Viewing comments posted by sallyg

I have grown this and a couple other varieties of okra. 'Emerald' (and the others) grew well in my zone 7 garden. I direct seed in summer, plenty of warm season for them to yield plenty of pods.

I've grown a couple different varieties of Okra. They were problem free, high yielding, and grew well in my zone 7 garden. Pods grow fast, so remember to harvest often. Okra freezes very well. Slice into rounds and freeze loosely, bag them; used later in soup they add a slight thickness to the broth. If your knife doesn't slice easily, the pod is woody and not useable. Some types stay tender longer, so the knife test works better than judging by size.

I started these from seed spring 2020 (Baker Creek Seed). They grew well, and I also bought Vates starts at the local nursery to compare. Both are very productive, the Creole kept a lighter bluish tone to the leaves, and they seemed slightly more 'refined.' Now that winter is here, Creole is holding up better, not wilting, than the other. A couple of Creole plants look pretty good, but I think I have to take them out so they do not harbor whiteflies all winter into next spring season. I won't be able to save seed from these.

Chickens love to eat collard greens and so do cabbage butterfly caterpillars. I also got harlequin bugs on the collards.

I planted mizuna as a fall crop this year, seed sown August 30. It has grown very well, faster growing than arugula, romaine or spinach, for example, sown same date. It is a very frilly 'cut' leaf with a long but tender stalk/rib, 12 inches or so tall, softly arching. Bug free, at least the slugs, caterpillars, harlequin bugs, and white flies are attacking other crops and leaving this alone. I am a 'lazy' fertilizer user, usually hoping my organic practices do enough, but I have used a small amount of high nitrogen 'lawn fertilizer' around the green crops this fall. Had no problem with our first frost of the year, mid November, 26 degrees one night.

Spring of this year, I started purchased mizuna seed indoors, mid January, planted seedlings outside mid March, and plants grew well until beginning to bolt May 4. My brassicas (luckily) flowered at different times. I saved seed from mizuna and others, the mizuna appears to have stayed true. I used my saved seed for this fall crop.

Has a very mild flavor, dark green color, and is more tender to eat raw than a kale. It cooks tender, too. I chop it, entire leaf and stems, and use it in potato and vegetable soups to add greens. Cooks quickly, similar to other basic soup vegetables like carrots. Adds a nice dark green when cooked. Could be a salad green if you like the frilly texture. Chickens like fresh mizuna.

I've had this plant for at least 8 years in my garden, zone about 7 Mid Atlantic region, US. It dies down over winter, comes back/pops up here and there. Interesting leaf color and cute little lavender flowers. I have left it to figure itself out for some years now. Shade plant, like a small, cuter cousin of Asiatic dayflower, not as aggressive as dayflower either.

'Little Joe' is a winner in my central Maryland garden. I have it in morning to midday sun, shade after that due to being against a deck. Soil there is dense (clay due to deck construction) and stays moist (due to grading and exposure) It's in the third year, this was a very rainy one, still matured at a nice 4 feet, unlike its straight Joepye neighbor that got to 7 feet.

Very common in central Maryland waste places and roadsides. Can self sow in a casual garden. Smells like vanilla to me. Watch out for new plants, can be overabundant if you let some go to seed.

I am growing these for the first time. Fast growing vines and fast growing big beans. There are strings to remove when cooking but it was easy to do and I did not have strings in my cooked beans. Even quite big beans with well developed seeds cooked up tender. Good flavor. Do keep an eye out for side shoots down low, later, making more beans- I had missed those and that's how I ended up cooking a big handful of older beans today. Do NOT let them grow up a sunflower as I did, it makes it hard to find the beans.

Maryland garden, experienced with some peppers and other vegetables, but first time grower of these, from a nursery starter. I am amazed at the three huge fruits it has by mid July on a not that huge plant. The plant looks quite healthy, though, with large leaves and a thick stem. The proof is in the pudding, or for bell peppers, the cutting to see if my choice of variety and better attention to water and fertilizer...Tomato tone... will give me a juicy thick bell pepper, finally.
Editing to add- now it is October and the plant is loaded with heavy fruit, even broke a branch. Support these well. The best bell peppers I have ever grown. Good thickness. Note we have had plenty of rain this summer.

We planted a number of these last year at the library where I work, mostly full sun. They've grown very well with little special attention. Now they are covered in blooms, and bringing in lots of different bees and wasps. Great choice for native garden in Mid Atlantic area.

This plant works as a "trap plant" for Popillia aka "Japanese" beetles. I let these grow in a few places. When the beetles appear, they can often be found on the tallest clusters of leaves, in the morning or evening especially. This year I've already picked many dozens of beetles. I knock the beetles into a bowl of water, then give them to my chickens. Chickens love to eat the beetles.

I bought 2 starter plants from a nursery collection labeled "Salsarific" (peppers and tomatoes) and also labeled Capsicum annuum Habanero. I assume it is a generic habanero and they just goofed on the species name. By mid July the two have become very bushy, as tall as a three ring tomato cage but wider, and are loaded with fruit.

I have been growing this for a few years in Maryland. It looks horrible most of the time inside the house. But I have kept some alive till spring when I put it outside. It quickly adapts to full sun here, becomes huge, lush and gorgeous and grows like a weed. Roots easily where stems lie on soil.

Growing these for the first time, most of the plants are 5 feet tall and started blooming about a week ago. Look nice and healthy with a lot of flowers coming. Germinated well in the garden.

This is a very common backyard weed in my area of Central Maryland. Emerges in very early spring and can start to bloom in May. Cultivating the garden this spring resulted in a lot of these growing, along with henbit and others.

Not very showy, as they say, but interesting. Illinois Wildflowers site lists quite a few insects that use this plant either for flower or foliage. They say this is often found in disturbed sites and likes part sun.

I've grown this for at least five years. From one innocent looking plant in a cup, I have a big patch of these. They spread by the roots and self sow as well. Need no special care at all to get over six feet tall. Goldfinches visit them for seed.

I got a few little sprouts of this at a plant swap, which quickly grew to fill an area next to a silver maple, enough so that I moved a lot to another area with tree roots, where they bloomed and started to fill in. The plant can cope very well with dry shade and tree roots, unfortunalty it cannot cope with chickens scratching it over winter, and it is all gone.

Pretty wildflower, I did not see a big variety of insects using it but did watch one certain type of bee that loved it. Makes a lot of seed, somehow had a few volunteers elsewhere in my yard last year. Sorry to say I don't think I have seen any yet this year, I do hope I have some.

I got these in 2018, all three came back 2019, but in 2020, I only have one of the three. They get all morning to midday sun, shade for the rest of the day, the bed may stay just too moist for them. Shorter than standard coneflowers, they were about 18 inches for me. Update: I dug the remaining plant today and it barely had any roots. I really think it they not like the heavy soil, a lot of clay as it was near the deck and a lot of subsoil was dug up and made the bed poor. (Black and blue salvia and Siberian iris seem to like it just fine though, doing great )