Gardening for Beginners

[PeacefulWarrior]

Hoping to get that tarp/plastic in place this weekend!

(Also, wanted to let you nice people know that I have not disappeared from the forums!)

 

[atwhatcost]

Hoping to get that tarp/plastic in place this weekend!

(Also, wanted to let you nice people know that I have not disappeared from the forums!)

Also wanted to let you know I was thinking, "Oh no! He's Gone!"

Imagine my surprise and confusion when I saw the same avatar, but knew "wounded" was gone.

(Running to friends to swap names.)

 

[mar09]

i have experienced this too...i don't know what it is but i can water every day yet the plants get the biggest 'growth spurt' any time it rains...

It would be an early summer here, if it hasnt still been declared. Shall be missing the rains, and yes, the growth spurts.

I see there are many animal threads here and also on flowers, foliage, but little on plants/gardening and photography in general. Could we use this for that, posts of ur plots, gardens or harvests?

 

[mar09]

We do not have them, but neighbors have lots of this.

 

[mar09]

Anyone has this? I like the plant.

 

[Depleted]

It would be an early summer here, if it hasnt still been declared. Shall be missing the rains, and yes, the growth spurts.

I see there are many animal threads here and also on flowers, foliage, but little on plants/gardening and photography in general. Could we use this for that, posts of our plots, gardens or harvests?

I live in Philly, which means garden-planting season isn't coming until May 1st. Seems mean, since it feels like May 1st now. (It's warm enough to wear summer clothes.) I saw a daffodil ready to bloom at hubby's rehab center. I hope it's kind enough to bloom if I can get him outside in his wheelchair this weekend. (Physical rehab during the week, so he's too tuckered to travel then, but nothing happens on weekends, so there's a chance.)

This will be the second year I gardened without his help, and the first year was easy, because it was also the first year I gardened, so I only started with four tomato plants then.

Since my other hobby is blogging from the viewpoint of my stuffed animals, I have a picture of that first garden preparation (with the "Garden Gals" -- the female stuffed animals who think they are the gardeners in the family.)


Same gardening space. Same family of stuffed animals to tell the gardening tales, but a few years later when we had a video camera. (My voice, raised slightly higher, because I'm trying to make a voice for Spaulding, my first teddy bear that started this strange hobby of mine.

Also my hand occasionally. lol)

[video=youtube;bO2gINZD04s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO2gINZD04s[/video]

I'm not sure how gardening will go this year. In the last four months most of my day is either trying to deal with everything I need to deal with before (or after) going to visit hubby, or I am visiting hubby. Container garden, so it requires watering with someone aiming the hose in all containers (except for the cactii and succulents) every day, which takes about an hour -- including weed picking, minor little quick fixes, like a tomato needs to be staked, and admiring and smelling each plant. Hubby has been the muscles and the troubleshooter for our garden and now he's not here. Not sure if he'll see the garden at all this summer, so, boy! I really would like a place where we can talk gardening and exchange ideas again. (Many of our plants are perennials so there is no option to simply skip caring for the garden. That AND we planted a blackberry bush last year, and I so hope it fruits!

)

(I find it funny that PW and I exchanged ideas on this post last year, we both left since then and both came back with new names. I am wondering if he's ready to plow his garden yet.)

 

[Depleted]

We do not have them, but neighbors have lots of this.

Palm? And I think it is, but I don't know which type. There's only one kind of palm that has a chance to survive our winters this far north, and the only place I know that has that type is our national garden in Washington D.C. I dream of banana plants, but we can't do that either.

So what type of palm is it?

 

[Depleted]

Anyone has this? I like the plant.

Too small to see what it is.

 

[kaylagrl]

Greetings,

My wife and I are planning to plant a garden next year, and we want to begin preparing this year. I am hoping to gain some advice and wisdom from those who have experience.

Currently, we are planning to till the earth and begin preparing the soil for springtime planting.

We aren't sure what all we would like to plant, but we will likely try: tomatoes, cucumber and/or zucchini, some type(s) of lettuce, berries (strawberry), perhaps cantaloupe or some kind of melon, and considering sweet corn.

Any advice or links to resources is appreciated!

Thank you,
-WW

I wish you luck. I have a black thumb I inherited from my mother.I have a huge backyard Id love to fill with flowers and pathways and I dont have the foggiest. Im so stupid that I bought planters that sit on my deck railing and filled them with flowers. They popped up and were so pretty,I hope hope that my black thumb was gone.Then the rainy season came,drowned them. When I looked that the bottom of the planters later I could faintly see, "drill holes on bottom of planter" Ya, so I stink at growing anything. I pretty much give up.

 

[mar09]

Thanks lynn for sharing all that. Busy day i can only log in now but this is short. You havent shared that vid before, have u? Thre must be how many species in the small space u mentioned before, didnt u? It was a quick view also, so i'll try to look again to see what i can recognize.

