# How does your garden grow? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 21, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244 "2009-05-21T22:02:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/21 "2009-05-22T17:44:07Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I’m not familiar with the flower you linked to, and I’m not really sure what you’re talking about with the turd thing. If they send you a turd thing (which, if it’s not a bulb, is probably a corm or rhizome), they should have sent you planting instructions, which I trust you followed. If the instructions were to plant it at the surface, it’s a rhizome (not that knowing that makes a difference to your question) and if the instructions were to plant it at X depth, you shouldn’t be digging it up and looking at it. Either way, plant according to directions then just let it do its thing and see what happens. I think it’s a rhizome, and I planted it at surface (like the pinwheels) and the pinwheels took off like a bat outta hell. But the sangria dude…not so much. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/22 "2009-05-22T18:08:56Z")
I’m only just getting around to putting my raised beds together this weekend. Bad, bad gardener! I’ve got some peppers (sweet and spicy) started and, of course, my potted herb garden is already germinating. Sadly, I refused to put anything in the actual ground this year until the beds were built and my schedule has been insane and the parasite growing inside me has been making me exhausted lately. I hope I"m able to get anything to grow. In the event that I do, we’ll have lettuces, beans, tomatoes, onions, eggplant, cucumber, carrots and any other thing I happen to have room for. I know what the OP means about not being able to kill plants. I’ve got the Rosemary Death Plant at home, lovingly called Deathmary by my family. I grew the thing about five years ago, then four years ago set it in the storage area of our condo because I was too lazy to dump the dirt. That was in the fall. Spring the next next year, I go down the stairs and find Deathmary extending skinny, whitish rosemary leaves toward the window. Amazed, I left and decided to see what happened if I kept it. The thing is still. Not. Dead. I don’t want to eat it anymore because it creeps me out too much. I’m going to try and put the thing out of its misery this year, but short of poison, I’m not sure how to kill it. Refusing to water it hasn’t worked and neither has lack of sunlight. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/23 "2009-05-22T18:18:55Z")
Our sage really liked all the rain we got this spring. It’s huge. The Italian oregano and the thyme also survived the winter, and are doing well. I replaced the rosemary and Greek oregano that didn’t make it through the winter. I’ve also added tarragon, garlic chives, and marjoram to the herb garden. I’m growing basil again in the half barrel full of dirt by the front door. I did just Italian basil last year, this year I’ve got one purple basil plant and one Thai basil plant in addition to the Italian basil. The mint in the yard has come up again, which I think is good at least. I planted tomatoes elsewhere in the yard for Mr. Neville. This year we’ve got cherry tomatoes, Big Beef, and Cosmonaut Volkov. > [@overlyverbose](#): > > I’m only just getting around to putting my raised beds together this weekend. Bad, bad gardener! That, or you’re just being cautious in case of a late frost. I couldn’t do my herb garden until Monday, because there was a frost warning here for Sunday night. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/24 "2009-05-22T19:13:57Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > year we’ve got cherry tomatoes, Big Beef, and **Cosmonaut Volkov**. You have SPACE TOMATOES !!!? Damn you, I still havent even gotten my flying car yet! ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/25 "2009-05-22T19:53:49Z")
We just took out our fava beans we grew over the winter. We got a ton of them. I need to plant more beans in the space. We had some space next to our front fence which had a tree, which got cut down when we replaced the fence. I dug out the roots, fertilized, and put in lettuce, snow peas and some interesting looking pole beans. For the rest, basil, parsley and cilantro, regular eggplant and Japanese eggplant, 6 tomato plants of various varieties, including an Amish heirloom, bell peppers, bush beans, some radishes to delineate rows, and some squash, including eight ball squash which we couldn’t find last year. We are not going to transplant any squash volunteers this year so we hope our squash production will be at tolerable levels. I actually tried to not be greedy and plant the rows far enough apart this year. We only have a snail problem, which was much better last year thanks to our new fence. We just finished the snow peas we froze from last year’s harvest. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/26 "2009-05-22T20:24:58Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Gah, all you health freaks and your freakin’ veggies. > > [What’s](http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g161/twickster/my%20garden/IMG_1111.jpg) [wrong with](http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g161/twickster/my%20garden/IMG_1112.jpg) [beauty](http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g161/twickster/my%20garden/IMG_1115.jpg)? > > ( **Kalhoun** – the purple-flowered plant in the foreground of the first picture and the white-flowered plant in the background of the second are both geraniums.) There’s nothing wrong with beauty. And if anyone had asked about my flower beds, I’d have told them all about the irises and widow’s tears and bleeding hearts and columbines. But nobody did ask about the flower beds, just the garden. So nyah. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/27 "2009-05-22T20:46:24Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#): > > There’s nothing wrong with beauty. And if anyone had asked about my flower beds, I’d have told them all about the irises and widow’s tears and bleeding hearts and columbines. But nobody did ask about the flower beds, just the garden. So nyah. 😛 Usage note – veggie people generally call the veggie beds “the garden” and their flower beds as “flower beds” – flower people generally refer to their growing space in general as “the garden,” and, if they have a separate bed for veggies, they’ll call that “the veggie garden.” (For those who, like me, have only a couple of tomato and pepper plants that are interspersed with the flowers, they don’t call the veggies anything other than “the tomatoes” or “the peppers.”) Anyway, since I’m a flower person – from my POV I _did_ respond to “how’s the garden?” ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/28 "2009-05-22T21:10:36Z")
