Hawaii Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Gardening Post/Poll
I saw Robbie make a comment about gardening in another post, so I'll start the Gardening Post! Oh, and I assume Robbie meant veggie patches, but feel free to add if you grow flowers and whatnot.
1. When did you start?
2. What do you grow?
3. Do you start from seed or buy starter plants?
4. What's your biggest success?
5. What's your biggest failure?
6. Any advice?
Re: Gardening Post/Poll
1. When did you start?
This year, I learned my lesson and have really worked our soil with plenty of compost and manure. Smells great! 
I ripped up a hunk of our backyard grass (I hate grass, gives me the heebie jeebies) 2 summers ago when I was transitioning between jobs and had a week off. Unfortunately I started in Aug, so I only got a few tomatoes and squash. The following spring/summer, MH and I were broke from Phase I of our home remodel but we were enthusiastic about saving money with our home garden. Unfortunately, we went cheap with the dirt and bought "garden soil". Don't ever buy cheap, generic garden soil. I planted all sort of tomatoes, corn, herbs, broccoli, kale...and got lots of plant but no fruit (e.g. tomatoes).
2. What do you grow?
I have planted or will plant: sugar snap peas, kale, bok choy, onions, beets, corn, tomatoes, 2 herb gardens in pots by the kitchen (parsely, cilantro, thyme, basil, mint, rosemary), lettuce and we have permanent blueberry, huckleberry and strawberry plants scattered around the yard
3. Do you start from seed or buy starter plants?
I started tomato and beet seeds in March, but eberything else I just bought plant starts (typically organic)
4. What's your biggest success?
but I've got my fingers crossed for this year! Oh, wait, I guess I kept a basil plant alive until Dec last year - I transitioned it from outside to inside when it got cold. Fresh basil in the winter is awesome.
None yet
5. What's your biggest failure?
See crap dirt story above.
6. Any advice?
Not really. I guess have fun and keep trying. Obviously, I'm not the best gardener but I'm learning a lot.
1. When did you start? late start again this year - the garden was a complete mess 3 weeks ago. My parents saved the day and bought an electric (plug in!!) tiller so we were able to till and amend with 1 yard of mushroom compost in one day. DH did it all by hand last year. Our garden is 30'x30' (900 sq ft).
2. What do you grow?
Strawberries(lots), onions (red, white, and yellow + shallots), potatoes, peppers (hot and bell), tomatoes (4), spinach, radish, carrots, various summer and winter squash, eggplant, peas, beans, rhubarb, artichoke, and by request from MH - watermelon and corn. I think we will also do pumpkins like last year.
3. Do you start from seed or buy starter plants? both. starts from seed were a flop last year so this year I saved the time (and money) and bought starts for everything that can't be directly sowed. carrots, spinach, radish, and corn were from seed.
4. What's your biggest success? last year I think my succhini could have won some awards, haha. I was pretty darn proud of my eggplant too - my gardener friends said they wouldn't grow.
5. What's your biggest failure? don't know why but my peas and beans were a total flop last year. Need to read up on how I can do better this year.
6. Any advice?
no, I could always use some though
Alyson & Phil | Planning Bio | Married Bio!
Dates & Quinces Blog
1. When did you start?
This is my third summer of (kind of) serious gardening. Before that I lived in an apartment and had a few platers on my balcony. But when I moved into this house with MH, we started by taking out some grass to make a flower bed in front of the house the fall before and planted some bulbs. Then that next summer (2008), MH built me three huge raised boxes for herbs right outside the kitchen door. We also planted a few bushes, hosta, and tons of planters on the back patio.
2. What do you grow?
This year was supposed to be the year we ripped out a square for a veggie garden, but now with being 7 months pg, it's going to have to wait! But I grow tons of herbs (basil, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, tarragon, thyme, sage, oregano, rue, dill, marjoram, spearmint, and lavender). I have bulbs (various tulips, daffodils, muscari, and hyacinth) in early spring in front of the house which then turn to a variety of colorful annuals (which will happen in about 2 weeks) for the rest of the summer. I also have approximately 30 pots/planters (sized from 4" to 20") on the front steps and back patio that I mostly plant annuals like petunias, impatiens, begonias, dahlias, and grasses. I have a few large pots for tomatoes and peppers, but no other veggies until next year. We are also talking about building a small gardening shed with a small attached greenhouse next summer.
