Gardening Fever

[Benjamin]

I've had many gardens over the years but I've taken a new approach and I'm loving it. I've recently turned to using raised beds and its coming together nicely and has been and still is expanding and improving. Currently, I'm looking for good and interesting things to grow. Anyone else gardening this year? What is your favorite things to grow and what do you do with it?

 

[Deacon]

I try and keep things simple, mostly perennials, peonies, day lilies, echinacea, daisies, etc.
My eatsbles are asparagus and basil

I’ve got a few bags of seeds on the counter waiting for a warmer spring, simple things like nasterium.

l love the look of Caster beans, large and exotic. In a big yard like mine and with many deer and other critters, they don’t get eaten (well not much).

Rob

 

[Cathode]

I've had many gardens over the years but I've taken a new approach and I'm loving it. I've recently turned to using raised beds and its coming together nicely and has been and still is expanding and improving. Currently, I'm looking for good and interesting things to grow. Anyone else gardening this year? What is your favorite things to grow and what do you do with it?

I’m a gardening contractor, I’ve grown many different things and installed many raised beds over years. Many different types of food gardens.
What’s your climate?

 

[kyredneck]

l love the look of Caster beans, large and exotic.

If you like okra it's a large edible with beautiful blooms, but it'll keep you busy picking the pods if you want to keep it bearing; freezes well and makes excellent pickles.

 

[Benjamin]

I try and keep things simple, mostly perennials, peonies, day lilies, echinacea, daisies, etc.

Besides my vegetable garden I have started a huge flower garden because I am hosting my daughter's wedding at our home and she said she would like to get married on an island I recently put concrete curbing around. My thought was to put lots of flowers but I know very little about them. Neither did anyone else and time is getting short so 2 weeks ago I went to 3 nurseries and picked out about 200 flowers that looked nice and like they'd growing in the desert, IOWs I just went with my instincts.

Here is where I planted the flowers which I closely followed by adding a drip system. I'll have to take a pic of the progress soon.

 

[Benjamin]

I’m a gardening contractor, I’ve grown many different things and installed many raised beds over years. Many different types of food gardens.

I'm a builder, custom woodworking and built my own home, many gardens but never raised beds before. I used a 40'x80' area in the corner of my property for years but it was 200' away from the house and the critters (prairie dogs, rabbits, gophers and birds) were causing a lot havoc and I thought I would go go small and bring over my 10'x20' PVC Pipe greenhouse I made about 6 years ago closer to my house and next to the chicken's quarters to grow a couple things.


I then got the idea that I would like to have a couple patches besides this but the dirt was horrible in this area so I started looking into raised beds. I researched materials and methods and came up with some nice plans but the materials (wood, galvanized corrugated sheet metal, fasteners and paint) were going to cost more than I could get the kits for. Finally, the middle of last Summer, I pulled the level and bought 5 raised bed kits to put in front of my greenhouse.

After that, I decided I wanted 4 more and ended up with this. I placed them on top of blocks for more depth just to bring them up higher and looks. Now this Spring I am replacing the top 8" of my lousy dirt with "Worm Dirt" from the Arizona Worm Farm. So far I've only planted or transplanted a few things and I've never seen plants look so happy so fast!

What’s your climate?

Some people would call it hot but we call it a dry heat, Arizona.

 

[Benjamin]

If you like okra it's a large edible with beautiful blooms, but it'll keep you busy picking the pods if you want to keep it bearing; freezes well and makes excellent pickles.

I had a pastor about 15 years ago that moved here from NC and was always talking about being homesick and how much he missed his okra and there was none in the stores here. So, I grew a 40' row of okra for him, it did well, but I actually never tried it because it was foreign to me and I didn't know what to do with it.

 

[kyredneck]

Some people would call it hot but we call it a dry heat, Arizona.

Lol, the Aussie most likely knows about 'dry heat',,,

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

I've had many gardens over the years but I've taken a new approach and I'm loving it. I've recently turned to using raised beds and its coming together nicely and has been and still is expanding and improving. Currently, I'm looking for good and interesting things to grow. Anyone else gardening this year? What is your favorite things to grow and what do you do with it?

OK.. so in NJ I’m planning on Onions, Broccoli, Mesclin (salad mix) and peas, that is when the temps stop going to the 20’s. Those are early crops. In May & June will put in tomatoes (early girls and big boys) and sweet peppers & zucchini. Later pumpkins and then more cold crops and bush beans. I used to put in spaghetti squash and winter squash but nobody eats it but me… and they take up room.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

I try and keep things simple, mostly perennials, peonies, day lilies, echinacea, daisies, etc.
My eatsbles are asparagus and basil

I’ve got a few bags of seeds on the counter waiting for a warmer spring, simple things like nasterium.

l love the look of Caster beans, large and exotic. In a big yard like mine and with many deer and other critters, they don’t get eaten (well not much).

