How does you garden grow?

(I saw some tumbleweeds today, do they count?)

NO GREENFLY HURRAH!! actually i think this is a sign of the end times :(

window boxes rules esp.as rainy has promised to come and weed them for me

i have not seen my darling scuttly woodlouse for a while tho: maybe the forests of foreign mint hide him, maybe he left for other pleasures

I wish plants would grown like they do in cartoons. I want some instant gratification with this rucola damnit.

This year I have:

Four different varieties of apple
Pears
Cherries
Plums
Gooseberries
Strawberries
Raspberries
Loganberries
Rhubarb
Blackcurrants
Grape vines (not v successful, even tho they are against a south-facing wall)
Carrots
Three different kinds of potato
Onions
Spring onions
Celeriac
Sweetcorn
Asparagus
Courgettes
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Aubergines
Pak Choi
Lettuce
Radishes
Sugar snap peas
Runner beans
Broad beans
Broccoli

I've got a herb garden too - it's about 8ft square - filled with thyme, chives, rosemary, different kinds of mint, horseradish, oregano and parsley. I'm growing basil in pots on the kitchen window sill.

the basil i've grown in the past tastes mainly like soap

any suggestions? are their any foods i can still plant this late in the year, or do i need to wait until next year?

i love community gardens.

Colette : you can still plant fast-growing things such as salad stuff - lettuces and radishes are really easy. You could plant carrots and potatoes too, because you can still be harvesting those right up to the first frosts and that might not be until November.

If you get some ordinary supermarket potatoes, of a variety you like, take them out of the plastic bag and leave them in a cool dark place (cupboard under the stairs is good) for a week or so, they will start to sprout little roots. When the roots look fairly sturdy, plant the whole potato in your garden - put them about 18 inches apart so they have plenty of room to grow). Each potato will turn into a plant bearing a dozen or so more potatoes. I've even grown potato plants from peelings before now.

Carrot seed is really tiny. Make sure you sprinkle it very thinly when you plant it, otherwise the carrots get overcrowded and won't grow properly. Plant a couple of marigold plants (the flowers) near to the carrots, and it stops them getting attacked by the pesky carrot fly.

This makes me sound like Alan Titchmarch (which I'm not, obv)

I feel like the ILX yokel now. Where's me wellies?

Are they like bell peppers, but brown? I have never heard of those before, and am intrigued.

Are they like bell peppers, but brown? I have never heard of those before, and am intrigued.

Apparently yes -- they're certainly turning browner on the plant at least. I will learn more when I actually eat one.

We have to leave in early september. I hope we can find somewhere with a garden because I don't want to go back to buying fresh herbs.

It always seems like a waste of good beer to me though, not being the sort of person who knowingly leaves beer at the bottom of cans or bottles.

If we or our elderly neighbors ever have to use the fire escape, I shudder to think of the consequences, though.

i have killed every single house plant (phaleonopsis (sp?), hydrangeas, bouganvillea, even this hearty ivy thing that got reasonable sunlight and waterings) i have owned. i am not proud of this.

Revive

I'm having a crack at sprouts, carrots and leeks this year, as well as a salad patch (flat parsley, rocket and some lettuce), some rhubarb that came with the house and various herbs (mint, rosemary, oregano, chives and curry plant, since you ask). As with most things I've been too lazy to research over and above the instruction on the packet.

So, advice, hints, cautionary tales. Or is growing veg a bit too middle aged for all you crazy kids?

Oh dear. Is it time to start planting seeds already? I am so not this organized this year.

I think I'm a little early, to be honest.

Maybe not, it's nearly 60 degrees here and nothing's been frozen in ages.

I need to get my tomato seeds started this week. I'm also going to try starting artichokes from seed. My father brought over his tiller last week and dug up the patch of back yard that I'm converting to vegetable gardening. Saved me hours of digging and a couple of heart attacks, probably.

I've given up on anything except Rocket.

Ah, I've been informed by many that Rocket pretty much looks after itself, hopefully I'll be alright with that one, then.

I've got an awkwardly sited garden in that only the bottom end of it gets any sun of note. So most of the herbs are destined for pots to sit at the front of the house, excluding the chives, mint and rocket, which are fairly happy in the shade, apparently. Hopefully the flatleaf will be as well

Actually, tomatoes are quite easy, too. I would have had a good crop last year had I not planted them too late, and a load of them never ripened.

Tomatoes, you say. Hmm. Can you get away with growing them in pots? The bed I cleared is pretty much full already with the sprouts leeks and carrots and I have v. little in the way of free time for grubbing up plants to clear space for more fruit and veg.

Yes! I grew mine in pots! Big pots, mind you, that once had roses in them. I would reccomend getting the wire cage things for them, though, as mine fell over and went vining out everywhere. They do like to climb.

do a search for "container gardening".

Mint will take over if you let it. Keep an eye on that ine.

Yerac gave me a Ni blue hydrangea which I just planted.

Given the amount of tabbouleh I eat keeping the mint down will not be a problem

Mint will grow where you plant it, send a root across the yard and sprout 50 feet away! It's pretty wild!

Haven't thought about herbs/veg yet, but my tulips are starting to come up!

Waiting to see what garden things will be happening this year -- the joint one I work in has had to move, and other things have come up to complicate the picture. We'll see.

We had daffodils here before January was even done. I'm getting concerned about our lack of winters here.

