How does your garden grow?

[Kristen]

With spring sprung (well almost) ;) Are any of you planning your gardens? What do you plant? Vegetable and/or flower gardens?
We have a very large veggie garden every year. We just put out radishes, carrots, onion sets and our cabbage plants. Lettuces, spinach, snow peas and snap peas will follow this week. I have tomato seedlings started (for the first time) in a portable greenhouse we purchased! I love digging in the dirt! We always have brussels sprouts, green, yellow, and purple beans, green, yellow, red, orange, banana, jalepeno peppers, yellow and zuke squash, beets, many different herbs (cilantro and basil are my favs)

This year we are going to add a pumpkin/ squash garden and a flower cutting garden. We have flowers all over the landscape, but I want an area that I can grow flowers specifically for arrangements inside! I can't wait! We also have many peony bushes... my favorite flower! They are wonderful to cut and bring inside.

I look forward to hearing about all of your gardens plans and what you plant!

[Karinbob]

The snow has finally melted but they say there is another cold front heading our way tomorrow. Apparently most people around here don't plant their gardens until after Mother's day to make sure the frost is gone. We recently moved to Salt Lake from the desert and it is way different here. I can't wait to do a vegetable garden this year, I will have to start some seeds indoors and then plant them outside. It was tough to grow veggies in the desert...too hot!! My tomatoes cracked every year!! It sounds like your garden would be a total dream! Post some pictures of it.

K

[Casual Cottage]

It's 32 degrees here this morning, but forecast is for 60's this afternoon. We've had a very cold, wet spring, but the forecast this weeks looks pretty good. I have alot of my perennials peeking up through the ground. We usually don't plant our annuals until Mother's Day, but I sometimes rush that a little. I don't grow any vegetables because I have so many friends that give me vegetables out of their gardens all summer. I have a very small yard, so I have to be pretty picky about the flowers I plant. Mostly roses and daylillies (I love daylillies....they need absolutely no care). I'm searching for a lilac bush that doesn't get so huge. Are these even available? I've been told that if you keep them trimmed back so that they don't get so large, they won't bloom.

[Kristen]

Marilyn... where in Indiana do you live? We put out our cold weather veggies in April! I am in Indianapolis! It's good to see another Indiana girl here at CL! Our perennials are peaking out too. I am guessing my magnolia tree will bloom anytime! I have a lilac too and have to prune it right after it blooms to keep it at a manageable height. You need to prune right after it blooms so it can set blooms for the next year. If you wait too long... you will cut of next years flowers!

[ChrisNH53]

Well since there is still snow on my garden it won't be planted for a while. The nurseries all around here caution everyone to not plant before Memorial Day. I have planted before then but have lost some things to frost because I jumped the gun so I usually wait until late May, early June. But I really want to have beautiful gardens this year since my daughter is getting married in July and some of the pictures will be taken at the house and yard.

[zuzus_garden]

How does your garden grow?
...
with blowing wind and snowy-drifts,
And pretty icicles all in a row.


The willows should be coming out in a week or two, followed by the wild strawberry plants. The first week of June the fairy slippers will bloom.

Can't wait!

Zuzu

[Casual Cottage]

I have a lilac too and have to prune it right after it blooms to keep it at a manageable height. You need to prune right after it blooms so it can set blooms for the next year. If you wait too long... you will cut of next years flowers!

Kristen, thanks for the info on the lilac bush. I live in Fort Wayne. My son and his family just moved to Indy after Christmas (actually, Speedway) I lived in Indy briefly when I was first married, but I didn't like it very much.....way to big for me!

[Kristen]

ZuZu... you crack me up! That was great!

Marilyn, Ft. Wayne is great... I will be interested to hear what your son and family think of Speedway during the month of May. (Indy 500 time) Indy has really grown...

It's hard to imagine snow... it was in the 70's here today. My magnolia tree opened up and is so gorgeous! Won't be long and the tulips will be blooming too. It's so nice to have the windows open and letting fresh air into the house!

[Casual Cottage]

Marilyn, Ft. Wayne is great... I will be interested to hear what your son and family think of Speedway during the month of May. (Indy 500 time) Indy has really grown...
Are you kidding? He's really looking forward to the race. He has already figured out how many cars he can park in his front yard and how much money he can make! :)

[Lynzee]

Alas, my garden only grows in my dreams! Sand spurs and prickly pear cactus grow in my yard. Oh, how I envy those of you who are able to have beautiful gardens--even those of you who are still enduring winter weather and can't plant yet. At least the time will come for you. Please, please, please, take pity on one who loves beautiful gardens and cannot have one and post pictures of yours in full bloom!

:)
Lynzee

[zuzus_garden]

Lynz!

You can have a beautiful garden too!!! I had an amazing garden room at my last home, and there's no difference between indoors and out, other than you may need to water more frequently.

Create 'walls' of plants by varying container sizes and heights - include some hanging plants. Have fun w/ different materials. I used a birdbath for a plant stand. I hung plants from an iron plant holder. I used old bricks to lift plants off the floor. Using different materials added texture, and color interest. Old wooden boxes, old garden tools, a place to sit and enjoy it all...

What do you think?

I promise to post my pics, and we want to see yours to! You can do it!!!

Zu

[Lynzee]

I don't know, Zuzu. I have tried several different things since I've been here and haven't been able to keep anything alive yet. Outside, I can understand--nothing in the yard but sand and nothing to shade plants or flowers from the hot Florida sun--but I seem to have the same luck inside. Have no idea why--this is the first time I've ever had trouble keeping plants and/or flowers alive. :confused: It's extremely frustrating--especially since I'm so used to having a garden. :(

Lynz

P.S. The lady across the street has a beautiful little garden spot filled with colorful flowers in front of her porch--which surprised me considering the front of her house gets full afternoon sun. I asked her what her secret was the other day when she was checking her mail and she was more than happy to share it. "SILK flowers!" :D

[zuzus_garden]

Lynz,

I don't know what I'd do without flowers and trees. :(

There must be garden centers near you. Can you get ideas there? OR !!!!!! OHHH idea....wait a sec...I'm checking...

