Hey all. Here in Saskatchewan (Canada) we're entering spring time, which means - time to plant the garden.
I'm curious what other people in other areas (or related areas) plant in their gardens, in the house and in the yard or garden. I would find it facinating to see what people plant around the world.
Here are the plants I've got on the go in the house right now. I've got an interest in unusual strains of vegetables and unusual plants, so I've got some stuff that may be a-typical to this region.
In the house I have
Conneticut Shade Leaf Tobbacco
Black Sea Man Tomatoes (reportedly a black tomato)
Common Grapevine
Habanero Pepper
Aloe Vera
Venus Fly Trap
Pretty Purple Pepper (purple peppers mmmm)
Cashew Tree
Himalayan Banana
Dinnerplate Hibiscus
Indian Dwarf Banana
Some of these are still just seedlings, waiting to go to the garden.
I also plan to plant my front flowerbed as an herb garden featuring
Stevia
Peppermint
Spearmint
Fennel
Italian Parsley
Basil
Thyme
Summer Savory
Oregano
Chives
Coriander
Campion Moss Curled Parley
Rosemary
Fernleaf Dill
I also plan to plant
Yellow Copra Hybrid Storage Onions (oooo Hybrid)
Red Carrots
Purple Carrots
Yellow Carrots
and White Carrots
Potatoes Galore
Peas
Also hoping to get my Hands on some Tea Bush (camellia sinensis) seed.
I live in the South East region of Saskatchewan which is a province of Canada.
What and where are you guys planting?
I've never really gardened in my entire life. How is it like? Doesn't wear out your patience waiting for the plants to grow? Do you just water them or do you need to apply lots of fertilizer? So many questions, I'm so sorry.
I've been growing peppers, tomatoes, spinach and onions(and various herbs) all winter. Its almost that time of the year here where it gets too hot to grow tomatoes.
I see you're growing a flytrap. Just don't try to plant it out in your garden, it'll be dead in no time if regular soil is used. Theres more info on my website if you're interested.
Not sure if you knew the requirements needed to grow your flytrap, most don't. 
Oh, another thing that I enjoy growing is catnip. You should give it a try if you have cats but becareful, if you put it in the garden they might trample everything around it as they tear it up. I learned the hard way.. 
I have my peas planted already, the tomatoes and onions are growing on the windowsill right now. I think I need to get them a better light source because they are starting to get leggy. I live on Vancouver island, right now the weather is still pretty miserable. Its been pouring rain all day.
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| How is it like? Doesn't wear out your patience waiting for the plants to grow? Do you just water them or do you need to apply lots of fertilizer? So many questions, I'm so sorry. |
I plant everything organic, so no fertilizer, just compost and collected rain. Sure it's making life hard on me, but the food tastes better if you earn it. So waiting is no big deal... there's more to it than just eating the leftovers.
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| Not sure if you knew the requirements needed to grow your flytrap, most don't. Smile |
I did know most of them, but I appreciate your advice, because with the information I had, I still haven't had any success. And no, I don't plan to grow it outside... Canada and Fly-traps don't seem to get along 
[/quote]Here in the Uk, I m in the middle of redesigning the garden, I m doing some new borders and started on a new vegs garden for the kids.
They have planted some cherry tomatoes, green peppers, peas and green beans, 2 potatoes (it's a small garden!) and some radishes.
I have planted a lot of lavenders (because every year I do some small wee bags and fill my cupboard with it. Keep the moths out!), some daisies, 2 new thyme (one of them is lemony, very good on chicken), 2 fushias and some mixed flower bulbs (cant remenber the name soz...) and a lilac.
I also got a pear tree (for mothers day) and a cherry tree.
I covered all my border with bark to keep the moist in.
I must say it's been a very hard 2 days but I m dead chuffed about it all! I m not a gardener, it's the first time I own one so my aproach to it all is plant and see what happen... but it's fun .
ps I been looking everywhere for an aloe vera plant but cant find any... | JinTenshi wrote: |
| I've never really gardened in my entire life. How is it like? Doesn't wear out your patience waiting for the plants to grow? Do you just water them or do you need to apply lots of fertilizer? So many questions, I'm so sorry. |
Someone wise once said:
If you want to be happy for a few hours, get drunk.
