NationStates Jolt Archive

I've mentioned before that I garden. In fact, I just came in from watering. Due to the layout of my place, I'm constrained to container-box gardening, but with each passing year, I've improved the overall design to the point that I'm now working with 25 container-boxes, with the breakdown being roughly 65% herbs, 35% flowers, with a few experimental plants growing in large pots thrown in here and there, things like: mustard grown from old mustard seed I found at the back of the spice cupboard; a cooking onion that was trying its damnedest to grow out of the mesh bag full of onions under the kitchen sink; a cluster of rhubarb that surprised us by resprouting this spring; strawberries that we have no idea as to their origins, but are encouraging; and of course our ehm... "compassion" garden. Allow me to explain that last one.

When my niece and nephew were over recently for a brief visit, they were drawn to the garden, and spent considerable time enjoying its' lushness. My niece asked about my burdgeoning young marijuana plants, sitting in their transitional pots on the patio table in the full sun. What were they, she wanted to know. Without missing a beat, I told her they were "compassionfruit" plants. After all, I had discretely referred to that small part of the entire garden as the "compassion" garden on other occasions, so to call my nine lovely ladies "compassionfruit" didn't seem like an incredible stretch.

Anyway, neither of them were scarred for life. I think they were more interested in the flowers anyway. Either that, or the Deadly Nightshade. Or maybe the Wormwood. No matter how you slice it, I'm pretty sure the memory of the "compassionfruit" was fleeting at best.

But I digress. I've been making references to the gazanias growing in the garden here on NS, and recommending to people with less-than green thumbs that they could do worse than to try planting some of these low-maintenance and very colourful flowers around the house or garden. I have gazanias that are solid colour - white, orange, yellow, red - I have banded gazanias in the same colours - and I have striped gazanias, in a number of combinations, incuding purple/white, red/purple, yellow/black, and yellow/red.

I found a good photo of a striped gazania online, and I thought I'd like to share it with you all. If you like the photo, try doing a google image search for 'gazania' and see some of the other colour variants.

Here's the link:
http://community.webshots.com/photo/13766342/13766855SENwzAExeh

I guess what I had in mind was to ask if you had a photo of something from your garden, or a photo of your garden, maybe you'd like to share a link with us. I'm not sure if there would be a problem with a thread like this, but I think the subject matter is innocuous enough that it shouldn't be a problem.

Hope everybody in Canada and the US is enjoying their long weekends.

Take care.

Here's the link:
http://community.webshots.com/photo/13766342/13766855SENwzAExeh


Those are pretty. We have a few roses around the house and the wife planted some king of flower bulbs but they haven't flowered yet. When I retire, I want a vegetable garden and the wife wants an herb garden. We both like to cook and you can't beat fresh herbs and veggies.

Where I live, the soil is very dark, rich, damp and acidic. That's because the soils were bogs and swamps a few thousands years ago. Once you mix this rich soil with a little sand, it becomes very productive. Unfortunately, the summer's quite short, so you have to start your sprouts inside or play it safe.

Last year I tried to grow radish, lettuce, green beans and cucumbers. Soil is too damp here, acidic, and there's too much shadow in my backyard (half of it is a mossy forest so you get the picture). It was a complete failure.

This year, I have reorganized the garden in the backyard: I have planted lily flowers, poppy, hosta plants, and other decorative plants that like shadow and damp soil.

I've transferred my garden at the front/side of the house. I have a few tomatoes, lufa plants (!), decorative garlic (which makes huge edible flowers), saskatoon berries, rhubarb, and hops (yes, that nice climbing plant that's used in beer).

I also make sure a section of my yard keeps producing morel (morille) mushrooms. Each year I move the ground and make sure nothing else grows there.


Oh, and I get blueberries in my backyard... without any effort whatsoever.

All our garden seems to grow is dog shit...
I think I'm planting the wrong seeds.

I don't have a garden per se, but rather a collection of bonsai on the deck. I've got a pair of junipers, one 5 and one 7 years old, a boxwood that is three years old, a Japanese maple that is 10 years old (my first tree), and a brand new Fukien tea.

Pot.

This year, I have reorganized the garden in the backyard: I have planted lily flowers, poppy, hosta plants, and other decorative plants that like shadow and damp soil.

I've transferred my garden at the front/side of the house. I have a few tomatoes, lufa plants (!), decorative garlic (which makes huge edible flowers), saskatoon berries, rhubarb, and hops (yes, that nice climbing plant that's used in beer).

I also make sure a section of my yard keeps producing morel (morille) mushrooms. Each year I move the ground and make sure nothing else grows there.


Oh, and I get blueberries in my backyard... without any effort whatsoever.

In a few weeks, I'll have the pleasure of returning to Quebec, to the old family cottage in Lanaudiere. I look forward to seeing the lilys my late mother planted to one side of the cottage oh-so many years ago.

Sorry, your mentioning the lilys made me remember.

It sounds like you'll have worked out the optimal positioning for the various plants in your garden. It's taken me five years of various experiments to work out the best spots for the right plants in my container-box garden, and even now I'm trying out new things.