Rob

My dog takes care of the critters! Even moles!

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Lol, the Aussie most likely knows about 'dry heat',,,

And beer!

 

[Cathode]

If you like okra it's a large edible with beautiful blooms, but it'll keep you busy picking the pods if you want to keep it bearing; freezes well and makes excellent pickles.

Grew it once. What’s with the sliminess, it didn’t compute, never really appreciated it myself. Maybe I did it wrong or something.

 

[Cathode]

Lol, the Aussie most likely knows about 'dry heat',,,

What makes you say that?

It’s the driest inhabited continent, next is Africa. But there is a lot variation. In the tropics you can get enormous amounts of water.

 

[Cathode]

Besides my vegetable garden I have started a huge flower garden because I am hosting my daughter's wedding at our home and she said she would like to get married on an island I recently put concrete curbing around. My thought was to put lots of flowers but I know very little about them. Neither did anyone else and time is getting short so 2 weeks ago I went to 3 nurseries and picked out about 200 flowers that looked nice and like they'd growing in the desert, IOWs I just went with my instincts.

Here is where I planted the flowers which I closely followed by adding a drip system. I'll have to take a pic of the progress soon.
View attachment 7601

One of my bucket list of things to do was to go to America and shoot those big cactuses with an 8 inch barrel Colt 45 while driving big red Cadillac 70’s model convertible. It was a dream, till I heard a nasty rumour they were protected. It was just devastating.

 

[Van]

I lived on some acreage south of Tucson, and we had those big cactus growing wild, but we did our best to nourish them, rather than kill them. And they provide homes for birds.

 

[Cathode]

I'm a builder, custom woodworking and built my own home, many gardens but never raised beds before. I used a 40'x80' area in the corner of my property for years but it was 200' away from the house and the critters (prairie dogs, rabbits, gophers and birds) were causing a lot havoc and I thought I would go go small and bring over my 10'x20' PVC Pipe greenhouse I made about 6 years ago closer to my house and next to the chicken's quarters to grow a couple things.

View attachment 7602
I then got the idea that I would like to have a couple patches besides this but the dirt was horrible in this area so I started looking into raised beds. I researched materials and methods and came up with some nice plans but the materials (wood, galvanized corrugated sheet metal, fasteners and paint) were going to cost more than I could get the kits for. Finally, the middle of last Summer, I pulled the level and bought 5 raised bed kits to put in front of my greenhouse.
View attachment 7603
After that, I decided I wanted 4 more and ended up with this. I placed them on top of blocks for more depth just to bring them up higher and looks. Now this Spring I am replacing the top 8" of my lousy dirt with "Worm Dirt" from the Arizona Worm Farm. So far I've only planted or transplanted a few things and I've never seen plants look so happy so fast!

Some people would call it hot but we call it a dry heat, Arizona.

Interesting. I made organic soil with one of my suppliers, Western Australian soil has the reputation of being one of the most depleted of minerals and difficult to grow in. So really you have to create your soil and really work to build it up.

In New Guinea you could throw a half eaten vegetable over your shoulder into the dirt and you could grow and harvest another one minutes later. Beautiful volcanic soils, no major inputs made it a real pleasure to grow things.

A famous eastern states gardener came to Western Australia and was absolutely disgusted with the soils. It broke his heart.

We half fill the raised beds with pea hay bails to keep the costs down for customers, the organic vegi mix soil we use is expensive. People would be better off buying premium organic produce at the supermarket otherwise.

 

[Cathode]

I lived on some acreage south of Tucson, and we had those big cactus growing wild, but we did our best to nourish them, rather than kill them. And they provide homes for birds.

I’m starting to think my dream was unreasonable and slightly infantile.

 

[kyredneck]

I had a pastor about 15 years ago that moved here from NC and was always talking about being homesick and how much he missed his okra and there was none in the stores here. So, I grew a 40' row of okra for him, it did well, but I actually never tried it because it was foreign to me and I didn't know what to do with it.

Grew it once. What’s with the sliminess, it didn’t compute, never really appreciated it myself. Maybe I did it wrong or something.

It's like anything else one develops a taste for. It's great roasted in an air fryer, makes outstanding fermented pickles, and I keep it frozen on hand to toss into soups and chowder, and it helps thicken.....and it's a fruit, not a vegetable...

 

[kyredneck]

What makes you say that?

It’s the driest inhabited continent, next is Africa. But there is a lot variation. In the tropics you can get enormous amounts of water.

Where's Dundee's place?

 

[Cathode]

Where's Dundee's place?

Northern Territory.