GMG Green Thumb Club

Mozart · August 21, 2009, 03:28:29 PM

Anyone here into gardening? I buy spices every week and then I thought to myself, why not just grow them? Soil, seeds, water, light, can it be so hard? I would like to start with parsley and wheat grass and see where it goes, tomatoes? Spinach? Everything will have to be indoors though.

Are berries difficult to grow?

I guess this is another topic all together but does anyone use oil lamps in their house? Another thought that came to me was to put a little candle oil lamp thing in the bathroom, so at night you dont have to turn the light on when you tinkle. Olive oil pomace for it probably you can buy for 10$ or 15$ a gallon and I am checking now how long it will stay on (although I didn't measure the volume and I am using extra virgin...) Drop a few good smelling oils into the mix and but 3 or 4 around the house, maybe it would be nice?

Mozart · August 22, 2009, 10:01:58 AM

Not one of you even has a houseplant?

Bulldog · August 22, 2009, 10:11:48 AM

Quote from: Mozart on August 22, 2009, 10:01:58 AM
Not one of you even has a houseplant?

I have plenty of houseplants and outside plants as well (courtesy of my wife). I do the watering, and that's all I want to do with them. I suppose that I find them boring.

Mozart · August 22, 2009, 10:32:03 AM

Quote from: Bulldog on August 22, 2009, 10:11:48 AM
I have plenty of houseplants and outside plants as well (courtesy of my wife). I do the watering, and that's all I want to do with them. I suppose that I find them boring.

Not interested in growing things you could eat yourself? Or filling your home with wonderful smells and air?

Pohjolas Daughter · May 04, 2020, 01:55:21 PM

Wasn't certain where to put this....it's a combo of nature/environment/food/ecology article. Apparently there are 'murder hornets' now in the United States (hadn't heard of them before now). As if things weren't bad enough for the honey bees, now they have to deal with this! And enough stings and they can kill a human too!

They are apparently from somewhere in Asia.

https://www.bbc.com/news/52533585

Herman · May 04, 2020, 11:33:10 PM

Quote from: Mozart on August 21, 2009, 03:28:29 PM
Anyone here into gardening? I buy spices every week and then I thought to myself, why not just grow them? Soil, seeds, water, light, can it be so hard? I would like to start with parsley and wheat grass and see where it goes, tomatoes? Spinach? Everything will have to be indoors though.

Are berries difficult to grow?

Berries aren't 'difficult' to grow, in fact they tend to grow in poor soil, but they need good exposure to sun (and then they need nets against birds). You can't grow 'em in the house.

With 'spices' you seem to mean 'herbs'. Most of these need a lot of sun hours too, which you can't accomplish indoors. In a window sill you typically get three or four hours of sun coming from one direction. This is why the basil plant you got at the store will grow long and weak stalks and lose that peppery taste.

Oh, I see now, that 'Mozart' posted this question about eleven years ago, and hasn't posted in nine years, perhaps due to malnourishment...

vandermolen · May 04, 2020, 11:54:33 PM

Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on May 04, 2020, 01:55:21 PM
Wasn't certain where to put this....it's a combo of nature/environment/food/ecology article. Apparently there are 'murder hornets' now in the United States (hadn't heard of them before now). As if things weren't bad enough for the honey bees, now they have to deal with this! And enough stings and they can kill a human too! They are apparently from somewhere in Asia.

https://www.bbc.com/news/52533585

Yes, he/she doesn't look very friendly.

Pohjolas Daughter · May 05, 2020, 03:54:08 AM

Quote from: vandermolen on May 04, 2020, 11:54:33 PM
Yes, he/she doesn't look very friendly.

This made my jaw drop (from that article): "With their sharp, spiked mandibles, the hornets decapitate honeybees, using the bodies to feed their young. The hornets can destroy a honeybee hive in a matter of hours."

PD

Pohjolas Daughter · May 05, 2020, 03:58:13 AM

Quote from: Herman on May 04, 2020, 11:33:10 PM
Berries aren't 'difficult' to grow, in fact they tend to grow in poor soil, but they need good exposure to sun (and then they need nets against birds). You can't grow 'em in the house.

