BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: number 6
Date: 20 May 05 - 04:11 PM

Harvesting mud .... it's been raining (almost) constantly here for the last 3 weeks. Forecast for the next week, rain with some intermittent sun.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST,MBSLynne
Date: 20 May 05 - 04:14 PM

A lot of the herbs I grow might be considered weeds by some people (but of course we all know that a weed is only a weed if it's growing where you don't want it) so they are generally pretty hardy. I have
Agrimony
Alecost (costmary)
Alexanders
Angelica
Sweet Basil,
Greek Basil (I grow my basils in the greenhouse between the tomatoes and they both do really well as they are companion plants)
Betony
Borage
Burdock
Bugle
Calamint
Calendula (pot marigold)
Catnep
Chamomile
Chives
Clary sage
Clove pink
Coltsfoot
Comfrey
Elfwort (elecampane)
Fennel (both bronze and green)
Feverfew
Fleabane
Rose-scented geranium (in pots because not frost-hardy)
Heartsease
Hop
white horehound
Houseleek
Hyssop
Lady's Bedstraw
Lady's Mantle
Lavender (Munstead, Rosea and Miss Katherine)
Lemon balm
Lovage
Marjoram
Marshmallow
Peppermint
Spearmint (garden mint)
Eau-de-cologne mint
Motherwort
Mugwort
Mullein
Oregano
Parsley
Rosemary
Rue
Apothecary rose
Garden sage
Purple sage
St John's Wort
Salad burnet
Skullcap
Soapwort
Southernwood
Wild strawberry
Russian tarragon
Thyme (garden and creeping)
Toadflax
Valerian
Vervain
Viper's bugloss
Yarrow
Alkanet
And I have just germinated some Henbane seeds...the Deadly nightshade hasn't come up.

Well you asked for it MMario!!

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: jpk
Date: 20 May 05 - 04:18 PM

how do i convince my neighbor to leave my asspearagus alone and not pull it up.it's down along the fence lines,she just moved in,and i cannot convince her that it is not a weed.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Metchosin
Date: 20 May 05 - 04:28 PM

Take her some as a housewarming gift, jpk.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 20 May 05 - 04:36 PM

GUEST - never trust Webster, it was written by a bloke who couldn't spell ;o)

The derivation of trivia in this sense is 'seeds of knowledge.'

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 20 May 05 - 04:38 PM

I'm jealous!

I am trying lovage again - haven't had any luck with it on three previous attempts.

My lavender has currently gone 3 years without winterkill - a record!

burdock is a volunteer (grin!) but since a selected strain of burdock is the "gobo" of oriental cooking I have been known to dig and cook
it.

I do have sucess with chives and garlic chives!


Sage keeps dieing off on me, likewise my creeping thymes.

lemon balm my B-I-L curses me for every year - I brought home one sprig 30+ years ago - and we rip it out by armfulls every year now. Likewise the sedum acre that I brought home one cutting of roughly the same time.

and the tarragon overwintered!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST,Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 20 May 05 - 06:56 PM

Harvesting lots of Squat this year... Both the Diddledee-Squat and Doodley-Squat varieties.

Both of my vegetable gardening plots, each consisting of about twenty 4'x8' raised beds, still have large trees lying in them courtesy of Hurricane Ivan. The time we usually budget for gardening has gone into storm cleanup this spring.

But, on the flip-side, the hundreds of wild blueberry bushes on our property are loaded like I've never seen them before. We're getting a few early bloomers so far, but the peak is still a month to six weeks away.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 May 05 - 07:41 PM

BWL, they won't be there in 4 to 6 weeks--that time/space continuum deal you did to fill the jello pit at the tavern drew down your future supply, if you recall.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST
Date: 20 May 05 - 07:51 PM

More slugs.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Metchosin
Date: 20 May 05 - 08:07 PM

MMario, I have the same problem with lemon balm here and to a lesser extent, oregano. I don't even count those as a part of a garden, just something again, that the deer aren't intrested in, along with pampas grass, stinging nettles, creeping blackberry and comfrey.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Janie
Date: 20 May 05 - 08:31 PM

Nancy, Dani took some pictures, which I haven't seen yet. She is out of town right now, but I'll check with her next weeek.

Ooh all you gardeners--isn't it great to be back in the dirt!

