Gardens for food and healing

[Indigo Dog]

Winter is almost over. It's time to start gearing up for the big planting and weeding seasons. For some of us it may just be filing off the rust and dirt from the gardening tools and drooling over the seed catalogs. For the lucky gardeners that have no Winter, they are already busy checking blooms and applying fertilizers.

Whatever your gardening passion may be, here is a place to share, ask and brag about the fruits of your labours!

[Indigo Dog]

This year I'm planting Mammoth Sunflowers. They are supposed to help cleanse the soil of heavy toxic metals and provide edible seeds. It is pretty windy here so I may have to stake them for support.

[Grandma Lola]

Hi Doggie...We planted Sunflowers around our home...we plant close to the house so there is some support on one side and then built a trellis for support on the side.
Sometimes we need to steak them.
Being a yellow girl from the start...I love driving up to my house and seeing the sunflowers frame the scene and the porch is usually lined with Heavenly Blues also to add to the beauty. The mid-end of summer into fall is when most of mine are blooming strong.

Have had trouble with tulips though...planted them two years in a row and none have come up. Can you have the wrong soil for them or does my yard have a tulip spell on it??

[ridge]

love the thread indigo. due to my small tract of land and mid to late sun, i need to be wary of what will grow well. I do alot of herbs (not those kind) and easier to grow crops like zucchini, squash and such. I hate growing tomatoes- just too much pruning and they don't get enough sun for my land. i have lots of plants that attract butterflies and birds feeling that they also help with insect control.
the best fertilizer i use is coffee grounds. it balances the soils and plants love it. I don't have a compost but would really like to build one at some point- i throw out so much food that it's stupid for me not to.

[Dabbs]

Well, since I live in farm country... we always have a garden..
corn, peas, beans, potatoes, onions... tomatoes.. peppers... you name it, we grow it!

The stock yard in town recently needed to get rid of their own compost pile... we inherited it! This stuff was black gold and super fine! It grows more weeds than anything though... you have to hoe everyday to keep them down...

but, I get huge veggies from it all!

[bella]

This year, I'm going to research all the flowers that attract butterflies, hummingbirds and anything that smells divine. That's my goal. I love hummingbirds.

[makwaiskwew]

A great addition to the garden is a couple of toad homes too...an old bowl or whatever you are inclined to use..keep water handy for them and they will happily live there and eat bugs. And they,re kind of cute too.

[Dabbs]

I love toads and frogs! I joke around about my earrings that I wear all the time... emerald dragonflies... to attract the toads!

I have long conversations with the frogs that hang out in my waterfall... they just sit and listen... One has rivets on the side of his neck that look like the rivets on a pair of jeans... I call him Levi... I hope he comes back this year.. last year he was huge!

Now I'm going to have to look up toad houses!

[Indigo Dog]

Hi Doggie...We planted Sunflowers around our home...we plant close to the house so there is some support on one side and then built a trellis for support on the side.
Sometimes we need to steak them.
Being a yellow girl from the start...I love driving up to my house and seeing the sunflowers frame the scene and the porch is usually lined with Heavenly Blues also to add to the beauty. The mid-end of summer into fall is when most of mine are blooming strong.

Have had trouble with tulips though...planted them two years in a row and none have come up. Can you have the wrong soil for them or does my yard have a tulip spell on it??

You may have planted the tulips too deep, or the squirrels might have eaten them. I had a wet Spring last year and the Tulips were a no show. I thought they all rotted. Yet, here they are this year. I may get a bloom yet!

---------- Post added at 08:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:43 PM ----------

love the thread indigo. due to my small tract of land and mid to late sun, i need to be wary of what will grow well. I do alot of herbs (not those kind) and easier to grow crops like zucchini, squash and such. I hate growing tomatoes- just too much pruning and they don't get enough sun for my land. i have lots of plants that attract butterflies and birds feeling that they also help with insect control.
the best fertilizer i use is coffee grounds. it balances the soils and plants love it. I don't have a compost but would really like to build one at some point- i throw out so much food that it's stupid for me not to.

I have a robust compost heap. Unfortunately I have to deal with skunks and rats because of it. I think they like all the bugs and grubs in the heap. One day when I'm not so cheap I may invest in one of those barrel style, tumbling composters.

* jealous of zucchini growing skills.*

---------- Post added at 08:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:47 PM ----------

Bella, Red Canna Lilies are Humming bird magnates!

Makiwaiskwew, I am the toad Queen. I have little toad villages around the property. When I have to mow the lawn I do it very slowly so the baby toads can hop to safety. I'll even stop, pick them up, move them to safety and then continue to mow. They are so tame now they will sit on my foot when I'm resting. I adore them.

Dabbs, only a gardener would understand the beauty of manure. Black gold indeed. I spread manure around the Canna lilies one year and they grew as high as the roof!

