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[aristotelian]

The numerous gardening-related responses to the "green" thread gave me an idea to start a gardening thread.  What are your current garden projects?  What questions do you have? 

Current project: starting some eggplant from seed. This is the first time I've done this so let me know if you have any tips.

Question: I am wondering what is going on with my beets!  I planted beets around April 1 in Zone 5b.  Everything else has come up (kale, radishes, etc) but for some reason the beets are lagging.  Could they have gotten hit by frost?  Will they come up if am just patient?

[scheherazade]

I have to plant my herb seedlings in the garden after I compost the plot.  My daughter wants to plant a butterfly garden (since she's 5, that means she wants me to plant a butterfly garden while she hacks at the ground for eight minutes with her tools).

[mended_drum]

You will regret asking; I bought an overgrown lot and have been digging and replacing for four years now.

Things I'm trying to kill:

1. Poison ivy
2. Bamboo
3. English ivy
4. Wisteria
5. Kudzu
6. Kudzu
7. Kudzu
8. Well, you get the picture

Things I'm growing in containers:

1. Strawberries
2. Tomatoes
3. Peppers
4. Cucumbers
5. Yellow squash
6. Herbs

Things I'm growing in the ground:

1. Flowering shrubs (gardenias, azaleas, roses, rose of sharon, camellias, rosemary).  Okay, rosemary doesn't flower all that much, but it's certainly turned into a shrub for me.
2. Flowering vines (jessamine and jasmine)
3. Spring and summer bulbs
4. Perennials, some of the them poisonous (like monkshood or hellebore); some of them multiplying nicely (daylilies, hosta)
5. Baby trees to replace the ones killed in the ice storm (Southern magnolia, 'Little Gem,'; japanese dogwood; japanese maple)
6. asparagus

Personal project:  growing a new variety of cranberry bush appropriate to my zone (7b)

[dept_geek]

I am growing broccoli this year. This is a new experiment.  I also have a few things from seed this year - also new rather than starting from seedlings. We'll see how this all works.

Hopefully, I'll be eating better ths summer :)

[paddington_bear]

I don't consider myself a gardener, but someone who tries to plant things. :) I do have a question, though. Two, I guess. One, are ranunculus (ranunculi? ranunculuses?) perennials or annuals? I've seen them referred to as each, but maybe it depends on what zone you're in? Also, can you plant something that's a bulb, like a ranunculus or a tulip,  but when you plant it it's already grown, and expect it to come back the next year (and for years after)? In other words, can I plant the plant, or do I have to plant the bulb?

paddington

[relationalista]

Aristotelian, the beets may yet come up. I grew beets last summer and recall that they took a while to start, but then did quite nicely. It's still pretty early in the season to write things off completely -- at least it is here in Toronto (zone 5a). But I'm a garden optimist.

Paddington, you can plant the plant. People do this with tulips, daffodils, lilies, etc., all the time. The ranunculus question is a good one. Apparently, most varieties are perennial, but there are a few that are annual or even biennial. I don't know which applies to the ones I've just planted.

My new projects include planting a small corkscrew hazel tree and killing off the small amount of grass still remaining in my backyard, which is to be replaced with slate tiles and creeping thyme. The tomato seedlings are looking marvelous (not yet in the ground), the pear tree is covered with buds, the strange little quince tree is ridiculously covered with white flowers (it looks like a small child glued popcorn all over it), and my rhubarb has come back beautifully. I don't know that I could manage as much garden as Mended Drum, but I do like my little urban patch of green.

[tamiam]

I'm going to try to plant a mixed vegetable/herb and flower garden in a bed that was formerly shady and now the only full sun place on my property. I saw a gorgeous one of these somewhere in the high country - maybe Aspen? - on one of my camping trips and even took pictures I was so impressed.

It's not time to do it yet, though. Despite the 90 degree temps of the last several days, I KNOW it will frost at least once more this year.

[gennimom]

Waah! I want a place that is big enough to grow green things!

You will regret asking; I bought an overgrown lot and have been digging and replacing for four years now.

Things I'm trying to kill:

1. Poison ivy
2. Bamboo
3. English ivy
4. Wisteria
5. Kudzu
6. Kudzu
7. Kudzu
8. Well, you get the picture

<snip>

Personal project:  growing a new variety of cranberry bush appropriate to my zone (7b)

For some reason, I get the impression you live in the south. What is it, the 7b zone? ;)

[ms_turtle]

You will regret asking; I bought an overgrown lot and have been digging and replacing for four years now.

