Growing plants anyone?

The Silent Seed

The Silent Seed

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I'm curious if anyone else on here enjoys growing plants - either inside or outdoors? If so, what are your favorites, and why?
I love plants that have huge leaves, or fuzzy leaves, or any other unusual attribute.
The Jacfruit I am holding is such an example, for example. ;)
 
The Silent Seed said:
I'm curious if anyone else on here enjoys growing plants - either inside or outdoors? If so, what are your favorites, and why?
I love plants that have huge leaves, or fuzzy leaves, or any other unusual attribute.
The Jacfruit I am holding is such an example, for example. ;)
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Fellow gardener here! My favorites are pink cosmos, Engligh poppies and californa poppies and any kind of wildflowers. I like plants that help the bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. I often take photos of them. :) And a bird bath that birds of all kinds splash in them.

I have a huge and a bit overgrown butterfly bush that had two birds nest in it. I will need to prune it back though.

I haven't tackled on growing vetables or fruit except some strawberries in the past.
I seen those jackfruits in the store. They are huge! I don't recall what they taste like.

I love touching those soft deer fuzzy leaves at the garden store. So many kinds of plants out there.

Oh! I have enjoyed growing giant sunflowers they are fun to see but require so much water that I stop doing it because I am in dry California. The smaller sunflowers will be better.

Nice to meet you The Silent Seed!
Annie
 
Hi Annie! Nice to meet you, too! Thank you for sharing your passion for plants.
I've only recently started growing a bird garden, and butterfly garden, which are now about 3 or 4 years in the making. We get a lot of different types of each, and I could spend hours just watching all the wildlife in our gardens. Praying mantis are also a new addition as of last year. They are fascinating. I love that each year, a new species, or several, will find their way to my gardens.
We also feed hummingbirds, but only get one at a time, not groups.
I use zero chemicals in the plant house - so in there, it is like a wildlife habitat too, with natural ecosystems. I've found all kinds of insects, spiders and other invertebrates, occasionally a tiny frog or lizard, and sometimes mice as well. One spring, a squirrel had her babies within the rafters (before replacing the roof) - that was a treat.
Being in dry CA, do you plant a lot of succulents as well? I love Cosmos and poppies as well.
Have a good day, Jude
 
Sweet that you get a lot of wildlife in your garden! I get a lot of lizards. I have four succulents in pots now. They do bloom some nice flowers. I've seen some nice catuses at a college once with bright pink flowers.

I love morning glory vines but they love to spread their seeds all over! I have to pull a lot of it out otherwise it'll take over the whole yard! :mrgreen:

Question, I sometimes have seeds that I brought but don't plant them till later like a couple of years are they still good? I think I did plant some and they still grew. :dunno2:
Have a great day!
Annie
 
I love morning glories, too! They, too, spread their seeds and come back every year here - mostly the dark purple ones. Succulents are interesting in that they look so "boring" but then they have giant, colorful flowers - But that said, I love succulents and find them very interesting. I tend not to enjoy any that have spines! :)
In general, seeds can be good for a few years, yes - you might not get as many to grow, as if they were fresh, but sure - you can still grow most of them. There are also a few plants that must be planted fresh, but these are generally not something you would buy in stores anyway.
What kind of lizards do you get in your gardens?
Have a great day, too! Jude
 
I grow mostly edible plants as supplemental food. What we plant varies but usually beans, peas, cucumbers, eggplant, broccoli, tomatos, rhubarb. Those are most consistent. We also sometimes add peppers, celery, brussel sprouts, butternut squash, sunflower. We have some fruit trees - apples, peach, cherry, crabapple, plum and grape vines and strawberries . The apples do the best.

Where I live at a high elevation in New England, the growing season is very short. For some plants if you try to start from seed rather than a starter plant the frost will be here before it is fully grown. Grapes are ripe late September but hard rain a few weeks before can cause fungus on the grapes and kill the crop.

