Quarantine Vegetable Gardens

[Deleted member 158085]

I still have supplies left from stocking up (lots of beans & rice, pasta sauce). I buy toilet paper and paper towels every other grocery trip so that is well-stocked. I hope I find masks and lysol wipes before the next wave. My order of masks from China is lost or detained somewhere so I asked for a refund. We're good on hand sanitizer. My zucchini is growing like crazy - we're going to transplant it to bigger containers. I did some more planting today but I got frustrated with having to space out tiny seeds and just scattered them around so that grow bag may not be fruitful lol. I was also unsuccessful at thinning out the carrots - they kept snapping off instead of coming out by the roots. I think it's too early to thin them maybe? I want to plant a raspberry or blackberry bush.

Give those (raspberry/blackberry bushes) lots of space. They can really expand within just a year or two.

 

[CeeCeeCat]

I had such a lovely afternoon yesterday. Trooped back and forth with watering can and plant food, tied up various tomato plant branches (these particular tomatoes are from the seeds of that horribly expensive Wholefoods tomato) - I planted the seeds on February 20th and already the plants are well over four feet tall and full of yellow flowers. I planted out courgette seedlings, and repotted the chilli and peppers. I cut back some of the branches of unknown greenery in the borders - all whilst keeping a watchful eye on the cats. Then poured myself a glass of wine and sat out under the parasol. It was bliss.

 

[mickey2942]

It is doing nothing but rain and snow here. The wind was hurricane force the other day.

Hoping for some long hot days in July and August.

 

[SA55]

I planted a lot of flowers in with my garden, marigolds, nasturtiums, all sorts of flowers. So there is a lot of color, with the veggies.

My small back porch (12 X 12 maybe) is normally covered in flowers during the summer. This year, in addition to all the flowers, I have zucchini, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and green peppers in containers. I have 6 rail deck planters with nasturtiums, trailing petunias, sweet peas, sweet potato vines, coleus, on and on...... and so many various pots and patio trees that there is only room for one lounge chair and I've added a low beach chair for the doggie (I had 2 lounge chairs but had to move 1 as no room with all the plants!) I have string butterfly solar lights draped around the railings. Sit out there late in the evening and just relish in the serenity. This has been my therapy. I have a friend doing the same and she and I are exchanging plants constantly (we visit on the front porch, socially distancing)
All my garden beds and both porches are thriving with the attention they've received. Have really enjoyed the result of my therapy. The other day my precious neighbor asked me to walk over with the dog to tour his garden. In 9 years of living here and constant communicating from street, across the street, just inside each other's door, etc - I had never been to his backyard. Absolutely amazing , I thought his front yard put me to shame. His entire yard surrounding his home is adorned with beautiful, ,lush plants. All beds edged, many with low stacked stone edgings, etc. Not a weed in sight, in his entire yard and gardens! Plus a veggie garden. this man is 84 years old and a retired minister and seminary professor. The gentlest soul I have ever had pleasure of meeting. He is my true inspiration. The most active man I know - of any age. He volunteers, belongs to a hiking group and routinely hikes 5 miles hikes a few times a week. He sits on his front porch early morning and late evenings, praying for his neighbors. He makes me realize I need to do better.

 

[155etta]

My small back porch (12 X 12 maybe) is normally covered in flowers during the summer. This year, in addition to all the flowers, I have zucchini, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and green peppers in containers. I have 6 rail deck planters with nasturtiums, trailing petunias, sweet peas, sweet potato vines, coleus, on and on...... and so many various pots and patio trees that there is only room for one lounge chair and I've added a low beach chair for the doggie (I had 2 lounge chairs but had to move 1 as no room with all the plants!) I have string butterfly solar lights draped around the railings. Sit out there late in the evening and just relish in the serenity. This has been my therapy. I have a friend doing the same and she and I are exchanging plants constantly (we visit on the front porch, socially distancing)
All my garden beds and both porches are thriving with the attention they've received. Have really enjoyed the result of my therapy. The other day my precious neighbor asked me to walk over with the dog to tour his garden. In 9 years of living here and constant communicating from street, across the street, just inside each other's door, etc - I had never been to his backyard. Absolutely amazing , I thought his front yard put me to shame. His entire yard surrounding his home is adorned with beautiful, ,lush plants. All beds edged, many with low stacked stone edgings, etc. Not a weed in sight, in his entire yard and gardens! Plus a veggie garden. this man is 84 years old and a retired minister and seminary professor. The gentlest soul I have ever had pleasure of meeting. He is my true inspiration. The most active man I know - of any age. He volunteers, belongs to a hiking group and routinely hikes 5 miles hikes a few times a week. He sits on his front porch early morning and late evenings, praying for his neighbors. He makes me realize I need to do better.

What a lovely neighbor to have.