Btw, the first image is of a banana. Got u there! The next is the Oxalis, and it is small as thats the first oxalis i found on searching in plant sketches. there are other varieties, but more on this later.

 

[mar09]

I just saw elizabeth has started a thread on gardening long before. For those who care to read still.
http://christianchat.com/miscellaneous/59436-gardening-thread.html

@depleted.. Was only searching for another image of Oxalis, and found that it can als be added to salads--but watch the oxalic acid-- and has medicinal properties.
Oxalis (Purple Shamrock / Love Plant) | Our House Plants

This plant is reminding me of magenta again..

 

[mar09]

And these look more like palms=)

The bottom rightmost looks like our national leaf, anahaw or common fan palm, but different scientific name. Did not know there was so many of these, and are they not beautiful?

 

[Miri]

Gardening for beginners umm (carefully considers).

Well I tend to dig an ole, bung in said plant, water, then
hope it lives to fight another day.

Is that helpful?

 

[Depleted]

I wish you luck. I have a black thumb I inherited from my mother.I have a huge backyard Id love to fill with flowers and pathways and I dont have the foggiest. Im so stupid that I bought planters that sit on my deck railing and filled them with flowers. They popped up and were so pretty,I hope hope that my black thumb was gone.Then the rainy season came,drowned them. When I looked that the bottom of the planters later I could faintly see, "drill holes on bottom of planter" Ya, so I stink at growing anything. I pretty much give up.


View attachment 145559

I had a black thumb. Now I have a yellow thumb. (Green thumbs are for those who never kill anything. I merely got above .500 finally for not killing everything. lol) The secret is learning how to garden before planting anything.

I suspect your planters didn't have drainage holes under them and you, rationally, assumed if they came without holes, who needs holes? Been there. Done that. More than 10 times before I learned. lol

 

[Depleted]

Thanks lynn for sharing all that. Busy day i can only log in now but this is short. You havent shared that vid before, have u? Thre must be how many species in the small space u mentioned before, didnt u? It was a quick view also, so i'll try to look again to see what i can recognize.

Btw, the first image is of a banana. Got u there! The next is the Oxalis, and it is small as thats the first oxalis i found on searching in plant sketches. there are other varieties, but more on this later.

I love bananas. Eat 1-3 every day. Probably why I want a banana palm. lol

 

[Depleted]

I just saw elizabeth has started a thread on gardening long before. For those who care to read still.
http://christianchat.com/miscellaneous/59436-gardening-thread.html

@depleted.. Was only searching for another image of Oxalis, and found that it can als be added to salads--but watch the oxalic acid-- and has medicinal properties.
Oxalis (Purple Shamrock / Love Plant) | Our House Plants

This plant is reminding me of magenta again..

Now I want one of those. (Purple is my favorite color.) Except I have limited space inside and it's already taken up by succulents and herbs. (The rosemary in the video was killed by a cold winter, so now my new one comes inside. As does my bay.)

 

[Depleted]

Gardening for beginners umm (carefully considers).

Well I tend to dig an ole, bung in said plant, water, then
hope it lives to fight another day.

Is that helpful?

View attachment 145595

I need a British to American translation. What's bung? (You really don't want to know what that means in American. Close to saying "fanny" in front of a Scot. Not quite as bad, but close -- geographically speaking.

)

 

[kaylagrl]

I had a black thumb. Now I have a yellow thumb. (Green thumbs are for those who never kill anything. I merely got above .500 finally for not killing everything. lol) The secret is learning how to garden before planting anything.

I suspect your planters didn't have drainage holes under them and you, rationally, assumed if they came without holes, who needs holes? Been there. Done that. More than 10 times before I learned. lol

Exactly!! No surprise you and I think alike. lol The only thing I seem to do well with is majesty palms,which you plant and leave alone. So if I can find flowers like that I'd be solid.

 

[kaylagrl]

I love bananas. Eat 1-3 every day. Probably why I want a banana palm. lol

You know what they say,you are what you eat,sorry I couldn't resist.

 

[Depleted]

Exactly!! No surprise you and I think alike. lol The only thing I seem to do well with is majesty palms,which you plant and leave alone. So if I can find flowers like that I'd be solid.

Prickly pear cactus and some forms of hens and chicks. Neither one needs good soil, watering, to be sheltered in bad weather, to be worried about during particularly harsh winters or during long heatwaves and droughts. (Although, I have been known to water mine once during a very long heatwave.) But warning with the Prickly Pear -- if weeds get in it and you have this impulse to clear them out, it WILL get you multiple times with no-see-'em thorns. And no-see-'ems are like splinters you know are in your skin but you can't ever find them. I have a callus in my hand from deweeding five or more years ago. It never came out so formed a callus.