What Are You Planting This Spring?
Decatur Metro | March 31, 2014 | 9:59 am
Perhaps you have a backyard garden. Or even a front yard garden!
Decatur also has quite a few community gardens these days. Many of which have substantial waiting lists. There’s the famous Oakhurst Community Garden, but also the Scott Community Garden – located behind the Rec Center at 231 Sycamore St, the Sugar Creek Garden, the Refugee Family Services Farm, the Decatur High School Community Garden, and the Tanyard Community Garden – between Northern Ave and Peavine Creek.
So gardeners, we know you’re out there digging beds and spreading compost! What fruits and vegetables are you planting (or planning on planting) this spring? What grows well for you around here? And what have you had trouble getting to grow?
Tanyard Community Garden photo courtesy of The Decatur Minute
We have a plot at Oakhurst garden and mostly have greens going right now including: Red Acre cabbage, mustard greens, Butter Crunch lettuce, arugula, broccoli, radishes, beets, and kale.
I’ll most likely be planting my butt in a chair, drinking a Sweetwater IPA, and watching my indoor cats freak out over all the squirrel activity.
I’m going to try out that new Ginger Ale plant I’ve seen on the TV.
I have a square foot garden and so far I planted seeds: lettuce, chard, Asian greens, carrots, peas, radishes, cress, beets, parsley, and poppies so far. The greens and peas are doing the best this year. What does best for me varies from year to year.
I am going to try some medicinal herbs like sacred basil this year–I was inspired by Sugar Creek Garden. My yard has a slope coming up from the back of my house that I plan to turn into a herb garden this year.
Also, I have been digging the liriope and ivy out of a flower bed in front of my house and slowly replacing with bushes–so far this year I have put in blueberries and oak leaf hydrangea. I don’t know why anyone planted the English Ivy and liriope in a flower bed in the first place–they are so invasive.
Does Decatur have a garden club for amateur gardeners to get together and exchange wisdom?
Gardening 101! We’ve had Decatur 101 and CSD 101, now Gardening 101!
I went to a Garden Club once when I first moved here eons ago. It seemed to involve tea and snacks and I was very confused. Maybe adding -ing on the Garden is the key to getting a gardening club going.
Cool! I especially love the blueberry bush idea.
You have to keep the soil acidic if you want blueberries to do well. Used coffee grounds mixed into pine bark mulch works well. They get much bigger than you might expect. Mine are getting to seven feet tall and five or six feet in diameter.
Also have apples blooming. Cold killed the bulk of the fig tree.
Will put in onions soon. Had great luck with sweet potatoes, tomatillos, bush beans, pole beans and basil last year. So so success with tomatoes, peppers and watermelon.
I saw the ginger ale plant in the commercial, but decided it looked more like a high fructose corn syrup plant than a ginger plant.
Alas, there are too many trees around that block the sunlight, thus, I am not allowed to have a garden.
Nothing in the ground yet, but my beans and squash seeds are growing well in their peat pots. The pole beans are almost a foot tall, and should fill out the 5 ft. tall lattice within no time after planting. Hope to plant tomatoes over spring break.
Tomatoes, peppers, pole beans, okra and various herbs are on deck. Kentucky Wonder pole beans are the greatest. We got ten feet of very productive growth last year. No squash, melons or cucumbers this year. The Beatles almost gave me apoplexy last year and there are better things to stress about. I need to do some working ornamental plantings as well to lure in the bees. The winter killed one of my rose of Sharons. Thankfully our young fig was in the lee of the chicken coop and only lost a few terminal buds. Anybody out there have a rose of Sharon they see as a weed and would like to donate to Bad Example Estates? Our berry bushes would thank you.
Just chard, spinach, basil and parsley so far, but planning on eggplant, okra, tomatoes and butternut squash. Sunny area is limited, so I am eliminating a little more front lawn each year to make room for edibles. Used to worry about what the neighbors would think, but now many of them are doing the same.
Are there community garden plots available in the Decatur area? I want to grow tomatoes!
Even if you don’t have a yard, you can still grow tomatoes in containers, including heirlooms. The wylde center plant sale, pike, etc can be good sources for variety. Just use a container between 5-15 gallons appropriately sized for the plant and use a good potting soil. I used to grow some on my south-facing balcony in my old condo.
As for me, I’m focusing on heirloom staked/caged plants this year, like tomatoes, peppers, okra, eggplant, etc and researching heirloom spring bulbs (daffodils, tulips, day lilies, etc) to landscape the front next year after we have a retaining wall built. I’ve seen some amazingly addictive websites, like old house gardens, but if anyone knows of good local companies to check out offering similar products, please let me know.
My GS Troop is starting a program to offer free veggies on the purple bus and are looking for gardeners to plant a couple of extra plants this season as extra suppliers. Please email me if you are willing to participate. Collections will be once a week. We are looking for donations from June to Oct. kathysgirlfriday at gmail dot com
We have started seeds and have put herbs and onions in.