I once tried an experiment where I dumped my compost bucket directly into a raised bed in the greenhouse all winter. Around Christmas time things started sprouting and I just let it grow to see what would happen. I had all these things you mentioned growing in a mini food forest with “volunteer” tomatoes climbing up the adjoining trellis that produced wonderfully early fruit that spring. Because of that, I have lovely beds of ginger and turmeric growing now. Great experience and great reminder!
-- TIEING UP SPREADING ROSES, WATERING, SHAPING ORNAMENTALS, & TREES, SPREADING SEEDS, & PLANTING FLOWERS, LANDSCAPING WITH LEFT OVER ROCKS, MOVING INDOOR PLANTS OUTDOORS AS TOLERATED, -- NEED TO REPOT TO LARGER POTS, BUY OBTAIN LARGER POTS, PROVIDE SOME EXCESS TO NEiGHBORS, ... SUNSHINE, SUNSHINE & WATER, WATER, WATER -- G R E E N L I F E , AND, HUGE YELLOW TALL FLOWERS ...... ...!!!
Ditto to all the compliments already stated. Your knowledge of gardening is enviable and comprehensive for your young age. Did your parents garden? I’ve transplanted strawberries I got from my neighbor in upper Illinois. The plants all look like they survived! 8 plants in my 4X8 raised bed, 8 right next to it in the garden.
My parent's didn't garden, but when I was young I visited my grandmother's garden and it was so inspiring. She only grew flowers, nothing edible, but I wanted to grow tasty things. (Kids think with their stomach.) I asked to start my own garden when I was about 8, and my dad borrowed a tiller and made me a 40 ft by 40 ft patch to play in. I grew in that patch every year until I left for college, and learned SO MUCH....but gardening in zone 9 where the sun always shines is easy mode. It was a great place to start for a kid, but now here I am in zone 4, and I had to re-learn it all =)
The flower stalk uses up energy from the rhubarb plant and it'll produce less edible stalks this season if you let it flower. If you chop it off, it'll put more energy into growing more stalks.
But, chopping it off is totally optional, and mostly just impacts yield (not the quality of the other rhubarb you harvest).
They make beautiful sprays of flowers, and the bees love them, and then they'll turn into rhubarb seed.
We have so many rhubarb plants that I don't break off the flower stalks anymore. We harvest around 100 lbs or rhubarb and you can hardly tell. Crazy productive patch. I don't need those plants to conserve energy, and they can seed all they want and feed the bees.
Hi, not sure if I'm misreading part of the post. You say "sprouted potatoes shouldn’t be eaten as they start to produce toxins when they go green. But a few sentences later say Sprouted potatoes are especially useful, and you harvested a bunch from sprouted pantry potatoes. Thanks for all your hard work on the blog, I really appreciate all the things I can learn.
Once potatoes sprout, they turn green and start growing. When actively growing (and green) they produce toxins that prevent digestion. Potato leaves produce these toxins too, as do all the "green" parts of a potato plant. You shouldn't eat green potatoes. However, you can plant them and let them grow, and then harvest the potatoes they produce at the end of the season. Those won't be growing, and they won't be green. They'll be normal potatoes (until they're stored for a while, then they turn green and sprout...and the cycle starts again).
This is different from sprouted onions and sprouted garlic, because with those you can eat the whole onion plant or whole garlic plant, leaves and all. They never produce toxins, so if you have sprouted garlic or onions in your pantry you can still chop them up and eat them, green sprouts and all. (Or, you can plant them, either way.)
No worries Dana! (And were were all awkward newbies at some point. I'm an awkward newbie at so many things right now, it just means we're out there learning new skills!
Hello Ashley, new to your site. I have used your recommendations now and then some with great success through my years. Myself I am currently finishing up making a Long Langstroth hive box for bees I should get this month.
Nice! I built one at a "hive building" class quite a few years ago and it was a fun project. Enjoy it, and enjoy the bees even more. They're such a pleasure to watch =)
This I hope will be a success as I have tried numerous times before. First time with top bar hive again made myself. Results good then later not so good but have learned a lot from trial and error over the years. Just can’t seem to throw in the towel completely and give up.
I'm a senior and I love reading about gardening. Today you really had a hit with me. I am looking forward to trying ginger and turmeric. Your articles are always a treat no matter the topic. Thank you.
Thank you! I so love all the wonderful information and tips that you share. I'm going to give spring garlic a try as my fall harvest is beginning to sprout. The fall planting is looking very happy even though we are getting snow here in Michigan!!!
Nice! I hope it works out for you. For us short season people, sometimes it takes 2 years to get nice full bulbs when they're planted in May. The hot climate people get away with it easier planting in march and then still get bulbs the same year.
Loved this post! This year I am using a couple of 3' x 5' waist-high beds just for regrowing vegetables. Right now, I have onion, scallion, and celery growing well and I'm trying to get some escarole to regrow. I also have my "edible invasive weed garden" in containers: lamb's quarters and wild onion are looking good.