Having your own blueberry patch sounds wonderful. We used to hike up the mountain near our cottage and pick the wild blueberries that grew above the exposed rockface. It would take an hour or two of hiking to ascend the mountain, another hour to pick the berries, but the walk back always seemed shorter.

Enjoy your berries!

Gardening is one of my passions. I've "coaxed" about 10,000 square feet out of the wilderness over the years and built good soil out of the sandy acidic stuff I was given; cover crops, manure, permanent mulch - that kind of approach.

It's largely a subsistence garden, all the standard crops for the northeastern US grown in large quantity. Potatoes, onions, and garlic I grow in large quantities; we put up a lot of food for the winter and give a lot away.

I have an interest in heirloom varieties and do a lot of seed improvement as a hobby. I've got a variety of garlic that is really special now, though that's largely good luck through selection and fortunate mutation.

My wife has extensive flowerbeds and an herb garden. It's really special.

I'd love to grow pot plants - just to look at, they're beautiful - but I'm not a user and the legal aspect concerns me.

I don't have a garden per se, but rather a collection of bonsai on the deck. I've got a pair of junipers, one 5 and one 7 years old, a boxwood that is three years old, a Japanese maple that is 10 years old (my first tree), and a brand new Fukien tea.

Kind of like an arboretum for Barbie dolls!

lol

(no, really I'm sure it's too nice for something as crass as Barbie. It just struck me momentarily)

I'd love to grow pot plants - just to look at, they're beautiful - but I'm not a user and the legal aspect concerns me.

I'd like to do the same for bonsai. Marijuana is really a beautiful looking plant when well tended; perhaps you should check to see what the laws are.

Kind of like an arboretum for Barbie dolls!

lol
(no, really I'm sure it's too nice for something as crass as Barbie. It just struck me momentarily)

:D

Some of them are small enough that a Barbie doll would tower over them!

I'd love to grow pot plants - just to look at, they're beautiful - but I'm not a user and the legal aspect concerns me.

You know, I grew my first "compassion" garden last summer, and I have to say, they aren't just beautiful to look at, Sabbatis - I found the times I spent sitting reading in my garden rocking chair amongst the lovely ladies to be some of the most relaxing times I can recall.

Their scent is undefinably sootheing. I regretted eventually harvesting them in the fall, especially as I came to miss sitting amongst the gently-fluttering leaves and branches. Somehow they smell much nicer when they're alive.

We grew the plants partly to provide an ill relative with a dependable source of free marijuana for their medical discomforts. We had a very successful go of it last year, and so now are continuing the practice. Thank all aspects of Godhead we live in the land we do - though technically we could still face legal trouble for our activities, the likelihood of such coming to pass is lessening with each and every passing day.

Nonetheless, I do very much look forward to the day when this will all be remembered as a laughable, however regrettable, episode in our nation's history. Mr. Martin: don't forget about the pot laws before you call the next election.

We're frankly counting on you. Remember that when you want to count on us.

a cluster of rhubarb that surprised us by resprouting this spring
Rhubarb is a perennial plant. It's very hardy and likes any kind of soil. It likes a little shadow, though.

Other easy-to-grow plants are parsley and chive. They'll come back year after yearl, too. And by the way, chive flowers can be used to decorate salads. They're simply gorgeous.

We have these plants growing beside the house, right under the hose plug. They get some water each time we use the hose. Perfect location!!!

Rhubarb is a perennial plant. It's very hardy and likes any kind of soil. It likes a little shadow, though.

Oh, I know, and if we had an actual yard to plant in, it would have come as no surprise, but because it's inside a large ceramic pot on the patio, we weren't sure if it would have frozen through completely over the winter, killing it.

But it's damned resilient that rhubarb.

Mmm, I feel like baking a pie, now...

The only garden I ever had was to grow weed. It died though. :(

Other easy-to-grow plants are parsley and chive. They'll come back year after yearl, too. And by the way, chive flowers can be used to decorate salads. They're simply gorgeous.

We have three big patches of different varieties of chive, and two or three types of parsley, too. Nastursium blooms are also edible, and quite beautiful added to salads - we have a monstrous Nastursium growing where it can get light for most of the day.

We also are growing lemon verbena, coriander, dill, mustard, 3 types of mint, sage, savoury, wormwood, thyme, rosemary, and something that might be millet (we're just not sure yet). there are other things besides those - but I'm more-or-less responsible for the flowers (the herbs are more the interest of my significant other, you see).

Eventually: watermelons. I can do it!!

You know, I grew my first "compassion" garden last summer, and I have to say, they aren't just beautiful to look at, Sabbatis - I found the times I spent sitting reading in my garden rocking chair amongst the lovely ladies to be some of the most relaxing times I can recall.

Their scent is undefinably sootheing. I regretted eventually harvesting them in the fall, especially as I came to miss sitting amongst the gently-fluttering leaves and branches. Somehow they smell much nicer when they're alive.

We're frankly counting on you. Remember that when you want to count on us.

