The Gardening Splinter Thread

[Radius Solis]

FWIW, what I (now) do for garlic is, in October, buy 5 or 6 heads of it and separate out only the fattest cloves and plant those. It's best if they aren't already sprouting because they need to be dormant during a winter and preferably get frozen a few times - this is the signal to the plant that next summer it's going to have to grow good fat bulbs to store enough energy. Without that cue, your results are likely to be as disappointing as mine were. Unless you just want to use the leaves as garlic greens in salads, or you're co-planting to repel pests; spring planting is fine for that.

[Torco]

Corn gets tall

and, depending on where you're going to put it, will for that reason block the light from getting to other plants you've impregnated the earth with.

well, yeah, but corn is food... and food is more useful, not to mention awesome, than like garlic and stuff.
also, corn is phallic, so my impregnating the earth will be like fucking her into giving me a MANLY SON!

Corn is also useful to hide weed plantations.

hmm, a pretty good idea!

aanywho, I got my hands dirty today weeding and planting a few things. turns out, this stuff's FUN !

[Kereb]

i'm growing fractal broccoli in a planter on my balcony. It sprouted right away and has been growing really fast ... probably have to replant them separately soon cause broccoli gets p. big. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

[Bob Johnson]

well, yeah, but corn is food... and food is more useful, not to mention awesome, than like garlic and stuff.

Nothing is more awesome than garlic. You can eat anything with it!

[Gulliver]

I got up early and did some weeding and planted some beetroot and carrots. It's probably a bit late in the season, but the weather has been so cold and unpleasant, I don't expect it matters.

[Radius Solis]

Oh, as for nonfood gardening. I like me my rhododendrons. We've got nine of them, some old and some recently planted and some in between. Even though of course obviously their intense displays of color in spring are the entire point of having them, I find myself more interested in how well they are growing and how bushy they are (vs. lanky, always an issue with them, controllable only by careful pruning). I've become more interested in their far-future performance than their near-future performance. So odd.

[vampireshark]

Radius, you mentioning that reminds me of long, long ago, when my family lived near Tacoma, Washington. The main component of my mother's garden were several rosebushes. And they were, from what I remember, impressive, especially when late spring to early summer came and they would bloom. I don't really remember rhododendrons, if any, but that was... 16 years ago.

Here in North Carolina, though, my family doesn't go for roses. We had hibiscus plants in varying colors until we moved to the new house, but the issue with them is that they rarely live longer than a year due to this area being susceptible to frost. We do have a geranium, several calendula, dahlias, hydrangeas (in blue), lantana, and various other things my mother started from seed. Sweet Williams, echinacea, sunflowers, Black-Eyed Susans, and (most recently) lavender all have sprouted and are in varying stages of happiness.

[Radius Solis]

So, taking stock of where we are now, after three months of April weather - i.e. after a June that received four times more rainfall than normal, had only three sunny days, and never once reached 75 degrees -

- All of my onions are kaput. Last week, noting that most of the tops had simply rotted away, I harvested the few remaining green ones for use in a salad. Some of the bulbs might be fit to use in like, a stew or something, I don't know. None are bigger than golf balls.
- Both of my Anaheim pepper plants have been heavily damaged by slugs (!!!) and the bell peppers, while healthy, have had a month's worth of blossoms eaten off by slugs. So, probably no red ones this year either. I've never before had slugs bother peppers.
- My corn is stunted. While it looks green and "healthy", it is less than half the height it should have reached by now, and bizarrely, the tops of all the dwarfed stalks are now beginning to get their tassels poking out - ahead of schedule. The developmental mismatch is such that we are unlikely to get any harvest.
- The cucumbers should in theory love the extended cooler weather, but they look like they are falling victim to some kind of rot. No idea if they'll be okay.
-The only remaining things that are doing well are the garlic and the tomato.

[Gulliver]

Aww shitbags! I know how you feel, Rad. I lost about 60% of my plants this year, through various means.

It's not too late to get a good winter harvest if you plant soon...

[ol bofosh]

Anyone work with permaculture principles?

[Radius Solis]

Winter harvest of what, though? All my most important garden crops are hot-weather summer plants. I suppose I could try some late-season cabbage-type vegetables or some kind of greens. Never really tried growing that sort of stuff before, myself.