In my conventional raised beds I have peas, spinach, chard, tomatoes, and beans planted. A few beets as well. My over-wintered garlic is looking great, but we will see: I got some help relocating all my beds and the garlic had to be transplanted. Also, the weather ran warm and cold this winter, not sure if the garlic had enough dormancy to produce nice, healthy bulbs. At least I can count on some terrific scapes.
Like I mentioned above, I moved my garden beds to make the best use of space; as a result I will be able to add two new 4' x 8' beds. I have a perimeter of raspberries and blackberries at the edge of my woods.
I have planted some jalapeno seeds, but I also treated myself and sent for some starts. I used one of your recipes for pickling my surplus jalapenos last year and it was the BEST EVER! My husband doesn't like pickled anything and even he liked them. I have used the last of them and I am going through withdrawal!
Oh, will I be notified when it's time to renew my subscription? I feel like it should be coming up soon.
I have grown lots of potatoes and veggies from food bank stuff. These were potatoes, tomatoes, sun Chokes, garlic and others I. These were food too far gone to give to people so I picked it up for free and "composted" it. What grew I harvested and the rest became awesome organic dirt. Mac Donald's also saved coffee grounds for me for my compost. Nursing homes would save the leftover foods for my neighbour to feed her pigs. Grocery stores would give her milk past date and bread to her pigs also
I have since moved from Washington state to missuri. They don't seem so eager here to give that stuff away.
Sunchokes (or Jerusalem Artichokes) can be found at farmer's markets. They grow great small-head, but tall-stalk sunflowers. Unfortunately, I discovered that if you have a weak digestive tract they're very disrupting, either raw or cooked.
They're very knobby. When you prepare them, cut off the knobs and plant them. I always put my cuttings in a container over the winter and planted them in the spring. I still have a container I'm debating about planting just for the flowers. The problem is the bulbs proliferate every year if left in the ground.
I once tried an experiment where I dumped my compost bucket directly into a raised bed in the greenhouse all winter. Around Christmas time things started sprouting and I just let it grow to see what would happen. I had all these things you mentioned growing in a mini food forest with “volunteer” tomatoes climbing up the adjoining trellis that produced wonderfully early fruit that spring. Because of that, I have lovely beds of ginger and turmeric growing now. Great experience and great reminder!
Nice!
-- TIEING UP SPREADING ROSES, WATERING, SHAPING ORNAMENTALS, & TREES, SPREADING SEEDS, & PLANTING FLOWERS, LANDSCAPING WITH LEFT OVER ROCKS, MOVING INDOOR PLANTS OUTDOORS AS TOLERATED, -- NEED TO REPOT TO LARGER POTS, BUY OBTAIN LARGER POTS, PROVIDE SOME EXCESS TO NEiGHBORS, ... SUNSHINE, SUNSHINE & WATER, WATER, WATER -- G R E E N L I F E , AND, HUGE YELLOW TALL FLOWERS ...... ...!!!
Sounds like heaven!
-- JUST A CONDO ..!! I NEED
LAND, WATER, STREAMS,
TREES, ... HELP - I’M GETTING
OLDER .... !!!!
Ditto to all the compliments already stated. Your knowledge of gardening is enviable and comprehensive for your young age. Did your parents garden? I’ve transplanted strawberries I got from my neighbor in upper Illinois. The plants all look like they survived! 8 plants in my 4X8 raised bed, 8 right next to it in the garden.
My parent's didn't garden, but when I was young I visited my grandmother's garden and it was so inspiring. She only grew flowers, nothing edible, but I wanted to grow tasty things. (Kids think with their stomach.) I asked to start my own garden when I was about 8, and my dad borrowed a tiller and made me a 40 ft by 40 ft patch to play in. I grew in that patch every year until I left for college, and learned SO MUCH....but gardening in zone 9 where the sun always shines is easy mode. It was a great place to start for a kid, but now here I am in zone 4, and I had to re-learn it all =)
Awesome tips. Question for you- my rhubarb is throwing up flowers, bolting. Should I just cut off the bloom stalks? This is the second year plant..
The flower stalk uses up energy from the rhubarb plant and it'll produce less edible stalks this season if you let it flower. If you chop it off, it'll put more energy into growing more stalks.
But, chopping it off is totally optional, and mostly just impacts yield (not the quality of the other rhubarb you harvest).
They make beautiful sprays of flowers, and the bees love them, and then they'll turn into rhubarb seed.
We have so many rhubarb plants that I don't break off the flower stalks anymore. We harvest around 100 lbs or rhubarb and you can hardly tell. Crazy productive patch. I don't need those plants to conserve energy, and they can seed all they want and feed the bees.
So really, it depends on your goals.
