# How's your Garden ?



## Lin19687 (May 11, 2019)

Mostly mint but at least something is growing.  Been more like Seattle then New England this Spring.


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## Marilyn Norgart (May 11, 2019)

I cant have a garden but have two planters on legs that are 2'x4'--everything that is going in them are sitting in pots on the patio--hopefully can get them in next week


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## atiz (May 11, 2019)

The good: all the strawberry plants are blooming! And all the other plants are growing.
The bad: Everything is just wet here and has been for weeks. Haven't mowed the grass for more than a week (it was raining literally every day). Weed is also growing.


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## kasilofchrisn (May 11, 2019)

Still to cold to plant!
Rhubarb is doing nicely though.
Putting in a new Rhubarb garden this year and the starts (started from seed in January)are mostly looking good.
Adding a new veggie garden with low tunnels.
The old veggie garden will be planted as normal.
All the starts are doing pretty well inside the house under grow lights.


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## Marilyn Norgart (May 11, 2019)

kasilofchrisn said:


> Still to cold to plant!
> Rhubarb is doing nicely though.
> Putting in a new Rhubarb garden this year and the starts (started from seed in January)are mostly looking good.
> Adding a new veggie garden with low tunnels.
> ...



I love that you are using tunnels--that should extend your grow season!!!!  happy planting


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## kasilofchrisn (May 11, 2019)

Marilyn Norgart said:


> I love that you are using tunnels--that should extend your grow season!!!!  happy planting


Thanks!
Yeah I'm hoping the tunnels will help with growing winter squash and a few other things that don't normally grow well here in Alaska.
I bought a jig online that's going to allow me to bend EMT conduit into my tunnels so hopefully they last for many years.
Found a corn variety (Yukon Chief) that was develop here just for AK that I'm going to try this year. It's a dwarf corn with smaller ears but only takes 55 days.
My zucchini and broccoli did great last year and I'm hoping for similar results this year and possibly even better results under the tunnels.
My new rhubarb garden should have roughly 63 plants in it of 7 different varieties of rhubarb.
My original goal was 100 lb of rhubarb a year but too many of my seeds germinated successfully and I just decided to heck with it and decided to plant a lot of them.
They say rhubarb is notoriously hard to grow from seed but I didn't seem to have a problem with it.
On top of adding two new gardens and my existing garden I'm also rooting out some rose bushes from cuttings.
My Sitka rose bush was taking over my sidewalk on the one side but I had some bare spots in the middle.
So I took some of the prunings from the sidewalk side and my rooting powder and planted 10 of them. Hopefully they will take.
That should leave me a few extras to gift or sell.


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## Lin19687 (May 12, 2019)

@kasilofchrisn  Which flavors of Rhubarb do you like better?  I love it and am hoping to have a big group once I buy a house.
Don't you have to wait till the 2nd year of growing till you can eat it or something like that ?


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## kasilofchrisn (May 12, 2019)

Lin19687 said:


> @kasilofchrisn  Which flavors of Rhubarb do you like better?  I love it and am hoping to have a big group once I buy a house.
> Don't you have to wait till the 2nd year of growing till you can eat it or something like that ?


I couldn't really say as I've mostly eaten unknown varieties.
Selecting different cultivars was part of the fun of the new rhubarb garden.
Some are known to be sweeter and others I'm growing because of high yield rates.
Starting from a root crown you can harvest some the year after planting and on year two harvest fully.
From seed you should wait until year two to start harvesting. At least that's what my research showed iirc.
I grew from seed primarily because I couldn't find root crowns in different varieties.
Many greenhouses in my area didn't know what kind of rhubarb they were selling.
I selected some varieties (sweeter)for wine making and others for butters and fruit leather etc.


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## jcandleattic (May 12, 2019)

My garden is full of weeds, so no way am I posting pics. with it still snowing out (hopefully friday was the last of it) I haven't felt like getting out there. Maybe next weekend.


