How does your garden grow?

[Aayah]

4got 2put this on.

 

[glo]

Crayon, here is a picture of our herb garden, which I only planted a couple of weeks ago (in our old kitchen sink).
The plants were shop-bought. Quick result and ready to be used!

Since the work in the garden is never really finished, I have started pegging down the strawberry runners into new pots - they will grow into big plants by next spring and will grow strawberries in their first year.

This morning at 5.30 I spotted our resident hedgehog, coming home from a night's hunting.
I gave him some catfood and watched him for a while.
The little fellow made me smile with his antics, shuffling and rustling about, trying to find a comfy place for his well-earned day-time rest.
He is only a baby. I hope he will stay for a while and feed on our garden pests!

 

[Ummu Sufyaan]

I can finally somewhat contribute to this thread!

Okay, so. I'm excited. I am determined to make this lil' bit of land beautiful! This is what I have to work with. Sorry for the low quality, they're from my phone.

I was going to buy seeds the other day. I checked out the planting/growing months and worked out which ones I would buy. But then my mom said since it's my first time, I should use the pre planted plants (don't know what the actual word for them is yet?). That just seems like a cop out though... Or do lots of people do that?

yh lots of people do that

What plants and flowers work best in a mid east environment?

olives, oranges, lemons and prickly pair fruit (although that plant might be a little big for that small area)...

Hmm can't think of anything else at the moment.. Any tips you all have in general would be great!

im not much of a gardener myself, but some things that come to mind:
you can jazz up your garden without going into too much detail. for a small area like yours, i think the concept of "less is more" would be useful
get a fruit tree/s up you don't have to plant it in the ground, you can get a reasonable sized one in a large pot...
also that wall, omg you have to plant a grape vine! it'll look way awesome in season with its green leaves and purple fruits against that color wall...aaaand you can use the leaves for wara 3anab

plants some herbs as well...u know pastley, mint, etc etc...

get a bird bath/feeder, cos then you'll have really cute birds flying around in your garden :statisfie

if you do any digging etc, be prepared for lil insects such as ants and spiders to pop up every now and again lol.

also to get a visual idea of what to do, look at you tube vids...there's always weird things everywhere

maybe also get facts sheets on the plants that you decide to plant as well...you can usually find them over the nest. just type in *your chosen plant* +fact sheet and inshallah, it'll have something. all the best

 

[MuslimahBarb]

Peace Glo

It has been some time since I visited this thread but wanted to say that it looks as if your garden did quite well this year. I really missed participating in the gardening activities this year but God willing I will be able to this coming year. Mustafa is already planning our garden for next year and I am really looking forward to it.

 

[glo]

Time to restart the old gardening thread!

Spring is well and truly here now.
There is frog spawn in the little pond and the flowers area delight.


Here is the neighbour's flowering current. The bees love the flowers!

These are wild hyacinths or grape hyacinths. They are so pretty!

I have started sowing seeds for the runner beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes. They will need to keep protected over night, because it still gets quite cold.

I am using recycled materials for the seed pots, such as newspapers, toilet roll inserts and egg boxes.
They are cheaper that sop bought ones and more environmentally friendly.

 

[~Raindrop~]

:exhausted:exhausted just finished reading this entire thread
we used to have a lovely garden in our old house. (note: the gardener did all the work :hiding
just recently, we've moved (temporarily) whilst our house is being renovated (those Victorian houses really do take time fixing!!- i miss my bedroom!)
our current house has a matchbox of a garden thats been unthoughtfully and very cruelly paved over
we used to love the wild blackberries that grew outside the house when we were little. now, we just go raspberry-picking but its not the same

 

[PouringRain]

Glo, This is such a great thread, thanks! We have rain barrels and a compost heap also. God blessed us with a good rain yesterday that filled our rain barrels to overflowing!

All my veggies are starting to sprout up, our Irises and Roses are in full bloom, the wildflowers in the yard are all blooming. We also have blueberry bushes, grape vines, and mulberry trees. I need to resize the pictures before I can share them, and I haven't taken pics of everything yet.

 

[glo]

Hello, PouringRain

I am not sure we have met. Welcome to the forum and to the gardening thread.

Where do you live?
I was just thinking today that we could do with some rain. I haven't dared say it out loud, because I find that when I do it starts raining and doesn't stop for weeks!

I look forward to seeing your pics.


Aisha, thank you for your post. I love your sig!

 

[Beardo]

I had a small vegetable garden, but when I went to Bangladesh for a week, nobody maintained it and they all ended dying. I should start re-growing. I'll probably buy some seeds soon...

