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Got my worms out in the garage doing my composting for my garden

2/9/2012 12:25:37 PM

Stupid ground cherry seeds I bought aren't germinating. Looks like I wasted $2. I'll probably just throw the rest of the seeds in the ground and forget about them lol.

And holy crap I forgot how quickly sunflower seeds germinate. Put them in the pods Friday night and they're already sprouting. Guess I should have waited a few weeks.

Does anyone local want some heirloom tomato seeds? I ended up with way more than I'll use this year due to an ordering mix up. These are the ones I have seeds for:


Low acid pink tomatoes


Chocolate stripes tomatoes


Striped stuffing tomatoes (insides are hollow instead of juicy)


Purple ball tomatoes

I'm going to start them inside in the next week or two so I can let you know exactly how many I have leftover once that's done.

2/12/2012 8:30:56 PM

indoor gardening question:

i bought a bromeliad today on the super cheap rack at Lowe's. i've heard they do pretty well inside and are hard to screw up

any tips for media, drainage, watering, thinning....

2/12/2012 10:10:10 PM

^^I would love any seeds you want to get rid of!

2/13/2012 12:22:43 AM

Excellent! I'll let you know how many I have left once I finally get around to starting them.

2/13/2012 9:45:39 AM

Omg. Wish I had somewhere to grow tomatoes. Guess there will be lots of trips to the farmers market for me until we buy another house.

2/13/2012 8:38:14 PM

Do you have a deck or something? When I was still living in an apartment I used Tupperware storage bins for tomato growing.

2/13/2012 9:29:59 PM

We have a small yard. We own a three story town home. The way the sun is I can't really grow tomatoes, though. I'm sure I could do some herbs.

2/13/2012 10:01:58 PM

Aww that sucks When we were house hunting I pretty much threw out any house that didn't have at least a little space for gardening. I was tired of spending years in apartments with crap lighting lol.

2/15/2012 9:57:38 AM

Quote :

"Does anyone local want some heirloom tomato seeds?"

I'd be interested in some of the Stripies. PM me

2/15/2012 3:20:26 PM

^

2/16/2012 12:18:36 AM

I'll PM y'all once I get them started. Probably what I'll end up doing is just starting them all in pods and then giving out baby plants. That way I can be sure that they'll actually germinate and people don't end up with duds

2/16/2012 9:07:51 AM

^awesome thanks!

I just picked up a bunch of herbs from the farmer's market. I have 16 varieties total now and they should take well to bigger pots when it gets a little warmer. I've been seeding, cloning, everything I can to try to get a lot of really full herbs.

this is what I have so far: English thyme, lemon thyme, rosemary, chives, Italian oregano, hot&spicy oregano, parsley, sage, Vietnamese coriander, spearmint, peppermint, red basil, sweet basil, and fern leaf dill

the coriander tastes awesome, I can't wait to clone more of this one. the spicy oregano is also great.



about to buy a bunch of pots, soil and tubs this weekend to pot the herbs and seed some spring veggies in the tubs. I also found a spot in the front of the house I could get away with digging up a little bit.

[Edited on February 24, 2012 at 2:19 AM. Reason : types]

2/24/2012 2:18:29 AM

Anybody have a lemon tree? If you do, when do you fertilize?

2/24/2012 7:11:10 AM

Oh sweet! Glad to know the herb guy is back. Did you happen to notice if he had any large lavender plants?

2/24/2012 8:49:34 AM

Aaaaaah yeah! Not bad for 6 days since seeding.

2/25/2012 11:56:07 AM

Quote :

"Did you happen to notice if he had any large lavender plants?"

he had some one gallon ones iirc but nothing huge. had some pretty big rosemary. I got a 3 gallon one (I think) for 10

2/25/2012 8:55:48 PM

It's about to be on up in here. Turning the garden tomorrow.

