My garden is my happy place. I’m currently growing padrón and cherry bomb peppers, ground cherries, cucumbers, squash, melons (for the first time! a cantaloupe and a watermelon), beans, and four types of tomatoes. The asparagus just finished, and we just harvested 65 heads of garlic a couple days ago! Now we have to cure it for a few weeks before we can eat it. The blueberries are still going strong, too (but we’re fighting the birds and the heat). I’ll be able to pick some zinnias soon, too. We have a lot of mint (three kinds), several basil plants (all different kinds), some oregano (two kinds), thyme, sage, and chives, as well. I love my herb collection.
One of my favorite things to do is water my garden in the evenings in the summer (or first thing in the morning). It’s so peaceful and I get to check on all the plants.
There’s a few vegetables and a couple of fruit trees in the garden.
I’m growing a few potatoes in a repurposed bin. No dirt in it, just compost. Its a small bin, so get about three or four medium potatoes and about eight small ones a year. Low maintainance, just water every now and then when there is a dry spell. The skin has a light colour, the potato is soft, quick to cook, oh, and it has a nice taste because it doesn’t taste like dirt.
@abbey could you put some netting about the blueberries to help protect it from birds and give it some shade from the Sun? Maybe only water them in the mornings and early afternoons to avoid fungal growth.
My grandmother used to garden a lot. She continued to do it into her late 90s before she passed.
She would grow tomatoes, cucumbers and other vegetables
I never really got into gardening though. If I were to dive into it, I would probably start off with some herbs like basil or chives and then maybe move over to vegetables like cucumbers.
Wow, I didn’t realize you had such a garlic haul recently, @abbey. Can’t wait to hear what you do with all of it.
I wasn’t a huge fan of working in the yard as a kid, but now I find it relaxing. We’re in a townhouse now, and one of the perks was that there was no yard to maintain and weed. Still, one of the first things we did was get a punch of pots for pepper plants, lettuce, and other herbs.
Before it got too cold we set up a small shelf in our garage and wired it up with LEDs, so now we can start seedlings and grow herbs throughout the year. Right now we have Vietnamese coriander, Thai and mint basil, pineapple sage (really smells like pineapple), and a couple of varieties of pepper plants.
Hi.I love gardening as well. The garden is my paradise, is the place where I relax ,and where I can be my self with my thoughts . Every year I grow many vegetables ,tomato,potatoes, cucumbers,peppers ,basil, eggplants, courgettes ,garlic onion and more. We also having tree fruits apples, cherries,prunes, figs,wall nuts tree, corn and also flowers. This year I had no luck with the garlic, I don’t know why, it didn’t grow , but the onions are nice and growing. Also having some problems with the cucumbers plants which are suffering of something , the leaves are getting dry.
The heat wave is making my garden struggle a bit lately. I’m currently growing corn, cucumbers, courgettes, squashes, eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, melons, beans, basil, chicory, chards and beets. For the first time I’m trying to grow loofah but I’m afraid I won’t have enough water to make it thrive.
We also have a lot of fruit trees like pomegranates, figs, pears, apples, plums, apricots, loquats. And I do have a feijoa tree @scissorsneedfoodtoo although it’s still small.
Wow, I didn’t realise gardening is so popular!
I love gardening too. My family is growing anything possible to grow in our climate: tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, peppers, potatoes, beets, cabbage, pumpkins, zucchini, beans, onions, garlic, parsley, arugula, basil, mint, chamomile, schisandra, corn, watermelons, peaches, sour cherries, apples, pears, plums, grape, walnuts, raspberries, strawberries, black/red currants, blackberries, gooseberries, and my favourites - blueberries and sweet cherries.
My mom also takes care of many flowers. My favourites are hydrangeas
And here’s this years sweet cherries:
I feel the frustration. I’ve always wanted to grow things that usually don’t survive the summer here. We used to have currants, gooseberries, and blueberries but now it’s become so hot and dry that it’s very difficult to grow them. And we lost basically all our cherry trees in the last few years.
By the way, those bellflowers are lovely. Are the pink flowers in the background snapdragons?
Disclaimer: My wife is the green thumb - I build. We have tried growing most of everything, but only a handful have been successful. The potatoes, chilies, gooseberries, lemons, carrot, greenbeans, and broccoli always do well.
We have planted too many fruit trees to remember. So, are waiting the many years that takes before first fruit.
Oh my goodness you all grow so much amazing stuff!! Wow! Thank you for sharing. I wish I had more space for things like fruit trees but they’d take over our relatively small yard so I just plant in my raised beds and pots for the most part.
