Megs gardening?

[Heidi3]

I planted a whole hillside of rhubarb this week and thought of you!!!! where is our gardening thread??? :icondance :icondance :icondance

[not2late]

Good for you! I think the gardening thread is waaaaaay down yonder. lol

I planted sugar snap peas, radishes (the traditional red, round type and the skinny white kind), spinach, lettuce and chives last week. It's too sunny around here to transplant my strawberries into a pot, so I'm resting this week.

Next week, I'll plant the purslane, broccoli rabe, turnips (the kind with a bulb and the kind that produces only greens), beets (love those beet greens!) and some other stuff.

Purslane is a great little vegetable. It's a common garden weed that alot of folks pull out of their yards and throw away. That's too bad because purslane is a green vegetable that's incredibly high in Omega-3 Fatty acids.

[Heidi3]

Good morning Megs!!!! .....my soil is too rich for roots sad to say!!!! except garlic and my whole bed is looking pretty darn good with it shoots sticking up!....I have one raised bed of garlic, one of collards and Kale and after reading about perslane I have to try it!!! and one of strawberries..then the rest of my herbs and berries are spread around ..oh yeah each bed has sugarsnap peas in it for the nitrogen fixing....

did I mention my brunch is also a plant swap!!! I have one every hear ...inviting folks to bring seeds, divisions, bulbs roots corms whatever and set up a table for swapping it is sooooo fun!!!! I just scam what people leave ...and I am telling you the dahlias I got last year were amazing..(did I mention this previously!).....I have four huge tiers to fill and no money to buy plants so this is great to fill em up..that and my snipping cuttings on walks!!! I know I shared that with you!!!......


do you plant in raised beds?

[Kent]

I planted a couple blueberry bushes this week in preparation for a wonderful summer of OWL. Any other good pot vegetables I could be planting? I really don't want to dig up recently sodded lawn, and am going to some deck gardening instead.

[Heidi3]

I planted a couple blueberry bushes this week in preparation for a wonderful summer of OWL. Any other good pot vegetables I could be planting? I really don't want to dig up recently sodded lawn, and am going to some deck gardening instead.

Hi there Kent!!! do a pot of strawberries!!! the are so pretty in pots!!!...I also love to plant tomato pots and pepper pots....hmmmm berries you could plant gooseberries in a pot I bet they are very tart and I love them!!!...dwarf trees like dwarf cherries go well in pots.....

welcome to the world of gardening!!! :icondance :icondance :icondance

[Kent]

Thanks for the suggestions. Now I need to use up more Gurney's 25$ off certificates and buy some strawberry and pepper plants. Perhaps this year all my kids will be old enough to enjoy the food off the plant as opposed to picking them prior to being ready. Who needs rabbits and deer when you have way too motivated children?

[Heidi3]

kids and gardening a match made in heaven for sure ...let them have their own pot who cares how it looks my kids started gardening at 2!!! they ate a lot of dirt but grew up fine!!!!....I sitll remember eating green blueberries as a kid ...still do!!!! green strawberries are not as good but I ate them as well ...of course I think I ate flower and dirt too!!!....LOL

[not2late]

My garden's soil is too rocky and rooty, plus the amount of clay in it makes it almost impossible to grow root veggies, so I grow them in containers. The beets and turnip, however, do well, if I just toss them in the ground. I don't get alot of roots but I do get decent greens. The radishes are in a container (so I get decent roots). I'm probably going to plant some short length carrots in the containers too (I moved onto the the starchy veg rung and carrots seem to agree with me!)

I still have to plant my summer squash and probably some spaghetti squash again. Last year, I got the spaghetti squash seeds from the supermarket spaghetti squashes...I had a bunch of seeds saved for roasting "later" and I forgot about them. So I tossed them into the ground last year and had a bumper crop of spaghetti squash and squash blossoms (yummy!). lol Oh yeah, I was looking in my seed box this and found I bought a packet of Swiss Chard, so I'll be putting that into the ground next week (or during the week if I can get home early enough)

Kent, try something easy like spinach or leaf lettuce. I prefer these in containers because they're easier to harvest and clean. I have a tendency to sow more lettuce than my containers can really hold, so I have alot of "baby lettuce" salads in the spring and fall.

When I watered my containers today, I saw my radishes and lettuces breaking through the soil. :joy

I can't wait for the sugar snap peas....Even if they don't produce the peas, They'll still look nice on their bean trellis and I can eat the pea shoots, or young tendrils.

[Heidi3]

well I have beautiful sandy loam drop in a seed and jump back ..but nothing is perfect ...I had a huge amt of heavy metal in my soil so my friend who has an analytical lab gave me tips on getting the pH right so the plants would not take the metals up....the other problem with very rich soil is that all the energy goes to the leaves ...so growing greans is great but roots grow lots of tops and pitiful roots....Flowers thrive and to be honest I make as much room for them because what table is complete especially in the summer with out a bunch of garden flowers!!!....

[not2late]

GARDEN ALERT:

The peas broke through this morning!!!!! :joy I saw several little green 'elbows' sticking out of the soil this morning when I watered them.

Oh yesterday, I bought a packet of Burpee's heirloom small sugar pumpkins. I'll toss them into the ground over the weekend.

[2big4mysize]

good for you Megs. I'm harvesting lettuce, beet tops, and chard along with the overwintered greens. I really really want to stick the rest in the ground but after last yrs late April frost ehy are waiting till May frost date to transplant.

Oh has anybody eatten radish tops in their salads? On food TV the fellow said to add them to soup but nothing about eating them raw.

[not2late]

I never had radish tops raw before. They might be worth a try. They might be "peppery" like watercress. I've always cooked them like mustard or collard greens...

[2big4mysize]

I was more asking about the texture i didn't want a surprize like raw kale in my salad. that chewyness just didn't work with those tender other greens. Guess i will just go graze in the garden and try it.

[not2late]

Oh...radish greens are pretty tender. Sorta like watercress.

[MotherOfGizmo]

Gardening! Well we planted a pretty basic garden this past weekend, we don't have much space to work with but I planted yellow squash, zuccini, cucumbers, several different types of tomatos and peppers and a few herbs, basil, oregano, cilantro, rosemary and oh yea, radishes. I even snuck in a few Mammoth Sunflowers just for fun! :joy