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If you do gardening in your retirement, tell us about it. What do you grow? What flowers and what vegetables? And what is the size of your garden?
Gardening can bring such pleasure! Every year I have a container garden on my balcony - 11 or 12 large containers full of morning glory vines which cover the entire 5 foot railing front & side. They are so beautiful, and such fun to see their progress. I also usually have three containers of beautiful impatiens of various colors.
I plant the morning glory vines from seeds - which adds to the fun - heavenly blue with heart-shaped vine leaves are one of my faves, but I have lots of different colors of morning glories.
Last edited by matisse12; 06-10-2017 at 03:23 PM..
Oh I do want to read this thread. I haven't been able to have a garden for decades, and I'm looking forward to finally getting down into the dirt to grown my own veggies. Tomatoes, spinach, beans, peas, broccoli,.....
And Lilac bushes! I ache for them, and haven't had them since childhood.
<sitting down here to live vicariously until I can get a plot of land to cultivate>
I used to grow all kinds of veggies, but now I stick to tomatoes.
I'm using raised beds now cuz it is easier and cleaner. No weeding. I add a new bag of potting soil to each bed each spring.
Since I am not going to can, I have so many tomatoes that it is hard to give them away.
So when I was out there this morning, I decided that I'm going to go back to a variety of veggies, so I can give them away easier. I like giving them out. I figure a small plot of corn and even the dreaded eggplant. Nothing that vines too much.
I do container gardening at my townhouse. Geraniums, morning glories, mandavilla vines, ferns, and succulents. Most won't last the winter but that's okay. I try new pots each spring. I also have three birdbaths. The HOA landscaper does the grass and shrubs.
I like flowers that attract hummingbirds, so my garden is filled with cigar plants and lavender. I have apricot and plum trees plus lots of roses across the back of my yard near the fence. I had a really difficult spring with weeds….more than I’ve ever had before and such a variety (including one that had big thorns), probably due to the large amount of rain we had this year. The weeds are mostly under control now except for one section.
I’d love to have raised flower beds, it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a few years.
So glad that many retirees have more time to enjoy gardening. But not for me! I'm afraid I was permanently turned off to yard work and gardening as a child when my harsh and demanding father made me do too much of it. When I was about 10 I wanted to play cowboys and indians and other games with the neighborhood kids on weekends, but no, I had to "work" in the yard and in the family vegetable garden. Must admit the home-grown tomatoes tasted wonderful! But I sure was jealous of the other kids.
I used to grow all kinds of veggies, but now I stick to tomatoes.
I'm using raised beds now cuz it is easier and cleaner. No weeding. I add a new bag of potting soil to each bed each spring.
Since I am not going to can, I have so many tomatoes that it is hard to give them away.
So when I was out there this morning, I decided that I'm going to go back to a variety of veggies, so I can give them away easier. I like giving them out. I figure a small plot of corn and even the dreaded eggplant. Nothing that vines too much.
Please explain the raised beds. How high are they off the ground to avoid weeds?
I live in the Phoenix area and we have several gardening "seasons" here, which makes it interesting. We are still in our house, so plenty of room to garden. However I mostly concentrate on our front yard and about 18 potted plants on the front patio/courtyard. We have doggies in the back and sometimes they go after our drip [sprinkler] lines, so it is easier to keep everything running in the front, without the dogs. Right now, I have blue plumbago blooming away, intertwined with pale orange trumpet vine [that was a boo-boo, wrong color tag in pot when I bought it - which is why I now will only buy something in bloom to make sure about the color!!] but actually looks pretty good. Lantanas and roses are blooming, gazanias in lilac, orange, and yellow, Mexican daisies, and lots of sunflowers. Plus elephant food and purple heart, and myroporum ground cover, and along with some Mexican primrose. This is our driest time of the year so it is hot and discouraging out there, but it will get better when we get some summer thunderstorms. I do have some back issues these days, so frequent breaks are necessary. I basically just let it bloom at this time of the year. We will downsize someday and that will be another story, I suppose....
I only rent a little tiny house by the ocean now and the "soil" is just sand. However, I did add a lot of compost and I make my own compost now that I've lived here for a while.
Along the side of the house I have rose bushes (NEVER plant Rugosa rose near the ocean as it becomes like an octopus and is invasive!), some perennials that I planted the first year and can't remember what they are, some oriental lilies, a few sunflowers from the seeds leftover from the birds this past winter. I planted a lilac bush and I have a few pots of tomatoes and a row of beets. I have one parsley plant.
Along by the porch for "shrubs" to grow in sand, I planted the succulent, Sedum Autumn Joy instead of trying to get a real shrub to grow here. Right now I have a pot of pansies in full bloom by the front porch but in tomorrow's heat, they'll die. I'll replace that with the geraniums that I keep in the house in winter. I also have nasturtiums but they aren't big enough yet to flower--some in a pot and some in the ground. And I found a leftover morning glory, Heavenly Blue that somehow survived the winter. It's in a little pot until I figure out what to do with it.
When I first moved here I tried window boxes on the front of the house but it was too hard to get out daily and water them--too lazy, I guess.
Meh. We live on a golf course with an open back fence so there are all kinds of rules.
I container garden veggies and herbs, with varying degrees of success.
We have Indian Ginger and Ti leaves which I love and look nice in the house, Birds of Paradise...
As I have gotten older I am very heat intolerant, only 50 but 85 degrees and 80 humidity makes me feel like I am going to melt.
Some of the best tomatoes I got were dropped randomly from a bird.... very resistant to local mildews (white and black) and gave thousands of tiny, tasty tomatoes.
I've been trying to grow heirlooms because they are more nutritious, BUT I suspect I should be picking up seeds that thrive in Hawaii from the University.
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