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I am so drat happy. I live in the SF Bay Area, the land of no frosts at all. I grew up above the frost line eating fresh apples, and the apples here are for pooh -- mushy and flavorless, at least by the time they're trucked to us. I decided to grow my own, and to pick a variety with low chill requirements. I stumbled over Greenmantle Nurseries, which specializes in apples from a California breeder, Albert Etter, the guy who came up with the Pink Pearl you sometimes see in stores. In 2008 I ordered a couple of bench grafts, which are what saplings grow from: one bud of the tree in question securely taped into a twig with a root system. I chose a dwarf rootstock, because my yard is small. I received two ridiculous little twigs. I planted them in an irrigated part of my garden, and they sent up whips that grew to 3 feet tall. I topped them and transplanted them into their final home (the transplanting helps them develop a strong root system.) Then I got chronic migraines and wound up neglecting the garden for years. The trees quietly went their own way, unpruned, unsprayed, with no assistance but drip irrigation. Today I went down into the lower garden to check out the crawlspace. My former twig, a Muscat de Venus, was bent over with apples. I gathered a colander full and brought them up into the house. I cut one in half (it had a rotten spot) and split it with my daughter. It was perfect. Crisp, aromatic, and with a subtle perfumy aftertaste I can't quite describe.  Gardens are the best, y'all. Even when you suck at upkeep, stuff you planted years ago can keep on without you. Right now, my garden is a rambly, weedy mess of old roses and fruit trees, and it still brings me joy (now that I've had the courage to view the wreckage). Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 03:55 on Oct 9, 2014 |
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Oct 9, 2014 03:52
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Is there a non-edible gardening thread? All I could find is the Plants thread, and I want to ask about low-water groundcovers. As far as edible gardening goes, this is definitely the year I'm putting in an elder. I want elderflower fritters in the spring and elderberry cordial in the fall. I'm planning on S. nigra "Black Lace" which is slightly -- note slightly -- shorter than the species, and will go against the fence. http://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/plants/3037/black-lace-elderberry/
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Sep 27, 2015 21:36
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Cpt.Wacky posted:I think the plants thread is appropriate for that type of question. Nope, I'll have to Google when the time comes.
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Sep 28, 2015 02:13
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I love that passionfruit vine; I want to put one on the back fence and have finally persuaded my husband that it's worth planting a triffid because passionfruits are so drat expensive here (Northern California). This year, for disability reasons, my edible plants have been in planters on the deck. The hot peppers are dying off, but the herbs are going strong. I'm tempted to plant finger carrots where the hot peppers went; the potting soil is nice and loamy, which means they won't split against clay soil/rocks/landfill from the original construction.
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Oct 2, 2015 18:30
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Woo! Let us know how they turn out. Which reminds me, I really do want to find a place to let nasturtiums run wild next year.
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Oct 3, 2015 02:17
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It's like any other mint: put it someplace you don't mind it taking over, because it's gonna. Some people recommend burying a cement drain pipe open-end up in the garden, then planting the mint inside that and ruthlessly killing any runners. My family's preference is just to plant the drat thing under the tap and hit it with a hedge trimmer/lawn mower every now and then.
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Oct 8, 2015 03:10
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RedChesterfield posted:I'm wondering if anybody here has experience growing/harvesting tobacco. I've got a half dozen plants in my backyard as a bit of a goof, and I'm trying to decide if this is the weekend I'm going to try stalk harvesting them. Stormy weather on Monday has me a little concerned that they could get chewed up. Don't harvest if the leaves are wet. Or glove up.
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Aug 22, 2021 00:19
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The Shakers used to flavor spring/summer cakes by beating them with a cut peach twig.
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Aug 24, 2021 04:46
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What would childhood even be without spitting watermelon seeds at your little brother?
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Aug 31, 2021 17:57
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Even in my swamp I've had really good luck before with 'Brandy Boy.' It's a cross between a Better Boy and Brandywine. Really nice middle ground between 'tough as poo poo but not incredible flavor' Better Boy and the much better texture/thin skin/flavor of an heirloom like Brandywine. By far the easiest way of dealing with a tomato rush is buying a Victorio strainer or equivalent, pureeing them, and freezing the puree without cooking. (Huh. My googling can't find any Victorio-brand strainers; maybe they've gone out of business? Anyway, "or equivalent" will work.) Then, when you cook, you get fresher-tasting sauces. This style of strainer is awesome because, unlike with a food mill, you don't have to stop and scrape the debris out before adding fruit. With this style of strainer, the pulp and seeds spit out the side, while the pureed thingy spits out the spout.
