Oh man do I envy you. Portland has a years-long waiting list for community garden space, and I've been an apartment dweller my entire adult life.

The good news, though, is that the new house (closing next week! omg!) has a large backyard with a great southern exposure, so there's FINALLY going to be a real vegetable garden in my future.

I don't have a garden :-( I wish I did. There are lots of lovely gardens in my neighborhood. Someone down the road has bleeding hearts, I love those.

i wish i had a garden, too.
How freaky, dersins. How exciting. You get to see if anything is growing there now.

I have a garden, and I'll be putting in at least 2 more raised beds. It's not time to plant tomatoes yet, and today it's snowing. I miss my garden in the Napa Valley. Sigh.

So far, my garden is a roughly 10' x 10' square of dirt. Last weekend I hired a hippie boy with a Ron Paul sticker on his rototiller (my friend said, WTF? Does he think he'll be rototilling away and someone else with a rototiller is going to come up behind him and see his bumper sticker and go, wow, I should really check out that Ron Paul guy?) to come break the sod for me. Then I dug a bunch of mushroom compost and manure into it and left it alone. This Saturday I'm going shopping for seedlings and planting the whole thing at the same time - starts and seeds - so that I don't (theoretically) get all confused like I usually do and plant stuff on top of other stuff. Green beans, corn, tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, cucumbers, basil, cilantro, possibly some gourds and whatever cool stuff I find at the herb festival and the botanical gardens plant sale, both of which are Saturday. And then meanwhile I'm devising a clever way to keep the damn dogs out of the plants on the deck (and trying to figure out a trellis for a moonflower vine) and potting petunias & geraniums for that and planting the prettiest shade tolerant things (impatiens, generally, and fuchsia) I can find in the front of the house.

mudpuppie, have you made this with your favas? teh YUM! favas are like bean crack.

I've been inspired to think about starting a garden myself lately! It seems like getting a raised bed is the way to go. Any suggestions for a first-timer in terms of what to plant in SoCal this time of year?

You get to see if anything is growing there now.

It's sort of overgrown with trees and shrubs in the front and side yards, (including a lilac tree! huzza!) and bland, boring lawn in the back. Fuck lawns. That's going to be mostly replaced by raised beds and chickens by next summer.

Does he think he'll be rototilling away and someone else with a rototiller is going to come up behind him and see his bumper sticker and go, wow, I should really check out that Ron Paul guy?

ahahahahaha! Awesome.

Scody, here's a planting calendar for SoCal.

If you do tomatoes and peppers, get starts, not seeds. Too late for seeds.

I'm planting strawberries, mint, sage, passionfruit and eggplants... I'm too vain (?!) for too many veggies in the front yard, and don't have a backyard here.

This one house gave us one perfect little pumpkin when we moved in. Another place had crazy mushroom action in the back.
i hate lawns. i wanted to put down a marble dust path or something scrounged from headstone places at one, but the whole thing was carpeted in violets, so i plucked off their little heads and candied them.

mudpuppie, thanks!

dersins, enjoy your lilac tree! Nothing like the scent of fresh lilacs...

I wish I could have chickens, but I do have a larger yard, and a lot more sunny area than in the old house. The yard was full of cigarette butts and litter, and the soil is not likely to be in good shape. But I should be able to have some sort of garden. I'll probably still use the containers I already have for cherry tomatoes and whatever else strikes my fancy. There was a hard frost last night; won't be planting anytime soon.

I did win a plant in an Earth Day contest. I chose a lovely poppy.

i loved that when i lived westward irises and poppies grew everywhere.

I have just a few pots of herbs outside - rosemary, mint, parsley, dill, thyme, sage and oregano. Inside on the kitchen windowsill I have basil and - yes! - cilantro.

But the cilantro is hard to keep alive. It just withers away and dies, whether inside or out.

I asked a colleague at work who grows a lot of vegetables what he would do with cilantro. "I'd take a flame-thrower to it", he said, "I hate the stuff." Bah!

