The Gardening Thread

[God Stewart]

The weather has just turned nice enough that we've started to plant a few things in our little urban garden. It's teeny tiny but we manage to grow a lot of good stuff. This year we're planting strawberries for the first time and we might try growing Kale too. Our sage plant miraculously survived the Rhode Island winter. I'm going to try growing cilantro again but I've never had much luck with it.

Fresh veggies and herbs! I can't wait for summer.

[noise.light]

I just moved into a new place in Chicago and I have a yard!  I'm so happy about this.  Unfortunately, I've spent most of my time getting rid of garbage so I'm not ready to plant food yet.  However, yesterday I planted to sunflower seeds.  More flowers will be forthcoming until I can get the soil ready for food stuff.

[Jason]

I just planted some sunflowers as well, also threw a handful of mixed flower seeds in a bed. I have a ton of tomato and pepper seedlings on the go and I'm going to plant carrots and melons too.
I don't suppose anybody knows where there might be some wild blackthorns growing in new jersey?

[erika]

Can I grow herbs in pots in the shade? My balcony only gets like an hour or two of sun every day but I want to grow some edible goodies. (Flowers don't seem to survive, even impatients which can thrive in the shade)

Has anyone had success with this?

[senorcorazon]

I hate you all. I live on the 3rd floor and have cats that will destroy anything living inside the house. Outside, I have an underground oil spill in the soil, even if I could get access to it. I miss tomatoes in the summer.

[God Stewart]

A few years back my girlfriend and I spent a whole summer sprouting and growing an avocado tree. We had planted it in a big flower pot and were keeping outside away from my cats. It had some leaves and had grown to about two or three feet tall when winter came around. We brought it inside and the next morning we woke up and it was gone. The cats actually ate the whole tree. All that was left was a what looked like a twig sticking out of the ground. It was depressing.

[erika]

Buy some pots to plant baby tomatoes in! It can work!

My cats eat anything green too so I can't have indoor plants.

Once I move to a house in the fall that will hopefully have an actual yard, I intend to have a massive herb garden. And loads of lavender.

[iAmBaronVonTito]

Can I grow herbs in pots in the shade? My balcony only gets like an hour or two of sun every day but I want to grow some edible goodies. (Flowers don't seem to survive, even impatients which can thrive in the shade)

Has anyone had success with this?

in both of my apartments, our windows faced north and south.  interestingly enough, the impatients thrived as PLANTS, but the flowers fell off?  its still alive and HUGE.  sunflowers grew also, but much slower. 

as for herbs/veggies/etc., not so much. 

[Laurie]

My cats eat anything green too so I can't have indoor plants.

Have you tried putting out live catnip? Your cats might be more interested in that and leave the other plants alone. It's worth a shot!

My cats are indoor/outdoor-romps-in-the-backyard-under-supervision cats. I sometimes buy live catnip for them at the local Home Depot. They love it. I also sometimes forget to bring it in at night, and some other neighborhood cat breaks into my backyard and steals the catnip. Seriously, some dude plucked the whole plant out of the pot leaving only soil and an overturned pot

BOO.

[Beth]

We're starting a big community garden with friends and family this year, since we have so much space. My boyfriend's dad just gave us a great book, called Crockett's Victory Garden which is very helpful in determining when to plant what seeds.
http://www.amazon.com/Crocketts-Victory-Garden-Underwood-Crockett/dp/0316161209

[Sarah]

It's nice to hear that Jim is still helping people with gardening.  That was a good show, once upon a time.  Roger Swain was a poor successor.

[Beth]

Yeah, I love the book! It's nice too, because Tim's dad passed it down to us. It's an old copy, and feels like a special sort of inheritance. I think that gardening is such a nice way for generations to connect with one another.



(Cue the sarcastic "Kumbaya" reply-posts.)

[Beth]

Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but I have a gardening question. Has anyone had experience with growing chickpeas? The internet is not being very helpful.

[Sarah]

Aren't you too far north?

[iAmBaronVonTito]

im glad you dug this thread back up, Beth.  ive been seriously contemplating starting a community garden.  does anyone know how this works or what i need in order to get started?

i assume i need to contact the city...for something.  and i'll need funds of some kind.  fortunately, i have plans to center the garden around a money tree.