Homegrown is the way it should be.......Gardening!

[Jon T.]

Blast!  That damn mirror.

Good luck with it.  I have really enjoyed it.  I plan on adding one more bed this year.  You can see it's kind of cramped in there.  I would love to get more elaborate with it, but I really just don't have the time.

[TEO]

I'm a little late with the pictures but here are some from a fall garden I planted with some pointers from AMD.  Thanks, Dylan.  Nothing spectacular but it was very successful, especially for my first garden. 



Here is one of the heads of cabbage.  As you can see, it's a large as a small boy...  ;D



Broccoli...




And here is picture of my plum tree from this morning. This thing is looking good!

The mirror tells another story ;D

Jealous man.  The veg look great.  Unlike my mother the gardener, that trait did not pass on to my brown thumb.  BUT, I'm moving soon to a house with a yard so I'd like to at least start on some basics like chilis and herbs next year.

that's some nice broccoli man although i am concerned about the size of your son...

[woodnymph]

WOW what a great thread!!  Got some mighty righteous gardeners around here!!  Awesome harvests from last year!!

I came on board to share that my first seedling sprouted today (and I just planted them on Thursday!!)  I'm doing mostly veggies this season, but I wanted to do some hanging baskets with flowers too.. so I planted some lobelia and cosmos flowers, and a cosmo is already popping up!!  Quite exciting!

I've got some seeds started for lettuce and kale as cooler season crops... and I've started up some seeds for May/June  too that I'll be keeping my eye on before the last frost. (bush roma tomato, bush green bean, yolo peppers)

And I started some herbs up too:  thyme, oregano, fennel, genovese basil and thai basil!  Will be keeping my eye on those too.... my herbology class starts this Wednesday, so hopefully I'll be learning even more about 'em! It's to my understanding that fennel doesn't do terribly well around other plants... so I'll be transplanting those babies when they're big enough to move.

I've also been reading a ton about companion planting, which seems extremely beneficial!!  Anybody have any memorable experiences with companion planting to share? I'd love to hear some stories about it!

http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html

[Jon T.]

Nice, woodnymph!   I'm still a noobie when it comes to gardening so I'm still dealing with transplants rather than seeds.  I finished with my spring garden yesterday.  We planted Roma and Big Boy toms.  A couple heads of cabbage. Green, red, yellow and jalapeno peppers.  Cukes and squash.  Oh and some strawberries, I'm really excited to see how those turn out.  Our plum tree has some _teenytiny plums that are about the size of a small pea.  Our peach tree is just starting to blossom so the peaches should be coming soon, too!

[woodnymph]

Sounds like you're off to a great start, Jon!!  For a "noobie" you sure pulled off one hell of a garden operation last year!! Two green thumbs up!! 

How old are your plum & peach trees??  Have they already fruited before for you???  That would be SO exciting!!

In recent news:: I have TWO roma plants sprouting!  ONE green bean plant!  Tons of thyme making its way up to the light! 2 lettuce sprouts! 4 cosmos flowers breaking out of their shells!! It's so exciting!! I've been home a lot lately, and I've been noticing them sprout like by the hour hahah can't wait to find some good pots for the patio for when they grow up!  :D

[Jon T.]

Thanks!  I'm not sure how old my trees are.  I don't think either of them are fully grown but they are still pretty large; I'd say the highest branches are around 25 feet.  I've lived in that house for almost four years and they were already there.  My peach tree has always produced massive amounts of peaches.  Only problem is they aren't great and they only get about the size of a small tangerine.  I pruned the tree back big time this year to hopefully get some better quality peaches instead of a shit ton of mediocre ones.  My plum tree produced ONE plum the first two years.  But last year it really took off.  This year it is looking even better.  I'll post some pics when the fruit gets a little bigger.

Way to go on the sprouting!  I love watching fruit/vegetables grow.  My plum has some buds (not sure what they're actually called) but there are tons of them on the tree now and some of them will turn into plums and some will just shrivel into nothing.  I think it's fascinating to watch them and wonder which ones will "make it" and which ones won't.

[TheBigChicken]

Started my sunflowers, beans, and arugula a few dats ago....LOVE my sunflowers...oh' I started my tomatoes about 2 weeks ago and they look good....all from seed. Too bad MJK isn't around....he ALWAYS had a GREAT garden....will be starting my okra this weekend

[woodnymph]

Great starts there, TBC!  (psst how's that lady hen doing??)  I think I remember seeing pics of MJK's garden on the forum before!  I remember seeing some real nice crops!

May I introduce..... my newest 6 children!!  I forgot to start these babies from seed, so I just bought a pack of starters from the cutest local greenhouse  8)

Their names.... Broccoli #1-6  :)



And my baby 'matoes!



And 2 bush green beans on the left, peppermint on the right!  I'll hafta transplant one of those beans eventually when they grow up....



