Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I bought a basil plant and a cherry tomato plant! They are staying in their pots so it's not exactly a garden, but I'm excited. I have a bad history with plants - the last potted herbs I tried died pretty quickly, as do most flowers and stuff I've attempted to keep around - but I finally have an office plant that has lasted me more than a couple months so my hopes are up. Wish me luck!

By "Staying in their pots" do you mean, you are not transferring them out of the plastic pots they come in? Because that will not work, potted is fine, but you need really big pots, they need a tonne of soil.

I started a bunch of basil inside because it hadn't warmed up enough here to keep it out overnight. So I know I have to transplant them in the near future... but each of the little tiny pots they're in has multiple sprouts (because I didn't think they'd sprout so well!), so should I pull out the extras so each has one sprout? Or can I leave it until later?

My radishes came up in their pot yesterday!

Awesome! I've been eating radish sprouts as I thin. So yum.

I've got a packet of bell pepper seeds which say to sow indoors in Feb-April. Is there any hope I might get peppers if I sow them outdoors now? I'm far too impatient to wait til next year!

My balcony is so windy! My poor plants. I thought the limited amount of sunlight was going to be my biggest problem there, but now I'm worried the wind might break their stems. I just hope it'll be OK.

On a happier note, my courgette/zucchini plants are starting to grow flowers, and they're beautiful! I didn't know they would be so big and pretty and yellow, so that was a nice surprise. I think it's just male flowers so far though.

There's a tag on the tomato plant that says it doesn't need to be replanted. The pot looks sort of like this but the trellis or whatever that thing is called is connected to the pot in one big plastic thing.

The basil pot looks fairly large (?) but I do have a bigger pot available if I need to transplant it. How do you determine the right size pot for a plant?

You don't have to repot anything, but the more room the roots have, the bigger your plant can grow. And then you get to eat more of it!

I started renting my allotment today! Right now it's just a square with grass on it, and it hasn't been worked for a long time. I'm heading over there now to plan what to do and might just try to dig a little bit to feel the dirt. Yay! Pictures to come.

We bought our house last year- right in the middle of a crazy hot summer- so this is my first year getting to do anything with the yard. So far, I have ripped out a brick planter in the front and created a semicircular flower bed with lots of beautiful plants and flowers, hung ferns on the porch and added potted impatients and petunias to the porch. In the back I've potted citronella plants on the deck, created some nice little petunia patches here and there, and created a veggie and melon patch against the back fence and an herb and fruit/veg patch along the deck-line in the yard.

Today alone, I planted three more tomato plants, more purple basil, eight cauliflower plants, nine sweet potato plants, and two sugar snap pea plants. These join the three massive mint plants, various types, two basil plants, one cilantro plant, one german thyme plant, one sage, two types of lavendar, one rosemary plant, ten strawberry plants, one zucchini plant, and an existing tomato plant (in the patch along the deck). Along the back fence I now have, two eggplants, three summer squash plants, one jalapeno, one sweet bell pepper plant, eight watermelon plants, two pumpkin plants, three cantaloupe plants, four okra plants, and one golden watermelon plant.

I'm seriously considering renting a tiller so I can cut another patch for onions, garlic, spinach, lettuce, and potaotes. I really want to plant them but the thought of breaking ground for another patch by hand makes me want to throw up. I'm also contemplating some blueberries and raspberries.

So, that's my little backyard farm adventure :)

Started my first garden today! So worried, I am a total noobie. I have a small above ground vegetable garden and then a smaller above ground herb garden. I have: eggplant, cucumber, lettuce, kale, swiss chard, tomatoes, red peppers, dill, cilantro, rosemary, oregano, and basil. I'm a bit nervous about the closeness of the spacing, and really didn't plant them strategically. My mom helped and she has had veggie gardens, never doing any kind of strategic placement and doing totally fine.

I'm so so so sore right now after yesterday's 3 hours of digging and todays 5,5 h. It seems like I've got myself a gym.

So much stuff! I'm new at it, too, and I think you shouldn't be nervous. Every year your garden will get better and you'll keep learning. It's so awesome in that way!

Aw thank you that is so nice! Good luck with yours too! It is a lovely new delicious hobby so I am excited!

we were away for 3 days and i put my sprouts in a closed room so the cats wouldn't get into them. it must have created a greenhouse with all the heat because we can back and all of my squash and corn sprouts are, like, a foot high. they need to get outside NOW.

but it's too hot to continue today so for now, watermelon, patty pan squash, artichokes, and tomatillos are outside.

and my spinach already started bolting :/

I ordered an electric tiller/cultivator online. I'm excited. It seemed the cheapest option for my backyard, I was really going to try the sheet composting, but getting ahold of that much compost and straw and stuff was too complicated for me. Anyways, $120 for 8 1/2 inch depth, and no gas needed... seemed pretty good to me. I can't wait for it to come!

Also, Isa, you planted a Lemon Verbeena last year right? Did it grow into, like, a tree/shrub and came back amazingly this year? Mine is blowing my mind. The branches are so woody, and over the winter I really thought it was dead, but it's really really not!

I don't think I planted Lemon Verbeena. Did I? If I did, it didn't come back this year. What a jerk!

I thought you said you planted a 'cookie herb' section or something, with lemon verbena and... Maybe lavender? I forget the other one. But there was something about cookies.

Lemon verbena is a tender perennial and won't overwinter outside in much of the U.S., including Portland in many winters.

The Emperor and I have started a little garden! We have maybe 14x3 ft of soil in our back yard, but half of it is in shade most of the day so not so handy. We have Swiss chard in the dirt in the shady part and it's doing pretty well. We got our first trimmings worth on Saturday and it tasted so deliciously chardy.

In the sunny part, we are trying to grow some cilantro from seed. We tried transplanted basil and it was eaten pretty much instantly and entirely by snails.

We have some other stuff in the sun on the concrete part of our yard: a cherry tomato plant, a big tomato plant, dill, lemon thyme, and marigolds. I am kind of astounded by how fast the tomatoes are growing. I didn't install the tomato cage on thr big tomato plant when I transplanted it because the lowest ring broke off, and now I am worried I'm not going to get that sucker on there soon enough and the whole thing is going to topple over.

So far it has been a really fun experiment. Also: really cheap.

I took my inspiration from my landlords who are crazy good gardeners who let us eat their stuff when they have too much... Right now they have some amazing looking kale growing and I want to steal it so bad/hop in my time machine and plant some like last month.

Guys, the cats are at it again.
As much as I looooooove shovelling at least two piles of cat crepe out my garden everyday... (I don't have any cats).
I bought a grocery bag full of cayenne pepper and put it all in the garden so the whole garden was red/orange. They didn't care. shiitake on it anyways.
So once my zucchini/cucumbers/squash/melon plants were tall enough, I mulched (cats don't seem to like pooping on mulch). So they went in the back yard and started crapping in my big garden. And digging to bury their shiitake. And dug out a bunch of seeds.
Do you think if I start flinging the poop up on the neighbours deck they'll get the hint? Pretty well everyday I'm out there being really loud saying "GEE I SURE HATE SHOVELLING CAT shiitake SINCE I DON'T HAVE ANY CATS!!!!"
Or maybe I'll borrow my parents dog again and let him shiitake on their doorstep everyday?

On the bright side, these people are moving soon. Knowing my luck, the next people moving in will have 15 cats.....

I can't remember who on here suggested it, but putting sticks in the garden keeps cats out. We ended up putting in chopsticks and haven't had to dig out any more cat poop since.

Yes yes you're right! It didn't come back. Now I'm angry.

Verbeena rage... the worst kind of rage. It's so citrusy and pissy!