Gardening, anyone?
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Good morning friends- found my claret cup cactus starting to bloom yesterday
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Jazzy, wow! Beautiful
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I get my seed packets from Home Depot
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I love to plant unusual things like black tomatoes, peppers that get up to 12" long, red, white and blue string beans etc lo
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I plant the same variety of peas and beans my maternal grandmother did.
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Hi. May I join in? I love gardening too, but prefer veggie gardening over flowers. I guess I like to eat my results. :-) We bought our house 16 years ago and the gardening bug hit me. The first 7 or 8 years my garden was quite big...at least to me. Then I noticed the aches and pains of getting older started to hit and my garden started getting smaller. But it was still a joy for me. I love to sit on my bench by the garden. There are times of the year that it seems the plants change daily and I can literally watch them grow. What a stress reliever for me. My husband has said a few times he was going to send the police to look for me because I can get lost outside just enjoying Mother Nature.
Last year (ouch a year ago tomorrow) I was diagnosed with my BC. I planted a few tomato plants and 52 pepper plants only because I already had them and didn't want them to go to waste. Luckily the peppers pretty well took care of themselves because I didn't have a lot of energy to devote to them. This year I am only going to plant about half that many but am going to add a few hills of melons and watermelon.
I have enjoyed the pictures you all are posting and reading your comments, gardening and otherwise. Here's to a very green thumb year to all of us!
~Heidi
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Welcome Heldbird! I wish we could grow watermelon here, but it's not warm enough. We do have raspberries and rhubarb along with lots of greens. DH grows the most babied tomatoes on the planet. Last year was warm and we had too many.
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Thanks, Wren. I have some blackberry plants I replanted last year. Had a few years of great berries and then the drought hit for too long and I lost all my plants. Hoping the new ones (triple crown...big and thornless) will produce this year. Don't see any blooms yet on them. I would love to grow some rhubarb. I may need to look for some next year. I almost cried when my neighbors moved out 5 years ago and the new people dug up the beautiful patch they had. My toms don't always do well so I wish I had your problem of too many from last year.
~Heidi in Oklahoma
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Heidi- welcome to the thread and of course you can join us! I love veggie gardens too, just don't have a good set up for that where I live here, but used to do a lot of gardening with my dad back east growing up and had another nice veggie garden at an old farmhouse I used to rent. Now I have to settle for the goodies from the farmers markets here in the summer (but like that too?)
We have some other veggie gardeners here, not seen them on the thread lately but they might show up any time now....
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Heidi, welcome from a fellow gardener. My gardening passion is both flower and veggies
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Thank you for the welcome Jazzy and Mommyof2. I am excited to find others who share my love of growing things. Dance and gardening are my passions and my co-workers just don't understand. :-P
~Heidi
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Heidi, welcome! I'm an avid vegetable grower. I love flowers but I just enjoy the ones that were here when we bought the place. I've planted a rose bush but that's about it. Oh wait, do fruit trees count? lol
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Heidi ..Welcome !!! I love veggie gardens too ..Hopefully I can learn some tricks of you !!
Jazzy ..All I can say is your cactus flower is magnificent !! I love cacti and succulents SO much !
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Since we bought our house almost 11 years ago I have planted three azalea bushes, a lilac bush and a Japanese Maple. Every year around the Japanese Maple I planted in memory of my Daddy I plant either petunias or marigolds. I also plant them in my flower boxes and bed and a half barrel planter along with salvia or portulacas.
My veggie gardens usually have tomatoes, green beans, peas, cukes. Last year was the first year that the cukes really took off. Tried growing peppers but they usually don't take off. Might try them again this year and see if they take off
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Lori, yes, fruit trees better count because we have15 or so! We have planted many more than that but our extreme weather here does a few in each year. So I keep hubby busy replanting. Then I cross my fingers and hope the trees last long enough to give me fruit... or that we dont have a freeze that kills all the blooms and buds. We had 2 this year that did a lot of them in. :-( What kind of fruit trees do you have?
Lucy, I don't know about tricks per say for veggie gardening. I just know I hate weeds and the pests on my plants. In fact the best thing that you can put in your garden daily is.....your footprints! What sorts of veggies do you enjoy planting? I have tried planting seeds of things just because the plants are so pretty and not because I wanted to eat them.
