How Does Your Garden Grow?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Or what, for that matter.

Tell me about your garden this year - what you’ve planted, or are going to plant (depending on what climate you’re in), and what sort of useful tricks you do to help Mother Nature along.

I’ve got a fairly small garden myself - about 8’ by 9’ next to the house, sandwiched in between the cement slab behind the basement door, and the area under the back deck. (It’s got a wonderful southern exposure, though.)

Last year I had four or five tomato plants, a few intertwined cuke vines, several bell and jalapeno pepper plants, and a few lettuce plants, in that space. Other than the fact that I hadn’t planted nearly enough lettuce, everything grew fine.

This year, same thing, only more lettuce. I won’t plant the cukes for awhile, but the lettuce seeds are in (we’ll see how well they germinate outdoors; if I germinated them inside, the cat would eventually eat them up), as are the tomatoes and peppers (protected by those water-filled plastic tepees that keep them safe from frost while they get a head start on the season). I used the tepees last year, and I got my tomatoes started on April 3. This year, didn’t plant anything until yesterday, which is why it’s on my mind.

My other big gardening aid is a compost pile, which makes great soil to enrich the garden with. I love it when a mess of leaves, lawn clippings, and kitchen scraps turns into wonderfully rich black soil. The previous owners built the compost bin; when we moved in, I figured, why not keep it going? Now I’m hooked on it!

2

I have a row of window boxes outside my bedroom—this year it’s going to be user-friendly petunias.

Outside, there are two grave-sized plots of ground in front of the house. The little old lady on the other side of the house and I planted rosebushes (at our own expense) back in '98. Then last year the damn landlord shut off the front water spigot and took all the hoses and gardening implements, so all we have now is pathetic dead bushes. Bastard.

3

How does my garden grow? “With silver bells and cockleshells and an acre and a half of KILLER SHIT!”

Tee hee :smiley:

“Through twilight, darkness and moonrise
My scarlet tears will run
As stolen blood and whispered love
Of fantasies undone”

4

Probably just a few tomato plants this year. I won’t have time, due to work, to plant on Good Friday, which is the habit in the south of planting your garden on that day.

** Sigh. So many men, so few who can afford me ** Original by Wally

I’ve learned that if someone says something unkind about me, I must live so that no one will believe it.

5

Interesting topic. As an avid gardner (can’t help it, grew up at my parents greenhouse), I’m always working on some landscaping idea or another. I have to admit that I’m not much of a vegetable gardner so my list doesn’t include any. Still, with 5 acres of property I may put in a small one somewhere.

This spring I hope to finish a 6’ by 40’ perenial bed. Right now it consists of daylillies (can’t go wrong with them, beginners), dutch and siberian iris, oriental lillies, purple cone flower, shasta daisy, asters, a few clematis on trellises, a honeysuckle that I transplanted from the wild and have to cut back pretty hard, peonies, bergomot (another easy one to grow, but invasive so go easy), poppies (very hard to transplant, but prolific if you’re successful), sedum, and a single rose yellow rose bush (one is fine, too many and it can be alot of work). I’m also working on a shrub border. So far its consists of japonica, a few crepe myrtles, hybiscus, winter blooming jasmine, and flowering almond. Each blooms at different times during the season so you get a summer’s worth of interest.

Good for you and the compost. Sure beats buying it at the store doesn’t it?

Now, if I can just teach my 1 year old how to mow the lawn and run the edger I can lay back in the hammock with a cold beer.

“Smithers, release the hounds.” -C. Montgomery Burns

6

Last fall I planted about 150 tulip bulbs (boy, did my back hurt later!!), but now I have beautiful tulips beginning to bloom. I don’t know too much about gardening, so I didn’t do anything special to the soil.

OK, I did give it some “monster lovin…” :slight_smile: tee hee

7

I am the proud new tenent of an apartment with a deck, so I plan on growing basil galore (my favorite herb. mmmm…fresh basil…) cat nip for my kitty, (despite my mother’s protests of “THAT’S A WEEEEED!”), perhaps a tomato plant or two, if I can talk my landlord into giving me some space in her garden. oooh, and some lavendar. I like herbs.

A little persistance goes a long way. Announcing:

“I go on guilt trips a couple of time a year. Mom books them for me.” A custom made Wally .sig!

8

Tiny apartment. In violation of the fire code I grow tomatoes and peppers on my fire escape. This year just tomatoes. At the end of the growing season I end up with dozens of rotting peppers in my fridge. The tomatoes barely make it off the vine, as my children will pick them and eat them as they turn red.
I grow cherry tomatoes. One year I tried regular ones in a pot. Ended up with a grand total of 3 tomatoes.
BTW, does anyone have any advice on how to keep those damn crows away from my tomatoes? Those suckers are smart and scarecrow scarf I tried last year kept the squirrel and pigeons away, but not those forsaken crows!

9

monster, I’m SO jealous, that I can hardly stand it! I’ve * always * wanted tulips, but chicken out, every year. I’m terrified I’ll plant them incorrectly.

We first moved here eleven years ago, and the garden was ugly and overgrown. I planned out what I wanted over there, with rose bushes, azaleas, lilies, and hosta but then the design that I had got messed up because things would die.

So, it’s a mish mash of differing colors, though I’m really proud that the Chinese plum tree actually flowered this year, all pretty in purple!

Judy

“Muck should replace ‘suck’. For ‘muck’ is yucky, while ‘suck’ feels very lucky. So, don’t stay stuck on suck, switch to MUCK, today.”

