What do you Grow?? The Garden Thread

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^ ahh... still hiding below the soil, the cheeky scamps!
That must have been most pleasing to see.

Yes coz I planted the garden out quite a while ago and there's nothing! Maybe today though.

I also have some cute special looking potatoes sitting around that haven't sprouted.

Patience

Lettuce likes cool temps to germinate.When I start lettuce off in the fall it’s too hot outside for it to germinate, so I start indoors under lights and water with cool water.
My guess would be bad seeds,lettuce usually just pops up.
Or you have an obnoxiously pest that is eating them as soon as they emerge.Slugs?

The gardener’s best virtue!

Do you know what type of potatoes they are? Or is it unknown but they look special in some way?

I’ve grown some red skinned ones I can’t remember the name of, and some Pentland Javelins: which are great potatoes, not big, but delicious and creamy
(Don’t have room for them here, I used to grow them in one of my customers gardens, but she had a redesign and that area is now a wildflower zone for her beehives)

@misslizard it’s only last week that we had frost here: which was what made me think maybe a touch cold for them to start
But Domineekee is, I’d guess, a fortnight ahead of me due to being further south... and they are germinating as it turns out, so temp has been just right where he is

We’re going to order our seeds in the next day or two: probably rocket and other loose peppery/tangy salad leaves rather than lettuce itself for us

domineekee, that happened with my carrots one year, but the reverse situation. I planted them in the summer, watched and watered and nothing happened. I assumed bad seed that nothing came up. I didn't use that bit of garden and in October, when it was cooler, suddenly I had all these carrots popping up. I was stunned, but of course it makes sense for the seeds to "know" when conditions are right.

I repotted the Papalo. It is a savory herb grown in Mexico and Central America and used in cooking. I've never used it, never even heard of it before this winter, when I perused all the seed catalogs for interesting herbs that like our hot steamy weather. I was warned germination is low. I got three plants out of 12 seeds.

I finally got my Neem tree in the ground. It was abused in a pot for too long. I pruned it and have made a slurry of the simmered leaves. A google search shows lots of uses for it. I plan to try it on my scalp. It is supposed to be good for hair growth and conditioning.

I think I am going to put an army of pineapple plants around every spot where I have things deer like to eat. I have lots and lots of pineapples. Every plant makes 2-3 more and I've been doing it for 10 years. I have plants dying to be in the ground.

I love hearing about everyone's garden. Thank you so much!

/\I imagine you have Gardenias there.One of my all time favorites.
When I lived further south we had one and it perfumed the whole yard in summer.
It’s too cold here for them.They have some new varieties that are suppose to be hardier but the one called Frost Proof sure isn’t.It got nipped back but is still alive.I have a new one called Sweet Tea that is suppose to work in zone 7.We will see.Some things I mulch well and they come back,lantana and pineapple sage but the gardenias and figs are a challenge.
I have one potted pineapple and one year it even made a fruit!! I think because I had a bushel of apples in the house and there is something that triggers fruiting.It was smaller than a store pineapple but the best tasting one I’ve ever eaten.I hope it happens again.I also have a giant Hawaiian passion fruit that I hope will fruit this summer.
Right now nothing matters but the garden.

Nope but something has been nibbling them and they're starting to feel flaccid. I think it's time to put them in and see how they do.



I'm making micro patches. A line of turnips and a separate to crop greens from, that kind of thing. Tiny raised beds dotted around.



But it's getting to be like patchwork and I may have already trampled my beetroots.

^ definitely sounds like time then!
They look quite large: average 3-4” long from the look of it?

I’ve heard of mixed blocks/lines being used to help prevent the spread of disease and pests: is that your thinking?
My wife saves all the pebbles that come up from digging, sorts them by colour and rests them on the soil around seeds and bulbs so we can clearly see where we can and can’t tread/dig: I recommend the system!

think I’ll have to sort out a way to share pics of our tiney-tiny garden on here...

That would be nice.

The thinking behind the micro blocks to have a wide selection of stuff near the house for when it's rainy and windy and time to cook dinner. I hope it looks cute and I did wonder if it might help with pests/disease.

The biggest spud is about 7cm.

Today I have lots of pak choi or chard showing, can't remember what's what any more!

Among other uses, neem is the original ayurvedic toothbrush. You can take a twig, chew the end a little and use it as a brush.

^ you have stimulated a long ago memory from graduate school (in the pre-historic era. ) We had an African classmate (in the years before people in the west thought of any individual countries in Africa. I think some were still colonies) at the field station and he was chewing on a twig. I commented on it and he said it was the branch from a tree that "everybody" where he lived used for cleaning their teeth. I only half-believed him.

I may try the neem twig for brushing. Maybe it will help my disastrous teeth. I think I read it kills bacteria.

I planted the seeds from my volunteer tomato and they are coming up this morning. I love watching seeds sprout!

^ I have some neem twigs in my car. The dried bark is pretty effective for whitening teeth, the twigs, not quite so good but it's quite a nice stimmy thing to do sometimes and it has anti parasitic properties. Ive tried neem oil as a mosquito repellant, it worked but it was unpleasantly sticky. I'm sure it has many other uses.

Late to the gardening party, but finally well enough to prune the shrubs out front.
Put manners on the berberis and this year the 3 hydrangeas will have enough space to grow properly. It's such a small thing but I'm so relieved to have it tamed and set up just right for summer growth. Also it's much nicer to look at now.
Used chopped up berberis twigs as a layer of dog deterrent on the bed and secured sprigs of it protruding out of their favourite shrub. Hehe...
Me-1 Neighbour's dog-0.

Wow, the vegetables you guys are growing are excellent, I might get some lettuce seeds planted in pots tomorrow.

/|I did the same thing with my dogs,I used the rose branches I pruned in my beds and it stopped them from laying in the dirt.

^ Wow! I'll have to try that. Our dogs have a huge area they have laid bare. Once I get that rose bush growing.

I don't grow gardenias. When I moved south, the first thing I worked on growing was tropical fruit...the weird ones like jaboticaba and Brazilian cherry and peanut butter fruit, etc. Then I moved into vegetables and wasted many growing seasons trying to grow temperate vegetables until I finally gave up and started growing tropical vegetables. Now I am trying to grow tropical herbs, and all along gradually increasing the number of native plants and pollinator friendly plants. Haven't gotten around to gardenias.

Amity, glad to hear you are out gardening. One of the neat things about talking with other gardeners is getting psyched up to do more and try more.

This catalog has me drooling.
https://onegreenworld.com/