Backyard Vegetable Gardening & Livestock Raising & Sustainable Living

[Mehm]

so I put a bunch of tomatillo transplants outside a few days ago and they all died Not to mention my dogs keep digging up my frikin beds! Besides that, despite the recent cold nights, everything else seems to be doing ok.

anywho, I'm going to put the rest of the tomatillo and spinach transplants out soon and direct seed a bed of sweet corn and one of soy beans.
peas

 

[randycaver]

my zinnias have started to peek through the dirt! yay!!

poor tomatillos

oh and yes.. i'm definitely planting the pretty red salvia, not the other variety. LOL. i confused my b/f too :D

 

[Dtergent]

Dtergent: what seeds did you collect while walking around?

Some tree seeds, like fast-growing woody gemelina, malabar orchid, raintree, curry tree.

I also snapped off two branches of the frangipani tree... you can just stick them in the ground and they'll grow! Their flowers are great and smell nice.

I also got the seed pods of the cassia fistula (local name, kanya pistula), the tree is just gorgeous!

I also got the leafing tops of the torch ginger flower, some cosmos seeds, and a LOT of unidentified ones. I just sprinkle em on the ground and try to see what comes up! Yay for biodiversity

 

[Mehm]

dtergent: growing in that climate seems to be a bit different than in maniland US..

Do you plant anything us statesiders would consider "conventional"?

 

[Lord Mandrake]

I have a Japanese Garden which is very time consuming to maintain. I live in the Northeast US. I have stone Buddha's and Foo dog's and a few granite Japanese Lanterns. It's a very rewarding thing to see all my perrenials come back each year and see the ground cover overtake rocks, making them look like small versions of landscapes. That's the point of Japanese and Zen gardens, to make small versions of giant mountainous landscapes - each rock, a mountain. And there are rules of balance to follow if you really want a nice traditional garden. I'll post pictures in a couple weeks when my Zinnia's and fire bush fill in a little more. Also I just transplanet a few things and they need time to reacclimate. Things have just started growing again after the winter and looks kinda thin yet.

 

[DG]

^ where did you find japanese lanterns or did you grow from beginning? My mom has been looking everywhere for em!

I live in Boston and my backyard is mostly rocks with dirt lol. I dug up a ton of it, and refilled it with a ton of fertile soil last summer which seems to work well.

I planted a ton of expensive neat looking flowers and also two huge blueberryu bushes and right after the grew pretty well my dogs ate them all and ruined the garden wall This year I just planted a bunch of plants...just waiting for them to kill em!

All i did this year was strawberries (2 different kinds) and 2 blueberry bushes. They are in huge pots in front of our house, so far they seem to be growing well just need to watch the roots so they dont wrap around one another.

In the past I have grown roses, herbs, tomatoes, cukes, peppers, but I cant with the damn dogs. I cant wait to move and have a good garden. Also long term wise when i move back to CA I can have a whole selection of year long gardening :D

As far as landscaping goes I built a retaining wall last year with a ton of plants. Dogs ruined that! This year I went to the state flower show and got a new idea for the backyard, did that and it looks amazing...but i know it wont last

 

[Kul69]

I live in the pacific northwest and our soil is mostly glacial till. It's VERY rocky and making new beds is quite a bit of hard labor. However, I managed to rig up a rock sifter with a little motor to shake it around so it's a bit more managable. Clearing beds means digging out a 3'x2' little square and dumping it through the sifter and storing it in a big bucket. Then you drag the next 3'x2' square over to the spot you removed the previous soil and run it through the sifter again. Also, have to break through the bottom layer before moving on which is a pretty solid matrix of rock and clay. Otherwise, rain water will sit on that layer and causes a lot of problems for anything with longer roots.

Ammendments depend on the crop but this were certified organic so we use all organic materials. Fish emulsion, blood meal, etc.

As far as what we've been growing.. white grapes (all gone now, going to be bottling the first bottle of wine in about a month), carrots, lettuce, tomatoes (currently 3 30'x10' hothouses), greenbeans, peas, kolrabi, corn, squash, pumpkin, onions, garlic, apples, raspberries, zuccini, jalepenos, peppers, artichoke, edamame, rosemary, cucumber, strawberries, tomatillos, blueberries, mezcla, eggplant, basil, beets.. the list goes on a bit more but I'm drawing a blank now.

We also grow a variety of flowers and such for floral arrangments. Budlia, snapdragons, sunflowers, penstemon, etc. And then there's the tree farm as well, mostly alder at the moment but douglas fir, cedar, oak, pines.. we also have a few redwoods that were planted but obviously won't get very large for quite awhile. We lost a couple of them from ruting deer who managed to pull down the fence we'd put around them. Those damn deer love baby trees.

So, anyway.. I guess this is more of a farm than a garden but.. oh well

 

[randycaver]

^ where did you find japanese lanterns or did you grow from beginning? My mom has been looking everywhere for em!

You can grow granite japanese lanterns?

 

[Blowmonkey]

Fish emulsion, blood meal, etc.