Gurl! Check out The Garden Web (http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/regional/) If ever there was a place to help gardeners, this is it! This is their regional page. Just post a 'Send Help' post, and they'll come a runnin!

OH - update on my garden. Today, it snowed extremely hard for about 30 minutes, accompanied by thunder and lightening. Then the sun came out and melted the 1" snow within an hour. Ahhhhh...springtime in the Rockies! :D

Zu

[Lynzee]

Thanks, Zuzu! What a great site! I spent hours reading through posts and taking notes. Found several that may help with my indoor plants and also learned about some southern "substitutes" for plants I grew when we lived in the NE. If I could just get one or two things to grow I'd be happy. Success with one or two might encourage me to try more.

I know there's hope for my yard, but it's going to involve a permit, bulldozer, truck loads of dirt, irrigation system, trees for shade, sod and then--at long last--flowers. Maybe we'll just pour in concrete and paint it green. :rolleyes:

Thanks again!
Lynz

[M'chelle]

We are in the swing of planting and all here. At our house we only have flowers, as I don't have a good place for veggies without planting them in "play space" but we are planting in my grandmothers garden, which she is almost too feeble to handle. We will do tomatoes, peppers of all kinds, cucumbers and lots of pumpkins!

Last week I picked up the prettiest double impatients in red and white for a planter on my front porch. They look like dainty little rose blossoms. I was also thrilled to see all the azaleas I planted last spring in bloom this year! :D

[M'chelle]

Last weekend we planted 59 various variety of tomato plants and 60 various pepper plants, 5 mounds of cucumbers, some watermelon and some pumpkin. Boy, were dh and I tired! LOL Yesterday I drove over (to my dgm's house, where the garden is) to grate some deoderant soap over my pepper plants as deer love them but supposedly don't like the soap smell. Also had to apply some snail/slug keep away. Everything seems to be doing alright.

For home, yesterday, I picked up 2 flats of salvia and 1 flat of red vinca. I have gotten my front porch pretty much planted with all the planters full.

Now I need to get fabric for cushions for the swing and rockers.

How is everyone else's planting going?

[zuzus_garden]

Hi M'chelle,

You have been busy!

Did you see the new 'Gardening' forum that Rex recently added? It's in the middle of the main forum page with a dark green backgound. Just click on the white 'Gardening' text...we have been posting away there. Love hearing about everything you've been doing. Your veggie garden sounds fantastic!

:)

Zuzu

[M'chelle]

Cool! I will check it out...thanks for the heads up. :)

[aaman1967]

I have actually started planting seeds the second week of January! I have quite an abundance of plants ready to go. (tomato, pepper, cukes and zukes) My tomato plants are close to 12in. tall already. I was experimenting to see how soon I could plant indoors and it work out quite well. I had to put a small investment into it for the plant lights, but wow it was worth it. I got a wide variety of tomatoes as well, mostly the yellow or orange type, a few red types. I love the yellow pear tomatoes.I just dropped my fish back in the pond yesterday, hope they don't get too cold! We are expecting temps to get down in the 20's here in a couple of days. Does anyone know when to plant out bamboo and Japanese maples? Hope everyone has a great day!!:)

[RoseMary]

I really want to try planting inside. My woodstove makes everything so dry:( . What I'd really like is a greenhouse. Does anyone on the boards have one?

[Lisa S]

I don't have one, but I sure wish I did! My friend bought a $50 one on closeout at BiMart (do you hae those stores where you are?). It's pretty functional for starting seeds.

My kids and I started seeds in those little trays with the plastic lids on them. It kinda acts like a greenhouse. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I saw some greenhouses made from recycled old windows... Oh my gosh, they were so fantastic! I asked my hubby to buy me one for Mother's Day, but he thought the $4k :eek: price tag was a little steep.:p

[dedavis]

I spent most of yesterday out in the yard...I'm transforming it in stages. When I moved here, all that was growing was scruffy grass and weeds, with a few trees and shrubs. My grand scheme is to have lots of flowers and a feeling of flow around the yard. Privacy is starting to seem important too, since town is growing and getting busier. There's a lot of traffic noise. I want my space to be closed in with a screen of plants.

I turned over one of the raised beds yesterday, and added compost and manure. Put some lettuce starts out. Then put chicken wire over the whole thing to keep the cats from digging.

I made the investment in a high top propagator from Gardeners Supply, along with a heat mat and grow light. I started tomatoes early in March, and they are doing really well. I've also got some peppers and basil going. The dahlia tubers are in 1 gallon pots on the enclosed porch which gets lots of sun. Most folks around here don't plant tomatoes outside until the snow has melted off Peoh Point, around the end of May. I have some Wall O Waters, so I will probably try earlier than that.

Today? Celebrate spring with more digging...

Deb

[aaman1967]

I don't have one yet, but I am planning on building a small one as soon as the weather breaks here in Eastern Pa. My dream, yes dream is to have a small backyard greenhouse business selling plants cheaper than these huge nurseries. You can get free plans to build them by searching the net. I do have a question though for anyone who is familiar with Japanese Maples. I bought two recently and can't plant them yet. The one is doing great but the other is loosing it's leaves. I tried re potting it but it did not help. It is however still green, it is just loosing it's leaves. It had plenty of water, I thought maybe too much that is why I re potted it. Anyone have any suggestions?