How Does Your Garden Grow?

[gardenswithkids]

Its a bunny!..There were 5 I found them with the leaf blower! poor little bunnies but they lived! and momma bunny has moved them :bounce:

Oh good, I guessed correctly. Do I win a prize? (Maybe one of the baby bunnies?)

I love bunnies, except when they eat my garden. I’ve seen one in my yard–which makes me think we have more than one somewhere. That would explain what happens to most of my tulips. :ehh: I haven’t put up any fences against rabbits, deer & other critters. I wonder if we’ll get any of the harvest, or am I going to all this work to grow one, great, big wild-life feeder.

 

[catholic79]

Okay good, no dead chickens!! People think enough weird things about us crazy Catholics, we don’t need to help them out!!

Okay, now back to everyones gardens!! My tulips are coming up and they look so pretty!! I love this time of year when all of the bulbs begin to bloom!!

Yes, see the feathers are there as part of worshiping the garden statue of Mary! (couldn’t help it sorry!)

Glad you tulips are doing well mine are just starting and if I can keep the bunnies away they will be better! DH thought it was funny that I thought the babies were cute, he said in a few weeks when they were eating everything I could say anything

 

[Gwyn]

In the past, have grown tomatoes and peppers and lots of perennials.
However, we moved last year and did not get around to planting anything at our new home. Especially since the place has not been tended in a few years and needs a lot of work (weeding). Did plant a few annuals for colour in front but that was it.
This year have raked the whole place and yuck found a dead, decomposing bird in the back …now to start preparing beds.
Another thing that I tried a few years back was winter sowing and seed trading (only in Canada as cross border trades is not permitted) was able to get quite the collection of plants at our old home (will post a link for info). Did a bit of winter sowing and have lots sprouting now, so will have to get spots ready to transplant end of May (after frost threats are over). Also want to try some corn this year.
Will be trying lasagna gardening again, did a few beds like that at our old place, and they turned out really well.
The advice for marking spots where the perennnials are is great. What I would do in the past was have a map of the front yard and back yard as to where what was, however I still double planted

Here’s to a great 2009 gardeing season. Even though I cannot plant yet, I can get things ready.

Wintersowing - forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/wtrsow/

 

[gardenswithkids]

… we moved last year and did not get around to planting anything at our new home. Especially since the place has not been tended in a few years and needs a lot of work (weeding)…

It’s lots more work to start a garden from scratch. Good luck with that.

…This year have raked the whole place and yuck found a dead, decomposing bird in the back

No pictures, please.

…Another thing that I tried a few years back was winter sowing …Wintersowing - forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/wtrsow/

Thanks for the link. I’ll have to check it out more. I read something about winter sowing this year and it sounded interesting. I have such a hard time hardening off the plants that I start from seed inside.

…Will be trying lasagna gardening again, did a few beds like that at our old place, and they turned out really well.

I like lasagna gardeing–(I probably I like the name best.) Good way to get a garden started over an area that hasn’t been gardened much. I’m using a variation of that with a raised bed garden for my veggies. I will beat those weeds yet.:knight2:

…Here’s to a great 2009 gardening season…

Here’s to it!

 

[journey137]

My garden grows in 5 gallon buckets sitting on the concrete walkway in front of our apartment building… or rather it WILL grow there after I get it planted There is still a possibility of frost until May so I’m using that as my excuse for not planting anything yet. Hopefully my cat won’t dig everything up and use it as a litter box once I do get it out there. We’re going to plant tomatoes, bell peppers, sugar snap peas, bush beans, bush cucumbers (didn’t know they had such a thing until yesterday :extrahappy and maybe a wandering jew if my husband has his way.

 

[Consecrated]

Okay, now back to everyones gardens!! My tulips are coming up and they look so pretty!! I love this time of year when all of the bulbs begin to bloom!!

My mom planted some tulips for me last fall as a suprise, and i was soooo happy to see them peeking up this spring… then they got to be about 4-6 inches tall, and the deer ATE EVERY SINGLE ONE, right down to the ground. :crying: DEATH TO BAMBI!

 

[Consecrated]

Oh good, I guessed correctly. Do I win a prize? (Maybe one of the baby bunnies?)

I love bunnies, except when they eat my garden. I’ve seen one in my yard–which makes me think we have more than one somewhere. That would explain what happens to most of my tulips. :ehh: I haven’t put up any fences against rabbits, deer & other critters. I wonder if we’ll get any of the harvest, or am I going to all this work to grow one, great, big wild-life feeder.

