GARDENING 2025

[Marie Mallory]

We are swimming in food at the moment. We have the biggest raspberry crop we have had in a number of years. My wife spent the day picking and freezing berries, canning salmon, and collecting cucumbers, zucchini, and drying herbs. I was doing other stuff. We had one friend and one daughter-in-law come over to pick berries along with 2 grandsons and one of their friends. We still have lots of berries out there, and I may get picking a bit tomorrow along with my other tasks. We still have currants, gooseberries, honeyberries and serviceberries to gather...all before the fall blueberries and lingonberries come in.

We have salmon in the backyard to watch, although they are too far gone to eat, and it would be illegal anyway since they are spawning there and soon will die. We sat on the patio tonight watching things around the fire as it is beginning to get chilly in the evenings already. The rainy season has begun, so the slugs are thriving. No cauliflower or cabbage has been harvested yet, but that should begin next week.

You two are busy, I'm just hoping we can can the pears and maybe dehydrate and freeze the lemons. No way will the freezer hold them all. Still eating figs black and blue berry's did do good.
No garden in last couple of years. Not sure about fall garden yet.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

You two are busy, I'm just hoping we can can the pears and maybe dehydrate and freeze the lemons. No way will the freezer hold them all. Still eating figs black and blue berry's did do good.
No garden in last couple of years. Not sure about fall garden yet.

I am at the place where I am not going to even try for a garden, it just gets harder for me to walk outside on the uneven lawn each year, and after several scary falls last year, I have been pretty careful this year. It does not take much at all for me to lose my balance or trip, and now I have no chance of catching my balance.

I am just going to work on plants that can either go to seed and reproduce on their own, or permanent ones like the berries and fruit trees. This summer has been especially bad, because all spring when the weather is right to be outside, it rained and rained here.
Then June came, and it went from rain every day to over 90+ every day and just too hot to do anything outside. I am hoping that we will have a nice fall and I can work out in the yard more , but that remains to be seen, what happens.

 

[Marie Mallory]

I am at the place where I am not going to even try for a garden, it just gets harder for me to walk outside on the uneven lawn each year, and after several scary falls last year, I have been pretty careful this year. It does not take much at all for me to lose my balance or trip, and now I have no chance of catching my balance.

I am just going to work on plants that can either go to seed and reproduce on their own, or permanent ones like the berries and fruit trees. This summer has been especially bad, because all spring when the weather is right to be outside, it rained and rained here.
Then June came, and it went from rain every day to over 90+ every day and just too hot to do anything outside. I am hoping that we will have a nice fall and I can work out in the yard more , but that remains to be seen, what happens.

I totally understand, sometimes I get dizzy and my balance is not what it used to be, but I've slowed down and more careful. I do like to dance for balance and exercise but I have slowed down with that too.

 

[Don Alaska]

I am at the place where I am not going to even try for a garden, it just gets harder for me to walk outside on the uneven lawn each year, and after several scary falls last year, I have been pretty careful this year. It does not take much at all for me to lose my balance or trip, and now I have no chance of catching my balance.

I am just going to work on plants that can either go to seed and reproduce on their own, or permanent ones like the berries and fruit trees. This summer has been especially bad, because all spring when the weather is right to be outside, it rained and rained here.
Then June came, and it went from rain every day to over 90+ every day and just too hot to do anything outside. I am hoping that we will have a nice fall and I can work out in the yard more , but that remains to be seen, what happens.

We are trialing bucket gardening, and so far it looks like a success. I read a plan for intensive potato gardening in buckets, and that seems to be going really well. We won't know for sure until we dump the buckets, but we have harvest new potatoes just under the surface of the soil in the buckets. Carrots and parsnips are doing very well and are way ahead of the same crops in the ground. Of course tomatoes and tomatillos are producing , as are peppers--both hot and sweet. Some friends have tables with soil and watering systems that are almost like giant outdoor Aerogardens. They have been doing it for years and they even have hoops over the top so that shade cloth or covers can be used to adjust the climate inside. You don't have to give up gardening, at least on a small scale @Yvonne Smith and @Marie Mallory just because we are not as able as we once were.

