What's in your Garden?

[Val]

l also remember them as a kid! They gave me nightmares

This is weird: we have worms which look exactly like these ones, but they are small! (So, no nightmares...)

 

[Katrina]

Lettuce.

Part of the bed with beets.

I don't know their name (we call them just Golden orbs), but they are quite vivid, and no clay soil can kill them.

I can't really tell from the picture, but those yellow flowers might be Jerusalem artichokes.

 

[Val]

I can't really tell from the picture, but those yellow flowers might be Jerusalem artichokes.

Really? I mean, do these Jerusalem artichokes give fruit, like real artichokes? Ours are just flowers...

 

[Katrina]

Okay, I don't think they are. Jerusalem artichoke flowers look like yellow daisies. You have to dig them up for the edible part (the roots). I've never grown or harvested them myself, but they grow everywhere around here.

 

[Val]

Our horseradish "shrub". The leaves are so giant that they don't fit in the pot while pickling.

Gala's tropical palm tree. It's very vivid and now, after 2.5 months, it's higher than an average human. On the right- is calendula.

Palm's flowers and fruits.

 

[Val]

One more pumpkin (the 3rd one).

One more huge courgette.

Plums.

 

[Val]

Carrots.

One of ripened sunflowers.

Asters and different types of calendula.

 

[Val]

A veeeery long cucumber in our green house. Picture taken 6 hrs ago.

 

[Tom L.]

My garden doesn't look nearly as good as yours, @Val , but I harvested my butternut squash this weekend. I also took a cutting of my tomato plant to grow inside, and it's got roots. I'm also growing 4-7 mustard green plants inside, as well as one collard plant. The mustard greens should produce some leaves to eat, as well as flowers and more seeds to plant- but I suppose i won't be able to eat as many leaves if I want flowers and seeds.

I'll be planting the bulbils from my garlic soon. I also harvested some seeds from my chives after it bloomed this past summer; I'll probably plant some more chives outdoors and grow some inside in pots.

 

[Chryssie]

Our gardening for the season is about done. The parsley did not survive after the caterpillars devoured it. I think the extreme heat did them in. Another flower plant I had for years also died as did the lily. The peppers are still alive though! Deb made a dip for Tim's party with the jalepeno peppers. There is a small bell pepper also. We shall see if we got more peppers!

 

[PTree15]

Our gardening for the season is about done. The parsley did not survive after the caterpillars devoured it. I think the extreme heat did them in. Another flower plant I had for years also died as did the lily. The peppers are still alive though! Deb made a dip for Tim's party with the jalepeno peppers. There is a small bell pepper also. We shall see if we got more peppers!

My mother had trouble with her parsley as well. Some critter got to her deck plant, and it never recovered. Cool on the peppers, though. My basil plant is hanging in there. I think I can get another batch of pesto out of it. I want to do a raised garden box next year, now that my yard is in order. I am thinking tomatoes and possibly peppers. We will see.

 

[Tom L.]

Change of plans: I'm eating the garlic bulbils and planting more of the cloves, instead. Garlic bulbils are quite small, and although I could eventually get a MUCH large number of garlic plants going from them because there are so many more, I think they'd get lost in my garden: I have garlic chives popping up here and there, and they'd be almost impossible to tell apart from first-year garlic plants. I was pretty sure bulbils are edible but I checked around first to be absolutely sure; then I had some for lunch today with my couscous, fresh broccoli, and beans.

I potted my tomato cutting last weekend. It's doing well, and my indoor mustard greens are taking off.

Lately I've been starting a hedge instead of replacing the front fence on my property; I think it will look good (but if it doesn't, I can just go back to a fence). I'm using a mix of native Gray Dogwood and non-native Winged(?) Burning Bush, both of which have been on my property but were just growing where they felt like. I trimmed and moved things around last weekend- their growth has slowed down and this is a good time of year to do it. The Burning Bush is supposedly invasive in some areas, but I moved it under the Black Walnut tree, which should keep it subdued. The dogwood is doing fine, but this year birds(?) have been eating those white berries it makes- which is fine, because that's one reason to plant it: it's a native plant which local wild animals can use. I don't think the berries are poisonous to humans, but they're not exactly edible for us either.

 

[Val]

The dogwood is doing fine, but this year birds(?) have been eating those white berries it makes- which is fine, because that's one reason to plant it: it's a native plant which local wild animals can use. I don't think the berries are poisonous to humans, but they're not exactly edible for us either.

