Happy Spring, Fellow Gardeners!

[IrishHeart]

Yo Addy!

 

I planted my usual annual herbs along with my tomatoes, chard and lettuces....but added the following in your honor:

 

chocolate mint

pineapple mint

 

the cat still has her catmint, which comes back every year

[Adalaide]

Pineapple mint?!? I never heard of that!!! I need to get out more obviously. I'll bet it smells absolutely divine.

[IrishHeart]

Pineapple mint?!? I never heard of that!!! I need to get out more obviously. I'll bet it smells absolutely divine.

 

it does, darlin...it does. I suspect I will learn how to use it for cooking..I know it will be a great tea.

[love2travel]

But it gave me a good chuckle, so thanks sweets!!  you can always cut and paste it over there but most of us visit this one too.

 

Welcome home, LOVE2!!!

Yes - I thought of cutting and pasting but was too tired and just plain lazy. 

[love2travel]

Yo Addy!

 

I planted my usual annual herbs along with my tomatoes, chard and lettuces....but added the following in your honor:

 

chocolate mint

pineapple mint

 

the cat still has her catmint, which comes back every year

I love pineapple mint.  Have you tried orange mint?  It is nice as well.  But pineapple has got to be my favourite for lemonade, granitas, etc. 

[GottaSki]

pineapple mint....

 

must find this along with the bright pink carrot seeds!

[IrishHeart]

I love pineapple mint.  Have you tried orange mint?  It is nice as well.  But pineapple has got to be my favourite for lemonade, granitas, etc. 

they did have the orange mint available...I should have grabbed on of those,  too.....may swing by later.

 

thanks  

[GottaSki]

herb sale at my favorite nursery today...hope they have pineapple mint...will check their seed supply too as i do most herbs from seeds.

 

summer project has been handed to my boys -- repurposing wood pallets into raised planter beds....me thinks I may get artistic and paint a few shrooms on the side of them as Neroli helped plan my future vegi-garden -- she seem to keep popping up...

 

a few days ago there was a mushroom shoot in my grocery bag tomatoes -- got giggled at by someone whom has mushrooms everywhere this time of year -- but they are rare in my neck of the desert

 

then yesterday I was watching the movie 'Epic' in 3D with the son -- in one scene the forest magically comes back to life and one of the first images is shrooms popping up that looked very much like Shroomie's Avitar -- jeez her spirit is just as strong as her personality -- miss you Shroom.

[IrishHeart]

-- got giggled at by someone whom has mushrooms everywhere this time of year -- but they are rare in my neck of the desert

 

  if you mean me, I was not giggling AT you, but with you. I, too was gleeful to see them sprouting in my yard.

I said "Look, J....there's Shroomie saying hi!"  

 

So, LOVE2 and Addy--the MT grows orange mint in her yard--tons of it--and she said "you can have some of mine!"

 

 

and then she said, and take some jalapenos too!! I used one of hers last year in some mango pineapple salsa...holy smokes..

 

[w8in4dave]

I everyone Yup I am new here! But I am a gardener!! The most Tomatoes I have ever planted was 122 I can alot of tomatoes and I can Salsa! Yummy!! Between my Grandson and my BIL I cannot keep salsa around here!! I pickle alot of stuff also!! I have pickled Garlic, Peppers , Pickles , Asparagus You name it you can just about pickle anything!! Love pickled!! I also dehydrate my own Onions and Garlic I really enjoy growing and using my own food!! It is so good and healthy for you!! The only thing I don't do is alot of jams and jellys, I kinda got into it for a minute but I decided we really don't eat to much jams and jellies... So why waste the effort? This year I am only going to can 50 tomatoes , unless I give some of my plants away!  

[love2travel]

I everyone Yup I am new here! But I am a gardener!! The most Tomatoes I have ever planted was 122 I can alot of tomatoes and I can Salsa! Yummy!! Between my Grandson and my BIL I cannot keep salsa around here!! I pickle alot of stuff also!! I have pickled Garlic, Peppers , Pickles , Asparagus You name it you can just about pickle anything!! Love pickled!! I also dehydrate my own Onions and Garlic I really enjoy growing and using my own food!! It is so good and healthy for you!! The only thing I don't do is alot of jams and jellys, I kinda got into it for a minute but I decided we really don't eat to much jams and jellies... So why waste the effort? This year I am only going to can 50 tomatoes , unless I give some of my plants away!

