2023 - what are you growing?

[Alisamer]

This forum looks a little dead, but the plants where I live are waking up! 

I'm working on a brand new garden, this year, in the new (old) house. I think the wife of the couple that bought the house when my parents sold it back when I was in high school was into gardening a bit, but then as she aged and her health declined everything got beyond what she could handle. Also, her taste and mine don't line up all that well. 

So, first matter of business for this year is cleanup. The driveway is kind of long and is lined with a brushy mess of small trees, shrubs, and gobs of invasive honeysuckle. We've got the worst portion of it cleared out but still have plenty more to go. There are two very large trees along there that we are going to leave, but I think the rest is going to be cut down entirely. It's just too messy, too overgrown, and to top it all off the power lines run across there, so I may need to see if the power company will come deal with the tops of the trees at least. 

Also, at one point, she planted an English Ivy. It REALLY liked it's space. Like, I've spent hours already on it and it is still not all cleared out. There was an ivy-covered vertical thing that looked like it could have been a lightpost, but it wasn't - it was a trellis, with a larger trellis wired to it, with two tall metal poles wound through that, and third and fourth trellises added in later for more support. I found, upon working on it, that the driveway is wider in that spot than I'd thought. And there are boards marking the border of the driveway and the adjacent flower bed.

Once the ivy is gone, as much as possible (I went after it with the weedeater yesterday, may try the hedge trimmer this evening) I intend to till that area under and make it my first flower bed. I may put down a few layers of cardboard over top and plant through small holes in that, though, just to try and prevent as much ivy regeneration as possible. 

I have been picking up clearance plants here and there this spring - creeping phlox, a dwarf forsythia, some variegated boxwoods, and two encore azaleas. I also have flowers started from seed - sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, helichrysum, lavender, rudbeckia and echinacea are some of them. I'm hoping to be able to plant this weekend even though we aren't quite past our last frost date yet. The local compost sale is this Friday so we plan to get some of that to till into the soil as well.

I have big plans for the front flower garden, and a shade garden out back, and planting around the little plastic pond that came with the house. There are pathways that need to be redone, a deck that needs help, and lots of raggedy overgrown mess to clean up. Not to mention a row of Pampas Grass that is nearly twice my height. So this is going to be a LONG process.

What are you all planning and planting? I've not done a ton of gardening myself before this, just small stuff, but am looking forward to having a pretty space to enjoy!

[Coconut Flan]

I have my seedling heirloom Thai chiles going.  I was a bit late this spring, but they're doing wel lconsidering the weather.  Garlic is growing as is ginger.  The lemon grass cuttings failed so I ordered some rooted cuttings.  

I had a huge pot bound foxtail fern that broke its pot.  I finally took an axe to it and was able to get off a small 6 inch section to repot.  The housekeeper and I couldn't manage the plant remaining so it's sitting out in the rain in my side yard.  😁  It can sit there until the gardeners get here.  

I have babies of this plant growing on the enclosed porch to fill in the blank spot in the front flower bed.

It's very appropriately called California Sunset.

[47of74]

I just have the condo with the screened in patio so I just figure on doing some tomatoes and maybe some other plants as well.  The way my condo is positioned it's in direct sunlight for several hours a day and will be about seven hours a day by the time June 21 rolls around.

Probably going to wait a week or two before I start planting because we're supposed to have some more winter weather this week and I don't know about coverage over Easter if I need someone to head in and water.  Plus I think last year I didn't really plant anything until later in April. 

Here's the start of my plant collection from last year. 

By the end of the season they had grown a lot and all I really did was give them plenty to drink in the mornings.

Edited March 29, 2023 by 47of74

[Alisamer]

My clearance plants are all in my garage tonight since we are having one last cold snap this evening apparently. I have a strawberry plant in my kitchen with really pretty flowers, and am putting my seedlings (that need separation) out on the deck in the afternoons. 
I didn’t get to the ivy this evening. 

[Smash!]

@Alisameryour plan sounds lovely!  

@Coconut Flan I always wanted a plant like the one in your picture. 😀

I will try to grow veggies on the balcony for the first time. I haven‘t much space tough but I‘m very excited! I will plant salad, zucchini and a variation of a small cucumber. 

[Scrabblemaster]

I will try with Salad, Chili and borage. I have no intention to try again woth cucumber or zuccini because the plants were eaten by snails last year. The chili seeds seem to be infertile, I collected them from my chilis from last year. But I bought a pack of chili seeds in the store to be sure I will get Chili this year again. 

[tabitha2]

Dill, sage and lavender! 

[Coconut Flan]

My best luck with germinating chiles is to put them between layers of wet paper towel and put that in a plastic refrigerator container so they don't dry out.  I don't seal it, but leave some room for air circulation and add a little water daily.  

[Scrabblemaster]

I misread it as: you put the seeds in the refridgerator. Then I I read again. I will absolutely try that. Thanks!

[Smash!]

Lavender doesn‘t wanna grow on my balcony no matter the pot it is in. Maybe it‘s because it doesn‘t get enough direct sunlight? There‘s a big tree in front of it.

