Gardening

[neitherherenorthere]

Anyone planning on starting a garden this year? I've already started some plants inside and am slowly working on getting my raised beds in shape. It's frustrating because I have so little energy, so for example weeding for 10-15 minutes is all I can manage in a given day, but it still feels nice to have something to work on.

 

[Grav]

I may give it a try this year. We finally got a couple of trees down so our yard gets light. But it would be something small, maybe even just some plants.

 

[speck]

I always really wanted a garden, but never lived in a space that could support one! What will you plant in yours?

 

[KuriGohan&Kamehameha]

What things do you wanna grow in your raised beds? I have green onion, red chili, turnip, basil, parsley, and a few other assorted herb and veg seeds but like you have no energy to do gardening right now. I am hoping it will not be freezing cold soon so I can actually start making a home for my plants.

 

[LittleBabyNothing]

i have an allotment i keep meaning to tend to. My mind is in tidying it up to pass it on rather than growing my veg as usual. Currently i don't plan to be alive to grow let alone eat them.

They say to sow a seed today is to have hope for tomorrow....

 

[neitherherenorthere]

Ughhh so I started a few things indoors a month or so ago to give them a head start (tomatoes, rosemary, etc.) but my cat ate almost everything that was sprouting, so I have to start over T_T It's really fucked up my mood, and the fact that my cat doesn't understand that she did anything wrong almost makes it worse. I can't even look at her without wanting to cry and she has absolutely no idea what's going on.

@Grav Give it a shot! Even if it doesn't work out it's still an interesting learning experience.

@speck Right now all I've got outside in the ground are garlic, peas, and strawberries. I've got a couple of berry bushes, too. Planning to add radishes, tomatoes, brussels sprouts, and broccoli to the mix, plus some herbs. I think I'm being overambitious, but it's too late now XD Have you ever tried container gardening or a little herb garden you can just leave by a window?

@KuriGohan&Kamehameha That sounds like a really nice mix of things. I don't like peppers so I don't grow them, but I kind of want to anyway just because they add so much color to the garden. I've been lucky with the weather recently so I've been trying to spend a bit of time outdoors, even if I can't get much done in the garden. I hope it warms up by you soon.

@LittleBabyNothing I understand. If you get the allotment cleaned up, have you thought about planting something, maybe something simple like flowers, just as a way to pass the time? Conveniently, they more or less grow on their own and you don't have to eat them ;) Growing plants is peaceful in its own way and might make things a bit more bearable for you in the meantime.

 

[LittleBabyNothing]

@neitherherenorthere i actually made it there yesterday, just a quick visit and it's looking ok. Spring bulbs are in bloom and garlic has over wintered well.

i feel for you the cat incident. i grew sweetcorn last year and the badgers had the lot, was so gutted. Sounds like you've lots more growing though to still enjoy.

 

[speck]

Ughhh so I started a few things indoors a month or so ago to give them a head start (tomatoes, rosemary, etc.) but my cat ate almost everything that was sprouting, so I have to start over T_T It's really fucked up my mood, and the fact that my cat doesn't understand that she did anything wrong almost makes it worse. I can't even look at her without wanting to cry and she has absolutely no idea what's going on.

@Grav Give it a shot! Even if it doesn't work out it's still an interesting learning experience.

@speck Right now all I've got outside in the ground are garlic, peas, and strawberries. I've got a couple of berry bushes, too. Planning to add radishes, tomatoes, brussels sprouts, and broccoli to the mix, plus some herbs. I think I'm being overambitious, but it's too late now XD Have you ever tried container gardening or a little herb garden you can just leave by a window?

@KuriGohan&Kamehameha That sounds like a really nice mix of things. I don't like peppers so I don't grow them, but I kind of want to anyway just because they add so much color to the garden. I've been lucky with the weather recently so I've been trying to spend a bit of time outdoors, even if I can't get much done in the garden. I hope it warms up by you soon.

@LittleBabyNothing I understand. If you get the allotment cleaned up, have you thought about planting something, maybe something simple like flowers, just as a way to pass the time? Conveniently, they more or less grow on their own and you don't have to eat them ;) Growing plants is peaceful in its own way and might make things a bit more bearable for you in the meantime.

