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how's your garden?

stylistchickstylistchick Raw Newbie

i wanted to start this topic to exchange gardening tips and inspirations, and just a general discussion about what everyone is growing. i own a house with a nice size lot, but i have decided to do container gardening because the soil is so bad here, it will take so much to amend the native soil, it is pretty much red clay. so far i have, strawberries, blueberries, blackberry, grape, hazelnut, satsuma mandarin, dwarf plum and a little olive tree. i’m going to do some raised beds with vegetables, tomatoes, carrots and edamame. and of course a whole herb garden. and most exciting, i have about 50 goji berry seeds sprouting right now! if they make it, and anyone wants one, give me a holla!

Comments

  • elizabethhelizabethh Raw Newbie

    woah, that’s quite a garden you have there! i’m joining a community organic garden to learn more about gardening, because i have no experience in it. hopefully i’ll learn enough to start my own garden!

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    That’s funny, I just posted what I grow on another post! I live in Utah, so no mandarins :( I have grown tomatoes, corn (one of the few things my son likes raw!), tomatillos, peas, zucchini, yellow squash, watermelon, beets, carrots, radishes, onions & garlic. The garlic gets planted in fall & grows through the winter under the snow! :) This summer I plan to add kale & cucumbers & my son wants to grow & sell pumpkins. We also have blackberry & raspberry bushes that have been here a long time, but I don;t know how & when to prune them, so they are way out of control & don’t produce as much as they used to. Where I live is an old riverbed, so the soil here is super rocky & when you get rid of the rocks, you are left with mostly clay. It has taken a lot of work, & things still don’t grow super well, but it’s better than nothing, and digging it gives me muscles!

  • Luna bluLuna blu Raw Newbie

    Well, my garden is under 2 feet of snow right now, so it seems like it will be an eternity till I can garden again.

    But when the time comes i will do carrots, zucchini,tomato, cucumber, peppers,snow peas and maybe green beans. and for my raw eating pooch some sweet potato! An of course herbs! I had columnar basil last year that was up to my waist and wonderful!! I will have cilantro oregano and of course basil again, and some rosemary.

    Last year my greatest yeild was tomatos, zucchini and peppers! Hopefully this year I have great success with everything! I can’t wait.

    I live in Waterloo Ontaio, does anyone know anything about growing sweet potato? Some tips would be appreciated.

  • Robyn! A girl after my own heart! I posted a suggestion about having a gardening forum :) My garden doesn’t look much now, but I have started with some vegetable seeds and plan to dig up a section of my garden to make a fabulous plot. It is going to be hard work but I am SO looking forward to having fresh ‘home made’ vegetables. Right now I have carrots, beetroot, lettuce, peppers and parsnips. I also got some Spaghetti Squash seeds a few days ago that I will plant up soon!

    Goji plants!! How amazing!! I would love an Olive plant (big fan of olives). I am going to give my small things a go first ;)

  • RCBAliveRCBAlive Raw Newbie

    Stylist Chick, what type of climate do goji berries need? Are they organic goji seeds? If so, where did you buy them?

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    I’m starting to get the itch to get out there, but here in Massachusetts it’s too early. Being a low-maintenance (lazy) person I go for things that can take care of themselves and that my daughter can pick and eat. So veggies are a no. We grow lots of herbs – Greek oregano, thyme, garlic chives, tarragon, lavender, mint; berries – raspberries, alpine strawberries and day-neutral strawberries; and lots of drought resistant perennial flowers, many of which we eat – daylilies, anise hyssop, rugosa roses, and nasturtiums that pop up every year.

    Angie – with raspberries you cut down the canes after they produce. The canes typically grow the first year and produce the next, so don’t cut them down if they haven’t produced yet. You can give them a boost with pruning, mulching and organic fertilizer.

  • stylistchickstylistchick Raw Newbie

    amysue, i was thinking they were advertised as organic, but i don’t think so, here’s a link to the source http: //pillars-of-light.org/store/product_info.php?cPath=14&products_id=27&osCsid=4d5a56efe008f5dfe6b2b52987fc1918

    sometimes they have established plants too.

    the seeds have had almost a 100% germination rate, and send you detailed instructions, they can grow in pretty cold climates and in poor soil. i’m in zone 7 in the u.s.

  • Yeah, I love spring and it’s here in beautiful BC:) My hubby and I are on a mission today to pick up some fruit trees, strawberries, and whatever I can get my hands on. We moved into our house in October, so there is a fresh backyard waiting to be discovered. I am so excited that spring has sprung!!

  • My garden is not only odd in itself, but it’s in an odd place as well. It’s near a sunny window in my living room, the odd part is that I have it sitting on an old metal heat register. As of right now I have many different herbs including: Chocolate Mint, Apple Mint, Stevia, Sage, Oregano and Thyme. I’m attempting to sprout tomato and pepper seeds and I have four sunflowers growing…I also have a special place in the herb garden that I soak and drain seeds to sprout, I use the soak water as hydration for my plants. Not too sure what else I can grow indoors!!

  • SamiliciousSamilicious Raw Newbie

    Angela33, Do you know where to buy fruit trees from around Langley/Surrey? I aaalways wanted my own fruit tree!

    You guys are lucky for planting your own stuff! I wish I knew how to garden, or HAD my own garden. It sounds exciting!

