Yes i will be out there Christmas day planting away

How many of us real traditional gardeners are left?

You know the ones that save seeds at the end of every summer and religiously sow them at the begining of the next year and on through to spring.

The ones that dig over their vegetable patch every year. Yes and those that spread that heavily scented (or stink as my dear wife calls it) compost on their veg patch every autumn.

And those of us that still grow rhubarb, gooseberries and all manner of soft fruits.

Those that actually use their greenhouse as a greenhouse. All those lovely fuchsias, stopped and mollycoddled, to create a perfect plant. And rows and rows of fuchsia cuttings rooting in a mixture of peat and sand.

And yes I will be out there Christmas day, rain, sun, snow or whatever, sowing my broad beans.

Who else will??? All the best Gardenjunkie

Reply to
Gardenjunkie
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I have compost to turn myself, and am eager to check on future garden plot that me and DH have staked out. No children to put decorations up for, it will be a quiet Christmas for us and our pets. Not sure as to how winter here is, so that will be interesting as well. Broad beans. Where do you get your seeds? I just found seeds to a Chinese radish that says to plant in the fall, and technically it still IS fall. And we've only had one hard frost here. Should I take a chance? It might be interesting to see if they take. all the best, Eva Shovelful gardening in zone 7 very near the Mississippi River

Reply to
eva shovelful

Me Me Me!!! I picked the last of my peppers yesterday. About 5 pounds worth. The peas in the greenhouse are flowering and the lettuce and tomatoes are doing great. I have a tomato plant from over a year ago. Can't say enough about sugary tomatoes. I had to put up an electric fence this year to keep the deer out and I guess I will have to put one up around my rose garden this year. I have tried everything but if you have any ideas I am open!! MJ

Reply to
mj

Does decorating a live Christmas tree count?

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Reply to
brooklyn1

Guess I would be considered a tradionalist gardener. Already have my flower beds covered with the heavenly scent of road apples but underneath the apples I have about 5" of yellow, orange, red mable leaves. Will also be adding peat to the pile come Spring.

I grow enough rhubarb for two family and even have a gooseberry that was sent to me as a freebie. There was "one" berry last year but I moved this plant and am hoping for better results.

My new dwarf apples and cherries trees should produce something this spring.

I don't have a greenhouse (dream!) but I'm going to try making a small scaled shelf (8') and a tack it to my fence. Hopefully I'll get this shelf for nothing or close to that as it's left overs from a hardware store. Comes with holes! Just a couple of brackets, some nice plastic to cover it all nice and tiddy and that's where I'm hoping to plant my annual seeds and whatever else catches my eyes. I'm hoping some of the sweat peas from this past year will bloom on their own as they gave off so many seeds and I made sure they were buried.

Even though it's cold out (28 degrees this morning) I'm already thinking and planning for Spring. But right now I'm just trying to keep my birds happy: flickers, both pileated snowy woodpeckers, nutthachers, red house wrens and all the other tweetie birds. So fun to watch.

I love each season that has been given to us to use and enjoy!

Donna in WA

Reply to
Lelandite

LOL! That's rich. Sieving and preparing compost for application is one of my greatest gardening pleasures. DW&I deliberately built our composting area near a window so that we _can_ smell it! If compost smells "bad", something is out of whack and needs adjustment.

Oh, I expect that I will be but I'll be "cropping" fresh greens and picking "little marvel" peas! I have beds ready for garlic and potatoes and I'd better have them in before Christmas! I'm in Florida, USA, and can garden year-around. Won't be planting beans of any kind until late February or early March, depending on overnight lows. July and August are my "worst" months for gardening and, even then, I have jalapeño peppers, sweet "bell" peppers and eggplant (aubergine). Last year, I was able to overwinter two sweet peppers and two eggplant outdoors; of course, the jalapeños come indoors on chilly nights. I don't care anything for ornamentals or particularly like flowers; am unwilling to put much effort into any plant that I can't eat; and -- for the most part -- grow only vegetables. Eight raised beds, that range in size from 16 to 24 square feet, along with sundry individual containers now host: "Little marvel" peas (bearing); two varieties of mustard greens; "purple globe" white turnips; collards; radishes; yellow onions; white "scallion" onions; bearing eggplant (aubergine); "celebrity" tomatoes (in bloom); chives; garlic chives; bearing jalapeños; basil; parsley; sage; rosemary; bay; a smattering of leftover marigolds. By this time next week, I expect to have added incipient red-skinned potatoes of unknown variety and softneck garlic, also of unknown variety, and a second variety of collards. My first time for garlic. Plastic sheeting draped over PVC hoops is sufficient protection against low temperatures. In fact, if it's left on too long on sunny days, high temperatures are the greater risk -- frequently causing the greens, for example, to "bolt" and begin blossoming in January or February! Normally, they're good from October until May or early June. As a rule, I'm able to buy desirable transplants from either of two nearby nurserymen quite early so an actual greenhouse is unnecessary. Necessarily, I do a lot of interplanting and succession planting using sort of a hybrid square-foot and wide-row approach. I keep composting material constantly on hand, use "natural" fertilizers and amendments, occasionally add commercial mushroom compost and microbial inoculants. I'm in a rural area and invasive roots from native pine trees are a constant. For that reason, I make it a practice to hand cultivate and "shake up" the topmost foot of each bed, with a spading fork, annually, at which time primary nutrient levels and pH are tested. Who else?

