remark : In the past , here are some other undertaking I attempted ( undertaking are in - depth challenge where I may grow as many selections of motley of a plant life , or pop a collection , or try something to grow that few of us ever seem to essay in our garden , in an attempt to inspire others ) .
In the past , I ’ve shared these :
I ’ve been more than a little singular about primitive sort of veggies ( which is why I experiment with Green Oxacan Corn last yr ) . Today , many are proposing that heirloom and ‘ mislay crops ’ are worth raise for either nutriment or flavor , so as seed catalogs start to upgrade more of these heirloom multifariousness of white potato and other theme crops , I could say I am concerned about salubrious alternatives to gravid , baked potatoes but let ’s be naturalistic – I only have nine bring up bed , and there is no way that I am going to live on off of my garden . OK , honestly , the real reason I desire to try this particular craw is because it is a tuberous oxalis and if you have ever visited me , you would roll in the hay that I am a collector of tuberous oxalis .
You may have look Oca in peculiarity markets ( often at some Whole Foods in the fall in the US ) , yet in its native country of Peru , the oka genus Tuber is a staple food mathematical product , and in many South American countries , it comes secondly only to potatoes . I am following many of the techniques and advice outlined a blog I found on growing Oxalis tuberosa called : Growing Ocaby Ian Pearson . You may wish to ascertain out this post too on Oca Testbed , for some sneak peeks on what this crop could await like . I am still gathering information from these sites , but do n’t vex , I wo n’t be watering mine with dilute piddle as he did . Oca plants are uncommitted fromTerritorial Seedbut I am on the feeling out for other sources of genus Tuber – I would appreciate and source you may find as I would like to arise a extensive variety of selections .
There is this idea ‘ fermenting ’ in my question – call it a ‘ catgut answer ’ ( sorry ) . pickle with natural zymosis is something that my parents did when I was grow up in the 60 ’s and 70 ’s , something I deliberate so normal that I intend everyone did it , maybe because many of our neighbour also fermented veggie . This neighborhood that I still live in was once composed mainly of Eastern European immigrant , from Poland , Lithuania and Russia , and pickling was a uncouth as boodle . I establish my grandfathers sauerkraut counsel typecast on some cards on a higher floor , and he died at 99 years old back in 1986 , apparently while trout fishing ( well , he DID take up smoking at eld 90 ) .
by nature fermented foods and my home here have many connections , and it ’s time to explore this in depth , which should be easygoing since we still have all the crock in the cellar , stored in the ‘ store elbow room ’ with the honest-to-god bobfloat threshold on it . To be dependable , I thought all pickles were vinegar pickles , since I only avail my parents piece Cucumis sativus and onions or shred cabbage rarely paying attention to the detail later on in the process .
A Hollyhock ProjectJoin me as I rediscover the joy of old fashioned Hollyhocks on this two yr journey , which may let in a few other biennial like foxglove and campanula , not always the easiest to raise from seed . We rarely see the courtly Hollyhock anymore . So I think it ’s time that we rediscover this mulct , improbable biennial – a classic in New England cottage garden , old English cottages , fairy tale cottages and in the front gardens in those painting of candle - lit cottage byThomas Kincaid . I am often ask about cottage garden , and since biennials are key component of the more iconic bungalow garden schema , I cogitate I should come out with more project involving the refinement of dead on target biennials , as I know that they are gainsay for many citizenry to subdue , so this might be a just tone - by - step topic to cover .
Biennials are seldom regard today because of a very unsubdivided fact – in club to grow them well , they must be planted ( seed ) during the previous twelvemonth , then wintered over and then allowed to grow to blooming size in their second growing time of year . If one is lucky , they will set come , and resow where they really want to uprise . It is because of this very habit , that we seldom find them available at garden centerfield . You may come up plants in - bud , and one may sham that some well intend gardener did all of the concentrated oeuvre for you , but these pot grown specimen are always a shadow of what they could have been .
This also could exchange , since I really was frantic about hollyhock two weeks ago when I began this post , but now , in mid - February … … meh . I still need to find one flower where I can get ALL of the selections uncommitted , and for some cause , I keep going back to onetime fashioned nasturtiums . So coarse , and yet , when do we ever see all of them arranged side - by - side in a comparison study ?
I have a friend who gas about having the world ’s secondly largest solicitation of conophytum . I also have a friend who boast about having a serious assemblage of most every species of Haworthia . The same goes for a collection of Dykia that I know . These collection are amazing when coif together for consider , and I have been envious everytime I see them in local Cactus and Succulent Society render . There is something about seeing a collection of like specie or species within a genus arranged side by side , so that one can consider and appreciate the subtlety between them all .
I am in earnest thinking about initiate a collection of stone plant , and Conophytum species ( all group as living stones ) , which will require to be sown by seed so that I can collect most of the species available , but a few can be buy . I plan on collect as many of the Living Stones , or Lithops ( and related to genus / species ) set out with 2014 . I suppose this collection as more of a botanic ingathering than an ornamental one , displaying the seed raised containers in goodly rows , with lables showing proper identification . I have at least 65 named selection rate , and I may order some prestarted species to fulfill in gap . I feel the itch to add another serious collection to the greenhouse .
Yes , I plan to examine dahlias again this year , as it has been 5 years since I last set about a visitation of dahlias . In that year , the results were spectacular , as I composed a pallet of reddish blue , purple , Battle of Magenta and lavender dahlia . This year I think I am ready to try more , but I just postulate to incur the right place to rise them as they want sun , eminent fertilizer and lot of water . I was be after on grow another trial run of Chrysanthemums ( the exhibition type ) but one of the country ’s only sources Martin Luther King Jr. Mums , has had a tragic and catastrophic disaster , with plant losses induce them to shut down for one year . So Dahlias ( or tuberous begonias ? ) it is .
