What's Growing in the Garden

JerseyHighlander said:
Goldenseal & bloodroot tolerate the sunlight much more, ginseng likes a dense forest canopy and the forest loam soil underneath it. Anything more than dappled sunlight and it goes south fast. In my experience the light is a bigger factor than the soil. Some of mine is growing well in some pretty mediocre - crappy soil.
If I could keep the damned slugs off my Goldenseal, I'd be doing well.
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Yeh, I've had it in pretty deep shade. But pretty depleted soil. Also possibility that it was in an area that did not get much water from the sprinkler by being blocked or something. Also, they were in an area within the dripline of a mature walnut tree. They got that juglone stuff that is said to inhibit growth in some plants. I wonder if ginseng is especially intolerant of juglone?

Slugs dont bother my goldenseal. got too many tasty hostas for them to chew on i guess!
 
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Mike Hill said:
Man, I thought all y'all had (that's southern talk) was shores - ya know surf, sand and Guidos! :sofa:
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All behind me now and at much lower elevation. Don't get me started on the latter...
Mike Hill said:
Yeh, I've had it in pretty deep shade. But pretty depleted soil. Also possibility that it was in an area that did not get much water from the sprinkler by being blocked or something. Also, they were in an area within the dripline of a mature walnut tree. They got that juglone stuff that is said to inhibit growth in some plants. I wonder if ginseng is especially intolerant of juglone?

Slugs dont bother my goldenseal. got too many tasty hostas i guess!
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My money is on the Walnut being the issue. It's a well deserved reputation. I do a lot of work with Black Walnut medicinally and even after extracting most everything, I'm still careful where I toss the debris in the yard. It's a great source of medicine all by itself though, easily on par with Ginseng for me.

Another factor with Ginseng is try to plant it on north east facing slopes, if you have any. The more leaf litter the better.

One day I'm going to train the slugs to eat the poison ivy and I'll be a happy man.
 
"One day I'm going to train the slugs to eat the poison ivy and I'll be a happy man."

When you do - let me know! I'd like to invest and share in some of the fortune that you will make!

That along with mosquito and mole eradicatorsl. Oh, and non-explosive (for city use) squirrel dissuaders.
 
JerseyHighlander said:
All behind me now and at much lower elevation. Don't get me started on the latter...

My money is on the Walnut being the issue. It's a well deserved reputation. I do a lot of work with Black Walnut medicinally and even after extracting most everything, I'm still careful where I toss the debris in the yard. It's a great source of medicine all by itself though, easily on par with Ginseng for me.

Another factor with Ginseng is try to plant it on north east facing slopes, if you have any. The more leaf litter the better.

One day I'm going to train the slugs to eat the poison ivy and I'll be a happy man.
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Hostas, ferns, and azaleas don't seem to be affected all that much by the walnut. And have had some volunteer tomatoes (marble sized) that have sprouted under the walnuts and they've gone crazy with the quantity of tomatoes (and I dont really like the little squishy things though) even in the shade.

I made some Nicone a few years back (been aging since) - would that be considered medicine?

Now, I have gallons upon gallons of spent shells - now I am not a shooter, so these are not spent casings - but walnut shells which the squirrels have nibbled upon. I've been picking them up as I've grown tired of piercing the skin of my knees with them if I get on my knees to weed! or they get stuck in the soles of my shoes. I was originally thinking I'd grind them up and throw in my beds for soil amendments, but then thought about the juglone. All I've done so far is to soak some in water for quite a while to see if I can get some serviceable ink or dye. I've still got in my mind to smoke some meat with them, but hesitant. For years, I listened to the myth-makers and did not smoke with walnut - toxic, bitter, allergenic, yucky, etc. Then tried some brisket myself - pretty good to me. I've wanted to try the shells, but don't have a stick burner at this time. Gonna make a concrete block pit soon though and will try in there.
 
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Those are columbines, Aquilegia spp. They easily hybridize (and reseed) and you can get some amazing colors that stray from the original over time. That area started with A. canadensis (eastern red columbine), A. caerulea (Colorado blue columbine) and A. chrysantha (golden columbine) that I started from seed.

The red and yellow flower is most likely a cross between the eastern and golden columbines based on blossom size and brilliant yellows. The blue/purple is probably a cross of the eastern and Colorado. Based primarily on the red/purple hues that differ from the original blue color.

They are shade to partial sun plants that usually live on the border of wooded/prairie areas. These get full sun for maybe 3 hours a day.

Usually you can't find plants of the species, so I started all of these from seed originally.
 
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Tim, the hybridization of your columbines reminds me of my wife's four o'clocks. She had gotten some seeds from someone's plants - yellow, white, and pink. The seeds, when she got them, were all mixed together, so they got planted in the same area. That was spring 2020. Plants were true to color that year - some plants had yellow flowers, others had white, the others pink. Last year we had pink ones and not many yellow or white ones - but we had lots of them that had flowers that were both yellow and white, each flower varying in how much of each color it had.

It'll be interesting to see what the colors are this year.
 
All I did today was pick, wash, prep, cook and eat Veggies. I smoked some pork ribs and we had Yellow Squash, Okra, Purple hull peas, Cucumbers and tomatoes for supper. #1 wife put up another batch of sweet/dill pickles. It rained last night. It was a good weekend.

Alan
 
Ok. Now you are showing off! We only have radish and salad greens ready to eat. Just planted a few more greens and a few peanuts and 3 different gourd family. It's a strain finding separate quarters on 2/3 acre for zucchini, winter squash, bird house gourds, yellow squash and still trying to find cucumber and watermelon and cantaloupe homes...
 
Alan R McDaniel Jr said:
All I did today was pick, wash, prep, cook and eat Veggies. I smoked some pork ribs and we had Yellow Squash, Okra, Purple hull peas, Cucumbers and tomatoes for supper. #1 wife put up another batch of sweet/dill pickles. It rained last night. It was a good weekend.

Alan
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I picked my first Celebrity tomato and Lemon Boy tomatoes today. Also, some Shishito, Banana and Jalapeño peppers. And it rained 3/4" this morning, first rain in 3 weeks. Tomorrow that Celebrity is going to be a "Mater Sammich" can't wait
 
Eric Rorabaugh said:
Anyone here plant heirloom veggies?
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Almost everything we're planting this year are heirlooms. Much of what we're planting this year we ordered from Baker Creek, but have bought from other sources as well. Provider bush beans are a favorite of ours. Last year we were given a tomato seedling of an heirloom that can be traced back to the family who brought their seeds with them from Bohemia.

We seed saved from some of the heirlooms we grew last year and had good success with those seeds germinating. Planning to try and seed save more extensively this year.
 
We have a mix. But I am switching all of it to heirloom as I find them. Either in some garden or some store. A lot of our local suppliers now carry heirlooms. I have corn, beans, tomatoes, and several winter squash varieties and am working on cabbage, turnips, beets, and the likes.
 
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