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You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Open Thread: Sunday Garden Chat

Open Thread: Sunday Garden Chat

by Anne Laurie|  July 24, 20113:51 am| 27 Comments

This post is in: Garden Chats, Open Threads

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Because I have nothing better to offer, here are crappy cellphone pics, taken at dusk, of my palatial tomato garden and herb bed (seven pots of basil & one oregano plant). Because I am an impulse buyer, and the New England winters are long, there are approximately five vines in each of the long white planters, and three in each gro-bag on the opposite side. (This is not best practice, as any knowlegeable gardener will tell you.) And, yes, this is the sunniest, south-facing exposure on our property (all 75×80 of it) — the time of day exaggerates the shadows, but I wouldn’t mind at all if some mad lumberjack were to run amok amidst the scrub oaks and weedy conifers dividing our yard from the rental storage facility just downhill.

The current arrangement is actually an improvement — until we could afford to ‘hardscape’ a chunk of the side yard into that asphalt driveway extension, each summer’s tomato planters stood in a perpendicular row against the west wall of the house, where they got even less sunshine. Miserable and jury-rigged as the whole setup looks, I do get tomatoes… you can’t see them, but just about every crowded, propped-up plant has multiple fat green fruit ripening.

Motto of the story is: Yes, you can grow your own vegetables, even if you live in a suboptimal setting (and are both lazy & impulsive, like me). But just as importantly: You members of the BJ community should send me jpgs (click on my name, near the top of the right-hand column), because, seriously, you can do better than this, right?

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Reader Interactions

27Comments

  1. 1.

    Yutsano

    July 24, 2011 at 4:11 am

    Is the impulse buying related to the long New England winters? And I still don’t have the courage to put any herbs on the back porch yet.

  2. 2.

    MikeJ

    July 24, 2011 at 4:32 am

    Here’s what’s in my garden…

    And where it winds up…

  3. 3.

    asiangrrlMN

    July 24, 2011 at 5:12 am

    @Yutsano: Hi, hon. You still up?

    @MikeJ: YUM!

    Me, I just got done cleaning the bathrooms, the kitchen, the dining room, the family room, most of the living room, and the upstairs vacuuming. Why, yes, my mother is coming for a visit. Why do you ask?

    I will finish tomorrow/today. For now, strawberries and grapes, and then bed.

  4. 4.

    Yutsano

    July 24, 2011 at 5:14 am

    @MikeJ: RASPBERRY!! ONLY ONE PERSON WOULD DARE TO GIVE ME THE RASPBERRY!!

    @asiangrrlMN: Yes but not for much longer.

  5. 5.

    asiangrrlMN

    July 24, 2011 at 5:18 am

    @Yutsano: Me, neither. ‘Cept I’m all revved up now. Harrumph.

    P.S. God I love ripe, sweet, juicy strawberries.

  6. 6.

    Yutsano

    July 24, 2011 at 5:21 am

    @asiangrrlMN:

    God I love ripe, sweet, juicy strawberries and dark chocolate

    FTFY. (in both senses)

  7. 7.

    asiangrrlMN

    July 24, 2011 at 5:23 am

    @Yutsano: Yes. Oh, YESSSSSS!

  8. 8.

    Anne Laurie

    July 24, 2011 at 5:28 am

    Is the impulse buying related to the long New England winters?

    Y’see, the seed catalogs (beautiful pictures of bountiful produce) start arriving in late autumn, and the websites (even more high-def pics) ‘update’ in January, and if you want plants instead of just seeds you’re urged to “reserve” your order by mid-March. I’m picking & choosing when the snow is deep & the nights are long. And besides, what will happen if my choices don’t survive being shipped from Alabama / Oregon, and my go-to local nursery goes out of business unexpectedly? (Not an unrealistic fear, since the other high-quality gardening center, the one that introduced the square-foot gardening concept to PBS, went under during the 2008 crash.) The mail-order gardening companies were among the first to realize, starting in the 1870s IIRC, that targeting their customers when they were most desperate for reassurance that yes Spring would return eventually would improve their sales, even in simpler days when farm wives were budgeting their butter-and-egg pennies for enough vegetable seed to keep the family from starving, and maybe a packet or two of flower seeds to keep their souls from shriveling…

  9. 9.

    Angry [Redacted] Lady

    July 24, 2011 at 5:32 am

    and dark chocolate

    you rang?

  10. 10.

    MikeJ

    July 24, 2011 at 5:37 am

    The raspberry shortcakes pictured had a dark chocolate ganache. There were nummy.

  11. 11.

    Cliff in NH

    July 24, 2011 at 5:39 am

    I’m happy with my growbags, one blackberry in the ground, one in the growbag, the one in the bag is going mad(comparatively).

    Meanwhile, lowbush And highbush blueberries are ripe right now, there are more to pick than I can eat.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/64725711@N07/5967534176/in/photostream

  12. 12.

    stuckinred

    July 24, 2011 at 6:06 am

    I’ve been working on a photo essay of the development of our garden over the past 12 years. I need to get the damn thing in the mail! Do you want the photo’s optimized for web use or do ya’ll do that?