I have a few rock garden projects plan for this year . First , I will be continuing our crevice garden planting near the main entrance to the studio apartment , a project I started five years ago when we had a few influential rock garden enthusiasts ride out with us while touring the country on speak tours ( Josef Halda among them ) . It ’s metre to continue with my long terminus planting scheme , and add another 200 sq metrical unit of rock , placed vertically , end upon end , in this new introduced ( from the Czech Republic ) style for create a tilt / alpine garden . Halda shared some secrets with us which I would care to share , and with my uprise passion for alpine and high-pitched height plants , I feel the motive to build more rock garden around the property once again .
I admit that have been thinking about designing a courtly culinary herbaceous plant garden , perhaps plant behind the house where our golf put green used to be ( I know- so snotty – a”golf green ” . right ? But yes , there was a bent pasturage putting green in our garden for at least 70 year – a long narration for another post ) . I have admit the lawn to grow out , and I am still deciding what to plant there . Maybe a box parquet circle , mayhap a formal peony garden , or even a Fletcher Steele inspire garden ( see below ) . Or a rock garden . I need to address this effect soon , so here I go with some ideas .
I do produce many herbs , but they are point throughout the garden , in spare spaces in the perennial border , along walks or implant en mass in the vegetable gardens , usually in rows , which is the most practical path to grow herbs , as I can feel free to harvest large bunches as needed . In vegetable garden , I have both annual and repeated herb : annual seeded herbs such as 3 of 4 dill varieties ( some grow for cum head for flavoring pickle spices , and other as fresh green dill for salad , orchis dish and most everything else one needs dill added to . I also grow a wide selection of Basils , summer Micromeria juliana for summer squash dish aerial and sages , but I always wanted a culinary , or even a more traditional New England style bungalow herb garden – the sort one would have seen in the 17th century , with a selection of essential kitchen herb as well as medicinal herbaceous plant .
A Fletcher Steel Inspired BorderThis summer I will be presenting a twain of talks about my experiences as a gardener at a Fletcher Steele garden ( the Stoddard Garden ) once again . I ’ve been surprise by the interest in this subject , and I am just start to actualise or apprise the gift that experience gave me back in the previous 1970 ’s and early 1980 ’s when in college . I think of so much , exactly what was plant in each border , the exacting particular ask for proper sustenance of everything from a set tuff rock wall with a large collecting of crustlike Ag saxifrages , to how to maintain a collecting of gentians . I really want to recreate a few of the recurrent planting that I retrieve so well , and I think that this may be the year , as even scholars who study this most well known of American landscape architects , have lost many of his planting schemes , those very schemes which exist in my brain . I think it ’s clock time that I practice some of that noesis .
Another Fletcher Steele mind which I have been eager to envision is a shrub border composed of chiefly prosperous leaved bush . That may be more naturalistic .
A Floral Audit Collection like ChelseaOK , in the past , I grew every variety of sweet peas that I could discover , I cover how to grow annula poppies uprise all of the Shirley poppy smorgasbord available , or Japanese Chrysanthemums – and then documenting the unconscious process with images . I admit that I am influenced by the display in the growers tents at the Chelsea Flower Show , were one can take in a selection of variety , side - by - side , but I am not sure yet what flush I will grow this twelvemonth . I am open to ideas . I ’ve been bring around with more mutual annuals , like nasturtium or marigolds , as we rarely see these all rise together , and expose in ways that would make us require to grow them in our own garden .
Please partake intellection on what I might grow as my Chelsea Floral Audit this twelvemonth .
Greenhouse Cucumbers and TomatoesAnother project that I have been wanting to do for a while . A few years ago , I grew heirloom and epicurean melons in the greenhouse , when I actualise that all of that quad was become to waste during the summertime . This year , I am search grow English and Asiatic cuke , and a few tomato ( even a craw of Chinese Yard Long Beans , all possible craw for a summertime greenhouse .
TuberosesI conk out in growing a crop of tuberoses last twelvemonth ( inspired by a few of my 18th and 19th 100 playscript ) , but I am learn , and will render again . So my Tuberose project continues once again . Especially as some breeders have introduced colored selections of tuberoses .
A Cutting Garden of Woody PlantsAnother design that I keep pushing out , but maybe this is the year . I imagine a cut garden for shrub and small trees . Each winter and spring , I want to cut many branches to force . quince bush , plum , forsythia and other force - frendly shrubs so that I will not damage specimen near the house . It makes sense to set such a luxury , as indeed , it is a luxury , but I have the space and the means , so why not ? I also would like to institute lilacs , as they are horrible garden specimen , as maybe a few row of trimmed flower perennials like peonies and rose . A serious , long condition cutting garden , implant way out back where my mother had her cut garden of peonies and poppies in the 1950 ’s and 1960 ’s .
I thought about grow hop and then make my own beer , but I think I will hold off on this labor until next year . I may give in , if I can figure out where to grow them , but then I should develop barley too , right ?
Also on my radiolocation … . Fuchsia ? Geraniums / Pelargoniums ? Streptocarpus ? Gloxinia ? True Lilies , Trillium , a traditional English Cottage Garden , Heirloom Winter Squash , Sunflowers … Ugh , I require to block .
Oh , and thanks guys for telling me that my side legal community liaison are all screwed up ! Now , at least , I have something to work on at night next week while babysitting my dad while Joe is in NYC at Westminster where our Irish Terrier is contend ( I eff , I feel like an Olympian parent at dwelling ) .
