BS: Odd Things in the Garden

Subject: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: MarkS
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 04:33 PM

What with all the snow lately, Missus and I have been spending February in the time honored tradition. Planning the garden for Spring!

So - Did anybody grow any odd or unusual varieties of veg or other plants last year?
What was it and how did it work out? Would you do it again?

Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: Bert
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 04:42 PM

Depends where you are.

Here in Colorado it is odd to grow scarlet runners or purple sprouting broccoli.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 04:47 PM

I had a squirrel literally fall out of the tree the other day, PLOP!, it was the funniest thing...Poor little fella looked so embarrassed as he scuttled back up again..

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: Tangledwood
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 04:52 PM

LOL Years ago I saw that happen to a pair of koalas. The male was chasing a female out along a branch which snapped. He seemed to loose interest after that and they went off in different directions.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: Bert
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 05:30 PM

Squirrels and koalas, hmmm. Really odd vegetables.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: GUEST,999
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 05:38 PM

Little buggers after my petunias.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 05:38 PM

Not a vegetable, but I found an egg half buried in the sandy bank at the end of the garden. I don't know how long it had been there (probably some time) or how it got there, but there was a pink smudge where the date stamp had once been.

I also regularly find coins, usually only twopence, near the pond. Maybe people think it is a "fountain" and try to throw coins in it fir luck.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 05:40 PM

Guest 999 - those aren't petunias, they're pet cabbages.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: GUEST,999
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 06:13 PM

Oh.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: GUEST,999
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 06:18 PM

Thought they were chocolate mousse.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 06:25 PM

My tree brugmansias have overwintered well in the conservatory and also the kanna (SP?) lilies. I have about 40 tree brugmansia cuttings on the kitchen windowsill and two seedlings (from 6 seeds
:( ) of the brugmansia sanguinea which will be spectacular - blood red trumpet flowers 8 inches long. I think my papyrus tree has also survived the winter in the conservatory: I was worried about it as I have no seedlings (it self-seeds) so if it went that was that.   It is going to need a fair bit of cherishing this year to get seedlings for next.

My pseudopannix is quite unusual in southern England too.

The monstera (indoor, not garden) is not doing well. Touch wood!

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: GUEST,999
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 06:28 PM

"My pseudopannix is quite unusual in southern England too."

AND, illegal to be flashing around I should add.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 07:33 PM

My yard and garden were thoroughly smashed by the snow. No broken trees, but a juniper and rosemary are going to have to spring back from some broken or cracked limbs.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: Bobert
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 07:39 PM

The purple tomatoes are a must... They are juicy and delisious... Not much to look at, however... Grow 'um...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: Joybell
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 08:12 PM

I planted 3 Jerusalem artichokes (relatives of sunflowers but with edible tubers) two years ago. Last year we had bushfires around us and 50-degree heat and no rain all Summer. Today -- middle of Summer, hot and rainless I notice there are about 100 of them. Over 6 feet tall with little yellow flowers on top. AND they're marching on through the vegetable garden like a tribe of Trifids.
I've got those tomatoes too, Bobert. Wonderful taste. Mine are Black Russians, but they're purplish.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 09:14 PM

The oddest plant I've ever seen was at the rocky waters edge at the base of Taccanic Falls in Ithica NY. It stood 5 feet tall with a silver blueish ball at the top about the size of a human skull.

I have since identified it as belonging to the onion/lily family.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: Cuilionn
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 09:43 PM

All the colours of carrots and tomatoes I can find... mostly from FEDCO Seeds here in Maine. Last year was a terrible gardening year with widespread blight and other crop failures throughout the state, but I pick up my seed order from the co-op tomorrow to try all over again!

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 17 Feb 10 - 04:36 AM

GUEST, topsie:

I suspect the egg was buried by a fox. They do that (and they love eggs).

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 17 Feb 10 - 05:25 AM

Yes, I wondered if it was a fox, but the strangest part was the pink smudge from the date marking - it was a shop-bought egg, not one from a neighbour's chickens.

[And in case anyone was wondering about the coins - I have NOT got a fake wishing well in my garden.]

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: theleveller
Date: 17 Feb 10 - 06:05 AM

The garlic has been in since October and is doing well - it needs a spell of cold weather. Later this month I'll be starting off chillis, tomatoes dn aubergines. Can't wait for the asparagus season - 6 weeks of sheer indulgence. The herb garden is looking a bit sad, so may need to replant.

Oh, and bloody rats gnawed their way into the shed and gobbled up the whole of my apple store. This means war!

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: Bobert
Date: 17 Feb 10 - 07:55 AM

We've had an exceptionally cold winter so I'm hopin' that the insects will be down this season... Usually works that way...

We're gonna have to grow alot of stuff we have been dependent on Mr. Clifford to grow 'cuase he's had a stroke... That means, greens and cabbage...

BTW, we planted sweet peppers last year that came out in just about every imagninable color... I think I still have seeds for them...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: Bettynh
Date: 17 Feb 10 - 12:05 PM

Joybell, Jerusalem artichokes are trouble! When you dig them in late fall try to get every bit of root - they have two layers, one at the soil surface and another 2 ft. down. They're best restricted to their own bed, sorta like giant mint-rooted sunflowers. Good eating, tho.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Feb 10 - 01:54 PM

Speaking of odd things in the garden, I want to tell you about a couple of things my dad grew when I was growing up.

My dad grew up on a farm in Kentucky, and moved to St. Louis, MO, during WW2 when jobs were plentiful. (He was discharged for medical reasons after a short stint in the Army.) I was born in St. Louis and grew up there.

In our tiny backyard garden, he regularly grew tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, and maybe a few things I have forgotten. Those were the useful things. But he planted quite a few things that were either experimental or nostalgic—they were things he remembered from the farm.

He planted an apple tree and a peach tree, but the apples and peaches were wormy because he didn't spray them. (I don't know if he was against spraying, or thought it was too much trouble, or didn't know how; I suspect he tried it a couple of times and gave up, but the trees remained.) Also, the squirrels ate them, so we didn't get much.

Likewise, he planted grapevines, but birds ate the grapes. Various contraptions he built to scare birds away didn't work very well.

Maybe harvesting apples, peaches and grapes wasn't really the point.

The most extraordinary thing he ever planted was cotton. Now, there's nothing practical you can do with 3 or 4 cotton plants, unless you want to stuff the tops of a few aspirin bottles. I think he did it mainly for me: it was a part of my heritage that he wanted me to know about. He wanted me to know what it meant that he (and my mother, too, as kids) used to pick cotton for a dollar a day.

I took a few cotton bolls to school for show-and-tell.

Later, I even built a working model of Eli Whitney's cotton gin, and tried it out with real cotton containing real seeds. It didn't really work, but it illustrated the principle of how it was supposed to work. I suppose I made my dad proud, but I really didn't think of that at the time.

Looking back, I wish I had appreciated it more then. I appreciate it now.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: SINSULL
Date: 17 Feb 10 - 02:47 PM

No snow here. I took Seamus out for a romp in the backyard and found a pair of doves cooing and nuzzling oblivious to me or the dog. So pretty. I hope the cat doesn't get them. Although the resident crow screams bloody murder whenever Freddie walks out the door.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd Things in the Garden
From: Bert
Date: 17 Feb 10 - 04:05 PM

I'd like some of those in my garden, perhaps you could collect some seed for me SINS.