fruit does well here in a temperamental climate full of pests and plant diseases.Elderberry, Blackberries , raspberries ,Muscadine and Alpine strawberries in pots.The fruit is held above the ground so no rot or snails.Small fruit, but big taste.

I planted a bunch of daffodil bulbs on the top field to naturalize.That was fun.
They are so easy and pests don’t bother them.They come back better ever year and some have delightful fragrance.
Not so fun was taking down an old field fence.Vines grown in it, trying to get old staples out of the wooden posts, but it looks better already.There is a huge Sugar Maple there and I wanted it to be part of the front garden so the fence had to go.
I will reuse it for my geese.
Who needs to go to the gym? Get a garden and you’ll get a healthy workout that’s also good for your soul.Also food and flowers and wildlife.

in northern Michigan usa it gets below freezing every night now, no outdoors gardening to be done until late May when frost is not likely again for 3 months or so. I do "indoor" gardening and have an extensive collection of house plants, mostly epiphytic plants and aroids. I use artificial lighting to supplement the natural light in many of the windows. I am able to grow and care for many interesting varieties year round. I used to keep livestock but after we moved to town I still needed something to care for, we had beloved pets until recently, lost those due to old age (theirs) my old age keeps me from adopting new pets but the house plants fill a need to have something to care for and care about. Does any body else here have house plants?

I do, but mostly the run of the mill types.
Nothing as exotic as you have.I hope to try an orchid one day but they are pricey and I’m afraid it will die.
I have good luck with Christmas cactus but can’t get my ric rac cactus and night blooming Ceres to bloom.
I have an indoor Gardenia with two buds, fingers cross they don’t drop.It gets too cold for them here in the winter so I’m trying to grow it indoors in the winter.
Red geranium in flower, wax begonia blooming and the cyclamen is setting flowers.
Beats the winter blues.

I’ve got dozens of orchids; usually two or three blooming most any day of the year. I’ve been re-establishing native wildflowers and shrubs.

The pond has been nurtured from barren to thriving. Re-establishing native plants in and around the pond has fostered growth in fish population which brings in the otters.

Bamboo, black sugarcane, swamp lilies blooming, pickerel weed blooming.

I'm restarting mine.

Planted some seeds sometime after new years countdown. Just to see if something thrives when planting seeds at this particular part of the year.

The climate here would be a steady end to a cold and wet season within in coming months.


Then I'll stop my 'experiments' around May and do it a bit wiser, a bit more seriously, to finally just tend and make something better.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
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Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

Enjoying the evergreens in the garden.
Wish I’d planted more when I first moved here.
I need a male blue holly for my females.
No berries.On the to buy list for this spring.
Also an Arrow wood viburnum for the same reason, I have one but need two for berries.
Every evening I watch a flock of sparrows and other birds pack into the Leyland cypress for bedtime.Sometimes there is a lot of chirping when they jockey for best perch.

Only a balcony here.
My first time attempt at wintering potted plants under nonwoven fabric.
I'm quite a noob.

Among my dead wilted flowers my wild roses seem to be doing ok, and I got a pleasant surprise to find baby roses sprouting where I planted my big ones. Wonder where i should try to replant them after I dig em up?