Since I have succeeded in killing mint, I have come to the conclusion that my soil is not just dead but toxic. My front lawn is full of dandelions and other weeds, otherwise it would be a patch of bare soil. My back yard is full of other weeds. So, this spring, I nagged my husband into buying and setting up a compost bin. This year, all I’ll be doing is dumping stuff into the bin, and letting the compost build up. I’ll use this for next year’s gardening attempts. I have been told that compost is magic. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/29 "2009-05-22T21:15:41Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > For the flower lovers in this thread, here are my new Columbines: [001 | Karlen Sanberg | Flickr](http://www.flickr.com/photos/karlen/3554753456/in/photostream/?rotated=1&cb=1243013566250) and [002 | Karlen Sanberg | Flickr](http://www.flickr.com/photos/karlen/3553946793/in/photostream/) Did you plant those from seed? I ask because I’ve had really rotten luck from seed. This year I potted the seeds, watered 'em, and stuck 'em in the refrigerator almost six weeks, they’ve been outside now for two or three weeks and still no sprouts. I have another one that grew from seed dropped in a pot last summer sometime, so it sprouted a little, overwintered outside, and now it’s blooming like crazy. Do these things need to be started the year before? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/30 "2009-05-22T21:19:30Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Since I have succeeded in killing mint That truly is an accomplishment. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/31 "2009-05-22T21:26:14Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Gah, all you health freaks and your freakin’ veggies. Don’t be starting a Veggies vs Flower argument! You won’t win. No corn for you! ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/32 "2009-05-22T21:27:39Z")
I went and bought cilantro and cubanelles’ today and a couple bags of manure. I have to remeasure and configure the garden. I think I am either going to need more corn seed or more tomatoes or something. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/33 "2009-05-22T21:55:34Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Since I have succeeded in killing mint, I have come to the conclusion that my soil is not just dead but toxic. My front lawn is full of dandelions and other weeds, otherwise it would be a patch of bare soil. My back yard is full of other weeds. the gardening equivalent of “If I didn’t have bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all.” > [@](#): > > So, this spring, I nagged my husband into buying and setting up a compost bin. This year, all I’ll be doing is dumping stuff into the bin, and letting the compost build up. I’ll use this for next year’s gardening attempts. I have been told that compost is magic. Get yourself to a horse barn with some black garbage bags, knock on the door of the office, and ask if you can take some composted manure from the middle of the manure pile. Barns have to pay to get it taken away, so they’ll probably be thrilled. When my daughter was riding we did this, and it transformed awful clay into rich soil. It takes a while, but it works great. We compost also, of course, but you can get a lot more horse poop faster. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/34 "2009-05-22T22:17:51Z")
Yeah, horse manure is good. Check Craig’s List in their farm & garden section. In some areas, manure is at a premium but in other areas someone will put up an ad saying “bring a truck and we’ll give you all you can haul away.” Or start raising rabbits. Fresh rabbit poop all year! I haven’t tried it myself yet, but I keep hearing more and more coffee shops are getting turned on to the fact that gardeners like amending their soil with grounds. Check with your local shops and see if they’ll let you take theirs away. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Cream\_Conquest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e480ec/32.png) [@Ice\_Cream\_Conquest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Cream_Conquest)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/35 "2009-05-22T22:27:12Z")
I’m going to give this a try for the zucchini plant this year. [http://www.squarefootgardening.com/index.php/Gardening/grow-zucchini-vertically.html](http://www.squarefootgardening.com/index.php/Gardening/grow-zucchini-vertically.html) ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/36 "2009-05-22T23:07:45Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Did you plant those from seed? I ask because I’ve had really rotten luck from seed. This year I potted the seeds, watered 'em, and stuck 'em in the refrigerator almost six weeks, they’ve been outside now for two or three weeks and still no sprouts. > > I have another one that grew from seed dropped in a pot last summer sometime, so it sprouted a little, overwintered outside, and now it’s blooming like crazy. Do these things need to be started the year before? I did columbine years ago and I just popped a couple small plants into the dirt, and it took two years before they started blooming like crazy. These particular plants were just little squibs when I planted them last fall. Maybe 3 inches tall. This is the first season and I’m thrilled. I bought 3; one didn’t make it at all and one’s a runt. But the one in the photo is at least two feet tall. I’m very happy with it and I hope the runt will catch up next year. The purple one…2nd season. Same dealie. ---
**Author:** ![Alpine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpine/32/17813_2.png) [@Alpine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpine)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2009, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/37 "2009-05-23T01:49:10Z")
I just planted my second lettuce crop in the AeroGarden today… What more can you do at 10,000 feet? The wildflowers won’t be up in our yard for a month or so. I love hearing about people’s “real” gardens! ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2009, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/38 "2009-05-23T02:48:24Z")
> [@Alpine](#): > > I just planted my second lettuce crop in the AeroGarden today… What more can you do at 10,000 feet? The wildflowers won’t be up in our yard for a month or so. Greenhouse! Man, I think Colorado Springs is too alpine. I feel really bad for you guys up there. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2009, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/39 "2009-05-23T11:22:16Z")
Re: composting. Every so often, go poor a beer or two on your pile and mix it up. The yeast in beer is what helps break down the compost pile. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2009, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244/40 "2009-05-23T11:24:30Z")
> [@Ice\_Cream\_Conquest](#): > > I’m going to give this a try for the zucchini plant this year. > > [http://www.squarefootgardening.com/index.php/Gardening/grow-zucchini-vertically.html](http://www.squarefootgardening.com/index.php/Gardening/grow-zucchini-vertically.html) Zucchini is a vegetable of mass destruction. One plant can feed your entire zip code. (Ymmv) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-your-garden-grow/497244.md?page=3)