Does Anyone Garden?

[Marilyn_S]

My garden spot is nearly complete. My husband and I have been moving dirt and picking up rocks for weeks. Now all we have to do is take our soil sample to the University Extension Office and they will send it to a lab so we can have a read out about our soil type and whether or not we need fertilizer or not and what type. It will take about 7 days. I have all my herbs planed in a separate 10' by 10' raised bed garden. They are doing great. I have thime, parsley, garlic, chamomile, lavender, echinatia, sweet basil, black basil, spearmint, bees balm, and muleum. When these herbs are matured I plan to dry them and grind them to make food spice, tea pouches, candles, pouporie, and home made soap. Has anybody ever heard of dandilion wine. I have an underground storm shelter that is dry and clean and I am thinking about making some. It is said to be a higher anti oxidant than even concord grape wine. Dandilions are so sweet and bitter to eat. I use them to garnish multi flora salads and they taste wonderful. If anybody knows anything about how to make dandilion wine, drop me a line.

 

[Marilyn_S]

I planted Merigolds, Geraniums, and Fucia Cox Combs today in my tomato garden to keep the moth and aphid population down. I plan to use both "Seven" which is a mild pesticide, and garlic spray to keep the Green Horned Tomatoe Worms off.

 

[hodge]

Hi Marilyn,

What part(s) of the dandelion do you use in salads? One of my husband's de-stressing activities is pulling up all the dandelions in our yard. It's be nice if we discovered we liked to eat at least part of them.

I have two geranium plants in my house, so they bloom year round.

I didn't get flowers started from seed this year, as I usually do. But I got in a bunch of tomato and pepper plants. Also planted some store-bought baby peach-colored verbena, bright red impatiens, poppies, moss rose, sweet william, and a few others. And I think my hollyhock from last year is starting to come up again. If it matures, it is supposed to bloom this year. Also doing thyme and parsley. I like to make parsley, onion, cucumber, tomato salad with olive oil and lemon juice.

 

[Marilyn_S]

OK, I have to admit, I'm bragging a little but I just can't keep this one to myself. Hubs and I did not get to do the big garden thing again this year because I've been to sick and in & out of the hospital. Soooooooooo, to make a long story short, I grew tomatoes in my 10'x10' garden. OMG! They grew and grew and grew! I took one tomato off the vine, which is taller than me, and cut it half horizontally to see how big it was in circumference, I kid you not! It was 5" in diameter!!!!!! Needless to say we have about 24 cans of hot packed tomatoes and about 24 more jars of canned salsa.

Hodge, sorry it has taken me so long to get back with ya. Its the flower part of the dandilion that is good in salad. They have a bitter sweet flavor.

 

[Deleted member 541]

My grandfather used to pick dandilions and eat them...Right out of the ground. He gave me one once...OMG I didn't think I would ever get the taste out of my mouth. ( I ate the stem too) YUCK!!!!!!

Thanks for jogging my memory...It was a sweet one for a change....

Wen

 

[hodge]

Hi Marilyn, nice to see you again, and thanks for remembering my question. I might try it next spring -- if Wendy's comment on the taste doesn't scare me off :)

 

[Deleted member 541]

Hodge,

May I suggest that you don't eat the stem.....YUCK!!!!

 

[hodge]

Ha ha, I'll remember that, Wendy!

 

[logan]

This summer it was really to hot even with watering my plants reached 6 feet and small tomatoes it's cooling at night so i might get alot more

 

[mer]

cheaper than a shrink

ooo! gardeners! yay!

i do. it's been a weirdly warm october here but cooling down now. i am well into fall cleanup so as to get it all done before snow flies. snowflies are NOT a garden pest.

i have to garden in short 10 minute bursts and then rest 20 then at it again. then a day or two off to recover. ptsd has made me a persistantly dirty old woman...LOL.

does anyone else grieve the end of the growing season? i just dread the long, cold, grey drear of winters here. i'm already collecting 'garden porn'--gardening catalogs--and ready to map out new projects for spring 08 to while away the winter.

the community vegetable garden is installed to be semi-handicap accessable, my own ornamental beds are fairly low maintenance (if i could just leave them be...but where's the fun in that?).

ummm. managment ideas--i use a medium sized handled basket to transport (and keep me from losing and searching for) tools, seeds, ties, etc. we have 'arthritic' hand tools, which reduce orthomuscular effort. i do the work a little rest a little strategy. we barter future fresh organic veggies with the big hairy neighbors for help with the heavy digging and such at start of season (since none of us can do it anymore). we grow and sell freshcut organic herbs to local bistros in the summertime to fund garden improvements and tools. and we all help each other with harvesting and processing for storage. we have a couple of BBQs a year out in the garden to celebrate and enjoy the peace and wealth of it as a place of healing and happiness.

i guess you can see that i'm fairly mad for gardening *GRIN*. working with plants and soil is the best therapy i know. do you feel the same? i am SO glad there are other gardeners here.

wait.....maybe i should start a 'dog therapy' thread too.......

lol.

mer

 

[EmoxxKid]

I love to garden but we just moved...no place for it now;(

 

[logan]

We've had frost here witch i s late so i'v got get and save the tomatoes tomorrow
witch is good because my chain saw is broken
my son did an test at school using four different type of water to grow seeds
for sum reason the micro waved water had the best result
so next week i'm goning to try the same but with 6 different types of water