Mommyof2 I love the trees and bushes you have planted. That reminds me that I wanted to put a lilac and forsythia in but our weather is already too warm and they may not be successful plantings. Don't you just love fresh cukes? I wonder if the growing season is too short or maybe too cool where you live for peppers. They tend to like it hot and dry. Mine typically start going bonkers in August and September and typically I plant in late April.
Today is the 1 year anniversary of my diagnosis. Yeah! The yeah is because it has been a year and I can't wait to say it's the 5th or 10th or 25th...whatever. :-)
~Heidi
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welcome Heidi. . .I planted vegetables with my mom a few times when I was growing up. We have not tried any here and sadly do not have the room. I do have blueberry bushes and last year added fig trees. Good luck and post pixs as they grew.
Jazzy beautiful cactus. Wench awesome straw bale garden. Looking forward to seeing pixs as it progresses and your plants grow this summer.
Sadly, we had to chop down several huge Formosa azaleas this past weekend. They were 18 years old and always bloomed like crazy. They died out suddenly over the past few months and the roots are two large to remove. The roots also hold up the top of a slope during heavy rains so we're leaving them in. We plan to plant some new azaleas in front of them this weekend because the area now looks so barren. Also need to fertilize and bug treat all of my knockout azaleas. Something has been eating them and its not the beavers this year.
Hope you'll all enjoying the spring weather. I am out and about much more as I finish recovering from surgery and go back to work on May 1.
Scottie
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We have a standard 50 x 100 city lot. We have an apple tree, 2 quince trees, Asian pear-apple, pie cherry tree, corkscrew filbert, crab apple, dogwood, katsura, and ornamental plum tree. Also rugosa roses, huge lilac, forsythia and raspberry bushes. We tried blueberry, but never had them last. Perhaps drowning in the rain. We just cut down the 2nd apple tree and are trying to decide what to plant instead. It was in the strip by the street, so we're required to replace it. Perhaps a Japanese maple? Something small and decorative. Our apple is Macoun, which was developed in New York. One farmer at the farmer's market had some apples last year and was amazed that DH knew all about them. Apple/quince pies are delicious.
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Wren, Japanese maples are a good idea. I love mine!!!
Heidi, we have had peppers that start growing but they never get really big enough to do anything with them or we only get a couple out of at least four pepper plants that we usually plant.
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Scottie, thank you for sharing those beautiful pictures. Don't you just love this time of the year? I wish I could get lucky with fig trees. I have a few in pots but whenever I plant them in the ground they don't do well and I absolutely love fresh figs.
Wench, I am anxious to watch this thread for updates on the straw bale garden too as I have not seen or heard of this before.
Wren, it looks like you share my love for fruit trees. I have gotten a lot of my trees from Raintree nursery which is located in Washington. Everyone here says I am crazy about planting the trees because it is rare to ge a year where all the fruit trees will bear. Japanese maples are beautiful. Good choice.
Mommy of 2, too bad you don't live close by. There is no way I use all the peppers myself that I grow and I end up giving most away. I have all types from bell to cayenne to very hot. I did cut back on the extremely hot ones I have planted in the past because the man I gave most to closed his restaurant. :-(
Off to do some work here and then head home. My brother and his wife have come into town for their son's graduation from basic training, This is their first time in Oklahoma and today they are out seeing some of the sights while I work. Luckily I have tomorrow and Friday off to spend a few hours before they leave again.
~Heidi
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I am an avid vegetable gardener, but as I grow older I'm moving more to flowers. Last year the bunnies living in the garden ate most of the peas, beans, carrots and beets, so I'll be planting fewer of them and more flowers. I have a huge vegetable garden - 3000 sq. Ft. Some of it is in raspberry and blueberry bushes, a few dwarf fruit trees and some hazelnuts. Most of the garden is now permanent beds. I used to rototill the whole thing every year, but about 15 years ago I put permanent beds. I bought a large roll of polypropylene fabric, and put that down for pathways. So, now I only have to deal with planting areas - meaning I only have to cultivate and fertilize the beds, so about a third less area to deal with.
My favorite gardener is Ruth Stout, if you ever get a chance to read any of her books (mostly out of print) they are a joy. She was an advocate of deep mulching. I've adopted her method because it saves a lot of work. In the late summer, early fall when a bed is harvested (I grow lots of corn, potatoes, squash, etc.) I immediately put down about a foot of straw as mulch. Keeps the weeds out and the earthworms love it.