10

Alas, I have no garden, for if it is green and grows in the ground, it wilts and dies at the sight of me.

Yes, I have the accursed “black thumb.”

But this year, when we move to our new house, I am seriously considering a rock garden. I like rocks. Rocks like me. Anyone out there know how to do a good rock garden? I’ve never done one of those, either.

Cristi, Slayer of Peeps

I made my husband join a bridge club. He jumps next Tuesday.

(title & sig courtesy of UncleBeer and WallyM7!)

11

How does mine grow? Too damn well sometimes! This is long, so bear with me :).

Right now, i’m trying to get my garden tidied up. I have tons of California Poppies blooming (they grow a little too well, colonized most of the front yard from just a few seeds I threw out last year). Ever since we put mulch in, the weeds have not come up in my yard much (just those from seeds that were already in the soil remain). Weeding is much easier now.

I also have some very nice bright red nasturtiums growing. Surprisingly the light frosts we got didn’t do much damage to them (they’re basically hardy tropicals), so they’ve come back as perrenials (yes, they are perrenials, they also tend to climb anything they can get their leaves on). My Stipa gigantea (Giant Feather Grass) have done a little too well. I had to devide up one that was a little too big near the path to the house, so now I have about 30 divisions (all going to line parts of the dry stream we have).

I have a Snowball Viburnum that is starting to come into bloom. Most of the flower heads are turning white, so they should look fabulous. I also planted out a Chrysalidocarpus lutescens (a common house plant, called “Butterfly Palm” i believe) out in the front yard as well. It didn’t get killed witht he frosts we’ve had, so it’s basically a test subject (it would be wonderful if it survives the next, and future winters).

My flowering plum is doing quite well. It’s purple leaves are all expanded, and the tree looks full. It’s starting to fill out nicely. I also have many bush lupine volunteers that are near the chain link fence. Hopefully, they’ll help disguise the fence, as well as kind of blend my and my neighbor’s yards together.

One great bit of news is my parents (I still live at home, but the front yard is my project), are finally going to hire some landscape guys to come in, and clear out, and grade the back yard. Right now it’s basically a weed patch (literally, no native, or ornamental plants at all, it’s all weedy grasses and ice plant).

I was also in Borders the other day and bought this wonderful book that talks about working with mother nature instead of against her. It talks about having beautiful gardens, yet keeping them low maintenance (not NO maintenance, mind you). The authors are into using native plants, but they talk about using non natives that are suited to your individual environment (I especially like their suggestions for lawn grass substitutes). The book is: “The Landscaping Revolution: Garden with Mother Nature, not Against her” by Andy Wasowski with Sally Wasowski.

12

Anti Pro…trust me, if I can do it, so can you.

Just be sure to plant the bulbs in the fall. By spring you’ll have a great tulip garden!

13

Cristi - I kill silk plants. I know how you feel.

But, seriously, we’re renting a house, with plenty of space to do a garden and I’d really like to try one.

Does anyone have any tips, hints, warnings, dire predictions of doom, webistes or anything that could maybe help me figure out where to start?

14

Any suggestions for something semi-easy to grow on an apartment balcony? I have a green thumb, but the plants I had last year didn’t do too well. The balcony gets plenty of sun in the morning. I have two pots and a good-sized rectangular pot.

Suggestions from the teeming millions? Herbs would be cool, but I’d like something flowering too.

15

Missy, I’ve learned a lot over the years from my subscription to Organic Gardening. (Pesticides make me break out in hives when they are freshly sprayed.) Probably the most useful thing that you can get from them is what varieties to plant in what types of climates for what type of results. They are on-line now but they only put a sample of what is in the magazine.

I’ve only had 2 vegetable gardens. The first one I didn’t have the ground in very good condition and a long rainy season prevented planting for a couple of weeks and our whole little town got swamped by these little green bugs that ate everything in sight. They ate most of the blossoms off of my tomato plants (all that I had planted) and I only got a very few tomatos. The second year I used what I had learned from OG and got the soil in good shape, planted marigolds around the edge of the plot (close together), and then planted tomatoes, peas, green beans, and lettuce. Wow! The toads moved in under the marigolds and had a feast of bugs and my plants thrived. I was going to have bushels of tomatoes. Then I got pregnant and couldn’t stand the smell of the tomato plants. Everytime I’d go out to harvest, I’d puke. I tried to get people to come pick anything they wanted but in that area of Missouri, everyone already has their own garden. My husband would say, “I don’t even like tomatoes.” The salads, the salsa, the spaghetti sauce that went to waste! But I think this year, I will try again! I don’t plan on getting pregnant and if I do I’ll have a 7 year old that I can ORDER to pick veggies. :slight_smile: I better get out there and start making a new plot.

16

I’m doing petunias again this year because they’re almost impossible to kill, and they grow like mad. All you have to do is water them, and “deadhead” them when the blooms die off. They’re really lovely and come in all colors—they’re a great “beginner” plant for windowboxes or apartment-window planters.

17

Right now I’ve got pansies and daffodils in the front, and marigolds which are waiting to be planted when I have time.

In the back yard, vinca, a huge azalea, and some hardy climbing roses which are going to bloom any second.

Last summer I had zinnias and snapdragons and some petunias. Whenever I get finished with my exams I hope to get some more done in the yard. The back yard is so full of weeds that it’s embarrassing.