Seed Lists and mutual advice swap

[anthrobabe]

Don't worry, I'm not actually looking to plant kudzu.   

Oh I know that--- you are many things- but dumb is not one of them; but everyone has a Kudzu story about how they warned so and so and well now just look at it.

bio-fuels would be a good use for it-- but then do we actually plant more?

The word is that in North Little Rock there will be (soon) a statewide farmers market that will be dedicated to food. There is a farmers market in Little Rock (do a search on Rivermarket Arkansas)-- but they've let it become invaded with people who do the travelling flea/craft market thing- and some of them are quite aggressive when all one wants is a few cukes and maters. I like craft fairs and flea markets- but not all the darn time.

[Opsa]

Ooh, I have a friend who is going into the bio fuel business. I'll suggest kudzu to him. I wonder if it has anough sugar to yeild a good high quality energy? Aggie says it tastes good, so maybe it does. Hmmm....

Scrib, I see you're doing Four o'clocks (Miribilis). Do you (or anyone else) have previous experience with them? A friend gave me these seeds and I am not sure where to put them, yet.

Melons need lots of water to fruit properly. Otherwise I'd grow them. I love melons of any kind.

Anyone have theories about supporting tomatoes and peppers? Some people say to grow them on the ground, some say use cages. Maybe I could tepee them as well?

[Sibling Chatty]

Tepee or cage, unless you're planting in a raised and well mulched area, otherwise the fruit lays on the damp ground (it's heaveir-est, ya know) and rots.

[Darlica]

Darlica's got me worried on the morning glories; I will try to keep those closer to the wall, where it's wind-protected

I didn't have very good luck with scarlet runners last year; they did grow for a while, but then they stopped.  Very few flowers or beans.  Could have been the wind factor.

Don't worry, my balcony was a bit windy but it faced the South, the morning glories thrived. Our garden on the other hand lay on the side of a big body of water and faces the East and it's completely open to winds from the North to East. Not enough sun+ wind= disaster. Scarlet Runners grow like crazy though.

That sounds like a beautiful garden, Darlica. I had to look up "Orpine"- we call them Sedum, here.

Aaah. Sedum is the family name, I thought that was a too broad definition.

I have a slight problem, no Swe/Eng dictionaries I have cover flowers very well, not even the on-line ones, so I have to take the Swedish name and search for the Latin name, take the Latin name to a site (preferable with pictures so I can see that I've got it right) that can translate it in to English...

 

Darli------ how cold does it get where you are? I would think that you have lots of tough perennials about.

Not that cold, it's Zone III around here. The winter temperature is usually somewhere between -10 to +3 C with short periods of really cold weather some years down to -30 C but that is getting more and more unusual.
This winter was the warmest in a hundred years here, no real winter at all late autumn just became early spring somewhere in January...  

We generally (in Scandinavia) have a lot of tough perennials, but there isn't many of them in our garden at the moment. We have a lot of wild life around the house; roe deer, hare's, moose's, wild boars to name some and we haven't got a proper fence.
Some years ago my mother and I carefully planned the garden and bought perennials for I don't know how much and then some... they bloomer very nice the first summer but when the autumn and the cold came some one started to use our garden as their walk in pantry... A couple of weeks in to the real spring every thing was gone, not a root, not a leaf was left...

So until we have that fence we stick mostly to seeds and on year plants it's cheaper.


Four o'clocks (Miribilis) is said to be able to grow almost every where, I found them quite demanding. The want good soil but not to rich, they want a lot of sun but not to much or they get scorched, they need plenty of water but not too much or the roots rot... I'd say a well drained pot or spot of land, sand mixed or other "semi light" soil and wandering shadow.

