Discussion Board

This always takes me a long time. I got to sort through seeds and see what I got and what I need. I thought I had a shopping list of what I needed, so need to look. I've been browsing through the seed catalogs, dreaming of this huge garden and playing in dirt. I wrote on my calendar when to start plants since mine seem to take a while to germinate.

Anyone trying anything new this year? I am doing some bush cucumbers for pickles.

I admit I have a problem. I am addicted to seeds! I love going through the seed catalogs in January and seeing what is new and different to try. Off hand, I know I ordered a red bok choi and an armenian cucumber called poona keera. Also went really happy on the Asian greens in general, different mustard greens, and spinach type greens. Also a golden sunburst cherry tomato. And I found a loose head cabbage called tronchuda that I am excited to try because my cabbage never seems to head up right. Also found a green heart radish, a long white radish and a small round ping pong size carrot. I can't wait to plant more stuff!

I'll have one of this, one of that, oh, that looks interesting, oh, and how about that, oh that's pretty..........

My garden shriveled from neglect last summer . But I'm feeling very optimistic about this season . I have a bunch of old seeds I'll try to start . I want to buy some lemon cucumbers http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/cucumbers/specialty-cucumbers/cucumber-lemon-prod000691.html?cid=PPC to try .

I love looking at seed catalogs and gardening blogs . I want to try building my own grow box too . http://mrbrownthumb.blogspot.com/2010/03/homemade-sub-irrigation-planter-like.html I hate weeding .

Turtle glad youa re getting an early start.

Tazi If I had the room, man I'd hate to see what all I'd try. Like you it would be different greens. I should try one new thing a year. I don't remember seeing the red pak choi. hmmmm

Keep us posted on that cabbage. I never heard of tronchuda. But the name reminded me of tatsoi. I tried one of them from the store and liked it. hmmmm

I still haven't placed my order(s).

How do you know if you're using a trustworthy place to get seeds? I have bought seeds a few times at big box stores and found they are not what it claims or even good. I have a small garden area and I wish I knew so much more about gardening. I didn't add soil to my compost containers before winter so I dunno if I can add some and turn the leaves and still get some compost going after Spring. I am also afraid of buying soil since too often the sludge is sold as compost. Any suggestions are appreciated since I have too much to learn.

Let's see, trustworthy place to buy seeds. I mail ordered most of mine. The ones I bought at my local garden center were usually from Burpee, an old, well established company. They stand by their product if there is a mix-up. Johnny's is another very good one. See if you can get their paper catalog, there is a great deal of how to information for each selection. I found it very helpful. They too stand behind their products.

Read the compost sticky above, lots of information there. You are correct, sewage sludge is gross, not matter what those selling it say. Topsoil on the other hand, can be an option. When we did our garden, we got a dump truck load of it, something like 13 cubic yards. Part of the yard was extremely low, we had a frozen pond there in the winter, so it took a lot of soil to bring it up, and then make it into raised beds. That was lots of moving of soil, as it got dumped at the end of the driveway, out front of course.

See if your library has a subscription to Organic Gardening magazine. You could borrow back issues and if you like it, get a subscription of your own. They also have a website, but I always preferred to sit with the magazine, so I never explored it.

Find out if your county extension service offers any educational programs for novice gardeners.

Remember that learning takes time. You will have both successes and failures, that's perfectly normal.

Ask lots of questions here, gardeners love to share!!

the folks on here have been fantastic in helping me. I use to garden 20 yrs ago. I remember some, and I've forgotten some, and some things have changed.

I also mail order my seeds and always have. The pick up at Home Depot or whatever is for last minute, opps ran out of this.

I also order all my seeds by mail. Mostly because I am attacted to unique foods that I usually can't find at local garden centers. My favorite companies are Johnnys, Seed savers, Richter's Herbs and Pinetree.

Turtle- I've grown the lemon cucumbers and they are really good. Hope they grow well for you!

Oh gosh, I'd forgotten about the Seed Savers Exchange! Also another one comes to mind for some unique (to me anyways) things, Seeds of Change.

Plumeria--I do love you. I mean plumeria's are about my favorite flower. In Florida and the islands they call them Frangi Pani; in Hawaii I took a hike/bike/sail snorkel trip and down the hill above Wikiki we stopped to eat and look upon the view and there were thousands of blossoms. I put as many as I could on every part of my body. That was heaven. So thanks for the help with gardening. I hate being such a needy person. I will ask more questions since I have a million.

Mahalo. It's my favorite island flower as well, hence the choice for online use. Alas, we've only ever been to Hawai'i in the winter months, when most of the trees are largely dormant. So where in Waikiki were you that you saw such a heavenly and fragrant sight? Um, I think I'll pass on commenting on the floral covered body!!

Hey, like I said, gardeners love to share. Sometime in the past, each of us asked those more experienced lots of questions too. So please don't be shy.

Aloha.

The high mountains directly above Waikiki, where there water comes from. The vans and bikes went to the top of the mountain and we coasted down. There is a rest stop 1/2 way down and there were tons of plumeria bushes. The rest stop looked down onto Diamond Head and Waikiki. You can see how Diamond Head is a crator from that angle, better, too. Every place I went there were different varieties of plumeria. In Maui there were these dark deep red flowers of plumeria that had the most marvelous of all the scents, I think. Aloha

I was so excited to find some interesting seeds at the Asian market yesterday. I bought "asparagus lettuce", chinese kale and "asparagus bean". I can't wait to see what these taste like. The seed company that sells these is called Evergreen Seeds. They have a huge variety of oriental vegetable seeds at very reasonable prices. Here's the website if anyone is interested.

http://evergreenseeds.com/

I am familiar with asparagus beans, aka yard long beans. I do believe they require trellising, as they can get quite long. They are really nice, when young, for stir-fries. They get woody if they get thicker, not pleasant or tasty. I could not find the asparagus lettuce on the website though, and I'm curious............