Are you planting a garden?

[Jenise]

(With apologies to those of you in the other hemisphere.)

And is your garden different this time because of the pandemic?

In my case, not much room for a garden. We live on a large lot but by design and necessity it's more ornamental than not, no lawn, and plantable areas are limited to borders. But there are always pots!

In my courtyard (north side of the house, protected) I'm going to skip the potted colleuses for nasturtiums and shiso leaf. Beautiful but edible. The bin on the east side of the house that was the site of the failed asparagus bed and that really didn't get enough sun for tomatoes has been planted to lettuces and onions. I've stuck potatoes that grew stems anywhere I can. Last year's tiny experimental strawberry bed (because it was empty space, about 1 yard square) has come back beautifully and I can actually looking forward to picking more than two at a time this year, though perhaps not enough for a whole shortcake. I bought squash starters yesterday to put where we took out the big pine tree (full southern exposure) and three tomato plants to put in pots. I'm probably dreaming to think they'll do well enough that way, but I'm entertained by trying. And a friend is going to plant Armenian cucumber seeds for us. She has the space, I don't.

I have rosemary, chives, a couple of kinds of oregano, and a couple of kinds of thyme growing all the time. They're just in the ground and all I have do to is trim them or dig out the overgrowth. In this area, they're sort of pretty and tasty weeds.
I have French tarragon, which is also in the ground and takes just a tad more tending, but it''s perennial, too.
I've planted basil and a couple of tomato plants this year, as I always do. I'll put another basil in the ground in a few weeks.
In the past, I've grown onions and garlic, and parsley and cilantro. I've also tried lettuce, but the critters seem to eat more if it than I do. So my edible garden will be much the same as last year.

[Robin Garr]

"We" are planting a garden, as "we" do every year, and "we" means that Mary does it while I look at it.

This year, as usual, she has flowers everywhere and some basic herbs, but we had a big new raised-bed veggie garden built over the winter, so this will be its inaugural season. Lettuces and cilantro for the early season; varieties of heirloom tomato, kale, okra, and probably some other stuff for the long haul.

Nope. No space. There is an apple tree in the front yard: if I had a way to get up into its branches I might try to cultivate it a bit.

Down here in My part of the world as I look to taking out the tomatoes (lots of green tomatoes which I’ll deal with in a number of ways, suggestions welcome) this new veggie bed will still have carrots coming on and beetroot still in the ground. I’ll leave the salad greens and basil and see what happens, with the cooller weather at least they shouldn’t go to seed. Chile plants only just flowering so they can stay until ....hopefully they’ll overwinter.
Strawberries and the artichoke will remain and the pumpkin vine will stay until the huge fruit (singular) ripens fully.
This new veggie bed is a decent size 12 m x 1 m and raised and rabbit proofed! Them thar
critters can be hell on tender new green things. (I can relate to that cartoon farmer who was always after Bugs!)
I’m thinking of planting garlic and spuds in my older veg bed.
I do need to enlarge my perennial herb planting.
I would love to plant more fruit trees but they have to be netted when fruiting and that is just a pain. I am happy to share but the birds, possums and fruit bats don’t have a concept of sharing and can strip a mature tree in no time at all.
Ah nature!

[David M. Bueker]

Just planting bee and butterfly friendly flowers.

Hoping to try my hand at garlic this fall.

[Jenise]

I have rosemary, chives, a couple of kinds of oregano, and a couple of kinds of thyme growing all the time. They're just in the ground and all I have do to is trim them or dig out the overgrowth.

Similar here. Only one kind ea but those stay, in the ground or barrels, plus tarragon and sage. In our climate they die off in winter. And parsley's an annual. Some say it will come back, but when it does it bolts, and that's useless IMO.

[Robin Garr]

Just planting bee and butterfly friendly flowers.

Pollinator meadow! That's what Mary is doing with her flowers.

Not much food content in y garden as I have so much else going on there, but we do keep a herbal content going, largely but not exclusively in pots.

[Jenise]

Bill, I'm surprised you didn't plant that brick raised bed near the front door to herbs. Last time I was over, I believe I saw a very pretty hellabore (sp?) there, but you can't eat those.

I have had mixed results in that bed - some things love it while others waste away. Not a good indicator to plant anything you want to eat there.

[Jenise]

Probably wouldn't make good tomatoes but I bet oregano and thyme would be very happy there.

I have had mixed results in that bed - some things love it while others waste away. Not a good indicator to plant anything you want to eat there.

Not necessarily. It could be an imbalance of acids or phosphate or something like that: not toxic, just not well-suited to every kind of plant.