2024 gardening thread. What are you growing in your garden this year?

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iRONic

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2006
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Awesome thread! I’m mainly a landscape, hardscape, and flower hobbyist.

Our current home had been neglected for at least 4 to 5 1/2 years before we moved in. I've been working on it steadily ever since.

This is one of my most passionate endeavors… The wisteria walkway.

Entryway to my back yard patio from the driveway. This plant had to be hard pruned the first two years I lived here and I didn't know if it was gonna make it.

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This variety is lavender. It will smell like a perfume factory for the next four days! The pollinators are feeding like crazy also.
 

Charmonium

Lifer
May 15, 2015
10,055
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@iRONic - my visual memory is mostly non-existent but that looks like wisteria. If so, I hope you never want to kill it because . . . . . you can't. It's also incredibly invasive since it sends up new vines from underground. If you don't keep it controlled, it can easily kill small trees in just a few years.
 
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GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
7,197
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Fuck every chipmunk on the planet! I had a brand new asphalt driveway poured at my house in CT when we built an addition. The contractors finished in late fall, by June of the following year there were tunnels under my driveway. It was cratering in those places where vehicles would roll over them!

The wife insisted we try all those humane solutions also. DrowningBucket™ was the only solution that worked!

-Shhhhhiiiiittttt you just reminded me that my Gopher hawk snapped on Friday and we left town for a week on Saturday and I never cleaned and disarmed the trap.

Curious to see what kind of decomposing sludge I return back home to.
 
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jmagg

Platinum Member
Nov 21, 2001
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We put in spinach, peas and Zinnia yesterday. The Zinnia give cut flowers all summer and fall. Never got the little bastard chipmunk, it rained and filled the drowning bucket up sob..
 
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bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
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Awesome thread! I’m mainly a landscape, hardscape, and flower hobbyist.

Our current home had been neglected for at least 4 to 5 1/2 years before we moved in. I've been working on it steadily ever since.

This is one of my most passionate endeavors… The wisteria walkway.

Entryway to my back yard patio from the driveway. This plant had to be hard pruned the first two years I lived here and I didn't know if it was gonna make it.

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This variety is lavender. It will smell like a perfume factory for the next four days! The pollinators are feeding like crazy also.
That looks beautiful! The way you have trained and trimmed those wisteria over the years is amazing!
 

iRONic

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2006
7,604
2,915
136
That looks beautiful! The way you have trained and trimmed those wisteria over the years is amazing!
Thanks! It was a lot of work to hard prune not knowing if it would be worth it the next spring.

If you look close up on the flagpole pillar, that's where it originally was when I moved in 3/2018. To save the pergola first I stained around that. lol

That growth was molded, falling apart, with a shitload of gnarled limbs the size of a child's wrist across the top of the pergola.

Cut that all out and put the wooden lattice across the top of the pergola. That spring as the runners started popping out I picked the best ones from the ground and rooted them in some rooting powder and soil.

That summer I picked the strongest one and put them at the base of that left hand pillar. This is three years later growth!

This is where I had my coffee this morning!

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iRONic

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2006
7,604
2,915
136
Awesome thread! I’m mainly a landscape, hardscape, and flower hobbyist.

Our current home had been neglected for at least 4 to 5 1/2 years before we moved in. I've been working on it steadily ever since.

This is one of my most passionate endeavors… The wisteria walkway.

Entryway to my back yard patio from the driveway. This plant had to be hard pruned the first two years I lived here and I didn't know if it was gonna make it.

View attachment 96930
View attachment 96931
View attachment 96932

This variety is lavender. It will smell like a perfume factory for the next four days! The pollinators are feeding like crazy also.
IMG_1832.jpeg

Check out the last pic in that post. Same plant ~4 weeks later!!! This is how I approach it, the flowers have dropped and today we trimmed the vines just slightly over the edge of the pergola just so they grow and hang. That's where next year's flowers bud.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
38,812
8,956
136
Between bought and volunteers about 14 tomato plants. Lost my touch last few years, don't know why. Used to be all did well. So far, none dead, but a couple looked to be dying, then rebounded.

Borage, to supply bees for kabochas, which as always are coming along.

Cilantro aplenty, they always bolt eventually.
 