2/25/2012 8:58:29 PM

Today was fertilizing day. Fertilized the blueberry bushes and gardenias. I'm hoping the fertilizer will solve the yellowing going on with the gardenia. The more I read about these damn plants the more I kind of wish I had gone with a different option. They seem to be very temperamental creatures.

Planted some Ipomoea alba aka moonflower seeds around the mailbox. Hopefully by summer I'll come home to this:



Also started the tomato seeds today so hopefully I'll have some plants for y'all sometime soon!

3/4/2012 9:12:51 PM

went to Indigo Farms in Little River, SC today. picked up two really big tubs for $10 each, a bunch of tiny onions to plant (20 for .35 total - red, white, yellow), carrot seeds, a bunch of nice potting soil, two nice ceramic pots for 4.29 each - spent under $60.

the place also has lots of blackberry/blueberry/strawberry fields you can pick and pay by the pound. tons of animals you can just go and pet all you want, a bakery, and a small grocery with lots of local items for dirtttt cheap. farm butter, peppered bacon, huge country ham slabs for like $5, salad dressings, jellies, jams, salsas, and hot sauce all made in house.

my grandma got some zucchini bread that is great.

I'll probably get some more tubs from them when I plant tomatoes / peppers / cucumbers around Good Friday.

3/6/2012 9:05:31 PM

^ Where are similiar places in NC? I started all my stuff last year from seed, I don't know if I want to do that again...

3/8/2012 1:17:21 PM

any tips for sunflowers? i've heard they're foolproof, but it's my first year doing them

3/8/2012 8:31:57 PM

Our mistake with sunflowers was planting them too close together. So make sure you're following those directions. Otherwise, ours were great, with very little effort.

3/8/2012 8:51:35 PM

^^^ For gardening stuff, Logan's downtown is really good. For pick your own I like Lyon Farms in Creedmoor. I've heard they sell gardening stuff too but I've never looked while there.

^^ Sunflowers are easy. Draw a line in some loose dirt, throw in some seeds, and cover with more dirt. As they start to grow, weed out the weakest links according to the package directions. I have some sunflowers growing right now that are looking pretty happy where I planted them. I ended up having to cover them with netting though because I think some rabbits were nibbling on the shoots.

3/8/2012 9:33:30 PM

^^^^there's a place off of honeycut road in north raleigh that has a bunch of stuff. this place I was talking about is in Calabash, NC and is a real mom and pop type of place. it's pretty much a legit farm. the farmers market has a lot of veggies and herbs that are already started and they'll easily give you a deal if you buy more than one thing. you can get them down quite a bit. I just like starting from seed to see how it all grows, but almost all of the herbs I started that way died. this is also my second year gardening, and definitely the first I've taken it really seriously.

[Edited on March 8, 2012 at 9:37 PM. Reason : the address is interchangeable, it's right on the border of NC/SC on 17 near North Myrtle Beach]

3/8/2012 9:36:05 PM

^ That's a little far from me, I'm in Durham.

^^ Maybe I'll try some of those places. This is my second year, and everything grew really well last year from seed, but I don't know if I wanna do that commitment again for all the veggies that I'm planning on this year (only did tomatoes and peppers last year - like to throw in some lettuce, corn, sunflowers, carrots, broccoli, and cucumbers).

3/8/2012 10:03:42 PM

I usually do a mix of seeds and starters too. Sometimes it's just nice to pick up some plants and not have to deal with everything involved with seeds.

3/8/2012 10:34:57 PM

I have chard, turnip greens, arugula, lettuce, kale I can eat right now. Waiting on those damn onions to come up.

Gotta think about starting my summer babies soon- What

[Edited on March 9, 2012 at 2:29 AM. Reason : nomnomnom]

3/9/2012 2:24:07 AM

^^^ The lettuce and broccoli gets pissy with the warm weather and will bolt before you can get any decent
yield from it. Carrots are slower to grow and I find grow fat, but stubby even in raised beds here.

They all love the cool, wet days we've been having lately. If you want those veggies, plant them now and get them out before mid-May.

Corn needs space, and would go well with your sunflowers.

