Gardening and yard stuff

[Mary Terry]

Yes it is a very temperate climate ,Im a hundred miles from the border of Scotland,Still experiencing climate change, I never understand why people think they will ever be able to eradicate privet you would have to dynamite it , I don’t know the other species I think one may be Ash, One is definitely elder , The monks brought it from France to make wine , it spread ,I’m glad I’ve kept it !,hedgerows are being destroyed at an alarming rate! blackbirds need the indigenous plants to nest in,Do you feel any more confident in trying to upload photographs you and I are you obviously from the generations that just didn’t have computers......

It has been pouring rain here for two days so I haven't taken photos yet, but I will. I think I understand how to download them to the computer and upload them to this website. Thanks for explaining that.

I know what you mean about privet's indestructaliy. I'm considering Agent Orange or Napalm. (kidding!)

I've been using computers since about 1990 but I always had employees, paralegals, secretaries, law clerks, to do all the sophisticated, detailed stuff for me until I retired a couple of years ago. Some of them were computer whizkids back in the day. Hence, I'm self-taught about computers and basically use them as a word processor to draft things. If you know what a word processor is, then you have to be at least 65 years old! LOL

 

[Mary Terry]

And, see, right here that I screwed up my reply. Computer incompetent but happy anyway!

 

[Streetwise]

49 going on 65 when I first saw computer there wasn’t even an app there wasn’t word or Excel, it was just a CPU and you programmed it didn’t own it it was at school , that’s me on the right at school .

 

[8398]

what does is there fourth photo down? ,The leaves are a bit like an African violet,The Clarks heavenly blue morning glory

Beautiful, I really hope mine blooms. But, I think even the heart shaped leaves are cute. The fourth photo down is borage that just bloomed. They start out pinkish, then purple, then blue.

Can you grow prickly pear cacti? The paddles (nopales) are delicious to eat and very nutritious. They taste a lot like lemony green beans with a little crunch factor and are commonly eaten in Mexico. Unfortunately, we have too much rainfall to grow them here so I buy them at the local Mexican food store.

In Arizona there was plenty of prickly pear. I totally wish I ate some. I think it's very neat how the fruits have an intense cooling effect on the body when eaten.

I moved back to Oregon, but a part of Oregon that is high desert. I've seen some people growing cacti actually! But it would have to be a variety that tolerates snow and slightly more moisture in the air. Sedona had snow, tons of cacti there too (picture). Oregon actually has a native called Brittle prickly-pear cactus/opuntia fragilis and it's coastal.

 

[SusanLR]

I was born in Arizona and remember cactus candy.
We have wild prickly pear here in Florida where I live now.
If I ever moved back to Arizona, Sedona is where I would want to live
because you do have some seasonal changes instead of just desert like Pheonix.
You wouldn't think of the Arizona desert as having places like this:
Oak Creek Canyon Sedona AZ.

 

[Magna]

Kind of an old thread so my apologies if I should be starting a new one. It's a bit hard to tell in the pic, but this was what I harvested today. Two pails of veggies. The orange pail had beets with lush beet tops. The purple top turnips are on/in another pail. The turnips you can't see that are in that pail were larger than softballs. Some dill too.

I hate to waste anything so I processed the beets by separating them from their tops. Then I separated the greens from the stalks and washed everything. With the turnips, I did the same (separated the turnips from the greens) and I had some of the turnips and turnip greens for supper. I roasted some of the beets and will be eating them tomorrow in a cold salad.

 

[Progster]

I hate to waste anything so I processed the beets by separating them from their tops.

Do you eat the beet leaves? I do, they are delicious! I have beets too, and I'm doing an experiment: just cutting some (but not all) leaves from the top to see if the plant will then produce more, fresh leaves. I discovered that if you cut the broccoli head from broccoli plants but left the plant in the ground, the plant produces a lot of smaller, but equally tasty flower heads, and you can keep cutting and the plant will keep producing new ones. Same with lettuce: if you just cut the outer leaves to eat and leave the plant in place, it will keep producing more leaves. So I need fewer plants, and then have more garden space for other crops.

