Gardening thread

type posts about gardening in this thread

do you not garden? do you want to garden? do you garden? do you grow flowers? do you grow a fruit tree? do you grow a variety of vegetables? do you grow your entire family's food requirements? do you grow an entire farm to sell?

whatever the answer is, this is the thread you have to type posts about it in

so very good to see that there finally is a thread to type posts about gardening activities in. my overall experience in gardening is admittedly comparatively small, I am not someone you would naturally consider a man of the garden, yet I do have a flower tub on my balcony that has a flower in it, it's a very robust plant, it can survive hail and snow. moreover, I have a flower box with chives, thyme and peppermint. it's hardly a garden, I know, but I am happy with what I got. I am currently trying to gather gardening knowledge for when civilisation ends and the status of a male depends on the amount of groceries he can grow. thanks

  On 4/23/2020 at 4:15 AM, darreichungsform said:

so very good to see that there finally is a thread to type posts about gardening activities in. my overall experience in gardening is admittedly comparatively small, I am not someone you would naturally consider a man of the garden, yet I do have a flower tub on my balcony that has a flower in it, it's a very robust plant, it can survive hail and snow. moreover, I have a flower box with chives, thyme and peppermint. it's hardly a garden, I know, but I am happy with what I got. I am currently trying to gather gardening knowledge for when civilisation ends and the status of a male depends on the amount of groceries he can grow. thanks

an excellent plan, im doing the same thing.  but alas, my landlord does not provide me with the luxury of having a balcony let alone a minature outdoor farming plot mounted to the windowsill.  for this reason i have to create an artificial farming plot inside, using pots, drainage tins, and electric lights.  my loins yearn to be returned to mother earth but my enslavement to capitalists limits my mobility for now

  On 4/23/2020 at 4:56 AM, Zeffolia said:

an excellent plan, im doing the same thing.  but alas, my landlord does not provide me with the luxury of having a balcony let alone a minature outdoor farming plot mounted to the windowsill.  for this reason i have to create an artificial farming plot inside, using pots, drainage tins, and electric lights.  my loins yearn to be returned to mother earth but my enslavement to capitalists limits my mobility for now

I believe where you are located has several community gardens you could use?

With regard to your original question, the last house we were (renting) we grew tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, carrots, lettuce, and a number of herbs (not marijuana, no point, since I can buy better quality and more variety online). We just moved last fall so this spring will be the first year planting in the new place - luckily the soil looks like it's been used for growing before. Front yard has some flowers and herbs, back yard will be vegetables (similar to above, though I think we'll swap out the cucumbers for something else, cucumbers take up an ungodly amount of room). Lot of digging in the near future for chen.

Plus I need to build a garden shed. Luckily, lots of free time on the weekends....

  On 4/23/2020 at 5:18 AM, chenGOD said:

I believe where you are located has several community gardens you could use?

With regard to your original question, the last house we were (renting) we grew tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, carrots, lettuce, and a number of herbs (not marijuana, no point, since I can buy better quality and more variety online). We just moved last fall so this spring will be the first year planting in the new place - luckily the soil looks like it's been used for growing before. Front yard has some flowers and herbs, back yard will be vegetables (similar to above, though I think we'll swap out the cucumbers for something else, cucumbers take up an ungodly amount of room). Lot of digging in the near future for chen.

Plus I need to build a garden shed. Luckily, lots of free time on the weekends....

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what percentage of your required food did your farming produce and what percentage of your land did it take up

  On 4/23/2020 at 5:07 AM, Tim_J said:

 

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I like the driving one a lot as well:

  On 4/23/2020 at 5:37 AM, Zeffolia said:

what percentage of your required food did your farming produce and what percentage of your land did it take up

Uhhhhh about 20 percent for each? Last house had a nice big yard. Oh i forgot it also had a couple of fruit trees in it. Some kind of apple and ummmm something else can't remember what. We tried growing raspberries but the squirrels/chipmunks/birds just gorged themselves.

House before that in Vancouver had a fig tree growing in the front, and since the landlord didn't eat figs we enjoyed the hell out of that. Fresh fig, good prosciutto and a nice crisp chardonnay? mmmm hmmmm living the bourgie life.

planting some aloe vera today ((::

Lucky you! We planted some flowers earlier (local wildflower species), but those are all going to die thanks to the stupid fucking weather here.

this is a great zeffolia thread

I had a couple of cacti, they died :(

Everyone knows that the plural of cactus is cactiditae 

I thought it was Kacktussis.

I really like the idea of gardening and consider myself a proponent of the Japanese approach to it, sort of a connoisseur of the zen garden, if you will. However, I find it a PITA in real life.

We have a garden. Tomatoes, beans, string beans, carrots, garlic, onions, chicory (and similar salad stuff I can't translate), strawberries. There's also pear, walnut and apple trees. Since I live by the woods there's all kinds of good stuff to be found: wild strawberries, blackberries, mushrooms of many kinds, chestnut... I'm still considering to acquire a hunting license.

Yes! After years of renting, we bought a house last year and I went to town on the gardening/landscaping. It became a bit of an obsession really. The house is one of those new construction places that had nothing in the back yard, so it was up to me to add everything. I mean why not add some color and interesting architecture to your daily view?

