Your family's gardening plans (with pics)

I built my wife a new garden this year. Slightly raised, filled it in with about 8 tons of new topsoil.

We usually tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions, carrots, radishes, sweet peas, gourds, etc. Also tried lettuce, cabbage, and strawberries this year. Also have raspberries, rhubarb, and apples.


Very nice! :+1:

Wow, great job :open_mouth:

Here’s my container garden area before 2017 hurricane Harvey. I’ve got it pretty much rebuilt since but no current pics.

We grow tomatoes, peppers, squash, herbs, cucumbers, radishes, and broccoli. Also have a mint garden .

I could swear this pic was crystal clear back then. Dunno what happened. Yes I do. The pic was shot in panorama view, but Imgur apparently doesn’t accommodate it.

!

!

We live in the sub Tropics here.
Lots a water. Then none for up to 8 months.
Most don’t bother watering the front grass.
It just goes differing shades of brown till it reaches black.
3 days after first rain it’s all green shoots again.

Me.
I’m a green concrete person. Hose down once a month.

Landscaped gardens are fine. On someboddy elses block thank you.
Nice to walk past occasionally.

PS Wonder why I lived on my yacht for yrs.
Rented out the unit.

We used to grow some of our own food...

But now where we live we have coyotes, and they are attracted to people food.

We don't want coyotes in our yard because there's a good possibility they might kill my dog if given the chance.

I grow carrots, onions, leeks, white beetroot, turnips, raspberries, blackcurrants, Morello cherries, Medlars, sweet quinces, tomatoes, and chillis. Unfortunately the chillis were not even the species claimed on the packet, had no taste and no flavour. Some tomatoes grew wild, from tomatoes discarded on soil, and they’ve grown into huge plants with very tasty fruits, far better than bought ones. Carrots, onions and leeks are easy to grow. Unfortunately blackbirds kept getting under the netting and digging up the leek seedlings, so I had to buy in leek seedlings from a garden centre, and plant those. When I removed the netting yesterday, I found the skeletons of two young birds. I checked each day to let out any trapped birds, but these were hidden from view. The juveniles get in even when the netting is held down with pegs and stones.

England is dark and damp in winter, but our climate is not so bad, and near perfect for 8 months of the year. But crops such as squash and chillis are hit and miss as they need lots of warmth and sun.

I had a pair of red legged partridges visit regularly, then 11 chicks appeared, but soon disappeared. We reckon a fox ate them all. :frowning:

Yesterday, my sister picked up a False Ocotillo from Home Depot.

It was only $8.

We'll grow it in its pot in a shady area until summer is over.

Then it goes in the ground.

The False Ocotillo has been in the ground for a while now.

It's in an area where wild rabbits like to visit.

They've eaten a bunch of the small leaves.

My sister sprayed it with some stuff that usually repels rabbits, but it hasn't worked on this plant.

So she added some chicken wire around it.

It still has some leaves left, and I'm sure it will be fine.

I think it loses all of its leaves once it gets cold enough anyway, as it is deciduous.

I just ordered an Aloe Hercules from Etsy!

This is my first Etsy purchase, and I really wanted this plant.

I'm so excited.

With shipping and sales tax, it came to about $20

It is quite expensive for such a small plant, but it should grow quickly and become quite large in maybe in a decade or two.

Here's a pic from the Etsy listing.

In the photo, the plant is in a 3" pot.

The Aloe ships bare-root, which is fine with me.

Growing catnip in a pot. Got that catnip “oregano” that comes in a plastic jar, apparently some viable seeds inside got wind-blown into the front dirt garden and even cracks in the sidewalk, started sprouting. Plucked a few of them, roots and all, and grew them in a small flowerpot, and most of them “took”.

Of course, Joel The Cat got a whiff of them on the windowsill, and head-bumped the living crap out of the biggest sprout, so now the bruised stem is bent and it’s hanging down.

Might snip it and try to get it to sprout roots, and let the stump hopefully grow back. Will see…

I received a Lemon Bean Bush, also from Etsy.

So now I have all the plants that I wanted for this year.

Once the Lemon Bean Bush is large enough, I will take cuttings and propagate it to make a hedge.

If someone on Etsy or eBay sells cuttings on the cheap, I'll buy Lemon Bean Bush cuttings.

By the way, the Aloe Hercules looks good, but it hasn't grown very much so far.

I think the green leaves darkened a little, but at least it's still alive.

I put some Carpobrotus chilensis (ice plant) cuttings around the Hercules.

So far they don't look that impressive, but they are growing quickly.

Here's a pic of my favorite ice plant.

I do have a few interesting plants that I tend to. The Venus flytraps are in hibernation now(not the one below). They hibernate during the winter. When hibernating they look black and shrivel but there're alive in the soil. The others I keep for insect control during the summer. The Figs I eat. The chilli I eat.

Dionanea Muscipula (Venus Flytrap)

Nepenthes (Pitcher Plant)

Hanging Monkey Cups

Figs

Cobra Head

Drosera Sundews

Hot Chilli

I used to have plenty of American Pitcher Plants and some Sundews.

I never got into Venus Fly Traps or Asian Pitcher Plants.

Your plants look very healthy!

Oh nice you have some too. Those sundews are like weeds. They'll spread their seeds and grow everywhere. And they are quite hardy too. Hey thanks for the compliment but they do need requirements. The big one is Light! You need red and blue and the right ones too. I needed to build a grow light so I ordered a few parts and made my own. As one can see from the photos below, not professional by any means but I just did it on the fly. The silver hood is from those 600v metal halides lights. The rest is parts I ordered online.

I grew mine outdoors.

(I don't do houseplants, but my other family members do.)

For sundews, I only had good luck with cape sundews and fork-leaved sundews.

I tried some others, but they always died.

Nice nice good taste for sundews! :slight_smile: And you live in desert region! Wow you won’t need a grow light. Man I always wanted to live in the desert. Tan all year, summer all year! :sunglasses: :beer: You’re lucky you don’t have to clear snow from driveway. Good stuff :+1:

Nice!

Here’s my little apartment garden.

I thought I was done getting new types of plants for this winter.

I was wrong!

Now I want to get a small succulent tree.

The one that looks good to me today is the Malagasy Tree Aloe.

It gets about ten feet tall and five feet wide.

After some more thought, I am not going to a Malagasy Tree Aloe.

It's not cold hardy enough.

Looks like I'll get an Aloe ferox.

It gets to about the same size as the Malagasy Tree Aloe.

I ordered the Aloe ferox.

It was about $25.

My hobby of gardening is kinda expensive because I like rare plants.

This is what the Aloe should look somewhat like:

This is my third order with Etsy.

They just happen to have the plants that I want at a decent price.