 

[oviedo]

My small back porch (12 X 12 maybe) is normally covered in flowers during the summer. This year, in addition to all the flowers, I have zucchini, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and green peppers in containers. I have 6 rail deck planters with nasturtiums, trailing petunias, sweet peas, sweet potato vines, coleus, on and on...... and so many various pots and patio trees that there is only room for one lounge chair and I've added a low beach chair for the doggie (I had 2 lounge chairs but had to move 1 as no room with all the plants!) I have string butterfly solar lights draped around the railings. Sit out there late in the evening and just relish in the serenity. This has been my therapy. I have a friend doing the same and she and I are exchanging plants constantly (we visit on the front porch, socially distancing)
All my garden beds and both porches are thriving with the attention they've received. Have really enjoyed the result of my therapy. The other day my precious neighbor asked me to walk over with the dog to tour his garden. In 9 years of living here and constant communicating from street, across the street, just inside each other's door, etc - I had never been to his backyard. Absolutely amazing , I thought his front yard put me to shame. His entire yard surrounding his home is adorned with beautiful, ,lush plants. All beds edged, many with low stacked stone edgings, etc. Not a weed in sight, in his entire yard and gardens! Plus a veggie garden. this man is 84 years old and a retired minister and seminary professor. The gentlest soul I have ever had pleasure of meeting. He is my true inspiration. The most active man I know - of any age. He volunteers, belongs to a hiking group and routinely hikes 5 miles hikes a few times a week. He sits on his front porch early morning and late evenings, praying for his neighbors. He makes me realize I need to do better.

Lovely story -we’ve been growing containers that are thriving - will try and post pics tomorrow it’s been terrific therapy for all of us

 

[CeeCeeCat]

My small back porch (12 X 12 maybe) is normally covered in flowers during the summer. This year, in addition to all the flowers, I have zucchini, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and green peppers in containers. I have 6 rail deck planters with nasturtiums, trailing petunias, sweet peas, sweet potato vines, coleus, on and on...... and so many various pots and patio trees that there is only room for one lounge chair and I've added a low beach chair for the doggie (I had 2 lounge chairs but had to move 1 as no room with all the plants!) I have string butterfly solar lights draped around the railings. Sit out there late in the evening and just relish in the serenity. This has been my therapy. I have a friend doing the same and she and I are exchanging plants constantly (we visit on the front porch, socially distancing)
All my garden beds and both porches are thriving with the attention they've received. Have really enjoyed the result of my therapy. The other day my precious neighbor asked me to walk over with the dog to tour his garden. In 9 years of living here and constant communicating from street, across the street, just inside each other's door, etc - I had never been to his backyard. Absolutely amazing , I thought his front yard put me to shame. His entire yard surrounding his home is adorned with beautiful, ,lush plants. All beds edged, many with low stacked stone edgings, etc. Not a weed in sight, in his entire yard and gardens! Plus a veggie garden. this man is 84 years old and a retired minister and seminary professor. The gentlest soul I have ever had pleasure of meeting. He is my true inspiration. The most active man I know - of any age. He volunteers, belongs to a hiking group and routinely hikes 5 miles hikes a few times a week. He sits on his front porch early morning and late evenings, praying for his neighbors. He makes me realize I need to do better.

I just love this. What a wonderful post to start my day.

 

[LadyL]

well my zucchini are doing fabulous but a squirrel got into one container and completely dug up a plant - we think it was a squirrel - didn't see them do it - hopefully they realized they don't like zucchini plants and will leave the rest alone

tomatoes are starting to flower; not much else is doing anything

 

[IceIce9]

Hmm.... Are you sure you are putting the right side up?

Ok after many attempts I FINALLY have an avocado pit that sprouted a tap root! Should I plant it in dirt now?

 

[Gardener1850]

I harvested the rest of my radishes today. I grew Icicle Radishes and French Breakfast Unfortunately, they didn't do very well this year due to huge fluctuations in temps and heavy rains keeping them wetter than radishes like to be. I kept waiting for them to get bigger but it's been over 2 months now and these are 23-28 day varieties of radishes. Oh well. I pulled them out and we will eat them small if they are not too spicy. I'm going to put in a second wave of cucumbers in their place.

My cucumber seeds are old and I had really low germination rates. I only have 4 Pickle Bush cucumber plants that grew. I decided to soak the rest of my old seeds now to see if any will sprout. I'm soaking the seeds overnight in jars of water and then I'll put them on a damp paper towel inside a plastic baggie and check them everyday until they sprout. I have Lemon Cucumber, White Wonders, Straight Eights and Marketmore- all are heirloom varieties. If the old seeds don't sprout within a week I still have some time in the season to buy new seed, but I wanted to use up the ones I had first.

I'm starting to plan my fall garden now and thinking about what cooler season crops I want to start from seed within the next couple weeks. My beans and peas are all full of flowers and my squash is getting close to putting out flowers too. I planted a second round of summer squash and winter squash seeds and a second round of green beans. My tomatoes are heavy with little green tomatoes but none have ripened yet. The promise of a cucumber and tomato salad, fresh from the garden, is just weeks away.