3. Do you start from seed or buy starter plants?
Pretty much all started plants, but I have had some success with herb seeds.
4. What's your biggest success?
Keeping a hibiscus bush alive in Illinois for a year and a half! (Transferring it indoors for winter)
5. What's your biggest failure?
Well, just this week I had to buy more basil because I planted it too early (2 weeks ago), and we had a late frost last week that killed it and a few of the greenery plants I had already planted. I was too eager!!! Other than that my biggest gardening flops concern my indoor plants, which I can't seem to keep alive more than a month or so.
6. Any advice?
No, I'm certainly no expert to give any advice! But just have fun with it and try things. If they don't work, you try something else!
1. When did you start? I havent started yet since we still are getting snow and freezing temperatures this week. I am really hoping that maybe I can plant some stuff this weekend.
2. What do you grow? This year, I am planning to have raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, some herbs (not sure what yet), beans, potatoes, brocolli, zucchini, summer squash, melon, and pumpkins. Hopefully, the grapes will come back and I'll have a few of those as well.
3. Do you start from seed or buy starter plants? I have never had much luck with seeds, so I generally use starter plants. The only exception is beans and the potatoes.
4. What's your biggest success? Last year was the first year I had raised beds and had a really good experience with them. The zucchini did really well.
5. What's your biggest failure? The corn and the blueberries didn't really do anything last year, so I probably won't plant either of those this year.
6. Any advice? No advice - except if you can do a raised bed, I would recommend it. I find it does so much better - especially if you have a smaller amount of space.
I love Hawaii!
Tara & Ian . 4/24/2008 . The Kahala Planning . Married
Oops, they don't like full sun? I'd better move my plants....:)
1. When did you start? I've been gardening off and on for years, depending on our living situation. Mostly flowers and herbs so far.
2. What do you grow? The soil and heat are pretty bad in our neighborhood. We would like to have a full blown vegetable garden at some point. Right now we have tomatoes, strawberries, basil, cilantro, rosemary, italian parsley, thyme and limes. We also have ginger, hibiscus and jasmine out on the lanai.
3. Do you start from seed or buy starter plants? I'm too impatient - I stick to starters.
4. What's your biggest success? So far it's been the herbs.
5. What's your biggest failure? Strawberries. I think it's too hot here.
6. Any advice? Nope! Still learning!
You WA girls crack me up! We have our first week of 70s and we're all into gardening.
1. When did you start? 3 years ago
2. What do you grow? Lots of flowering things. I like to have flowers blooming from April-October, with a few crocuses or autumn joy adding extra blooms on the outskirts. I have everything from roses, hollyhock, tulips, hyacinth, daffodils, azaleas, rhodies, lilies, phlox, iris, gardenias, perennials and all sorts of weird groundcover. Right now, the ground cover looks the best. haHA! The ajuga has gorgeous dark blue/purple blooms. I think everyone in the NW should plant ajuga. It grows easily, spreads reasonably and is indestructable. After it blooms, you can mow the flowers off! I plant it all around the edge of my backyard garden. I figure the clumsy kids can walk on it (it won't hurt it) and realize that they aren't on the grass before they plow over my good plants.
3. Do you start from ,seed or buy starter plants? I'm terrible with seeds. Somewhere there are millions of wildflower seeds that never bloomed. I wonder if birds ate them, they blew away or they are just waiting for the perfect conditions to appear.
4. What's your biggest success?
5. What's your biggest failure? Oh, my! I have so many! The problem is that I like tropical plants. They don't like Seattle nearly as much as I like them. I love the flowers that grow in Hawaii and New Orleans. I've tried bouganvilla, hibiscus, gardenias, camelia, mandevilla... oh, the list of things that I've killed in Seattle is long.
6. Any advice? Buy three of something. That seems like a fair amount to see if you do well with it. One could be a fluke. The other advice is to keep the plant in a pot, but place it where you want to plant it. You'll see how the plant likes the area/sun/temp. Don't leave it in the dark black or green plastic pot in the sun. Put it in a cooler pot or wrap a light towel around the pot. If the plant is doing well one week later, plant it in that spot. Otherwise, move it and wait another week.