I've tried to plant a window garden, but i had a north facing window set up before and the plants were constantly taken down by powdery mildew. i've got a small southwest facing (bright!) room in my new place and might try again when the weather warms up! your assortment sounds amazing- those berry bushes definitely sound ambitious

 

[neitherherenorthere]

@LittleBabyNothing Sounds like your allotment is in good shape already. It's so nice when everything starts waking up in the spring. Sorry to hear about your badger problem :/ I've got groundhogs and deer that get into the garden, but badgers sound much more intimidating, somehow. Do they burrow in from underneath?

@speck Berries are my favorite. I hope your plants like your new window :) Berries actually grow very well in containers. I wonder if you could grow some inside?

 

[Celerity]

I started a garden around a year ago. I recommend herbs if you're low on energy.

 

[TriggerHappy]

ok, someone had to do this: might as well be me... my beautiful garden.



as you can see my beutiful garden was invaded by irritating pestilent children this summer ( nothing some pesticides didn't take care of!)
we don't really garden since my house-mate's son turned the tennis-court into a marijuana plantation.
(sad thing is i don't even smoke!!)
i do it for the hydroponics etc - learnt in my days of bonsai.
thank fuck winters almost here....

 

[LittleBabyNothing]

Do they burrow in from underneath?

Badgers climb and burrow, destructive to get to their means, fair play to them, determined buggers. i have a fox den on my allotment, i don't mind him, you wouldn't know he's there. Deers and groundhogs sound a whole other challenge.

 

[neitherherenorthere]

@TriggerHappy Hahaha I'm curious as to what kind of "pesticides" you find most effective for your pest problem. Fortunately I don't get too many of those around here.

@LittleBabyNothing Deer and groundhogs are easy enough to take care of with tall enough fencing. Groundhogs don't seem keen on climbing and they're apparently too stupid to burrow underneath. Badgers sound awful.

 

[TriggerHappy]

@TriggerHappy Hahaha I'm curious as to what kind of "pesticides" you find most effective for your pest problem. Fortunately I don't get too many of those around here.

@LittleBabyNothing Deer and groundhogs are easy enough to take care of with tall enough fencing. Groundhogs don't seem keen on climbing and they're apparently too stupid to burrow underneath. Badgers sound awful.

now, i'm a kind hearted vegan: so i'm more a trap 'em and release 'em in the wilds kinda guy.
I usually like to take them somewhere quiet and out of the way -with some shady trees; maybe near some water (i'm not a monster y'know!) and leave them to fend for themselves in the wilderness...

I must be honest at this juncture: I do take my shotgun with me incase one of the critters turns feral and tries to bite me. If this is the case i usually bring them back home (decomposing flesh does wonders for the roses...)
- I'm probably the kindly old psychopath your parents / the moderators warned you about...! though in my defence - seriously / kaarmically i put babies to death in a pail when i worked at a brothel in amsterdam in the 1700's - 2 burn off / balance that karma I haven't been able to have my own kids for three incarnations (fertile / death / gay) & this life after Gay AIDS epidemic of the 90's I worked for a kid's AIDS hospice so had 100's of kids as my own

nonetheless: I dedicate this to you:



