I have a black thumb. But it's getting bettah.

My home had a rose garden in front which was tended to daily by the elderly former owner who could tend to it every day. In fact, he fell in the roses at 88 and was taken to hospital and the house was put up for sale. Such a lovely garden of roses. But..I felt more like I was sitting for them rather than caring for my own. And roses can be so hard. So after 5 years and my mother's death... I had the other neighbors who knew the former owner, come over and dig up the roses for their own yard. I kept a line of four of them. And began to take ownership of My Garden.

I have a "line" of tulips, bearded irises (50 yr old bulbs I dragged up from Cali from a friend who gave them to me- thought I killed them for a few years as they didn't bloom and now they bloom like cray!) and lots of muscari. I now have 3 kinds of muscari - one is cauliflower looking and one is called Mt. Hood as it's white on top.

Then I have a 'line" of "pollinators. Flowers that come up in waves of different stuff. Forget me nots, bachelor buttons, red clover and now there's something orange coming up.

Then there's echinacea and my dahlias. Huckleberry plants - mostly for show and the birds. Strawberry planter .. for the birds.

The front of the garden is edged with violas and pansies which are all branching out, they remind me of little kids waiting for the school bus. All gathered in little clusters.

Then a rosemary bush that likes to blush blue flowers divide the area up into a part I DO know something about.. Herbs. My herb garden is the part that is always weeded out. Thyme, rosemary, chives, garlic chives, sage, oregano (which is now popping up between the cracks of my driveway)

I also have several pitcher plants from an old boss in a boggy planter. They are alien looking and thank dog they take care of themselves. They are boggy but love Oregon.

All I know is that the dirt is called SOIL and that even if I don't know quite what I'm doing, I'm outside with my music, sometimes a sativa joint amd... I'm digging in the soil. Hearing birds and squirrels yammer at each other.

Oh and youtube is great for learning how to care for the babies. I just repotted and divided some free aloe I got years ago that simply seems to adore the slight sun spot in my kitchen window. Found out that the "babies" of aloe vera plants are called "Pups".

My patch of yard is rather tiny. who wants to maintain, care for and water a yard??? I'm not quite at "Food Not Lawns" yet but I think lawns are a waste of water and time.

I love Arugula! Spinach for superfood smoothies and arugula for salads and sandwiches, and kale for soups.

A former co-worker and friend now owns her own nursery and next week we are picking up some cherry tomatoes of hers that are amazing. Meaning... I can't kill them.

Or Lamb's Quarters, depending on who's saying it.

They (it?) grew outside my bedroom window when I was a kid in dry Lubbock, TX. Haven't much thought about them until now. Never ate them raw, but they were wonderful cooked. A lot like spinach.

I love greens, but being southern, I have usually eaten them cooked. Collard and Mustard greens. When I hear the word "greens" I think of greens cooked with some type of pork. A ham hock is traditional. Although, we were so poor when I was young, Mom often flavored Lamb's Quarter with just bacon grease.

A very common meal for us would be pinto beans cooked with bacon in the crock pot, a "mess" of fried potatoes, some greens, and a batch of cornbread baked in a cast iron skillet coated with bacon grease. We were so poor, and yet, if I were on death row, that would be my last meal request.

to grow yet. I tend to use plants that I will buy when I am ready. My garden is mostly herbs and flowers right now. But I was thinking of a planter full of spinach and perhaps some curly lettuce or a lettuce mix. I face due north and my patio remains very cool until at least late June so tomatoes take forever to grow...

I will also be working with some kids on THEIR veggie gardens at the community center that my Church is involved with, and I have a friend who has a commercial organic tomato grow-op that is already producing some of the best tomatoes....She literally produces thousands of pounds each year. I cannot compete with that.

the addition of new categories (links). Thank you, Group Admins, as well as JtC!

As a lifelong vegetarian, this essay really hits home.

Unfortunately, due to health considerations, we are no longer gardening--in spite of the fact that at one residence (in the city), we have several acres of some of the richest black soil on the earth (well, almost!), and practically all the neighbors have at least a small garden for just this reason.

We've thought about looking into the feasibility of using some of the acreage for Community Gardening. But, we've been advised to look into both local ordinances, as well as checking the terms of our homeowners and personal liability policies. (I hope some of our family business is settled by next year, so that we can consider this.)

We have never been sophisticated, or particularly knowledgeable gardeners--our gardening style was the 'by the seat of your pants' variety.

But, we had fun!

If I can find them, I'll try to post a couple of photos of veggies grown in Alaska. I never took pictures of our own gardens there; but, we did snap a handful of photos at our borough Ag Fairs. Of course, the rate of growth there, was incredible.

Anyhoo, thanks again for all your work, Guys. Looks better every time I log in!

Mollie
elinkarlsson@WordPress

"I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive."
----Gilda Radner, Comedienne

Birds love it too, so watch out for them. Sparrows come on my balcony to steal it. I grow a miniature rose beside it to deter them.

I get my seeds from West Coast Seeds, local, organic and fresh. I'm growing some dill to have with new potatoes. I always have too much dill so I put it on a wet paper towel on the table in our lobby and it is gone in minutes. I do that will any extra herbs I have.

Thank you for all this helpful info. How do I join this group?

I am busy these days watching MLB baseball online, painting a big painting, having a high school friend from the East visit me, etc. So I can't contribute much for the next few weeks but I will be reading Resilience.

I love seeds of change and Rareseeds website. But it is really easy to buy greens seeds at the dollar store, four packs for a dollar. Most are heirloom open pollinated. Scatter mesclun seeds on the surface of a big pot outside and you are in business for months. Love arugula and Swiss chard and lacimato kale. Chives, parsley, sage, rosemary, basils, thymes, all thrive in pots, and you can get all these, four for ten bucks, at Home Depot. My local nursery, Calloways, is selling Chef Jeff veggies half off, so you can plant tomato and pepper plants for a buck and a half each (if seeds aren't your thing.)
You can be an urban gardener. There is even a website for the urban garden, more for guerrilla gardening.

I love the flat-leaf, Italian style parsley. When I am gardening, I eat this as a vegetable green, not just an herb or flavoring. I put huge quantities of this in a salad, for example. Goes great with apple-carrot-lemon juice. Yum!

The benefit to growing this for me is because it is deep-rooted, it does well in a drought. Mostly you can keep eating it through the summer and late into fall. Cover well to overwinter, and in early spring you'll get some more greens, until it flowers and then it's bitter.

Not too many salad greens do well here--on the Great Plains there is only about 17 to 18 minutes between too cold to plant and much too hot for lettuce. Spinach is good because it grows in the cold, if you can plant it early enough and then harvest it all before it turns hot. Chard withstands heat a little better but grasshoppers like it. Growing things under cover is too difficult for me because of the high winds. Really, I don't know why anybody lives here, LOL. It is a harsh climate with wild extremes.