Personal site: http://xylemphloem.xyz
Other fediverse: @xylem@mander.xyz
I’ve only grown Marketmore, which is basically what you get in supermarkets but with the advantage that you can eat it right off the plant rather than trucking it from Mexico or California. I grew it in full sun with a trellis, and the four plants I had last year were very productive. Make sure it gets consistent water or the fruits can develop badly or split.
With some cucumber varieties you have to prevent pollination by picking off the male flowers, that’s not the case for Marketmore.
Also just getting started! The only edible fruiting plant when I moved here in 2023 was a black raspberry bush. A year ago I added two apple trees (though the honey crisp may not have survived the winter, we’ll see). I had a very successful annual garden last year, hoping to continue that this coming season and try out the three sisters companion planting method.
For perennials, this year I’ll be adding two blueberry bushes, inoculating some logs with shiitake and oyster mushroom spawn, and encouraging some volunteer black raspberries that have popped up elsewhere.
Pruning hasn’t been an issue yet, but I will need to more actively manage the raspberries this year.
In the future I’m hoping to add lots more edible native shrubs, and maybe more trees if I can find good spots for them.
I’m in the northeast woodlands bioregion of the US, zone 5. I have two compost bins going with leaves, grass clippings, shredded paper/cardboard and kitchen scraps. Last year one bin produced enough to cover about one and a half of my 4x8 ft garden beds. I’m planning to order a cubic yard or two from a local business again this year to top up the annual garden. I don’t really expect to get fully self sufficient on compost anytime soon, but I’ll keep producing as much as I’m able.
These lil dudes are also starting to pop up
It’s glazed ceramic - I do pottery as well, this was someone I know from the studio I go to. Trading for stuff is so much more satisfying than paying/being paid for it.
That’s a great idea for reusing vinyl blinds, wish I’d thought of it when I lived somewhere with blinds that kept breaking!
Got some stuff starting to come up (:
Need to do the majority of my summer crop seed starting this weekend, I think
I’m happy to get to use the plant markers I traded someone I know for - I designed/3D printed a “cookie cutter” so she could make these faster, and in return she made me a set
Last weekend I planted peas, kale, arugula, and radish outside - just the tiniest hint of some arugula coming up so far, but an indoor tray of radishes are germinating very nicely.
I’ve been eyeing the native trees and shrubs in an email I got from Fedco - I think in the future I’m going to have to plant a bunch of viburnums! Need something to replace the invasive buckthorn that pops up all over here.
@LallyLuckFarm I also just planted and scattered some of those milkweed seeds - thanks again for that!
The snow is almost all gone further south here, and I’m gleefully watching the garlic I planted last fall start to pop up. The pot of chives is also starting to show some green.
The six weeks before average last frost date has snuck up on me, I really need to get my seed starting started!
I went with a “Bluejay” and “Blueray” to start with, though I’m hoping to add more (and other berries) each year.
The beets were a few different colors, but here’s one of them -
As far is fun veggies go, I grew some “carnival” beets last year that had really fun patterns when you cut them open. They were very tasty roasted!
My seed order from Fedco recently arrived and I’m thinking about planting some radish and/or lettuce inside to get things going. Also eagerly awaiting some high-bush blueberries coming later this spring!
The solid ice we’ve had for the last couple weeks is finally melting, and I biked to work for the first time today since before the holidays, so that was nice! I’m excited to see things start to come up again soon, and to go on another crusade against the garlic mustard once it starts showing its face in my yard
I love this idea! Looks fantastic
:D glad to hear it!
Loofah/luffa is so fun! I’ve posted pictures of mine here before, but I recently did a writeup of my experience growing them on the little personal website I’ve been making for fun - https://xylemphloem.xyz/blog/luffa/
This week I brought in a pot from outside to plant some pothos cuttings, forgetting it was the pot I had grown dill in last year! So now I have some baby dill seedlings popping up alongside my pothos!
Good to know - thanks!
Good to know! A contractor we had doing some work on the house last year left behind a roll of thick poly sheeting so I was thinking about using that to make some floating row covers anyway.
I’ll be sure to post lots of pictures this year! I also started a personal website recently for fun so I’ll probably be putting stuff there.
I’m planning to devote about half of my fenced garden space to trying a three sisters patch, and this year I’m going to be more strategic about where I put my potatoes so they don’t shade out everything around them early in the season. I haven’t grown beans or corn before but my squash did great last year so I’m looking forward to more of that!
I didn’t have great luck with brassicas last year so I’m hoping to do better by starting earlier and figuring out how to fight the cabbage moths.
I also have tentative plans to build out a patio/fire pit area on the site of a pool and deck I tore down last year. I want it surrounded by raised beds with various perennials like blueberry bushes, and maybe someday a grape trellis. I have plenty of wood from that deck so I may also build random stuff like a bench to go inside my squash tunnel (:
This was a good reminder that I should start putting together a planting schedule and a seed order soon!
Tea is the goal! It’s been growing from seed since February of 2023. I’ve made all of one cup of tea so far, from some prunings last spring. It was nice (:
I don’t expect to be able to harvest in any sort of quantity for a couple years yet, so for now I guess it’s mostly decorative. The flowers were pretty!
Some luffa pics -
Sheets drying
Four gourds
Luffa growing on the fence - I had to add some extra support here, the weight of the gourds was pulling the fence down!
aesthetic
I recently harvested and processed my luffa! Four good gourds, plus a few smaller ones that’ll just be compost. All but one were very green still, so I roasted them in the oven at 250F for an hour to make the skins workable, squeezed out the pulp and seeds, cut them into a flat sheet, and then soaked in a bleach solution overnight to kill any mold/bacteria before leaving them to dry. I’m excited to make some sponges!
I’ll be definitely be planting more next year, the super long vines are very fun, especially the one that grew along the top of my garden fence this year.
Harvested my sunflower heads this week! I probably waited a bit too long since they had worms and a bit of mold, but lesson learned for next time. I took all the seeds out, sorted out the bad ones, and I’m going to let them dry for a while longer in mesh bags before roasting and shelling or whatever.
Any advice on processing sunflowers?
Thanks for the detailed response!
Neither of my apples have leafed out yet, which has me a little worried - though the Baldwin put out a sucker below the graft which I cut off.
I actually do have a couple of (non-native) purslane species in the yard - I hadn’t thought about using them as a living mulch, but I like the idea. One of them has gorgeous flowers.
Not something I feel comfortable I could do safely, unfortunately. Especially since my house is in a saddle curve where a lot of storm water flows through into some wetlands conservation land. I’d be worried about runoff. Also not sure how my town would feel about it!
That’s the plan! I’d also like to do some cover crops and chop-and-drop this fall for mulch.