With 'spices' you seem to mean 'herbs'. Most of these need a lot of sun hours too, which you can't accomplish indoors. In a window sill you typically get three or four hours of sun coming from one direction. This is why the basil plant you got at the store will grow long and weak stalks and lose that peppery taste.

Oh, I see now, that 'Mozart' posted this question about eleven years ago, and hasn't posted in nine years, perhaps due to malnourishment...

Herman,

I trust that you enjoy gardening then (since you posted here)?

Hoping to pick up some supplies from a local nursery--carefully minding social distancing (they my order out to the car); I've never not gone into this place before now to pick out things....will be rather strange. Perhaps will order some seeds online (have some left over from last year)?

What do you like to grow?

PD

Herman · May 05, 2020, 05:37:25 AM

I'm rather a fan of slowgrowing evergeen shrubs, like azalea, rhododendron and skimmia. I still can't believe how big the red berry skimmia has gotten that I planted fifteen years ago.

Roses always fail in my experience.

My GF wants a rosemary herb plant. I used to have one very successful rosemary bush twenty years ago, on a wall facing the south. That's really the only way.

I'd like to have a successful oleander bush once in my life. Not just in the year of planting, but for many yers. Never happened.

André · May 05, 2020, 06:03:27 AM

I don't have a garden. Too many critters (rabbits, squirrels, birds, groundhogs and the like). But I do have 2 patches of wild garlic I cultivate. It grows in a very specific type of environment, in maple tree and beech forests, along with the trillium and trout lily. When transplanted they adapt to just about any condition. I transplant a few bulbs every year. I have now over 160 of them. And critters don't like them !

Pohjolas Daughter · May 05, 2020, 07:04:21 AM

Quote from: Herman on May 05, 2020, 05:37:25 AM
I'm rather a fan of slowgrowing evergeen shrubs, like azalea, rhododendron and skimmia. I still can't believe how big the red berry skimmia has gotten that I planted fifteen years ago.

Roses always fail in my experience.

My GF wants a rosemary herb plant. I used to have one very successful rosemary bush twenty years ago, on a wall facing the south. That's really the only way.

I'd like to have a successful oleander bush once in my life. Not just in the year of planting, but for many yers. Never happened.

I've learned to appreciate shrubs (and trees) more the older that I get. And, yes, roses are frustrating little beauties! Like you, I've had numerous ones fail though I have found some that seem to be happy in my area (I do get a fair bit of sunshine which they MUST have).

Rosemary can be tricky. I've managed to keep some to grow quite big. The past few years, I've had ones potted up and then take inside when it starts getting cold and put into a sunny room. The best thing that you can do for them once inside is to put them into a big saucer filled with some crushed gravel stones and then rather than watering them at the top (in the soil)...fill the saucer as necessary and let the roots and the soil wick the moisture upwards into the plant. That, and don't water them too often and give them plenty of air space around them--helps to keep them from getting fuzzy fungal growth on the leaves.

Pohjolas Daughter · May 05, 2020, 07:09:24 AM

Quote from: André on May 05, 2020, 06:03:27 AM
I don't have a garden. Too many critters (rabbits, squirrels, birds, groundhogs and the like). But I do have 2 patches of wild garlic I cultivate. It grows in a very specific type of environment, in maple tree and beech forests, along with the trillium and trout lily. When transplanted they adapt to just about any condition. I transplant a few bulbs every year. I have now over 160 of them. And critters don't like them !

I have a mixed love/hate relationship with critters...as I suspect most gardeners do. Do you eat/cook with your wild garlic André? Do you get enough sunlight in the spring to be able to plant any daffodils? They and also iris are poisonous to squirrels, deer, etc. Wish that I had more tulips and crocuses but various critters dig them up. I do know one neighbor who has done pretty well with tulips. He puts a layer of fairly closely meshed bird netting plus some mulch...maybe some stones too on top. If need be, he might have to cut a bit of the netting to let a tulip through on occasion. I should try that!

