club The Great Gardening Thread of 2023

[Elastigirl]

29 minutes ago, Everstorm said:

Which peonies do you have?

Not sure. My friend who was moving gave them to me. I know I saw them blooming at her house, but I can't remember the color.

[MaeradCase]

1 hour ago, Everstorm said:

I was so excited to see my irises blooming today, only to realize the ones I bought were mislabeled (like not even close, except that they are both bearded iris.  Whomp, whomp.  Now I am waiting to see if the other two I bought at the same time are also wrong.

 

I would take them back, but who are we kidding?  They are still pretty and I am a plant dragon. They can't be in the spot they are in (too much blue/purple there already)  but I am sure they go somewhere.

 

Grew nicely, but definitely disappointing that the product was not as advertised. Do they charge a different price for more unusual varieties like that frilly pink?

[spezzy]

Heyyy look what magically appeared in my driveway yesterday. 

thank you, tree company! 
 

…now to get to work ? 

[Sovalis]

Oh boy, Spezzy, that is going to be great! Take care of yourself while you move that mountain!!

[Everstorm]

2 hours ago, MaeradCase said:

Grew nicely, but definitely disappointing that the product was not as advertised. Do they charge a different price for more unusual varieties like that frilly pink?

I don't think so, but they were the first irises I have bought, so I don't know the going rate.  I don't recall them being particularly expensive, though.  I would have no problem buying more if I could be confident they were the right ones lol

[MaeradCase]

48 minutes ago, Everstorm said:

I don't think so, but they were the first irises I have bought, so I don't know the going rate.  I don't recall them being particularly expensive, though.  I would have no problem buying more if I could be confident they were the right ones lol

That's fair. It is quite disappointing they weren't the flower being advertised.

 

You moving them around made me think of the colorful flower gardens people design on ACNH with the flower positioning "just so" with lovely artful results. ❤

[KB Girl]

Had my first harvest big enough to fill a basket today  

 

(asparagus, rocket, other salads, different kinds of paksoi leaves, purple chinese cabbage leaves) 

[spezzy]

Hello I have grown 2 whole stalks of asparagus I am a master gardener ?

 

 

Miiiight be keeping this little broken down garden bed after all!

[MaeradCase]

They're absolutely perfect in their resilient stand. ??

[KB Girl]

I've been spending a lot of time in the gardens, things are starting to look promising  but there is also so much still to do..

Took this picture today, already harvested three full bowls from these salads (just picking the outer leaves), they're doing so great ❤️

The chive flowers are cute and the snow peas also have a couple white flowers in there. 

 

[spezzy]

Alright, so first - I’m glad I didn’t have anything in the ground, we had a late season frost last week which was surprising but also confirms the may 31st as a good safe planting date.

 

next, I had also kind of accepted in my brain that gardens weren’t going to actually happen this spring and I’d just get a potted few things and worry about fall,  but as a part of another project I have to clear away large piles of manure that’s been sitting for years. So might as well put that dirt to good use, if I have to move it anyway.
 

and so - I now have a garden bed!

 

it needs some work and one piece is still open so I can wheelbarrow more dirt in this week, and then I’ll close it up and shore everything  up better.

 

it’s just with the first tree I cut down (!!!) and some other storm branches that fell and I had cut down already, so all I had to do was put them in their spots  I’ll probably use some long screws to hold a few spots in place a tiny bit better but it’s pretty sturdy!

 

 

 

[KB Girl]

It’s beautiful  

[Sepherina]

Lots of gardening this weekend and by the end I was covered in dirt (happy dirty times).

 

So….I overbought bags of soil when we built the new bed and I couldn’t return them. Rather than let them just sit, I found every pot I had stashed in the garage, then ran to a local thrift store and bought 7 more really cheap and then bought some small circular hampers from the dollar store.  I had some old seeds laying around so I planted beets, basil, dill, radishes and salad greens.  We shall see what germinates and try other seeds if things don’t take. We also got our tomatoes, peppers, rosemary, and lavender plants last week.  I put those in the soil. The tomatoes came damaged so I filed a ticket with Burpee.  I hope they replace them as I am worried they will not grow at all.  Also the strawberries didn’t take either, but that was probably more my fault as I waited too long to put them in (I probably killed them).  So we put onions in there and I will buy more strawberries next year.  Potatoes went in the circular hampers and I added some cucumbers to the main bed (hopefully those seeds germinate too…they were old).  

 

I need to fix our hose.  We have two connected together (The bed is on the other side of the house from the spigot) and one of them didn’t survive winter.  I bought a new one but we can’t get the bad one separated from the okay one….that is the today problem as we have several dry sunny days coming up and new plants need water. Hauling water for the bed isn’t prudent. I probably should invest in some rain barrels.  Our property is big enough to house a few of them and we get enough rain here to really save money by using them. Our water/sewer prices have doubled in the last year and not because we are using more, but because of rate increases…..everything is just outrageous right now.

