OT: What Grows in Your Garden?
It looks like the temps have been gradually getting warmer up north which means gardening season has begun (or in some cases, may be in full swing). I'm an avid organic gardener and after buying my house went to work creating beds throughout the yard for roses (I have over 40 different varieties), perennials, and veggies. One thing I enjoy about gardening down here is that I actually get two tomato seasons, a spring and fall season with the everything going dormant in the heat of the summer. I am just now harvesting my spring crop!
I'm always curious to know what others are growing and maybe learn something new.
So, what grows in your garden? Ornamentals? Veggies? Medicinals 😊? Anything you would like to grow but want to try? Are there any particular challenges you face in your garden?
Bonus tip of the day: Hate digging? Lay a barrier of wet newspapers over the area where you want a bed to kill the grass. Then pile as much organic material as you can on top of it: soil, mulch, grass clippings, chopped up leaves, coffee grounds, alfalfa pellets, etc. Then just let it sit for about one year while the worms go to work. By the following year, it'll be like digging through butter.
I planted a bunch of peppers that I can’t usually find at a store or Farmer’s Market. Habanadas, Bulgarian Carrot, Korean, and Fish peppers. Also standard herbs.
The wife plants a lot of flowers but I stay out her way on that stuff.
This year we have tomatoes, broccoli, radishes, leafy lettuce, thyme, carrots, lavender, and green onions. We've also planted a LOT of allium to discourage pests like chipmunks and rabbits (we tried garlic and onions but that didn't seem to do the trick as much).
That was our personal garden. My wife's flower garden at the farm is gonna be a TON of dahlias with lots of smaller varieties like zinnias and columbines. I think she planted over 200 dahlias this year (up from 40 last year). Tuber propagation can get out of hand quickly! Gonna be a fun harvest this year!
Raised bed gardener here. Weeds and consistent watering have always been the bane of my gardening existence. Raised beds have been life altering. I just installed a drip irrigation system, so that hopefully solves my consistent watering issues. Early spring crops (lettuce, spinach, snap peas) have thrived unlike any other year, so early returns suggest that drip irrigation is a winner.
I'll put in the tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and beans during the next week. I love summer gardening season.
Raspberries - best eaten right off the bush. Enough for eating, ice cream and a pie or two. I always thought they were delicate and hard to grow but actually they spread easily and would probably be called invasive if they didn't taste so good.
Other then that, an eclectic mix of herbs, flowers, and a few tomato plants.
And if only my lawn looked as good in August as it does now.
I've got two raised beds--strawberries in one and raspberries in the other. I have to pull weeds once in awhile but the beds keep them contained. Both of those plants spread like crazy.
Garden- Pole Beans, Tomatoes, Squash, Herbs, Beets, Radishes, Garlic (planted last Fall), Pumpkin, Onions, Lettuce, Shelling Beans, Peppers, Wild Flowers (for the bees)
Yard- 3 Mushroom logs, Sumac, Rhubarb, Asparagus, Paw Paw Trees, Ground Cherries
Location- Kalamazoo
Regarding your tip, I've been applying heavy mulch bi annually for the last 5 years. No till. No weeding. Very little watering required. Soil is very rich after starting out sandy. This is the way.
We live on the 2nd floor, so it's all container plants: heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, habanero, guajillo and jalapeno peppers, and mostly herbs: parsley, cilantro, basil, dill, mint, thyme. They grow surprisingly well, so we don't have to buy tomatoes or herbs during the summer.
We're on a corner lot in Urbana with an herb garden by the kitchen door. Three types of basil, oregano, thyme, parsley, cilantro, sage, etc. There's just enough room for three tomato plants. We'll plant some garlic toward the end of the summer. We're less than a mile from a farm, so we get a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share and enjoy fresh veggies all summer and into the fall. And the Farmers' Market is incredible. When I first moved here, it seemed like people stopped me on the street to say "you know, the black soil of Central Illinois is the most fertile and productive in the world." They weren't wrong. My wife is planting native prairie plants which will eventually take over the yard and end my mowing woes. I can't wait until sweet corn comes in season.
My neighbor loves a manicured lawn that relies on multiple chemical applications during the summer. I don't. So I have taken the approach of eliminating large grass sections every summer and replacing invasive, non-native grass with native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. I'm also adding ground cover to shady areas that, with the aid of fertilizers and chemicals, formerly had grass.
We're slowing morphing our 1/2 acre plot into a sanctuary. The major bonuses: increased privacy, more biodiversity, no chemicals, less mowing, and a pissed off neighbor that dislikes my yard.
I love this approach. Kudos to you! It's a great habitat for the birds, bees, butterflies, dragonflies... My goal is to have hardly any lawn except for a few grass paths. But even there I seeded some clover. It looks nice and the bees love it.
This is amazing. I keep telling myself to start the process (by "keep", 3 ish years now). Typical American lawn care is so ridiculous. The effort to manicure fucking grass is mind boggling. Hey water the shit out of that green mat (maybe even pay a truck to come spray some factory-made chemicals)...so you can go cut it. And then look at it. Proudly. Ugh.
