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William Hunter Duncan's avatar

Thank you for the mention!

One thing I will have ready this year are traps. Chipmunks decimated my beets last year.

The birds help with the music making so be sure to cast a lot of flower seed to attract lots of bugs, which in abundance will also help keep each other in check. I also like an earbud, for facilitating singing.

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Theodore Atkinson's avatar

We usually have to "manage" those creatures too, because they destroy everything.

I'm going to try perennial sunflowers and see how the birds / insects like those. I have to establish a good flower garden in general. Giant marigolds are usually my go to, but perennials are so much easier to deal with. It'll take awhile to sort out what works here specifically, but I'm excited to start trying things.

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William Hunter Duncan's avatar

I like to focus on wildflower perennials, but I cast annual seed too. I am also careful as I weed, often leaving certain plants wherever they sprout, transplanting others. The garden takes on a certain character over time.

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Michaela McKuen's avatar

Gotu kola

Chicory

Juniper

Sage

Lemon balm

Wild lettuce/spiky lettuce

Plantain

Yaupon

Cassina (Ilex cassine)

Hibiscus

Dandelion

Ginger

Turmeric

Garlic

Ginkgo biloba

Schisandra vine

Eleuthero

Gaultheria

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Theodore Atkinson's avatar

I would like to grow turmeric, but I'd probably have to have a full season greenhouse to pull that off, same with ginger.

I have some wild lettuce seeds, and a tincture I made with some I bought, but I don't use it as much as feverfew. I definitely will add sage and lemon balm though, and work my way into some of the more exotic species.

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Michaela McKuen's avatar

Yeah some of these are definitely more tropical plants but I figured that works inside. On the other hand I listed eleuthero because that seems like it’d be good in Canada and I don’t think it takes as long to grow as true ginsengs anyway. And I didn’t list Ilex guayusa but I don’t even think that would grow anywhere that isn’t the tropics. Just looks like an absolutely huge tree that needs tropical weather. Maybe someone could work on breeding a smaller one though. I still want a dwarf blood orange but at least that’s a graft of two plants even if it doesn’t exist as something on its own yet. I wish more people would be working on these kinds of things though.

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the long warred's avatar

God bless.

Literal gardening;

I wanted roots and got them.

They’ll be horseradish here eternally. It will become enormous underground.

Also probably the turnips and rutabagas, radishes will return if seeded. They will be.

The only other project was Norway spruces ✅ and transplanted Maple ✅

What does this mean for social media?

It means ROOTS WIN 😎

Roots!

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Theodore Atkinson's avatar

I ended up with "perennial" tomatoes, sunflowers, potatoes and squash in my last garden because they spread so much. I'd love to have that with root vegetables like turnips and carrots, although Queen Anne's Lace is a problem for pollinating carrots, but maybe not here? I'll see. I'd love to get self-sowing plots going, maybe for the wildlife trap gardens.

My dad was just talking about getting some maples and spruce from that website. He also wanted some cedar too. We have some baby spruce trees that need to be transplanted too, so that'll be a mini-project for us as well.

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the long warred's avatar

I went with roots for dah apocalypse- I also do like them.

Anything above ground I have to worry about Deer etc eating them- although Mugwort seems to keep them at bay.

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'chard's avatar

And don't forget your millions of moth buddies!

Give 'em a chance -- they can be worthwhile entertainment. And who's eating their caterpillars?

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'chard's avatar

Haha -- well, alright.

Our only seasonal "plague" has been a carpet of reddish "bugs" I haven't troubled to identify; the past couple of years they've been rare.

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Scott Campbell's avatar

No dig rocks. I've had great success. Often find potatoes months later, even having skipped a planting. Interesting food for thought, thank you!

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Theodore Atkinson's avatar

No-dig is the easiest and most productive technique I've tried so far, I can see why it's all the rage. I love how it's a lazy combo of mulch and "fertilizer," and you basically just throw the plant in it and go away. The only problem is getting the volume of high quality compost, but it'll come eventually over time.

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Scott Campbell's avatar

Best thing to come out of lockdown was that I had to build my own little compost station out of pallets, because the garbage truck stopped coming for several weeks. 😁

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'chard's avatar

Bugs? I'm jealous.

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Theodore Atkinson's avatar

Not if you saw the volume of bugs. You'd think it was snowing with the amount of cabbage moths around here.

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'chard's avatar

Please see below.

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Lisa Thomas's avatar

I don't really have a plan, I'm just going to wing it as usual. I did expand a bit last year and I'll be rearranging my perennials. I have some teddy bear sunflowers I'm going to tryout up the hill. Nothing but the spring bulbs and grass will grow up there because it's so hot and dry in the summer.

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Theodore Atkinson's avatar

I start out with a plan / strategy, which devolves into a wild mess at the end, but the mess usually produces more than when I try to keep it too tidy. I need the plan at the beginning to force myself to get something out there, but I don't lose too much sleep when things diverge and I have to wing alternatives, because that's just what gardens do.

I have a lot of different spots like that here, both really sunny and really wet, but I need to stick something in there to see what likes what.

Happy gardening!

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