Curse of MillHaven - Nick Cave & Bad Seeds
I live in a town called Millhaven,
And it's small and it's mean and it's cold,
But if you come around just as the sun goes down
You can watch the whole thing turn to gold
It's around then that I used to go a-roaming
La la-la-la, la la-la-lie
All God's children, they all gotta die!
My name is Loretta but I prefer Lottie
I'm closing in on my fifteenth year
And if you think that you've seen a pair of eyes more green
Then you sure haven't seen them around here
My hair is yellow and I'm always a-combing
La la-la-la, la la-la-lie
Mama oft' told me that we all got to die!
You must have heard about the Curse of Millhaven,
How last Christmas Bill Blake's little boy didn't come home
They found him the next week, up in One Mile creek
With his head bashed in and his pockets full of stones
Well, just imagine all the wailing and moaning
La la-la-la, la la-la-lie
Even Bill Blake's boy, he had to die!
Then Professor O'Rye, from Millhaven High
Found nailed to his door his prize-winning terrier
Then next day the old fool brought little Biko to school
And we all had to watch as he buried her
Well his eulogy to Biko had all the tears a-flowing
La la-la-la, la la-la-lie
Even God's little creatures, they have to die!
Our little town fell into a state of shock
A lot of people were saying things that made little sense
Then the next thing you know the head of Handyman Joe
Was found in the fountain of the Mayor's residence
Foul play can really get a small town going
La la-la-la, la la-la-lie
Even God's children, they have to die!
In a cruel twist of fate, old Mrs. Colgate
Was stabbed but the job was not complete
Well, the last thing she said before the cops pronounced her dead
Was, "My killer is Loretta and she lives across the street!"
Twenty cops burst through my door without even phoning
La la-la-la, la la-la-lie
The young ones, the old ones, they all got to die!
Yes, it is I, Lottie, the Curse of Millhaven
I've struck horror in the heart of this town
Like my eyes ain't green and my hair ain't yellow —
It's more like the other way around
I gotta pretty little mouth underneath all the foaming
La la-la-la, la la-la-lie
Sooner or later we all gotta die!
Since I was no bigger than a weevil they've been saying I was evil
That if "bad" was a boot that I'd fit it
That I'm a wicked young lady, but I've been trying hard lately
O fuck it! I'm a monster! I admit it!
It makes me so mad that my blood really starts a-going
La la-la-la, la la-la-lie
Mama always told me that we all gotta die!
Yeah, I drowned the Baley kid, stabbed Mrs. Colgate, I admit
Did the handyman with his circular saw in his garden shed
But I never crucified little Biko,
That was two junior high school psychos
Stinky Bohoon and his friend with the pumpkin-sized head
I'll sing to the lot, now that you got me going
La la-la-la, la la-la-lie
All God's children have all gotta die!
There were all the others, all our sisters and brothers
You assumed were accidents, best forgotten
Recall the children who broke through the ice on Lake Tahoo?
Everyone assumed the "Warning" signs
Had followed them to the bottom
Well, they're underneath the house where I do quite a bit of stowing
La la-la-la, la la-la-lie
Even twenty little children, they had to die!
And the fire of '91 that razed the Bella Vista slum
There was the biggest shit-fight this country's ever seen
Insurance companies ruined, land lords getting sued
All cause of a wee girl with a can of gasoline
Those flames really roared when the wind started blowing!
La la-la-la, la la-la-lie
The rich men, and the poor men, they all got to die!
Well, I confessed to all these crimes and they put me on trial
I was laughing when they took me away
Off to the asylum in an old black Mariah
Well it ain't home, but you know, it's better than jail
It ain't such bad old place to have a home in
La la-la-la, la la-la-lie
All God's children they all gotta die!
Now I got shrinks that will not rest
With their endless Rorschach tests
I keep telling them that I think they're out to get me
They ask me if I feel remorse and I answer, "Why of course!
There is so much more I could have done if they'd let me!"
So it's Rorschach and Prozac and everything is groovy
La la-la-la, la la-la-lie
All God's children they all have to die
La la-la-la, la la-la-lie
I'm happy as a lark now and everything is fine
La la-la-la, la la-la-lie
Yeah, everything is groovy, everything is fine
La la-la-la, la la-la-lie
All God's children they gotta die

 

[neitherherenorthere]

Update, not that anyone is interested: my plants are all doing nicely so far, though nothing is big enough to transplant outside yet, and the raspberry bushes look very happy, so I'm pretty psyched! Though that's at least partly the hypomania, haha. On the bright side, I have more energy than usual to do stuff outdoors.

@TriggerHappy It's nice that you use humane pest control methods. Bringing a shotgun to be on the safe side is probably a good idea, though ;) And thanks for the song. I don't listen to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds too often, but their stuff is great. Red Right Hand is one of my favorites.

 

[TriggerHappy]

Update, not that anyone is interested: my plants are all doing nicely so far, though nothing is big enough to transplant outside yet, and the raspberry bushes look very happy, so I'm pretty psyched! Though that's at least partly the hypomania, haha. On the bright side, I have more energy than usual to do stuff outdoors.