Prairie and perennials is so the way to go. We've a nice large backyard I'd likely keep for activities and a current 2 year old likely to be able to enjoy in the coming years but the front and rest of the grass areas I would love take and mostly replace with a the aforementioned. It would be so different from anyone else nearby but I don't think I would cause any real animosity. The yearly, plot by plot at a time is a good route to go. Maybe I'll finally begin this project by the end of this Iowa summer.
and a pissed off neighbor that dislikes my yard.
Plant a few rows of dandelions along your property line with him and tell him it's your salad garden. Young dandelion leaves are quite delicious and the flowers make great jelly or wine.
I lived in WatersEdge apartments in Champaign years ago. The patio door looked out on a western cornfield. I still remember those were the most amazing sunsets...
Never did any gardening there, but I imagine the soil is probably amazing.
Wow! This is a bunch—crop?—of serious gardeners. I'm impressed.
Meanwhile, in my NYC apartment, I'm a metaphorical octopus, in an undersea garden of my imagination.
My dad was a baby boomer who had parents that lived through the Great Depression and WW2.. Victory Gardens were a real thing in my household growing up, even in the middle of suburban Troy, MI. My dad had his 4' x 16' plot on the side of the house between the house and the sidewalk to the back yard. He tended that thing like his life depended on it. It rubbed off on me. Requirement on any house we lived in since I got married was that I had to be able to have a veggie garden. Cool thing is now my kids are into it too-- my 3rd grade son has so much fun he "wants to be a farmer when he grows up". Not much trouble kids can get into when they're out helping weed and prune and water and harvest with Dad instead of being on a tablet screen 7 hours a day.
As I have gotten older I have become a firm believer that we should replace lawns with vegetable gardens. We live in the mountain west and I grow all sorts of tomatoes and enjoy experimenting with different types allowing variable maturation time and taste. Presently have some Supersweet 100s cherry tomatoes, Striped Germans, Cosmonaut Volkovs which may be my favorite, Cherokee Purples, Early Girls, Carmellos, Caspian Pinks and many other varieties. Also zucchini. Wife has several herbs, cucumbers and raspberries.
Biggest challenges include rabbits, deer, fox and coyotes.
Don’t have the time, patience or skill to do real gardening, so limit myself to a few planters/boxes
The herb box has 3 kinds of basil (two Italian varieties and a Thai basil) and some garlic chives.
the planters have two types of tomatoes, Supersweets and Big Boy, a bunch of scotch bonnet plants and a blueberry bush. In years past the supersweets grew like crazy and we ate tons of them but lost pretty much every single Big Boy to squirrels or deers.
The supersweets have just gotten their first flowers so the first tomatoes should come in the near future. Have a couple of small blueberries as well so hope they start to show up and ripen soon.
I've heard rumors about Thai's named Basel.
Depending upon your outdoor lighting and the position of your planters, I've got an idea to keep the deer away. I drink a beer around 9:00 at night, then at 11:00 I head outside and "water" the perimeter of my garden. I started that quite a few years ago after losing many tomatoes to deer. It cut my losses by 90% at least.
Question that may sound snarky but not intended that way: where do you get piles of newspaper these days?
Ha! Good question. Working on campus I have an abundant supply of the student newspaper. I go in on a Saturday, so the remaining papers have been there for about a week. I just grab whatever is left.
Real answers: churches, grocery stores, discount stores... you go into a Big Lots or Ollie's on a Saturday evening and you'll get all the newsprint from last week's ads that you can handle for free.
I have about 5 acres of poppies.
Not including your acreage in Columbia, right?
Darlene Snell, is that you?
Darlene Snell, is that you?
Darlene, is that you?
i'm in NY. i grow the usual lettuce/kale, herbs, tomato, cucumber, beans, peas, pepper, and squash. flowers too. i'm trying sunflowers this year. my tip for NYers is to avoid heirloom tomatoes. they grow very poorly here.
Silver Bells, Cockle Shells, and pretty maids all in a row...
Cabbage. Lots and lots of cabbage.
I'm trying to find some flowery plants that are deer resistant and survive in near-total shade. I am googling, but any advice/experience is welcome.
Getting flowers in the shade is tough. In shady areas I try to grow things with colorful foliage, like Caladium or Japanese painted fern. Ligularia might work, though, in the shade. If you have any areas with more dappled shade, then Astilbe or Columbine would probably give you some blooms. All of these are also supposed to be deer resistant, though I don't have to deal with deer down here.
Have you tried any of the repellents? I'm not sure how well they work, but it may be worth a shot.
