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Gardening and favourite plants
Hi Mona and Lisa
Hope you’re both doing great. It sounds like spring may not be too far off as our groundhog did not see his shadow this year in Canada and so the experts say spring will arrive early.
This is a gardening question for Mona.
I don’t consider myself a gardener but am no stranger to it. My mother was an avid gardener and enjoyed planting all kinds plants over the years. I remember a big corn patch when we lived in south eastern Washington State, and then later growing up
she use to drag me all over the city to the different gardening nurseries to pickup supplies very early on weekends, so much for my weekend slumber, and when I first got my new mustang use to complain about having to throw in bags of top soil and peat moss and large potted plants in my spotless new trunk and back seats, but I did it anyway. There are huge shrubs and even trees I helped her plant decades ago thriving at the old house. Later my wife also turned out to be an avid gardener and sectioned off a part of our back yard into her own garden and created some pretty impressive flower beds as well as vegetable garden. Guess where we get all our potatoes, cilantro, cucumbers, and green onions from? When we had our dog Max, while we trained him not to jump into her garden, when a ball accidentally went there, Max has on occasion forgotten the rules and jumped right in, if you can envision an old Godzilla flick as he stomps around in a village crushing everything in sight. LOL. I should have filmed it when my wife would jump into the garden after Max to pull him out, was hilarious!So to my question, do you have any favourite types of flowers or plants you like to grow? What were some of the plants or gardening projects you are especially proud of or turned out well that gave you much pleasure?
Really enjoyed your DIY gardening video as well as the many short video clips into your gardening from the past.
Thanks
Jung -
15 Replies
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Hi Jung,
That’s awesome that you get so many vegetables from your own garden – props to your wife! And props to you for donating your Mustang’s trunk to such a messy job! 🙂Last summer was only the second year of me trying to grow stuff so I’m really still just an enthusiastic noob about it all. Last year I tried to cover everything in flowers and the year before I was focusing more on vegetables. I had some successes and failures in both but in my first year I grew broad beans from seed and harvested enough for several “mashed pea” side dishes so that was probably my broadest moment, haha!
And here is my “flower corner” on a good day (photo attached)!I’m looking forward to this summer to see if I can make it even more colourful 🙂
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I’ve been an avid gardener for decades, glad to see Mona is getting into it too! My favorite flowers to grow currently are Cosmos and Portulaca. I also grow a bunch of carnivorous plants. Venus Flytraps, tropical sundews and a few butterworts and utricularia.
For veggies I like growing Kale, carrots, snap peas, collards, zucchini. I used to grow tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic but because of a bad acid reflux condition I had to give up eating those things.
It’s time to start seeds here in N.Y.! I’m ready for warmer weather!
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Hi Mona!
Thanks for sharing the photo of your elegant and beautiful little flower garden! I can just imagine your green thumb is going to get better with every new spring and summer. It’s actually quite surprising how much vegetables you can get get out of even a small garden.
Speaking of your harvest of broad beans and mashed peas, while they were not my favourite vegetables growing up as a child, I’ve come to really love pea soup. I’ve been on 3 Alaskan cruises out of the port in Vancouver (convenient and very affordable if you live here), and one of the traditions when we are right up alongside the massive glaciers in Glacier Bay, is for the crew to hand out bowls of piping hot pea soup. You have to experience hot, hot pea soup in the freezing cold looking at glaciers on the deck of a ship in Alaska! I love pea soup now. 🙂 Really enjoyed reading your gardening experiences, thanks. 🙂
BTW, in the spring/summer we get some massive and incredible sunflowers in our garden. I will have to post some pictures this summer.
Wishing you a groovy spring. 🙂
Jung -
Thomas R,
You’re my hero.I grow tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, melons and peppers.
I am kind of a high-yield low-maintenance type of guy.
We all need to exchange photos in a few weeks and late in the season.Mona just responded to my gardening post.
Check it out and check out Ron Finley when you find the time.Cheers to all
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A little update on my flower bed project today. Was outside in the front yard and noticed the little flower bed we started earlier this summer in June has more or less been successful I think. Despite the historic heat wave with days in the low 40C (unheard of in the PNW) and nearly 3 months of no rain, it seems to have flourished. Picture of our flower bed taken today compared to last June when we built it. Hope your garden and the DIY Planter Palette flourished too Mona over the summer. 🙂
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Great job Jung.
I let my garden get away from me late in the season.
I plan on planting onions and bok choi soon.
Stay tuned.
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Thanks Thomas, glad to hear you’re planning to get your garden going. Keep us posted.
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Looks great Jung.
Just coming into Spring down here so all the flowers are nearly at their best.
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Thanks Darryl. Nice to hear Spring is just starting there, and hope you get to enjoy the beautiful bloom. I will miss it, and I as we go into the fall and winter in the northern hemisphere, hope it won’t be as insane as the summer was.
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I can’t believe the season is over already. I did get a nice bunch of carrots and about 6 quarts of pole beans (Kentucky wonder). Bad year for cucumbers, zucchini and kale for me for some reason. Next year I’m switching to ‘Blue Lake” pole beans, the Kentucky wonder was really stringy. They say I may have not picked them young enough.
Cosmos did well as did portulaca. Time to start planning for next year!
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Thomas, it sounds like you still did well with the carrots and pole beans this year. Good luck with your planning, and hope your next years garden is even better.
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Thanks Jung! Some years are better than others in the garden, you just have to keep at it. I think one big issue is a lower bee population. Not as much pollination is happening.
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A very dark topic. The bee/insect population is down 80%.
One big reason gardening is difficult is the best reason to have one.
Cheers
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I have no experience with gardening, but I remember reading Thoreau’s Walden and being struck by the imagery when he said he was going about “making the earth say beans instead of grass”.
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David, beans are better than grass indeed. They are more interesting and taste better. Grass is only good for cutting and sitting on.
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