André · May 05, 2020, 09:18:19 AM

Well, yes. Eating and cooking them is the whole point. Leaves are delicious in salads. The rosy stems can be added to white wine vinegar, it gives it a nice reddish colour and a very distinctive flavour. The bulbs I eat as is, rubbing the tip in a bit of salt.

After a few years they make flowers and seeds, and the bulbs divide. It takes 5-7 years after the transplant to get natural reproduction. The vegetation process ends in 6-8 weeks: when tree leaves above are out (mid to end of June), the garlic leaves wilt and fall. It doesn't tolerate shadow. It's a very seasonal treat.

Thanks for the tip, re: daffodils and irises. They would make a nice patch in the back of the yard.

Pohjolas Daughter · May 06, 2020, 04:06:51 AM

Quote from: André on May 05, 2020, 09:18:19 AM
Well, yes. Eating and cooking them is the whole point. Leaves are delicious in salads. The rosy stems can be added to white wine vinegar, it gives it a nice reddish colour and a very distinctive flavour. The bulbs I eat as is, rubbing the tip in a bit of salt.

After a few years they make flowers and seeds, and the bulbs divide. It takes 5-7 years after the transplant to get natural reproduction. The vegetation process ends in 6-8 weeks: when tree leaves above are out (mid to end of June), the garlic leaves wilt and fall. It doesn't tolerate shadow. It's a very seasonal treat.

Thanks for the tip, re: daffodils and irises. They would make a nice patch in the back of the yard.

Scrolling back down, I realized that I hadn't noticed that you had a photo of them on a cutting board! lol Interesting that you eat the bulbs as is (with salt). If I run across some of them, I must try that.

Wonder if they ever get any in my local co-op? They have had ramps and fiddleheads for sale there. Taking a quick look online, I see that one can purchase seeds of them here: https://www.americanmeadows.com/wildflower-seeds/native-rare-wildflower-seeds/wild-garlic-seeds

Enjoy!

PD

steve ridgway · May 06, 2020, 04:58:13 AM

Quote from: André on May 05, 2020, 06:03:27 AM
I don't have a garden. Too many critters (rabbits, squirrels, birds, groundhogs and the like). But I do have 2 patches of wild garlic I cultivate. It grows in a very specific type of environment, in maple tree and beech forests, along with the trillium and trout lily. When transplanted they adapt to just about any condition. I transplant a few bulbs every year. I have now over 160 of them. And critters don't like them !

We're eating the flowers of ramsons (wild garlic) on our walks at the moment. They're still very garlicky but a bit more delicate than the leaves, don't leave the same taste in the back of the throat.

André · May 06, 2020, 05:01:16 AM

Nice! If that picture was taken today in your area, the vegetation seems to be at least a month ahead of here. Leaves came out in the past 7 days, are not yet fully grown and the flowers are weeks away. Morning frost is expected in the next 3 days here...

steve ridgway · May 06, 2020, 05:09:36 AM

Quote from: André on May 06, 2020, 05:01:16 AM
Nice! If that picture was taken today in your area, the vegetation seems to be at least a month ahead of here. Leaves came out in the past 7 days, are not yet fully grown and the flowers are weeks away. Morning frost is expected in the next 3 days here...

No, that was April 22. This is what they looked like April 02.

Herman · May 06, 2020, 07:08:50 AM

I'm too scaredy crazy to eat from nature.

I'd be awake all night waiting for the poisoning to kick in.

So I guess I'll never discover an new continent.

André · May 06, 2020, 07:24:47 AM

From what I read, there are different varieties of wild garlic. The european variety (allium ursinum) and the appalachian one are related to, but not identical to the one we have here (allium tricoccum). In Quebec it's an endengered species, and one is allowed to harvest a maximum of 50 plants per year.

An interesting article here:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/garlic-lovers-answer-the-call-of-the-wild/article686154/.

Herman: I suppose we won't be seeing you picking wild mushrooms either

. That's another of my favourite non-musical pursuits. Fortunately it lasts longer and brings more diversity. Miam!