Gardening 2016: Fruits, Veggies, Flowers

[Lady tehMa]

Okay folks,

New year, new thread.

I'm going to try Himalayan Blue Poppy (Meconopsis) again

[pbear]

Thanks for the new thread Lady. It cheered my heart on this grey day!
I'm going to clear out some old overgrown perennials that have overtaken areas I want for other plants.
I'm also going to plant lots of sunflowers this year. I've fallen in love with all the varieties and this year I'm not going to stand at the seed display and try to choose, I'm just going to grab and plant!

[Lady tehMa]

Sweet! I expect I will see a lot of pics, pbear!

Hey, has anyone heard of or used "Classic Compost"? I had a long-time gardener friend try it last year and he says it is awesome. He's in his late 60's and has been gardening his whole life here. What I've learned from gardening I've learned from him and his son (my friend who got me started); and of course books. I think I may try it, I usually amend my beds in the spring anyway. http://classiccompost.com/

[Lady tehMa]

Can anyone relate?

I started in December, not counting the seeds I saved from my garden

[mexi cali]

Thanks for posting this. It warmed me art it did!!

[Lady tehMa]

So what is everyone planning for their garden?

Bman, you going to do the green manure crop of peas again?

[Lady tehMa]

Things I will definitely plant:

1) tomatoes
2) peppers
3) beans
4) kale
5) spinach
6) lettuce
7) cucumbers
8) squash
9) carrots
10) peas
11) beets
12) garlic
13) onions
14) dill (though that just reseeds itself like crazy)

I have items that are perennial: asparagus, strawberries, haskap berries (though if I forget to put the netting over, the birds get them), rhubarb, grapes, blackberries, blueberries (which have not done well to date, hope to fix that this year) and I have an Italian prune plum tree.

Historically I have not done well with corn or potatoes. I will probably try again, though.

Edit: and I have raspberries . . .

[whatwhat]

I wonder if anyone has any recommendations for flower varieties that will help to attract bees?

I had a really hard time with pollination last year in our garden, many of my fruit and veggie plants didn't even produce. I am hoping to attract some more bees to help with pollinating this year.

[Lady tehMa]

If you want bees, plant borage. Seriously, they love the stuff!

Here is a useful link: http://www.beverlybees.com/planting-bee-garden/

and another

http://bcfarmsandfood.com/plant-a-bee-attracting-garden/

[whatwhat]

If you want bees, plant borage. Seriously, they love the stuff!

Here is a useful link: http://www.beverlybees.com/planting-bee-garden/

and another

http://bcfarmsandfood.com/plant-a-bee-attracting-garden/

Thanks!

I am a fairly new to the whole gardening thing, this will be my third year! Definitely having my troubles. My mom had given me advice to self pollinate daily with a q-tip but that was just painful. Apparently us humans just don't get the job done quite like bees do.

[Bpeep]

I'm thinking that if you had a problem outdoors, it was not pollination.

[whatwhat]

I'm thinking that if you had a problem outdoors, it was not pollination.

Yah, I am not sure. They were getting lots of sun, water and I thought I had a good mixture of soil.

The most difficult thing we had was our cucumber plant. The veggies would not grow past maybe an inch. Would start off strong, then just shrivel up.

[Bpeep]

Poorly pollinated cukes may grow a bit then fall.
But if you're having problems overall with most everything, it likely isn't pollination.

Cukes need lots of pollination coz of the number of seeds.
You can always pick some male flowers and sexually interact with the females. God, that's hot . Lol.

Pretty effective on cukes, as well as her sisters, squash, pumpkin etc.
And try not to water the plant. Just the soil.

[Bpeep]

What else did you have on the go that you had issues with?

[whatwhat]

What else did you have on the go that you had issues with?

Last year really the only thing we had problems with was the cucumbers and peas. Our tomatoes did excellent and so did other easy things such as carrots, lettuce and herbs.

We rent so we aren't able to dig up the yard for a garden. We grow everything in pots. I am not sure if maybe we just didn't use large enough pots so they ran out of root space. But with research I have heard peas and cucumbers can be grown in pots.