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: number 6
Date: 20 May 05 - 08:48 PM

Guest ..... slugs, got some of the biggest ya ever seen im garden. They seem to thrive in the muck (result of all this wet weather)

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 20 May 05 - 08:52 PM

Maggie - Those Jello Pit blueberries were from the 1999 and 2007 crops if I remember correctly. Eddie's in the Space-Time Continuum and all that....

This year's crop should be safe from chrono-spatial irregularities.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Pauline L
Date: 20 May 05 - 09:52 PM

Sob. I love to garden, but I no longer have a yard or garden. As the song says,

Need a spot to call my own
As the time is soon at hand

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 May 05 - 11:25 PM

Pauline, then get yourself a nice big pot and put it on your doorstep and make sure that whatever you put in it is healthy and pretty and going to help soothe your gardener's soul.

BWL, I wondered if you'd remember that those blueberries were due from 2007.

Been out tearing down a section of duplicate fencing, and in this case, it's old and full of carpenter ants. I must repair a portion of it in the morning before it gets too hot. My chard looked a tad wilted this afternoon when it was 95 out there.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Donuel
Date: 21 May 05 - 07:41 AM

MMario, The banana tree is from the mountains of northern Japan. It is being sold in great quantities in the US this season. At Logee's they are about $10 each while Home Despot sells them for $20.
I bet you are right that they may be some kind of plantain vs. a fruit of instant gratification.

THIS MORNING IT IS 38 degrees F here. But there is a mist through the trees with sun beams tracing rays to new growth that are rehreshed from a 2.5 inch rainfall yesterday.

The pool is still a warm 80 degrees retaining its heat from last weekend under its solar blanket. If I took the blanket (glorified bubble wrap) off it would be steaming like crazy.

If I dressed warm I could take some pictures today.
The average temperature for today should be 77 but will again fall short.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Bobert
Date: 21 May 05 - 07:59 AM

44 degrees 70 miles west/north/west of Donuel here on the Blue Ridge Mt but gonna be a sunny day... Man, we got the 2 1/2 welcome inches of rain as well and are happy to have it... Not as much as the gardens though....

Don't ask me to name all the Iris's but they are all in bloom and magnificent... I reckon we've got about a dozen differnt ones. My favorite one is the purple and white.... The rhodos are also in full bloom as are the Martha Hitchcock late blooming azaleas... The linten roses have turned into that soft pinkish white and are just lovely...
Also the Gibralter decisdious are in bloom as well as a few native North Carolina mountain azaleas we scavenfed a couple years ago from the P-Vine's sister's place outside of Boone....

We are taking another load of stuff down to Luray today where a good portion of the garden is and will see if there's anything I missed down (up?) there...

Glad to hear that the Solomon's Seal is happy, Jeri... When it's happy, it's real happy... If yer soil ain't acidic 'nuff mulch them with a bunch of composed oak leaves.... That's like akin' Slomon Seal out to dinner.... Same with Linten Rose hellibore....

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: John P
Date: 21 May 05 - 10:15 AM

My cat loves to eat lettuce. Actually, her favorite is radicchio, and she'll settle for spinach if she has to. Has anyone else ever seen this? Our lettuce plants all have little kitty bite marks in them.

John Peekstok

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST,robomatic
Date: 21 May 05 - 10:37 AM

A northern garden without rhubarb is not a garden. Remember to plant with a supply of manure below.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: jeffp
Date: 21 May 05 - 12:21 PM

One of our cats loves lettuce too, especially leaf lettuce. One of our other cats would raid the scallions. Go figure.

jeffp

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: jpk
Date: 21 May 05 - 05:26 PM

we got plenty of avids and shoefly's here in purgatory.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Sorcha
Date: 21 May 05 - 07:01 PM

I'm about to go whack off some rhubarb for the freezer.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST
Date: 21 May 05 - 07:06 PM

Sorcha don't ever say that in the UK!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 May 05 - 10:20 AM

Up to 99 today. I need to pick some chard early while it still looks like it's worth picking. It gets awfully limp in the heat of the day.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 May 05 - 01:22 PM

Sweat. Lots of it today.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Little Robyn
Date: 22 May 05 - 04:06 PM

Feijoas. Hundreds of them. They're nearly finished now but we've made feijoa jam, feijoa cake, feijoa juice and just about anything else you can think of.
We're getting sick of them!
The apples are nearly finished too tho' there are plenty of crab apples left on the tree.
Robyn

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: number 6
Date: 22 May 05 - 08:24 PM

Mud more mud ... raining (as usual today) ... forecast for tomorrow, more rain. Jeeeesh.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 May 05 - 12:37 AM

Feijoas. I'd never heard of them before. Interesting.

