It's spring somewhere!

[bridgetmkennitt]

How is everyone's garden doing? Or, if you haven't started planting yet, what do you plan on growing in your garden?

Comments

[bridgetmkennitt]

Honestly, at this point, I'm pretty sure I have black hands instead of just a black thumb, but I still want to keep on trying. I've been thinking about an aloe vera to start off with, but the ones I saw at Home Depot were tiny things.

Though I should probably look into plant stands so my cat doesn't try to jump up and eat them. She's already been tempted with my fake plants and they're plastic.

[dantesspirit]

Haven't even started it yet. The weather has been so screwy here that it's impossible to know whether it's going to be winter like temps, spring like temps or summer like temps from one day to the next.

[bridgetmkennitt]

That sucks. :/

I live in a desert, so it doesn't get too cold, but it's also the season for really strong winds. Either way, I'm planning on an indoor garden. I just have to plan around my cat.

[dantesspirit]

Yup, 2 cats, 1 dog, 1 foster puppy. So I hear ya. Heh.

We had *flurries* this morning. Ugh.

[cyprinella]

My started seeds are doing marvelously under lamps (tomatoes, tomatillos, couple of different squashes and cukes, celery, parsley and basil). Hoping to harden them off next week or so. My first attempt at lettuces outside never came up though. Not sure if they got frozen at the wrong time or what. Planted more today ahead of a storm system so hopefully they'll be good and settled in with a nice soak. I replaced a dead ornamental something with a cutleaf elderberry and also put in a black lace elderberry so that should look cool in a couple of years. Added edging to my native wildflower beds and I think they look really nice. So things doing pretty well on the homefront.

I'm working with a shepherd friend of mine to turn her unused land into veg beds by doing some lasagna bed building of ruminant poop, cardboard, and soil. I don't think that we're going to get as much done as I had hoped this year, but it should still be a lot more than just my tiny townhouse space.

[bridgetmkennitt]

That all sounds amazing! I'm pretty sure I have black hands and not just black thumbs, so just keeping a plant is a challenge for me. You are doing all the things. Go you!

That is super exciting. More room to plant vegetables is great times.

[cyprinella]

It takes practice! And sometimes finding the right plants. I couldn't keep basil alive for years until I finally found a variety that worked for me. And last year, all of my indoor seedlings failed. No idea what I did wrong! But total failure. Thank god for supermarkets!

[dantesspirit]

We bought a house this time last year, so no garden then. But moving from a townhouse to a house with actual *land* was the best thing ever. We spent the winter building the garden beds and deciding what was going where this year.

Now if the weather would just decide to be spring.

[cyprinella]

Yeah, I get really jealous of all of my friend's space. I keep eyeballing places but land in the DC suburbs is $$$$ unless you're so far out as to make the commute untenable. I wish my neighborhood would be less stodgy and let us garden in the shared spaces that kids don't play in, dogs can't run on bc oh no off leash dogs, and we just pay people to mow. But that's a whole other rant.

[dantesspirit]

Yeah, we looked in our old area (Roanoke County) and what we wanted was so stupid expensive, that it was ridiculous. But just a county over, it was a lot cheaper (taxes are cheaper too, lol), so now we have 1.73 acres to play with}:P

[oceantheorem]

I'm a year behind you! We just bought a house and are moving in within the next few weeks. Did you not plant anything your first year, just plan? Do you have any advice for yourself a year ago?

[dantesspirit]

Mostly we planned, because we missed all the early spring blooms (we actually kmoved at the end of April/beginning of May), so had to wait to see what we missed.

We did plant volunteer tomatoes, the iris rhzomes we brought with us and sunflowers.}:P Later in the fall, we planted quite a few trees. Those I think we should have waited until spring for (it was a local tree steward group's fall native plant sale, so got 11 trees for less than 100.00), as a few obviously didn't make it and others are iffy, thanks to the odd winter.

Best advice is to wait a full cycle of the seasons so you know what's where and can plan accordingly.

[ravena_kade]

Hello, I am new to DW and just found this group. It is cold and wet where I am and we are longing for spring.

I am planning to plant more day lilies, tomatoes an herbs. I have some new ground to break so I am planning someone things.

[bridgetmkennitt]

Welcome to DW! It's not wet where I am, but I'm cold. (Except when it's not cold, it's going to be hot so I'm out of luck either way).

Ooo! Those sound like great choices. What kind of herbs are you thinking about? I keep wanting to grow herbs, but I never know what to choose.

[ravena_kade]

I like cilantro in the summer so I plant it in succession. Love basil and thyme. I

have a patch of mint that I let get tall so it looks like a shrub. I keep it in check by using it for mojitos. I love letting it get tall and flower as it attracts all types of pollinators,

[bridgetmkennitt]

Hee, mojitos are a great reason to have mint. I never thought of that.

I don't cook as much so I feel like I need to justify the herbs somehow, which means I should probably know what I'd make more of in order to use said herbs.

[cyprinella]

I need to figure out cilantro. It always bolts on me before I get much in the way of leaves. And give that I'm planting all the tomatoes this year, I need to make a lot of salsa.

[sporky_rat]

My tomatoes are doing well - and I plant to harden them this upcoming week so I can plant them after Easter. My peppers and lettuces never did work out for me, but my datura did finally sprout.

I'm looking forward to the tomatoes, though.

[bridgetmkennitt]

Nomnom tomatoes. What kind of tomatoes are they?

I've always wanted to grow tomatoes in my apartment. If I could, I'd eat tomatoes all the time.

[sporky_rat]

Black Brandywines. I grew Cherokee Purples on my apartment walkway when I lived in an apartment - it grew in a five gallon bucket. It was an indeterminate type, so it only grew as large as the bucket would let it.