  13. 13.

    Anne Laurie

    July 24, 2011 at 6:12 am

    Stuckinred: As long as I can pull your jpeg or gif into Paintshop Pro, I can resize & upload. And if I run into problems, I’m not too shy to ask. Looking forward to hearing from you!

    P.S. Hope your lady’s ankle is healing & not painful…

  14. 14.

    stuckinred

    July 24, 2011 at 6:13 am

    The is a shot of the little patio I built. The porch columns are fiberglass and were salvaged, one laid broken in half for three years. I finally figured out that I could run a 4×4 through the length of the to sections, cut a wedge from a 2×4 and hammer it in to hold the pieces together. Then I patched it with JB weld around the fracture and ran screws in to hold it tight, It worked. You also can see the concrete cocker that is part of our monument to the great Raven, spaniel extraordinaire. The patio is made of crushed brick.

    http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6008/5969228977_45a7ed10b3_b.jpg

  15. 15.

    stuckinred

    July 24, 2011 at 6:18 am

    Anne

    She’s doing ok thanks, mostly sewing yesterday after a few hours directing me in tasks in the yard. I somehow got chiggers or fire and bites so I’m happy as a clam!

  16. 16.

    Libby

    July 24, 2011 at 6:31 am

    Granted the picture doesn’t do it justice but your tomato/herb garden is gorgeous. Amazing it grows so well in the containers.

  17. 17.

    Carrie

    July 24, 2011 at 7:00 am

    Wow, impressive AL. I love woodsie landscapes like this.
    The skeeters and blackflies must be a pain when you water though!
    I’ll send you pics of my sad little gardens today.

  18. 18.

    harlana

    July 24, 2011 at 7:54 am

    I gots no garden so I’ll go OT here, I have been working and unable to watch any of the Murdoch hearings until this morning and WOW, maybe old Rupert IS slipping (not just faking) cuz that Wendy Deng is watching him (and son and lawyers) like a hawk! She’s leaning so far forward in her chair she looks like she’s gonna fall off.

  19. 19.

    Alwhite

    July 24, 2011 at 8:00 am

    My garden has gone all to hell this year. First was the cold wet spring that lasted through June. Then came the hot wet July.I think if we got just a little more rain I could have gone into rice farming.

    The only things doing well are the herb pots on the deck. If this is the future for the weather I am going to have to incorporate a hell of a lot of sand into the garden.

  20. 20.

    harlana

    July 24, 2011 at 8:06 am

    4,000 FAA workers furloughed – I am SO encouraged to see how much Congress cares about jobs!

  21. 21.

    Linda Featheringill

    July 24, 2011 at 8:52 am

    My container garden is chugging along. We are just beginning to pick an occasional tomato. Lots and lots of the little tomatoes and fewer of the medium sized babies. Peas and beans are starting to produce. The heat may have killed the peas. Weather is supposed to be cooler today so maybe I can venture out and check on everything.

    And regarding seed catalogs:

    Wonderful when the world is cold and dreary and you’re struggling to not die of hypothermia and babying your feet and sometimes hoping that red cracked skin and flesh will heal. If a merry heart does work like a medicine, the seed catalogs are excellent health care workers.

    And yes, sometimes I order seeds to things that I never get around to planting. :-)

  22. 22.

    Linda Featheringill

    July 24, 2011 at 8:52 am

    Oh, and by the way, excellent container tomatoes at the top! B

  23. 23.

    jnfr

    July 24, 2011 at 10:17 am

    I’m having terrible blossom drop on both tomatoes and peppers, due to the excessive heat. Not much fruit on them at all, but the eggplants are setting at least.

  24. 24.

    ira-NY

    July 24, 2011 at 11:21 am

    @stuckinred #14

    Cool patio.

  25. 25.

    tt crews

    July 24, 2011 at 11:27 am

    I’ve got lots of cucumbers that I am about to turn into pickles. I grew a variety meant for pickling (“McPick” from Territorial Seeds). This is my first go at this and I am going very carefully so as not to poison my family. (think Monty Python’s “Meaning of Life” and the visit from Mr. Death) I am making “fresh (or cold) pack” which means I use vinegar and salt in the process.

  26. 26.

    Gretchen

    July 24, 2011 at 12:45 pm

    @21 – glad it’s just me that has high ambitions in February and orders seeds for a bunch of stuff I never get around to planting. The rabbits eat everything but tomatoes, squash and potatoes anyway.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    July 24, 2011 at 2:25 pm

    Anne, my computer crashed last week. Once the wife gets done fixing it, I will upload some pics for you…. But not the usual “Aren’t those beautiful!!!” pics, no not me, I will send you pics of a couple of disasters. (I hope she can finish fixing it today as she is flying to Spain tomorrow)(just in time for the FAA shutdown)

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