What you got growing?

[ellajam]

It's summer on this side of the earth and I'm buying from farm stands instead of growing my own.

Who's got a garden and what are you eating? What are you loaded with and what are you nursing along?

You guys in winter, did you grow last summer? How did it go?

I want to garden vicariously through you without the physical labor.

So, what you got?

[tectak]

It's summer on this side of the earth and I'm buying from farm stands instead of growing my own.

Who's got a garden and what are you eating? What are you loaded with and what are you nursing along?

You guys in winter, did you grow last summer? How did it go?

I want to garden vicariously through you without the physical labor.

So, what you got?

Tomatoes and turnips and parsnips look fine;
and tomatoes, potatoes and beans.
Tomatoes and courgettes, not quite ready yet,
but tomatoes and beetroot, ahead of their time,
are ready for picking, the best I have seen,
but tomatoes, notoriously, stoically green.

I ate all the radish, boy were they hot.
Did I mention tomatoes? I have quite a lot.
Oh, yes, and I've salad, rocket and dill
with wild coriander, from last year, but still
I am waiting for garlic to wilt and to yellow;
pick it to soon and it tends to be mellow.
Not to worry, there's last years, preserved in a pot.
Did I mention tomatoes? Oh, God, let them rot.

So there.
tectak

[ellajam]

It's summer on this side of the earth and I'm buying from farm stands instead of growing my own.

Who's got a garden and what are you eating? What are you loaded with and what are you nursing along?

You guys in winter, did you grow last summer? How did it go?

I want to garden vicariously through you without the physical labor.

So, what you got?

Tomatoes and turnips and parsnips look fine;
and tomatoes, potatoes and beans.
Tomatoes and courgettes, not quite ready yet,
but tomatoes and beetroot, ahead of their time,
are ready for picking, the best I have seen,
but tomatoes, notoriously, stoically green.

I ate all the radish, boy were they hot.
Did I mention tomatoes? I have quite a lot.
Oh, yes, and I've salad, rocket and dill
with wild coriander, from last year, but still
I am waiting for garlic to wilt and to yellow;
pick it to soon and it tends to be mellow.
Not to worry, there's last years, preserved in a pot.
Did I mention tomatoes? Oh, God, let them rot.

So there.
tectak

There's always too much of something. I like how you used beetroot instead of beets. In my mind I'll be at your table tonight, I'll be quiet, you won't even notice. mmmmm

[Magpie]

Much to the dismay of my Granda, my garden is not overflowing with fruit and vegetables but is quite abundant with plants and flowers, very few of which are edible. The garden is still in the early process of being developed as it is only three years old now and before that it was a dismal council backyard covered in small grey unattractive stones that only councils far and wide seem to be able to lay their hands on.

I did at one point have strawberries and was so pleased to be able to inform my Granda that I was growing food only for him to inform me that I should "Get rid of them Son, they're a bloody nightmare." He was right... they started taking over and appearing in random places several feet away from where the original plant was.

How about some Lupins...

There's plenty of them and lilies, lavender, poppies, Rhodondendron, heather and loads of other stuff whose names I am not totally certain of. Ahh!! and mint as well, peppermint, spearmint...
And Lazarus the log...

who was cruelly cut down in his prime by the local council workers and then salvaged by me to become part of a path I was making and then miraculously after being seemingly dead for a year and a half decided to wake up last spring and be a tree again...
I'm currently making him a set of wheels so we can go for walks and spread the good news to all the other trees that he used to hang about with.

I should go now because I was just in the garden before with my digitalis fiddling around in the foxgloves and there's a numbness a creeping up through my hands.

Mark

Ooopss... I've just looked at my post and I wasn't expecting the pictures to be so large... Errrmm... I'll try to make them smaller some how....

[ellajam]

I'm currently making him a set of wheels so we can go for walks and spread the good news to all the other trees that he used to hang about with.

I never could get lupins or poppies really going where I live. I've got 20 years in my garden but it's small patches of ground surrounded by old arsenic treated decking, that leaves only pots for veggies and I'm not home regularly enough to ensure a constant water supply. Usually I just do herbs and hot peppers, they tolerate me.

People here warn me about the mint taking over, it throws runners like the strawberries, but I find it easy to pull and I love it.

Have you tried an Oak-leaf Hydrangea? Grand bush that looks great in autumn too.

Same thing happened to me when I posted a pic, I think if you make a free account on tinypic and and upload it it lets you change the pic size, or I may have done it in my photo editor.