For flowering shade-tolerant plants that are deer-resistant, there are many spring-flowering bulbs that the deer don't like which grow well beneath deciduous trees, including daffodils. Here are a few deer-resistant perennials I've had success with in the shade: dicentra (bleeding heart), alchemilla (lady's mantle), heuchera (coral bells, although grown now more for foliage), hellebore (lenten rose), astilbe (false spirea), pulmonaria (lungwort), aquilegia (columbine), brunnera (siberian bugloss, another more-for-foliage plant), ligularia, myosotis (forget-me-not, although it can be invasive), actaea aka cimicifuga (bugbane). Also consider ferns, which can be quite showy in deep shade, although they do not flower.
Thanks. I've used ferns in the past, but there's no shortage of them in the woods around my house. I'm looking to add a little color. I'll try these suggestions and see how it goes.
If you are in Michigan, Astilbe. Great in shade and flowers all summer.
Weeds.
I don't really care to grow any fruits, veggies or herbs in my yard and even if I did, my property is covered with twenty five pine trees, all of which seem to be in a constant state of shedding. As such, my backyard is literally nothing but weeds and pine needles. Not at all conducive to growing anything.
The front yard stays a little bit cleaner, but its not important enough for me to do anything other than mow it and keep it looking presentable.
What makes the green grass grow????
Are you asking about legal only?
On second thought there isn't much illegal anymore
Granite rocks. I live in the desert and have xeriscape.
My name is Dantana and I have a problem growing stuff. Seriously. I just got around to the garden last week. So far I've planted Roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, 4 rows of onions. This week I will try to get in the green beans and potatoes. The wife and kids like growing pumpkins, I don't have room in the garden for them but will throw some seed into a few dirt piles out back and watch them grow up the nearby shrubs.
We have two wildflower patches - one near the garden and one out back in the power line (we live on 16 acres).
I have 6 apples trees and one peach tree scattered around the property. I should have my first crop of peaches this year and also my first Red Delicious and Gala crops. I also have another 6 crabapple trees for the deer. Next year I plan to add another peach tree and a few pear trees.
On top of that, I have about an acre of food plots that will be planted for the deer.
On our up north property, I have close to 30 fruit trees (apple, crabapple, and pear) planted since 2018. Some will produce this year (provided gypsy moth caterpillars don't get them). The cherry tree I planted last year might be doing the best of all of them, it has probably 50 little cherry's on it this year.
I fail to see any problems here. 😊
Forgot to mention we also have several dozen wild mulberry trees, two small blackberry patches, and a few scattered black caps aka black raspberry plants. None of these were planted by us, just the product of creating a healthy ecosystem for the wildlife. The blackberries are dwindling each year. They are being overrun by another bramble and gray dogwood.
so far no significant sign of gypsy moths. they are highly cyclical and i think they are on a down cycle right now.
i hope you're right.... the sons a bitches ate every leaf off my oaks last year and even tore up many of the 150 trees I planted..... Even with the early drought thru June and leaf devouring larvae, 80% of my new trees made it thru the summer. Unfortunately it looks like winter took a toll on quite a few of my hybrid oaks. Hoping they sprout from the roots, which they often times will when the sapling dies.
long cold winter for the 3rd year in a row, cold spring, too.
as to the moths, i have a plan.....
Mint
Here in the NE corner of bayou country I have tomatoes(creole and big boy)cucumbers,zucchini,egg plant,jalapeños.Got a satsuma tree, azaleas and crepe myrtles,blue and blackberry also.Fixin to eat my first ripe tomato in the next day or two.
Great topic while we wait for some commits!
This year, we refreshed the garden space - we only have a small area...
Sugar snap peas, Jalepenos, Tomatos of a few kinds, cucumbers (aka the garden overlord), and Basil - the "i will grow anywhere and in insane amounts" plant.
Excited to see how itll work out. We have a front section with heavy suna nd a back section with partial sun.
Always curious to grow root vegetables, but they never seem to work..a nd the few times they seem to take "root"... from seed... they end up getting eaten by some critter!
Would love to grow lettuce, just to try it. id ont have the space though for a "one yield" plant!
Lettuce is easy and you can grow it in a hanging container / ground pot. Best part is you get 2-3 cuts out of each lettuce plant before it becomes too woody, you pull them out and start over again. I've gotten three full harvests of lettuce plants from May through late September / October in Michigan before. If you plant lettuce in ground, best part is it's a "ground recharger"... lettuce plants basically repair the soil from the nutrient leeching / replenishment process if you grow tomatoes / peppers. Every year after you grow tomatoes or peppers, plant lettuce in the same ground for the year. Avoids needing to put lots of fertilizer each spring with a good crop rotation plan.
If you plant lettuce in ground, best part is it's a "ground recharger"... lettuce plants basically repair the soil from the nutrient leeching / replenishment process if you grow tomatoes / peppers. Every year after you grow tomatoes or peppers, plant lettuce in the same ground for the year. Avoids needing to put lots of fertilizer each spring with a good crop rotation plan.
This is why I started planting sugar snap peas (well, also because they taste fantastic and I love to pick a handful in the morning for my lunch as I'm heading out for work) and beans. I don't pull the plants when they're done. I cut them off and leave the roots in the ground. They fix nitrogen when they're growing and release it as they compost. Natural fertilizer.