Gardening Talk

[puff_not_snuff]

New ones to me, but puntarella and sculpit (after looking them up) sound really nice to me. I enjoy arugula A LOT and it seems similar category.

I order all my Italian specialty seeds from this place:

Seeds from Italy

Shop our selection of open-pollinated heirloom seeds from Franchi Sementi! Explore the best imported Italian gifts from Due Cigni, Rigamonti, Haxnicks and more!

www.growitalian.com

I like to grow things which I can't find or are expensive when I do. Puntarella is one of those things I see occasionally but is rather pricy.

Last year I grew Cardoons which I have never seen sold until I went to the trouble of blanching mine (covering most the plants with burlap for a month) before harvesting and then... saw them being sold at Wegmans (an north east upscale supermarket chain)! That was oddly disappointing... Anyways, not growing them this year as I didn't care for the taste in relation to the trouble although they are interesting looking plants. I did try to overwinter them but they sadly didn't come back.

Edit: regarding puntarella I really wouldn't compare it to arugula as it has a different sort of bitterness and a different texture. It's great with an anchovy dressing and eaten this way you cut the stalks length wise soak them in ice water and run a knife along them after in the same manner that a person curls ribbon with the edge of a scissor.

 

[Peter Turbo]

Some shots from a clients garden I was working on a couple years ago. Yes, I do this for a living.

 

[FLDRD]

I order all my Italian specialty seeds from this place:

Seeds from Italy

Shop our selection of open-pollinated heirloom seeds from Franchi Sementi! Explore the best imported Italian gifts from Due Cigni, Rigamonti, Haxnicks and more!

www.growitalian.com

I like to grow things which I can't find or are expensive when I do. Puntarella is one of those things I see occasionally but is rather pricy.

Last year I grew Cardoons which I have never seen sold until I went to the trouble of blanching mine (covering most the plants with burlap for a month) before harvesting and then... saw them being sold at Wegmans (an north east upscale supermarket chain)! That was oddly disappointing... Anyways, not growing them this year as I didn't care for the taste in relation to the trouble although they are interesting looking plants. I did try to overwinter them but they sadly didn't come back.

Edit: regarding puntarella I really wouldn't compare it to arugula as it has a different sort of bitterness and a different texture. It's great with an anchovy dressing and eaten this way you cut the stalks length wise soak them in ice water and run a knife along them after in the same manner that a person curls ribbon with the edge of a scissor.

Thanks, I saved that link

 

[puff_not_snuff]

Thanks, I saved that link

FYI, they are offering free shipping through the holiday weekend for orders over $20. I've become a bit addicted to ordering seeds but at least it's a cheaper habit than tobacco.

 

[FLDRD]

FYI, they are offering free shipping through the holiday weekend for orders over $20. I've become a bit addicted to ordering seeds but at least it's a cheaper habit than tobacco.

Having food seeds in case the excrement hits the blades, can be far wiser than having tobacco. I play around with my gardening (per above) and simply hope to improve annually. It's a pleasure to eat my own produce, and supply chain interruptions can be a reality.

 

[puff_not_snuff]

Having food seeds in case the excrement hits the blades, can be far wiser than having tobacco. I play around with my gardening (per above) and simply hope to improve annually. It's a pleasure to eat my own produce, and supply chain interruptions can be a reality.

Good point- but that also requires property with an independent water supply, which I sadly don't have. I do all gardening at my Mom's as I have to check on her weekly. I've only been at it 3 years and like most things I've learned the most from trial and error / making mistakes. I took an introduction to plant science last year and can't say that really helped me all that much. Gardening for me, even when things aren't going as planned, is probably the most rewarding (mentally) hobby I've gotten into.

 

[pantsBoots]

I've got a few irons in the fire in the gardening world, largely propagating and establishing perennials at our newish (2 years) house. Diligent cover cropping and some composting is helping to build the topsoil in this old hay field. This is one of my new-to-me experiments for this year - companion planting buckwheat along with the tomatoes to produce a "Phosphorus Pump" effect:


A long, cool spring has held the hot peppers on the right at bay, but they're establishing and I've even got an arbol pushing out its first fruit for the year already. We need some good, old southern heat to set those guys going.

 

[Pooh-Bah]

Rustica went in the ground today. Didn't take any pictures while it was light out, which I'll rectify another day.

I expect if they make it to harvest, I'll end up trying my hand at cavendishing some of it.

 

[warren]

After my wife died a few years ago I let her gardens go to pot. This Spring I decided to recover her favorite. She handled gardens and I the lawns and lilacs. So, with the help of a very knowing neighbor I'm learning weeds from flowers early, before the bloom. I even purchased a kneeler so I get uup and down on my knees. A real learning curve for an oldster.

 

[Tbaggins]

After my wife died a few years ago I let her gardens go to pot. This Spring I decided to recover her favorite. She handled gardens and I the lawns and lilacs. So, with the help of a very knowing neighbor I'm learning weeds from flowers early, before the bloom. I even purchased a kneeler so I get uup and down on my knees. A real learning curve for an oldster.

Any tips on getting a lilac going? My parents have several and I’d like to use theirs to plant in my yard.