[Gulliver]

Anyone work with permaculture principles?

I was given permission to design a permacutlure garden at work, but then they changed their mind. So, I've read about it a lot but in actual fact, no.

[Gulliver]

I impulse bought some wood chips for mulch! I'm going to do it tomorrow after I've bought more non-cat-poisoning slug pellets. It will help protect all the nothing that is growing in the garden at the moment.

And will make it look nicer, hopefully.

[ol bofosh]

Last few days have been very hot, and it shows. The cabbages have been wilting, but not the ones with mulch around their them.

[din]

Anyone have any experience growing gardenias indoors? We ended up with two of those recently

[Gulliver]

My alpine strawberries and tomato plants are finally all in the ground, and I did some weeding and put woodchip mulch down. It's so pretty! It suddenly looks like a properly kept garden and not just a collocation of weeds and cat crap. I'm going to buy more tomorrow and get my courgettes and cucumbers in.

I fucking love having dirt under my fingernails.

[brandrinn]

FWIW, what I (now) do for garlic is, in October, buy 5 or 6 heads of it and separate out only the fattest cloves and plant those. It's best if they aren't already sprouting because they need to be dormant during a winter and preferably get frozen a few times - this is the signal to the plant that next summer it's going to have to grow good fat bulbs to store enough energy. Without that cue, your results are likely to be as disappointing as mine were. Unless you just want to use the leaves as garlic greens in salads, or you're co-planting to repel pests; spring planting is fine for that.

Wait, wait, wait... How do they grow garlic in warm climates where it doesn't freeze?

[Gulliver]

Put down a million tons of woodchip mulch and planted out my courgettes and cucumbers and some onions that were a bit half-dead looking at the garden centre so it was only £1 for twenty or so of different varieties.

Also, I did the unthinkable and planted something non-edible. We now have a climbing jasmine and a passion flower out in the front! They were only £1.79 each from the garden centre, so I won't be traumatised when they both die in a week.

[Radius Solis]

Wait, wait, wait... How do they grow garlic in warm climates where it doesn't freeze?

It's apparently important to do this only in cool climates. The plant responds differently (and better overall) to warmer climates. Why it should be so different, I couldn't tell you, and checking Wikipedia turned up little further information on it. But interestingly, garlic is a manmade species - like maize and ginger - with no close analog in the wild. So it might just be how things happened to come out for it, as a result of how people cultivated it in different regions or something of that nature.

[ol bofosh]

But interestingly, garlic is a manmade species - like maize and ginger - with no close analog in the wild.

Wild garlic. It's exists.

[Gulliver]

Wild garlic. It's exists.

It's a different plant, albeit a related one. For one thing, you eat the leaves, not the bulb.

And it's delicious.

[linguoboy]

Wild garlic. It's exists.

It's a different plant, albeit a related one. For one thing, you eat the leaves, not the bulb.

According to Wikipedia, it's at least five plants (all of them Allium species). No wonder I never know what anyone means when they talk about it.

I've had Allium tricoccum before, which is called both "wild garlic" and "wild leek", but around here is most commonly known as "ramp". Chicago is literally named for them (not for skunk cabbage or nodding wild onions, as previously reported).

[Moanaka]

I wanna grow a tiny plant of some sort, just for the experience of growing a plant, really. I think it'd be a soothing experience in some ways. Probably a non-edible one but I guess it doesn't matter, my biggest criteria are ease of not completely failing, and price.

[linguoboy]

I wanna grow a tiny plant of some sort, just for the experience of growing a plant, really. I think it'd be a soothing experience in some ways. Probably a non-edible one but I guess it doesn't matter, my biggest criteria are ease of not completely failing, and price.

Aloes are super easy houseplants and have a practical use.

Some non-edible species that are nigh-impossible to kill: airplane/spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) and pothos/philodendron (Epipremnum aureum). They're also easily propagated, so if you know someone who has one already, you won't be out more than the cost of a pot and some dirt.

[Radius Solis]

Spider plants and pothos are generally good choices for beginners, but you said "tiny", and they won't be. So if that's any issue, go for the aloe. Or another in the "hard to kill" category that stays small, aluminum plant (Pilea cadieri).