I love when you and Brooke Barker reference each other. I read you both faithfully. My daughter is doing almost all of the garden planting now, and I just sit back and watch. But I'd love to have a raised bed of flowers in my front yard. I don't know if they'd survive the chickens, rabbits, squirrels, birds, and rats, but I might give it a go.
As a person who mainly grows flowers, I always get a chuckle when people don’t want to pick them. It is so nice to have a balance and I think you’ve done the right job by choosing zinnias- those, in addition to cosmos, sweet peas, and several others actually benefit from being picked and will bloom almost all season if kept up. I’ve heard it called “live heading“ instead of deadheading. Thinking of it like this made it easier for me to cut them! More cutting, more flowers! I admire your vegetables, I’ve never had much success with them and don’t really grow them at all outside of herbs and a few tomatoes that grow poorly!
That tarwi bloom really is beautiful. Never heard of it before. I like to try out new seeds every year too, so I'm growing Russian Red kale and it's flourishing with little help.
It was a hard season for gardens and I'm so glad that you had much success! We suffered from some blossom rot on our tomatoes and a squash vine borer took out our zucchini before I knew what it was. But we had a fantastic harvest of butternut squash, carrots, and beets. I love having homegrown veggies in my food storage all winter! We also just bought our first fig tree and I'm praying it makes it through this cold snap. Thanks for sharing your garden adventures!
I struggled with squash vine borer for a couple years so I took a few years off from zucchini. Last year was my first year trying again and, thankfully, we didn't have any issues!
I learned that if I cold-stratify salsify, I will get at least some germination—pitiful but some. I have one single plant from my pack of seeds and I'm proud of it!
Have you tried Malabar spinach? I thought I was going to love it, but didn't realize that it contained a lot of mucilage...and was therefore like slimy spinach. But don't let that deter you, it's pretty (the red kind was used for dye in China).
I keep wanting to do more perennial plantings, because a little laziness in the garden is sometimes a good thing. Spacing is something I keep trying to work with, because scarlet runner beans really do run the world, and do not always go where you want them to go.
YES! I tried Malabar spinach two years ago and was also surprised by the sliminess! After the snap peas ran their course, I planted the Malabar spinach at the base of the stick structure and let it take over. It's a pretty plant!
Here chipmunks absolutely will steal tomatoes. Esp. Cherry tomatoes but any old tomato will do. They leave little “middens” of tomato skins on the brick pathway under the big (powder coated to look rusty😊 ) iron arch. This does provide a certain charm. But you can’t be obsessive about your tomatoes. This is a great time of the year to think over the last gardening season. 🤔
When we lived in Fort Worth I could generally keep a succession of warm and cool season crops going all season. But here in New Mexico @6,000' mid December through February is turning out to be just too cold. The plants I have in the ground have to be covered at night under heavy frost blanket, sometimes double blankets when it's in the low teens and single digits . They are surviving but they're not really growing so I think my new strategy will be a fall crop that's harvestable through December and then take a break until March.
It's impressive that you're even attempting to garden in those temperatures! I feel like we're still months aways from putting any seeds in the ground.
I love when you and Brooke Barker reference each other. I read you both faithfully. My daughter is doing almost all of the garden planting now, and I just sit back and watch. But I'd love to have a raised bed of flowers in my front yard. I don't know if they'd survive the chickens, rabbits, squirrels, birds, and rats, but I might give it a go.
As a person who mainly grows flowers, I always get a chuckle when people don’t want to pick them. It is so nice to have a balance and I think you’ve done the right job by choosing zinnias- those, in addition to cosmos, sweet peas, and several others actually benefit from being picked and will bloom almost all season if kept up. I’ve heard it called “live heading“ instead of deadheading. Thinking of it like this made it easier for me to cut them! More cutting, more flowers! I admire your vegetables, I’ve never had much success with them and don’t really grow them at all outside of herbs and a few tomatoes that grow poorly!
Oh, I love the idea of "live heading" – and thanks for other flower recs!
That tarwi bloom really is beautiful. Never heard of it before. I like to try out new seeds every year too, so I'm growing Russian Red kale and it's flourishing with little help.
Oh, very cool! I haven't grown kale in a few years but maybe it's time to give it another go!
Those figs tho... #worthit!
It was a hard season for gardens and I'm so glad that you had much success! We suffered from some blossom rot on our tomatoes and a squash vine borer took out our zucchini before I knew what it was. But we had a fantastic harvest of butternut squash, carrots, and beets. I love having homegrown veggies in my food storage all winter! We also just bought our first fig tree and I'm praying it makes it through this cold snap. Thanks for sharing your garden adventures!
I struggled with squash vine borer for a couple years so I took a few years off from zucchini. Last year was my first year trying again and, thankfully, we didn't have any issues!
I learned that if I cold-stratify salsify, I will get at least some germination—pitiful but some. I have one single plant from my pack of seeds and I'm proud of it!
Oh, interesting! Thanks for the tip!
Have you tried Malabar spinach? I thought I was going to love it, but didn't realize that it contained a lot of mucilage...and was therefore like slimy spinach. But don't let that deter you, it's pretty (the red kind was used for dye in China).
I keep wanting to do more perennial plantings, because a little laziness in the garden is sometimes a good thing. Spacing is something I keep trying to work with, because scarlet runner beans really do run the world, and do not always go where you want them to go.
YES! I tried Malabar spinach two years ago and was also surprised by the sliminess! After the snap peas ran their course, I planted the Malabar spinach at the base of the stick structure and let it take over. It's a pretty plant!
Here chipmunks absolutely will steal tomatoes. Esp. Cherry tomatoes but any old tomato will do. They leave little “middens” of tomato skins on the brick pathway under the big (powder coated to look rusty😊 ) iron arch. This does provide a certain charm. But you can’t be obsessive about your tomatoes. This is a great time of the year to think over the last gardening season. 🤔
I'm going to plant zinnias in my garden this spring... thanks for the tip!!
When we lived in Fort Worth I could generally keep a succession of warm and cool season crops going all season. But here in New Mexico @6,000' mid December through February is turning out to be just too cold. The plants I have in the ground have to be covered at night under heavy frost blanket, sometimes double blankets when it's in the low teens and single digits . They are surviving but they're not really growing so I think my new strategy will be a fall crop that's harvestable through December and then take a break until March.
It's impressive that you're even attempting to garden in those temperatures! I feel like we're still months aways from putting any seeds in the ground.