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## Lin19687 (May 12, 2019)

Thanks @kasilofchrisn 

@jcandleattic I think Mint is considered a weed  but it is nice that SOMETHING is working in this dumb rental.
I am hoping to take Everything that grows in my garden when I move.  I don't even know what 1/2 of it is but looks like my Echinacea is not coming back this year


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## Ladka (May 12, 2019)

My garden is wet, not nicely wet but soaking wet.
And my seedlings in pots badly miss more sunshine.


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## IrishLass (May 13, 2019)

Some of my *Tower Garden* plants are still hanging in there- tomatoes, kale, collard greens, basil, mint, culantro, peppers and celery, but it's getting to be that time of year where it's just too crazy hot to keep it up and running. I'll be dismantling it here in a couple of weeks time as is my habit to do come late May/early June. It'll stay moth-balled for the duration of the hottest summer months, and then I'll set it back up with new plants at the end of August/beginning of September.

My crazy idea to plant 6 tomato plants in it really paid off in terms of harvesting a boatload of tomatoes, even though it took a fair bit of constant pruning to keep them from growing into a wild jungle and taking the whole thing over. I can't complain too much because we've been enjoying a continuous supply of delicious tomatoes for the past 6 months straight, and I also have a freezer full of plum tomatoes for making sauce. Of the 6 tomato plants, three are still hanging in there and producing, and I'm still picking tomatoes off them as they ripen.


IrishLass


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## kaysejean (May 14, 2019)

I've just gotten most everything planted, except the onions, which I forgot. So those will go in this afternoon. 
I'm trying something new this year and planted some hybrid sweet corn. Because I only planted a little, I'll get to try my hand at hand pollinating this year, so thatll be interesting.
Has anyone done that before?
It's so interesting to hear what different stages people are at due to location I assume.


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## Susie (May 14, 2019)

I am harvesting herbs and radishes so far, but I have small green tomatoes on all plants.  3 of my "cucumber" plants turned out to be squash of some sort.  That would be good, except that I do NOT like squash!  Green beans are blooming up a storm.  I am probably going to start some bunching onions for later, and succession planting radishes.  Garlic is doing well, eggplants are growing like weeds.  All told, it is doing quite well.


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## Misschief (May 14, 2019)

We don't do a full on garden anymore but we do like to plant a few things in pots. This weekend will be our chance to get to the nursery to pick up a couple of grape tomatoes and some flowers. I do have luffa seeds germinating (4 of 6 sprouted) and I'll have to find a place to put them in a few weeks. I'll also have to make sure the upstairs neighbour knows what they are and not to pull them out when she's weeding (like she did last year).

My little herb garden is doing well; I have lemon balm, thyme, oregano, and tarragon outside my back door and sage and thyme in a planter. I'm not too sure about the sage; I may have to pull it out and plant a new one. My 7 year old rosemary didn't survive this winter, unfortunately.


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## Lin19687 (May 14, 2019)

My rosemary and Lavender in the pots didn't make it either.

But the (i think) Garlic I planted from a grocery store clove sprouted.  I almost pulled it.

Now I have to figure out when I can harvest it the earliest


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## Obsidian (May 14, 2019)

I don't have room for a garden but I do have a little plot for tomatoes. I extended it this year so now its about 6 x 12.
I got the tomatoes planted today. We have so many rocks that I can barely get the cages in the ground.
I really need to get a screen to shake the soil but it will have to wait until next year.
I really should have started work on it sooner so I had time to better pick the rocks.

Strawberries I grow in tires, they are growing and blooming well. Blueberries aren't going to produce this year so I cut them way back. I just can't seem to figure out how to prune them to produce every year.

Not sure how the fruit trees are going to do. There just isn't that many bees anymore. My mom got a hive last week and I'm close enough I finally see them trickling in. Guess I need to start encouraging wild bees to nest close by.