3/9/2012 2:28:10 AM

Had a big bowl of spinach salad last night. mmmmm

3/9/2012 8:19:36 AM

^^ We have lots of space this year - I'm going from a tiny flower bed on the side of the house (which I somehow crammed in like, 8 tomato plants, and 12 pepper plants of different varieties) to almost 5x that space. Excited.

I'm perfectly ok with the carrots being funky. I'm just growing them for my horse to eat honestly. Heh.

Mm, that makes me sad about the broccoli - it's my favorite vegetable. I'll try anyway, plant them in a little shadier area of our place maybe? Help from the heat.

3/9/2012 10:27:46 AM

We are putting in a garden at our new home. This will be the first time a garden has been put in this soil, and we're using a part of the yard the previous owners had a swingset over. We are planning to till the soil. Do any of you know if we can rent a tiller, instead of buying?? Also, what is the right type of soil for gardening? It's about 15' square of space for gardening, and I was thinking bringing in top soil and filler dirt to till into what's already there.

3/9/2012 11:06:19 AM

^ It depends on your soil. If it's sandy, water will filter out of it too fast and you need to add heavier matter to promote water retention, and if it's clunky Piedmont clay you need to break it up with lighter material, else your roots will rot from lack of oxygen and water retention.

I said f it and built 4 raised beds in my front yard, because the drainage on this rental house sucks.

Someone on here mentioned sending soil samples off to the County or State Ag Extension office for analysis, although they may have been backed up due to demand at the time. (I'd probably only consider this option when I buy a house and replace the ugly lawn with a garden).

3/9/2012 12:47:37 PM

Got the garden turned and will be tilling it this weekend. Considering getting several loads of topsoil, considering the fact that pretty much the whole garden is red clay. But it has produced really well the past couple years so maybe I won't fuck with it.

3/9/2012 1:25:18 PM

^^NCSU will do free soil analysis iirc, my grandpa did it.

3/10/2012 1:00:02 AM

I think Im going to make a tipsy pot tower on either side of my walkway. Where is a cheap place to get a ~6 foot piece of rebar and some terracotta pots? Should I just head to home depot?

3/10/2012 8:47:39 PM

Got my bee hives up today. Heading to get the bees tomorrow

3/10/2012 8:53:45 PM

asked my parents to water my herbs while I was on spring break..aparently they did not.

back to the farmer's market I go. not all were lost but the Vietnamese coriander and my small rosemary loook like goners

3/11/2012 11:47:24 PM

Got a ziplock bag of seeds from my Dad, some really real Italian tomatoes and herbs from his trip to Italy. Dunno if any sprout or not, but we'll see.

Also trying a giant pumpkin again this year.

3/12/2012 10:35:13 AM

Quote :

"NCSU will do free soil analysis iirc, my grandpa did it."

Yep. Every year I say I'm going to send them samples and every year I don't But I'm working with almost all raised beds this year so it's not like it really matters anyway.

Last fall when we had a party some drunks smashed up some ornamental gourds into one of my flower beds. I was lazy and other than picking up the big chunks of gourd left the rest of rot. Well apparently some of the seeds survived because I now have little sprouts coming up that look an awful lot like squash plants lol. I think I might let one of them keep growing just to see what happens.

3/12/2012 12:15:30 PM

here's how everything looks all in their permanent pots. off the top of my head from the far wall - peppermint, spearmint, dill, lemon thyme, English thyme, sweet basil, pineapple sage (smells so good!), Vietnamese coriander, sage, orange thyme, hot and spicy oregano, Italian oregano. not pictured is a big rosemary bush that's outside.

I got two 10 gallon tubs and planted a bunch of danaver carrots in one and about 21 onions - 7 of each of red, yellow and white.

I'll probably get a few more tubs when it gets a bit warmer for tomatoes and different types of peppers. I already got seeds so I'll probably start germinating the peppers to transplant pretty soon. if that fails, back to the farmer's market.