First thing was to plant some trees along the back fence line, which will eventually provide some privacy from the neighbors. Planted some Wax Myrtles, a Loquat, Texas Mountain Laurel, and Vitex. Next I made an herb garden for the wife. There is garlic, tomatoes, eggplant, cilantro, mint, dill, thai chilis, kale, and some other asian plants I don't know the name of. I dug out flower beds around the house and along the sides of the fence. For shrubs I planted Crape myrtles, loropetalum, Texas sage, pink barberry, red yucca, yellow yucca, eleagnus, rosemary, oleanders, lemon grass, blue point juniper, osmanthus, and roses. Also added a few young palms, peach tree, persimmon, and blackberry. The blackberry yielded some fruit last year, but you gotta pick it fast before the birds get it. In the front there are some hawthorns, ligustrums, agave americanas, sage, crape myrtle, and yuccas. Also planted several aloes and succulents around. We were getting rabbits in the back yard and those fuckers would head straight to the ice plants, so I had to brick off a lot of the lower fence that they were digging under.

So yeah, I've spent some serious time and money (and like Chen mentioned - a shit load of digging) on gardening but for me it is totally worth it. I enjoy being able to sit out on the back porch, listen to music, have a drink, and watch the plants & trees bloom. And the wife loves cooking and being able to use fresh vegetables from our garden.

Well, in my opinion we should throw around seeds in all areas where human beings live, in all the green spaces that could work for the seeds. Just guerilla bomb them during the nights, while it's raining and let stuff grow wild. Flood the towns with food, it needs to grow on every corner. Garden's for just you and your family won't help if million's of people around you are starving and have access to weapons.

I'd probably go for old/obscure sorts of fruits that you can't buy at store. Wild apples, sloes, yellow raspberries, checkers tree, apple quince, etc. Not gonna claim I know a lot about this stuff.

Our garden is small and surrounded by walls so it's very dark. This conflicts with my wife's (especially) horticultural ambitions.

You would be amazed at how many plants require a good deal of sunshine.

That doesn't stop her from trying, though, and, to be fair, some of her projects work out quite well. We've had an amazingly colorful set of spring flowers this year, some of the trees she's planted are doing well, others are growing in all sorts of bizarre shapes to get some sunlight and the dozens of tomato plants she nurtures so very carefully yield at least a handful of extremely small but very tasty tomatoes every year.

But her salad either wilts away or gets eaten by the birds before it grows to any usable size, since she's planted cabbage varietals we've learned there are butterflies that specifically lay eggs on those, destroying them before they become anywhere near edible and she has never once manage to grow enough spinach to use as garnish even though she tries again every year.

Meanwhile in my little corner of the garden I've dumped in some mint, some Chinese chives and some other herbs and it's all just a big swampy mess. But we do it from it.

Except for the parsley. That never seems to want to grow. Don't know why.

  On 4/23/2020 at 5:30 PM, darreichungsform said:

I'd probably go for old/obscure sorts of fruits that you can't buy at store. Wild apples, sloes, yellow raspberries, checkers tree, apple quince, etc. Not gonna claim I know a lot about this stuff.

The problem is, a lot of those require a very specific climate to grow. Like our fig tree in Vancouver wouldn't work at all here in Ottawa.

@zero that many trees and bushes will be the bane of your existence in a few years. Raking leaves is a huge PITA. I'm in the process of getting rid of a lot of the overgrowth that has crept onto the property from the city managed park that our lot backs onto.

Nets around the garden are a must to keep out most varmints (chicken wire fence is the best, but more expensive). Chipmunks will still find a way.

  On 4/23/2020 at 6:14 PM, chenGOD said:

 

@zero that many trees and bushes will be the bane of your existence in a few years. Raking leaves is a huge PITA. I'm in the process of getting rid of a lot of the overgrowth that has crept onto the property from the city managed park that our lot backs onto.

Possibly, but most of the larger trees I selected are evergreens here in Texas. The deciduous shrubs are all in beds with mulch. When they lose their leaves I just rake them into the mulch, or let them break down naturally. Dead leaves are great fertilizer and add that layer of protection for the very brief freezes we get here.

  On 4/23/2020 at 6:34 PM, zero said:

Dead leaves are great fertilizer and add that layer of protection for the very brief freezes we get here.

Oh yeah that's a good point about your locale. Up here if I don't rake before the winter they turn into sloppy moldy mush come the spring.

Just spent a couple of hours raking the lawn. Gotta fluff it and give it some air/oxygen for that green growth. Now I'm sitting on the front porch watching the irrigation in the sunset while drinking Coke and listening to death metal. Very quality. 

I have a garden with a lovely clematis which is currently in beautiful bloom, also various flowers and shrubs and a small but tidy lawn. There is no vegetable patch as there isn't really enough room but I do have a rather neat pond, with a few medium tench, and a few small koi, there is also a nice waterfall. The little birdies love the waterfall and the bird bath and when they come down to have a little refreshment it's very joyful to watch. Unfortunately this year like every other year there are magpies nesting in the next door neighbours trees and they cause a lot of havoc with the nice little birdies babies. And they also make a croaking sound that sounds quite demonic. I would like to shoot them magpies with a musket and send them to another tree (or blown into pieces)!!

The best thing about my garden is that I have a medium summerhouse at the bottom, nestled under a tree, with large glass windows to look upon the birds, the fish, the bees and the butterflies. While playing Savage Beast Tunes By All Your Favourite IDM Artists, Metal and Alternative (up until very early 2000's) Bands, And All Those Great Bands From The Late 60's To Mid 70's.

Praise be to yours and my garden in the name of The Beer, The Beast, The Wolf and The Badger