The Gardening Thread

[Róisín]

I hope your pæonies survived! And your lilies.

[midwestmutt]

Yes they did and they survived a lesser frost last night without any coverings. Since my plants are all close to the house they were in a frost free zone. The grass further out from the house was sparkly.

[wavewright62]

Level 2 begins at midnight tonight, and I am thinking of playing hooky from work and take the train to be at a garden store when they open tomorrow!  (My online account is munted, plus I want advice on Auckland conditions surrounding a bigger purchase.)
I want potting soil and seeds and/or seedlings for my kitchen boxes.  Woo hoo!

[lumilaulu]

Level 2 begins at midnight tonight, and I am thinking of playing hooky from work and take the train to be at a garden store when they open tomorrow!  (My online account is munted, plus I want advice on Auckland conditions surrounding a bigger purchase.)
I want potting soil and seeds and/or seedlings for my kitchen boxes.  Woo hoo!

You might want to wait a day or so with that. When gardening centres reopened here, in many places there were long lines of people up to two hours before they actually opened. Although it's of course possible that won't be the case in New Zealand.

[Ana Nymus]

For years, we've languished without a garden because we simply couldn't protect the plants from the deer that wander through the yard each evening. We tried to put up various types of fences and netting, but they were impossible to maintain.

Now, though! Now we have a solution, and that solution is a greenhouse! My parents went and bought one, and it's quite secure against deer as well as birds (I'm not so sure it would keep a determined small mammal away, but we don't have rabbits and the squirrels have never given us much issue). Plus, being a greenhouse as it is, it's protected the seeds we planted last week from an unseasonably late frost over the weekend.

I'm just super excited because the first sprouts of lettuce and basil are poking up out of the dirt and it's been forever since I've been able to watch plants grow from seed!

[Vulpes]

I finally got around to setting up grow lamps and a shelf in an otherwise useless corner, and now can start my own seedlings for transplanting, and grow herbs and greens all winter. It only took 8 winters of whingeing about the crappy overpriced veggies, especially when the ferries aren't running. And I started growing sprouts in Mason jars again. Nice fresh crunchy things! Now I just have to put the finishing touches on the raised beds I built last autumn and get a load of topsoil to fill them. Good thing I do this for the pleasure of mucking around in the dirt outdoors and eating fresh veggies, because every bean and lettuce leaf is going to cost about $20 after I add up all the materials!

[wavewright62]

You might want to wait a day or so with that. When gardening centres reopened here, in many places there were long lines of people up to two hours before they actually opened. Although it's of course possible that won't be the case in New Zealand.

There was only a short queue, some retirees and me.  In addition, I went through work emails on my phone as I waited, so really only lost an hour.   
I only have my apartment's kitchen windowsill (although maybe I can put a box outside on my balcony, we'll see), but picked up soil, blood, and seeds, and another a second small window box.
Seeds!  Grocery stores here do sell some seeds, but those sold out in the two-day run-up we had to Level 4 lockdown.  It was as bad as toilet paper and flour, worse even as those other two items got restocked after a week or two.  So, spinach, parsley, coriander, lettuce - easy greens.
I also bought jicama seeds because they happened to be there, but in all honesty Auckland's climate does not suit them.  I have not eaten a jicama since I left the US nearly 25 years ago. *sigh*

[Róisín]

Wavewright, you like jicama! So do I and it will grow here most years if I get it started well before the last frost in a folded paper pot so that I can just put the whole thing into the garden without disturbing the roots so it can just keep growing. The bit I find hardest is persuading people that the part you eat is only the tuber, and those tasty looking beans are in fact poisonous. I use the slivered tubers in stirfry if I don’t have water chestnuts, or put them raw in a salad. Yummy and good for you!

Vulpes, the nice thing about setting up raised beds is that you can use them again next year, so the cost can spread out a bit. And sprouted seeds are wonderful! When I was on the road for months or sometimes years at a time I would carry several small jars of sprouting seeds in my backpack, set them in the light when I stopped, and have a steady supply of fresh crunchy greens. Probably kept me from scurvy a few times. My favourites were alfalfa, red clover (The most delicious), buckwheat, fenugreek (nice and spicy), sunflower and white clover.

[wavewright62]

Ohh, I have never seen a jicama *plant*, only the tubers, which I was introduced to when I lived in California.  I could occasionally find them when I lived in Michigan too.  I always ate them raw in salads, all the cronch.
I have heard rumours that they are available here as a Chinese vegetable under another name, but have never seen them in the Asian grocers either.

[Róisín]

Jicama plants look much like a large climbing bean, quite pretty, and it is in that family. But the tuber is the only edible part.

[Vulpes]

Vulpes, the nice thing about setting up raised beds is that you can use them again next year, so the cost can spread out a bit. And sprouted seeds are wonderful! When I was on the road for months or sometimes years at a time I would carry several small jars of sprouting seeds in my backpack, set them in the light when I stopped, and have a steady supply of fresh crunchy greens. Probably kept me from scurvy a few times. My favourites were alfalfa, red clover (The most delicious), buckwheat, fenugreek (nice and spicy), sunflower and white clover.

I should hope these are reusable! That's why they cost a good bit - lots of rough-cut lumber (five 3x12 foot beds, two are 12" deep, three 18"), I'll be getting a tandem load of topsoil once the landscaping place has it in a few weeks, plus we dashed off the other day to get 64 bags of locally-produced compost from a place that is apparently not keeping regular hours after this week. I'm hoping that with the thicker non-dimensional lumber they'll last many years. I've been wanting to do this since we got rid of the old shed a couple of years ago. It occupied the only sunny part of the yard and was much too large for our needs. Looking forward to lots of beans, carrots, lettuce, summer squash, various herbs, etc. Once they're well established, I hope to add covers and see how long I can go into the winter.

One of the sprout mixes I've got includes fenugreek, it's very nice. I'll have to try red clover, I think the local supplier has it.

[wavewright62]

Cross-post from LMoH thread: On the first day of easing restrictions ot Level 3, I was able to go to the garden store and pick up fresh potting soil and seeds.  I have only a small apartment, but those kitchen window boxes are important to me.  Now (1 week later) I have lettuce and spinach seedlings coming up, and some of the others that I sprinkled around are coming up too, but they were more randomly placed so I'm not sure which they are yet. Possibilities include parsley, coriander and green onion.
I don't really have enough light, I guess, because those poor babbies are r e a c h i n g toward the window, but that's the only window I have available.  Maybe in summer I can use the balcony, but that only gets light in the late afternoon anyway. 
I am also attempting beetroot to put in little individual pots, with an idea of that I'm more likely to be using the greens than getting fat roots.  Those are sprouting too, as of this morning.

[Jitter]

My tulips are doing great, even though we didn’t plant any new ones last fall so these are repeat flowerers! Also peonies are coming up strong.

Pictures under the cur

Spoiler: show

[thorny]

I don't really have enough light, I guess, because those poor babbies are r e a c h i n g toward the window, but that's the only window I have available. 

Have you got a lamp you can turn on them? A plant light bulb is better, but any light is better than none.

[Róisín]

I notice that you have star tulips as well as the goblet types. I like those better, and have one of the wild Turkish species. They just look more like natural flowers. Is that little pink-leaved bush some kind of berry or currant, or a berberis of some type?