 

[Karamazov]

New Amelanchier in position
(Photo taken last night after we’d tidied away the tools & c)

 

[Magna]

Do you eat the beet leaves? I do, they are delicious! I have beets too, and I'm doing an experiment: just cutting some (but not all) leaves from the top to see if the plant will then produce more, fresh leaves. I discovered that if you cut the broccoli head from broccoli plants but left the plant in the ground, the plant produces a lot of smaller, but equally tasty flower heads, and you can keep cutting and the plant will keep producing new ones. Same with lettuce: if you just cut the outer leaves to eat and leave the plant in place, it will keep producing more leaves. So I need fewer plants, and then have more garden space for other crops.

Progster: Yes I do eat the beet greens. They're so similar to Swiss Chard. In fact the seeds of beets and the seeds of chard look the same. I've been taking the long stalks of beet greens and turnip greens and steaming them like one would asparagus after I remove the leafy green. Not very flavorful, but they add fiber and vitamins to my diet. The other thing I do sometimes is juice them along with carrots and then take the pulp, dehydrate and powder it. Then I add that powder to muffins and things like that for extra nutrition for the kids.

New Amelanchier in position
(Photo taken last night after we’d tidied away the tools & c)

Karamazov: That's not a back yard. That's not even a haven. That's a sanctuary ! Beautiful. I'm very impressed and you should be proud. I hope you get a great deal of enjoyment from your sanctuary.

 

[Karamazov]

Karamazov: That's not a back yard. That's not even a haven. That's a sanctuary ! Beautiful. I'm very impressed and you should be proud. I hope you get a great deal of enjoyment from your sanctuary.

Thank you! (genuinely smiling as wide as is comfortable in real life)
Yes, it’s taken four years to turn it from scratchy grass and nothing to what you see in the pic, joint effort by Mrs K and myself.
When I get back from work the first thing I do is sit in the shade under the wall with a cuppa, and watch the bees visiting the flowers.
Just been outside, and the fig tree that’s behind where that photo was taken is now properly established and setting multiple fruits for next year on every stem.

 

[Magna]

More pics from today. This first one is a picture of one of our potted lemon trees. It has a twin to keep it company. I move them out to the greenhouse for the season because they like the heat and humidity. The one in the picture did not do well this winter indoors. It was ravaged by spider mites and didn't like the soap and water spray treatment I gave it to combat them. It dropped very leaf and basically looked dead other than the maturing lemons that it held.

Every leaf on the tree in this picture is new and less than two weeks old. It's happy again. Part of the problem with winter is that our house is bone dry. Maybe I should mist its leaves each day with water in the winter. We've had them for about three years now. I'm amazed at how long it takes for lemons to actually mature. Easily 8-9 months. The scent of lemon blossoms is divine.

 

[Magna]

Ok, now some more greenhouse pictures!

I've been very busy out there setting up the strings to hold up the tomato and pepper plants once they start to mature. If you look at the row of tomatoes on the right and up to the roof area, you'll see what look like pulleys suspended from a wire. I don't know if I will end up liking that kind of hanging method. The concern I have is that all "pulleys" are hanging from that same wire. The wire has a bounce to it. Hopefully that won't be a problem disturbing the plants in a stronger crosswind if I have the sidewalls rolled up. We'll see.

With the middle row you'll see in the next picture that I used a different fastening method for the spools/"pulleys".

 

[Magna]

Here is a close up of what the spools look like. I took a loop of wire to hang the the spool's wire holder from. I attached each of the spools for each plant in that middle row from the center "purlin" (metal pole running the length of the greenhouse).