[Dabbs]

Ahh, Doggie! If you can only see it! LOL

We got a full dump truck full... dumped it right onto the garden spot and tilled it in....

the dirt is so fine, the weeds pull up so easily.... it's almost a sand consistency... everything thrives in that garden!

I wish I could send you some!!

[Indigo Dog]

Ahh, Doggie! If you can only see it! LOL

We got a full dump truck full... dumped it right onto the garden spot and tilled it in....

the dirt is so fine, the weeds pull up so easily.... it's almost a sand consistency... everything thrives in that garden!

I wish I could send you some!!

* Thinks longingly of all that beautiful bull shat...sigh.*

[Dabbs]

LOL... Night doggie... I'm heading for bed!

[tadpole1]

Well done on a lovely new thread, ID! Here we've gotten of to a good start this year. We've had the warmest driest February in 23 years. So the soil is nice and dry and I have been able to dig out the weeds. Am not quite done yet - but off to a good start.

Re your compost heap attracting vermin - I wonder if you throw out cooked food scraps. That's what attracts the rats. All I put on my compost heap is selected weeds and raw veggie peelings. Any cooked food, can go in the wormery, which is an enclosed cylinder.

Namaste, ID.

Noreen



PS:

* Thinks longingly of all that beautiful bull shat...sigh.*

[makwaiskwew]

I just knew you would be the toad queen ID...I bet you sing along with them too...I can hear the harmonies....oooh...I need spring...xxoo

[Indigo Dog]

I never put cooked food in the compost. Seriously, I think the heat from the heap itself gives them a good shelter overwinter and the grubs feed them. IDK. I'm in the country so they like it. I don't have a good rat catching cat.

Maki! I never thought to sing to the toads. I usually just whisper compliments to them. I will try that this year. I accidentally dug a hibernating toad up while transplanting African lilies. I pet him and apologized then covered him up again.

[green]

Here's a list of plants that suck up toxins: List of hyperaccumulators - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
They don't include canna lilies on this list, I don't think, but those are as beautiful as they are useful--they suck up toxins and they yield a purple dye, plus you can make beads from their round black seeds.

I'm wondering if you can't collect rainwater from your roof's runoff and use some of the water plants (water hyacinth, duckweed, water lettuce) to filter it--and whether it would be OK for drinking?

For those in the US, the plant hardiness zones have shifted a bit, so here's an updated version (click your location for close-up): USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Maps at Garden-Helper.com

Here's a great list of antifungal herbs: Antifungal Herbs

Here's a good online resource for some foraging: Body. There's a popular book called Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants that is really well written and very informative, but it mostly focuses on the west coast of USA. Being in the east coast, I still found some plants that grow where I live that I could glean from this book.

You should reconsider what you call weeds, too. Sometimes what you think are weeds are just really well-adapted plants that are quite tasty, or even very helpful. Chickweed and wood sorrel are yummy, and stinging nettle tea is said to be good for your cholesterol levels, among other things.

And here's a study by Bristol University about the stunningly anti-depressant effects that being around soil can have for your brain: Bristol University | News from the University | Getting dirty

And definitely, definitely plant flowers that will attract bees and butterflies. Sometimes you can find online lists of nectar and host plants for the kinds of butterflies that live in your region.

Whew. That's all, I hope.

[Onlooker]

This year I'm planting Mammoth Sunflowers. They are supposed to help cleanse the soil of heavy toxic metals and provide edible seeds. .

Don't you get all those toxins then if you eat them? I didn't know that about sunflowers..

This year I plan to start a stall selling flowers, plants & veggies. Time's getting on now and I still can't start the seeds yet.. we're moving house soon though so I'll get chance to start some off.
I love gardening, I like a 'natural' garden which attracts plenty of birds, insects & wildlife - can't stand these overly neat lawns with rows of matching perfect primulas in them, yuck!

[rabana]

thanks for the info, green. thanks for the new thread, idog.

[makwaiskwew]

One of my favorite WEEDS is dandelion...great in salads or stews or just steamed...the root can also be used as a hot drink. Thanks for all the thought food green. xxoo

[Indigo Dog]

Don't you get all those toxins then if you eat them? I didn't know that about sunflowers..

This year I plan to start a stall selling flowers, plants & veggies. Time's getting on now and I still can't start the seeds yet.. we're moving house soon though so I'll get chance to start some off.
I love gardening, I like a 'natural' garden which attracts plenty of birds, insects & wildlife - can't stand these overly neat lawns with rows of matching perfect primulas in them, yuck!

I included the toxin info because I thought that was cool. I don't have toxic metals on my property so the seeds should be good. It is the root systems that act like a sponge. They used flotillas of sunflowers to help clean the water around Chernobyl after the radioactive poisons were released into the environment.

I too love the meadow look.