[Coconut Flan]

My "lavender forest" as the grandson named it grows in full sun in southern California so lavender can take the sun.  

When he was pre-school age the plants were all taller than he was so walking through the plants probably did feel more like a forest to him.  

Edited March 30, 2023 by Coconut Flan

[Alisamer]

Got a good bit of work done this weekend! Spent way too much money at a garden center (most of my plants are clearance from the "distressed plant" racks at Lowes, or seedlings I started earlier) but got some cute stuff I'd had on my wishlist. 

It looks pretty messy, TBH. We only got this section here done - it involved lots of digging out ivy roots. Then we tilled it, and tilled in some compost. Across the front are creeping phlox, with tiny alyssum seedlings between them. One of the seedlings has a bitty little flower! On the left in the corner is a Tater Tot Arborvitae. The phlox continues around the corner behind it. Along the back is a sad little mini salvia, a Candy Corn Spirea, the teeny red shrub is a Sunjoy Neo Barberry. In the center is a variegated english boxwood on the right, a Little Lime Punch hydrangea, and an Autum Embers azalea. In between there are seedlings popped in, some annual candytuft, liliput zinnias, helichrysum, and a couple lavender. At the very back are some leggy sunflower and giant zinnia seedlings. 

Current plan is to leave the giant yucca and the other shrub (I think a forsythia) probably until fall. They are just huge and entrenched and going to be a massive pain to remove. This messes up my plan for along the front of the house, but it'll work - we'll do along the front of the porch and at the other end of the house next. We're thinking probably cut flowers for in front of the porch this year, since the brick pathway there is going to be moved out a bit and widened eventually.

In the fall I'll pull out the annuals as they fade and hopefully put lots of spring bulbs in among the perennials all along the front.

I have a few plants and seedlings left. I'm thinking of doing a no-till bed in a grassy area at the corner of the yard. 

[Jigsaw3]

Basic question: what are you using to till? I have a lawn that needs a good aeration, and a back yard that's hammered down dirt. They could both use some work. Do you recommend a stompy thing that puts in holes? Or a more complicated rototiller?

[Alisamer]

15 hours ago, Jigsaw3 said:

Basic question: what are you using to till? I have a lawn that needs a good aeration, and a back yard that's hammered down dirt. They could both use some work. Do you recommend a stompy thing that puts in holes? Or a more complicated rototiller?

We used a rototiller for the planting beds, an old gas thing my dad got from somewhere decades ago LOL! I am no expert at all but I'd not use a rototiller on a lawn unless you were totally starting entirely from scratch - it makes the dirt pretty fluffy and uneven (I really needed to level out the dirt in my bed better, but we were running short on time).

I've also heard that the current wisdom is that tilling can somehow break up the structure of the soil and also bring dormant weed seeds to the surface where they can germinate. We had no real choice with all the roots and mess we were dealing with, but I'm going to try a "no till" method elsewhere in the yard to make a new planting bed, I think. The idea is to put down a layer of cardboard where you want the bed to be, overlapping the pieces so there are no gaps, then wet it down really well and cover it with like 4 inches of compost. The cardboard kills the grass and weeds and then breaks down into the soil. Some people then plant directly into the compost on top of the cardboard and the roots are supposed to be able to go through into the ground. 

For a lawn I think I'd use an aerator. Probably a rolling thing you can pull behind a lawnmower if you have one - the kind that either punches holes or pulls up little plugs. My dad made one once that you can fill with water to add weight when you are using it. I've also seen someone use a "sifter" thing to apply compost to an area before re-seeding grass. It was like a rolling tube made of metal mesh, they filled it with compost and pulled it across the area a few times to leave a thin layer of fine compost all over the soil to amend it. I think they rented it. 

I've not addressed the lawn at all yet. The part where they gas company trenched and re-seeded looks nice, but the rest is a mess. Much of the back yard is wild violets, not grass. Which I kind of like, they stay pretty short!

I am getting a tree guy to come give us an estimate on some tree work - we have a combo of really huge old trees that need some maintenance, a strangely placed magnolia, and smaller trees that are in various states of health. The dogwoods look great, but some others are just a scraggly mess. 

[Alisamer]

Apparently Aldi is getting some cool gardening supplies in this week - including an elevated raised bed planter. I'm going to get one for my back deck. I stopped in yesterday and they didn't have it there yet, but did have a few other things like a plant shelf. 

[Coconut Flan]

This is my next project:

[Alisamer]

23 hours ago, Coconut Flan said:

This is my next project:

Those are gorgeous!

The Aldi I went to yesterday did not have the raised bed. But there are a few others nearby so I'll check those out, too.

So far nothing appears to have died in my planting bed, and it looks like maybe one or two things are putting on a little growth. I have alyssum seedlings blooming, they are tiny little things but they have flowers!

[Alisamer]

Y'all. My strawberries, in my kitchen, have APHIDS. 

Well, one of the plants does. The other seems clean. I put the infested one (of course the one with the most berries on it) out on the deck and ordered some neem oil spray. Eww. 