[Edited on March 12, 2012 at 6:06 PM. Reason : peppermint BLEW UP this week. also VN coriander grows like a weed. so easy to clone. ]

3/12/2012 6:06:11 PM

Man. I wish I had the window space to do that. When I do the next phase of my kitchen remodel I'm taking out a window in the living room and putting in a garden window.

3/12/2012 7:14:18 PM

^^ Looking good! I can't wait to go to the farmers market next week to pick up some herbs.

3/12/2012 10:15:56 PM

Worked all day yesterday weeding our horrible rear beds, removing some ligustrum with fungal problems, transplanting hostas and topping it all off with cedar mulch. Looks like it rained last night so I might get a break today... But I probably still have to get another 6-8 yards of mulch.

In the front I am considering doing away with all the daisys and little boxwoods and planting tomatoes and cucumbers. Not sure where I'm gonna plant my pumpkin patch this year yet

[Edited on March 13, 2012 at 8:18 AM. Reason : G]

3/13/2012 8:12:09 AM

I wish everyone would do away with boxwoods. They're such a waste of space imo. I'm really hoping it'll rain something decent today so I don't have to water this week.

Does anyone grow ferns? We have this strange alleyway between our garage and house that gets little light and stays pretty moist so I planted two ostrich ferns back there. But so far they just look like dead stubs. I'm debating whether they're actually dead or if it'll take some time before they start pushing up fiddleheads.

3/13/2012 9:01:42 AM

I'm going to the farmers market this weekend to get my herbs!


Also, anyone have any experience convincing an HOA that a communal garden would be super awesome? We have the perfect space!

3/13/2012 9:42:53 AM

^ My friend successfully did it in Portland, but that's also Portland She started off with a petition that was signed by all the people that had land next to the proposed garden space and then got a bunch of other people in the neighborhood to sign the petition as well. They went to the next HOA meeting with petition in hand and some Powerpoint presentation she threw together about all the benefits of communal gardening and a couple of proposed plans for how allotment of plots would work, etc etc. Apparently the biggest issue they ran into was irrigation. They had to hold a fundraiser to gather the funds to have a well dug or something for watering use. Once the water issue was resolved the HOA approved the communal garden.

3/13/2012 10:17:16 AM

we got our raised beds built over the weekend, and are about a 1/2 yard of soil shy of having it filled. i'm sure it's been mentioned in one of these gardening threads before, but we were able to get bulk soil conditioner and top soil from Family Home & Garden (http://www.familyhomeandgarden.com/) for less than $50. word.

we went with pine instead of pallets or cedar. we're pleased with the outcome...these are 8' x 4'

(this was taken pre-top soil application)

hopefully i'll get some items in the ground next week & weekend.

still have a lot to do in the front: dividing hostas, pulling up some dead bushes and a tree, and getting rid of all (or most of) this liriope.

also...any suggestions for sunny patio plants? we've got a large patio in the back, and i'd like to get some big leafy container plants back there for ambiance and a little shade offering. i was thinking a banana tree or elephant ears. any other favorites?

[Edited on March 13, 2012 at 10:26 AM. Reason : tropical plants]

3/13/2012 10:24:03 AM

2^i may be asking for her email, but im sure this project wont be happening this year. I think im too late, but not too early to start for next year.

3/13/2012 10:28:11 AM

^ If I remember correctly she said the process took about a year from start to finish so definitely start sooner is better than later. I also have a friend in Seattle that started a NPO that all they do is go around town convincing communities to start communal gardens. She'd be a great resource to talk to I bet.

^^ Post pics

Did Family Home and Garden charge a delivery fee? We need about 6 cubic yards of compost and 2 cubic yards of soil conditioner delivered in addition to some mulch. We checked out the garden supply store down the street from us but they wanted $45 to deliver 2 miles Meanwhile I talked to a place on Capital Blvd that will deliver to us for free.

[Edited on March 13, 2012 at 10:29 AM. Reason : a]

3/13/2012 10:28:30 AM