That’s our number one greatest fear, and no, I would NEVER exaggerate. We have tons and tons of bunnies and deer in our neck of the woods, also coyotes and foxes. Which is strange considering we live in a well developed area right in the middle of town. DH is going to get an electric fence up. we’ll see. last year the bunnies just jumped right through the wires, and I think ended up building a nest IN the garden. They got all my greenbeans before the poor little things had a chance to get more than a few inches tall. I replanted. They got those, too. And just as the sweet peas were starting to fruit, they snipped most of them off at the ground. I kid you not, we’re at war with the wildlife at our house!

 

[Consecrated]

We’re planting:
3 kinds of potatoes
2 kinds of tomatoes
2 kinds of garlic
4 kinds of onion
corn (for meal)
at least 2 kinds of pole beans, that we’re going to train up the corn!
lettuce
carrots
cabbage
kohlrabi ( DH’s idea)
sugar snap peas

And various annual flowers, b/c I just couldn’t get through the summer w/o them!

May St. Francis keep the little bunnies and bambis away from our gardens… they can eat somewhere else THIS summer!

 

[happymommy]

That’s our number one greatest fear, and no, I would NEVER exaggerate. We have tons and tons of bunnies and deer in our neck of the woods, also coyotes and foxes. Which is strange considering we live in a well developed area right in the middle of town. DH is going to get an electric fence up. we’ll see. last year the bunnies just jumped right through the wires, and I think ended up building a nest IN the garden. They got all my greenbeans before the poor little things had a chance to get more than a few inches tall. I replanted. They got those, too. And just as the sweet peas were starting to fruit, they snipped most of them off at the ground. I kid you not, we’re at war with the wildlife at our house!

that’s how it is here too. we have raccoon to deal with and they LOVE corn! Pesky little buggers Bambi and thumper had better leave the veggies alone…or else… (insert evil laughing here). The deer we can’t do too much with when it’s not hunting season, but little bunny foofoo and his pal ricky raccoon won’t be so lucky if my FIL gets a hold of them!!

 

[gardenswithkids]

… DH is going to get an electric fence up…

:bigyikes: I have kids, so no electric fences. Besides that, I don’t care for the look.

I have some perenials that the deer particularly seem to enjoy. I debate, would it be better if I divided them and planting them all over the yard for deer food or get rid of them altogether to stop attracting deer.

 

[Consecrated]

:bigyikes: I have kids, so no electric fences. Besides that, I don’t care for the look.

I have some perenials that the deer particularly seem to enjoy. I debate, would it be better if I divided them and planting them all over the yard for deer food or get rid of them altogether to stop attracting deer.

yeah it is U.G.L.Y. but the garden is more or less DH’s baby, and I’m just a spectator that he “allows” to help a little, esp. with the weeds! oh and who’s going to be processing all this produce at the end of the summer? me! hehehe

We have kids, too, but the fence is always unplugged first thing in the morning and not activated til well after the kids are in bed.

Happymommy: you can shoot the buggers?? We live in city limits, so must resort to other less explosive methods.

 

[LongingForLight]

Does your family grow food in your garden? Have you gardened for a long time, or are you a newbie at it digging in the dirt? Are you thinking about starting to grow your own vegetables and fruits or expanding your established gardens?

We just started, but it’s in response to having the land, not the economy. We bought our first home last March. The first year we were too busy, but this year I’ve had the energy to put some seeds in the ground. I’ve never been interested in growing for much of anything other than food - I’m not a big “flowers” person.

And the peas are coming up! But I think the lettuce and chard just aren’t working out - those leaves poking through look suspiciously like weeds. I think there isn’t enough sun there - I’ll try another couple of patches somewhere else.

 

[gardenswithkids]

…But I think the lettuce and chard just aren’t working out - those leaves poking through look suspiciously like weeds. …

I have a preference for growing gourmet lettuce, (mescaline mix), and I have the toughest time telling the lettuce from the weeds. I understand dandelions are actually edible–I may have even eaten a few unknowingly.

 

[petitfleur]

I am happy to say I am finally putting in a vegie garden!!!
I am starting small and started some tomatoe plants indoors last week i bought cherry tom. seeds beefsteak seeds and some hierloom tomatoes that is supposed to be a “rainbow” mix. I also have some green beans and cukes. I am so excited to get started!

 

[happymommy]

Happymommy: you can shoot the buggers?? We live in city limits, so must resort to other less explosive methods.