[dantesspirit]

Cherokee Purples are *great* as container plants.

[sporky_rat]

And the taste of those tomatoes makes you drool over the idea of them all year 'round. Such a perfect flavor.

[dantesspirit]

Look into an Aero garden. They have cherry tomatoes you can grow in them year round, along with other veggies, herbs and flowers even. They're great for apartments!

[bridgetmkennitt]

I haven't heard about an Aero garden before, but I'll take a look!

Oh wow, they're kind of pricey.

[dantesspirit]

Yeah, they can be. But if you sign up for their newsletter, a lot of times they have a coupon code and deep discounts.

[bridgetmkennitt]

Ooo, that is a good point. I'll take a closer look at the website and the various gardens.

[theora]

Cold, wet, and miserable here. I haven't touched the ground yet. Maybe next week. Garlic I planted last fall is up. Seedlings of kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and tomatoes are under lights. And peppers, but they haven't germinated after a week, so I'm starting to tap my feet a bit.

[bridgetmkennitt]

Boo weather. :( And hopefully the peppers germinate soon!

Those all sound very excellent. I live in an apartment, so I'm hoping (since I have a cat) to get some plant stands and start an indoor garden that way. Mostly, I just want to grow vegetables and eat them. :D

[sporky_rat]

Peppers seem to take for-freaking-ever to sprout. UUUGH. I finally had to push mine along a bit with a heating pad under them (and then the cat ate them, double-ugh). Mine took almost two weeks.

[bridgetmkennitt]

Cats try to eat everything. That's something I still have to figure out with my cat.

[nekhbet_love]

I started seeding flowers for hummingbirds and butterflies. I want to plant red tulips but the ones I saw at the store did not convince me, the colors seem so faded away. I think I will check online first. There is a lot to do in the garden, we cut some dead trees and I have a few baby trees sprouting already and ready soon to be transplanted. But before this we must make sure that the dead trees are burned and the roots eliminated or dead because they had a disease.

[bridgetmkennitt]

Flowers for hummingbirds and butterflies sounds awesome. I haven't seen any of those around my apartment, just bees, and I'm allergic to bees. Huh, I wouldn't think that red tulips would look faded. That sucks.

Oh no, diseased trees. :( Yes, that does sound like something that must be done and like a lot of work to do it.

[nekhbet_love]

Thank you. Yes, the garden needs a treatment, even if it is the most organic and free of harmful chemicals, it will need a time to heal. The soil as well. If not, the baby trees can be affected overtime. I hope to be able to make it happen :)

[bridgetmkennitt]

I'm confident you'll be able to save the baby trees. Good luck! :D

[nekhbet_love]

Thank you! :)

[zesty_pinto]

Hi, "new person" who just joined this community.

I have a couple of saplings of accidental spaghetti squash seeds that sprouted in the squash itself; they've been in my house for way too long and are flowering by the window. Like any parent who has their kid living in the house for too long, I have been wanting them out the door as soon as I can!

The last big frost just finished in my neck of the woods, so planning on planting them today and hoping the garden isn't marshy from all the melting.

Also have some seeds of those "garden gem" tomatoes that people were talking about, a few beans that I got on sale, and some summer squash seeded the other day, so hoping these grow into something.

Once they leave the house, I'd like to see if I can finally properly grow one of those "weedier" herbs. I tried savory during the winter and failed miserably.

[bridgetmkennitt]

Not new, but I haven't posted to the comm in over 2 years. :)

Like any parent who has their kid living in the house for too long, I have been wanting them out the door as soon as I can! Heh. I hope you like squash so you can cook up a bunch of different recipes?

I tried growing some herbs during the winter and failed so hard. I even tried growing lavender and that was just awful. I need a better plan of attack for plants.

[zesty_pinto]

Greetings! I didn't start using the DW until this exodus made me realize I gotta go!

I definitely want these squash out the door; I think I'm losing a few to fungal/bacteria in one of my planters. I tried copper fungicide for one trough and I'm not sure if it's doing it right, so I need to look into antibiotics at this rate, I think, ugh.

I still have three that are healthy and budding though, so I'm hopeful! I REALLY need to find some good recipes for spaghetti squash though; the one this came from was a gift and I spent the time before trying to figure out what to do with them. At the worst, I guess, my office can get a surplus of produce, ha!

Yeah, herbs are driving me crazy! Everyone tells me things like "mint is indestructible!" and I never get the seeds to get much farther. Technically, savory is supposed to be one of the hardiest things out there as well (I originally found out about it from foraging guides, for crying out loud) and all the seeds sprouted, but it just refuses to go past sprouting! Utter failure on my part.

[bridgetmkennitt]

I haven't tried growing mint, but I've killed a whole lot of other herbs that people told me were very easy to grow and maintain. Like basil! I am a huge basil killer. :|

[norfolkian]

Just found this community! I've got some seedlings still indoors: tomatoes and aubergines.

I have a small front garden which I've almost completed replanted this Spring With some heathers, a giant allium, lavender and a juniper bush and then I've sown some annuals in-between, including chamomile, dwarf cornflowers and nasturtiums.

I have two raised beds in my back garden and so far I've sown some kale seeds and radishes. Radishes are well on the way already! :)

[bridgetmkennitt]

Welcome to the community!

Those all sound lovely and yay for almost being done with replanting. :) Your small garden must look so pretty.

Nomnom, radishes.

[norfolkian]

Thank you! It's a little bare at the moment because I have planted quite young plants, but I am hoping that the annual seeds will grow and fill the space a little more.

[tellezara]

I have been given some busy Lizzies and a few other things for Easter to start off the garden in our new house :D

[bridgetmkennitt]

Yay, garden and new house! How big is your garden?

Good luck with your planting :D