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Sep 9, 2021 19:21
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showbiz_liz posted:this is too many habaneros. Prior to picking these today I had already made a cup of habanero paste, which would easily last me until next year, and I LIKE spicy food. Next year I am definitely doing more varieties of less-spicy spicy peppers. We found that a dehydrator was a solution for too many ghost peppers. This makes them easier to store and easier to use in cooking. Slice them thin, then dry. Then stop your spouse from putting them in every drat dish.
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Sep 12, 2021 00:26
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A dehydrator is a one-purpose gadget, but once you have one you'll discover that dried fruits and vegetables are really useful. Furthermore, you can make jerky easily. A dehydrator makes most sense if you've got a very productive garden, a local farmers' market, or access to Costco. Things that are unexpectedly wonderful dried: tomatoes, leeks, and ghost peppers. Dried tomatoes are pretty much candy.
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Sep 12, 2021 17:38
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I refer to my husband's standard stir-fry technique as "Szechuan napalm". God, I miss our vent; our new-to-us house makes it pretty much impossible to install an external vent over the stove. e: If you're just starting out dehydrating and aren't sure you won't want to keep it up, I would recommend starting with a plastic Nesco, which'll run you about $80. Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Sep 13, 2021 |
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Sep 13, 2021 00:22
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spf3million posted:Are you cutting full sized tomatoes into slices before putting them in the dehydrator? Quartering cherry tomatoes? Also do you use the grate or the solid silicone sheet? My dehydrator is a Nesco Snackmaster Pro (Nesco FD-75PR), which comes with five trays and can dry up to twelve; I think we have nine total. It's a good cheap starting point at $80.
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Sep 13, 2021 15:12
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Wallet posted:There really isn't one single site that's going to have reliable information about every plant, but cross posting from the horticulture thread: For roses, clematis, and peonies, you want https://www.helpmefind.com . Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Sep 20, 2021 |
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Sep 20, 2021 18:31
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Jan posted:Yeah, I plan on overwintering the 2 plants that have survived, and keeping a bunch of seeds for replanting the one that I rudely drowned. Winter here is actually mild enough that I could probably just keep the plants intact for overwintering, I accidentally did that with chocolate bell peppers and they produced again the next year.
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Oct 3, 2021 17:43
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Jhet posted:I pulled them from dried peppers from Mala Market and then isolated them in my basement last year. Then sent them around to a bunch of goons and family. I'll have more to send out after next growing season as I wasn't able to isolate myself this summer. You could just as well order a package from Mala Market and start them yourself. The ones they sell go in and out of stock, but they're sun dried and have all grown true. https://themalamarket.com/collections/sichuan-spices-dry-goods/products/er-jing-tiao-chili
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Oct 4, 2021 17:22
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I've moved to a zone so moderate that you don't expect to be able to ripen tomatoes, so I think I'm finally going to splurge on one of these in order to grow weird hot peppers and probably a Cherokee Purple.
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Oct 4, 2021 19:10
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Chad Sexington posted:I have one of the smaller aerogardens (visible on the top shelf above!) and I can't recommend it. It's possible the bigger ones are built better, but the pump on the little one crapped out on me, causing an algae problem. I'm also a little dubious about whether 24 inches of clearance is enough for even a dwarf tomato. Small peppers you could probably get away with though... Does anybody know a reputable all-in-one hydroponics system for larger plants? Aerogarden makes this one. Google and Amazon searches are now so hosed up that I can't find anything that looks promising. I do own an interior LED grow light, so I can do without that bit if necessary.
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Oct 5, 2021 16:23
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Thing is, I really don't want to hand-build a hydroponic system to grow maybe 4-5 pepper plants. Does anybody know somebody who makes prebuilt systems other than Aerogarden?
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Oct 5, 2021 19:03
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That's very very helpful, thanks. I'm in weed-growing country, so we have hydroponics stores; I may enquire there. (When I first moved to California in the early '00s, I waltzed into the local hydroponics store and asked about growing tomatoes. They gave me blank stares. I realized that I was not their audience.)
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Oct 5, 2021 19:41
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drat, I'm envious. Beautiful picture. Which of those do you expect to grow again next year?
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Oct 17, 2021 21:43
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Tremors posted:Most of the hot peppers will probably be frozen for future use. Some of them will be used soon to make some jellies and I also want to try to make a hot pepper tincture/bitters for cocktails. Some friends own a hard cider company and I've collabed with them before on a cider using the peach ghost scorpions, we'll see if that's in the cards again!
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Oct 18, 2021 19:53
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The Saucer Hovers posted:who has grandmas secret wisteria care guide.pdf for me? You need to tell us your climate, your soil, and what you want. Where are you, what's the climate zone, what's up with the current wisteria? Are you worried about it taking over? (it will) Are you worried it isn't flowering enough? Are you worried it's losing leaves? Do you just want it to keep doing what it's doing?
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Oct 26, 2021 20:27
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OneGreenWorld, which has lots of great hard-to-find food plants, has opened up orders to be shipped in spring. Their berry offerings. They have Szechuan pepper plants! Not the hot peppers, but the plants that grow the peppercorns.
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Nov 26, 2021 21:15
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Motronic posted:Dammit, I bought stuff (peppercorn plants) the last time this place was posted, now I'm gonna have to buy some raspberries for the spring.  A Canadian friend verified for me that Canadian and European elderberries do taste different, so now I can go ahead and order the harder-to-find Sambucus nigra.
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Nov 26, 2021 22:02
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I moved from a third of an acre to .09 acre (not a typo!) and the front half is a gravel driveway that is sorely needed. I also live across the street from a nature preserve. There are bears and deer, and if I want to be able to grow what I love in my .04 acre, I need a deer fence. I interviewed my first landscaper a couple of weeks ago, and half the conversation was great, as we talked about what would and wouldn't grow in this microclimate, what I could/should take out, and how high a deer fence was going to have to be. We parted cordially, after he explained that I needed to do a formal land survey in order to decide what the borders were. I've been putting off the survey because I have a lot of household appointments I'm riding herd on. (Please come soon, electrician! I need that freezer outlet!) I realized what was sticking in my craw. I didn't feel he was listening to the fact that I want to do the gardening. I don't want just "a lavender" here, I want to look at 21 varieties of lavender and pick the three I'm most impressed by. I want beds laid out, I want somebody else doing the hard work of clearing out uninteresting plants and trees, and I want a fence that will keep some deer-attractive plants (old roses, a couple of apples, a Meyer lemon) safer. After that, it's mine to decide on, and anything available at a wholesale nursery will not probably meet my needs because I am a big ol' plant nerd. So, first steps, I'm going to talk to the neighbor; I think they border me on both non-road sides. I want to see what they think the boundaries are, and how they feel about a deer fence. If it seems like the smart thing to do, I'll hire a surveyor. And then I'll find a landscaper who will do the brutal work and leave me alone to do the finer work.
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Nov 28, 2021 21:45
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Motronic posted:You absolutely need a survey, to understand setbacks for your muni (which may nuke this plan) and probably a fence permit.
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Nov 28, 2021 22:29
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Four Winds Growers, which I can vouch for as a reliable supplier of good citrus plants, https://www.fourwindsgrowers.com/ is having a sale on olive trees and preorders on other fruit trees. Through Dec. 6th. I've only ever tried their citrus, but they have rare plants of good quality.
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Nov 29, 2021 20:29
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mischief posted:Or just shake it. In a hydroponic container, this is perhaps less fun than you envision. Or more, depending on how much you are turned on by mopping. A cheap paintbrush, twirl it in each flower, voila.
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Dec 2, 2021 23:57
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I prefer to think of it as being sex-positive. 
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Dec 3, 2021 00:44
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I highly, highly recommend mara des bois, which is a crossbreed of wild strawberries and domesticated strawberries. You wouldn't want them as your only crop, but they have the most intense taste. One Green World carries them, too! https://onegreenworld.com/product/mara-des-bois-strawberry/ However, I'd recommend buying in bare-root bunches rather than prepotted. Planting out strawberries is dead easy. Last year I bought from Nourse Nurseries, but they're sold out for 2022. Never ordered from these people, but I'm trying them. https://handpickednursery.com/products/mara-des-bois-strawberry-plant-buy-3-get-1-free-non-gmo-free-shipping Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Dec 11, 2021 |
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Dec 11, 2021 02:23
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It's seed-catalog season, yaaaaaaay! My first arrived today, Richter's (up in Canada). We moved in July; I'll be interested to find out how many catalog companies the three places we ordered perennials from sold our name to.