I believe I know what you mean - some plants are just nice, nice to be around. There's something indefinable about it. I think that's why some people have to garden - they are able to make that connection with plants, and plants with them. I'm one of them, and I bet you are too.

There's even some science to support that, "The Secret Life of The Plant (sorry, would have to look up the author). And while not scientific, some interesting stuff from the Findhorn community. And a lot of science behind plant:plant communication.

oops, sorry about that out of place smiley smiley thingy - clumsy fingers.

No photos, anybody?

I'd love to see your gardens. I should try uploading some of my photos to someplace public for you all to see.

Any suggestions for a good place to do that, somewhere that ideally would be free for me to post, and accessible for everybody else? I'm no net beginner, but I've never really had call for this sort of thing before, and I'm wary.

I don't claim to have a green thumb, I just like things to grow.

Sorry, no close-up of the vegetable garden. You see only the flowers in these photos. And they're from summer 2003. (Right now I've phased out ALL the annuals, and replaced them with perennials and bulbs; I have also increased the number of hosta).

http://www.seshat.ca/maison/jardin.jpg

http://www.seshat.ca/maison/rocher.jpg

Since we're between rusticity zones 3 and 4, I have to be EXTRA careful when buying plants -- some of them may not survive winter.

Nice and lush. Is it very humid in your neck of the woods?

Nice and lush. Is it very humid in your neck of the woods?
Very! We get a lot of ocean moist, and black soil retains water.
Summer is short but plants grow like crazy. I've never seen irises growing that big -- and I'm talking about the ones that grow at random by the road side -- without any human help, they can grow to 5 feet high. Sword grass look happy too (I've planted a dozen last year, now they're getting real tall and strong, with huge flowers).

But once again -- extremely cold winters and short summers limit the choice.

Wild strawberries, Wild Blackberries, a HUGE hazelnet hedge, 3 ancient apple trees, wild mushrooms , meadow grass & wilflowers, a 90 year old Walnut and a bunch of maples and spruce, plus a big patch of Hastas that long ago went wild and bed of Tigerlillies planted in memory of my grandad .Its a garden that went to seed for 25+ years. I just left pretty much as is except for trimming and pulling the more noxious weeds and laying a stone path through and reparairing the wraparound bench that encirlcles the walnut tree. I live on rented property, so I don't want to invest too much effort or money into it. Its shaped like an enormous L and one half of that is very shady, thus the Hastas (I think they're called Hastas) and mushroom patch. I'm quite happy with it, and the landlord loves me because I keep it clean and trim enough to avoid by-law infractions. Its like a piece of the country in the middle of a mid-sized city.

Sorry, no close-up of the vegetable garden. You see only the flowers in these photos. And they're from summer 2003. (Right now I've phased out ALL the annuals, and replaced them with perennials and bulbs; I have also increased the number of hosta).

http://www.seshat.ca/maison/jardin.jpg

http://www.seshat.ca/maison/rocher.jpg

Since we're between rusticity zones 3 and 4, I have to be EXTRA careful when buying plants -- some of them may not survive winter.

Just beautiful! I'm a fan of perrenial gardens. I'm in Zone 3 too - it's an additional challenge and takes some trial and error to find out what works.

I can't easily post pics, will have to get access to a scanner since they are on paper. Plus I have no idea on how to post them, but maybe somebody can help me out.

We grow a lot of tomatoes and asparigus. Asparigus from the can is soggy and gross, garden grown it is the best vegtable ever! We don't have a very big yard though, so we can't make huge gardens of different plants.

We grow a lot of tomatoes and asparigus.
Asparagus is yet another perennial, hardy plant. It can be grown very far north: just add a few inches of dead leaves over it in Fall, to protect them during winter. It takes a few years to swing into full production mode. And it's a perfect plant to make weird decorative bushes.
I'll send a photo later. :D

I didn't know what any of you were talking about re: zones, so I just tried looking up some info for my area (Toronto), but the maps aren't very good.

Unless I read it wrong, I'm in a zone 4 area. I don't know how much relevance that has to a container-box garden, though.

Unless I read it wrong, I'm in a zone 4 area. I don't know how much relevance that has to a container-box garden, though.
You're in 4, maybe even 5.
It gives you much more choice when you choose your plants.

So that's why the thai basil is doing so well. Might've known.

I didn't know what any of you were talking about re: zones, so I just tried looking up some info for my area (Toronto), but the maps aren't very good.

Unless I read it wrong, I'm in a zone 4 area. I don't know how much relevance that has to a container-box garden, though.

Here's links to zones and first/last frost dates, both for the US and Canada:

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:vHp6N5BTtiAJ:www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html+usda+plant+zones&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:a_Dr13IZZ9UJ:www.victoryseeds.com/frost/canada.html+last+frost+dates&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:kaOrd-80rxsJ:www.victoryseeds.com/frost/+last+frost+dates&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

The frost dates are of particular relevance, but they're
average dates, so it still pays to keep a careful eye on the weather.

If you're planting seed you might want to observe soil temperature (a few inches below surface) as well, most seeds have optimum temperature requirements. Plant in cold soil and you'll have delayed/reduced germination.