 

[PouringRain]

Hello, PouringRain

I am not sure we have met. Welcome to the forum and to the gardening thread.

Where do you live?
I was just thinking today that we could do with some rain. I haven't dared say it out loud, because I find that when I do it starts raining and doesn't stop for weeks!

I look forward to seeing your pics.

Nice to meet you also. I noticed I broke 100 posts today! I wish we got rain that comes for weeks. Here it rains so rarely that when it does we run outside and rejoice in it thanking God and doing dances in the rain, and thanking God for filling up our rain barrels. I live in the US, but I don't normally say specifically. I can PM you and let you know if you want. I'll post the pics later, but I still haven't taken them of everything yet.

 

[PouringRain]

I spent hours resizing these and they are still super sized. Sorry. :hmm:

This grows wild all over the yard:

From the vegetable garden, but this is not everything.

 

[glo]

Wow, your growing season is ahead of ours!


I am only starting to put seeds out, although we still have some winter lettuces, which we planted last autumn.

The swiss chard is also still growing - although I am expecting it to bolt soon. I will put in new seeds for this year.
I love swiss chard as a spinach substitute and I find it much easier to grow than spinach.

 

[PouringRain]

Wow, your growing season is ahead of ours!






The swiss chard is also still growing - although I am expecting it to bolt soon. I will put in new seeds for this year.
I love swiss chard as a spinach substitute and I find it much easier to grow than spinach.

Spinach! You just reminded me that I didn't plant any this year. Spinach grows very well here up until summer and then the heat burns it out very quickly.

This year I planted by Mid-March. We actually had out last snow just a few days after I had planted, but I was lucky it was only a light fall that melted as it hit the ground. Last year in 2009 I planted by the end of February, because we were already having 90 degree days and had a mild winter. I get things in as early as possible so everything has as best a chance as possible. Once summer hits with 110 degree days and drought, many things do not do well.

 

[Woodrow]

We are finally having a warm spell and the desire to start a garden is strong. Sadly I have to put off the temptation. Snow is always probable here until late May. Although the weather says it is time to plant, I know our winter is just taking a short break and there will be more snow before it is really over. I will be looking at everybody's pictures and dreaming for mid May when it should be safe to start with cold hardy plants like Spinach. ( sorry Glo)

 

[glo]

Apart from spinach, what crops are you hoping to grow in such a short growing season, Woodrow?

Think of me, when you tuck into your fresh green spinach leaves!

 

[Woodrow]

Apart from spinach, what crops are you hoping to grow in such a short growing season, Woodrow?

Think of me, when you tuck into your fresh green spinach leaves!

We are very limited, for home gardens. The large farms plant various fast growing grains such as wheat, corn, oats etc. But those are not pracical for a home garden, but some things that have fast growing varieties or can survive a month of cold weather after full growth are:

Tomatoes
Potatoes (Yukon Gold Variety does best)
Spinach
Swiss chard
Aruga
Any of the kale family such as kale, cabbage, brussel sprout
Rhubarb
Asparagus does good but it takes years to establish a producing bed, there is wild asperagus growing in untouched land around here.
One or two varieties of strawberries can be grown

I will probably just plant Spinach, Dill, onions, Yukon gold potatoes and rhubarb(The Rhubarb is a perennial and does not need replanting as it will come back up each year.) Eureka, South Dakota not very far from us claims to be the Rhubarb capital of the world. The bakery there has some fame for it's Rhubarb Kolache, which it ships world wide.

 

[cat eyes]

The one next to him is the reason we went to that farm. We "rented" the black stallion for stud service of 4 of our mares that are ready for breeding.

oh my gosh i just love horses i use to do horse riding with my cusan. horses are beautiful creatures

 

[MuslimahBarb]

It is great to see this thread active again, mashaAllah. Our garden isn't quite ready for planting yet. Mustafa has been adding more organic matter to make a better root bed for our veggies. Although Mustafa did plant some asparagus in one of our raised beds a few weeks ago. We hope to get the tomatoes planted this afternoon inshaAllah.

I added 2 new roses to my rose collection this spring one was to replace one that had been struggling the last couple of seasons and the other a new one.



We are also getting our first peaches on the peach trees this year, mashaAllah

 

[glo]

That's a beautiful rose, Barb.
And I wish I could grow peaches!

We planted a couple of apple trees last autumn though. Apples do very well in the British climate.

 

[glo]

Here are the blossoms on the new apple tree, which we planted last autumn.
Because our garden is quite small and narrow, we chose two 'ballerina' apple trees - they will grow up straight rather than branching out.

The broccoli is just starting to grow:

And here is some evidence that a small boy has been in the garden!! oh::mmokay: