The Outdoor Gardening Thread

PeppermintPatty

PeppermintPatty

🐢. 🐳. 🐢
Location
Canada
I thought I had a gardening thread but I don’t so I’m going to make one now. I’ve got a big in ground garden and an 8 x 12 raised garden.
So far in my ‘in ground’ garden I have 31 tomato plants. One of them has a tomato on it already. All of thee plants are grown from seeds which were started indoors. Please feel free to add pictures of your own garden.

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31 tomato plants
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2 rows of pepper plants
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Close up of pepper plant
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Wild raspberry plants
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They're not all visible because they're in a line, but these are our squash, cucumber, tomato, and blueberry plants.
Oh, and "Lem," the lemon tree in the very back.

It's not the right climate here for a lemon tree, but erstwhile boyfriend sent it to me years ago (because I miss the citrus trees of Los Angeles), and husband has been determined to keep it alive. (Because, you know, the poor thing had no chance with me at the helm. :ROFLMAO: 🍋 )

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Husband has since moved the large squash plant to the driveway and is training it to climb a ladder.
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Edit: typo
 
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First harvest, sort of.
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Husband actually clipped these to give the plant a chance to grow, and one turned red on the counter.

Edit: Another freaking typo. I need to slow down when typing.
 

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The added photos of plants that have been planted in this big garden is to give them room to grow. Last year we realized that 5 gallon buckets weren’t big enough.

Last autumn we put together these cedar raised beds and now have it filled with plants.
This is red lettuce.

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This is romaine lettuce.
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These are celery plants.
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The plants closest to the back are sunflowers
The plants in front of the sunflowers are green peppers
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Your plants look great Medusa. That squash plant is going to be huge. Have you gotten any lemons off your Lemon plant in past couple of years? What growing zone are you in? We are in 6A.
 
PeppermintPatty said:
Your plants look great Medusa. That squash plant is going to be huge. Have you gotten any lemons off your Lemon plant in past couple of years? What growing zone are you in? We are in 6A.
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Thanks. :) I will pass your nice comment along to my husband. :)

I've just checked, "What Growing Zone Am I In?" and found a site that told me I'm in 7A. But I don't know if we have the same maps for our two countries. Maybe?

We have gotten lemons from our tree... technically. It has produced twice, but the "lemons" were about the size of, maybe, pinto beans? LOL Poor tree, it's really trying hard. 🌳❤️

I love your garden! You have so much growing and it all looks so beautiful and healthy. :)

My son would love your garden too as he's getting into gardening.
 
Medusa said:
Thanks. :) I will pass your nice comment along to my husband. :)

I've just checked, "What Growing Zone Am I In?" and found a site that told me I'm in 7A. But I don't know if we have the same maps for our two countries. Maybe?

We have gotten lemons from our tree... technically. It has produced twice, but the "lemons" were about the size of, maybe, pinto beans? LOL Poor tree, it's really trying hard. 🌳❤️

I love your garden! You have so much growing and it all looks so beautiful and healthy. :)

My son would love your garden too as he's getting into gardening.
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Growing zones would be the same for both countries. It’s a temperature thing.

Growing zones, also known as plant hardiness zones, are established using historical climate data to map regions based on their average minimum winter temperatures. These zones help gardeners and horticulturalists determine which plants are likely to survive the winter in a specific location.
 
PeppermintPatty said:
Growing zones would be the same for both countries. It’s a temperature thing.

Growing zones, also known as plant hardiness zones, are established using historical climate data to map regions based on their average minimum winter temperatures. These zones help gardeners and horticulturalists determine which plants are likely to survive the winter in a specific location.
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Thank you. Good information to have. :)
 
Well, I already posted pictures on the “ I hate gardening “ thread ( which I don’t, I love it) but here they are. It’s a huge cottage garden, nearly two acres, plus two fields where I keep goats, geese, ducks & hens. Don’t have great weather high up here on the Pennines so not everything thrives, except of course the weeds 🙄

” The things I sow
so seldom grow
I’m sorely disenchanted.
But Oh what luck
I have with stuff
I never even planted “IMG_0060.jpegIMG_0063.jpegIMG_1326.jpegIMG_0062.jpegIMG_0104.jpeg
 
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PeppermintPatty said:
I thought I had a gardening thread but I don’t so I’m going to make one now. I’ve got a big in ground garden and an 8 x 12 raised garden.
So far in my ‘in ground’ garden I have 31 tomato plants. One of them has a tomato on it already. All of thee plants are grown from seeds which were started indoors. Please feel free to add pictures of your own garden.
Click to expand...
That’s a lot of tomatoes! Do you sell at a farmer’s market? Or can and/or freeze a lot?