[Magpie]

I think I must just be fortunate in regards of the climate that I get for stuff like poppies and lupins. I live in the far north of Scotland so there's no shortage of rain and I suppose the extra light that we get must be a factor also. The extra light certainly helps me and my tendency to still be working in the garden round about midnight in the summer, although I'm sure it causes the neighbours some bemusement.

You are right about the mint as well, it did seem to act in a very similar way to the strawberries but I managed to get the mint into different forms of high security segregation before it became too much of an issue. I also did the same with the Ivy that I've got because I was warned how bad it can be, some guy had it and it grow right through the walls of the house and was coming through all the electricity sockets.

Thanks for the tip on the Oak-leaf Hydrangea, I have never heard of it before. I do sort of like normal Hydrangeas but not enough to go out of my way to get one but the Oak-leaf Hydrangea seems to have a more majestic presence about it from the pictures I've just looked at, although I don't know how easy they are to get over in this country, they appear to be native to America. I wonder if those Oak-leaf Hydrangeas have flowers whose colour depends on if the soil is acid or alkali like the normal Hydrangea, it's just like litmus paper... or litmus paper is just like it, I should say.

"Trees were here 300 million years before us.", as I once said to my neighbour after listening to him drone on about how "trees were for forests and concrete was for the city", he gives me a wide berth most of the time now.

[ellajam]

The oak-leaf don't act like other pink/blue hydrangeas. They're white, turn to blush as they age, then the leaves go red in autumn and the flowers dry big and papery grey, I don't snip them til next spring. Fun plant and easy to grow here, Plant Hardiness Zone 6a. Takes up some space though.

[Leanne]

Where I live it's sub-tropical, so even in winter we have loads of stuff growing, although it's a bit dryer than in summer. Right now we have an over-abundance of strawberries, which means that it's between us and the birds to see who gets to eat the most. The birds seem to be winning. I don't bother too much with veggies but I do grow my own herbs, depending on the season. And lavender, which I'm going to start sticking in some honey to infuse for Christmas presents. Apparently it also makes a good infusion for vodka, but my vodka never seems to last long enough to find out.

Flower-wise, it's mostly just the natives like bottle-brush and grevillia that are flowering now, but the frangipanis and hibiscus will be out soon. Pretty much everything is evergreen here so we don't really notice the lack of flowers too much.

You're very lucky in the UK, with all the gorgeous wildflowers. We don't get that in Australia so much, not in those big open meadows or in hedgerows. I got to show the kids how to make proper daisy chains when I was there

[ellajam]

Where I live it's sub-tropical, so even in winter we have loads of stuff growing, although it's a bit dryer than in summer. Right now we have an over-abundance of strawberries, which means that it's between us and the birds to see who gets to eat the most. The birds seem to be winning. I don't bother too much with veggies but I do grow my own herbs, depending on the season. And lavender, which I'm going to start sticking in some honey to infuse for Christmas presents. Apparently it also makes a good infusion for vodka, but my vodka never seems to last long enough to find out.

Flower-wise, it's mostly just the natives like bottle-brush and grevillia that are flowering now, but the frangipanis and hibiscus will be out soon. Pretty much everything is evergreen here so we don't really notice the lack of flowers too much.

You're very lucky in the UK, with all the gorgeous wildflowers. We don't get that in Australia so much, not in those big open meadows or in hedgerows. I got to show the kids how to make proper daisy chains when I was there

Although it's tempting to move to a warmer climate, I love the lushness and variety of the US Northeast. Incredible variety of trees, wildflowers, they'll grow in any crack they find. Get back to me in February when I'm crying for your weather.

[tectak]

It's summer on this side of the earth and I'm buying from farm stands instead of growing my own.

Who's got a garden and what are you eating? What are you loaded with and what are you nursing along?

You guys in winter, did you grow last summer? How did it go?

I want to garden vicariously through you without the physical labor.

So, what you got?

Tomatoes and turnips and parsnips look fine;
and tomatoes, potatoes and beans.
Tomatoes and courgettes, not quite ready yet,
but tomatoes and beetroot, ahead of their time,
are ready for picking, the best I have seen,
but tomatoes, notoriously, stoically green.

I ate all the radish, boy were they hot.
Did I mention tomatoes? I have quite a lot.
Oh, yes, and I've salad, rocket and dill
with wild coriander, from last year, but still
I am waiting for garlic to wilt and to yellow;
pick it to soon and it tends to be mellow.
Not to worry, there's last years, preserved in a pot.
Did I mention tomatoes? Oh, God, let them rot.