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## amd (May 14, 2019)

We just planted some caladium (? eh, shade greenery) bulbs in the new tree ring landscaping last night. Hopefully they come up. The daffodils finally opened last week, and tulips are just starting to pop up, should be opening up the end of the week. We've been cold, rainy, with only sporadic nice days here, so everything is late this year. We did some potted tomatoes last year, but they were horrible tasting so we decided not to do anything this year. I had tried garlic last year but the dang squirrel dug them all up, so there went that. I guess I'll stick to just weeding the flowers that I have and call it good. We have a huge raspberry patch, and we did plant two blueberry bushes last year. We had berries last year, so hopefully this year will be able to have a good little crop. Two bushes aren't much but it's just hubby and I who eat them, so we went with less is more. We have room to add more bushes if we decide to expand later.


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## Marilyn Norgart (May 14, 2019)

got most of my stuff planted--still have a couple pots.  and then I need to build a bigger wooden planter for a tomato plant and an eggplant.  drove by a couple greenhouses today and fought (and won) the urge to stop in.  my big planters were beautiful last year--the handyman said the owner loved them and I actually caught the owner stopped looking at them  .  I am trying not to over fill them this year though.  just trying to let the plants fill in and not be so over crowded so early in the year


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## Ladka (May 15, 2019)

My strawberries are also blooming but I do not have great hopes for the fruits: last year birds ate most of them.


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## Lin19687 (May 30, 2019)

2.5 weeks after that pic I posted above and the Spearmint is Crazy.  I love it, Green and refreshing.  Now if I can stop it from blooming


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## earlene (May 30, 2019)

Lin, that beautiful green looks so nice.  We also have loads of green, but that always happens when it rains incessantly. Well, in fact it starts to happen as soon as the snow melts and the weather starts to heat up and lasts until the next snow start.  That's one of the things I found amazing about the mid-West.  Coming from California, where green grass only happens if you actually water the grass, it was shock to me to have green all the time and never have to water!

Anyway, all I can say about our garden is that Hubby has to find a window of time without rain, in order to mow, and that's been really tough lately.  But he seems to really enjoy mowing, so I suppose it's good we have so much grass to mow!  Also all our trees (except the Japanese maple) need trimming big-time.  So he's been spending as much time as he can manage trimming tree branches, too.  And tracking in mud from his shoes.

Our daffodils are still in bloom, but I think the crocus and glads all got drowned as none of them came up this Spring.  I was so sad not to see them.


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## Lin19687 (May 30, 2019)

Yes our "Spring" has been nothing but rain and cool.
You can see the grass next to it, that section gets sun all day from 6am-3-4 pm.
Tell him to cut the grass as HIGH as he can.  That way he can mow a lot if he wants  and then when the rain stops and there is no rain for long periods, the grass will not burn and dry up.

My neighbors had SOD put in last year and the guy who cuts it cuts SO SO SHORT that he got burn spots on brand new sod.  so sad


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## Marilyn Norgart (May 30, 2019)

Lin19687 said:


> Tell him to cut the grass as HIGH as he can



agree, going a bit higher is better and if you have a lawn mower that mulches even better. I live in a townhome where someone mows--I miss mowing the yard


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## earlene (May 30, 2019)

The grass never burns up or dries up here unless you purposely put some drying chemical onto it.  Much too humid here for that.  He only sets the mower to high when the grass hasn't been mowed in a long time, like if we've been away on vacation.  But it grows so fast here, he has to mow every week.  And it takes so long to mow, that he can't mow it on the days he works.  One day per week is all he can manage time-wise.  Our's is a riding lawn mower, and yes, we mulch the grass.  I used to mulch the leaves in compost, but we get so many of those in the Fall, he prefers to fill the garden waste can.  They are hard to keep up with in the Fall.


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## Susie (May 30, 2019)

I am now harvesting a few beans and peas, I didn't plant much because I only have 1 raised bed.  I pulled my first blushing tomato yesterday, unfortunately it was bug bit, but it is the thought that counts.  We relocated the compost bin, so now all the grass clippings and garden waste can contribute to the future garden.  I planted more radishes because the first batch didn't germinate well.  Since it rained yesterday, I have hundreds of baby radishes.  Yummy for future salads!  The mint and the parsley is going crazy and the thymes are doing great.  I am pulling the last of the fall onions here shortly, and will plant green onions in their place.  I am ready to have a yard full of raised beds.