Communist.

hey Rock have y'all experienced "blight" with your tomatoes. My parents (in Batesville) had a bunch of tom. plants ruined by it a couple of years ago for no apparent rhyme or reason. Everything was cool last year though and there was no discernible difference in their care. The oldsters around them said it just happens sometimes.

Not much, but last year was my first year of heavy tomato growing. (approx 25 plants.) A couple of plants last year had some sort of blight -- I jerked them out immediately. One or two showed a fungus, and my father game me some nuclear fungicide to spray on them. They seemed to hang in there, but yields weren't great. A couple of the blighted plants were in pots, so I moved them way out of the way and kept tending them, to see exactly what the blight did. (Basically choked off the water supply to the fruit. But none of the potted tomatoes did as well as the ones in-ground.)

Last year I planted one or two each of 15 different varieties. This year it'll be 2-5 each of five or six varieties that proved themselves in terms of flavor and blight resistance, in a much bigger area, less crowding. Making the cut: Boxcar Willie, Rose Quartz and Blondköpfchen (cherry tomatoes), Paul Robeson, Yellow Brandywine. Also probably a couple each of German Green and Costoluto Genovese.

Given the amount of tabbouleh I eat keeping the mint down will not be a problem

famous last words . . . Hope you really, really, really like tabbouleh. :)

I do :)

Fortunately it's also one of my house salads at work, given that it comes in at a quid a bag perhaps I'm saving myself a tonne of money?

Planted five artichokes (bought from a nursery; the seed never came up), a raspberry vine, two basil plants, tarragon, parsley, dill, a strawberry plant, a bunch of bulbs I don't remember the name of, a blue hosta (can't wait to see that), two elephant ears, a hollyhock and a couple other things this afternoon.

Still need to get some thyme plants and maybe some mint. Surprisingly, I haven't had any luck getting mint to grow.

And the tomato seedlings at my parents' house are going great, but still have a ways to go in the greenhouse, plus hardening off for cool nights, before they can go in the ground.

Water use restrictions were eased in Raleigh today = it's on now! (I've converted to rainwater collection already but anyway.)

i am starting a garden when i move back to mpls!

moms is giving me stuff from her unbelievably large and elaborate garden.

Water use restrictions were eased in Raleigh today = it's on now!

I hope GA has been getting some of what we've gotten this winter! We had 3.5" of rain this weekend alone.

Aye, we've had plenty of water here. My sprouts are shooting up already, no sign of leek or carrots as yet though. The mint's established itself nicely but the rocket and flatleaf are struggling a bit at the moment. I'm not able to spend as much time out there as I'd like which is frustrating. Rosemary, thyme and garlic are doing well in pots at the sunny end of the decking. Tomatoes and strawberries are sat in the conservatory waiting to be planted out. I'll give them a night or two to harden off first, I guess (as you may have gathered I don't really know what I'm doing). The rhubarb's turned out good, timeto cut that and make a crumble, I reckon.

I bouht a gooseberry bush yesterday, I am absurdly pleased by this.

Expanded palette, 2008:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/garden060908back1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/garden060908back2.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/garden060908back3.jpg
Roughly the same number of tomato plants as last year, just spread out so I can actually get at them.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/garden060908squash.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/raspberry.jpg

Yellow crookneck squash and raspberries.

Nothing happening at all with me as we are on the verge of moving the overall garden from one spot on campus to another. The old location is essentially a wreck -- a beautiful wreck but a wreck nonetheless.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/garden060908front2.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/garden060908front3.jpg

Artichokes and icebox watermelons.

looking good.

cayennes are going crazy. tomatoes are about a week away. squash and jalapenos are starting to put out. very little activity from the other peppers. something's eating my zucchini. i need to plant some turnips. Gonna relocate some feral/neglected strawberries. Should probably do some beans. I just dug two new beds and gotta put something in them. I'm open to suggestions.

The tomato salmonella outbreak started here, so I have the only tomatoes in town unspoilt! I feel like I need to be out there with a gun.

I wish I'd planted some hot chilies, but for 99% of the uses I'd get out of them, it's just as easy to open the jar of sambal oelek. Every now and then I need a fresh chili though.

The two artichokes on the backyard side of the white fence are not doing well, even though the soil is better there. I don't know if they're getting too much sun, not enough sun, too much water or what. The artichokes in the front bed seem to be thriving, even though I didn't amend the crappy soil there much. I've never grown watermelons before, and didn't realize they'd spread like triffids.

Kerm, plant some chard and parsnips.

Rock, aren't artichokes thistles that like poor soil?

The other peppers are yellow bell and sweet banana, but yeah I'm going to have plenty of hot stuff. With the 6 or 7 varieties of tomato, I'm pretty much just growing salsa.

my onions are almost ready!

I need to start writing in my journal when it's TOO LATE to do things, i.e. "June is too late to be pulling the morning glory off the grapes".

trying to build up a potato hill for the first time ever and I broke some of the stalks, they are really fragile! Another thing I should have started sooner.

Rock, aren't artichokes thistles that like poor soil?

I wish I knew! I didn't do as much research about growing these things as I should have. But judging from early results, it's true.

The tomatoes that I thought were Boxcar Willies have huge clusters of blooms, more like cherry tomatoes, so I'm beginning to wonder if I had everything mislabeled. I guess the surprises will start in a couple of weeks.