 

[Tony Page]

My wife took this photo of one of our favorite potted plants this past summer. She picked it up this past spring from one of the local nurseries, potted it and it's been blooming ever since. Beautiful Dahlia!!!

 

[Don Alaska]

My wife took this photo of one of our favorite potted plants this past summer. She picked it up this past spring from one of the local nurseries, potted it and it's been blooming ever since. Beautiful Dahlia!!!

View attachment 1174

My wife just brought in her dahlias. They don't survive the winter outside here. Very nice @Tony Page

 

[Tony Page]

My wife just brought in her dahlias. They don't survive the winter outside here. Very nice @Tony Page

We bring most of our dahlia tubers in and store for the next year. Dahlia we plant close to the foundation of the house have survived winters here.

One thing I always find interesting is dahlia can be grown from tubers or seed. I wonder if the same hold true for potatoes?

 

[Don Alaska]

We bring most of our dahlia tubers in and store for the next year. Dahlia we plant close to the foundation of the house have survived winters here.

One thing I always find interesting is dahlia can be grown from tubers or seed. I wonder if the same hold true for potatoes?

Yeah, potatoes can be grown from seed, but you never know what you will get. If grown form tubers, it is a clone of the plant you harvested from, but if you plant a seed, you grow a hybrid (possibly) due to cross-pollination. For that reason, almost all potatoes are grown from tubers or cell culture except for experimentation trying to develop new varieties. I don't know where you can get the cell culture s for potatoes, but commercial farmers sometimes use them, for, although they are more expensive, there is no cutting involved and no risk of disease since they are grown in sterile media. I sometimes bought them from Stokes in Buffalo, NY, but they were purchased by another company and now don't sell things in small quantities any more.

 

[Tony Page]

Yeah, potatoes can be grown from seed, but you never know what you will get. If grown form tubers, it is a clone of the plant you harvested from, but if you plant a seed, you grow a hybrid (possibly) due to cross-pollination. For that reason, almost all potatoes are grown from tubers or cell culture except for experimentation trying to develop new varieties. I don't know where you can get the cell culture s for potatoes, but commercial farmers sometimes use them, for, although they are more expensive, there is no cutting involved and no risk of disease since they are grown in sterile media. I sometimes bought them from Stokes in Buffalo, NY, but they were purchased by another company and now don't sell things in small quantities any more.

Good info, I was just curious. I haven't grown potatoes in a while, maybe next year in one of those potatoes pots.

 

[Mary Stetler]

Yeah, potatoes can be grown from seed, but you never know what you will get. If grown form tubers, it is a clone of the plant you harvested from, but if you plant a seed, you grow a hybrid (possibly) due to cross-pollination. For that reason, almost all potatoes are grown from tubers or cell culture except for experimentation trying to develop new varieties. I don't know where you can get the cell culture s for potatoes, but commercial farmers sometimes use them, for, although they are more expensive, there is no cutting involved and no risk of disease since they are grown in sterile media. I sometimes bought them from Stokes in Buffalo, NY, but they were purchased by another company and now don't sell things in small quantities any more.

Do you grow Jerusalem artichokes, Don Alaska? Ours died out a few years ago and are just now starting to come back in heavier soil. I wonder if the critters didn't eat them all in the loam.

 

[Don Alaska]

Do you grow Jerusalem artichokes, Don Alaska? Ours died out a few years ago and are just now starting to come back in heavier soil. I wonder if the critters didn't eat them all in the loam.

We tried them years ago and they didn't survive the winter. Our winters seem to be milder now, but my wife has been advised to avoid inulin due to her various digestive issues. Other perennial sunflowers grow here though, but usually only close to the house where it is a bit warmer. We had the same issues with asparagus. It didn't grow out in the garden areas, but close to the foundation of the house it grows a little. It does not thrive here though.

 

[Joe Riley]