Gardening Thread

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:25 am

It's hard to start stuff from seed! You need the good lights and the little seedling heating mat and all that shit...I'm so seduced by the idea of starting seeds indoors, free food basically, but in Southern California I can direct sow so much stuff outside, I'm spoiled. I ate my first six peas of the season, they were the size of marbles.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Tue Mar 23, 2021 10:48 am

I'm imagining you with a napkin tied around your neck eating six marble sized peas on a plate with a knife and fork. All tulips in the background and shit... Good stuff.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Tue Mar 23, 2021 11:17 am

six perfect peas... silently weeping

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:33 pm

I just got my praying mantis egg pods in the mail and am watching and waiting for the hatch.
Please hatch and make beautiful bbs!

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Wed Mar 24, 2021 8:20 am

Tell us more about this!!! Why are you hatching praying mantises (manti?) in your home?

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Wed Mar 24, 2021 10:13 am

They're good for the garden! They eat pests! Also, they are very beautiful and I love them. Does my garden really need them? Not especially. Do I need them, personally? Yes, yes I do.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Wed Mar 24, 2021 10:14 am

I recommend it! But I think a lot of places only sell and ship the eggs around this time of year, so it's time to get into it ASAP.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Wed Mar 24, 2021 10:48 am

Coooool. I've bought ladybugs for pest reasons but this is advanced.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Wed Mar 24, 2021 10:48 am

Sidebar: it's so weird to pay for a bug with money

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Wed Mar 24, 2021 11:07 am

It really is.

Also, I'm down with being known as a person who raises mantises for fun.

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Sun Mar 28, 2021 10:02 pm

I paid $4 for a windowsill seed nursery and $1 for a wildflower mix, and I've got a couple sprouts on day 3.

My yard is planned out for the summer--it's a lot of lawn but the land lord (my uncle Tony) will let me have a wild strip on the borders. I like to have flower pots and I have a couple planned for when i know there won't be any more frost.

Now that the snow is melted, I can sweep out David's memorial grounds! Love to keep it like a tiny Zen park; it is a circular clear ground, edged in grasses, with a tree on one side, and a 2' twig-and-dirt-filled circular pit in the middle. On the day of her funeral last summer, a breathtaking green cicada emerged from the base of the tree and kept me company while I conducted her rites.

This year is supposed to be a huge brood emergence in my region! In my yard it will be a peridot jubilee for David.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Tue Mar 30, 2021 9:56 am

Very beautiful, bb. I love wildflowers! They are so cheap and easy to grow and maintain, especially if you don't *really* have proper garden space.

Keeping a memorial to Davey is beautiful too. Near my house there's one of these on the sidewalk grass strip- a circle of stones, framed pictures in ziplock to protect from the rain, and special flowers growing all around. I sometimes see a woman tending it and I want to give her a hug.

marijke · Post by **marijke** » Fri Apr 09, 2021 10:31 am

I'm trying to learn the names of the weeds in the yard.

The most ubiquitous here are herb robert (death comes quickly/stinky bob) and hairy bittercress which has little seed pods that explode and launch seeds everywhere. Bittercress is edible, bitter. There's lots of purple dead-nettle - also edible and everywhere and definitely more charming than the other two. There's chickweed in the front parking strip... also edible but definitely peed on by every neighborhood dog.

One of my least favorite Portland plants is popping off right now - euphorbia. I just think it looks so dumb and bright, like tone it down.

There's a tree of heaven next door... truly the worst tree.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri Apr 09, 2021 11:12 am

Love to eat a weed. A lot of plants we call weeds here in the New World were brought over by colonists as "pot-herbs," like dandelion. I got super into California's edible weeds a couple seasons ago—if you know what to look for, the city's a salad. Particularly a fan of the wild mustard that grows everywhere here, it has a nice bright arugula-like snap, and the roots are like tough radishes you can use to add a little wild style to ferments. It's good to recategorize this stuff as food because it's not native and wreaks havoc on the environment. Might as well pull it and EAT it.

marijke · Post by **marijke** » Fri Apr 09, 2021 11:42 am

The summer I was 16 one of my father's old math students who was a true weirdo came to crash on our couch. A year prior a big valley oak had fallen in the backyard and was left for a long time; by the time Bill showed up it had been cleared and the yard was very wild. He taught me that the backyard was full of purslane and we lived on purslane for months.

Some flowering construction site rocket from my dog walk this morning:
https://imgur.com/ooQpQ2s

marijke · Post by **marijke** » Fri Apr 09, 2021 11:43 am

Wild mustard, yum.

Eat weeds!

