Seeds! :D

[Finch]

I can and do direct sow, but several of these need a longer growing season than i can provide without a head start, and germination for several, atleast for me, has been notoriously erratic even in the best of conditions. I have never had celeriac and some others grow from seeds sown in the ground- for a couple that do grow, not enough so there are big gaps in the bed. Perhaps i am just unlucky.

 

[herenorthere]

That's why I germinate a lot of things in pots before planting them out - for the better better germination. I don't have enough indoor lighting for everything I'd like to grow to some size before planting them out.

 

[buster1]

Hey Finch, there are distinct seasons in Florida: hurricane season, tourist season, love bug season, etc.
All kidding aside we have the same cycles as in the north. The deciduous leaves fall off of the trees, the birds migrate, the grass starts growing, the spring rains start....as far as I can tell the only difference is that we don't have 40 feet of snow to contend with all winter or the ridiculously cold temps that 90% of you try to escape by coming here. The tourist board released the figures for last year on Sunday - 48 million of you came to Orlando in 2006 (and made my commute longer I might add) and a total of 82 million visited the state.
ps: where on earth do you get celeriac seeds? I've been looking for them for ages.

 

[moonflower]

hahaha wow i'm jealous of all you people who can grow things like mango trees i make a killer mango salsa, i'd LOVE to have access to some really fresh tropical fruits and citrus...

wow, there are a lot of veggie gardeners here i was amazed to come back and find 3 pages!!! heheh for me, a vegetable garden is a perfect solution to three traits of mine: 1. love of plants, 2. love of cooking, and 3. lack of money- i get the best produce at the best time for a whole lot less than the farmer's market, and i don't have to drive anywhere

i cannot WAIT to get some fresh eggplant. it's amazing on shish kebabs, i like to string along zucchini, eggplant, sweet onion, and red bell pepper and grill it a nice long time until all the starches start to break down to sugar... MMMMMM. no seasoning needed, just a light brush with olive oil. i'm also dying to try my hand at making baba ghannouj (spelling? lord knows) which is a Middle Eastern roasted eggplant spread. they serve it at a mediterranean restaurant near where i live and i adore the stuff. also, my mom's specialty is fresh tomato and mozarella salad, which involves those ingredients plus balsamic vinegar, oil, onions and fresh basil... i'm planting both normal and purple basil this year so i'm curious to see how that works!

heheh sadly, i am most excited about my peas... the variety is called Peas-n-a-Pot and after my disastrous trellis experiment last year (thunderstorms + open deck = thrashed peas, anchored or not) i am very happy to grow a pea plant that does not need staking. i just hope they won't mind a slightly late planting, those need to be sown directly outdoors and i just don't have the materials at school. ah well... peas are pretty forgiving in my experience.

 

[herenorthere]

The only problem with planting peas later is that they much prefer cooler weather. As for celeriac, my source is:

http://www.fedcoseeds.com/

and they have a great selection of other good things too, including lots of greens and salad things. I also order Italian seeds from:

http://www.seedsfromitaly.com/

The prices are high, but the seed packs are big and many of the things are otherwise unavailable here.

 

[MissMorbus]

I'm going to jump into this thread too. I grow a gorgeous herb garden...well I did....my 1 year old German Shepherd has taken care of that :-( . My husband has two plum trees (one Shiro and one North American purple plum), two grape vines (muscadine and cynthiana), and a blackberry bush. I say my husband grows them because they truely are his babies. We are looking forward to a good crop of grapes this year, and hopefully our first plums (our trees are still little). We are working on building up my herb garden with stone, so I haven't been planting anything, and I may miss out on planting this year, but it will be worth it....at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Oh...and Morning glories are also pretty invasive here too.

 

[herenorthere]

I remember farmers in Mississippi complaining about all the people building houses around them and planting morning glories while the farmers were struggling with morning glories in their fields. A lot of things that are well behaved annuals in the north are pretty fierce invaders in the south.

 

[moonflower]

lol i have a hard time imagining moonflowers (Ipomoea) as invasive... i'm surprised the dang things germinate at all with that ridiculous seed coat!!!

 

[Clint]

Wisteria is an invasive beast. I like it but it just gets out of control.

 

[MissMorbus]

Wisteria is an invasive beast. I like it but it just gets out of control.

Ugg...wisteria. I kills trees around here. It has beautiful flowers, but it's out for world domination.

 

[moonflower]

lol i suppose invasives are the drawback to living somewhere that EVERYTHING grows

 

[Finch]

moonflower, Ipomoea is a wonderfully diverse genus. Theres alot of species, such as sweet potato, cardinal and cypryss vines, as well as a woody member. With such divirsity, its inevitable tht there are bad apples

 

[ne3p]

we have an allotment as well as our garden, which is nice because it gives a lot more room for growing things. we don't buy much vegetables these days. the strange thing is coming from a consumer based society, i'm not used to things being seasonal (for example we now end up eating broad-beans twice a day for four months). we also have fruit trees in our garden, but we only planted them when we moved last year, and so we haven't had any fruit yet. i was sad when i learnt that the person who bought our old house cut down the Victoria plum tree.

 

[Clint]

Why do you eat beans twice a day every day? You can get anything any time of the year here in the US, I figured you'd be the same over in the UK. Stuff does taste better when it's naturally in season, for some reason.

 

[herenorthere]

That's great, ne3p. I'd like to return to that too. A tomato is much better after 8 months without them, without pretending that reddish orbs from across the continent or across the equator are actually tomatoes. That's how I grew up and I really do miss it.

 

[jimscott]

lol i have a hard time imagining moonflowers (Ipomoea) as invasive... i'm surprised the dang things germinate at all with that ridiculous seed coat!!!

I hear ya! I would hardly call either the moonflower or morning glory (Ipomaea) invasive and they might be confused with the bindweed, which really is. Bindweed flowers are similarly shaped, but they're different than the Ipomaea.

The sowing directions for morninng glories is to nick and then soak them for a day or two first, which is similar to that of Drosophyllum.

 

[ne3p]

broad beans die in england because of the frost. it is the same with most of the other vege that we grow. the ones that do grow in winter tend to grow rather slowly, and so you can't eat too much of them at once.

 

[Clint]

Yes. It's very bad to eat too many beans at once lmao

 

[joossa]

Yes. It's very bad to eat too many beans at once lmao

Not in my family! LOL. My mom makes the best beans and chorizo… Mmmm so good… Not to mention her enchiladas with a side of beans. Okay, I’ll stop now.

 

[herenorthere]

People who frequently have beans don't have the same problem as people who only occasionally have them. When I was a kid, my father called baked beans music beans and it took years before I understood why. Beans, beans, musical fruit; the more you eat; the more you toot.