@TriggerHappy It's nice that you use humane pest control methods. Bringing a shotgun to be on the safe side is probably a good idea, though ;) And thanks for the song. I don't listen to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds too often, but their stuff is great. Red Right Hand is one of my favorites.

Your appreciation of my gardening skills is gratifying: I however would like to share my true deeper spiritual reason for gardening: it gets me closer to God (and grubs incidentally, @Genes & Environment would love that!).
So with that in mind (& the Easter weekend that looms upon us - what is there to do but the garden I ask you?!)
:: I am 'inspired' to share a rarely remembered Easter fact: that Our Saviour was in fact mistaken for a gardener (see graphic I have lovingly prepared for you below!)



So when you are up to your armpits in pesticides and you have an array of bites that you cannot identify and what you planted is nowhere near the same species as what's growing before you ::
Remember :: Gardening is a Noble Pursuit!!! Happy Days

 

[neitherherenorthere]

So when you are up to your armpits in pesticides and you have an array of bites that you cannot identify and what you planted is nowhere near the same species as what's growing before you ::
Remember :: Gardening is a Noble Pursuit!!! Happy Days

I'll do my best to keep this in mind, especially once summer rolls around and the biting insects are at the top of their game :)

Thank you for the graphic. I'm not religious, but the metaphor of a savior being a gardener is a really lovely concept. It's wonderful that you find a spiritual connection through gardening and it's more than simply a hobby for you. I hope your Easter holiday went well, whatever that might mean for you.



Right now I'm looking forward to starting some beets and beans and transplanting a few broccoli plants, maybe this weekend. The weather is making my mood cycle, but at least I can get out and away from the things that make my irritability spike... aka people. It feels really good to be outside in the sun, even if I'm not out for that long.

 

[LittleBabyNothing]

The weather is making my mood cycle, but at least I can get out and away from the things that make my irritability spike... aka people. It feels really good to be outside in the sun, even if I'm not out for that long.

This is me and my allotment right now. No motivation to tend to it but it's a safe place for me and distracts me for a while.

 

[TriggerHappy]

thanks for the reply.
i'm glad you liked the pic! it's an image that seldom comes to mind when people think about easter... i've just mused what if it was (just -apologies gardening buffs!) ... just the gardener who pretended to be the messiah and it was a whole state of mistaken identity (they probably would've -contrary to the Christian theme of forgiveness - crucified him for the offence!!!
anyway :: you're so lucky summer's coming for you - for me autumn has just started (i truly love autumn & winter tho watching things die makes me sad... ) but i love the start of spring when things germinate - and rapidly respond to care... it's the one thing that you seriously cannot rush :: you are at the mercy of the magical power of nature (no I haven't consumed any mushrooms!)

but that's what i love the hidden beauty in the design of something as simple as the bits underneath a mushroom cap for example...
i do sum plant photography : the detailed complex perfection of the natural world is mind-blowing...and we can't figure it out!!

i worked on a farm and one of my favourite things to do was to watch the sunrise and have fresh crunchy green beans off the vine with hot fresh sweet black coffee!
that's close-to-god stuff i tell ya!
(scraping & poisoning white scale off your Chinese maple bonsai - not so much!! - freaks the Bhuddist bits of me right out!!)

the impermanence of everything - reflected in nature / seasons is awesome. have fun with your stinky fertiliser and your shovel! (taken out of context I sound like a serial killer discarding a victim in the back garden!
""...now where is that lyme powder to hide the scent of decay...?!"" ha! ha!

of the veggies i love growing pumpkins the most - they have their own mind and grow madly wherever they want (those vines!) and tomatoes are amazing also (to watch them swell and change colour -wow. (better than getting roses i tell you!) broccoli and cauliflower (yuk!) is banned from my veggie garden (they are pretty though - so is spinach!)

anyway i'm rambling like weeds (gardening quip -gettit?!)
have a great day let me know how things in your garden grow and with you grow (another one - you'd swear i'm drunk - just lonely need to go talk to the feral cats or pick on my design partner in the studio...

ps: did the photography for a rooftop garden / restaurant - that sells veggies and gives to charity to feed the poor - check it out! It's also expanded into a market taking over one rooftop at a time...