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu Apr 29, 2021 1:59 pm

Garden update: battling some powdery mold on my peas, my fault, I guess, for starting them too early and exposing them to the dewy grey mornings of March and April. Squirrels are causing chaos. I laid a piece of chainlink fence I found in the street onto the top of one of my veg beds and planted stuff *through* it—prevented the worst of the carnage? Someone is munching my herbs to shit. I think it might be earwigs. Tomatoes are starting to show already, I think I might have my first real bumper tomato season. I've started buying $4.99 bags of composted STEER MANURE at the garden center and layering heavy piles of it into my veggie beds. It packs a whole lot of nitrogen for the buck and all my plants are loving it.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Tue Jun 01, 2021 11:07 am

After an auspicious beginning a whole crop of my tomatoes appear to be suffering from a raft of fungal diseases. Probably because I decided to let them spread and didn't stake them. Stupid, I gotta pull them out and start again. Gardening is HARD.

In lighter news I planted a Chinese cucumber that's already consistently cranking out footlong monsters:

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Tue Jun 01, 2021 12:37 pm

Wow!!!

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Thu Jun 03, 2021 7:04 am

Jeals! Do you have a juicer?

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu Jun 03, 2021 8:53 am

I don’t, but I have a food processor!

Cucumber juice?!

I’ve been relying on an NY Times Chinese cucumber salad recipe to get through these guys: basically toss cuke bits in salt and a little sugar in a colander until they release a bit of water, then add a simple dressing of sesame oil, soy sauce, minced garlic and chili flakes.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Wed Jun 09, 2021 8:29 am

I guess these animal cams need their own thread but until then, I bring you, coyote and badger buds.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8KO0ZBAA8P ... =copy_link

marijke · Post by **marijke** » Mon Jun 14, 2021 9:45 am

It's such a nice yard time! The matilija poppy planted last year had its first flower open during our big rain dump this weekend.

https://imgur.com/myEqCkt

And so many nice roses are blooming, wild and english

https://imgur.com/zf0P4S6

And a sweet pea meadows gave me last year reseeded itself... it's doing much better than the ones I seeded in late winter.

https://imgur.com/1Nk2dlE

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Mon Jun 14, 2021 11:35 am

ooooh that's so cool that they re-seeded!
i love the pink/purple clash of those <3

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Mon Jun 14, 2021 12:52 pm

Ooh I tried to plant some of those flowering peas but I think it's too hot here, already, for something so delicate. I just went out into the heatwave to water, mulch, and shade my more delicate plants. It's gonna edge close to 100 tomorrow.

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Mon Jun 14, 2021 4:00 pm

Pretty garden Marijke!

marijke · Post by **marijke** » Mon Jun 14, 2021 4:40 pm

aww thanks

Yea... sweet peas are confusing in my experience! And California gardening is such a different game. My mom wanted me to help her plant up her front yard in the 100 degree Chico heat a few weeks ago. It was a real dance of watering, pop-up tent and shade umbrella to keep everyone living. But it was fun - we got everything from a really sweet California natives nursery on the edge of town. The guy said the bulk of his business the last twenty years was contract work with Caltrans but in recent years homeowners have gotten deep into the natives, which is cool.

https://floralnativenursery.com/

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Tue Jun 15, 2021 12:40 am

My mom used to grow lods of sweet peas in Tucson when I was a kid. In raised beds on a drip system next to veggies. There was probably some shade going on though.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu Jun 17, 2021 8:58 am

Is it possible for tomatoes to cross-pollinate in the garden? I put in 9 plants this year, some of which came from cuttings of last season’s tomatoes, and weird new varieties are suddenly emerging! I planted a small yellow zebra stripe variety and a more standard beefy heirloom type and now I have a beefy yellow zebra stripe tomato??? Am I science?

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Thu Jun 17, 2021 9:45 am

WHOA that's so cool!!!!!!!!!!!

marijke · Post by **marijke** » Mon Jun 28, 2021 1:08 pm

Half Covid future/half gardening...

it's 110 and there's a wild hot wind tearing through. I flew a bunch of tarps to help protect plants through our heat wave, but the wind keeps ripping them off of the fence posts. Was just outside trying to batten down once again.

What even is gardening? And when will the sun just take us?

The hope reservoirs are low lately.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Tue Jun 29, 2021 1:45 am

Aunt Cathi is back at it this summer! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9fj_Q7GqLo

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Tue Jun 29, 2021 12:26 pm

My plants are all in containers, but I couldn't get all of them inside. Most are ok, a few look sad but not necessarily fried, and one is torched. A happy new clematis that's training on our patio railing is literally blackened! It's still alive and blooming in some areas, while completely dead in others.
It's low on the list of things that were horrible about this heatwave but also a visible/sad reminder of how fucked it all is. I'm feeling like the proverbial frog being slowly boiled alive.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Tue Jun 29, 2021 1:58 pm

Last year when we had 110-degree days in LA my passionfruit got torched on the vine. No amount of mulching and watering can help when the world’s such an oven

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Tue Jun 29, 2021 2:55 pm

In LV, my parents had a very nice xeriscaping garden with some select mature cacti and drought-tolerant shrubs. It was designed in a riverbed style, where stone and soil are built up to make the most of rain and watering and keep pockets of cooler earth.