Reply to
Balvenieman

Does watering and propagating indoor plants count? It's not exactly -- "out there" :) High temp today was 34F and was Low 18F in Southeast Michigan.

Enjoy Life ... Dan

Reply to
Dan L.

Ingrid just brought home a jade plant 2 hours ago. Flowering.

Bill who moved some wood chips about and thought of transplanting a few small maples. Lined up a guy to take cord wood.

Some free winter distractions can be found here.

Bill

Reply to
Bill who putters

Hi, great question! Yes, I save seeds of everything I find, not just in my garden (Sussex, UK). I currently have 100 cuttings of this years pelargoniums in my greenhouse. And I manure and dig every bed every year.

Can you beat this for a top tip...? I needed to find income in the winter, as my client's gardens are put to bed, and I remove a lot of waste. As I do this, I put anything that I want a cutting of into a separate bag, and then bring it home and pot it up. I intend to have a stall at a garden fete in the spring with my booty!

This reminds me of an old boy I was queueing next to in a packed garden centre at the till, in the height of summer, I said "It's busy in here today", he said "Well, summer gardeners, (ie, "some are" gardeners)!" Brilliant! It amazes me how many people appear in the place in the summer. In the winter I am MORE busy in my garden, than in the summer.

I go into my greenhouse every day just in case I missed something exciting yesterday!

Nice to hear from a traditionalist.

Boo.

Reply to
Boo

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I enjoy gardening also, but on Christmas day I hope to be "out there" shoveling snow and not planting or picking anything at all.

Freckles

Reply to
Freckles

I do the above.

I don't do that because I don't have a greenhouse. I don't coddle fuchsias. The only plants I coddle are trees in the early stages after planting. They will be there long after I am dead. Fuchsias won't be.

I won't be because it'll be way too hot to plant broad beans. They will be planted in March, and if not then, then they'll be planted in August or even in September.

Reply to
FarmI

Sounds like there's a lot of trad' gardeners out there.

Each unto his own, an indoor plant can give real pleasure, just as much a 200foot garden. Its all in the eye of the beholder.

So we all enjoy some form of gardening one way or another.

Now me, I'm just passionate about gardening, especially propagating, so is my dear wife, sorry Head Gardener. We live, eat and breath gardening. We spend hour upon hour in our garden, weather permitting. If the weather's to bad you will find us in our greenhouses, polytunnel or potting sheds. Come evenings the Head Gardener plans ahead, for the coming spring, summer and through to autumn. She decides what plants will go in our pots, hanging baskets, troughs and window boxes for the coming season as we have now planted up, and sold most, of the winter pots, troughs and hanging baskets.

Me, I spend most evenings sending email orders to suppliers and sorting the accounts. Yup I even enjoy that, virtual gardening!

As for holidays. We visit nurseries, gardening suppliers and manufactures looking for gardening goodies.

So if you know of a good trad' nursery in your area, ones that sell plants not trinkets and goodies, please let me know as they seem harder to find every year.

Can't wait for tomorrow, weather forecast is mainly dry, but cold. Another glorious day in the garden.

All the best Gardenjunkie S. E. England

Reply to
Gardenjunkie

If it's 5 below zero on Christmas Day, like it currently is in my corner of S.E. WA. state, no thanks, I won't be out there gardening!

Reply to
Wild Bill

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