  • Samilicious:) I am going to Art’s Nursery to buy my flowers, shrubs & organic soil. Art’s is located on 8940 192nd Street in Surrey. If you have any questions they are very helpful:) So, do you know where Clayton High School is?? It’s around or about that area. I am buying my fruit trees at Gibb’s Nursery 7950- 200th st.:) I hope this helps…..

  • stylistchickstylistchick Raw Newbie

    samilicious: you can grow alot in containers, even indoors with flourescent light! strawberries are really easy as well as tomatoes, both can grow in containers. jump right into it!

    i might end up with tons of goji’s here!

    i’m starting to germinate some inca berry seeds, which apparently grow much like tomatoes.

  • Thanks for this thread! There is so much good food that can be grown in our backyards, frontyards, in containers, in the house—all local without transportation that adds to the greenhouse gases. The wonderful thing about gardening is that I know exactly how the food was grown, with love and respect, as a part of the great cycle of life.

    I live on an island in the Puget Sound, so we have a very mild winter. I am picking 2 large bowls of salad greens each day for lunch from vegetables that have wintered over, including chard, kale, arugula, broccoli, cabbage sprouts, and celery leaves. The wild plants that are in our salads now include miner’s lettuce, bitter cress, chickweed, violet flowers and dandelion greens. The garlic is up and thriving. We will be planting peas soon.

    A suggestion for stylistchick and others with poor soil—building soil is an ongoing, very fulfilling process. Start a worm bin and compost pile! And add used coffee grounds. We get LOTS from any Starbucks, since it is their corporate mission to give away their grounds. They package them up and put them in a large container at the door of most Starbucks stores. They are always GLAD to give away their grounds. And the worms are delighted.

    Another suggestion is start a rain barrel. We use only rain water on our plants so we avoid chorine treated drinking water. One would think that in the Seattle area there would be plenty of rain, but during our amazingly beautiful summers, it can get dry between showers, so storing water is the way to go.

    We started some new raised beds this season, mixing one third compost, one third vermiculite and one third peat moss or coconut fiber. This has made an amazingly soft soil that will hold the water so the plants will be more drought-resistant.

    Spring is here on our island and will be coming soon to those snow covered areas around the world. In the meantime, dream, plan, plant indoors!

  • humanimalhumanimal Raw Newbie

    My garden is very small and is growing absolutely nothing right now (due to the weather) I do have parsley plants here and there though. I have been growing food in my room lately (sprouts) I really need to get new soil as well because because my terrain is composed of clay :(

  • SamiliciousSamilicious Raw Newbie

    Angela33, THIS IS ABSOLUTELY GREAT!!!! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the addresses of those nurseries. I mean, I get super excited when I see my sprouts grow so who knows how excited I will be to see my own garden grow!!!!!!

    stylistchick,

    I didn’t kno that stuff can grow even in flourescent light! Strawberries of all things?!? My favourite fruit? How awesome! Maybe the nurseries I will go to will have more information about this.

    There’s so many good things to look forward to, so many goals yet so little patience…

  • I noticed this morning that my lettuce seeds are growing little shoots :D So excited!

  • Glad to see there are so many gardeners on here! This year my goal is, once again, to grow all of the vegetables for my household (two of us). We get close, but it always seems like there is way too much squash and not enough corn or something like that. But I swear I have it all figured out this time! So we pretty much grow everything that can be grown in Central Texas.

  • My carrots started sprouting today! I can just see tiny shoots appearing :D

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    If you’re worried about the bees here’s a way to help: http://www.greatsunflower.org/ They send you free seeds and twice a month you watch for bees, can’t hurt. The crocuses are up here and daffodils are following.

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    amysue – thanks! I just signed up for the sunflower project! I am so excited – my neighbors have bees, so if nothing else, I am helping feed their bees :)

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    angie – I just love the idea of my daughter sitting for a half hour and doing nothing but staring at flowers!

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Speaking of flowers, my son and I saw someone putting edible flowers on top of a raw pie, and he was fascinated. We looked up a website that sells edible flowers just to see what kinds we could eat. We bought a seed pack – a mixture of edible flowers – and we are going to grow some this summer. We are both excited for a new adventure in eating beautiful food!

  • what a great idea Angie!

  • my parents have a garden growing and are having trouble with worms getting at their broccoli..darn worms already killed one plant..could anyone let me in on the secret to a natural herbicide? thanks in advance :)

  • I haven’t ventured on a full fledged garden yet because we have so many deer in our yard and we’d have to build some barriers. But I have begun with some herbs (chives, parsley, oregano, and basil) as well as an agave plant (that I’m super excited about—it’s suppose to grow 4 feet in diameter! It will be great to grow my own agave syrup!)

    I’ve also been improving our outside with flowers and bushes and have been spraying the ones that aren’t deer resistant with watered down egg whites. So far so good.

    I’d like to try some zucchini—hopefully it’s not too late for that.

  • bittbitt Raw Newbie

    are you sure it is worms or is it slugs?

  • MeditatingMeditating Raw Newbie

    I am disappointed in my garden right now. I don’t have much experience gardening but invested heavily in growing my own food. I have done poorly starting plants from seed. NONE of my tomato plants have survived more than an inch. I thought this summer/fall would just be a learning curve so I am not beating myself up too badly yet. I just assumed the little plants would be as happy to see me as I would be to see them.

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