I am thinking of something I read recently, that Palestinians understand that today will always be better than tomorrow.

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:55 am

Our citrus trees that got destroyed by the ice storm have magically come back to life! Sasha pruned all the dead parts off (which was pretty much the whole thing) but now they're growing new leaves and flowering again. Crazy times. We did have to water a lot during the heat wave.

Also some critter ate our strawberries, maybe a raccoon or a squirrel?

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Tue Jul 06, 2021 4:47 pm

So how is it just 60F all the time in San Francisco? Is there a documentary I can watch?

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri Jul 09, 2021 1:11 pm

I know, huh?

infopetal · Post by **infopetal** » Wed Aug 04, 2021 6:14 pm

I have recently upgraded from an apartment with no outdoor space to my own personal terrace! thus a very important question…what footwear is everyone rocking for their gardening? I feel like I need terrace clogs.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri Aug 06, 2021 5:11 pm

Welcome to your new home, petal! That's awesome. What're you gonna grow?

I just bought myself a pair of absolute fashion-victim platform Crocs and I haven't taken them off in two weeks. They really are comfortable. I'm impressed I lasted this song before biting the bullet. The EVA Birkenstocks are also great, inexpensive, and easy to hose off when they get mucky.

Martine sent me these more tasteful jawns a while back. My French grandma definitely had a pair just like these in the garden shed, I remember the texture viscerally: stiff & rubbery. But these ones are made from hemp plastic!

infopetal · Post by **infopetal** » Fri Aug 06, 2021 6:47 pm

ooo the gardana clogs are beautiful! I keep returning to these because they make me happy but I'm also unlikely to wear them away from home thus they can retain exclusive terrace clog status:

what is UP with crocs right now?! recently my years-long aversion is fading. is it the charms? did you see Diplo made crocs with mushroom charms? what chaos hath this pandemic brought us?

I am not sure yet what to plant! a little intimidated as a complete novice…should I just start scheming for spring?

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Sun Aug 08, 2021 9:40 am

Yeah, Crocs have made some kind of jump. It's post-trend at this point, I think it's become a plain American classic, like blue jeans. Pandemic peak casual only exacerbated its natural evolution.

My biggest gardening tip is grow stuff you want around / you want to use! A nice little herb garden is always a winner. A good mix of hard-to-buy herbs and flowers to attract pollinators! Calendula is super easy and edible too. Every salad is better with herbs (tm)! Get those cloth grow bags instead of heavy hard-sided pots—it's easier on their roots and you can easily pack them away between seasons, if you want.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:13 am

Those cloth bag pots rule, especially for big stuff. Big plant pots are expensive!
I have my cucumber in one and though it's dying from powdery mildew I still enjoy it's presence.

My sweet peas finally bloomed (so late!) and they are purple/burgandy/white feathery striped with the sweetest smell, almost a fruit punch scent.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:21 pm

This dutch garden klomp is the shit. Full on removable ergonomic cork insole inside. This is living, folks.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Tue Sep 07, 2021 7:01 pm

I feel like y’all would appreciate the lengths I took to prolong the life of my favorite garden klump, a pair of white EVA Birks. The strap broke and I contacted Birkenstock corporate about a replacement (Birkenstock’s whole thing being, I thought, that you can wear em to the grave) but they informed me they do not make replacement straps for the EVA models. Imagine my grump about this klump! But then I had the lightbulb idea of cutting myself a new strap out of yoga mat. Looks pretty sick I think

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Wed Sep 08, 2021 3:13 am

Hurrah! You done good a klump good. Those look like solid klompers. Nice socks too, btw.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Wed Sep 08, 2021 12:18 pm

Not only is that really cool and thrifty, it looks incredible and intentional!

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu Sep 09, 2021 11:13 am

I know I kinda can't wait until the other strap gives out!

infopetal · Post by **infopetal** » Sat Sep 11, 2021 2:45 pm

wow, tres chic!!

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Wed Mar 23, 2022 11:10 am

Anyone getting their spring garden together?

I have decided to renounce formal gardening and have renamed my container cluster the "sprout lab." I'm not buying any plants. The only things happening in the sprout lab are lazily spread seeds and compost volunteers. I'm just sorta seeing who wants to vibe. I've got an entire bed of calendula flowers that came up because last year's calendulas went to seed and I just mulched them in place. A couple tomato volunteers I just went with. Mystery squash. Random peas. A package of lettuce seeds leaked in my seed box so I just rinsed out the box and dumped out the whole thing in another bed. I'm not a good enough gardener to have anything going at a scale that can actually feed me, so I'm just embracing the enjoyment of watching things go through their cycles. Low stakes. It's fun.