With 8 plants I will be giving a lot away and have some for the freezer.
 
Michael Z said:
That’s a lot of tomatoes! Do you sell at a farmer’s market? Or can and/or freeze a lot?

With 8 plants I will be giving a lot away and have some for the freezer.
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Thanks for contributing to this thread. Are the plants in the circular containers, tomatoes?

We have twice as many tomatoes than we had last year and last year we froze some tomatoes but we also canned a lot by making spagetti sauce. We also end up with loads of green tomatoes which we make chow chow with. Chow chow is a cross between a relish and a chutney. We give some of it away to friends and family. What do you do with your tomatoes?

From your pictures you appear to be a very seasoned gardener.
 
Pendle said:
Well, I already posted pictures on the “ I hate gardening “ thread ( which I don’t, I love it) but here they are. It’s a huge cottage garden, nearly two acres, plus two fields where I keep goats, geese, ducks & hens. Don’t have great weather high up here on the Pennines so not everything thrives, except of course the weeds 🙄

” The things I sow
so seldom grow
I’m sorely disenchanted.
But Oh what luck
I have with stuff
I never even planted “View attachment 431938View attachment 431940View attachment 431941View attachment 431942View attachment 431943
Click to expand...
What a beautiful cottage garden you have. It’s cleanly been tended to for years. What’s your favourite flower to grow? How many acres do you have? How long have you been gardening? Do you ever grow vegetables?
 
Yes those circular containers are tomatoes. I find that the indeterminate (spreading) varieties need a lot of space and air to minimize late blight. Putting them out in the yard is something new I am trying this year. Two of the containers were made from an old dryer drum, cut in half.

I will freeze some tomatoes for chili and eat many fresh in curry or cold salad with avocado, onion, zucchinI, cucumber, and mayonnaise. And give some away.
 
PeppermintPatty said:
What a beautiful cottage garden you have. It’s cleanly been tended to for years. What’s your favourite flower to grow? How many acres do you have? How long have you been gardening? Do you ever grow vegetables?
Click to expand...
About two acres. Been here forty five years. It was badly overgrown with brambles, nettles, bindweed etc, the goats got rid of a lot of that for me & the geese mow the grass to bowling green standard.
I suppose you could say I’ve been gardening till I could walk. My dad was an avid gardener & taught me loads. He grew veg but I have no luck with them. I have just three tumbling tomato plants in hanging baskets & salad stuff in grow bags. I have no joy with anything else but the soil is very acid as the garden is surrounded by peat moorland. A chap who helps me with the heavy gardening jobs grows potatoes in part of one of the fields with some beans & peas but his courgettes make nothing but leaves.
I do have a lot of fruit. There are six very old, knarled, very large apple trees all, except one Worcester Pearmain,are Bramleys. A big Victoria plum, which I must get round to pruning as the branches are weighed to breaking point this year with fruit. Two pear trees( minus partridge 😂) , strawberries( Cambridge Favourite & Royal Sovereign) which are struggling, rhubarb , blackcurrants & some gooseberries… Red currant bushes seed themselves like weeds around the place thanks to the birds( who also eat all the fruit) & I‘m constantly hacking back damson saplings from the trees in the fields.

My love is flowers far more. Favourites.? Stuff that the slugs hate to munch 😂. Roses of course, especially the old ones & the David Austin ones ( though he annoys with how he discontinues lots & won’t even let other outlets sell those without penalising them by stopping supplying them with new) so I take cuttings of ones I have which are surprisingly successful.
The aquilegias, hellebores, foxgloves, feverfew, bell flowers etc etc that seed themselves around happily & I reckon I must have the world collection of clematis by now as I must have hundreds, everywhere, & can’t stop buying them Obsessively. Especially when Asda sell them at three plants for £5.
 