I hate to say this, but buy what does well in your zone. I really love the tropicals... but, the flowers that do well here are tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, rhododendrons and perennials.
I feel sad. I so want to live where I can have coconuts, pineapple, mango and papaya growing in my yard. I feel like shedding tears when I think that I can't keep one little bouganvilla alive and they grow as hedges in Hawaii. Oh, well, I have one hibiscus that survived.
Newlyweds since 2007
Hehe, your post made me laugh - and this part? ME TOO. yum. sigh...we ate fresh coconut (right off the tree) every single day in fiji, and it was heaven.
so - i don't garden at all, but i aspire too! my only experience so far has been helping friends eat the fruits of their labor, hah. oh, and almost killing my friend's tomato plants when she left me in charge of watering them for 4 days. i have a brown thumb
but i don't care, i want to try!
we're in a townhouse which MH bought before I met him. a few years ago, we discovered that we actually own some of the land behind our house. it's silly though, b/c it's not accessible to us unless we walk across our neighbor's yard! we only realized b/c i was admiring our neighbor's well-maintained yard, and realized there was this boundary of mowed, well-kept grass, blooming tulips, etc, and then - jungle! seriously - i couldn't walk through it - it was taller than I am, and very, very dense. so we looked up our house on the country property website - yup, we own it. oops. next time i saw the neighbor working in his yard, i apologized for the eyesore and explained we didn't know it was ours until recently. he said the previous owner had had a beautiful flower garden.
...okay, point taken, sorry. hehe. so we got it cleared, but then never took care of it, so it's all growing back again. sigh.
i really, *really* want to grow veggies, but i don't think our little spot gets enough sun. this year was going to be the year I was going to try, except we're planning to move as soon as we find a house, so I've decided to wait until next year, and instead this year, just learn and daydream about tomatoes, eggplant, strawberries, peas, beans, and so many other goodies! i'm scoping out all the houses we look at for potential gardening spots, haha. i took a beginner's veggie gardening class (at tilth - for the seattle ladies) two weekends ago, which was great - it was super basic, but was exactly what i needed to gain a little bit of confidence to get started. every time i look something up online, there is SO much info, it's overwhelming. but now i'm more excited than ever!
are there any community gardens near you? maybe you could get a spot! There are a lot here, and most of them have wait lists - they're really popular. See p-patch - i didn't realize it was a seattle thing!
I love Tilth - when I was at UW I volunteered there.
I always worry that my garden doesn't get enough sun but were had to put it where it's at to get it as far away from the walnut trees as possible b/c they are toxic to tomatoes (and some other stuff I think.
... I also have some flowers. The deer ate all my tulips this year - GRRR. Now I put petunias in that bed. I have lots of roses.
And we have a plum tree that was here when we bought it - yum!!
I ADORE plums from a plum tree (as opposed to store-bought). Growing up there was a park near my house that had a whole grove of them.....sour/sweet deliciousness!
do you have any good websites/blogs for flower bed ideas? I need to re-do the stuff that is in the front of our house. They just kind of threw some stuff in to sell (our house is very old but was a "flip" so I think the seller basically just started from scratch for landscaping - in addition to having to rip up 1/2 the property for a new septic). Anyways, I took out all the strange stuff and need to make it pretty.
LOL on the list of killed plants. I am pretty good with houseplants (unless I completely forget to water them), but I have had trouble with trees. I've killed one cherry blossom tree. Last summer I spent boku bucks on a small Japanese Maple, and I watch that thing like a hawk. But it's beautiful and doing well, so far.
I agree with going native.
We had a greenbelt full of blackberries, maples, alders. We had the trees cut down b/c they were really tall and rickety and we were afraid they'd fall down suring a storm. We replaced them with local evergreens, vine maples, red twig dogwood, and kinniknik for ground cover. Unfortunately, I took a peek the other day and it looks like the blackberries are coming back full force.
I've done really well with spring bulbs, but for some reason my summer bulbs don't grow. I wonder if something is eating them.....