http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=246x8801Okay, I'm following my usual practice of laying off the primitives in the gardening forum.
And so no unkind comments here, from me.
Inchworm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Jun-25-08 01:06 AM
Original message
Although I'm not having a "whole" lot of luck with my first garden, I'm sure learning as I go.
There is time left to figure out what I'm doing hehe. I had to basically let all my spinach go because I thought the tall, cool stem that becomes a flower was cool. That makes it taste not so good. I tested a lot of it after I washed it. It was hmmm, yum yum.. then it tasted like grass.
I also learned to keep better records. I'm still letting things grow because I cannot tell if they are a weed or not. Either way they are getting watered well.
I swear it is fun and I don't care if it doesn't all work out so much as I care to learn to do better each go.
I have like 8 green maters.. weeee!
Thought I'd share. I do learn a lot from here. LoL..well, I still swear I read to tear the first flowers off a 'mater plant. I'm still catching hell for doing that.
Well, I dunno.
I toss some seeds in the ground, and let the eart--er, the planet--take care of the matter.
As it always does.
I'm not no expert on botany, and there's all sorts of flora that grow out here in the Sandhills of Nebraska; generally, if something looks like it's threatening vegetation known to me, I pull it out.
For the record, circa 90% of what I plant and grow, well, autumn comes, and then hard freezes, and then everything turns dark green and finally black, and then after winter has departed, life recycles.
lwfern Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Jun-25-08 10:16 AM
Response to Original message
1. I have a few of those mystery plants.
I've been gardening off and on forever, but now I have senior moments that compensate for any experience I've gained.
I acquired a batch of compressed peat pots, which I generally don't use. Put seeds on them, carefully labeled them because I had a variety of stuff in the tray, poured water on them. Well, the peat repels water initially, so all the seeds floated up and off the pots into an unidentified mass. My second attempt at the pots was going good, til I left them out and they got dumped on with the rain. I gently gently tilted the tray to let the excess water run off. Too much tilt - all the pots tumbled over and again I lost track of what was what. I think I'm more of a direct seeder.
I have a few mystery weed-vegetables that I'm watering well also.
MuseRider Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Jun-25-08 10:37 AM
Response to Original message
2. I used to have small gardens and had a pretty green thumb but then I bought the farm and moved and added to my horses and the gardening went by the wayside. Now that I am living out here I am back into it although it was late and haphazard. I have lots of stuff I am watering that is unidentifiable. Is that the chives or the grass? Whatever, I will know eventually.
One thing I did learn. Never plant seeds when your goats are running around. Every square inch of my garden has cilantro growing. One good butt to the arm holding the seed packet on a windy day and there they went! The strand of electric wire is working well for them, the dogs, the other wild critters and the geese that have decimated my wildflower garden. You want to talk about growing stuff you don't know? My wildflower garden is a mess. I have a few that I know are wildflowers but the rest? No clue, not yet anyway!
It is all about learning as you go.
Love the spinach story.
As for pruning the tomatoes, my husband is a tomato freak. He loves them more than life itself (not hard to understand) and one year at our first house he planted 4 big pots outside and grew these beautiful plants. They were loaded with flowers and a few small tomatoes. He was so excited and so proud. Well his mother came for a visit. She went outside one nice afternoon and when she came in she informed us that while she sat there she pruned our tomato plants. Down to nothing I tell you. She essentially pruned every growing part off all of them. I think it is the only time I ever saw my husband cry.
Thanks for sharing. It is fun isn't it?
If one has cats, one doesn't have to worry about goats and rabbits and deer and coyotes and other vermin in the garden. And if one trains those cats well, one doesn't have to worry about mothers-in-law hanging around either, messing things up.