So, any tips on how to grow cilantro? I thought it'd be as easy as parsley, which Will Not Die, but it's far more delicate.

jan: Cilantro seems to thrive better in hot, dry conditions; maybe it'll take off when you get warmer weather. This seems to be in keeping with its prevalence in mainly hot climate cuisines.

Back when I lived in Ohio, the cilantro would start really thriving just as the parsley was getting a tad brown around the edges from sunburn. It grows like gangbusters here in Colorado as long as you can water it enough.

eth, iris is basically a weed that should and will grow almost anywhere. It even readily volunteers / spreads out here in desertville, assuming an irrigated yard. Get some corms and hope you don't have squirrels.

I'm renting in Portland, with the hope to buy soon, so I've got everything in containers to come with me when I move. But our backyard is south facing and there's a nice big bank of windows facing it too so I can start everything very nicely inside. I just harvested my first arugula, and I'll have a red romaine type lettuce ready for harvesting soon too. My tomatoes are still teensy things only on secondary leaves.

I'm most excited about 8 ball squash (because you can scoop out the insides and stuff them and unlike Mitch Hedberg I love food that acts as plate/container), three onion varieties, tomatoes of course!, and the only non-food: these crazy things.

That backyard is huge, dersins! How awesome and lucky!

Oh, actually, I have a question. I can't remember the variety, but I have a one year old blueberry plant that the leaves seem to be turning reddish/purplish. Google searches indicate that this is not good, but mine's otherwise thriving. It's not dying, and there are actually new buds. Please somebody tell me it's okay and I don't have to do anything insane to save it? Please please.

Thanks lfr. I'm probably overwatering it.

Yeah, cilantro likes heat. You might be able to do it in a greenhouse planter, but even that is a big Maybe.

In now: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, pole beans, cucumber, lettuce, parsley, basil, mint, muscadines, pumpkins, cantalope, watermelon, cilantro, oregano, mexican oregano, thyme, and I'm probably forgetting something. We already harvested all of the existing lettuce, spinach, chard, turnips, and kale.

We have several raised beds and other tilled areas, adding up to about 150 sqare feet. A few weeks ago, we lasagnaed the garden with compost, newspapers, cardboard, and purchased topsoil; we'll mulch once the lettuce seeds sprout. We're going to try raising the summer lettuce under floating row covers for the first time--wish us luck!

Our cilantro is unpredictable--one year it's overabundant, and we're making cilantro pesto. The next year, it just never thrives (yes, way unlike parsely, which actually survived the winter). I don't know the pattern, unfortunately.

Oh, and we seeded a bunch of white and crimson clover on our lawn, and it's really taking over. Boo grass!

Tips on growing cilantro.

Other things I've recalled in the 7+ years since I had a garden with it growing:

1) It is not a long-lived herb. It is an annual that re-seeds itself.

2) It bolts as soon as the soil temps get above 75°; or in 6 weeks, whichever comes earliest. Just keep re-seeding it.

3) Don't disturb the taproot when you transplant it. Actually, it's better not to transplant it at all. Sow the seeds directly in loose soil and mulch the roots a bit to shade them if you have direct, hot sun on the location.

beyond that we never cared when it bolted as we re-seeded it and it re-seeded itself, plus seeds = fresh coriander spice! I do recall someone telling me early on that it's very short-lived. Kind of like spring mix lettuces.

I've got my spinach and lettuce in their bed. Tomatoes, cukes, zukes, peppers and beans are started and waiting to go in. I'll probably plant them and my corn and carrot seeds next week. This is our first try at corn. I'm worried the deer will eat it all.

I love my garden.

This means that the ideal cilantro growing conditions are cool but sunny.

Huh, guess I was way off. It's been a long time since I had a garden with cilantro in it.

We have two raised beds, plus a pea trellis and a raspberry trellis.

We replaced the raspberry canes this spring, since the other ones seemed tapped out.

We usually grow about 5 tomato plants, 5 or 6 pepper plants, a buttload of basil, on one bed. The shady bed gets kale, lettuce, broccoli, and anything else on a whim.

