Not MM-related: What's growing in your garden this year?

hoffse

H and I are planning to build a few more raised beds this weekend.  We discussed this awhile back, but what is everybody growing this year?

csuave

In our community garden plot down the street we'll do tomatoes, green beans, poblanos, cucumbers and maybe we'll add a zucchini this year. 

We want to get the yard landscaped with some easy to maintain plants/ground cover.  I'm a bit behind on that so not sure if i can make it happen for spring.  I'll have to talk with the gardener but I would like to explore adding a vegetable bed.  It would be nice to have green beans right in our back yard.

hoffse

Our plans:

Tomatoes: 1 cherry, 1 slicing, 2 roma for sauces
Peppers: 6 ancho, 4 bell, 1 or 2 jalapeno - haven't fully decided yet
Tomatillos x 2
Sweet potatoes x 6
Regular potatoes x 10
Asparagus x 12 - won't be ready for another year or two
Cucumbers x 2
Charentais x 2
Pole beans x 8
Bush beans x 12
Okra x 3

We planted 5 fruit trees this year - a cherry, apricot, granny smith apple, golden delicious apple, and nectarine.  They will take a couple years before they begin producing.

And finally our herbs: cilantro, parsley, mint, thyme, chives, basil, and lavender.  Our chives are a champ - it's the same plant we bought last year that survived drought and freezing conditions with no babying or special care.  We also have a large rosemary bush planted by the previous owners that's been great.

labro

We're so behind. I'll have to come back to this later. We've got seeds for anything and everything. I'll do a couple tomato varieties for sure, basil, some squash, some pepper varieties (birds eye, jalepeno, these long thin red ones?, some fatter but still spicier ones that aren't jalepeno, I'm really good at remembering names.

I just harvested a bunch of asparagus last night to cook with dinner and they were absolutely delicious! It looks like so far only one of my blueberry bushes has blooms on it...the other one got hit pretty hard by the drought so tough to say if it will produce this year or not.

My thyme survived the winter as did the oregano so I'll have fresh thyme, oregano, plus I'm adding sage and cilantro. We have a large rosemary bush that I use all the time in recipes.

hoffse

@labro have you done cilantro before?  We tried it last year for the first time, and it was super prolific.  We had to keep pruning it and throwing it away to keep it from bolting - I love Mexican food, but I can't eat it 5 days a week!  We couldn't keep up with it!

I'm most excited about the tomatillos.  We have gotten into them recently, but they are pretty expensive at the grocery store.  I've read that if you can get them established then they produce abundantly.  Fingers crossed.

brij2006

I really need to decide on this.  Our weather has been really weird this year.  I normally plant Mothers Day weekend, but it has been warm enough that I could easily get stuff in the ground now.

For sure I will plant tomatoes.  We go through a ton of sauce and salsa throughout the year.  I never have enough tomatoes.
- Herbs (basil, cilantro, parsley)
- Spaghetti Squash
- Zucchini
- Green peppers
- Cauliflower (maybe)

Not sure what else.  We've done green beans the last couple of years, but we don't care for them canned and they taste weird if I freeze them. 
We're pretty picky about what we plant.  My uncle does a huge garden and usually has way more than he needs.  So we get cucumbers, zucchini, butternut squash, and cauliflower from him. Then we also get tons of sweet corn from a farmer friend.  We just have to go pick it ourselves.  I usually get enough to freeze for the winter.  Having access to these really helps us since we just have our 2 raised garden beds.

@hoffse With any extra herbs you can pack them in olive oil in a mason jar and they keep for quite a while.  Our cilantro and basil both go crazy so I chop it and put it in a mason jar whenever I have extra, then pour EVOO to cover it.  I've read where you can store it in the cabinet, but I put it in the fridge just to be safe.  Then I just scoop some out whenever I need it.

labro

@hoffse Not really! I am kind of jealous of you actually. Our cilantro always seems to die or go to seed extremely quickly. I'm hoping for better this year.

I hope your tomatillos do well! I discovered them last year for the first time when I made a southwestern turkey soup with Thanksgiving leftovers and the recipe called for them! THEY WERE SO YUMMY!

short+sassy

My cilantro also goes insane.  It dies off in the winter, but comes back strong every year.  It also produces far more than we could ever use, lol...and I put it in a LOT of dishes.  Thanks for the tip on storing it, @brij2006.