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## SoaperForLife (Jun 1, 2019)

Weather this year makes me glad that I am retired so that I can take advantage of the few non-rainy days to get things in the ground!  We have a hoop house for growing tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons and early salad greens so that helps too.  Talking about rhubarb, I dug out a bunch of plants and replaced them with a few blueberry bushes this week.  Put cages around the new bushes and added chicken wire to the lower half to protect the plants from rabbits.  Between the deer, bear and rabbits it is a challenge anymore growing anything other than herbs...


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## kasilofchrisn (Jun 28, 2019)

Got my new hillside rhubarb garden planted.
56 plants of 8 different cultivars.
Veggie gardens doing well for the most part. Especially the new low tunnel garden.
Zucchini and winter squash are blooming.
Corn is ~8" tall. Broccoli, cabbage and onions are looking real good.
Potatoes in my 1/2 drums and tubs are flourishing.
Overall I'm happy with the gardens.
We're In a bit of a drought and my well pump went out so that didn't help.
Has to haul water from my parents house in 55 gallon drums to keep the garden from dying.
Wildfires burning making it a bit smokey at times but mostly blowing away from my house. Thank God I'm not in the danger zone of that one.


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## Lin19687 (Jun 29, 2019)

Up date pic of the 'garden'  not sure how this will come out  but it is up to 33" tall.  The Spearmint and Lillies are playing "who will be the tallest" lol
I have been bringing in the leaves to work for all the girls to put in their water.  Even yanked a bunch out for one of the girls since I have so much !
If you look at the 1st pic you can see the small fence , it is almost as tall as it now


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## Ladka (Jul 13, 2019)

Ladka said:


> My strawberries are also blooming but I do not have great hopes for the fruits: last year birds ate most of them.


This year I was lucky - it was I that ate most of the strawberries not the birds, thanks God!
The day before yesterday I harvested my garlic. It's now hung in the balcony under the roof and drying. I'm very happy with the harvest.


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## IrishLass (Jul 13, 2019)

I'm getting ready for round 4 of my Tower Garden......by getting ready, I mean I'm thinking about what I might want to plant this time around. I'd like to get all my seeds sowed by the end of next week.


IrishLass


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## kasilofchrisn (Jul 13, 2019)

Harvested my first zucchini of the year tonight.
Harvested five of them two of which I gave to my good friends Manuel & Jane.
Corn is looking good and tasseling already.
Peas are nearly as tall as I am and taller than the trellis.
Onion and cabbage are looking pretty good.
Robbie has huge leaves but I don't think it's bulbling up much.
Radishes need thinning but they're looking good potatoes are doing phenomenal in half drums.broccoli plants are getting really big and it shouldn't be long now.
I was out of town for work for a couple of weeks the weeds are pretty bad but I'm starting to take care of that problem now.
All in all I'm happy with the way things are going in my garden.


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## Lin19687 (Jul 14, 2019)

Got some flowers in with the Spearmint lol.
And no there are no tomatoes in there, I just put them in before the Spring started.


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## Lin19687 (Jul 30, 2019)

I think the Mystery flower I have in m garden is a Wondering Jew?
I planted some free blobs of leaves, dark green/purplish low growing small 1-2 inch leaves a few years ago.
You can kind of see it in the 1st pic above, just to the right of the open bottom Echinacea.  It has brighter green leaves but the flower in that pic has not come out yet


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## Marilyn Norgart (Jul 30, 2019)

Lin19687 said:


> I think the Mystery flower I have in m garden is a Wondering Jew?
> I planted some free blobs of leaves, dark green/purplish low growing small 1-2 inch leaves a few years ago.
> You can kind of see it in the 1st pic above, just to the right of the open bottom Echinacea.  It has brighter green leaves but the flower in that pic has not come out yet



does the flower smell like a dirty dish rag--I have only had wandering jew flower once and wow did it stink but beautiful flower


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## earlene (Jul 30, 2019)

If I am looking at the correct photo, I am wondering if it the *Tradescantia fluminensis* version listed below.

https://www.greenandvibrant.com/wandering-jew-plant

I've loved and cared for many a wandering Jew plant in my lifetime, but never thought they would survive the harsh outdoor  winters of Massachusetts!  And I do love when they flower and how easily they take root and how they trail in a hanging pot, and to be surprised to see them grow as if they are in a jungle, which sometimes appear to be.