Is this what you mean? Dogwood tree?
Cornus - Wikipedia
We have its red variety in Northern Caucasus, and it's not only edible, but super tasty and beneficial. When i go to Caucasus and see Kizil (we use turkic word) there, i lose my mind and can't stop devouring it. Once i even bought it here, in Pushkin (Spb surburb), but it had been delivered from Azerbaijan.
Kizil obyknovjennyi (European Cornelian cherry dogwood):
Cornus mas - Wikipedia
But based on what i've read, i doubt that your kizil variety (the white one) is edible. I wouldn't eat it if i were you.

 

[Val]

One of our multiple baskets of apples.

 

[Tom L.]

Is this what you mean? Dogwood tree?
.....
We have its red variety in Northern Caucasus, and it's not only edible, but super tasty and beneficial. When i go to Caucasus and see Kizil (we use turkic word) there, i lose my mind and can't stop devouring it. Once i even bought it here, in Pushkin (Spb surburb), but it had been delivered from Azerbaijan.
Kizil obyknovjennyi (European Cornelian cherry dogwood):
........
But based on what i've read, i doubt that your kizil variety (the white one) is edible. I wouldn't eat it if i were you.

The species I have is Cornus racemosa. Cornelian cherry is grown and eaten here too, I think, but it's not common and I've never seen it sold, even at farmer's markets.

I'm careful not to eat a wild plant (or even a cultivated one) I'm not sure is safe. LONG ago, when I was less than 10, I bit into a horse chestnut (not related to edible chestnuts), which is poisonous, but it was so bitter I spit it right out, and it didn't make me sick.

 

[Katrina]

I just planted daffodil bulbs in the back yard. I still need to go out and plant the garlic bulbs this week. The rhubarb plant has died back already, so I hope it comes back in the spring. It's my first year growing it.

Oh, and I just sowed barley out front. Not for eating. It's supposed to improve the soil structure. If it doesn't germinate now, I'll just plant it again in the spring.

Dug up and potted the thyme plant to keep inside as well as the hot pepper plant that never really grew all summer. I'll see how they do over the winter.

 

[Katrina]

I won't bother with a garden plot this year, now that I've moved away.... but my parents are letting me have a small section of the garden to grow what I want. That's fine. I'll put some things in containers, too. Cherry tomatoes, salad greens, herbs, maybe some flowers. I'll have to figure out what grows well in shade.... the stuff I was planning to grow this year all need lots of sun (bell peppers, eggplant, etc).

I'm sad that I won't get to see all the perennials I'd planted last year: rhubarb, elderberry, bee balm. And I had to leave the grape plant behind. The soil is still too cold for me to dig anything up and bring back.

 

[Val]

I'm sad that I won't get to see all the perennials I'd planted last year: rhubarb, elderberry, bee balm. And I had to leave the grape plant behind. The soil is still too cold for me to dig anything up and bring back.

Is there any chance to dig them up later(?), to rent a new plot somewhere closer to your home and to move them to a new plot? ...You've made a big effort to grow them.
I mean, it's ok if you leave your old life behind, and perhaps there is no spare room for your old plants in/near your house/yard, but maybe you could ask someone to water your plants/take care of them until you deal with more important things and can take them with you to your new life?

 

[Katrina]

Is there any chance to dig them up later(?), to rent a new plot somewhere closer to your home and to move them to a new plot? ...You've made a big effort to grow them.
I mean, it's ok if you leave your old life behind, and perhaps there is no spare room for your old plants in/near your house/yard, but maybe you could ask someone to water your plants/take care of them until you deal with more important things and can take them with you to your new life?

I might do that, depending on whether I visit Ottawa later this year. Or if H ends up going camping this summer, he might be willing to dig some things up and pass them on to me (the camp site he goes to is near my parent's house).

The stuff I had planted doesn't really need much maintenance, so they'll probably grow just fine without any help.

I'm also upset about that raised garden bed that I put so much effort into. I was going to plant parsnips in it... it's not feasible to grab it and bring it back. Whoever gets my old garden plot will get to use it. Sigh.

 

[Val]

I might do that, depending on whether I visit Ottawa later this year. Or if H ends up going camping this summer, he might be willing to dig some things up and pass them on to me (the camp site he goes to is near my parent's house).

The stuff I had planted doesn't really need much maintenance, so they'll probably grow just fine without any help.

I'm also upset about that raised garden bed that I put so much effort into. I was going to plant parsnips in it... it's not feasible to grab it and bring it back. Whoever gets my old garden plot will get to use it. Sigh.

So sorry about your garden bed. But.. now that you're a specialist in this matter,- you'll build another one more quickly!
Btw, remember, i showed you our "yellow orbs", and you said they were Jerusalem artichokes? It appeared to be, you were right! They are quite wild, but still...
And... i'm going to grow swiss chard this year on our summer cottage plot. Be prepared that i'll be asking for your advice.