I have ongoing thyme, rosemary, oregano, sage, chives, and mint. Tarragon gets replaced every year and does not do that well but I insist on it for salad dressings.

Lots of flowers interspersed.

You should be growing cilantro where it will get early morning or late afternoon sun, but be shaded during the hottest part of the day.

The area outside my back door is perfect, but it's obviously still too cold here. Hopefully the windowsill will do for now.

Front yard: The sun garden (daffodils, daylilies, sundial) is still blooming with daffodils. The border in front of the center of the house, which I've deepened to about 6-7 feet, has the beginnings of yellow and pink hollyhock, purple malva, coneflower (mostly pink, a little yellow) and perennial sweet pea, with some little bits of lamb's ears and dianthus. Some yarrow will join this soon.

To the right of this border as you face the house is a rock garden by the front porch, and to the left is the herb garden (mad with mint and oregano for the most part, with some sorrel, garlic chives, tarragon, and burnet starting to catch their own, and some newbie lovage, parsley and mitsuba hanging on.)

On the left side of the house is a shady garden with mostly dame's rocket, bleeding heart, perennial geranium, violets, and columbine. Then in the side yard is a small water feature (stream/pond/overflow) which holds vietnamese coriander and watercress and has much applemint planted around it, a birdie island with some sweet violet starts and bee balm.

At the southwest corner of the yard (front and far left) is the new kitty garden (catnips and catmints, cat thyme, pussy toes, and cat claw grass waiting for a pussy willow) and at the northwest corner of the yard is the moon (white) garden, just north and east of the raised beds and jerusalem artichoke. Raised beds are currently just lettuce and peas, but next week will get tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and basil in one bed, beans and cukes with the lettuces, and squash and more squash in the middle bed, with flowers planted all around. At the back fence is tall grasses and more hollyhock.

On the north border of the house is lilies and ferns (trying to encourage more ferns; having trouble keeping them happy!) and on the northeast corner is the rose garden, which also has feverfew and chives.

Most stuff is really small, although the chives are really tall! Oh yes, and there are peonies hedging the front of the yard.

Big yard, tiny house, decrepit garage. I love it.

I'm pretty sure I have grown cilantro with success many times. Maybe it was in the cooler months, but for some reason, I don't think it was.

Anyway, I have several tomato plants, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, eggplant, and ton of herbs. I'm keeping it light this year as far as edibles go. I'm feeling kind of lazy.

I am envious. A late start to spring combined with not having a job until very recently means that I'm still at the propagation stage; my bathroom windowsill is filled with peat pots containing japanese cucumber, basil, catnip, watermelon (the delightful moon-and-stars variety), and tomatoes (bloody butcher, opalka, and amish paste).

Hopefully next weekend I'll have time to prep the backyard; it's pretty weedy, but I want to try the sheet-mulch method. Hopefully in a couple months I'll be bothering y'all with flickr sets of my delicious veggies!

I am so jealous. This summer will be the first in ten years I'll not have a garden. Someone needs to do a followup thread with photos in a few weeks.

I'll have some photos in a few weeks, -t, don't be jealous. You have to care for the garden!

Which is kind of pleasurable, I'll admit. There's something about being with the plants and coffee in the very early morning. Picking weeds and inspecting things. It's good for the mental health.

Do you have room for a container garden, -t?

God, this thread is making me sick with envy. We've just bought a house (yay us!) with a huge yard front and back so I'll be planting away shortly. But it's going on Winter here so most stuff will have to wait a while. I suspect I'll be doing a lot of drainage and bed-creating.

Seeing as camellias grow really well here, I'm going to plant a camellia sinensis hedge along one fence coz we drink a LOT of green tea. I also have enough space for one big tree only and I think I might plant an olive. Even if I don't get any damn olives, they're really pretty trees.

