|
Post by whollygoats on Feb 21, 2018 14:00:36 GMT
I second the chives, if you use chives. If you have a separate barrel or planter, you could start a perennial herb selection, too. And, if you like basil (an annual), clear yourself a little ground and scatter some sweet basil seeds and harvest some summer pesto. Super easy.
Everybody keeps saying that potatoes are easy. I tried the 'potatoes in a barrel' method (in my case, a trash bin) because it offered space-savings. I got lots of foliage, but crap results in tubers. I pitched that idea and have never returned to trying to grow potatoes. I think that growing potatoes takes a fair amount of work and you need to keep on top of adding more soil and mulch. Miss adding soil and you end up with poisonous purple potatoes.
I don't grow cucumbers because I detest them, but my father never seemed to have much problem with them, so I tend to view them as all too easy to grow.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Feb 21, 2018 14:14:46 GMT
Similar idea: Grow sack.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Feb 21, 2018 14:18:30 GMT
Recycled rain guttering, filled with soil, lifted overhead, and planted with strawberries. If done right, no hunkering in the fields picking berries.
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Feb 21, 2018 14:25:53 GMT
I hope those are your strawberries, in your gutters, Mr Goat!
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Feb 21, 2018 15:51:38 GMT
Nah...I don't have that kind of room. That's an industrial farm process. Mine are planted on the ground and have never borne like that.
I suspect those might well be 'California Doorknob' variety.
The sweetest, most flavorful strawberry I have ever tasted was a tiny wild strawberry, half the size of my pinky fingernail, growing on the forest floor alongside a footpath.
|
|
|
Post by Mari on Feb 21, 2018 16:01:20 GMT
Generally the bigger they are, the more water they contain, just like tomatoes.
|
|
|
Post by Miisa on Feb 21, 2018 16:06:10 GMT
I never added soil to my potatoes, I just dug holes for some spuds, covered them up and forgot about them for a couple of months. Wasn't a huge harvest, but it very satisfying to eat a staple you grew in your garden.
|
|
|
Post by tangent on Feb 21, 2018 17:19:11 GMT
Does anything grow in Finland? I thought it was too cold.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Feb 21, 2018 17:26:58 GMT
Potatoes were developed high in the Andes Mountains. They seem to flourish anywhere they don't get potato blight (like they did in Ireland).
I would guess that, much like the Rooskies to their east, the Finns are capable of growing enough potatoes to make enough vodka for their reputedly prodigious thirst for same.
Or, are they all importing 'taters from Poland, or other points south?
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Feb 21, 2018 18:05:20 GMT
Lots of things grow in Finland. It's just a shorter growing seasons.
Trees for example. Millions and millions of trees.
The area around Miisa's home town grows lots of apples. I'm not familiar with the primary crops elsewhere.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Feb 21, 2018 20:47:28 GMT
One thing I know about apples is, that to flourish, the trees like a distinct hard cold season. I'll bet Finland has that.
More barley and oats than wheat....rice is probably non-existant....as cereal crops go? Root and cruciferous crops, too?
I'll bet livestock is a big part of northern farming. I heard all about the 'hoos coo' when I was in the Shetlands.
|
|
|
Post by Miisa on Feb 21, 2018 22:00:52 GMT
Rye is one I see a lot, and we grow some sugar beets, potatoes, and lots of rapeseed. Oats and barley are not uncommon, and we do see wheat at least here in the South. And quite a lot of cleared land is left unplowed to give hay for the winter. But the forests are the green gold. There is a stark difference from, say, Central Europe when you look down at the landscape from a plane; in Central Europe you see lots of rectangular fields that cover most of the ground in a tetris-like mosaic, while in Finland the view is more of occasional small irregular fields often all but drowned by great swaths of forest and lakes.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Feb 21, 2018 22:05:45 GMT
Lots of evergreen, conifer forest, like here.
|
|
|
Post by Miisa on Feb 22, 2018 9:12:53 GMT
Though they aren't very green in the winter, I have noticed. Monochrome climate:
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Feb 22, 2018 19:04:35 GMT
More widepread white overlay. We only have that on the higher peaks....those over 2K meters.
|
|
|
Post by Moose on Feb 22, 2018 20:03:51 GMT
Those strawberries look fantastic. I think I will at least try the potatoes too. And chives. Chives are nice.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Feb 22, 2018 20:10:24 GMT
Particularly with potatoes.
|
|
|
Post by Moose on Feb 22, 2018 22:15:23 GMT
And cottage cheese
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Feb 23, 2018 6:29:35 GMT
I don't recommend planting curds.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Feb 23, 2018 18:01:52 GMT
Parsley is pretty easy, too. A small pot will fulfill your needs.
|
|
|
Post by Moose on Feb 23, 2018 21:10:46 GMT
I don't have many parsley needs
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Feb 23, 2018 23:40:18 GMT
Nor do I.
|
|
|
Post by Moose on Feb 25, 2018 0:22:33 GMT
Have you ever tried growing garlic? My ex and I tried once but it did not work very well
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Feb 25, 2018 4:21:26 GMT
Um...It's one of those things I've always thought of doing, but never actually followed through on it. I have to say I have not. But, it should be easy. It's basically a self-replicating bulb. In the floral garden biz, they are allium and produce a ball-shaped flowerhead. They are supposed to be natural garden pest prophylactic plants (against aphids, if memory serves). It should be cheap and easy to try. I will pot-grow this year....for the pesto! www.burpee.com/gardenadvicecenter/vegetables/garlic/garlic/article10268.htmlThese would probably be lost most often to rot (too much moisture for too long) or slug/snail depredation. Plant at multiple sites. It is perennial, so if you fail to harvest, it will return the following year. I should try some horseradish, too. Same deal, but I think it looks more like an invasive pest plant than garlic does. I went to the garden store today and brought home four more raspberry canes and two bags of worm castings soil amendment. I was sorely tempted by the rhubarb and told myself that I had to have my ground prepped before I hurried back to get another rhubarb root. Plus, I need to check how the one I planted last year is doing. They had bundles of strawberry plants! Watch out eastern front!
|
|
|
Post by Moose on Feb 25, 2018 21:43:58 GMT
I bought a raspberry cane ages ago and not planted it yet ..
|
|
|
Post by slokenin on Dec 6, 2020 20:19:43 GMT
I bought a raspberry cane ages ago and not planted it yet .. Be carefull raspberry are very invasive, oops look at the date it's either dead now or it has invaded.
|
|
|
Post by Moose on Dec 7, 2020 23:11:26 GMT
Sloke! Where have you been for years??
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Dec 8, 2020 17:47:31 GMT
So, as part of my bulb-planting frenzy, I purchased four separate varieties of artisan garlics. I guess I'll find out how growing garlic is.
|
|
|
Post by jayme on Dec 11, 2020 7:17:19 GMT
Catnip.
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Dec 11, 2020 8:53:31 GMT
jayme!
|
|