The Potting Shed (Part 1)

[SunBear]

Morning!

I mentioned in my first post of my Journal my love for gardening and how therapeutic this is for me and I would love to share photos and the goings on in my sanctuary but I don't want it to hamper down my journal and to be fair I'd like to speak to more people who also enjoy gardening and everything that comes with it!

I hope others might like to share as well I look forward to posting a bit more later but I'm having trouble uploading my photo.

I'm looking forward to sharing my projects and ideas   

[Blueberry]

Hi Sunbear,
I really enjoy my garden too. I won't be posting any photos, but I can write a little about it and my harvests some time.

[SunBear]

Hi Blueberry,

That sounds wonderful I'm looking forward to hearing about how others go about it and what they are nurturing Instead of photos I might just do sketches as I love art as well, but who knows i'll be sure to update at the weekend any way look forward to sharing you 

[Blueberry]

Hi Sunbear,
I have flowers mostly and herbs, though I also have a blackcurrant bush and a redcurrant bush. My flowers are mostly ones that can look after themselves well. I only water my plants when I've newly planted them or if we're going through a really hot dry period. I particularly like native plants and flowers and more especially bee-friendly ones.

I pick lots of weeds either for their flowers or to eat them. End of April - May and on into early June is the best time for this, but it works later on in the year too. But spring is best, the weeds are most tender and full of nutrients with that burst of spring energy! I tend to eat them raw, I even go down into the garden and graze so to speak. Or I toss them in my soup, like nettles. I don't do anything like canning or making pesto, I just pick and use what I can from spring to fall.

I also go into the woods a few miles out of town and pick wild blueberries when the time is right, and some weeds which I don't have in my garden. It's a good feeling, not being dependent on money and grocery stores for every last thing, especially since I can't earn enough due to my problems with CPTSD.

Look forward to hearing about your garden exploits some time too. 

[Blueberry]

My blackcurrants and redcurrants are ripening. Some are ready to pick and eat, and I have been doing so. Others are on the way, which is good, spreads out harvest time. There are lots of tiny strawberries, some are almost tasteless (oh, well) but the slightly bigger ones have a definite strawberry flavour to them.

There are still lots of weeds, but not necessarily the edible ones. It is harvest time for the nettles and mint but I'm sick so they'll have to wait. If they don't get harvested, they don't get harvested. That's the good thing I find about having things in the garden which grew themselves and look after themselves, I don't feel devastated if I'm physically or  - more usually - emotionally so unwell I miss the harvest. I just think "oh well, next year is another year..."

There aren't many flowers atm, though the bindweed must be about to bloom and there's tons of it.

[Blueberry]

I went down into the garden again and looked a bit more closely and discovered that actually more is blooming than I'd thought. Cranesbill, evening primroses, Turkish sage, lawn daisies and white and red clover, somebody else's red roses, but there might be another bloom on my rose bush too quite soon, some pale comfrey (the bees are delighted whatever the colour), the remains of the Spanish sage, lady's mantle, purple vetch. Again somebody else's: St. John's wort

Then some splashes of red with my redcurrants and the minute strawberries scattered about.

My marguerites will be opening soon, and maybe some yarrow too.

[Blueberry]

Today I was harvesting herbs: mint, lemon balm and nettles. Now I have 3 more big bunches of herbs hanging up to dry in my apartment. I use them for tea in the winter. Or the mint and lemon balm I can also crumble over salads. In addition to the nettles strung up for drying, I collected nettle seeds separately. These can also be scattered over salads or just eaten raw in handfuls. They don't sting and theoretically they contain a lot of protein for their size.

I'm feeling good because I like fiddling around with plants, but also because I've had the energy and non-EF state available at the right time to start my harvest. I don't earn much money so I feel good when I can contribute to my upkeep through other means. Since I often get overwhelmed by life in general I don't plant a proper vegetable garden. Instead I content myself with what grows on its own and harvest if I can manage.

There is a bud on a rose bush in my bed that somebody else cut back a long time ago. Now after careful tending and adding compost every year, there is this bud now. It's red. My big rose bush seems to have stopped flowering for the year, so it seems appropriate to me that the other rose is going to start.

It would be cool if anybody else could write about what's happening in their gardens at the moment.

