Its spring soon in the uk, I doubt it but are any of you lot gardeners lol

Western WA is a great place for growing. I'm a real hack at gardening, but getting there...

Here's shot from a nearby valley- the snowcapped mountain behind the foothills is Mt. Baker

And a closer one of the tulip fields-

Oh- here's one from near where hugobrainz lives, on Vancouver Island...

Butchart Gardens. Outstanding place to visit.

Last edited: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 at 7:30:17 PM

Very nice LGM, I could live there, dont get too much time on my computer spring/summer cause there's always too much to do with our gardens, we don't grow too many flowers but grow all our own vegetables lol

The wife and I have a decent garden. We grow your typical veggies: tomato, pepper, eggplant, sunflower, bean, cuke, herbs, etc..

The key to my garden is making a mulch pile all fall and winter long. We put any veggie skins or waste into a pile to enrich the soil. Works very well. Although, last year we had those rat fink grub worms in our garden and lawn.

My neighbor Frank has a landscaping biz so he does all of our flower and tree planting. He also took care of my grub problem.

We don't plant until mid-April.

Almost forgot, we're trying blueberries this year.

Last edited: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 at 7:32:23 PM

Well,

My job is actually working in the research department of a large seed company making new types of vegetables. I work specifically with melons (Cucumis melo) . So basically I garden a size of land considerable larger than most And I have a few greenhouse to take care of as well. The nice part is in the summer when the fruit is on.. I never have to get a lunch, I just do a little browsing.

Last edited: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 at 8:02:19 PM

If they invent a honeydew melon that doesn't irritate my throat, let me know. I like 'em, but they don't like me...

LGM.. Depends on what type of 'Honeydew" you want. There are thousands of different varieties. Do canteloupes bother you as well? I eat ton's of them every summer and there are many factors that can lead to a bad experience. (i.e. If I pick it and it is just a little unripe... Yum!!! Large cucumber)

Last edited: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 at 8:13:45 PM

@ THE V
Send me some seeds, any seeds, just lots of them
Is that legal?

Last edited: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 at 9:31:48 PM

Official quote from the Regulatory agencies

Just send money

Lol what you got and how much money?

Ah. It is 72F right now perfect... I do keep our garden growing. I know quite a lot about it. Especially tropicals.

What do I got? Gardening enthusiast eat your heart out.

Almost every type of melon (muskmelon, honeydew, Yellow canarie, canteloupe, piel de sapo, charentais, galia, ananas, uzbekistan, hami, orange fleshed honeydew, these are the types sitting on my desk ....). Squash and Pumpkin (all species and many many types), Watermelon (seedless, seeded, grey, black, red and yellow fleshed), Tomatoes (all types and I mean all types), and peppers (hot and sweet). My company does sell onions, lettuce, broccoli, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, asparagus, beans, beet, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, coriander, dill, eggplant, escorole, leek, parsley, spinach, tomatillos, sweet and field corn, and turnips but I have have a more limited access to these. These are all in very large quantities of course. I commonly send out 1000 seeds of varieties as a free sample.

Now as to price. Hmmmm... If I have access to the seed let's the cost of shipping plus a nice little gift for my wife. (she has very expensive tastes).

Nice melons
LGM: can a whatcom county guy lay claim to Skagit...?

Last edited: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 at 11:56:17 PM

THE V: Cool field to work in! :P

Yes the pic above is Butchard Gardens... Insane tourist atraction. A few miles from here :)

I love gardening... However for 5 years now I've been living without a garden... :( 3rd floor...

V: I envy your job. I only get to work with melons when my wife lets me! :P

Well there is one downside... My boss has a machete hanging behind his office door, the watermelon breeder has one sitting on her filing cabinent, and my crazy officemate (who I sit with my back turned to) has 5 underneath his desk. All I got is a measly little 6 in produce knife. I've got to be really nice all the time. :S But other than that all is good.

@stink- don't want to claim Skagit... Getting too crowded, but nice tulips. We've got the berries up here though. Best strawberries I've ever had, and the amount of raspberries is getting ridiculous. Big bucks from Ocean Spray and Smuckers get the farmers switching from strawberries (a fave with me) to raspberries too much.

@ V - yeah the cantelopes also bug me, but not as much. I don't know the variety, as they're from stores usually. I gotta get to the Farmer's Market more...

I never saw a black fleshed watermelon... Interesting

I love berries...especialy small berries. Yah, berries is nice, just not as picturesque...

@LGM You never will see a black flesh watermelon either because they are a very wild type and tast like crap.
The canteloupes from the stores are all different varieties but are adapted to different seasons and climates so that the end product all looks similiar. The have many different backgrounds and flavors though.
It sounds lke you might have an alergy to some of the chemicals that this group produce. Do Squash, and Watermelons bother you as well?

Yeah, V it seems like an allergy. I haven't noticed it with squash, but once in a while with watermelon. Never used to bug me though... Oh well.

I really admire people who are willing to put so much work into their gardens. I find it annoying, and they love it. I like the end products very much though, so maybe there's hope for me eventually :)

Yea I have a garden. It is 20' x 50' My wife and I just moved into this house last year so it has only seen one season so far. It contains the usual veggies plus sunflowers. In several different location I have also planted blackberries and two kinds of grapes and two different kinds of apple trees.

Once again the PTT community is proving to be diverse.

Watch those blackberries... They'll take over the world if you let them XD

I don't own a garden but I like smelling flowers and stroking kittens, can I join?

No Bloop. You have to know how to tell a female flower from a male flower. And how to get them to open for you.

^ ahem!

When a man flower and a woman flower decide they love each other veeeery the man flower gets out his magic wand, waves it around and hey presto the baby flower gets inside the woman flowers belly.

Do I get a gold star?

^No sorry you lost it there. No gold stars for you.

A female flower contains a viable pistil, and can also have anthers (perfect) or only the pistil. For perfect flowers (unless there is a self-incombatability) they only need themselves to make seed (i.e. Tomatoes, peppers, etc...). For Andromonecious varieties some flowers are male and some are female but the females have anthers and can get along quite well without the male. For monecius varieties the plant has male and female flowers but the female doesn't have anthers this means that the female can't do nothing without the male. Some species have male and female plants but I don't want to get into all that.

You can tell a female flower from a male by size....the female is bigger at the base (viable pistil).

See and now you know more than you wanted too about plant physiology. Free to you

I've heard that to open a femaleflower you must first tease it using the "magic button"...

... Nudge nudge wink wink

Or am I just not a gifted horticuralist?

Darn these pesky ladygardens!