Everyone's posts

The first plant is a cucumber, Mexican sour gherkin, which I've grown from seed. Firstly, yay, the things I grew from seed this year have been way more successful than last year!

The cucumber looks like this: ![alt text](http://i373.photobucket.com/albums/oo…

I planted several fava bean plants last fall, mainly as a way to get something into my newly dug flowerbed.

Now they've flowered and set pods. Does anyone know how to tell when fava bean pods are ripe for picking? I've never grown fava beans before, so I really have no idea.

Well, it looks like this is the end of the line for this year's (massive sarcasm quotes) "cool season" here. Pea production appears to be slowing down significantly, and I'm pulling out the last of the lettuce while some is still edible. Much of it is too bitter to eat. New lettuce stopped coming…

The leaf crops did marvelously. In fact, they are still growing strong since temps have been below average. The peas and root crops were a disaster. Nothing bulbed up particularly well and the peas were all leaf and no bloom. Apparently the nitrogen content of my soil is too high for root crops. …

Remember that hopeful post I made about possibly some tomatoes coming up volunteer?

That has since developed into 'WTF DO I DO WITH ALL THESE TOMATO PLANTS'.

There were thirty-six of them over two inches high as of this afternoon, and increasing. I'm scared.

I got one of those upside-down toma…

Hello, I've been programming since I was 13 and I love Ruby have done it the past 7 years. I recently got into gardening because my husband said I needed to do something besides "code" :) And I am finding it super fun!

I wanted a house plant, I have two big window seats. I think Ivy s are neat. …

I got way too busy for a couple of weeks, and it decided to get hot right in the middle of that time – so of course various things in my early salad stuff have bolted like crazy.

Arugula flowers are, first of all, surprisingly beautiful. I know this isn't meant to be a site f…

I never have good results growing beans here (SoCal, not too far from the high desert). Few ever sprout. Those that do never grow above 4-6" high and product 1-3 podseach, if they live long enough. (Note - I use legume inoculant on most, but not all, seeds of each type of bean. I …

My raspberry are flowering!

Anyone whose english pea plants yield spherical peas must be a saint. I only get spherical peas if I miss a pod. In the evening I sit out in the garden and eat peas until there is nothing worth eating left on the plant. Then I am done…

I'm buying a house with a big lawn and basically no other plantings. I'm not a fan of lawns and am looking for ideas for killing the grass and something to replace it. The newspaper and mulch method is not a good option as if anything there is too much soil (ie the house is too close to the groun…

I live in a small apartment. I like to have a bit of green around the place, and for the last two years I've not been able to successfully grow much except aloe vera, which is very forgiving and currently thriving! It's grown so much since I got it that I've been thinking it probably needs repott…

I had the first tiny strawberry of the season today! I'm looking forward to many more.

Also, I transplanted a lot of seedlings into the community garden today: 2 cucumbers, 3 green beans, 2 tongue-of-fire beans, an ornamental [sweet potato](/crops/sweet-po…