How does your garden grow?

Ladyhawk Baggins · Post by **Ladyhawk Baggins** » Fri Apr 03, 2015 7:08 am

I'm so sad to hear that, Yar, especially since I saw an announcement for groundbreaking for a huge water park. How many farms and gardens would that feed?

I'm trying pot gardening.

Yes, SE, hummingbirds definitely count as part of the garden.

DoctorGamgee · Post by **DoctorGamgee** » Fri Apr 03, 2015 9:18 pm

Yar, that is heartbreaking. My pomegranate tree just started to bud. Swing by in a few months and get them fresh! I'll be happy to share

DoK, try some of the mixed fruit trees. Our stone fruit one now has peaches and what I think will be apricots. And until I killed it, the mixed apple did really well. They have a mixed pear tree I would try if we were the right climate for it.

I have poblano peppers already out, and cherry tomatoes from last year. Onions are fine and the rest of my fruit trees are happy.

tinidril · Post by **tinidril** » Sat Apr 04, 2015 3:05 pm

The thought of all those years of work and nurturing having been (by this time) torn out is just devastating!

My husband has had almost the same experience as you: we lived for 12 years at a rental where he planted 12 or so trees (many of which he grew from seed), grape vines (growing on an arbor), blueberry bushes, raspberry vines, flowers; built tiered vegetable plots, water feature, retainer walls and a greenhouse. When the landlord needed to sell the property we moved out, leaving most of that behind. The new owner rented to a couple of drug dealers who literally tore everything out of that back yard and chopped everything in front mercilessly. He chokes up even talking about it. He wasn't a formal gardener, his style is to create something more resembling a wilderness garden: lush, green, and unruly... but beautiful anyway.

The last time I was in California, two years ago, I was visiting my brother in San Jose. It was early spring and I remember noticing the scent of orange blossoms. There were orange (and other citrus) trees everywhere in his neighborhood festooned on top with last year's crop and covered below with new blossoms. Funny, I lived in San Jose for many years and never once noticed the scent of orange blossoms! Of course, that may have been because I spent 80% of the year with severe hay fever and couldn't really smell anything!

Might also be because I lived in a part of that city that used to be plum and cherry orchards. Maybe my brother's neighborhood used to be the citrus groves

Anyway, your story brings home the individual impact of drought. All those little oasis of gardeners evaporating in the sunshine state

daughter_of_kings · Post by **daughter_of_kings** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 8:26 pm

Yaralindi and Tinidril, I'm so sorry that you had to go through that loss. What a heartbreak to watch something that you and yours put so much work and love into being torn out. We lost a lot of the oak trees on our property during and after the drought of 2011. That was sad enough, and we hadn't even put any work into them.

On a separate note, one of my former students just gifted me with 6 tomato plants. They are heirloom varieties... he told me the names but I have forgotten already.

Anyway, this will be my first attempt to grow actual tomatoes. Wish me luck. I tried cherry tomatoes once, but the birds and the worms got most of them... most expensive tomatoes I've ever eaten.

AnnaEstel · Post by **AnnaEstel** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 5:15 pm

I'm not sure out garden is gonna grow this year. Something keeps toping the baby bean plants, half the squash is coming up yellowed. The radishes are stunted. We are clueless. At this point we'll probably just write it off and ignore it. Get what we get or not, and try again this fall. :/

daughter_of_kings · Post by **daughter_of_kings** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 7:27 pm

That's sad news, AE. I've always admired your garden. I hope you get it figured out soon.

Ashlyn · Post by **Ashlyn** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 1:40 pm

Well, in other news, I have decided to ignore my famous "black" thumb, and attempt to grow something myself! I got a rosemary plant, and a heirloom black cherry tomato, that I'm going to put in pots on the back deck! Keep your fingers crossed that they don't immediately die!

Ladyhawk Baggins · Post by **Ladyhawk Baggins** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 8:27 pm

Yay, Ashlyn!

Frodo Baggins · Post by **Frodo Baggins** » Sun Apr 26, 2015 6:48 am

daughter_of_kings · Post by **daughter_of_kings** » Sun Apr 26, 2015 6:59 am

Yay, Ashlyn! Here's to your new hobbitty habit!

Post by **Primula** » Wed May 20, 2015 6:58 pm

Yar and Tini... I can't even imagine the horror of seeing my beloved garden ripped out before my eyes... what a terrible heartbreak.

I am so sorry you had to go through that.

I just finished all the little plantings, which is to say I've finished until I find another little plant who is obviously in need of a friendly pot of dirt at my house...

Put in some lemon cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and parsley, but most of this years plant-babies are purely decorative. I'll likely get two or three sweet potatoes from the sweet potato vines, but they are primarily for show. Daffys and tulips are gone, clouds of forget-me-nots are fading, lilac and bluebells are done. Now I've towers of irises and columbine, coral bells, lungwort, canturbury bells, peonies and rhodies splashing thier colors about. Ceanothus is always nice too, I've two new baby ones giving me their very first year of blooming here.

We're digging to plant six new trees, four in and two to go. I chose a satomi Dogwood (so graceful), three columnar Beech trees (two purple, one green), a lovely sunrise Japanese maple with colored branches and a golden Gingko. It's a busy yard right now!

A snap from just after posting this...a tangle of columbine, lungwort and red-hot-pokers...

Ladyhawk Baggins · Post by **Ladyhawk Baggins** » Thu May 21, 2015 6:04 am

How lovely, Prim.

I'm looking forward to more pictures!

Post by **Primula** » Mon May 25, 2015 8:57 am

Well, one more... like any garden person, I would happily spam you with plant pictures.

I had a sprawling volunteer wild rose come up in the front and almost just yanked it out, but the blooms were such a nice color I've tried sandwiching it between two wire trellises and whacking off anything that tries to escape that boundary. So far here's the result:

I kind of like it. Needs something fluffy underneath, though - I just put in three little hebes there, they aren't tall enough to show yet. And my sweetpeas started blooming today too, yay - they're one of my favorite flowers.

Ashlyn · Post by **Ashlyn** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 1:43 am

Well, the tomato plant mentioned above is still alive! It has 13 little tomatoes, about 15 blossoms, and close to 30 potential blossoms!

I have greatly shocked myself!

Oh, and the rosemary is doing good too!

Ladyhawk Baggins · Post by **Ladyhawk Baggins** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 9:06 am

Love the roses, Prim!

Yay, Ashlyn! Nothing like homegrown tomatoes.

The Fellowship of Middle-earth

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