I'm pretty new to gardening. but I'm up under a grow light. I'm trying to grow an herb garden and a few veggies from containers. Wish me luck. :)
So far I've got:
Spearmint
Broccoli
Raddishes
Cherry tomatoes (2 types)
Purple Cherokees
Citronella
Lemon Balm
Jalapenos
Finger peppers
I'm in Zone 5 and hope to put everything in the ground by May.
Potatoes, Potatoes, Potatoes and beans.
I've always been curious about potatoes. It seems like you'd grow a ton of food, and then you'd have to figure out how to dry them. Or you'd have to give 5 pounds to everyone you knew.
YA potatoes are wonderful aren't they, have them rows and when you harvest with a fork and they come up out of the ground make me smile.
@Christopher Hogan I've always had pretty good luck with Kennebec white and Pontiac red potatoes in storage. Try to keep them as cool as possible but don't let them freeze and they should keep until spring. Then you can plant what is left as your seed stock.
I stick mostly with what I have grown year after year with success, Tomatoes, Potatoes, Okra, Onions, Garlic, Beans, Cucumbers, Cabbage maybe?. Basil, Thyme, Sage. And a few other thing I generally try some new thing every year and if they grow well I keep them. So I swing buy a local nursery that carries lots of new and the same Heirlooms and I try some new things. I need to move some beds soil is junk here. I usually get lots of volunteers, and move them to pots. Raised bead are kinda pricey (the soil) even in bulk. I know I should compost but I don't, I am to lazy I suppose,
This week sprouts seeds for salad to go with my tomatoes and bell peppers from my 10 month plants. Then in March I will clone tomato plants from the old Girl and put a sweet potato in water to make cutting vines for spring planting in late May!
Keep the lemon balm and mint in pots or raised beds or they'll take over your lawn, ask me how i know 😂
I've heard they are pretty wild. I'm doing it to try to help out with mosquitoes. I'm hoping to have some to cut off and throw in the mow path. Maybe that's the worst idea yet. :)
@Christopher Hogan really depends on how you feel about grass, i see it as a nusiance that has slight use as a treat for my grazing critters, so the hostile mint takeover wasnt a big deal... If you like a nice, manicured lawn, you probably want to keep the mint (and lemon balm, its also in the mint family) away from it. I do use both to make a natural fly spray that works well though
@Maine homestead mom How cool. Do you mind me picking your brain on the fly spray? They're terrible here. Is this something you spray your perimeter with?
This year the plan is to grow carrots, swiss chard, beets, turnips, roma tomatoes for slicing and sauce\salsa, black cherries because theyre delicious, cabbage, brussels sprouts, pie pumpkins, butternut squash, summer squash and zucchini, onions, i have garlic out there now, pop corn, green beans, sweet peas, i think thats it, ill have to look at my notes from last year... And of course all my perrenial fruits and asparagus
Well, this list is what we have currently in mind, however once we go through our seeds that list will go BOOM 😂😂 and double 😂😂...
If you do well with the poppies let me know what you did, ive been trying to get the perrennial ones gowing for a couple years now, its giving me fits 😌
@Maine homestead mom we've tried last year and they germinated, but it was too late during the year and they succumbed to the heat. However y'all up there should have PERFECT poppy growing weather, since they love cool weather... here is a little snippet from a great seed starting book. Hopefully this helps you to successfully grow them this year. Not sure why its upside down...
@Christopher Hogan WHEW!!! You are further along than any of us. By the time you put those in the ground you'll be able to havest the the reward of your labor immediately 😉👍😎.
Hope everyone's seedlings or garden plans are coming along nicely. After a couple of days of nail biting nervousness, our tomato seeds finally decided to sprout. We've grown seedlings many times before, however in the past we had central heat. Now we only have a small older woodstove and green wood for heating an entire stone cottage (also recently up to 75% insulated) . So temperature has been fluctuating extremely, and usually staid under 70°, but we all know most seeds love 75-85 for sprouting. So this is quiet a nice victory for us, no buying 300+ plants from the local nursery etc. yeaaah.
My plan is to grow plants in my entire front yard. Potatoes, beets, carrots, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, chicory, butternut squash, and any other randomness I decide on. I've had tiny gardens before, but nothing overwhelmingly productive. But I'm willing to put in the work if God'll make it happen.
Is there a secret to growing tomatoes? They're supposed to be an easy plant, right? I've had all my tomato plants die over the past two years. Maybe they got too hot? Does that happen?
Prune brutally, drop an egg under the plants, and if you want a really thorough overview look at roots,and refuge farm on you tube... Also you can hunt hornworms at night with a black light which is pretty cool