We actually tried market gardening with garlic, but it didn't work out well enough (long story). Still, our outdoor gardens and modest-size greenhouse have been important to us. They've supplied enough food to supplement the freelance careers that we've had.

Around here, gardens of considerable size on residents' properties are pretty common. And friends and neighbors give each other produce, if we have a bumper crop one thing or another.
 
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Pendle said:
About two acres. Been here forty five years. It was badly overgrown with brambles, nettles, bindweed etc, the goats got rid of a lot of that for me & the geese mow the grass to bowling green standard.
I suppose you could say I’ve been gardening till I could walk. My dad was an avid gardener & taught me loads. He grew veg but I have no luck with them. I have just three tumbling tomato plants in hanging baskets & salad stuff in grow bags. I have no joy with anything else but the soil is very acid as the garden is surrounded by peat moorland. A chap who helps me with the heavy gardening jobs grows potatoes in part of one of the fields with some beans & peas but his courgettes make nothing but leaves.
I do have a lot of fruit. There are six very old, knarled, very large apple trees all, except one Worcester Pearmain,are Bramleys. A big Victoria plum, which I must get round to pruning as the branches are weighed to breaking point this year with fruit. Two pear trees( minus partridge 😂) , strawberries( Cambridge Favourite & Royal Sovereign) which are struggling, rhubarb , blackcurrants & some gooseberries… Red currant bushes seed themselves like weeds around the place thanks to the birds( who also eat all the fruit) & I‘m constantly hacking back damson saplings from the trees in the fields.

My love is flowers far more. Favourites.? Stuff that the slugs hate to munch 😂. Roses of course, especially the old ones & the David Austin ones ( though he annoys with how he discontinues lots & won’t even let other outlets sell those without penalising them by stopping supplying them with new) so I take cuttings of ones I have which are surprisingly successful.
The aquilegias, hellebores, foxgloves, feverfew, bell flowers etc etc that seed themselves around happily & I reckon I must have the world collection of clematis by now as I must have hundreds, everywhere, & can’t stop buying them Obsessively. Especially when Asda sell them at three plants for £5.
Click to expand...
Wow! Forty five years is a long time. I’ve heard goats do a great job of clipping the grass and weeds. If we didn’t have the dogs, I’d actually consider having goats.

Six apple trees, a plum and two pear trees. Nice. We had two apple trees at our last house. I finally chopped them down. They produced more fruit than I could pick. The spoiled fruit would turn to alcohol apple cider and attract wasps. We kept the wood to turn into wooden spoons on the lathe.

We are growing black berries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. 🍓 The difference between store bought berries and homegrown is like chalk and cheese. My husband picked these 3 strawberries this morning and they were heavenly.
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My dad used to grow those old fashioned roses and he grew them well. The only roses we have are dog roses which grow wild around here. My husband dug some up and planted them last summer. He was so proud of the roses since they all took. One even started flowering this year but the deer ate the flower off of them. In fact, the deer eat a lot of our plants. We had to cage in our vegetable gardens so they wouldn’t eat them.

I have yet to meet someone who loves clematis more than I do until now. At our last house I had quite a collection of them. Here are some photos of my beloved clematis. I sure miss them. We moved.
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It was a pleasure talking to you about your gardening. Clearly all your effort pays off. Your gardens are flourishing. Thank you for sharing with us. Can I ask for some clematis pictures?
Like yourself, I’m crazy about them.
 
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PeppermintPatty said:
Wow! Medusa! Your husband definitely has a green thumb! Did you say he just started gardening? He’s doing really well. Your vegetables look amazing. How is your blueberry plant doing?
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Thank you. I'll send your comment along to him. :)

He grows peppers and tomatoes most years, but this is his first year with cucumbers, squash and blueberries. The plant, which arrived as a twig, is leafing up and coming along nicely.

It's been so hot lately that we are having to water them twice a day. ♨️🪴🚿
 

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