Plants/Garden, What Do You Have?

[PyROTech]

these are some of the peppers, using normal daylight, not using 22hr lights. But will be switching them over soon since day light is really getting short.

[ErikS]

I have a star melon patch, I'll post of some pics and the fruit tomorrow when I pick them.

[Ihatespeedbumps]

I'm a renter with a very small porch, but I do keep a tomato plant, hot peppers, basil, rosemary and cilantro for the occasional times that I cook. No pics

Edit: Next season I'm going to to find a suitable log and inoculate it with shiitake mushrooms, seems like it would be interesting.

[kent696]

Looks good to see that you all have a passion for gardening.I to grow some plants in my small garden.I usually grow vegetables.

[PyROTech]

todays newspaper (btw its a liberal newspaper so you can see all the crying)

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/862887--porter-who-is-stealing-the-flowers-of-toronto?bn=1

"Dear flower thief:I saw you digging plants out of the freshly groomed bed in Monarch Park the other night. You were scooping them into a bag on your moped.

You didn’t just pick one flower in a moment of absent-minded delight! It was a premeditated act. You came armed with a trowel.

Are you the same sneak who surgically removed the fuchsia petunias on Queen East this summer, the apple trees lovingly planted by kids out back of a Newtonbrook middle school and Helen Battersby’s blue flax plants just as they were coming into radiant bloom?

What about the 10-foot dogwood tree that disappeared from an Annex front yard a few weeks ago — happily spreading roots one day, nothing but a hole the next?

No, you are not alone. There are many of you in this sad city.

What has Toronto come to?

I know we have more pressing issues. But I take the thefts as a symptom of our fraying community fabric. Like drivers who don’t pull over to let a screaming ambulance pass and parents who walk their 12-year-olds to school, not trusting the eyes on the street.

Plants are intimate things. We bury them in the fall and pass the winter dreaming of their hopeful blooms. We nurture them and then they nurture us. They are reassuring, surprising and generous — gifts to the neighbours, the butterflies and the birds.

They demand to be shared — continually overflowing downtown Toronto yards. They are a relic of village life in the big, bad city.

All you had to do was knock on Battersby’s door and ask.

Her whole east end street flashes blue in May from the bearded irises that were nursed in her garden. You likely would have left with a cutting from her purple perennial geranium, heart-leaved violets and mock orange tree.

You missed out, you crook.

“I just adjusted my view of humanity,” sighs Battersby, one of two sisters who writes the wildly popular Toronto Gardens blog. She didn’t plant a sign, like Gayla Trail, who awoke one morning last spring to find a hole where she had just planted her prickly sea holly. It read: “Stealing plants is a low and selfish act. What’s next? Punching kittens? You suck.”

Your garden must be stunning.

Unless Greg Carducci is right, and you are a pirate landscaper, tucking those plants around clubhouses or Rosedale lawns. Someone broke into his garden store twice this summer, stealing statues. His beloved potted bonsai Japanese maple was plant-napped from his front porch a few years ago, too.

Or are you hawking them at Sherbourne and Queen, along with hot laptops and iPhones?

I called the parks department. You are their version of collateral damage, like unscooped dog poo.

“It occurs on a seasonal basis,” said Sandy Straw, who manages the city’s downtown parks. Every time a new display of flowers goes into the parks, your kind strikes, she said.

I guess you liked the look of those purple ornamental cabbages. I do too. They assuage my lament for summer, while I’m pushing my woolen-legged daughter on the swing. They remind us all for a few short moments in fall that life is beautiful.

Maybe you think they belong to you as a taxpayer. And next time, you’ll come with a blowtorch and take the swing too.

When you took those plants, you left a hole in more than just the park.

I am ashamed I didn’t stop you.

I will next time."

[flyfishing3]

http://volvospeed.com/vs_forum/index.php/topic/135418-daylilys/page__p__1811083__hl__%2Bday+%2Blilies__fromsearch__1#entry1811083

[PyROTech]

http://volvospeed.co..._1#entry1811083

didnt realize, we should merge the threads. A guns and gardening thread,

[ErikS]

Awesome home grown star melons, sweet and juicy.

[PyROTech]

nice. how did you go about the water melons? seeds? how hard was it?

[flyfishing3]

nice, damn ground hog got into my garden and ruined 90% of it.

i have one softball sized W melon left.

[ErikS]

nice. how did you go about the water melons? seeds? how hard was it?

Yep, seeds. They were planted last season, and I let a couple rot, so I got surprised this year by them being perenial.

nice, damn ground hog got into my garden and ruined 90% of it.

i have one softball sized W melon left.

Sucks, but it happens. My dogs loved zucinni flowers, and ate on lot of them last year.

[PyROTech]

so spring is approaching. Sorta sad winter is coming to an end, but ohh well

Im going the blueberry route this year, b/c i remembered the post from last year lol.

Also expanding to full raspberry area. And pumpkin just for the hell of it. I wish i could grow oranges.

Suggestions on what i should try this year??? we can call it the volvospeed community garden.

[Mesoam]

avocado

[ErikS]

avocado

He would have better luck growing mangos.

[PyROTech]

avocado

never thought of it.

He would have better luck growing mangos.

dont know anything about them, but i would assume they would both be equally hard to grow. But overall i think (just based on a hunch avocados would be easier). If i had a choice i would go with avocado over mango based on my preference of taste. Either way, without serious effort, both would turn out horrible for me.