Might be a little off-topic, but be cautious around blood and bone meal, if you inhale the stuff you risk getting BSE, so wear a protective mask everytime you work with it.

 

[DG]

You can grow granite japanese lanterns?

i missed granite..i thought it was the flower :/

 

[Mehm]

you have some spread kul69. how big is your garden?

 

[randycaver]

I've never heard of japanese lanterns as a flower, but there are chinese lanterns. I'm growing some.

 

[DG]

I've never heard of japanese lanterns as a flower, but there are chinese lanterns. I'm growing some.

According to a google link "Chinese Lantern Plant, also known as Japanese Lantern & winter cherry" where did you find yours, i looked at a bunch of places around here and come up empty everytime

 

[Dtergent]

dtergent: growing in that climate seems to be a bit different than in maniland US..

Do you plant anything us statesiders would consider "conventional"?

Hmmm... no. I guess basil would be the closest! And string beans. Maybe some others, can't think of them though.

 

[fizzacyst]

According to a google link "Chinese Lantern Plant, also known as Japanese Lantern & winter cherry" where did you find yours, i looked at a bunch of places around here and come up empty everytime

I bought a pack of seeds at Lowe's.

 

[Kul69]

you have some spread kul69. how big is your garden?

It's 6 acres or so of cleared farm land and 34 acres of forest in one area and another 10 acres of farm land at a different site. This is a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm where people pay about $500 at the start of each season and they get fresh vegetables delivered every Tuesday and Friday.

 

[randycaver]

I bought a pack of seeds at Lowe's.

lol yeah i got mine at big lots (!) for a quarter! they're already growing, too! if you can't find any i would be happy to mail you some

 

[Lord Mandrake]

Granite's are beatuful. There's so many different kinds. I'm lucky to live right in the area where the glaciers pushed giant granite boulders south and then melted away forming the great lakes. On the beaches you can find scores of different kinds of granite polished by the waves. takes anywhere from about 25 thousand to 1.8 billion years to "grow" granite. The oldest shist granites are found in the bottom of the grand canyon, dating back almost 2 billion years.

You can actually order the real polished granite lanterns from Japan, but be prepared to spend around 2 thousand for a decent one.

I have 2 granite ones that were carved in west virginny and they sold em to me cheap, a few hundred a piece. Then, I have some small molded concrete lanterns and a big set of foo dogs. The molded concrete stuff is dirt cheap but what's cool about the molded concrete is that you can smash dirt into the statues/lanterns, then smash moss and a shitload of fertillizer and keep it wet for like a week or two and then they look really old.

 

[DG]

lol, i havent checked lowes...there isnt one too close to me but Ill head there monday! If not rc...your sending :D

 

[bagochina]

Still to early around here, my indoor garden is always flourishing. Lots of spider plants, snake plant, few varieties of orchids, 10-15 varieties of cacti, aloe, jade, african violets, zebra plants, sally D, a few varieties of poinsettia's, and a couple others I am forgetting, oh yeah a few ferns and have started to get a couple bonsai trees and have been working with those.

Outdoors just getting the basic ornamentals popping up tulips, and your typical walmart flowers. Havent rototilled and amended the main flower garden yet, another few weeks. That is a natural native wildflower garden. I always have some chinese lanterns, bleedings hearts are nice flowers to, datura [angel's trumpet and moonflower] [moonflower], morning glories, snap dragons, Celosia's which are a personal favorite, edging hosta's god I could ramble forever about gardens and the aspect of cultivating a living organism and providing it the best living arrangements possible and that connection to nature and being close to the spirits of the plants and the ability to communicate with them and 'know' what is needed or when you get that thought pop into your head that my Hibiscus [excellent plants IMO] is in need of watering and I walk out to it and it seems to just be calling out for a nice misting of water on a hot summer day, someday people will realize the HUGE connection our lives relate to the natural and supernatural world. l suppose maybee I will make a good Dad someday but for now I will relax and revel in loving nature and my green thumb.

Than we have our pond that the last yr or so I have been getting into water plants, which are really quite fun. and very interesting plants.

For our veggie garden we rent a plot from our local garden-coop and you name it we have it. My favorite is varieties of onions and snow peas and of course giant sunflowers.

Lately I have been more immersed in cacti, and am starting to work with grafting and such, so fun I love it. Now if maryjane was legal I would have a field day literally. In the past I have gotten so into to where I was pollinating my own females with local varieties and creating my own? strains, never really could get past the F1 hybrid offspring due to various issues, also experimental growth with control groups compared to groups that were played clssical music for the light hours, Stressing the plant with holding watering off and than flooding them on the last water with a fruit syrup or flavoring mixed with water before harvest, organic and organic teas and composts, never really got into hydroponic growing. God I can have so much fun working with those plants but now I just apply some of my some experiemental techniques with my 'legal' plants. Damn fucking government has to fuck shit up though why cant we be allowed to have 4-6 personal plants. Dont get me started on mj cultivation as its a hobby I wish was legal, grrr. I am a geek when it comes to plants I know it big deal.

Findhorn

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