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Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
38,812
8,956
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My purple tree collard plant (perennial) is so robust it's taken over a substantial area of my back yard. I cut off some leaves occasionally to put in stew or soup. I just don't need such a giant plant. It's usually propagated from cuttings, is difficult to grow from seeds, I think principally because the flowers get pollinated by who knows what and the seeds won't produce PTC's. I have some seeds from earlier plants (I've been growing PTC for over 5 years), but my original plant was from a shoot given me. I decided to start a new plant, so I have a couple of cuttings set in small plastic pots of maybe 1.5qt size. After 4-8 weeks either should be ready to plant and I'll hack out and uproot the almost 9 foot tall plus sprawling side shoots PTC. They require staking. I have a tall piece of rebar tied to the back fence for that.
 

akugami

Diamond Member
Feb 14, 2005
6,070
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Purple tree collards look interesting, but it may not be ideal for the wife's garden. We're right along US growing zone 6/7. Wonder how they taste in a stir-fry.

The figs don't look like we're going to get a good crop this year. There was a cold snap that killed off the initial tiny figs that grew out. The wife loves to dry any that we don't eat fresh. Dried figs that we grew ourselves make a nice sweet healthy snack.
 
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bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
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Harvested some strawberries today. These are an everbearing heirloom variety called Ozark Beauty. They are smaller than your typical store bought variety but big on flavor. They taste amazing.

First harvest is right around 18.8 ounces(532 grams).

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Before anyone asks.....yes I zeroed out the colander.
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bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
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We netted the cherries today to keep the birds from getting to them. We didn't gett a late freeze like last year so it's looking like a it will be a great harvest. We are hoping for 50+ pounds(22.5 kilos).

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My wife spent yesterday installing a rabbit fence around the front garden. It looks great and I think she did an amazing job.

Cucumbers, fall garlic, peppers, tomatoes, and flowers for the pollinators are most of what you see in this pic.
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bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
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Just got done harvesting the garlic scapes. Going to start by making some pesto for an afternoon snack then save some for a pasta dish for dinner tonight. I'm thinking about maybe sautéing them in some butter and a little salt then serve it on the side.

If anyone has some other ideas let me know.

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iRONic

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2006
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If you have some fresh string beans they are amazing sautéed in olive oil and garlic!

Only thing I can contribute to the thread today is this picture of my Japanese red maple.

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bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
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Oh, I almost forgot to mention it but thank you @GodisanAtheist for your blackberry pruning tips. Almost a year ago you gave some advice on how to prune them. It was too late last year but I took your post to heart.

It stuck with me and this year I followed your advice. It is working great! I know it is hard to tell from my photos but this is looking like it will be my best blackberry harvest yet! So, thank you.:)

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iRONic

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2006
7,604
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When I read the post with your fresh cherries last night I raided the refrigerator for the ones my wife bought. I ate a whole pint! Lol

I started manicuring my boxwoods into the English garden style last weekend.

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It's kind of hard to tell in these pictures but I will have 2 different heights. Next weekend I will measure and cut in for the other low levels that run parallel to my street.

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iRONic

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2006
7,604
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This is a picture of an un-pruned crêpe myrtle bush. I just grabbed it off the web but I have seven of these plants on my property that were here when I moved in ~6 years ago. I wanted to replace the five between my house and the neighbors with fast growing arbor vite. The wife asked me for one season of these after they bloomed to see what they looked like. Ugh… I relented and of course after she saw pictures of the ornamental version on the web it was all over for me!

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They just started blooming and the flowers will last until the late fall. The big ones are white, the small ones are red. The bark gets all mottled in the winter and it looks really cool.
 

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bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
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We started harvesting the big cherry tree today. We are already at 14 pounds(6 kilos)and the tree isn't even a quarter of the way picked. I honestly don't know what to do with all these cherries. If anyone is in Central Illinois near Peoria and you want some all organic cherries PM me so you can come over and pick some. I'm 100% serious.

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iRONic

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2006
7,604
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Been Africa hot lately so not much happening besides floating in the pool, smoking brisket, and watching some series on the back patio big screen. 🤘😎

Summah shizz!

This Rose of Sharon bloomed a few weeks ago. It attracts a crazy amount of pollinators which in turn brings the birds to feast on them. Brutal nature… 🤣

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bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
6,922
2,296
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Been Africa hot lately so not much happening besides floating in the pool, smoking brisket, and watching some series on the back patio big screen. 🤘😎

Summah shizz!

This Rose of Sharon bloomed a few weeks ago. It attracts a crazy amount of pollinators which in turn brings the birds to feast on them. Brutal nature… 🤣

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I'm not gonna lie that sounds pretty amazing. A pool, brisket, and watching the game. I wish I was there with you to enjoy it!:)

That Rose of Sharon is amazing. I had one at my last house and the humming birds loved it.
 
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