That's awesome!  I'm a gardener, too, but suffer severe chronic back pain so am now limited to my raised beds.  But I still manage to grow tons of herbs and veg and make all sorts of preserves, jellies (many are savoury, not just sweet), sauces, salsas, etc.  Our gardening zone is only 1a so rather restrictive.  Thankfully lots of summer heat and sunshine ensures quick growth but most things are not perennial such as lavender and rosemary which I transplant each year.

[Adalaide]

I love love love pickling things too!  Sadly I can't eat them, but people rave about them and they make awesome gifts. Last summer just before I found out I can't "do" pickles any more I did I think 60 pints and 20some quarts of pickles. I found out before they were ready that I can't touch them. I've never pickled straight garlic but the pickles are always a joint effort here and we put whole cloves of garlic in each jar. My husband always thought I was crazy but I picked it out of the bottom of every jar and just ate it. Sooooooo good!

 

I am very much a jam/jelly/fruit person. I guess not so much as some people, but I never go a summer without making at least some. By far our favorite is strawberry banana jam, probably followed by blueberry. Back home in PA we would go to a pick your own blueberries place for that, there are none here. It kills me to pay someone to pick my blueberries for me... then again, we have rattlesnakes here so maybe it is better this way.

 

Sadly we just don't have the room here, nor would I have the ability if we did anyway, to grow what I am capable of canning. We buy our cucumbers and such though from a local farm/garden store that is nearly organic (they only thing they spray is corn for bugs) in how they garden and just a small family operation so I feel good in supporting them and in eating their food.

[w8in4dave]

I would be better off If I didn't can (J/K) I give so much of it away! Just give me my jars back!! So I had to limit what I gave away. Tell them "this is it for you this year!" So I don't give away my stock pile!! I hate it when I run out of tomatoes!! We live on 22 acres so we have the room to grow, I just don't have the energy to do all the gardening it requires to keep it up!! Pulling weeds and such!! I need me a lil helper! or a big one hehe ... but pickling is my new Love!! When I found out how easy it is I just go nuts!! Try the garlic pickled!! It is wonderful!! Then when your cooking you just grab a lil jar of pickled garlic and no need to run to the store for fresh... I love it!! Altho nothing really beats roasted Garlic lol .... Wow so glad I found this place It is fun in here Have a nice weekend everyone!

[notme]

 Just give me my jars back!! 

LOLZ i hear ya!  although people come to my house and my cabinets are lousy with them - jars, jars jars!  especially now, while the garden is not producing yet i have jars-in-waiting haha  i really need to organize them/store them better but life is fast and furious - i can always find something better to do 

[GottaSki]

Just give me my jars back!!

 

AMEN!!!

 

We can albacore that hubby catches and give to fam and friends -- they know the drill and I still have to collect my jars and lids when I visit their homes -- I'm not shy anymore..I just march in the kitchen and find their tupperware stash...9 times outta 10 that is where my jars end up -- never too worried about lids but will reuse if I find them

[GottaSki]

  if you mean me, I was not giggling AT you, but with you. I, too was gleeful to see them sprouting in my yard.

I said "Look, J....there's Shroomie saying hi!"  

 

'twas you...but Shroomie would have laughed at me too -- silly city girl that I am -- so the raised beds that I planned out with Shroomie this winter did not happen -- but do have the boys set to build them this summer -- thinking I'll be painting the sides with shrooms that way she can hang out with me when I finally start this flipping vegie garden

[IrishHeart]

'twas you...but Shroomie would have laughed at me too -- silly city girl that I am -- so the raised beds that I planned out with Shroomie this winter did not happen -- but do have the boys set to build them this summer -- thinking I'll be painting the sides with shrooms that way she can hang out with me when I finally start this flipping vegie garden

 

 

That sounds like a fab plan!

I am a city born and bred  girl too, don't forget , but I have lived in the country for so long now that I am wondering if I will be able to adapt to yet another  planting zone change? 4  to 10 is a big leap.

But at least it's not ZONE1a (Love 2--you poor chilly thing)  GET THEE TO CROATIA permanently!!

 

The tomatoes and herbs did not get washed out from the torrential rains as I had feared, so, whew! the irises are open, the columbine is open

and peonies are just beginning to open. 

 

A nest of flycatchers in the garage is giving us great joy--they are just starting to lift their wobbly heads and every time I go in and out of the garage to retrieve a garden tool, I can hear the faint Peep, peep, peep....

[Pegleg84]

woo, that was a good speed read...

 

So, now that it's gone from perpetual winter to 30c in about a month... man the weather has been weird this year...