In the back there's a bit of a vegge garden already, so I've got plans to expand that and go nuts with tomatoes and such. And the little bit of grass at the front is in danger of being torn up and replaced with a thyme or chamomile lawn. Mowing that will be brilliant!! Everywhere else will be as many herbs as I can fit in.

We move in two weeks. I can't wait.

Man that sounds like great fun. How does a community garden work? do you water your own stuff? What if somebody swipes your tomatoes?

Yeah, you basically rent a little portion of a much larger piece of land. The entire community garden is probably about 4 acres. You're responsible for watering and maintenance, but there are some tools provided for community use (and the water's free). Because it's been a garden for so long, the soil is really workable, which is nice.

I've heard different stories about veggie theft. Some people say it happens, but only when people wander in off the street. Other old-timers have said that that's exaggeration. I'm waiting to see.

Cool house, dersins! I was going to suggest the lasagne approach to your raised beds, but mrmoonpie beat me to it. Creating beds out of lawns sucks, and sucks hard. And not in a good way.

I, too, am rampantly envious of so many wonderful-sounding gardens, and demand pictures. Since I'm leaving at the end of the month, there's not much point in doing anything with the garden here. However, I have designs on BitterOldPunk's patio, which I have been encouraged to fill with pots of good things. I know absolutely nothing about growing in the South, though, and hope the beginning of June isn't too late. Actually, I just talked to a woman who wants to hire me to help plant her market garden, but my rate's probably too high (it's less than I charge for painting but more than the going rate for grunt garden work, but I'll be taking days off from a painting job to do it). I did say I'd love the work, not because I need it at the moment, thank fuck, but because not gardening is driving me nuts right now, and it would be great to spend a few days helping to set up that kind of garden. Also, she says that she's heard that I work very hard and know what I'm doing, so she's still considering bringing me in--that kind of feedback in a word-of-mouth community makes me so happy.

Ambrosia Voyeur, just in case--you do know not to plant mint straight into the ground, right? Unless you want a yard full of mint, of course. But of course you do. It's my frustrated gardener telling everyone else what to do.

I'll go back to quietly envying everyone.

DAMN BUNNIES ATE UP ALL THE BEANS I PLANTED LAST WEEK! THERE ARE HOLES IN EVER LITTLE AREA I PLANTED THEM! IT'S LIKE THEY HAD RADAR! MOTHER F-ERS! NOW I WANT HASENPFEFFER!

OH SHIT, I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO BE MEAN TO BUNNIES HERE! FUCK!

C'mon, your name is "stewriffic." We knew your evil hasenpfeffer tendencies.. we knew.

heh.

Jan, I have been growing corriander for the past two months in the porch (in West Yorkshire). Bearing in mind that it has been close to freezing at night and less than 10C during the day, I was suprised that the corriander has been doing so well. I put it out about a month ago and sme of the leaves went red! Never seen that before. It is back in the porch now, but I think I'll pop it outside now the frost is definately over and the sun is baking it in the porch.

Previously, I have had no joy growing corriander outside during the summer as it bolted immediately. We grow alot of corriander in Yorkshire and it is very cheap to buy as a result, so I don't need to worry about my crop too much.

So my experience agrees with lonfrontranger to a large extent.

Not much, yet. And it's a good thing, since we had a pretty hard frost earlier this week that tried to take my tulips but I saved them. *shakes fist at frost*

But, coming up are a bunch of onions; I planted them close so I can take every other for scallions and let the others grow big. Potatoes are in, but not sprouting yet though I check them every day. Black-seeded simpson leaf lettuce is just coming up. I got a late start this year, and it's been very wet and cold, and I've been busy with inside work getting the house ready for baby.

So, this weekend - more rain. But after my trip to Chicago next week, I am hoping to come back and get the following in the ground; going pretty basic this year:
- six or so tomato plants
- two zuchinni plants
- basil, one or two
- chives, if I can find 'em
- two or so cucumber plants
- lots of Derby beans, early because later in the summer the bugs get them (*shakes fist at bugs that eat my beans*)
- two or three jalapeno plants
- more lettuce