[anthrobabe]

What is it about people making ones garden a walk in pantry--- we had the same issue in Tucson--- my dad planted grape vines (yes in the Tucson desert) and tended them and got them producing a few small bunches--- that was 22 years ago and he now has enough that he can make his own wine!-- anyway here we are anticipating our first little old bunches of grapes and one morning we get up and they are gone! It was a person- left huge foot prints behind. So we had to wait until next time--- but we got them back-- so back--- we put up "Warning-University of Arizona student's at home project!- Uof A off campus agricultural test station- All plants watered using reclaimed water and treated systemically with a chemical known to cause testicular shrinkage-These plants are not for human consumption-- however, nothing has changed from last year", we ate our own grapes that year. And from then on I always watched my neighbors for signs of looking down their pants to see if they'd shrunk yet.

Opsanus--- I like to prop up the tomato plants, keeps them off the ground. And remember to keep pinching off those suckers-- this is one time you don't want lush green growth-- you want the plant to make tomatos not branches.

[Griffin NoName]

Every time I see this topic title I hope it's a place to acquire a New Man. Then I see it's gardening. <sigh>

[Darlica]

Sorry, unless you are looking for something like this



I'm afraid this is the wrong place...

[Griffin NoName]

Wow! He's a beauty!

[Opsa]

Whadda hunk!

Thanks for the advice about the tomatoes.

Hmmm, the miribilis don't like too much sun, huh? I think I have to revise my garden plan. I have them in a raised bed (good golly it took a lot of soil and composted leaves to fill those things!) but it's in full sun. Maybe I'll try it in my sandier beds out front that have some afternoon shade.

Go ahead and use the Latin names, Darlica- most of our garden books go by them, so we can look up anything you mention!

Yesterday I went out and took four hours to put up anti-kitty fences. It took the kitty about an hour to figure out how to crawl under them. *sigh* ...I'll just pretend they are somewhat of a deterrent! Or maybe grow the sweet peas up them.

[pieces o nine]

*pieces mourns her comprehensive herb garden back in wiscaaaaaaahnsin*

[Black Bart]

Wow! He's a beauty!

Wait till you see where they put the cucumber!

[Opsa]

Wow! He's a beauty!

Wait till you see where they put the cucumber!

Rats! I was hoping for a zucchini!

[Darlica]

After this intermission about the importance of a well grown cucumber, I'm getting back on topic.

I was like a mentioned elsewhere I was at Nordic Gardens a big garden fair/exhibition yesterday (Friday 11/4). Had a really nice day and came home with a lot more seeds and bulbs than I planned to...

Yesterdays loot:

Chili peppers and vegetables
Espelette
Serrano
Habanero  Purple Hazel
Rocoto
Jamaican Bell (mostly for my mum who like chili's but have a problem the capsicain)

Purple French Beans

Flowers
Queen of the Night Cacti (for my mum she loves cacti and succulent plants, I plan to give her a couple of small plants and the rest of the seeds as a birthday present)
Mexican Aster (Cosmos bipinnatus 'candy stripe')
Four O'clock's
Tigridia bulbs
polyanthus tuberosa

Mary golds
Sweet peas
Sweet Sultan (Amberboa moschata)
 
(The latest three are for the tenant-ownership association, story will follow soon in another thread)

Most of the Chilis will be planted in my mothers little green house one or two will probably stay in our living room. The rest will end up in pots in my mothers/my garden and then we have the trio that stays in our garden by the flat.
I'm going to be busy this spring!   


BTW I found out that they have updated the growing zones apparently I now live in a Zone II.

[Opsa]

I'm guessing that's a Zone 2 and not a zone 11, but it's a bit confusing.

http://www.backyardgardener.com/zone/

I don't know if I'm a 6b or 7a.

Good booty, Darlica! Sounds like you'll have fun with those.

All the seeds I thought would be difficult sprouted and all the old standards (tomatoes, green and red peppers) did not! I can't imagine what's with them ,except maybe it wasn't warm enough. I'm going to try starting some in the hothouse and see if I have more luck. 

[Darlica]

I Should have realised that we have a different way of naming the hardiness zones here...

The North European way, the hardiness zones  are numbered 1 to 6 in Roman numbers, 1 is the warmest and 6 is Arctic. On that scale I live in zone 2. As I understand it after reading the maps in the link, this would mean that I live in a zone 6 according to the American system.