There is a lot of wildlife here too also wanting our food- rabbit squirrel slugs snails birds chipmunks. Some of the tiny tit birds can squeeze through the chicken wire. The chipmunks often find a way in to get strawberries.

Usually we get a good amount to eat over winter but what did well varies. We can or freeze as much as possible.

Occasionally we will grow mushrooms from a kit or bag is spawn. Best mushrooms. Store ones seem bland after tasting these.

We also tap the maple tree late February when the sap is flowing.
 
I'm getting hungry, past when I was a lad worked grandmas garden when she could no longer get around, when I raised children always had a garden, always had a garden even when I went to sea, now my body won't let me, but I do manage a couple tomato and pepper plants each year, oh how I look back, and the stories, now if I can just keep my memory ;)
 
Zephren - quite an operation you have there - Are you in the Berkshires? Growing up, we always supported local farms / orchards every fall - going apple picking, eating cider donuts, and all that good stuff! Sounds like you operate a farm?
Have you tried growing Portabello mushrooms?
Old Analog - every year we try peppers, but our season just hasn't been long and hot enough. (We do start our seeds early, indoors, but for some reason, we always forget about the peppers until it's time to plant outside. At present, I have two types of peppers growing in the plant house; "Hot Pops" and a "black stem" ornamental pepper. My main focus is unusual tropical plants, not food plants. That said, there are many weird and unusual tropical plants that can be used for food, too.
 
I don't really grow herbs. I just have about 11 houseplants- They're just dull, but at least they clean the air in my home. My parents used to grow fruits in their backyard in Southern California- strawberries, tomato, grape, orange, lemon, plums, and apples, I really hate rosemary bush. It is growing like weed! My parents still have to break it apart, so they can give some of rosemary roots to family members and friends. My father is a retired soil scientist/ agronomist. He knows California agriculture like the back of the hand. He even tastes soils to check for acidity and alkaline. I miss old California because it used to be a famous world agriculture. Orange and avocado trees used to be everywhere and now they're gone.
 
The Silent Seed said:
Zephren - quite an operation you have there - Are you in the Berkshires? Growing up, we always supported local farms / orchards every fall - going apple picking, eating cider donuts, and all that good stuff! Sounds like you operate a farm?
Have you tried growing Portabello mushrooms?
Old Analog - every year we try peppers, but our season just hasn't been long and hot enough. (We do start our seeds early, indoors, but for some reason, we always forget about the peppers until it's time to plant outside. At present, I have two types of peppers growing in the plant house; "Hot Pops" and a "black stem" ornamental pepper. My main focus is unusual tropical plants, not food plants. That said, there are many weird and unusual tropical plants that can be used for food, too.
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I'm below the Berkshires in pioneer valley.
Yes I have grown Portabello and oyster successfully from spawn. Tried some others from cultures but that didn't go well. Hard to keep everything perfectly sterile to block competing mold from getting in.
It's a small hobby farm. We also have chickens for eggs and meat.
I too enjoy picking fruit. We have some wild blueberries. That's is s tedious one since it takes a long time to collect a good size batch. They have really short window when they are wipe which can be easy to miss. The bears don't miss it though so we have get some before they gobble up them all.
 
I have a hard time keeping my plants alive. As much as I take care of them they seem to have short life span. Any tips how to keep plants to live longer.
 
I don't have the stamina to type all the funny stories I know about Johnson grass, Christmass cactus are pretty this time of year:applause:
 
Go for Pothos and Sansevieria aka Snake plant. They are low maintenance and tough. My son likes to play with them, but he knows he is not supposed to play with them. They are fine. I have too many Pothos plants, because they grow like a weed.
 
Does the occasional 4 rows of sweet corn count? Hahaha
 
Barbaro said:
I have too many Pothos plants, because they grow like a weed.
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Hey guys - been off of here for a while due to inactivity.
Rio - I'm happy to help! Do you have any plants in particular you'd be interested in trying? Please feel free to reach out to me.
Jude
 
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