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Jan 6, 2022 00:57
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Jhet, who would you buy pepper seeds from instead?
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Jan 6, 2022 01:41
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Peppers like heat under them when they're germinating. If you have the space, put them on the top of the refrigerator and check on them regularly; when they sprout, move them into light. At least, if your refrigerator's warm on top, maybe they insulate them better nowadays.
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Feb 8, 2022 23:45
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Twelve by Pies posted:Oh yeah, tons of red clay out in this area, so I know what you're talking about. And it definitely rarely gets cold, especially since climate change has started to kick in, I don't think we've seen a low lower than 18 F or so in winter for years. It doesn't get much higher than the high 90s either, though it's not unheard of. Twelve by Pies, to begin with, order seeds from Burpee Seeds, Park Seeds, or other trustworthy catalogs. (Not Gurneys!) Burpee was founded in 1876, Park in 1868, and both of them have had reliable high-quality seeds ever since. Both companies breed their own, as well as selling other companies' hybrids. For this year, order from their web sites; in future years, you'll get those nice high-gloss catalogs that make January worth living through. There are specialty seed growers that offer more obscure seeds, "heirloom" seeds that aren't hybrids, rare seeds that your typical gardener has never heard of. But to start with, buy from Burpee or Park. Your seeds will arrive, they'll grow, and you'll be happy. P.S. Red clay sucks. Boy, howdy. (Used to live in North Carolina.)
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Mar 26, 2022 17:14
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kafkasgoldfish posted:Every time I give squash or zucchini a chance with a small patch, they end up taking over the entire garden. And at some point when I'm not looking, they start making plans to jump the fence and take over my neighbor's garden patch as well. They know no bounds.
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Mar 26, 2022 18:06
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Went outside to check on some bulbs that haven't come up. Found out that the peas and sweet peas had, and that the apple I ordered was leafing out. Spent a few minutes weeding (@#$@#$ Himalayan blackberries), came in, scolded self for being so exhausted from five minutes work. Time actually elapsed: close to half an hour. Yes, that's not a lot for most of you, but it is for me. Spring!
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Mar 31, 2022 17:54
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Nukelear v.2 posted:My first season gardening not going so great. Spent the couple months growing Brandywine's from seeds and moved them outside last week. Queue a massive storm with 40mph winds and all my little tomato plants were smashed to bits. Was only worried about the cold, didn't even think about storms knocking my garden out. I'm so sorry. I get really attached to my seedlings, and that sucks. e: Nukelear, Growjoy gets excellent reviews on Dave's Garden, and they'll ship you Brandywine plants and lots of other heirlooms. https://www.growjoy.com/store/pc/Heirloom-Tomato-Plants-c150.htm Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Apr 1, 2022 |
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Apr 1, 2022 04:39
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 16:18 |
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I love this (slightly more expensive) kneeler I got from Lee Valley Tools. The Amazon one has a lot of complaints about its breaking. It's important to me that the Lee Valley one folds flat: these things take a lot of space. One of the things I depend on (bad knees) is using it upside-down and using the handles to lift myself up by the arms. Other than that, yeah, pots are a fabulous way to start gardening. Much less lifting and digging. Digging never-gardened soil is very hard work; if you aren't in shape and want to garden in the ground, hire somebody with a rototiller to make you a bed. A bed that's been properly prepared is much easier to plant in. If you ask on Nextdoor or Taskrabbit you should be able to find somebody with a tiller who wants extra cash. Also, I was pulling @#$@#$ Himalayan blackberry this morning, the stem broke, and I fell flat on my rear end down a slope in the garden. And the little bastard broke off at ground level, too. I'm off to shop for a weeder the kind my parents had, the one that has a long straight stem with a V on the bottom. No taproot can stand against it. Has anybody used a flamethrower for weeding? We have a gravel parking area, and I'd like to get rid of last year's weeds before fire season.
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Apr 11, 2022 02:11
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