Posted on 02/05/2022 6:01:07 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.
If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located.
This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.
It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table Recipes, Preserving, Good Living - there is no telling where it will go - and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us! Send a Private Message to Diana in Wisconsin if you'd like to be added to our New & Improved Ping List.
NOTE: This is a once a week Ping List. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest to Gardeners are welcomed any time!
Rosemary is being planted everywhere where I live as hedging - saw this in Northern California too - it has beautiful small blue flowers and smells wonderful. It also attracts bees - a lot of them, and I suspect this is why it is being planted all over the place.
Neighbor says she comes out to the median and picks a few sprigs when she cooks lamb chops for her husband. He told me later it is his favorite dish.
That is a brilliant landscaping/cityscaping idea!
In San Francisco, there is a honey company that has placed hives on the top of buildings - during the day, the bees are let out to gather pollen around the city - which has mass planted bee friendly plants.
The company tends to the bees and gets to sell the honey.
My daughter attended their launch party.
Another option is elephant garlic — which is actually not true garlic but an obese sort of scallion. I bought a bulb at the grocery store a few months ago, broke it apart, popped the five large cloves into a container and covered then with straw. They’re all coming up! I’m in the desert, Zone 8 or 8b. It’s been in the ‘teens these last few nights.
The above as pdf files available here; https://permasteader.com/cloud/index.php/s/H8iLwmfLHiGFyjG
Drill down through folders, Agriculture >> Gardening. Files are in Gardening folder.
Maybe the Boston strangler was really a fig tree
Also in the Gardening folder - pdf called "Garlic: Safe Methods to Store, Preserve and Enjoy"
Couple more pdf files that I'm udploading in a few minutes
Garlic: Organic Production
https://attra.ncat.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/garlic.pdf
Garlic and Elephant Garlic
https://3qcrei41bs9v3u8feq2wdcl1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/UK-garlic.pdf
Thank you and everyone who offered advice!
This is great - I DID decide of my own free will to try to grow rosemary from seed. The one that’s still alive, it might be trying to root - I’m just kinda spritzing it with water once a day or so - and that’s why I just haven’t started over by now. This is high altitude (8600 feet above sea level) and so if you have a rosemary plant you just set it in the window or on the stairwell and outside when it’s above 60 degrees. In a really big planter.
The hardest part about growing garlic is keeping the weeds down. It doesn’t compete very well on its own. I recommend using a thick mulch as soon as it gets a few inches tall.
Other than that, I’ve found garlic fairly easy to grow.
Thank you for sharing that SUNSHINE on a 4-degree, gray day for me. :)
That’s gotten popular in cities in Wisconsin, too. I tried one of their seasonal honey samplers; it was good and each honey was different depending upon what they were eating, seasonally.
https://www.madurbanbees.com/about
I know Detroit has gotten into this in a big way to help restore some of it’s poorer neighborhoods.
I was in Walmart yesterday (2/4/22) and there were pallets and pallets and pallets and pallets of 'stuff' waiting to be shelved in the Garden Center on aisle after aisle of EMPTY shelving!
I like growing my own because so much store garlic comes from China and is grown in who knows what kind of polluted environment.
This year I have a 16’ x 4’ raised bed dedicated just to garlic.
I need to look at my cloves downstairs and if they are starting to deteriorate, need to process them.
Rumor has it you are not supposed to freeze garlic, but I found a half ping canning jar of diced garlic in the freezer when I defrosted it and opened it up and it about burned my eyes out.
Wow, was it strong.
I use strips of landscape fabric between the rows and then mulch those with straw. Some weeds do make it through but very few and they are easy to deal with.
Wow, I needed this list! Had a bunch of whiteflies last summer and could never really get rid of them. I think I started too late and they had laid eggs or something, I never got a handle on them.
I-70 West of Columbia
The frigid temps give me a chance to add a coating of seasoning to the cast iron skillets. Wood stove is running at just the right temp to cook the oil on without smoking us out.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.