Here's some information on rhubarb seed, and I just looked...I don't have good pictures of the beautiful flowers they make in there. I'll try to remedy that this year: https://practicalselfreliance.com/growing-rhubarb-from-seed/
Hi, not sure if I'm misreading part of the post. You say "sprouted potatoes shouldn’t be eaten as they start to produce toxins when they go green. But a few sentences later say Sprouted potatoes are especially useful, and you harvested a bunch from sprouted pantry potatoes. Thanks for all your hard work on the blog, I really appreciate all the things I can learn.
Good question, I'll clarify...
Once potatoes sprout, they turn green and start growing. When actively growing (and green) they produce toxins that prevent digestion. Potato leaves produce these toxins too, as do all the "green" parts of a potato plant. You shouldn't eat green potatoes. However, you can plant them and let them grow, and then harvest the potatoes they produce at the end of the season. Those won't be growing, and they won't be green. They'll be normal potatoes (until they're stored for a while, then they turn green and sprout...and the cycle starts again).
This is different from sprouted onions and sprouted garlic, because with those you can eat the whole onion plant or whole garlic plant, leaves and all. They never produce toxins, so if you have sprouted garlic or onions in your pantry you can still chop them up and eat them, green sprouts and all. (Or, you can plant them, either way.)
Does that make sense?
Oh, yes, Thank you for the clarification. I understand what you mean now.
Thank you and God bless you for sharing this information us awkward newbies need this
No worries Dana! (And were were all awkward newbies at some point. I'm an awkward newbie at so many things right now, it just means we're out there learning new skills!
Wonderful information! Thank you!
You're quite welcome!
Hello Ashley, new to your site. I have used your recommendations now and then some with great success through my years. Myself I am currently finishing up making a Long Langstroth hive box for bees I should get this month.
Nice! I built one at a "hive building" class quite a few years ago and it was a fun project. Enjoy it, and enjoy the bees even more. They're such a pleasure to watch =)
This I hope will be a success as I have tried numerous times before. First time with top bar hive again made myself. Results good then later not so good but have learned a lot from trial and error over the years. Just can’t seem to throw in the towel completely and give up.
I'm a senior and I love reading about gardening. Today you really had a hit with me. I am looking forward to trying ginger and turmeric. Your articles are always a treat no matter the topic. Thank you.
Nice! So glad it's helpful to you!
Thank you! I so love all the wonderful information and tips that you share. I'm going to give spring garlic a try as my fall harvest is beginning to sprout. The fall planting is looking very happy even though we are getting snow here in Michigan!!!
Nice! I hope it works out for you. For us short season people, sometimes it takes 2 years to get nice full bulbs when they're planted in May. The hot climate people get away with it easier planting in march and then still get bulbs the same year.
I'm interest all adviser
Loved this post! This year I am using a couple of 3' x 5' waist-high beds just for regrowing vegetables. Right now, I have onion, scallion, and celery growing well and I'm trying to get some escarole to regrow. I also have my "edible invasive weed garden" in containers: lamb's quarters and wild onion are looking good.
In my conventional raised beds I have peas, spinach, chard, tomatoes, and beans planted. A few beets as well. My over-wintered garlic is looking great, but we will see: I got some help relocating all my beds and the garlic had to be transplanted. Also, the weather ran warm and cold this winter, not sure if the garlic had enough dormancy to produce nice, healthy bulbs. At least I can count on some terrific scapes.
Like I mentioned above, I moved my garden beds to make the best use of space; as a result I will be able to add two new 4' x 8' beds. I have a perimeter of raspberries and blackberries at the edge of my woods.
I have planted some jalapeno seeds, but I also treated myself and sent for some starts. I used one of your recipes for pickling my surplus jalapenos last year and it was the BEST EVER! My husband doesn't like pickled anything and even he liked them. I have used the last of them and I am going through withdrawal!
Oh, will I be notified when it's time to renew my subscription? I feel like it should be coming up soon.
Love all of the information that you share, Ashley! You are such a wealth of information!! I share your website with anybody that has a like mind.
Rose
I have grown lots of potatoes and veggies from food bank stuff. These were potatoes, tomatoes, sun Chokes, garlic and others I. These were food too far gone to give to people so I picked it up for free and "composted" it. What grew I harvested and the rest became awesome organic dirt. Mac Donald's also saved coffee grounds for me for my compost. Nursing homes would save the leftover foods for my neighbour to feed her pigs. Grocery stores would give her milk past date and bread to her pigs also
I have since moved from Washington state to missuri. They don't seem so eager here to give that stuff away.
I have had no luck zilch not with seeds sprouts. Nothing. I have diy-ed myself to death an make own compost. Ugh
Sunchokes (or Jerusalem Artichokes) can be found at farmer's markets. They grow great small-head, but tall-stalk sunflowers. Unfortunately, I discovered that if you have a weak digestive tract they're very disrupting, either raw or cooked.
They're very knobby. When you prepare them, cut off the knobs and plant them. I always put my cuttings in a container over the winter and planted them in the spring. I still have a container I'm debating about planting just for the flowers. The problem is the bulbs proliferate every year if left in the ground.