I'm not at all used to doing container gardening, but I've got two huuuuge porches to play with here, so here goes nothin!  :D

[darkglow]

i'm kind of behind the power curve but i started work on my flower beds out back this weekend.. whoever lived here before me did not care for them well and there are many ivy vines growing into the ground from the bottom of the ivy fence surrounding my back porch.. it's a pain in the ass to cut the vines back and i'm going to try to treat the soil for about a month while investigating on what type of plant to grow near the bottom of the fence to keep the ivy from growing into the beds.... any suggestions.. i want to train the ivy this summer with some basic "look good" flowers and hopefully next year plant edible plants like tomatoes etc. i'll post pictures of progress

[touchingmept2]

Just started some strawberry plants in mi madre's bird bath that had some ivy growing in. Hope they start showing strength by the end of April, around her birthday. :)

[woodnymph]

i'm kind of behind the power curve but i started work on my flower beds out back this weekend.. whoever lived here before me did not care for them well and there are many ivy vines growing into the ground from the bottom of the ivy fence surrounding my back porch.. it's a pain in the ass to cut the vines back and i'm going to try to treat the soil for about a month while investigating on what type of plant to grow near the bottom of the fence to keep the ivy from growing into the beds.... any suggestions.. i want to train the ivy this summer with some basic "look good" flowers and hopefully next year plant edible plants like tomatoes etc. i'll post pictures of progress

Uuuughhh ivyyyy!  It's everywhere down here too... I'm not sure if there's anything that can be grown to stop the dang stuff, other than a good pair of shears  :-\  But I don't know a whole lot about it, that's just been my recent experience!  Anybody else know otherwise??  It seems to grow on eeeevverythinggg.... but very trimmable at least.  A pic might be helpful though for sure!

You mentioned treating the soil?  What were you planning to treat it with?  Most chemmies are noh geewwwd for, well, lots of reasons, but esp. if you're planning to grow edibles in, oh, say, the next 3-5 years  :-O  If it's just ivy, it really just pays off to rip the root/stem systems right outta the bed... I spent a good couple hours doing similar stuff last week, it's a bit of elbow grease but as long as you can maintain the bed(s) afterward you should be good to go!

Def. post some pics sometime though, would love to see what ya got!

And ALady, did you grab any good seeds this year?  I saw an older post of yours where there was an organic seed fest or something out by you one year? Anything goin' on this year??

[woodnymph]

Just started some strawberry plants in mi madre's bird bath that had some ivy growing in. Hope they start showing strength by the end of April, around her birthday. :)

Naaawwwwwmmmm  :)  We had dozens of hanging strawberry baskets at the greenhouse I worked at last year, and I made a point of plucking a few off everytime I walked past 'em  8)

[Bigsky]

My seeds have sprouted (indoors)...now I just some warm weather...old-man winter won't leave the northeast...

[ALady]

And ALady, did you grab any good seeds this year?  I saw an older post of yours where there was an organic seed fest or something out by you one year? Anything goin' on this year??

It's still real early for us...snow expected later this week!  But we do have an organic seedling fest coming up on May 15.  It's so far away   :'(

Looks like you've got some real nice stuff started!  I can't wait to get my hands in the dirt...

[Jon T.]

Damn squirrels are getting to my strawberries just as they start to turn red.  Any ideas?  I know I can net it but I really don't want to have to do that.

[woodnymph]

Damn squirrels are getting to my strawberries just as they start to turn red.  Any ideas?  I know I can net it but I really don't want to have to do that.

S.O.B.s I had the same issue with my strawberries last year.... I've read quite a bit about people having success feeding the squirrels their own food instead..... now I don't have my plants anymore as they're back home, but that sounds like a cool idea.  Someone even mentioned to be somewhat cautious what you feed them, as they tend to 'plant' the seeds you put out for them sometimes.  He said the squirrels buried a lot of the corn kernels they were being fed, but they seemed to really eat up the sunflower seeds!  Might be worth a try

Ooooorrrr....

I'm not sure how many strawberry plants you've got, but you might be able to transfer 'em over to hanging baskets!

Just a couple ideas before resorting to netting  :)

[Jon T.]

Thanks Woody!  I think I'll try to feed them elsewhere first.  I'll let you know how it goes...

[BIGVICLBI]

Man I wish I was somewhere where the strawberries were turning red still damn cold here in Jersey. Actually I own a landscape company so I'm about to get knee deep in some mulch and flowers in the next weeks. This will be the third year at my house and I still haven't put in a veggie garden. My tulips are coming up pretty good though. Here is my website www.perennialgardensllc.com.

[woodnymph]

Thanks Woody!  I think I'll try to feed them elsewhere first.  I'll let you know how it goes...

Oooo can't wait to hear how it goes!  I miss my strawberry plants back home... I only had two of them, then my mom randomly ripped one out of the garden or something last year... maybe she stepped on it or something... whatever happened and it was gone... but they multiply readily enough, so hopefully this year will see 2 or more!

I've got my green beans all transplated up!  (to bigger pots, that is. They were screaming at me from the starter tray claustrophobia!) They're not kidding about bean stalks, these boys are getting tall!!  And I planted some calendula today after my good herb-ie friend down here was raving about how good calendula is!

I want to fill both porches up, I can't wait to start work at this greenhouse job and get me some discounted garden stuff! (and some money to see it through!  :P)

BIGVIC great site you have there!  That's awesome that you do outdoor kitchens!  I always read about those on the WWOOF sites for Hawaii (volunteering on organic farms) (on Hawaii  8))  Cooking outdoors is awesome! I love the pictures you've got on there, too!    Sounds like it's time to get you a veggie garden started!!  They're so rewarding, and you can always start small with some lettuce or a tomato plant or two!  :)

[TheBigChicken]

Will TRY and post some pics this weekend. Tomaytoes,cilantro,beans,etc....get my better half to help with the computer pic adding ??? ??? not very computer literate,.....just plain ole DIRT literate :D :)....the Rohde Island Red is fine...that lil' sweetie had me worried for a minute ! Thanks for all your good vibes everyone ! :-*