Do you garden?

If so, what do you plant, and when? I don't have one. Thought this is a nice topic for spring.

My neighbor laughed at me when I asked her how to keep my roses from dying. But she's been teaching me about feeding and pruning them.

I've also been thinking that I'll give it a go this spring and get started doing some hard-core gardening, but beyond starting an herb garden I have no ideas on how to get started.

Anyone? Anyone?

Though not in a formal way or anything... We are cultivating soem Mock Orange Trees, Butterfly Bushes, and a few Peach saplings. We also have a gaggle of bulbs and perennials starting to poke their way through along the southern face of the house.

We have five apple trees all in need of arboreal pruning (this year's project once the temp gets above 50 for a whole day). We have a Lilly garden along the southwest stone wall. We plan annuals along the walkway to the kitchen door. We maintain two lovely rose bushes (one red southeast back of house, one pink under the ginormous pine tree in the yard.)

I guess I'll have to post pictures this year.

On edit -

We also have a small vegetable garden.

by my back door. That's really all the energy I have.

What you plant is up to you. What do you want to do? Have herbs to cook with? Have fresh produce in the summer? Have a flower garden?

Go to the seed store or the home improvement store and look for plants or seeds that are for your growing region. For growers, the US map is divided into regions, or bands, that are based on the growing season for your area. Most seed packages will have this map on it. And you can look up which region you are in. You want to plant after the last frost in your area. But you can start seedlings very early (say Feb.) indoors in little peat pots.

I have 12 bushed getting planted in the next few weeks.

Roses are higher maintenance than most other flowers, but can be very rewarding.

I have a perennial garden in the front and back yard which I supplement with annuals so I get plenty of color. I also have a raised bed that is dedicated to dahlias and two others which are for vegetables. The veggies I plan to grow this year are tomatoes, green beans, snow peas, carrots, a few beets, one swiss chard, a zucchini and a yellow summer squash. I think that's it. I also grow a few herbs - usually dill and definitely basil.

As for when to begin - it depends on where you live. The recommended time is to find the average last day of frost for your area and plant at that time. You can contact your county extension office and they should be able to give you that average date. If you decide to plant before that, be ready to cover the tender plants if/when the weather gets too cold.

That's all I can think of right now!

I have a small raised container garden that has some perennials in it. I like to plant flowers and sometimes some fresh basil, too.

:hi:

I don't plant until mothers day here in WIS.I usually have Strawberries,rasberries,lettuce,beans and tomatoes.Just enough to keep me busy.

and I can't wait to see what comes up! Tulips, alium, snowflowers, grecian windflowers...

but after I move, I plan on planting an herb garden in planters (I cannot bend over due to disability, but planters in a window box or on a shelf is something I can do.)

I started with a perennial garden, added some annuals, then started growing annuals, veggies and herbs from seed. (I'm hoping I can control myself at the plant sales this year and leave my perennial garden alone. :blush: )

This year I have all the routine herbs already going in the basement (basil, dill, thyme, rosemary, chamomile...) plus three containers of lettuce. Plan to get the tomatoes, squash, peppers, cukes, peas, beans and eggplant going shortly and I'm late at getting my annuals started.

All my veggies and herbs are grown in containers because I would just be supplementing my bunnies, raccoons, squirrels, etc diets if I tried to actually put them *in* the ground. :grr:

The day I planted the lettuce this year was the day I knew I had survived winter. :)

I'll move them into the yard in the next week or so, which is also when I'll plant the cukes, beans, and also some flowers.


I had over 20 rose bushes at my old house... now I have none... I'm going to miss all that maintenance.

Honestly I'm not fond of cactii myself (neither roses, I don't like the thorns), but my mother is quite a cactus-person. ;)

That's a beautiful garden! :thumbsup:

My front yard has plenty of cactus and I have a few more in pots that need to (very carefully) go in the ground but I'm sorry to say it's not quite that nice.

Mine doesn't look like something in the books either, but it works and the plants are happy.

Usually - besides the flowers - a vegetable garden (tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumbers, eggplant, some salad variety and other vegetable I don't know the English names), a herb garden (basil, parsley, rosmarin, curry, estragon, thyme, chives, garlic, etc.) and a spot where I grow some additional herbs like st. john's worth, chamomille, etc.

All organic, of course. I always find stuff to grow ... ;)

Also strawberries. Strawberries grow well in pots.

To grow veggies. recently I came across something known as permaculture. Balalnced agriculture and living. It was thouoght up by a couple Aussies back in the 70's. Interesting concept. I'm trying to learn more. In the meantime if I continue to neglect my dusting, I'll probably be able to grow crops inside my tiny flat.

you can grow some vegetables in pots. No problem. I had lots of cherry tomatoes growing on the balcony.

thing.(especially living on a farm) Cucumbers, Watermelon, eggplant, leeks, string beans. climbing beans, butter beans, bok choi, rainbow chard, silverbeet, honeydewmelon, corn, broccoli, capsicums, rockmelon, passionfruit, paw-paws, chinese mustard, iceberg lettuce, pak choi, just to name a few..
mmmmmmmmmmmm........ and we had mangoes, parsimmons, figs and some other weird thing on ourhill.

*licks lips*

And eaucalypts for bush tea..... jealous?

plants and other things which return and naturalize. I don't do much with annuals.

We plant a few tomatoes and herbs too.

My iris are beautiful in the spring! Wish they bloomed all summer.

But then, that is what cannas are for.

I am very tolerant of the ants and gophers and such that inhabit the yard but the damn gopher ate the roots of my three year old fig and now I am pissed. It was bad falling in its holes all the time and we had already built a raised gopher proof container for the tomatoes this year but the little shit ate my fig tree.

I'm too afraid to check the apricot, but I suspect it is not going to bloom and there is a peach in another area that I am woried about. Damn cats are useless.