What did you do in the garden today?

[Beekissed]

@Beekissed Do you inter plant the flowers with your vegetables? I love to add the marigolds, and I also like Cosmos too. Good for insects, and I think marigolds repel nematodes. Not to mention that they are beautiful.

I do! This year I'm using more marigolds than I've ever used before and also added a lot of zinnias, along with a few wildflowers....mostly calendula, a few Black Eyed Susans have come back as well. I'm hoping the marigolds repel pests but they also really take off towards late summer/early fall for a great show of color there as the rest of the garden is usually dying off.

I've got marigolds evenly spaced beneath all my trellises for tomatoes, cukes and beans, as well as planted around my squash and pumpkin hills.

The other flowers are for pretty and for attracting pollinators.

 

[MoonShadows]

I love wild flowers. I have one flat of picotee, dazzler and wild cosmos growing in my greenhouse along with 4 colors of zinnias and 4 colors of cornflowers. They are almost ready to move outside at 3-4 inches each. I also planted flats of marigolds, dwarf sunflowers, black eyed susans, ox eyed and gloriosa daisies which are still a bit small for transplanting. I bought the seeds online at Vermont Wild Flowers. I want to collect seeds from them this year so I don't have to buy them next year. I also have to get one of those little hand seed dispensers. Some of these seeds are so small!

 

[Beekissed]

That's what I plan to do this year also...collect the seeds. On zinnias, BES, calendula and marigolds that's ridiculously easy and, considering what they charge for a packet of a tiny amount of seeds, it's a good move.

We should have a thread on here for seed swapping, don't you think? A lot of forums have them and folks can sign up if they want to be a part of a seed "ring", sort of a like a community swap meet at the end of the season. I have TONS of pumpkin and watermelon seeds that one has to pay a big price for 10 of if ordering out of the seed catalog or even buying in packets in the store.

Anyone wanting Moon and Stars watermelon seeds and Rouge Vif D Etampes seeds, I have big envelopes full. And both of those things grow like they are on springs....those pumpkins will put a vine out 25-30 ft. long with pumpkins all along it and water sprouts down into the soil sucking up nutrients.

A few of the bigger Rouge pumpkins...30 lbs and 25 lbs. I just had two plants of these but they put out vines all over, climbed the fences, climbed ladders, etc.

A few of the 15 Moon and Stars my son grew in his tiny BTE garden from 5 watermelon plants....these were HUGELY heavy, tasted like watermelon should, though they have scads of seeds. Those vines took over his little garden and he had melons hanging off his fences and just everywhere!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I got a bag of peat yesterday to put in with the sand for the dust bath area and it's a huge bag so thought I'd use it in with my tomatoes and pepper plants any one use peat humus? Looks like great stuff.
Still a little nervous about setting plants out yet even though we're in low 80's for this week lows in the 50's still. Be nice if the temps stayed like this for the summer. No air conditioning here in these mountains.

 

[sumi]

Beekissed, I'd take some of those pumpkin seeds from you in a heartbeat. I can't get decent pumpkins here, only the soft ones they sell for Halloween and then only prior to the day. And they cost a lot of money.

I wish I could grow watermelon here, but I doubt it will in this climate...

 

[Miss Lydia]

I saw water melon for sale yesterday for 5.99 each small too.
Pretty water melon and Pumpkins!

 

[Mini Horses]

We should have a thread on here for seed swapping, don't you think? A lot of forums have them and folks can sign up if they want to be a part of a seed "ring", sort of a like a community swap meet at the end of the season.

I would love that.

Sometimes we only want a few seeds of "something" and often a challenge to look, find, etc.

We could post "I have" & "I want" items.

 

[sumi]

That a hint, @Mini Horses? Sure, we can do that, if there is enough interest.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I think it's a great idea!

 

[Britesea]

Love the idea of seed swaps!