@Teller I’ve always wanted to grow potatoes. They sound pretty easy. I’ll have to try them! And yes I definitely need to put some netting up - I just haven’t had time to find the right stuff…too much going on. But I figure, we still have plenty, so what’s the harm in feeding the birds a bit? The plants are very healthy and happy otherwise. I actually only water them about once a week (deeply) and they seem to be satisfied with that.
And @jwilkins.oboe my grandmas both gardened a lot, too! I think I got the gardening gene especially from my dad’s mom - she always had a HUGE garden, basically took up her whole large yard. I loved it as a kid. Definitely try some herbs - they’re so easy and great to throw on/in everything. And herbs are so expensive at the store. More fun to grow them
@scissorsneedfoodtoo I love your garage garden - great and creative use of your space! So nice you can have some fresh veg and herbs that way.
@mira_ela wow you grow a lot! So many fruit trees, too! My husband grew up with a ton of fruit trees and he loved the fresh fruit but hated picking up all the ones that fell to the ground (had to pick them up so the pits wouldn’t get in the grass). Strange about the garlic - ours grew like weeds, but maybe the climate is different here than where you are. I didn’t grow onions this year but I miss having them! I hope your cucumbers recover - I’m not sure what that would be. I assume they’re getting plenty of water? They can be sensitive sometimes.
@Dario_DC I didn’t even think about the possibility of growing loofah - how cool! I hope it works - send photos if it does! Sounds like you have a delicious garden as well. I hope the heat calms down a bit. So many plants like heat but too much is too much!
And @anastasiia7 wow what an amazing collection of fruits and veggies you have! I think you’d almost never need to go to the market unless you wanted something very specific. That’s my goal someday - to be able to grow pretty much all the fruit and veg I regularly eat. I also love having lots of flowers in the garden. We have some hydrangeas, too - I also love them. I want to try adding different fertilizer to change their colors.
@Sky020 quite the garden you have there, very nice structures, too! You and your wife make a good team. And tell the cow to leave it all alone, sheesh! Good luck with the new location for the garden.
Here are a couple pics from my little beds. Can’t wait to start harvesting tomatoes. They’re my favorite thing to grow.
That’s a very beautiful and well-maintained garden, Abbey!! I hope you achieve your goal soon
Yeah, we rarely buy fruits and veggies - only tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers during cold seasons. We do lots of pickling and freezing, and whatever can be stored (potatoes, carrots, beets, apples) stays in a cold place until the next harvest.
If you drink ground coffee, try adding leftover coffee grounds to your hydrangeas. We do this all the time to increase the acidity and change their colors
Ooh that’s an interesting idea about the coffee grounds, @anastasiia7 - I’ve heard they can be a natural fertilizer, but hadn’t heard about trying them with hydrangeas. Will have to scrounge some up (my husband and I don’t drink coffee, weirdly enough, but my dad does so maybe I can borrow some of his ha!)…thanks!
Nice! I hope that they all do well in spite of the heat wave.
Very cool that you’ve got a feijoa tree, too. I’ve never heard of it before coming to New Zealand, and have really come to enjoy the flavor. Our neighbor has a huge feijoa tree that dropped a bunch of fruit in our driveway earlier this year, so we didn’t have to buy any.
All the lemon trees I’ve come across in NZ are something else. When I first arrived last year, the place we stayed at had a very small lemon tree with tons of fruit. We picked a few and I was really amazed at how juicy and sweet they were. I barely had to squeeze them at all to get all the juice out.
I have not tried gardening since I was a kid because… let me tell you a story from my childhood.
I basically had a sort of traumatic experience with a poor cactus.
I was so excited about having a cactus and taking care of it, that I watered it more than three times a day since my mom got it for me and the poor thing just started to die because it couldn’t absorb so much water. Kids, right? I still remember.
Since then, I haven’t really tried taking care of any plants. But in the future, I may give it a try.
Aw, sorry to hear that, @estefaniacassn. I can see how that experience would make you wary about getting another plant.
I’ve killed my fair share of plants, especially succulents. Similar to you I smothered them with love/way too much water, and eventually they’d get root rot and die.
One thing I’ve learned recently with cacti, succulents, and many other plants, is that less is more—especially when it comes to watering. Often it’s better to lean towards underwatering rather than risk overwatering.
These days I usually check the soil or lift up the pot to get an idea of how damp the soil is. If it’s dry about 2 inches below the surface, or if the pot is quite light, I’ll give it some water.
But I’m sure @abbey or others with more experience have some good tips. I’ve still got a lot to learn!
It’s called tortarello and it’s like a cucumber although it’s a closer to a melon botanically. Mine are still small but here’s how they look when they grow:
Kids, right? 
I still remember.
