Gardening is Cool
So, I have recently planted, churned, and done all of the essentials in creating my own vegetable garden. Now I know it sounds lame, but I've found that home grown vegetables taste better, and it's better for you. Now I thought since I can do my own sewing, why not take up some of my own DIY growing. So in my backyard, I have peas, carrots, beans, zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes, and I am planting Lettuce and Cabbage tomorrow. So to the point: Tell me (and the rest of mohawksrock) about your gardening, whether you plan on taking it up (as it is fantastic) or your techniques. What do you grow? Do you compost your own soil, or purchase top soil? Tell me your tips and techniques for the best tasting produce around.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kobalos on
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lol I had planned to blog about my first gardening this year too - once I have all the pictures to show the progress.
Good for you! I'm finding it fun too - though the slugs are a pain. I've got dwarf bush beans (5 types in one packet along with snap peas for a £1 from Poundsaver) - a few yellow pod ones nearly ripe; bell peppers; tomatoes (2 types - Ailsa Craig & Moneymaker) - slowly coming to flower now; yellow & green corgettes flowering nicely & big plants; potatoes (from saved potatoes that had started to grow in the fridge); beetroots; lettuce (Little Gems nearly ready & just sprouted an all year type Marvel of Four Seasons); Borlotti Beans in trays atm; 3 types of peas; carrots; purple cauliflowers; leeks & celery (both not doing much); brussel sprouts; brocolli; onion sets & blood red onion seeds & swedes.
I think that's all, so far - in a month or two, I'll be planting more of some over-wintering varieties for broad beans (Aquadulce or something); cabbage; Ambassador peas.
Since this has been my first year at gardening - I've been buying cheap compost bags to sow seeds in trays & dig into the soil. I've found some easy DIY compost techniques with just grass clippings on YouTube which I plan to get round to, once I get some wire mesh to hold them and a space for it. I've collected some wild comfrey leaves to make comfrey tea for fertiliser and a couple handfuls of compost in a bucket with water to make compost tea.
It's all a learning curve atm, but like you say, it's fantastic. From tiny seeds to full plants with veg starting to show from them - just finding the room for them all either in planters or in the ground is a challenge though. haha I kinda went a little gardening mad. =] I'll upload pics once I do a harvest of some of them. What varieties of all those plants are you growing?
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Permalink Reply by Brody Scumdog on
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I got a great trick for slugs! If you sprinkle broken eggshells around the plants it will make it so slugs can't get to them. The slugs will die trying if they do.
I have Romaine Lettuce going in, Green Cabbage, Green Beans, Green Peas, Purple and Orange carrots, Green and yellow zucchini, golden potatoes, and Red, Cherry, Purple, and Yellow tomatoes. I also got Apples, Cherries, and Figs.
As for compost, make sure it is fully decomposed before putting it in your garden, otherwise you may get maggots in your garden, which isn't very good. I wish you luck with your garden, and I'll keep you posted on how mine is doing. Do the same for me. I just gotta make sure my parents take care of it for me while I'm away for the week (Working on a commercial fishing boat.)
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Thanks! That's a good tip about the maggots in unfinished compost - didn't know about that!
I've tried a few egg shells - but don't have enough to surround many plants. I've read about coffee grounds being a nerve toxin to slugs - so they avoid it and it's also good for the ground (& compost). And Starbucks are meant to have a free program for gardeners to collect spent coffee grounds from their stores - something I'm hoping to get my brother to go and get some since he lives in a city.
Lots of nice varieties! :) I want some more types of tomatoes next year like yours.
I'll be keeping you up to date, probably in a month or two with some nice photos too. I look forward to finding out how yours turns out later this year too! It'll be interesting to comparing how the different climates between Canada and Scotland go with the plants.
Yeah, my neighbour has already suggested I could look after his tomato plants while he's away on holiday. :D It's making sure they don't all wilt from lack of water! Hopefully you'll parents will remember and you'll come home to lush growth & veggies to pick! :D
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Another update! We planted some sweet Havana peppers, and I am very excited!
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heheheh Awesome! They look unusual, long peppers and sound nice - hope they grow quick!
Update: Pollinated my 2nd golden courgette after getting up today - here I'd worried there'd be no male flowers to use and there were four!
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Permalink Reply by CorpseQueen on
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My brothers ex gf person..thingy..(they might still be together, who knows lol) anyway! She started a big garden here with my brother so we have tons of stuff. zucchini, tomato, squash, corn, lettuce, broccoli, etc etc. Its pretty awesome. So far I have had the zucchini and tomatoes and they are yummy! Looking forward to the rest of the veggies growing in.
We also have about 6 pomegranate trees that we are going to start selling to a local produce market once they get ripe :)
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First pickings:
The peas were a bit immature - but their bush plants aren't doing well at all. In fact, after I got this, that plant's leaves went yellow and died. But I have lots more growing.
The yellow beans (Dwarf Mont D'or) were a surprise! I loved 'em! Yum! Yum! Never tasted string beans like them - they have a mellow, meaty flavour. I boiled them with some salt and I wish I'd planted more than three plants now. :)
More pods to come though - just some early ones I desperately wanted to try after all the waiting. haha
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Permalink Reply by Becki on
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I started gardening at my old house (father in laws house), we had a huge garden me and the fella planted lettuce (lollo rosso and iceberg), spring onions, cucumbers and some other bits and pieces but the weather was horrid to them, rain and burning hot sun in all one day, the lettuce came and but then the slugs got to them and the cat dug up the spring onions. Not amused! We've managed to salvage some of them but they look terrible.
However the cucumbers are in the greenhouse and are doing really well, they've flowered and we're just waiting for some cucumbers to grow now, can't wait, and we're going to pickle the smaller ones we pick off.
We've since moved and we literally have no room to grow anything, it's all slabs and gravel and we share the garden with another tenant, we're going to grow things in pots next year and see how things go.
I adore gardening!
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I've been keeping my lettuce in pots and they've been largely left untouched - a few little punture holes from something (Maybe birds? I don't know...but not anything like as bad as the slugs have done to other plants in the ground). My friend offered me a couple hanging baskets he's getting rid of and I've seen lettuce growing nicely in them and maybe, might escape the slugs there!
A greenhouse is great! It's exciting watching the veg start to grow once the flowers drop off - I'm eager for my first yellow courgette from the greenhouse! :D Pickling is something I'll need to do with the beetroot, I guess...
Yeah, I've been also using some deep plant troughes for growing carrots and beetroot on the path - not sure how they'll do though. They certainly are growing nicely on top.
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