 

[warren]

I'd get a couple of cuttings and put in a bucket of water until roots start then plant 'em. I lace the water with shrub food from the local nursery. Any brand seems to work. Up here in Alaska we urinate over the root limits, the outer area beneath the outer leaves, when planted. Hope that makes sense. Doing so seems to result in more blooms annually. I should note, I have no neighbors in the immediate area so, it's convenient and easy. That was a tip I got from on out local Master Gardeners, a female by the way. I'm guessing she encouraged her husband to "hose" 'em down. I do it all winter, in the snow, so the ground soaks up whatever it is they seem to use. Perhaps TMI but, works like a charm!

 

[Tbaggins]

I'd get a couple of cuttings and put in a bucket of water until roots start then plant 'em. I lace the water with shrub food from the local nursery. Any brand seems to work. Up here in Alaska we urinate over the root limits, the outer area beneath the outer leaves, when planted. Hope that makes sense. Doing so seems to result in more blooms annually. I should note, I have no neighbors in the immediate area so, it's convenient and easy. That was a tip I got from on out local Master Gardeners, a female by the way. I'm guessing she encouraged her husband to "hose" 'em down. I do it all winter, in the snow, so the ground soaks up whatever it is they seem to use. Perhaps TMI but, works like a charm!

That’s great info I appreciate it! The girlfriend can’t get mad at me for pissing in the yard now.

 

[UB 40]

Good point- but that also requires property with an independent water supply, which I sadly don't have. I do all gardening at my Mom's as I have to check on her weekly. I've only been at it 3 years and like most things I've learned the most from trial and error / making mistakes. I took an introduction to plant science last year and can't say that really helped me all that much. Gardening for me, even when things aren't going as planned, is probably the most rewarding (mentally) hobby I've gotten into.

My father taught me how to do it. But now our garden in the centre of the town is to small to grow food in certain amount. Just for fun we grow some tomatoes in pots a few spices, pepperoni, Kohlrabi in a raised bed are.

Most of all we put roses into the ground formerly covered with grass. We immigrated the roses, around 20 different plants from our former big big lot. But there is also a small apple tree and an enormous holler about 9 metres in height in that small garden. It’s full of plants growing intentionally or by chance. Wild one we love it.

 

[Peter Turbo]

Shots from a clients garden I was working in on Friday, hard to believe its was only planted 3 years ago. I guess thats what planting in 14 inches of compost will do.

 

[UB 40]

My father taught me how to do it. But now our garden in the centre of the town is to small to grow food in certain amount. Just for fun we grow some tomatoes in pots a few spices, pepperoni, Kohlrabi in a raised bed are.

Most of all we put roses into the ground formerly covered with grass. We immigrated the roses, around 20 different plants from our former big big lot. But there is also a small apple tree and an enormous holler about 9 metres in height in that small garden. It’s full of plants growing intentionally or by chance. Wild one we love it.

 

[mawnansmiff]

I see mention of various techniques for ridding the garden of slugs. I used to use beer dishes on the polytunnels and a good sprinkling of soot all around the border of the veg patch. Slugs HATE soot as the sulphur burns them.

I asked our chimneysweep once if we might keep our soot for the garden, fine he said, I can even drop some off for you if you like. I said thanks very much.

Three days later I found about 20 sacks of the stuff that he'd dumped on us overnight!

Regards,

Jay.

 

[Jaylotw]

We need rain on the farm, soon. I'm running irrigation daily, pumping our spring dry and watching each night as the inflow slows to a trickle. Dry and hot, the exact weather I hate!

Despite that, things are actually looking pretty damn good. We're transitioning to summer planting mode, as all of our early spring crops like lettuce and spinach and arugula can't take the heat. In the field now, in rounded numbers:

900 kohlrabi (red, white, green, gingante)
400 cabbage (tiara and conqueror I think)
500 Brussels
~1500 bok, pac, tot soi
600 mustards
400 rainbow Chards
300 kales
350 assorted cukes
300 zuke, yellow, pattypans
75 collards
100 cherry tomatoes
Approx. 8,000 onions
Approx 12,000 garlic

100'x2.5' beds:
4 salad mix
8 assorted turnips
3 french breakfast radish
3 carrots
1 asian greens mix
3 salanova lettuce
2 scallions
1 basil

Coming up this week is planting 25 100' rows of potatoes, and maybe some hail Mary lettuce and chois. Peppers, San Marzanos, flowers, winter squash and eggplants to follow the week after.

It's just two of us, with a part timer to help harvest on Fridays. I'm very, very tired.

Somebody do a rain dance already!

 

[Pooh-Bah]

The smoke from Canada has mostly passed over us now. Yesterday I planted my seeds for Salsify and melons in the garden, and plucked a half-dozen leaves from my most mature plant (started indoors back in December, kept it indoors for easier seed harvest) and set 'em on the porch held under a bucket to try and cure 'em. I don't know if there'll be time to get more Samsun started from the seeds - if not, I'll be looking at a heavily Rustic-slanted crop this year.

 

[puff_not_snuff]

Can anyone confirm if this is in fact a tobacco plant in my raised bed?!

 

[scloyd]

I planted pumpkins for the first time. I thinned them out to five plants. If I get two pumpkins for my grandsons, I'll consider that a success.