The spools and the wire hangers they clip into are pre-made. They're quite ingenious actually; the spool has a notch on the left side that's hard to see. That notch hits up against the horizontal wire that's right above the plastic spool. It stops the spool from letting out more twine. However, if one wants to make the length of twine longer (or shorter), all one has to do is squeeze that wire which is left-most vertical which frees the spool to turn freely.

The plants are attached to the twine by little plastic single hinged circular clips. The hinged area pinches the twine to hold fast to it and then the circle goes over the stem or branch of the plant wherever you choose to put one and then clips closed. You can put as many clips on a plant as you need to and usually add clips as needed throughout the growing season.

 

[Mary Terry]

Do you eat the beet leaves? I do, they are delicious! I have beets too, and I'm doing an experiment: just cutting some (but not all) leaves from the top to see if the plant will then produce more, fresh leaves. I discovered that if you cut the broccoli head from broccoli plants but left the plant in the ground, the plant produces a lot of smaller, but equally tasty flower heads, and you can keep cutting and the plant will keep producing new ones. Same with lettuce: if you just cut the outer leaves to eat and leave the plant in place, it will keep producing more leaves. So I need fewer plants, and then have more garden space for other crops.

I do the same thing with kale, turnips, mustard greens and collard greens. I've had dinosaur kale plants that lived two years with my removing the lower leaves for dinner.

 

[Karamazov]

@Magna
The lemon tree is very cute, with the green fruit nestling amongst the baby leaves.
Could you clip the horizontal wire to the rafters with (erm... something from a hardware store... ) to minimise potential sway?

@Mary Terry
I’ve pulled leaves of salad greens from the bottom as I want them before now, looked a bit too messy with those particular plants (lollo rosso etc.) for me to continue the practice though. Pity really because it was a minimum food waste approach.

@The world at large
A few more photos of our garden Mrs K took this morning before the rain arrived:

 

[Magna]

That's a very good idea, K, regarding clipping the wire to the arches. I think I might try that to secure it a bit better. Thank you for the suggestion.

Also, I could see how you'd want to spend hours in your garden basking in its serenity.

 

[8398]

I like your garden Karamazov, beautiful colors and I like the brick.
Isn't it so nice to eat from the garden? And it's good timing to remind me that I made this thread Magna, reflect on my since neglected plants
My family is moving onto a property, I'll have a lot to share soon.

 

[Karamazov]

@Magna
Yes, we do spent a portion of every evening out in the garden, even if it’s raining and we’re just inspecting how things are getting along with hooded jackets and cups of tea.
There’s a ring of solar powered fairy lights around the lawn and quite a few white spring-flowering plants for the darker evenings of the year.
Hope the clip idea works out for you.

@8398
Thank you!
I do like the brick walls: feels very secure with around the perimeter, and I’m sure the heat store/radiate function helps give the flowers, veg & fruit that originate from Central America and the Mediterranean basin an environment they’re happy in.
Tomatoes have been a success every year since we moved in without a greenhouse or any protective measures, and having our own fresh food picked on the day is lovely.
Hope to see evidence of green-fingered fun in your new garden in due course.

 

[Mary Terry]

@Magna
The lemon tree is very cute, with the green fruit nestling amongst the baby leaves.
Could you clip the horizontal wire to the rafters with (erm... something from a hardware store... ) to minimise potential sway?

@Mary Terry
I’ve pulled leaves of salad greens from the bottom as I want them before now, looked a bit too messy with those particular plants (lollo rosso etc.) for me to continue the practice though. Pity really because it was a minimum food waste approach.

@The world at large
A few more photos of our garden Mrs K took this morning before the rain arrived:

View attachment 63171

View attachment 63172

Your yard is beautiful! I don't remove lettuce leaves either. I just cut the lettuce plants at ground level. Much like you would harvest cabbage - cut the main stalk where it emerges from the soil.

 

[Karamazov]

^ yep, that’s how they’re harvested now: whole plant in one go
Thank you for garden compliment