These days I start most of my seeds and transplant them into those beds. Mostly all I do is move the mulch aside, add some compost and plunk in the plant. No tilling or turning the soil necessary.
I'm 63 years old, arthritic and overweight - but my garden is my happy place, and I hope to keep doing it as much as I can.
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Heidi, we have bartlet pear, mulberry tree, Washington sour cherry, honey crisp apple, peach tree and another pear but I can't remember which one. Chemobrain for sure. We had a sweet black cherry tree but it didn't make it and I haven't replaced it yet. We have several black walnut trees and a small grove of? of? of? Gosh my brain had totally deserted me! I planted an African Blackberry bush that gets berries as big as the palm of your hand but it hasn't fruited but it's full of blooms right now. I'll have to get out there with my bird netting if I want any berries for myself.
Scottie, beautiful flowers!
Flaviarose, I like to get my tomato and peppers started before hand too. I've had to replant all the seeds twice. For some reason they didn't sprout the first time or they sprouted but then died. Who knows what happened?
Mommy, all of the peppers I get that don't grow very big I dry out in my oven and crush them for cooking later.
Wren, Japanese maples are so pretty. I'd like be one but I think my DH would think I'm nuts to plant another tree when he's cutting so many down. But it's not the same tree.
My straw bales aren't heating up the way they should, bummer. I spent most of today covering them with plastic to create a green house effect. The insides of the bales need to start cooking ASAP so I can plant by May 1st.
Sorry if I missed anyone!
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Flaviarose ..You put it beautifully ..My garden is MY happy place too ..and this thread is my happy thread 🙂
Mommy ..We have grown peppers in the past , but each time a flock of Pale - Headed Rosella birds have turned up to eat them ..Actually the birds are so pretty I should grow them again just for them !
Scottie ..Love your photos !..I love fig jam ..My mum used to make it ..And there was always a stock pile in the pantry ..
Heidi ..Ahh ..Gardening and Table Tennis are my passions ..Santa bought me a Table Tennis this year ..after I enjoyed it at the holiday resort we stayed at the month before ..( good old Hubby 🙂 )..So now we have joined a weekly competition ..I'm hopeless at it though ! ..and we can't walk past it with having a hit now !
Wren ..You certainly have a lot of trees too !! We had a blue berry tree at one time ..I think ours died of wet feet too ..
As far as fruit trees go we have a mango , an avocado, banana tree , coconut , mulberry tree , lemon , lime and orange ....It's a race between us and the birds who get to eat the produce !
Lori ..mmm...I can smell a black berry pie coming up !! 🙂
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Flaviarose- your gardens are some of the best things I have seen on BCO. Gardening is my happy place too!
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Thinking of growing regular cukes and pickling cukes this year. Hubby bought me a cookbook last Fall for canning all sorts of fruits and veggies.
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Good morning everyone! I'm off to try to mow the lawn wish me luck!
The Dogwood trees are in full bloom here. They all seem to have huge blooms, so pretty!
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Wench- love dogwoods. We had a white one and pink one in our yard back east when I was a kid.
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When I was a kid, we would drive to eastern OK to see the dogwoods and redbuds in bloom in the foothills. Very pretty. In TX we would drive to see the bluebonnets. I have never gone up to see the tulip fields here, but many people do. Our crab apple is blooming but it will be a while before the dogwoods bloom.
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Wren, I bet the tulip fields would be beautiful!
I got part of the yard mowed with no problems. I came in to take a break and fill up on water then back to do the rest of the yard. I'll let you know if I can move in the morning lo
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The forsthyia in my back yard has bloomed. Used to have another where the Lilac bush is now, but the previous owners let the thing go crazy and no matter how we tried to tame it did not work. So hubby hacked it down to nothing and put the lilac there.
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M0mmy, I love forsythias.
Mama was allowed off her nest to feed today without Papa screaming at her. Papa is the closet one.
I remembered what the grove of trees are we have back in the woods! Persimmons! I don't realized how far we've pushed the woods back until I have to mow it all.
I'm bushed and I have about 3/4 of the yarddone. I hate when I mow and it starts to pour down rain and when I go back out the mowed part is back to being as tall as the rest. 😑
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