Things I'm trying to kill:

1. Poison ivy
2. Bamboo
3. English ivy
4. Wisteria
5. Kudzu
6. Kudzu
7. Kudzu
8. Well, you get the picture

Things I'm growing in containers:

1. Strawberries
2. Tomatoes
3. Peppers
4. Cucumbers
5. Yellow squash
6. Herbs

Things I'm growing in the ground:

1. Flowering shrubs (gardenias, azaleas, roses, rose of sharon, camellias, rosemary).  Okay, rosemary doesn't flower all that much, but it's certainly turned into a shrub for me.
2. Flowering vines (jessamine and jasmine)
3. Spring and summer bulbs
4. Perennials, some of the them poisonous (like monkshood or hellebore); some of them multiplying nicely (daylilies, hosta)
5. Baby trees to replace the ones killed in the ice storm (Southern magnolia, 'Little Gem,'; japanese dogwood; japanese maple)
6. asparagus

Personal project:  growing a new variety of cranberry bush appropriate to my zone (7b)

Howdy, neighbor!

[undisciplined]

Didn't all those zones change in recent years? Wasn't there a realignment in recognition of climate change/global warming? I fear my gardening books are now out of date on the zones. Please advise.

[barred_owl]

Glad this thread was started!  Good ideas will certainly grow here! :)

I had hoped to start a little garden plot with things like beans and tomatoes and peppers, but our soil is terrible (virtually all clay), and we haven't been on the ball enough to have enough compost to do raised beds yet.  I would love to hear some recommendations for plants (including vegetable plants) that can survive extremely clayey soil.

I just got some gladiolus and dahlia bulbs that I want to try out.  We already have a decent flower patch surrounding our back patio, which is shaded by a big pin oak tree.  The flower patch includes hostas, a lavender plant, star-gazer lilies, balloon flowers, and these very cool "goose-head" flowers that are spreading like wildfire.  I want to get a little more color in there, though--hence, the dahlias.

Two question for the folks who have greener thumbs than I.  Does anyone have:

1.  recommendations for clay-tolerant plants (veggies or flowers)?

2.  suggestions for repelling deer, other than the really stinky spray stuff that makes sitting out on the patio miserable on a hot summer night?

[rysal]

Why not go for a square-foot garden or raised bed garden approach if your soil quality is poor?  We're trying a square-foot garden right now for the first time, and it seems to be working (although we're regretting not having put down a weed barrier). 

Re. starting eggplants from seed, we started them indoors in one of those clear cherry tomato containers to simulate a mini-greenhouse effect, then just transplanted them outside last weekend.  I think we're zone 9 (or maybe it's 10 now).

[luvstowrite]

You will regret asking; I bought an overgrown lot and have been digging and replacing for four years now.

Things I'm trying to kill:

1. Poison ivy
2. Bamboo
3. English ivy
4. Wisteria
5. Kudzu
6. Kudzu
7. Kudzu
8. Well, you get the picture

Wow, I'm very, very sorry.

We just put in our tomatoes (zone 8-9) this afternoon (four varieties) but we also have old established lawns, roses, new turf (that the spouse and I laid down ourselves, fantastic), bulbs (lots), bedding plants, lots and lots and lots of flowering shrubs, nasty messy southern magnolia trees, Japanese maples, sort of nasty ivy but it's covering very shady areas, birch trees, mock orange (which is blooming right now and smells awesome), ferns, violets, bleeding hearts, azaleas, camelias (ick), catnip, mixed baskets and containers, and other odds 'n ends....

Yeah, I like to garden. Compost or commercial fertilizers, it doesn't matter which you choose, just don't forget to feed your plants and water well!

[barred_owl]

Your garden and surroundings sound gorgeous, luvstowrite! 

RE: English ivy.  Ivy abatement is very difficult.  It's ravaged swaths of forest in the Pacific northwest, where it's as bad as kudzu is in the south.  Here in the midwest, we had ivy growing on at least 3/4 of our house when we first moved in; our first 'gardening' project was to have it and some overgrown shrubs taken out.  Unfortunately, the ivy permanently damaged the cheap wood-product siding by causing the siding to rot in several places (it traps moisture behind the leaves, and the moisture causes the rot).  So, someday we will have to have the siding replaced (can't afford it right now); as a stop-gap measure, we ended up patching the worst spots with wood filler and repainting the whole house.  If you have ivy growing up trees, you can try girdling the ivy stems, but that may not work in every case.  Ivy is a menace, so my sympathies to those who are dealing with it right now.

[erzuliefreda]

Did someone mention kud-zoo?