This was only my second year gardening, and first year with my own yard 😤 Everything is in containers. I struggled a lot with figuring out a good place to put containers that got enough sunlight. I was trying to avoid the front yard because I was worried about car exhaust and grossness getting onto veggies, but when I finally...
I have been running an experiment with growing collards in containers.
Started this last year, bought 5 plants from a hardware store and planted one each in a bucket (Lowe’s store and their logo bucket, the kind that you can buy Sheetrock compound/mud in).
I just used Miracle Grow potting soil, and once a week I’d feed them with Miracle Grow too.
The experiment was to see how well they would grow, and if they did well then how much could I harvest, but the main thing I wanted to know is if I could keep them alive and continue to harvest from them this year as well.
So, with all that in mind, then yes, they grew, but they didn’t make large heads that I could cut off to have bunches, but I was able to harvest them, and five plants enabled me to harvest enough, once a week, to get five to six large leaves bigger than my hand from each plant, once the plants got about two and a half feet tall. And it continued like that, but them steadily growing taller, up until the first hard frost of their first year.
When that first hard frost was coming, I was able to cover them up to protect them. Then they slowed down growing until spring weather of this year, and then it was back to business as usual for them, except since they were already established now, I was able to go back to picking off new large leaves from them earlier than the first go around from the previous year.
They are now another foot taller, and occasionally the lower stalk at the base of each plant tries to put new growth out, but I don’t want that to compete with the rest of the plant so I pull it off once any of it gets about an inch big.
Eventually I may try to see if I let any of that grow a little bigger if I could root it to propagate a new plant.
Anyway, I’m curious now to see how long I can keep these plants alive and producing.
I looked up, once, if collard plants are meant to be grown this way and info I found stated most types aren’t but there is one type that is cultivated to grow year after year, so I don’t know, I just know I have enough fresh greens each week that would equal a small head of cabbage or a large size head of lettuce and that makes me happy and is good enough for me. Also, anything I don’t get around to eating I can freeze for use later.
Oh god that’s me with not wanting to throw away anything that sprouts, I was guilt stricken the other day because of too many sun flower seedlings and no place to plant them all. I’m still hurting about that one when I think of it now.
Yeah, my yard too, so after two years of letting the native plants come back I am now finding several types of seedling trees which has me struggling with a new set of ethical conundrums on what to do about that, because a lot of these new baby trees are growing too close to the house (don’t want them dropping limbs or worse falling over, one day, onto my home) and also growing into my drainage field and/or blocking sunlight that I desperately need where I container garden on my porch.
I also now have a slew of a certain type of weedy plant that grows massively tall and bushy, that are getting too big and too close to the stairs of my home, plus all kinds of vining poison oak/ivy/sumac encroaching on the house, that I never noticed before, because it was my spouse who use to always mow our lawn, but that I’m now realizing had always kept it at bay. And also one native grape vine, that again, I had no idea existed where it is, because the spouse would mow over it, but now it’s grown into a giant mound of five feet around and almost as tall and it’s sent out long vines and trying to grow over and choke out a small crepe myrtle I planted two years ago.
Got a seasoned spice blend just for the look of it, the cost at the time was reasonable too though. Family members kept asking what it was, and even I was like: It’s really flavorful, isn’t it! I finally took a look at the ingredients on the label and that’s when I discovered the only thing unusual about is that it also had MSG in it. Don’t know why I never bothered to read the ingredient label before buying it, but that sold me on MSG ever since.
Reading, gardening, plant propagation, crochet, sewing (both machine & hand sewing), experiments in cooking, dehydrating foods, occasional video gaming.
I like all them because, like you, it keeps my head filled. They are all also something that anyone can easily start out doing. Most have work-around’s so start up costs are low. All can be searched online for info how to’s from the basics to advanced knowledge. Also, if you try you can find online groups and/or forums to share what you do and/or know.
Palio has settled in nicely. He’s a very calm puppy and has already mastered house-training (no errors [so far, knock on wood]), crate-training (a little rough seas at the beginning but all good now), and the wooden stairs to the second floor (all by himself without encouragement). He’s complying to simple commands (sit,...
We live around the corner from the farm/home store. They sell 8ft sections of this livestock fencing, they had a pile of damaged pieces for half off!...
Former Vice President Mike Pence has taken a hard stance on abortion, saying that abortions should be banned even in cases of nonviable pregnancies. Pence is the only GOP presidential candidate to publicly support a national abortion ban at six weeks. Medical experts have criticized Pence’s pledge, noting that forcing women to...
What a fucking-piece of shit he is. That old turd, deserves a Christian after-life in their hell, and then made for all eternity, to be permanently nine months pregnant, with his own demon possessed baby, constantly clawing and writhing inside him, fighting to get out!
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would direct President Biden to withdraw the U.S. from NATO. She argues that European countries are not reliable partners and are not paying their fair share of NATO obligations, while the U.S. pays around 4% of its...
How's your garden doing? What did you learn this year?
This was only my second year gardening, and first year with my own yard 😤 Everything is in containers. I struggled a lot with figuring out a good place to put containers that got enough sunlight. I was trying to avoid the front yard because I was worried about car exhaust and grossness getting onto veggies, but when I finally...
The ingredient that changed your life (www.beehaw.org)
Tell me about that one ingredient, that when discovered, it opened your mind to a whole new world of flavor possibilities!...
What are your hobbies?
Hey folks,...
Anaheim peppers coming in strong! (lemmy.world)
[Image description: a hand holding back pepper foliage, revealing several large long peppers in stages of ripening from light green to red.]
A young Ms. Mittens (files.catbox.moe)
I can't even go to the bathroom in peace! (beehaw.org)
Puppy Palio Update (claycle.com)
Palio has settled in nicely. He’s a very calm puppy and has already mastered house-training (no errors [so far, knock on wood]), crate-training (a little rough seas at the beginning but all good now), and the wooden stairs to the second floor (all by himself without encouragement). He’s complying to simple commands (sit,...
I finally got around to putting up some trellis for the cucumbers! (beehaw.org)
We live around the corner from the farm/home store. They sell 8ft sections of this livestock fencing, they had a pile of damaged pieces for half off!...
About a gallon of tiny potatoes using the ruth stout method (i.imgur.com)
For those who don’t know, the Ruth stout method is just laying your seed potatoes on the ground of covering with straw or hay....
Pence says abortion should be banned for nonviable pregnancies (thehill.com)
Former Vice President Mike Pence has taken a hard stance on abortion, saying that abortions should be banned even in cases of nonviable pregnancies. Pence is the only GOP presidential candidate to publicly support a national abortion ban at six weeks. Medical experts have criticized Pence’s pledge, noting that forcing women to...
hmmm (i.ibb.co)
I'll keep up with the posting of animals outside of cats and dogs. Here's my angry boy. (beehaw.org)
This is Ziggy and he probably hates you. I love him though.
Marjorie Taylor Greene introduces amendment directing Biden to withdraw from Nato (www.independent.co.uk)
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would direct President Biden to withdraw the U.S. from NATO. She argues that European countries are not reliable partners and are not paying their fair share of NATO obligations, while the U.S. pays around 4% of its...