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## Lin19687 (Jul 30, 2019)

I will take a pick of the base leaves, they looked a bit different.  After an Hour searching on line I couldn't find an exact match.
But the base leaves looked like this when I got it.  Thought it was gone last year but  
It's the 1st purple one
https://www.etsy.com/listing/701258...MIyNbN-6Xd4wIVh5OzCh3V4gvUEAQYASABEgKOy_D_BwE


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## earlene (Jul 30, 2019)

I love the purple ones and the varigated purple ones the most, but had a few without any purple as well.  I don't anymore.  Maybe when I stop traveling, I'll have some again.


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## Lin19687 (Jul 31, 2019)

Ok  I forgot pics   Will put a reminder in the phone. 
They are cute little flowers that look like they are folded into the leaf.


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## Dahila (Jul 31, 2019)

no pics too many of them, I am harvesting yellow beans, zuccini,  Tomatoes,  carrots,  all herbs, and my favorite thing ;  calendula officinalis flowers


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## Misschief (Jul 31, 2019)

I have luffas!! Obviously, they're still little but the plants are thriving and there are numerous luffas coming... and a lot more flowers coming. I'm excited!


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## Rembetissa (Jul 31, 2019)

Misschief said:


> I have luffas!! Obviously, they're still little but the plants are thriving and there are numerous luffas coming... and a lot more flowers coming. I'm excited!
> 
> View attachment 40655
> View attachment 40656
> View attachment 40657


Wow, cool! What zone are you? I'm in 8A and mine haven't flowered yet, but they aren't in complete full sun. The trellis is as tall as I am, and they wrap around the back as well:


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## Rembetissa (Jul 31, 2019)

As far as non-luffa plants: our peas, carrots, and edamame were productive but done a while back. Blueberries were good too. Zucchini were great but got taken out by vine borers. Tomatoes and cukes are in full swing. Grapes just got harvested. Fig trees are loaded this year! Plenty to eat for all, and share, everyday. Butternuts volunteered and produced well.

Potatoes were meager... Ants got to some of them. Was able to fight off curl with some soap water spray.

Bean beetles decimated my yellow beans. Will try again.

This is the first time growing ground cherries. Hope we like them


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## Misschief (Jul 31, 2019)

Rembetissa said:


> Wow, cool! What zone are you? I'm in 8A and mine haven't flowered yet, but they aren't in complete full sun. The trellis is as tall as I am, and they wrap around the back as well:


I'm in zone 5. Our temps over the last week or so have been in the low 30's C (high 80's, low 90's) and they're in full sun for part of the day.


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## Ladka (Aug 1, 2019)

http://shrani.najdi.si/?1u/F3/3nHNJ0se/ognjic-na-balkonu-1-okt2.jpg
I've been harvesting calendula flower heads the entire July and drying them for later use in homemade skin creams.


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## Susie (Aug 1, 2019)

Lin19687 said:


> I think the Mystery flower I have in m garden is a Wondering Jew?
> I planted some free blobs of leaves, dark green/purplish low growing small 1-2 inch leaves a few years ago.
> You can kind of see it in the 1st pic above, just to the right of the open bottom Echinacea.  It has brighter green leaves but the flower in that pic has not come out yet



Yep, that's what that is.  But you don't want it where it can take over the lawn.  It is gorgeous in a hanging planter, though.  Just a waterfall of greenery.


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## Susie (Aug 1, 2019)

I have harvested the last of the spring tomatoes and cucumbers, and planted the fall ones.  I have zucchini planted (the squash bugs/vine borers killed all the spring plants).  I have the brassicas planted with carrots and green onions.  I am so lucky to live where there are two growing seasons!


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