Planning a garden for this coming spring

[Frugal_Princess]

Lol, the only thing that gets rid of weeds is hard work and pulling them out!

lol ok, I have a lot of hard work come spring then :p

[lecale]

I have never heard of the cayenne pepper or chili powder but that is going to help big time, We had a cat in our garden a lot this year and it was driving me crazy, Going to do this for sure!

I go to Food Basics and buy the Selection bulk packages of cayenne when they go on sale for $.79. The bamboo skewers are great because they are a pain for animals to dig around, so they will stop it.

Also at the FB I pick up a big bag of whole coriander seed from the Indian section - I grow loads of cilantro each year and I can get a big bag of fresh seed for a couple bucks in the spices section or pay $1.29/packet for a measly few in the garden section. I can seed densely and reseed all summer/fall.

Lots of seeds and tubers in the grocery store will grow - lentils, beans, spices, sweet potatoes, (non-refrigerated) ginger, lemongrass, etc. Sort of a fun side project - see what food you can get to grow.

[Frugal_Princess]

Lots of seeds and tubers in the grocery store will grow - lentils, beans, spices, sweet potatoes, (non-refrigerated) ginger, lemongrass, etc. Sort of a fun side project - see what food you can get to grow.

This is amazing I would have never thought of this, I am super glad I started this thread, I am learning so much

Really cool about the coriander seed as well, How did you think of that? Did you read it somewhere or did you just try it? Either way really awesome and frugal

[lecale]

This is amazing I would have never thought of this, I am super glad I started this thread, I am learning so much

Really cool about the coriander seed as well, How did you think of that? Did you read it somewhere or did you just try it? Either way really awesome and frugal

One year I found myself with a huge swath of (traditional) garden and it was late in the season so I didn't expect anything to do well, so I just experimented and threw stuff from the kitchen in there. Lentils grow up in lacy vines that look something like crownvetch, and they only grow 2 lentils per pod. It was neat just to see where my lentils came from.

My mother always grew the traditional projects like avocado seeds and oranges from seed...I got into this one seed catalogue https://www.richters.com and I grew a pomegranate and papaya from them. A lot of the tropicals need a lot of humidity and it is too dry in the house for oranges in winter, but pomegranate makes a great patio plant in summer and houseplant in winter. I got mine to bloom multiple times. I didn't get it to set fruit though. (They are both trees but the pom grew like a bonsai shrub and the papaya was intent on becoming a full-size...uh, palm tree with grape leaves on sticks on the top?)

Sweet potatoes grow as easy as potatoes. Cut an un-refrigerated sweet potato in half and stick the cut half it in a saucer of water, keep it fresh, and it will sprout roots and a vine from the top. Right now a lot of cities are heavily using ornamental sweet potatoes in city planters so once you see the vine it will be familiar: large heart shaped leaves, sometimes lobed. Something like a pothos but not shiny.

All sorts of cool things will grow from a Chinese grocery store. They don't refrigerate a lot of their stock so it is all ready to grow. You can get these things called eddoes that grow into things that look like caladium, you can get ginger that will grow into corn stalks like the Canada Dry commercial, you get lemongrass that will resprout in a glass of water, and so on. Don't try to grow anything tropical that has been refrigerated.

A lot of people have grown mangos...if you can get whole wheat kernels they make awesome cat grass...garlic grows even if it has been in the fridge, and it is a compact plant.

Coffee also makes an interesting houseplant and if you know what it looks like you can buy one cheap in the mixed tropicals at Walmart. It shows up there all the time.

[lecale]

One more fun food to grow - whole fenugreek seeds from the Indian spices section. This grows up into a loose fluffy vine like a cross between alfalfa and peas (it is a legume) but the SMELL!!!

In the food industry fenugreek is used to create artificial maple flavour and the plant smells strongly of caramel. I mean powerfully strong - you can load a chicken coop with this stuff and it will smell like IHOP not chickens.

Fun to grow.

[Frugal_Princess]

Lecale this is all so amazing to me, thank you for all the tips

I think I might be a bit narrow minded when it comes to gardening, I really need to open my mind up and experiment for sure, sounds like a lot of fun!

I think I am going to try the fenugreek for sure that would be awesome to have that smell around

[beachdown]

Spacing is important...for a newbie, acquaint yourself with garden centers, ask lots of questions, talk to other gardeners in your area, get books, go to garden shows. This is how you get better at gardening

[lecale]

Do you know what would be fun and interesting and trendy to try - stevia plants. I am seeing the seeds available all over.

[Frugal_Princess]

We have an agricultural society here in Delta, but I am not even sure if I can join it, I do try and ask people as many questions as I can but I think I may get too excited and ask too many and I forget everything they tell me (I need to remember a note pad

[secheltsaver]

So would letting sheep manure rest over winter prevent the weeds that I seemed to get from it? Sounds like you had a very successful gardening year and I hope you get to put a garden in in replace to your pool

Your weeds aren't coming from the sheep manure,sheep are ruminants and have a complicated digestive process that completely breaks down any seeds that they eat.The problem you're having is due to the fact that many seeds survive for decades in the soil,and only grow when exposed to sunlight during cultivation.There are bazillions of seeds waiting for just the right conditions to grow in the soil.We dug out an ancient compost pit here,and had so many poppies everywhere that it looked like we were growing Opium or something.

[Frugal_Princess]

^^Very interesting, so when they say clean top soil that doesn't actually mean that there won't be weeds in it?