[Three Roses]

We tried a different method of planting this year, one raised bed of zucchini, and used a method called "Back to Eden" (there are lots of videos on YouTube about it). I'm really happy with the results, the leaves are a health, dark green and the zucchinis are huge.

The rest of our plants are up on the deck - squash, tomatoes, basil, lavender, and lots of colorful flowers.

[Rainydaze]

Great thread.  There's a bed at the side of my house which tends to get neglected but I've now de-weeded it and will be planting some Swiss rainbow chard there. I think I'm going to sow some rocket too. I've also grown Thai basil, lemon basil, red rubin basil, oregano and Russian tarragon from seed and I'm going to transplant these into long terracotta containers at the back of the house in full sun.

Today I was harvesting herbs: mint, lemon balm and nettles. Now I have 3 more big bunches of herbs hanging up to dry in my apartment. I use them for tea in the winter. Or the mint and lemon balm I can also crumble over salads. In addition to the nettles strung up for drying, I collected nettle seeds separately. These can also be scattered over salads or just eaten raw in handfuls. They don't sting and theoretically they contain a lot of protein for their size.

What great ideas.  I have masses of lemon balm in my garden which I went a bit wild with last year growing from seed.  I think I'll try drying some and using it for tea too!

[Blueberry]

  My Jerusalem artichokes are almost ready to bloom. There's a little yellow showing already. They didn't bloom the past two years. The roots are edible anyway. But I do like to see flowers as well.

My evening primrose is still blooming, so is the cranesbill. My big rose bush has some buds again. Somebody else's flowers are blooming away deep pinky-red and attracting lots of bees, and even a blue-bottle last time I was out there. (Didn't know flies and blue-bottles could live off flowers?!?). Again someone else's nasturtiums are still blooming. These are edible too, but not if they're someone else's 

I was thinking of buying some seeds of lamb's lettuce and planting them, but then all sorts of things came up and I don't seem to have the will-power to even do that. Also it probably really is too late in the season now. Now that I don't have my little furry creatures to pick weeds for any more, I'm picking less, ie. none, for myself and am less often in the garden. But I am using dried nettles in cooking. I toss them into the thick veg soup I make for myself ever so often.

[Three Roses]

This reminds me, I need to harvest the last of the fresh basil and preserve it. I was watching YouTube and one person suggested putting fresh herbs in olive oil in ice cube trays and freezing them, but I also want to try making a basil-infused butter and freezing that. Hope I have enough for both.

[Blueberry]

Since I wrote and didn't send my cathartic letter, things have really been improving again!

I did in fact sow some seeds of lamb's lettuce today. It's not too late. I'll be able to harvest in spring. I sowed some flowers too, like marigolds, more for decoration than anything else. They glow like yellowy-orange lights in the bed. They'll start blooming by summer, whereas if I sow in spring, they don't bloom till fall.

Before sowing I had to clear some parts of a bed. I also cut down most of an elder bush, because it had been cutting a lot of light from one of my windows. It'll grow again though, so that I can use the flowers again in early summer.

Yesterday I started picking weeds again to eat fresh (as opposed to dried). And today I dug up two types of weed, roots and all, to see if I can grow them over the winter in pots in my kitchen. One of them - ground elder - well, once it's in your garden, you can never get rid of it, so maybe I won't kill it off in my kitchen either      I don't actually have a green thumb inside my apartment at all but I'll see, maybe weeds will do better than other indoor plants. Whenever you pick a leaf from ground elder, a shoot appears somewhere else. Indestructible. I also brought in a dandelion plant. I just need to go and put them in soil now!

[Blueberry]

Today I was in the garden again, harvesting various weeds and some herbs. I also cleared a few bits of beds and have sown more lamb's lettuce and a few more marigolds.  I'm really tired and feel kind of dopey, but it felt good to be doing some work in the autumn sun in the garden.

[AphoticAtramentous]

Today I was in the garden again, harvesting various weeds and some herbs. I also cleared a few bits of beds and have sown more lamb's lettuce and a few more marigolds.  I'm really tired and feel kind of dopey, but it felt good to be doing some work in the autumn sun in the garden.

^-^ Sounds lovely, Blueberry. I find it so nice to get out and soak up that sunlight every now and then.

[Blueberry]

I didn't actually plant my ground elder on Sept. 24th, so it didn't survive needless to say. But I planted more shoots of it yesterday. Now to see if it continues to grow like the proverbial weed inside too!