I baked my brains this morning to mow the front and side yards, but waited until evening to mow the back. With the new dog it was a family operation--rounding up the various by-products and chew toys before running the mower, then giving it a nice sprinkle afterward. The dog has about a 1/4 acre to run around on, a real nice size for her. I suspect my landscaping plans will be altered according to fencing necessities and durability of plant stock. Knock on wood, but I have a real pretty garden under my bedroom window, with white impatiens and various types of daylilies that she hasn't shown much interest in. Maybe the smell of the cedar mulch in the bed is enough to make it a little less appealing.

There are a few cherry tomatoes on my windowsill and I've seen some banana peppers humming along, ready to pick in a few days.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: MBSLynne
Date: 23 May 05 - 02:48 AM

Ooooh! They sound nice! Don't suppose you could grow them in England....

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 24 May 05 - 02:44 AM

plums and grapes, for marmelade and juice

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 May 05 - 08:11 AM

Rhubarb is also alive and well in Midcoast Maine as of two weeks ago when I harvested a batch. I still haven't made the time to bake the traditional rhubarb/custard pie. We really won't see much of anything else for a few more weeks.

The kitty gang has harvested one starling and at least one mole. I almost caught a woodchuck.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 May 05 - 01:31 PM

Slugs! We set up a little "beer garden" last night and lured a few of the gastropod neighbors to their death (but at least they died happy!). I didn't get as many as I hoped. I suppose this is good--if they're not here. Something tells me they were just hiding (or eating my chard instead).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Donuel
Date: 24 May 05 - 04:04 PM

I hate stepping on slugs. Uggh Yechh
Last year we had a plague of spiders. There was some explanation for the phenomemnon but I do not remember what it was. It was bizarre to see virtually everything connected with webs last fall.

Creepy crawly and hairy
beneath everything they hide.
Big spiders look scary
but cursed be the spider mite.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 24 May 05 - 11:40 PM

Hi Carol, I like to eat the lamb's quarter when it's young and tender but I like it raw. I can't get into cooked greens. Must have been something from younger days and canned spinach! Your recipe sounds good though, I'll give it a try.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 May 05 - 12:14 AM

I sometimes steam my chard, but lately I've simply cut it into 1/2 inch wide strips and dropped it into whatever soup I'm fixing. And the stems are wonderful when used in place of celery if you're making soup or a stir fry.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Little Robyn
Date: 25 May 05 - 02:43 AM

There's info on feijoas here.
Feijoas

I believe they're also known as pineapple guava.
Robyn

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Metchosin
Date: 25 May 05 - 03:04 AM

I had a feast of wild strawberries today!...well a small handful really, but at least they tasted better that the imported ones from the store.

And because its that time of year.....

My slug song

Mighty Hermaphroditey (To the Tune of the Beverly Hillbillies)

      Oh I'm mighty Hermaphroditey
      And I leave a slimey trail
      And I don't know how to tell
      My horny "head" from little "tail".
      But it doesn't really matter
      For each paramour I find,
      Slip-sliding down the garden path,
      Is also gender blind.

      Well that's the way we romp and play
      Yes, me and all my kin
      So kindly spare the salt and beer
      It's like to do us in
      And remember in the garden,
      When you see that silver line,
      Our speeds not slow, as swingers go
      Some think it's 69.

And because I don't know when to quit….

      The Banana Slug Song (To the tune of Chiquita Banana)

      I'm Hermita Banana and I've come to say
      We slugs swing in a special way
      Before el fresco dining on the doggy doo
      We Pulmonata Lumbada the whole night through
      You will find us in your garden
      We have the telescoping eye-ayes
      For Kamasu-ta-ra positions
      We would surely win the prize
      But Bananas like it cool not at the very, very tropical equator
      So check your Organic produce, in your refrigerator.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 May 05 - 08:29 PM

We aren't the tropical equator down here, but the slugs I see are much smaller than the big honkers I grew up around in western Washington state.

I've been seeing a few of a pest called land planaria that apparently eat earthworms. I've seen them stuck to the undersides of bags of mulch. Best to bundle the whole thing up and throw it in the trash. If you squash it it comes back from all of the segments.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Metchosin
Date: 26 May 05 - 12:40 AM

Good grief, I think I'd prefer a big banana slug any day.....I've never seen a planaria that big in my life! Wow! I'm impressed.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 26 May 05 - 05:08 PM

If you squash it it comes back from all of the segments.