 

[PayrollNerd]

My small back porch (12 X 12 maybe) is normally covered in flowers during the summer. This year, in addition to all the flowers, I have zucchini, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and green peppers in containers. I have 6 rail deck planters with nasturtiums, trailing petunias, sweet peas, sweet potato vines, coleus, on and on...... and so many various pots and patio trees that there is only room for one lounge chair and I've added a low beach chair for the doggie (I had 2 lounge chairs but had to move 1 as no room with all the plants!) I have string butterfly solar lights draped around the railings. Sit out there late in the evening and just relish in the serenity. This has been my therapy. I have a friend doing the same and she and I are exchanging plants constantly (we visit on the front porch, socially distancing)
All my garden beds and both porches are thriving with the attention they've received. Have really enjoyed the result of my therapy. The other day my precious neighbor asked me to walk over with the dog to tour his garden. In 9 years of living here and constant communicating from street, across the street, just inside each other's door, etc - I had never been to his backyard. Absolutely amazing , I thought his front yard put me to shame. His entire yard surrounding his home is adorned with beautiful, ,lush plants. All beds edged, many with low stacked stone edgings, etc. Not a weed in sight, in his entire yard and gardens! Plus a veggie garden. this man is 84 years old and a retired minister and seminary professor. The gentlest soul I have ever had pleasure of meeting. He is my true inspiration. The most active man I know - of any age. He volunteers, belongs to a hiking group and routinely hikes 5 miles hikes a few times a week. He sits on his front porch early morning and late evenings, praying for his neighbors. He makes me realize I need to do better.

I bet you made his day! The companionship is such a gift for the elderly, especially now.

 

[oviedo]

My zucchini has blossoms, the green beans are flowering, I have red bell peppers and tomatoes in my bucket and the plant is so tall ! They are all in various containers and I’m going to work on moving them - kale has sprouted but the spinach and arugula are slow and the lettuce didn’t transplant well so I’m going to try again directly in a container to avoid transplanting failure !
By the way I seem to remember my mom pan frying zucchini blossoms that were amazing - is this a thing or am I just misremembering?

 

[sassyblue]

That is a thing, Oviedo.....really yummy filled with cheese and breaded....

 

[Gardenista]

My zucchini has blossoms, the green beans are flowering, I have red bell peppers and tomatoes in my bucket and the plant is so tall ! They are all in various containers and I’m going to work on moving them - kale has sprouted but the spinach and arugula are slow and the lettuce didn’t transplant well so I’m going to try again directly in a container to avoid transplanting failure !
By the way I seem to remember my mom pan frying zucchini blossoms that were amazing - is this a thing or am I just misremembering?

you remember correctly- they are amazing

 

[oviedo]

That is a thing, Oviedo.....really yummy filled with cheese and breaded....

Yay! I remember breaded but not the cheese - that’s was a luxury for us and so I don’t think she used that - we had a huge garden so no problem to pull 20 blossoms and fry them up but I have so few I want the squash ! Thanks so much for confirming my memory

 

[Gardenista]

Yay! I remember breaded but not the cheese - that’s was a luxury for us and so I don’t think she used that - we had a huge garden so no problem to pull 20 blossoms and fry them up but I have so few I want the squash ! Thanks so much for confirming my memory

Sometimes I have trouble with my zucchini plants getting pollinated so I have to self pollinate. If they aren’t turning into zucchinis you might look into that.

Also if you want to harvest some of the flowers, make sure only to take the male flowers

How and where do I pinch back summer squash blossoms? - Ask an Expert

 

[oviedo]

Sometimes I have trouble with my zucchini plants getting pollinated so I have to self pollinate. If they aren’t turning into zucchinis you might look into that.

Also if you want to harvest some of the flowers, make sure only to take the male flowers

How and where do I pinch back summer squash blossoms? - Ask an Expert

Omg had no idea now I will need to research thank you @Gardenista

 

[Gardener1850]

@oviedo I was going to say the same thing as Gardenista. I'd recommend hand pollinating and then you can take some of the male flowers to stuff or batter and deep fry (yum). The female flowers are the ones that have a baby zucchini under them. You can hand pollinate using a little paint brush or a q-tip to move a little pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers.

Here's a video on male vs female flowers in squash and zucchini:

 

[LadyL]

gardening is way more complicated than I knew

but I had some luck with growing celery from the base in water - it's actually sprouting!

 

[anneg]

I don't really belong in this thread because I'm no gardener and I live in a woodsy area with lots of shade, not much sun. I'm a little embarrassed to say that my only flowering plant at the moment is a geranium I got at our local farmers market in May. Well, we did have beautiful azaleas blooming around our patio a while back.

We buy fresh veggies, fruit, baked goods, eggs, etc. at the farmers market. We enjoyed delicious strawberries (put some in the freezer) and now peaches. (This is in NC.)

I enjoyed reading your posts this evening ... they made me feel peaceful. Maybe I need to try growing some things in pots.