We also grow rosemary, aloe, radishes, and basil.  For plants/flowers, we also have a milkweed.  It attracts Monarch butterflies.

vlagrl35

I don't do gardens but I'm hoping my milk weed comes back from last year.  I want some monarch caterpillars this year.  I also plan on working more on hand feeding the hummingbirds this season.

short+sassy

vlagrl35 said:

I don't do gardens but I'm hoping my milk weed comes back from last year.  I want some monarch caterpillars this year.  I also plan on working more on hand feeding the hummingbirds this season.

I don't think my milkweed usually dies off, but the only freezes we usually get are for a few hours here and there in the winter.

Will hummingbirds really feed out of your hand if you work with them?  That sounds neat!

My H has an irrational fear of birds and hummingbirds are one of his least favorites, lol.  I'm like, "But they're so small!"  However, he doesn't like how fast they flap their wings.

vlagrl35

short+sassy said:

vlagrl35 said:

I don't do gardens but I'm hoping my milk weed comes back from last year.  I want some monarch caterpillars this year.  I also plan on working more on hand feeding the hummingbirds this season.

I don't think my milkweed usually dies off, but the only freezes we usually get are for a few hours here and there in the winter.

Will hummingbirds really feed out of your hand if you work with them?  That sounds neat!

My H has an irrational fear of birds and hummingbirds are one of his least favorites, lol.  I'm like, "But they're so small!"  However, he doesn't like how fast they flap their wings.

Yes they actually will once they get really use to you and trust you.  Last Sept they were really active so I took away their main food source - the big feeder and stood outside on the deck with the hand feeder in my palm.  A very curious female was just inches from my had looking at me.  At one point she was so close behind me I could feel the wind from her wings on my arm.  I probably spent more time than I should have being patient with her out there.  I did this a good handful of times last fall.  I'll be putting out their main feeder next month.  We usually get 2 in the beginning of the season but by the end we end up with 4-5.

The main reason I'm worried about my milk weed is because I planted it late in the season and I ended up with these black/yellow/white fuzzy caterpillars and they ate up all the leaves leaving it bare by late fall.

smerka

We, like brij2006, have had a really weird winter and now spring. A couple weeks ago I started some seeds indoors - cucumbers, some early tomato, peas, and watermelon. The peas went nuts so I put them outside not really sure if they'd make it. I think one plant survived. 

This weekend is supposed to be nice but it's still too early for most things. We will eventually have more tomatoes, peppers, and some herbs like basil, cilantro, thyme. Our strawberry patch is starting to come back and sadly our rhubarb came back (I was hoping it would die because I think it's ugly and can only eat so much). 

I'm also starting some daisies from seed and I will replant cosmo seeds again. My mom helped us prune some bushes waaay back so we will see soon enough what survived. 

blondie42107

This will be our first summer without a garden, in some time.  We will do some patio plants but will be going to the farmers market more this summer.  H grew up on a farm and I grew up with my parents having a garden about a 1/4 of an acre.  My parents grew EVERYTHING!  Between canning and freezing, we really didn't need to buy much produce at the store.

short+sassy

I thought of this thread over the weekend.  My H and I went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner on Friday and they had Pineapple Cilantro Margaritas.  I didn't order one, but it gave me the idea.

On Sunday, I made my own Pineapple Cilantro Margarita.  A good use of some cilantro out of my garden!  I liked it!  The cilantro added an extra level of flavor.

labro

FINALLY got around to starting seeds this weekend. Luckily they should all germinate pretty quick since we're right at our last frost date and it's going to be warm and sunny going forward.

- Cherry tomatoes
- Brandywine tomatoes
- Santaka hot peppers
- Thai birds eye chili peppers
- Habanero peppers
- Zucchini
- Yellow squash
- Dill
- Cilantro
- Tarragon

I guess this means I need to get serious about getting out in the garden and cleaning it up and doing some soil amendments. I also scattered some zinnia and black eyed susan seeds in a "wildflower" garden area that I'm trying to get started. I guess we'll see how it goes.