That can't be right, M ... Are you sure you're not thinking of the hydra or the Lambton Worm? ;o)

Solved my rhubarb problem. Dug it all up. The stalks were boiled with balm leaves and are now well on their way to rhubarb champagne.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 May 05 - 05:56 PM

Planaria regeneration. Flatworms. One way to take the fun of out "sex ed."

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 26 May 05 - 06:15 PM

Good grief.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 May 05 - 07:00 PM

Yeah. Not only are they slimy and ugly, they eat and poop out of the same hole and they are hard to kill. Charming creatures.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Metchosin
Date: 26 May 05 - 11:47 PM

SRS, speaking of orfices that serve a dual purpose, when was the last time you watched a chicken lay an egg? LOL

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: LadyJean
Date: 27 May 05 - 12:08 AM

Last year I bought a house with a big back yard, because I wanted a garden.
             WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!!!!!!

I'm enjoying a wonderful assortment of aches and pains from digging the beds. There's bindweed, so I've resorted to weed killer. (Dandilions can be dug, ditto plantain, chickweed etc. Bindweed does not play fair!) The neighbor's dog comes through the hedge and relieves itself in my flower bed. I found this out last fall when I sat in some. Three days after I put in my strawberries, it snowed!

On the other hand. My peppers and broccoli are looking good. My six little lavender plants are growing bigger every day. My viburnum, that I nearly gave up for lost, is looking good. I'm going to get fruit off my currants this year and most of the strawberries survived.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 May 05 - 12:11 AM

Isn't that great? Finally having the space to grow your own stuff. Even if it costs as much or more to grow it as to buy it in the grocery store, growing it is always more entertaining and it's so much fresher to eat it right out of the garden.

Throw the dog poop in the compost. It'll do the garden good in a year or so.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Alba
Date: 27 May 05 - 07:12 AM

....meanwhile in Northern Maine.....I am waiting and waiting and if the cold temps, strong Wind and Rain keep up I will be harvesting...MUD!
Usually by now all the Fields have been turned and the Corn and Potatoes are in and coming along nicely..but..the Farmers too are waiting.
I don't even want to think of the impact all this rain is having on this year's bug population. I'd say in that particular area there will be abundance...
So I am reading the posts here with interest and, in some cases, with a wee bit of envy ***bg***
Jude (S.A.D.)

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 27 May 05 - 07:56 AM

Alba, you'll have to join (as a friend in southern Maine did recently) The Maine Black Fly Owners and Breeders Association. But what I want to know, is there a market for the little critters?

Right now it's too cold for mosquitoes, but the rivers are running high and the ditches are overflowing. My road (mostly gravel) is washboarded, rutted and potholed again and my car is not pleased.

On the gardening side, though, I've got thirty-some (it seems to change every counting) pink ladyslippers happily blooming up the high side of the driveway. (We're on a hill.) They're surrounded by star flower, foam flower and false lily-of-th-valley. God planted them, so I can't take credit, and they are only harvested in photographs and cheerful gazing.

The annuals I bought last weekend are NOT in the ground and are looking drowned. Nothing has been planted in the boxes around the side of the deck, etc. cuz they'd wash away.

I'm starting to mildew.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Bobert
Date: 27 May 05 - 07:57 AM

Well, fir the first time in the last 20 years, because of the move to Luray, I won't have a veggie garden this year... sniff...

But it has been a coolish spring here in the Shenandoah Valley and we still have several late blooming azaleas just blooming which is nice. Usually the late bloomers would be just about done by now... Meanwhile, everyday another iris blooms...

The Rhodos are hanging in there nicely. This has been a good year for them. Everywhere we drive we see other folks Rhodos doing very well, as well...

As fir snails (slugs), I hate's 'um almost as much as I hates voles....

Oh, speakin' of varments... The danged deer came by and ate a nice native hydranda we have out on the road... They usually don't mess with them but I reckon this deer just hadn't gotten a rule book...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 May 05 - 08:11 AM

Post 100 and today I harvested 6 bags of garden rubbish, some beautiful roses that are fragrancing the path, some lovely manky pond weed and a pyrocantha display that is outdoing previous years! It's obviously enjoying the cutting back it had in March and it's got its own harvest of bumble and honey bees... my garden is fairly buzzing!

LTS