If you want to be happy for a few months, fall in love.
If you want to be happy forever, take up gardening.
I am a nomad and will only live in my current house for a single year, so I won't be planting anything except tomatoes and lettuce. Still the garden is beautiful and has about a thousand varieties of tree and plants that are still conming up. It will be beautiful in a month or so.
We do have a lot of edibles:
Apples
Walnuts
Loganberries
strawberries
raspberries
redcurrants (I think)
Jerusalem artichokes
Cherries
Rhubarb
Hazel nuts
Probably more.
The trouble is that I also have a new Airedale puppy who is also a keen gardener. 
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| ps I been looking everywhere for an aloe vera plant but cant find any... |
Try looking for online seed sites. I found them very easy to grow from seed. Another option is to find someone with an aloe plant and take a cutting or peice of root.My grandma instilled a life long love of growing things into me. I am trying to instill the same into my children. I don't think ther is a more rewarding hobby.
Hey,
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| Quote: | | Not sure if you knew the requirements needed to grow your flytrap, most don't. Smile |
I did know most of them, but I appreciate your advice, because with the information I had, I still haven't had any success. And no, I don't plan to grow it outside... Canada and Fly-traps don't seem to get along |
You may actually have a harder time trying to grow it indoors. The reason being Venus flytraps require a whole lot of sunlight! Full sun all day long is ideal.
Since I live in Miami, FL. USA, I don't have any experience having to deal with freezing temperatures, but heres a link that may help you overwinter your flytrap: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Carnivorous-Plants-711/Venus-Fly-traps.htm
Hope this helps. If you can successfully grow a flytrap, you can grow a whole lot of other beatiful and interesting carnivorous plants! Wow, I was under the impression that it would die off during the winter and I'd be at square one come spring. That's very encouraging.
I'll also try the direct sunlight, I'm waiting for the weather to stabilize, then I'll be trying to plant it again.
Thanks for the help.
I love gardening! Thanks for your very impressive listing...
Hey Pilot, thank you for the tip, I never thought of doing it that way
I know someone with one, will be going to grovel soon. | Bru, stuffce wrote: |
Someone wise once said:
If you want to be happy for a few hours, get drunk.
If you want to be happy for a few months, fall in love.
If you want to be happy forever, take up gardening.
I am a nomad and will only live in my current house for a single year, so I won't be planting anything except tomatoes and lettuce. Still the garden is beautiful and has about a thousand varieties of tree and plants that are still conming up. It will be beautiful in a month or so. |
SO VERY true!
Wow, you're a nomad? I've never seen any nomad in my country. I guess I really have an eye-opener reading this thread! It's really interesting. Reap what you sow right? xDMy friend and I are planting an edible food forest, with everything chosen to meet one or more of the following requirements: human eating, medicinal use, chicken fodder, or benefiting other plants in the garden by fixing nitrogen, accumulating nutrients, attracting beneficial insects, etc.
We just moved in to the hous a year ago, so have only planted the tree, shrub, and vine layers, with some of the ground layer in. The permanent plantings include:
Walnuts (black and english)
Currants (black and white)
Gooseberries
Blueberries
Fig
Persimmons
Edible dogwoods
Silverberries, Goumis and Autumn olives (Elaeagnus sp)
Little leaf pea shrubs (Caragana microphylla)
Cherry
Medlar
Plums
Olives
Hazelnuts
Yellowhorns
Kiwis
Salal
Evergreen huckleberries
Serviceberries
Chestnut
Pawpaws
Raspberries (regular and ground cover)
Strawberries (garden and woodland)
Wolfberry
There are a few more woody perennials to go in but that's the bulk of what we have planned.