So there.
tectak

There's always too much of something. I like how you used beetroot instead of beets. In my mind I'll be at your table tonight, I'll be quiet, you won't even notice. mmmmm

Hi ella,
I said beetroot 'cause I grow beetroot. Beets are quite different...usually refers to Sugarbeet. I ain't got beets.
Brest...er...beast,
tectak

[ellajam]

You got me googling, I was imagining giant mangelwurzel at one end of the scale and a skinny beetroot at the other but even the UK sites have beetroot that look just like our beets. Are you just busting chops or is there really a difference?

[Leanne]

Yep, there's definitely a difference. Here when we say "beet" we're referring to silverbeet or its relatives, which are a bit like spinach. Beetroot is beetroot.

(I just quickly googled and apparently in other places, silverbeet is called chard. That's nearly as funny as when I found out that those "mange tout" the British were always going on about were just bloody snow peas )

[Magpie]

Here when we say "beet" we're referring to silverbeet or its relatives,

more commonly known on sites like this as The Beet Generation
Sorry, I just couldn't stop myself. I'll go and stand in the naughty corner.

[Magpie]

Ella, everyone,

Surely it's time for an update. 

Everything is poised and ready to burst into colour for the summer, although because of how far north I live it can vary drastically when summer actually is, for me it's when the lilies and lupins are in bloom which looks to be about another 4 - 6 weeks yet. The only thing that's in bloom at the moment in my garden is the broom, I think they call it Scotch Broom in the states, although from what I was reading the other day and the fact that it's classed as an invasive species you might as well be calling 'spawn of the devil broom'. I got mine for free from next to the canal, they were only about 6 inches high but they put up a hell of a fight— I had to go back home and get a shovel. That was about four years ago and now they are about 9 - 10 feet tall so I suppose they must be happy or planning a takeover. Here's a pic



Sadly Lazarus the amazing log who thought it was still a tree from my previous post on this thread failed to capitalise on his early potential and is now just an ordinary log again.

I'll post another update when the lilies and lupins are in bloom. 

Anyone else with a garden? Then share it here... That's an order not a request.

[aschueler]

Beautiful stuff. If the thread stays alive long enough for me to ge tsome time later this weekend, I will post some of our little farm. Not as pretty as ambrosials pics.

I am growing vibrant maters, basil, ... Bell peppers, habanero that is just beginning to set fruit. I have strawberries with no fruit. Bees beees beeeeees are all over... Honey harvest this year.

My wife raises cows and chickens, but that's not a garden.

[Magpie]

Beautiful stuff.  If the thread stays alive long enough for me to ge tsome time later this weekend, I will post some of our little farm.  Not as pretty as ambrosials pics.

I am growing vibrant maters, basil, ... Bell peppers, habanero that is just beginning to set fruit.  I have strawberries with no fruit.  Bees beees beeeeees are all over... Honey harvest this year.

My wife raises cows and chickens, but that's not a garden.

Excellent, this thread has been successfully resurrected.

Watch out for those strawberries, they want to own your garden, treat them like criminals and enforce segregation - it's for the best. Bees beees beeeeees is an excellent sign that all is well with nature in your garden. If I had more space I could quite happily keep bees—as it is at the moment my neighbours would probably call the police if I got some bees.

I look forward to seeing your garden pics.

Mark

[ellajam]

Thanks, asch, I haven't even done the herb/pepper pots, we had a pretty cold spring frosting even last month but I'm off next week, bet the greenhouses have good enough size plants to make it worthwhile. Pics of cows and chickens are fun too. Milk or beef or both?

[aschueler]

Will try to get pics.

Our cows are "mixed" use, mostly cow/calf operation on a small scale, selling to families who want a family cow. Some end up in the freezer. We dont do milking because we already do enough. My wife wants to but damn!

Peppers here do best in pots or raised beds. With regard to strawberries, we have nuclear summers that tend to cook them back better than weed killer.

Bees are my quirky endeavor. They dont like being petted.

[aschueler]

Belated pictures still working on getting this to go:




frog
gave up on my own hosting so amazon it is


https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/..._link_copy   (cows in the shade)
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/..._link_copy  sheep (Named Marmalade and Lippy and the goat named Nancy.  They don't care)
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/..._link_copy (One of my bees on a basil bloom)

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/..._link_copy  (cows with a rainbow, cheesy but nice)



https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/..._link_copy   (cool lizard, not on our farm but a neat picture)

[QDeathstar]

I grow blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. The rasberries won't be coming in this year. I also got green beens, potatoes, tomatos, cucumbers, and squash in the garden.