YUP!! We live in the country…they either get to meet “old blue” or they get caught in a trap and taken for a long ride. I’m not involved in the process, just the men folk:yukonjoe:

 

[tundramom]

Those critters…

When I first moved to Minnesota, I bought… actually bought a hosta. My MIL would have nothing of that. She brought me a HUGE plant, which I divided into 72 different plants. I planted them along my driveway on one of the curves, a staggered 3 rows deep. When they matured they covered the whole area. Now I am going to divide them further.

A few years ago I named that area “the salad bar”. Deer aren’t supposed to like hosta, right? Not so!! They just park at the area and feed. I really don’t mind much because I get a lot of beautiful pictures out of it.

My hubby is out of town a lot for his work. It never fails that when he leaves, the racoons or possum (possum in MN! whodathunk?) get into the chicken coop. So critter duty is mine. I’ve had to dispatch way too many to count. It was hard at first, but one morning I walked out the door to the sight of a chicken slaughter and now I show NO mercy

We don’t get too many bunnies around the house because my Rat Terrier would have them for lunch. I’ve got 11 acres of mostly woods, so I figure they have enough habitat around to themselves. Oh— and since we’ve had chickens for years, the wild turkeys roam freely through our yard. My dogs just think they’re funny looking chickens and don’t bother them. They’d probably take down my little Rat anyway!

Steph

 

[The_Fool]

My family just moved, so whatever is in the yard is what was there. So, we have a huge grapefruit tree, a valencia orange tree, and a navel orange tree in terms of food. My mother wants to grow onions, tomatoes, lettuce, potatoes, other vegetables, along with a number of flowering plants as well. The ground is rather muddy instead of sandy, like the last location, and there are mosquitoes everywhere. On the upside, we have plenty of birds around as well.

My main concern now is the Asian Citrus Sypphid. Hmm, I might have misspelled that. Hoanglongbing I think it’s called. Some insect is going around destroying citrus trees, and we might lose the bounty that came with the house. As it’s a work in progress, it doesn’t look like much, but it is growing okay for now.

 

[gardenswithkids]

…A few years ago I named that area “the salad bar”. Deer aren’t supposed to like hosta, right? Not so!! They just park at the area and feed…

Sounds like Tundramom grows venison in her garden.

Hungry deer will eat most any plant, but I hear hostas are some deer favorites. A gardener on tv recently mentioned they prefer green leaf first, then variagated and last the blue. (At least the deer near that yard anyway.)

Deer haven’t troubled my hostas, but I have them very close to the house, and I do some of the preventions to keep away deer from them (like dumping the clippings from the family haircuts in that garden.) I need to divide some hostas, and I’m wondering if I should give away the extras to minimize the attraction to deer in my yard or set the extra hostas somewhere like your deer salad bar garden. Maybe that would lure them away from my vegetable garden. Are your deer content to stay at your hostas, or do they stray through the rest of your gardens devouring everything in sight?

 

[tundramom]

No, they pretty much stay at the salad bar. LOL They don’t seem to want anything else once they fill up at the bar.

Steph

 

[Black_Dog]

I love gardening too, I have a small fairly steep south facing plot with amazing views of the Northumberland coast, Bamburgh castle and Holy Island. I always use organic methods and all my veg is growing in a mix of composted seaweed and masses of veg peelings which I collect from a local restaurant. I use deep bed systems which are great as you dig them once and never again. Each autumn I simply smother the bed in my compost mix and the worms take it down doing all the work for me. a quick rake over in the spring and I’m ready to plant.
This year I’m growing garlic, shallots, onions, new potatoes, parsnips, carrots, runner beans, broad beans, dwarf beans, sprouts, cabbage, corriander, salad crops, tomatoes etc with soft fruit - raspberries and strawberries. I’ve also planted a plum tree which I’m training as a fan against an old stone wall and two old English apple varieties which are being grown as espaliers to save space.

Amongst all of that lot I have two very old species of climbing roses, one growing up a trellis by the bench and the other along a fence. I’ve also just planted a vigorous rambling rose - New Dawn to commemorate my acceptance into the Catholic church. This is currently being trained to grow up a wigwam but eventually will clothe a pergola.
What space is left over is planted with spring bulbs and iris…oh, there’s a grape vine too which I have high hopes will eventually provide dappled shade as I sit on my bench enjoying the view.

There’s an enormous interest in gardening here in the UK