For herbaceous plants, we're experimenting with a lot of perennial vegetables, since annuals are a big pain in the ass--they take so much more time and energy than perennials! We do have a pretty big annual area going for this year, but within a couple of years should be transitioned mostly away from those. For perennial vegetables, we're growing or plan to grow:
Jerusalem artichokes
Allium sp - Ramps, Shallots, multiplier onions, egyptian walking onions
Sorrel
Skirret
Scorzonera
Sweet cicely
Fennel
Malva sp (mallows)
Violets
Asparagus
Good king henry
Camassia sp
Stinging nettle
Saltbush
Salad burnet
Chicory
Daylilies
King Solomon's seal
Bistort
Coltsfoot (Petasites)
...and I'm sure I'm forgetting at least a dozen others for which we're trying to start seed but haven't actually tried out yet!
We're also trying to establish patches of self-seeding annuals, including:
Arugula
Chenopodium sp (Lamb's quarters)
Amaranthus sp (Amaranth)
Miner's lettuce and Siberian miner's lettuce (Montia sp.)
Land cress (Barbarea verna)
Ground cherry (Physalis sp)
...and others I don't remember off the top of my head. This isn't a category I've spent a lot of time researching yet.
And lots of the usual annuals, but those are too dull to go into. :)
I have a blog at http://farmerscrub.blogspot.com with a lot of details about our permaculture / urban homesteading experiment. And I'm putting together a website where I can organize all the content in a better way than the blog allows.
Thanks for starting this thread!
Scrub
Portland, OR I'm not a very good gardener but do love to gub around - I think it's very therapeutic! We currently live in a house with a very small garden, it's basically a patio with a small (shady) triangle of garden. I am trying my hand at some container-grown vegetables this year. I have found some tomato plants which (I am told) yield plenty of fruit and look very pretty in hanging baskets. Also, some small carrots ("Parmex" variety) which apparently do well in containers. Then, some radishes and lettuce. Last but not least, I have a few herbs (cooking is another hobby) - coriander, mint, chives, rosemary and thyme.
Any ideas for other vegetables (or varieties) which do well in containers?
Anyone know how to make baby lavenders? I got a stunning french lavender at the front (huge), i'd like some at the back and was wondering how to make babies out of the big one...
Any idea?
Hi Daisy,
I haven't tried to propagate lavender yet, but my understanding is that you can pretty easily do it from cuttings. Here's a useful page I found with a quick search:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/gqt/fsheets/23_06_02/fsheetsq6.shtml
Hope that helps!
Scrub Oh thank you Scrub sound pretty strait forward...
It say to star in july so i ll let you know how i get on. | Daisie wrote: |
Oh thank you Scrub :) sound pretty strait forward...
It say to star in july so i ll let you know how i get on. |
Great, good luck! :)
I might try some cuttings myself, if I'm not too swamped with everything else I'm doing. ;) If I do try them I'll report back here too!
Scrub | miacps wrote: |
I've been growing peppers, tomatoes, spinach and onions(and various herbs) all winter. Its almost that time of the year here where it gets too hot to grow tomatoes.
I see you're growing a flytrap. Just don't try to plant it out in your garden, it'll be dead in no time if regular soil is used. Theres more info on my website if you're interested.
Not sure if you knew the requirements needed to grow your flytrap, most don't.
Oh, another thing that I enjoy growing is catnip. You should give it a try if you have cats but be careful, if you put it in the garden they might trample everything around it as they tear it up. I learned the hard way.. |
I have catnip, too, but I'm growing it in a basket hanging from the eaves of the house so the kitties can't eat it all and kill it... but you should see them crowd around when I step up on the bench by the wall to pick some for them!
Right now I mostly have plants with colorful foliage, because my yard is very shady, and although it's oasis-like in the long, hot Florida summer, flowers and vegetables don't do very well without six hours of direct sunlight a day.
I do have some herbs (basil, cilantro, dill) growing in pots in the few sunny spots in the yard, and I intend to get some of the excess trees cut down eventually, so I can grow tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and summer squash, because the prices at the grocery stores are just getting ridiculous.
There is a major grocery chain store four blocks from my house STILL blaming Hurricane Katrina for the high price of fresh vegetables.
Besides, fresh-picked, homegrown vegetables always taste better. I strongly recommend to anybody with a sunny yard to grow a garden. Get a Dummies book if you have to.Wow scrub, nice list. After all my planting and preparation, I just found out my landlord is sellng my house, so I may never get to harvest my wonderful garden. A little frustrating to say the least!
