Gardening

[gothwalk]

I want to plant things outside this year, have them grow, and then eat them. I'm willing to invest quite some effort in the planting and the eating, but as I can't be relied upon to remember their existence in between, something tough is probably advisable. I'll be planting in window-box sized things, since there's a lawn and flowerbeds out back that the landlady probably won't want us to dig up. Assume I know absolutely nothing about plants (which isn't too far from the truth).

So, what can I grow? All advice gratefully accepted.

Comments

[mr-flay.livejournal.com]

Hardy and edible? Make tea out of nettles. Just be careful when you pick them...

[graylion.livejournal.com]

nettles get seriously toxic after about May - don't go there.

[mr-flay.livejournal.com]

It may not have been entirely apparent from my tone, but it was most definitely a suggestion made on the assumption that it would not be taken up. My knowledge of plants, and edible ones in particular, is laughably small.

[graylion.livejournal.com]

*g* but the thing is - young nettles are actually rather yummy, hence the warning.

[caturah.livejournal.com]

At one point, half my back garden was taken up by rows of carrots, radishs, a few lettuce, peas (I love shelling peas and refuse to eat frozen), cabbage and spuds. For the size of your garden, I'd say dark green leafy stuff is out, for the sheer size it takes up. Saying that though, you could throw a few spuds down the bottom of the garden, and have a few spuds back by the end of the summer thanks to the near zero maintenance they require. So I'd suggest more "salad-y" type vegs, onions, carrots, radishes, garlic (as desired) as those type take up less room but give a good yield.

[graylion.livejournal.com]

there is a kind of lettuce that grows on stalks and can be harvested more at leisure (I remember reading this in a German gardening book - darned if I know hwat it's called).

I second the tomatoes and the spuds and the herbs - especially the latter. fresh herbs are incomparable and the best use of space.

I'll add a laurel, but be sure to get the right kind. irish garden centers tend to sell you the wrong variety while claiming that it was bay leaf. that decorative laurel not only tastes somewhat off but also is slightly toxic.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Woody herbs, like thyme, lavender and rosemary, all grow fairly well without intervention (aside from a bit of watering in a real hot spell) and will also grow in pretty much any soil.

[silja.livejournal.com]

Tomatoes are easy to grow and need very little care. Cucumbers or some types of pumpkins are good too, though the later need a long growing season. Carrots are good, but not if you have mice in the area, which will eat them underground.

[gnimmel.livejournal.com]

ISTR tomatoes are sensitive to the cold, though; various members of my family used to grow them, but only in warm, sheltered corners or in greenhouses (in the South of England). Having put a potato in a pot outside and forgotten about it, only to find out much later on that it had produced innumerable little potatoes, I can vouch for their hardiness, and ISTR relatives growning carrots, cauliflowers, cabbages &c outside without too much fuss. Slugs, caterpillars and so on become a problem with anything leafy. We've also found wild mint growing out of control in the garden even though we didn't plant any, so that clearly thrives without intervention....

[wyvernfriend.livejournal.com]

Many many herbs are easy to grow and you can get multi-tier things that grow several simultaneously - which failed on me cause herbs seem to need more watering than I do 8(.

Beware of Mint anything, it is pervasive and will overgrow gardens, this includes lemon Verbena!

Basil is a doddle to grow provided you water, thyme a bit harder, rosemary likes very little soil...

[graylion.livejournal.com]

mint only in a pot!

BTW anybody wants int - come harvest our front garden ;-)

[ailbhe]

Nasturtiums!

Beware of mint and lemon verbena.

We generally have strawberries, blackberries, nasturtiums, chives, lemon verbena, mint, more lemon verbena, more mint, and a bunch of stuff killed off by a superabundance of lemon verbena and mint. But nasturtiums are great. This year I'm planting marigolds too.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be doing this too, I hope. Try googling "container gardening". There are a bunch of websites that look good. (Someone had to tell me the name for this kind of thing, because I had no idea. There may be a different name over where you are, but I dunno.)

[ragnvaeig.livejournal.com]

Potatoes are way easy to grow, as are zucchini. Tomatoes would take a greenhouse. Onions and garlic are easy to sprout, but I don't know about care/feeding. Certain varieties of peas would work well here. Rosemary tends to be quite hardy, but mints and lemon verbena (and other invasive plants) should be popped into their own containers as they tend to take over and crowd things. Am more of a herb girl, myself.

I'd consult Burpee's website at www.garden.com on what would grow where. My best guess is that Ireland's climate would approximate with "Zone 6" in America.