 

Will post pretty pictures later today of everything.  Our rhododendron is in full bloom with purples and pinks. I would love to put in more flowering shrubs around the house (the previous owner put in all a bunch of pine bushes and trees…all green and no other color).  We did get some edging stones for where our trellis is.  I have some moon flowers and white nasturtiums seeds to try there.  I have an obsession for an evening garden where all the flowers open at night.  

 

Sorry for brain dumping here…but I was soo happy to share. 

[KB Girl]

Happy sharing is much appreciated  it all sounds very enjoyable!

[Sepherina]

Some pretty rhododendron pictures (with happy bumblebees)

 

[Elastigirl]

This year my peony flowers bloomed and they are so pretty;

[MaeradCase]

On 5/22/2023 at 7:42 AM, Sepherina said:

I need to fix our hose.  We have two connected together (The bed is on the other side of the house from the spigot) and one of them didn’t survive winter.  I bought a new one but we can’t get the bad one separated from the okay one….that is the today problem as we have several dry sunny days coming up

Out of curiosity, if the broken hose is between the spigot and the decent hose, can it be removed form the spigot? In which case you could attach the new hose to the spigot, attach the free end of the decent hose to the new hose, and just chop off the bad hose close to the stuck joint? It means no attachable head, but it does give access to hose water.

[spezzy]

Hey hey my "set it and forget it" garden isn't doing so bad!

 

So first, all I've done is made a makeshift garden bed. 

 

A snapping turtle came and may have laid eggs in there I don't know:

 

 

But we've carried on. Since I planted everything we just have had a mess of rain and have had a lot going on so honestly I haven't touched it, so this weekend I decided it was time:

 

So this is how we were looking:

 

I mowed the lawn (actually, the entire lawn, not just the garden area lawn), cleaned everything up, weeded. 

 

It looks like my watermelon ended up being a sacrificial plant for the cucumber beetles, but I moved it to a spot that gives it some more space in case it does want to come back.  

 

Anyways, this is where we're at now. A little overcrowded but as long as I can convince the squash to all go down the hill and not into the tomatoes and peppers, we'll be okay.  I put a pallet down because the puppy understands not to go in the garden, but doesn't understand that vines on grass are also garden, but seems to understand if pallet is there it is a part of garden, so we're gonna just do that ? 

 

 

 

The last time my Mom was here she mentioned that "under that broken down storm door" was one of my Grandmother's peony's (she loved peonys, so when she died, my Mom took hers and planted them here).  This is, of course, the first I had heard that this super important family plant was there, and I'm not sure why it was under a door in the first place, but anyway. 

 

So I cleared away that entire area, cleared away all of the other plants, and set up the peony with some tomato cages to lean against because it's super weak. 

 

Found a random tomato just growing in the middle of my squash so gave it a cage, why not, I have lots. 

 

When I mowed the rest of the lawn, I also cleared out the area that my greenhouse is going to go and all around it, and I'm going to set up that area with my next garden and will focus on some zucchini first, then peas and carrots for the fall. 

 

So looks like piece by piece somehow making this happen! 

[KB Girl]

Hey I've been taking an extended break from NF (too much going on) but I dropped by to do some lurking and figured I'd share some of my garden joys!

 

Sometimes I take the time to make a harvest photo;

    

 

I love these colourful beets and carrots!

 

Me and the girls in the garden.

    

[Elastigirl]

My cucumbers have a bitter taste. Anyone know what causes this?

[KB Girl]

18 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

My cucumbers have a bitter taste. Anyone know what causes this?

That can have multiple causes, the most common being too little water or too much heat. Harvesting in the morning (because they’ve had a cooler night) seems to help. And it helps to get them as early as possible, the bigger they get the more bitterness.

Also the bitterness seems to be worst at the stem, so cutting off a chunk at the stem and eating the rest can be an option maybe? 

[Everstorm]

Just wanted to drop this here...

[Kalitraz]

How did I miss that there was a gardening thread!? I've put my garden to bed for the year (bulbs planted, strawberries mulched, frost-killed plants composted) as we're expecting 5" of snow here in MT tonight and tomorrow, but I want to throw in a comment and follow to hopefully catch the 2024 thread a little sooner. Happy hibernating to everyone's gardens! See y'all in the spring.

 

[cookufrank]

Hi! Your community plot sounds fantastic, and I love that you’re using permaculture and no-dig principles. I’m working on my own garden, too, mostly veggies and some herbs. It’s always a learning experience, but it's so rewarding! I’m also planning on getting a new furniture set for my garden, you can see this here. Maybe you have some advice for me? Would like to hear some new thoughts!