I also, however, bought a good bit of garden stuff at Aldi yesterday. They had a nice looking (I haven't assembled it yet) elevated raised garden bed that I'm going to put on the deck, some tall shepherd's hooks, plant stands, and planters. I got home, had dinner, got all that stuff out of the car, planted a few seedlings in the flower bed, and then as I was finishing watering them in it started to rain. 

My new Aldi rain gauge says it rained over an inch last night. Tomorrow should be partly sunny, then more rain Sunday, then nice and warming up all next week, it looks like. I have another bed to till but if it's soggy tomorrow it'll have to wait a few days and I'll have to do it after work.

I do have a tree service coming to give me an estimate on some work in the yard. My previously full sun bed is less full sun than I thought now that the branch I thought was dead has leafed out. I'm hoping I can have them at minimum limb up several of the trees to get more light to the ground, for both the plants and the grass. Ideally I'd have one whole tree removed as well, but that depends entirely on how much it costs. 

[Smash!]

My seedlings grew all long and thin with only two leafs on the stem. Rookie mistake, they love it colder than our 25 celsius in the room and need more light. I just bought a plant lamp and hope the 2nd try is a success.

[Alisamer]

On 4/15/2023 at 1:45 PM, Smash! said:

My seedlings grew all long and thin with only two leafs on the stem. Rookie mistake, they love it colder than our 25 celsius in the room and need more light. I just bought a plant lamp and hope the 2nd try is a success.

Have you considered seedling heat mats? I haven't tried them but I hear that especially for things like tomatoes they can really help germination. The legginess is really probably light I'd bet. I installed some LED strip plant lights on the bottom of one of my kitchen cabinets, and it definitely helped some of my seedlings! Now there's a strawberry plant under there, and I ate a strawberry from it yesterday. I also got a wire shelf and tie-strapped cheap grow lights to it, and it worked well for seedlings and now I have a bowl of succulents on there that appear to be thriving. 

I hung some lights around my deck last night. I need to assemble my second raised planting bed still, and have a few little plants to put there. And ordered some seeds yesterday. A little late, but hopefully they'll grow. None of the stuff I planted last week has germinated yet - I may go pick up some seed starting mix this evening and use some extra seeds to start some indoors and see if that moves them along.

My one blueberry that isn't bare-root sticks still actually has flowers! I hope I'll have a small handful of blueberries this year. 

[Coconut Flan]

My granddaughter is showing interest in taking up gardening! For earth day they had a week of simple homework assignments to choose from.  There were things like shorter showers, taking out recycling, and such and a line where they could add their own.  She picked plant a native plant so we went to the nursery and she asked themm to show her native plants, chose one, and we took it home and found a spot.   She also wanted more plants and has been diligently watering them..  She wants ALL the plants!

[Smash!]

@Alisamer My seedlings are on a window bench above a radiator. I don‘t think temperature is the issue. My grow lamp came, I don‘t know if the light is strong enough tough.

I had to google APHIDS. Those tiny creatures infested all my plants outside and I discovered it this spring when I took the peppermint inside. For two years now I wondered why there were ants all over my plants 🤦🏻‍♀️ I got rid of all the plants and soil. This week I discovered the only remaining plant was affected as well. I will start completely fresh once the cold is gone. 😊

[Alisamer]

1 minute ago, Smash! said:

@Alisamer My seedlings are on a window bench above a radiator. I don‘t think temperature is the issue. My grow lamp came, I don‘t know if the light is strong enough tough.

I had to google APHIDS. Those tiny creatures infested all my plants outside and I discovered it this spring when I took the peppermint inside. For two years now I wondered why there were ants all over my plants 🤦🏻‍♀️ I got rid of all the plants and soil. This week I discovered the only remaining plant was affected as well. I will start completely fresh once the cold is gone. 😊

Ugh Aphids are awful. I have been using a Neem oil spray which seems to have helped. I also got mosquito dunks to put in my little pond outside, and soaked half of one in some water to water all my indoor plants - this is supposed to eliminate any fungus gnat larvae in the soil. it doesn't help with the adults but hopefully will prevent new ones. The biggest outdoor pest here is Japanese Beetles. I haven't seen any yet but I did kill two grubs when tilling up a planting bed so I know they will be around. We'll see how terrible they are. 

I got nothing much done this weekend, it rained Saturday and I was busy Sunday - but I did see I have spinach seedlings! I have a few more things to plant so I am hoping I can muster the energy to get out and do that this evening after work. I picked up a bare-root rose at Aldi this weekend... I'm going to plant it in a pot and see how it does.

[Coconut Flan]

I've been filling in empty spots in the flower beds and I could quit now, but I think I'll add a couple more plants.  I started some cuttings last week.

This morning I potted two itty bitty babies of the California Sunset succulent I started from dropped leaves.  One is for granddaughter and one is for my older daughter.

Edited May 22, 2023 by Coconut Flan

[47of74]

And here’s my collection so far this year. 

So far a couple flower plants and a couple tomato plants. I’m hope to get some decent sized tomatoes off the one in the larger pot.  Might get a couple more plants too.