I don't have any ground to plant things in, but I do have a good-sized deck, so this is year two for my container garden. I started planting at the end of April/beginning of May, and have lettuce (which is doing well), greens (which bolted in the heat last week. ack!), beets, peas (got them in early enough this year), beans, carrots, kale, some edible wild flowers, cilantro, cukes that just sprouted, trying some zucchini this year.

I planted garlic back before winter but it didn't make an appearance. so I went digging through the pots and it VANISHED! aaack! maybe I didn't let it set roots long enough before winter. oh well, I'll get the pots back.

And that's just what's out on the deck. I've started cherry tomatoes (which went nuts last year. I tried romas but spent all summer throwing them away due to blossom end rot. not worth it), red and chocolate bell peppers, eggplant, and attempting broccoli. They're still pretty little though. I started them too late, probably.

Also have thai basil and oregano started (my plants slowly died over the winter), and picked up some rosemary, mint, and strawberries.

 

So, to whomever was asking what you can plant in a container? Pretty much anything! Don't expect to get as much as if it were in the ground, but it works.

 

I cannot wait for fresh peas.

 

No worries about CC when everything comes from your own garden.

 

Cheers

[w8in4dave]

LOLZ i hear ya!  although people come to my house and my cabinets are lousy with them - jars, jars jars!  especially now, while the garden is not producing yet i have jars-in-waiting haha  i really need to organize them/store them better but life is fast and furious - i can always find something better to do 

I hear ya there!! We have a basement but when it comes to canning , I just hate to leave all the jars down stairs , because then I have to go down there and carry them all back up! Most of them are down there but then everyone gives me cases back and i'm just too lazy to haul them all down stairs just to haul them back up!

[notme]

 

I planted garlic back before winter but it didn't make an appearance. so I went digging through the pots and it VANISHED! aaack! maybe I didn't let it set roots long enough before winter. oh well, I'll get the pots back.

 

o my gosh - that happened to me, too, a few years ago i planted garlic and it never grew, so i thought i did it wrong and went to dig them up - gone!  maybe the squirrels dig them up to ward off vampire squirrels lolz 

[notme]

i have tiny cherry tomatoes, now, and some itty bitty green beans.  my hubs and i looked at each other last night and said:  here we go, everything is gonna come in at once - surely the weather will get to be 90 million degrees as soon as i get that pressure canner boiling!!

 

i am getting so many strawberries - this is the first year i have had any luck with them.  i have them in a giant above ground container, like something you would put a potted palm in.  the ones inside the container are kicking butt.  the ones outside on the ground, not so much.. still more and better than i have ever had.  now, if i could only eat them.....  sigh...  my strawberry experiment is not going well.  i might hafta pick somebody's brain (histamines??)

 

anyhoo, what grows best in my garden??  WEEDS!!  

[Adalaide]

i have tiny cherry tomatoes, now, and some itty bitty green beans.  my hubs and i looked at each other last night and said:  here we go, everything is gonna come in at once - surely the weather will get to be 90 million degrees as soon as i get that pressure canner boiling!!

 

i am getting so many strawberries - this is the first year i have had any luck with them.  i have them in a giant above ground container, like something you would put a potted palm in.  the ones inside the container are kicking butt.  the ones outside on the ground, not so much.. still more and better than i have ever had.  now, if i could only eat them.....  sigh...  my strawberry experiment is not going well.  i might hafta pick somebody's brain (histamines??)

 

anyhoo, what grows best in my garden??  WEEDS!!  

 

Aren't weeds what grows best in every garden? I somehow had a weed in one of my pots last week. They are sneaky suckers!

 

I'm not the histamine know-it-all... but I do know I did spring without strawberries because of it. There are also like a bazillion other delicious and supposedly healthy things I am not eating. Honestly if I had to choose between strawberries and tomatoes, I would take tomatoes. I would even take them over chocolate. Don't tell my husband.

[Pegleg84]

That's just it! I covered them with mulch and netting over the winter. There were no holes or anything. Just... poof! So weird.

I did plant a couple cloves this spring so will have garlic chives at least.

[w8in4dave]

We lost our strawberries this year! Pffffft! But they have them everywhere! So life is still great!

[Adalaide]

I was at the garden store today to pick up some supplies for my corn and my husband suggested I find something to replace my spindly tomato. I kept thinking I could save it but he was sure it was dying, so I committed to just ripping it up and replacing it and I'm glad I did. I found a pineapple mint! I'm very happy to have him in a pot and if he takes off like the other two did he'll be huge and bushy in no time.

 

I have to say I've never planted anything that mysteriously disappeared. I would find that a bit disturbing.